Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Moon]

I went to your music page with the normal expectations I have when listening to an average Newgrounds musician - expecting some amateur techno, orchestral with bad composition, metal with bad production, you know, that kind of stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that compositionally you are well above the quality of average Newgrounds musicians. This is a lovely piece.

As the two people below me have said, the atmosphere is excellent. It really does make a difference when you make music inspired by other things doesn't it? You don't have the best production out there but you humbly create an astounding atmosphere, especially in the lighter sections where you have stuff like the harp playing.

The composition is one of my favourite aspects about this piece. I can't quite fault your composition. Chords are a bit lovely (I would've liked some more resolutions to major chords, but really that's personal preference; might not even work with the theme anyway). Your harp melodies especially are beautifully subtle and elegant. I love them.

Flow and progression are all nailed too. Every section melds perfectly with the next, and the whole experience feels very natural and uninterrupted. You've also got a good sense of dynamics and solid approaches of transitioning between one dynamic and another (except in one section which I'll mention later). The intro is excellent; ending is a bit lame, but the cadence is very sensible so it works as an ending, even if it doesn't aim to impress!

Apart from the fact that this is unfortunately pretty short, the only other obvious issue I found is that the production value isn't quite there. The instruments are generally too dry. This doesn't hurt the atmosphere as much as I expected it to, but it still makes the track feel flat/bland. On the flip side, your instrument quality is actually not bad at all; I'm not sure what VST you're using but you make good use of its sounds! The only issue is that the staccato is highly unnatural. I think that rather than using actual staccato samples, you're only playing short notes, which, especially for the woodwind, sticks out like a sore thumb.

1:03 felt very artificial. You should work on making that transition a bit less harsh. The introduction of the string chords at 1:05 came off as too much of a surprise. Another mix-related issue is that you don't separate your instruments that much in the mix, and they all just sound muddled and thin. You need to make better use of all the frequencies in your mix, and allocate suitable room to each instrument. EQing does wonders here.

Really though, this is a gorgeous piece. I'm glad I listened to this. Keep up the excellent work, and work on your production! By the way, props for making such good music on LMMS. You just prove that an artist doesn't need expensive tools to make good music!

8/10
4/5

Krichotomy responds:

I'm honored by your praise and your detailed criticism.

I guess my track is short still. Grin. The first version was 1:33, but after much improvement it reached 2:10. Beyond that I tried extending it several ways, and all attempts ended up either being too repetitive or changing the piece too much, so I decided to just release the 2:10 version that perfectly captured the atmosphere.

Can you explain in a PM what "dry instrumentation" means and how I can avoid/improve it?

The instruments are all soundfonts. A string one, a nice harp one, a piano one, and everything else is the Fluid R3 soundfont. You are right about the staccato. I'll have to see if any of the soundfonts have staccato versions. I don't think the staccato sounds bad at all, though it does sound very fake and probably makes a lot of people cringe. :D

Harsh string thing going on at 1:05. Duly noted.

I'll also have to play around with EQing and see what I can learn.

[Journey to the Edge]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

Wonderful composition. I really applaud you for working with what you had, despite East/West not working and you having to work on LAPTOP speakers, and still managing to make something that has rock-solid composition and a great sense of mood and atmosphere. I can tell when someone makes their music in a notation software because, perhaps expectedly, their music always seems to have a lot more focus and detail on composition than someone who uses a DAW and sequences the music, using a piano roll. The first section had excellent chords, the second built an excellent mood, and transitioned well to the third part, which was a bit of a disappointment compared to the rest but I'll get to that later. Overall, you used your compositional talent to your advantage and still made something good.

Unfortunately, the track is a bit underwhelming, especially when you try and portray more powerful moods like the heroic, valiant mood of the first section and the dangerous mood of the third section. The sounds you're using really don't portray much power, and I'm not going to just blame that on Garritan's sounds. The track's production is unfortunately leaving a lot to be desired. Some of the sounds are pretty dry, and nothing stands out. As a result, this subdued kind of sound worked just fine for the second section, which is perhaps the strongest of them all. The third section is very short, and couple that with a premature-sounding ending and the lack of power I mentioned earlier, and you've got a final section that does not give much of a lasting impact.

This is a shame because you're a great composer, and I very much enjoyed your audition. Still, good job with this, despite your lack of resources; it was enjoyable!

Score: 7.4/10

WingoWinston responds:

Thanks you very much for the review. I'm glad you enjoyed the composition. My dismay in losing has been somewhat rectified by your review. I know what you mean by the lack of power. That does not lay in Garritan but with the dynamics. This is something I still need work on and need to learn to better manipulate on Finale. Losing has only encouraged me to further hone my skills and I'll only hit back harder next year.

Cheers.

[The Holy Pixel]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

This is definitely not something I'll ever be able to understand that easily haha. I'll start by saying that some of your sounds are actually quite good. You have an incredibly good intro with this lovely, silky string ensemble that leans a bit on the synthy side (perhaps due to the large amounts of reverb you put on it [and everything else for that matter - sounds like I'm hearing this in a massive hall]). You've got some pretty good ideas over here and surprisingly enough you manage to create a pretty impressive atmosphere.

Still, to be honest I struggled to find good things about this track. The voice sounds incredibly artificial (although some of the glitching on it was interesting enough), when the voice hits high notes the track sometimes it sounds like it distorts. While the intro is amazing, the outro is just odd. You have some good compositional ideas, but most of the time you've just got vocal melodies that are hard to follow, and short string spiccato melodies that you repeat constantly, with subtle melodic variations occasionally. The flow of the piece is bumpy and weird. From a great intro, you introduce the string spiccato very harshly and abruptly, and then out of nowhere, you introduce a female singer. The second half of the track feels even more directionless, with an unfortunate lack of distinguishable or memorable sections, as all of the elements you use in the second half were already introduced and developed in the first.

So, maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't quite get this track. It has some nice qualities, and sure as hell made for an interesting listen, but falls short of the structured and well-composed track I was hoping to get from you!

Score: 6/10

Slug-Salt responds:

Thanks for taking the time to review my work Step. I know it took a big risk submitting something so minimal and experimental but I stand behind my song regardless.

I asked myself before submission if I wanted to go with something more suitable for mass appeal and came to the conclusion that if I were to go that route it would have been a mistake.

Again thank you for the nice review, I will be sure to participate next year!

[Setting Out]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

This is definitely one of the strongest cinematic tracks of this round. That was beautifully-composed. Plenty of wonderful harmonies all over the place. I especially love your cadences. You end phrases with such lovely chords, such as at 3:19, and 1:34. Sure 1:34 was that really overused sus4 -> maj progression that I saw coming from a mile away, but it worked so well over there that I forgive you! Your thematic development is spot on. Everything feels perfectly developed, and if you were aiming for making a track that sounds cohesive, then you have certainly succeeded. Your leitmotif is highly memorable. I could go on and on about the little things I like about this track like how you toned all the rhythmic elements down in volume at 0:53, or the pause at 2:33 which led to a very uplifting reintroduction of your leitmotif, but then this review would turn out too long!

What I noticed which kind of ruined the feel of the track at times would be that your foreground orchestration ends up falling apart into blandness at times. You sometimes stick to the same instrument playing the melody for too long, and rarely introduce some counterpoint, layering more instruments or melody-answering by other instruments. 1:07, for example, starts getting bland halfway through because while all your underlying elements are excellent, the foreground instruments just remain the same for quite a while - 3:34 is an example of what I want to hear more; introducing a new instrument to everything to heighten the melody. Moreover, in the quieter parts you have strings playing almost all the time, whereas woodwinds could've worked a lot better sometimes. Some smaller issues; the pause at the very end felt a bit artificial. I wish your approach that wonderful outro was a bit more subtle, rather than stopping everything and then throwing it in. However, the actual ending is nailed.

Your opponent delivered an fantastic track, which is hard to compare with this. His had a few issues, so does yours. Thematically yours is better by far, but his production and originality trumps yours, so I think I'm going to give you both the same score!

Score: 8.6/10

BlazingDragon responds:

Step, you are absolutely the best at giving reviews. <3

Your ability to recognize details is fantastic, and it makes me wonderfully excited when people recognize the little details that I poured effort into. The cadence and 1:34, for example, was one aspect of the piece that I got really pumped up about, partly because that major tonic chord served as a dominant to the coming borrowed iv chord of the next section. I thought it worked well but did not expect anyone to say anything! Thank you for noticing the quieted rhythm and for liking the pause at 2:33. I was expecting someone to say that it disrupted the flow, and I had a whole response prepared about how I employed the pause as a means to bring increased intensity to the reintroduction of the primary theme, but it appears you appreciated it! :D

Your critique section is equally appreciated. I feel you've given me the tools to win the next round. In fact, I distilled your points into a list that I will self-examine my next work with:

-More call and response and use of counter-melody
-Varied orchestration in the foreground elements to prevent stagnation; no exact repeating of sections
-Utilize the full range of orchestral colors available. In particular, consider using woodwinds in quieter sections.
-Avoid abrupt/awkward pauses; make sure you blend sections in such a way that the transition does not feel contrived
-Be mindful of production and originality

All of that is incredibly valuable advice. I normally would have had the foresight to employ some of those suggestions in this piece, but I procrastinated and did not start this piece until the day of the deadline. My ten hours straight of working on this fatigued my ears to some obvious errors, and you have helped point out both those and the subtle errors that I would have missed regardless.

I couldn't agree with your critique more, and I understand the tie. My opponent's piece was indeed different, and we had different strengths and weaknesses. The tie was warranted and dramatic. >:D

Thanks again for the amazing review and for facilitating this whole contest!

[Skyline]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

You have ludicrously large amounts of potential. Your voice is one of the best in the competition and you pour bucketloads of emotion in your tracks. First off, your vocal performance in this track is just perfect... apart from some words being awkward in pronunciation/rhythm, and a grammatical error ("Something you are used to hear" > "Something you are used to hearing") which I won't dare deduct marks for, despite my self-diagnosed OCD going insane. The composition is excellent. I really loved your choice of chords, and even though the vocal melodies were a bit repetitive and simple, it's hard to make vocal melodies that complex, and you manage to provide more sophisticated composition in the other melodies. Great intro by the way, if a bit generic!

The mixing, as you're aware, leaves a lot to desire. I knew this would happen since even your audition had bad production value, and because of that I was torn between voting for you to go through and not voting for you (I ended up choosing the former). The mix is pretty much the only major quirk with this track, apart from the instruments being of low quality. The mix is very, very muddy, definitely owing to the fact that you have big, muddy string chords playing all the time, and constantly drowning everything else. Your piano, while working very well with the track, is also too muddy.

You need to work on your mixing, man. You've got enormous amounts of potential, but production is your barrier. I'm highly impressed with everything else - great work.

Score: 8/10

Wolftacular responds:

I was under the impression that scoring was based on the actual writing and stuff :O must've misread or missed something. So, muddy as fuck, got it c:

And I had no idea about that grammar thing, or your OCD diagnosing skills :P but you'll have to forgive me! I'm mexican, ese!! Which reminds me I told myself I'd never sing in English again if someone told me I had an accent >( so much for that, lol!

Welp, thanks for taking the time to review! For real! Better start doing something about these sound skills o' mine.

[Normal Mapping]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

Damn that's some nice production value. You really know exactly what you're doing; everything is clear, clean and sufficiently loud, despite you working with such a full, deep mix that is, by the way, FULL of detail (good job with adding so many subtle details throughout the track). All of the sounds you used were perfect (except one which I'll mention later). May I also commend you on how beautiful you managed to make 0:29 and 1:49 sound. Drums are a little repetitive but they work very well and are obviously exquisitely mixed. Finally, you've got some pretty fantastic transitions overall.

A few problems that I need to point out. Firstly, there's a part where the song starts speeding up for the buildup. While I commend you on doing something like that which is quite rare in electronic music, I felt that it was executed somewhat poorly, and cheapened the part that came after it. Your structure is quite good but I was disappointed to hear that 2:00 up until the drum outro was just a repeat of previous parts. The outro felt very lame, especially compared to the intro which started so strongly. Your composition is good but a little bit barebone - then again for electronic music this isn't a huge problem. Finally, the one sound I don't like is the synthesised voice. It was a lovely addition but it's very shrill and to be entirely honest, gets obnoxious quite quickly!

Great job. A handful of issues to work on but nothing that kills the enjoyment factor of this track.

Score: 8.1/10

garlagan responds:

love this review Step, thank you!

[Realisations]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

I haven't listened to your music in such a long time, and this track is a pleasant reminder of how much I loved it. This is one of the most unique tracks of this round. The best word to describe your choice of sounds is fascinating. There's a lovely mix of different sounds, along with excellent glitching effects and interesting composition that make this one hell of a listen. Regarding structure and flow, this track is near-perfect, with smooth transitions, a solid structure, and a great intro and ending to boot (but leave the ending's reverb/delay tail to ring off some more so it doesn't cut off like that please). One particularly nice touch, I thought, were the strings that can be first heard clearly at 1:05. What a wonderful string sound, and what a great way to use it!

I think the mix has a few problems, even if generally it's very good. The low end is unclean, and you've got so many different elements in interplay here in this track that it inevitably gets cluttered and too busy in the more crowded moments. I'm not a huge fan of your piano sample; sounds a bit thin and flat to be honest. Also, the glock melody at 0:35 is very directionless and bland. Thankfully the glock is used more creatively and effectively later on in the track! I think that glockenspiel melody is the only bad thing about the composition, because other than that this was composed well.

Fantastic song. Great to see you submitting music again after two whole years!

Score: 8.8/10

InvisibleObserver responds:

Thanks Steph for the review, I know it was semi mandatory, but thanks reguardless.

Pleased you think my musics nifty unique. With some luck I'll be able to stand out in uniqueness each round. I rather pride myself on my sound design/sound palettes I use so its good others notice.

Most of the major issues in the song (bass clipping to crap, end cutting out, poopy glock motif repeating) are competition timing issues.

I fully intend on actually mixing this guy down, cleaning up some of the loops/writing, as well as extending the section at 2:40, while working in some drum rolls to mix up the gallopy drums.

Fully agree and appreciate your criticisms!

[Promises - skyood]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

Quite the beautiful piano piece! I think one of my favourite things about this piece is its sense of space. You almost consistently keep a pad in the background, giving this some lovely depth, but for the first 3/4 of a minute you shove it to the side in the low end, where it's only there to provide some bassy echoes, making the whole setup intimate and close. Then, at 0:45, you start playing higher notes with the pad and suddenly the sense of space grows tremendously. The track then feels huge and atmospheric. This was a beautiful touch, not to mention that your pad sound is just perfect and really gives this an edge over a track that's only piano. Your flow and progression are flawless, as is your intro, but your ending felt a bit premature.

Unfortunately, I think the composition of this, while good, is a bit bland. Your general structure and setup was what really gave this track its sense of beauty, whereas ironically, what's usually used to achieve beauty in tracks of this manner (the melodies), aren't quite as impressive. Even your chords are fairly straightforward. On a smaller note, I don't like the piano sound used. It feels somewhat tinny in the lower end.

Overall, impressive work! Shame the composition wasn't quite up to standard (although it was still quite good!), but practically everything else except the piano sound and the outro made up for it!

Score: 8.2/10

skyood responds:

I was basically nodding my head the entire time I read this-- you're basically dead on. You obviously took your "job" very seriously, and I appreciate the detail you went into.

The simplicity is basically where I'm at right now, bare-bones music done (hopefully) well. My currently most common musical outlet is I play pads (on my church band, actually), so basic chords with a note or two emphasized on the top is what I spend most of my time doing-- being the bed of sameness for the song to be built on. So I've developed a bit of an affinity for doing just that. Hopefully/eventually I'll branch out more, but especially given my current available software, etc, I'm pretty happy with being able to do at least this much, and apparently doing it well enough to be included in the competition.

The abrupt ending is 100% due to my available time. I whipped this up in probably ... 14 hours total? Given more time I would have continued and tried to add in more variation ... but in the end I was happy with the result.

[Follow that car!]

This is an NGADM Round 1 review.

--

Brilliant. For starters, props on using 5/8, and then even making a seamless transition to 6/8 at the end. You're one of the few to use a time signature other than 4/4 and it actually gave this track a remarkably enjoyable rhythm. Great job using that snare hit to split the beat into 3+2, made it easier to listen to and provided a good beat. The pacing of this track is awesome, and I love your composition (although it's clearly similar to the Mission Impossible theme at times haha). Your choice of guitar, drum and sax sounds is excellent, giving this track a very dirty and gritty sound, while the strings give this a mysterious, nerve-wrecking mood which contrasts beautifully.

Your mix on the whole is well-made but the kick is a bit undefined; in fact a lot of the low end is undefined, since most of your instruments stick to their lower registers. I also find it hard to make out some instruments, 1:05's saxophone being the main problem. I think to fix this, first turn that guitar down a bit, turn the sax at 1:05 up, and also if I were you I'd slightly tone down the snare's lower mid frequencies, because it's a really full-bodied snare that sometimes drowns out the other instruments (although I adore the sound of your snare).

Excellent work. I'm giving you a higher score than Nimble because you manage to create a mood/atmosphere better than he did, but I think this was a close matchup and you should both be very proud of your performances!

Score: 9.1/10

acmeDyne responds:

I started this track thinking: "I wanna make something like the MI theme", hoping it wouldn't seem like too much of a rip-off. Kinda lazy of me, but I couldn't resist giving it a try! I'm gonna try to make something more original next round, for sure. Thanks for the great review!