Step's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Focus]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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I'm going to say straight off that I think you should be very proud of this. I consider it one of your best works, namely composition-wise. Troisnyx put it best - your composition is simply STUNNING. The chord changes (4:13's got to be my favourite), the voicing, the progression, the melodies... I cannot stress enough how breathtaking this composition is. Another great thing about this track is how you use the instruments you've got. Your samples are bad, there's no denying that, but you use your instruments extremely well. The articulations such as the many grace notes, brass trills such as the one at 1:03, rises like 1:47 and drops like the ones at 2:35 increase the authenticity of this track. Your arrangement is on point, and both your foreground melodies and background accompaniment are written wonderfully.

But man, this is an absolute tragedy. Your mixing and sound quality just... isn't there. I can totally relate to how hard you try to make something great with your low-quality samples, because it's so apparent in the way you arrange the instruments, but in the end the sound quality is hurting this piece more than it should. A lot of instruments are considerably dry. 3:55's pause lacking a reverb tail is simply a testament to this. Some of the sounds you use are simply obnoxious and unpleasant, such as the synth that starts fading in at 1:15. The mix itself is a bit cluttered and could do with some better levelling, as sometimes background elements overshadow foreground elements, and other times background elements aren't clear enough. There's a lot of frequency clashing in the mids when the rhodes organ plays its chords too.

I feel like your production value and sound quality are putting down this track quite a lot, but I also feel like the composition in this is too good to leave unnoticed, so here's a high score from me. Great work.

SCORE: 8.3/10

Nimble responds:

To clarify 3:55 is a volume cut-out; There wouldn't be a reverb tail there regardless of it, but I do recognize the song definitely needs some reverb.

I definitely tried EQing and mixing the piece, much to my dismay i'm still not very good at it; only way to get better at it is to attempt to do it well. It's definitely something I'll have to focus on if I want to get ANY better because honestly the composition portion is already there - what fails me is how to mix and master; I just haven't put in the time to study and analyze what and how to mix well as much as I have when it comes to studying music theory, and I can accept that going into the future as I will put in the effort to study the other half. I'm glad you're impressed with the composition, but you're right about production - I can't keep ignoring it for any longer. Thank you for the review Step, I really appreciate it. :)

[The Abyss]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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What an absolutely terrifying and incredibly captivating track. Every single chord is spine-tingling and chill-inducing. Like in your audition, you've masterfully created a professional-tier atmosphere that drives the track forward, and man it is simply bursting with tension! My favourite thing about this track would be how masterfully you control the rise and release of tension, to the point that the track sounds like a ticking time bomb during the softer sections and an absolute terror during the more powerful sections. The brass chords that start around a minute are a wonderful touch, and again I need to commend your control on the tension in this track. You keep the velocity of that brass at just the right level to deliver that momentary fright without going overboard, and then when the brass reaches close to max velocity towards the end it becomes all the more meaningful.

I can go on for ages about how brilliant your mood/atmosphere is, but I'd better move on! Like in your audition, you have solid composition here to back up your atmosphere. The chords are exquisite, the woodwind plays a great call-and-response game, and 1:47's mimicking of the intro was a great way to bring back the familiar motif and give the track compositional meaning over just being orchestral ambience. Production doesn't leave much to desire either. The mix is clear, and the samples you use are just fantastic (I especially love the subtle portamento on the strings). My only issue is that this feels like it's begging for more musical development. You spend a hefty amount of time setting the tone of the piece and building up tension, so when 1:47 kicks in I'm expecting some super fleshed-out melodic section, and what I got instead was a section that still sounded fairly satisfying but not as effective as it could have been.

Whatever the case, I'm extremely impressed by your music, and while I don't think this tops your audition, this is still breathtaking. Keep up the brilliant work.

SCORE: 9.1/10

DamienFleisch responds:

Thank you for another really in depth review! I hear what you are saying about the climax of the piece. I had spent some time trying to make it more fulfilling, but at the same time I also kind of liked that it wasn't quite satisfying. What I was feeling as I was writing it and trying to build it was that there is a weight to the barren-ness that grew on me. With a little more time spent on it, I think it can become much more than it is. And being knocked out of the comp now, perhaps that will become next on my to-do list.

[Dance of the Poltergeist]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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ZipZipper makes a good point. Why didn't I pair you and ZipZipper/steampianist in the same group? Your style and theirs are so similar! To begin with, I don't have much to critique in the composition department. You've got quite a likeable main motif and sweet alternate/counter melodies, all supported by a backbone of very suitable accompaniment and chords. The rise in tempo at the end was very fun to listen to, and changed the mood very proficiently from haunting and eerily enticing to tense, before the unexpected yet intriguing switch to the major key at the end. I'm also quite a fan of your transition to the faster section. It's not easy to transition to different time signatures or tempos, but you seem to have nailed it here.

So yeah, nothing particularly wrong about the composition. When it comes to the production, on the other hand, I was extremely disappointed. The sounds you used are terrible. I'm not sure if you wanted to make a chiptune-like track but these are less chiptune sounds and more raw synths being bitcrushed, which gives them an unpleasantly harsh tone and makes the track very tiring to listen to. During the faster section and the part right before it with the heavier drums, the mix was very harsh, cluttered and stressed, with little dynamic range. I mean, I have nothing against bitcrushing and creating harsh sounds, but there's a difference between using them tastefully and using them so badly that the track just sounds downright unpleasant and messy.

I had to dock a lot of points for the production. Your compositional ideas are great, but you need better sounds and mixing thereof to really do them justice.

SCORE: 7.1/10

Azhthar responds:

Hi Step! Thx a lot for this nice and detailed review. Glad you liked my composition. Yep, it´s right ha I have a tendence to these grotesque stuff. I realized already some while ago that the producion quality in this track wasn´t very good and it anoyed me already ;) I should stick to stuff I´m more familiar with and i was wuite stupid to try a chiptune in that competition. At least I hope that some people got a smile listening to this because there should be much more electric polka in this world. Maybe I should have stuck to my firs submission but since in my group were two of the top three tracks I guess that wouldn´t have changed very much. But it´s nice that steamy and jip passed this round so at leas there will remain some circussy stuff in this comp ;)

[Tree of Life]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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Wow, man, this is beautiful. I am absolutely elated you managed to finish this before the deadline, and work on it enough to make sure it doesn't sound rushed. Your meticulous attention to compositional detail, your absolutely brilliant atmosphere crafting and, of course, your (and Merry's) mastery of singing makes this, in my opinion, one of the strongest pieces of the round. I can't stress how much I enjoyed the melodies and harmonies in this track. They have a particularly organic and earthen kind of vibe, which of course pertains to the title of the track very well! Regarding the singing, it's simply spectacular. The only issue I have with the singing is that at the start of some new melodic phrases the timing of both your singing could've been tighter, such as at 2:59. Nothing that a little audio slicing/positioning can't fix!

The instrumentation is well-chosen and well-arranged. You are the master of harp, in particular. The harp especially sounds great during 1:52 where you briefly switch to a more upbeat, staccato kind of section. The mix is suitably warm and smooth, which helps the atmosphere tons, although it could have been a bit clearer. Unfortunately there's quite a bit of muddiness and clashing of frequencies, especially when your voice is playing since it's so full-bodied. A clearer mix would mean being able to hear Merry's voice more easily, and appreciate the plethora of little compositional intricacies you threw in throughout the track, such as the melodic accompaniment played by the high strings a minute into the track.

While there are some execution flops, I'm blown away. This is well-deserving of its perfect 10/10 review score by far. Sorry for being the asshole who ruined it though!

SCORE: 9.2/10

etherealwinds responds:

<3 you're the best. <3

[Round 1]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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You know, funnily enough, to me this is exactly the kind of contest submission I would expect in the spirit of an "audio deathmatch". It's aggressive, dangerous and has this "I'm going to eat every competitor alive" kind of vibe to it! This is in no small way due to the positively vicious bass you've got going here, so props on creating such a menacing, roaring sound. To accompany this powerhouse of a bass synth we've got suitably powerful percussion, and pitch-automated sawtooth and square leads that are simply chock-full of tension. In all honesty, one of the best things about this track would have to be your synths. They synergise astoundingly well with each other to create such a great mood, and to put it simply, if anyone were to ask for a "dubstep video game boss theme" then I would direct them straight to this.

The bad news is that I unfortunately didn't find this as interesting as it could have been. It's hard to stand out in a genre that has been done to death like dubstep, but this doesn't make much of an effort to do so. Sure, I have to give it credit for being one of the more aggressive submissions of the round, but aggressive isn't enough to stand out in a genre which is almost known for being aggressive. None of the melodies particularly stand out, the sections in which you drop the bass (like 0:45) are pretty uninteresting once you get past the hype of the buildup and initial explosion of the bass, since they're pretty repetitive and lacking the variety and sound design that makes dubstep tracks stand out. On two lesser notes, I think your cymbals are a bit too harsh (they sound almost like raw white noise!) and the buildup ending at 2:04 is underwhelming compared to the MUCH better buildup up to 0:45.

Despite that, the mood of this track is so likeably angry that I can't help but enjoy it regardless!

SCORE: 8.3/10

dexarson responds:

Thanks bro <3 xoxo

[Solarex - Something Like This]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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Oh man, I was PSYCHED about what you were going to come up with after hearing your audition, and here you are, as expected, delivering one of my favourite electronic submissions of this round! While composition isn't what this track excels in, so to speak, you still have some great stuff here! Your melodies have a very identifiable Japanese flair to them, what with your heavy usage of the pentatonic scale and quick melodic passages with lots of movement. While your harmonies are nothing profound, they work very well with the melody in the bouncy sections like 1:10. Your atmosphere is also fine and dandy. You have a pretty nifty dreamy texture during the sections with the high bells. Of course, the atmosphere is helped by your amazing sounds and production...

...which brings me to my next point. The production. DAMN. I am literally in awe here. This has an absolutely beautiful mix. The drums especially are just perfect. The snare has JUST the right amount of high end to give it that crisp fizzy sound without sounding ear-piercing, the kick has a thumpy, crystal clear presence and the cymbals are there without being overbearing. All of the other sounds are wonderful too, with the exception of the lead synth playing that melody, which was great and all but it got somewhat obnoxious because of how high it can get. Apart from that, the only other complaint I have is that the second "climax" so to speak, at 2:58, is pretty much a carbon copy of its former counterpart. I guess what I was hoping for was more of a reason to stay listening till the end, but as it is there isn't enough new content in the second half to justify it being there.

This is incredible. After the audition I was impressed, but now... I'm speechless. Consider me a fan. Keep up the amazing work!

SCORE: 9.2/10

KabukiTunes responds:

Thank you, Step! Really appreciate it, and I hope I can still wow you in my next entry!

[Swan Lullaby]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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That has to be the cutest intro of the whole round, hands down! Plus, you've got a memorable and thematically-suitable melody to boot, which gets the ball rolling on the first topic of discussion - the composition. There are some things I absolutely love about your composition, such as the addictive little ditty you introduce at the beginning on the music box and use to tie the whole song together, or the absolutely wonderful harp sections at 0:43. With sections like those you're able to create these surprisingly atmospheric ambiences that are simply a pleasure to listen to. In fact, I would've not hesitated to add even more of the harp to the track since it feels like it would work so well in this track.

Now, unfortunately I can hear that this is out of your comfort zone. For instance, if you had some experience you'd know that some of the things you're doing here are simply no-no's, like repeating certain small patterns over and over again without changing them, something which is perfectly fitting in electronic music but not so much in this more expressive music which is technically supposed to be played by an array of musicians. For instance, the percussive beat that first kicks in at 1:27 got extremely repetitive and consequently sounded unnatural, and your main motif, while pleasant, is too short to have repeated many times over. It needs more flow; more progression! By the way, your transitions are very abrupt (which was already mentioned in the reviews), so that's another thing to work on. Lastly, there's a bit of dissonance at parts like 1:36/1:45 in the high string staccato notes which is a bit offputting. Was it intentional?

While this has a fair bit of room for improvement, I commend you for the experiment and I hope you keep on pursuing this genre because you have a knack for it!

SCORE: 7.8/10

Chemiqals responds:

Haha, thanks for the really helpful feedback! I'll certainly do my best to learn from it! The last bit was intentional to a degree. My thinking was that the melody of those staccato notes was being cut short. So when they come back at the end they are complete and it comes full circle. Which may or may not have been a good idea, haha!

Thanks again. I really appreciate the feedback and I will take all of it to heart!

[Attempt at Something]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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This year's contest has a very impressive electronic turnout in my opinion, and that's largely due to the amount of great electronic artists who just appeared out of nowhere. I consider you one of them - you have just three tracks and seven fans, and yet you come up with some fantastically-produced and enjoyable material that begs for a well-deserved larger audience here on Newgrounds. For starters I absolutely love the little motif you introduce as a bassline at the beginning and use as the factor to tie everything together. 1:50's breakdown is brilliant, and offers some momentary relief from the sections before which were getting pretty repetitive. Your use of white noise and square leads playing fast arpeggios also gives this a lovely video-game-esque charm which I think is one of the most memorable things about this track.

Your mixing and mastering is excellent. From the punchy drums to the thick sustained notes in the background to the silky square lead, you meld the sounds together really well, as RetromanOMG pointed out. Your sound manipulation is pretty great, as is apparent during the dubstep-like sections. So, if the compositional ideas are there and the production is nailed, then what problems do I have with this track? Well, I feel it's somewhat cluttered in its structure/transitions and perhaps rushed. For instance, it feels almost nonsensical to have a buildup at 0:42 to 0:55 when 0:55 has roughly the same intensity level as the part before 0:42, except with some quicker melodies on the lead. I also feel like after the breakdown at 1:50, there isn't much reason to keep listening to the track since it repeats a lot of patterns and gets quite monotonous.

Either way, what you have here is catchy and a blast to listen to. Good job!

SCORE: 8.6/10

introstalge responds:

Thanks Step! I really agree with everything you've said here and I am working hard on my next submission to score in those areas which I let myself down in. Thanks for the thoughtful feedback!

[Pareidolic War]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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You know, after hearing your audition and seeing that you got through I considered you one of the best underdogs of the contest. Your audition was highly expressive and atmospheric, and guess what? This track follows suit. You've got this extremely expressive, flowing compositional style, with unpredictable and pretty brilliant chord progressions, and enough variety to keep the listener interested for 4 minutes and a half. In the atmosphere department this piece doesn't fall short either. The pad in the intro set the tone of the track perfectly, and the reverse reverb you used to introduce the piano was a nice touch! My favourite part would be the ending. The way you introduced the drums and the high strings delievered a pretty breathtaking climax without you needing to go overboard at all. Beautiful work over there!

Your production, in some ways, is good. The mix is clear and the levelling is mostly good. I think you overused reverb on some of the background elements, except the drums which conversely sound somewhat dry. The high strings carrying the melody could overall be louder as they seemed pretty distant compared to everything else, particularly at 1:40. While there seems to be some controversy about your piano in the intro, I'll ultimately have to agree that your piano sound is a bit harsh and turning down the velocities of the individual notes would, in my opinion, fit a lot more effectively in your supposedly atmospheric intro. Even in your audition, I had the exact same problem with the piano! Lastly, I feel like the climax could do with a bit more depth in the low end, but that's probably personal preference.

Compositionally, I can't fault this, but the production value isn't quite there. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Great work!

SCORE: 8.7/10

Phonometrologist responds:

I have to first commend you for writing such in-depth reviews for every piece in this contest. I'd be surprised if you can even find the time to reading all the replies you get from these so I'll keep it brief for you.
After reading this review, seeing your most generous score, and reading your recent post, I realize that you're just a lover of music. That it doesn't matter so much to you if the music is too different from what you would have written or listen to, but rather if the piece maintains a sense of integrity and moves the listener in some capacity, you seem to still be able to have that appreciation.
Your critiques are well noted, and I will make adjustments to that piano when I remix it. Thank you so much

[Impermanence]

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

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I think your track, despite being the same genre as PirateCrab's, is quite the polar opposite. He's got insanely good production but could have made his track more structured and containing more melodic ideas, whereas yours has weaker production but jam packed with sweet melodic ideas and a pretty great structure to boot! I'll start with what I enjoyed. Your track has some pretty awesome ideas such as the clean guitar at 3:50 or the climactic arpeggios at around 5:04. You have a pretty solid structure too. I hear iterations of the motif you introduce in the introduction (namely 1:56) which help bring everything together, structure-wise. I can definitely hear an improvement in your writing since the last NGADM, so congrats!

In terms of production, while I am also hearing an improvement, I can't say I wasn't disappointed! The track is extremely thin and needs some more mixing work. The cymbals have too much high end, the snare is so thin it almost sounds almost like a rim click and the kick... well the kick is pretty OK, no problem there! The lead guitar is pretty good, but the rhythm guitar needs to be way wider in the mix, especially in the low and low mids. It's heard most clearly at the beginning where you have it playing between drum hits. I think it's a bit of a turn off to hear a thin guitar sound like that in the intro since it doesn't do your track nearly as much justice. There are a few other quirks like some inaccurate playing during the guitar solos and the weird transition at 4:39, so work on those.

You have a considerably solid and fleshed out track here with some nice ideas, but keep improving on your execution!

SCORE: 8.1/10

Metallica1136 responds:

Yeah man, I hear what you're saying, ever since I read you and Renard's reviews, I've been listening to my music again to hear what I can improve, and I definitely know what you're talking about! I've always had a habit of boosting the treble on the drums, I realize now, it actually sounds irritating, so I've cut back on the treble, and add a tiny bit of mids now, it definitely gives the drums more depth. Thanks for the review man, I appreciate it!