ErikMcClure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Glacier Pass]

Apparently the guy below me doesn't understand how video game music works. This is excellent background music, although it sounds more like a cavern to me than an icey pass. The drums seem really mellow and in the background, I would recommend giving them more punch and bringing them forward in the mix. You should modify the foreground instruments to have a stronger presence as well. You have a bit of harmonic support but its really really faint and would work really nicely if it was louder and given some volume dynamics.

Acrylia responds:

Well the original working title was Ice Cave but I thought Glacier Pass sounded better somewhat. Plus, this was a quick little project, so I wasn't all too concerned with technical stuff, just getting it out.

Although, the point of some parts being very soft was not necessarily to make it be heard. When actually playing a game there are a lot of parts of the music that you don't pay any attention to, but are there supporting the entire sound of the game. Everything being soft and the bass being kind of loud is to support in-game sounds, since most sound effects in flash games are in a higher frequency. Balance will come with sound effects that a game would have.

I appreciate your review!

[Crimson Night]

The guitar seems a bit naked. Because it carries such a large portion of the intro and end, you should really bump up the reverb during that section, then take it back down as you enter the main theme to keep it from muddying everything up. Some additional *very subtle* atmosphere in terms of sound effects or other embellishments would have helped too.

I noticed one of the beginning melodies on the guitar sounds very similar to one of my ideas ;) The overall composition and structure of the song is excellent, but I feel that everything in this song would have benefited from additional reverb due to the sparse nature of the mix.

Step responds:

Heeyyyy, thanks for reviewing :3.

"The guitar seems a bit naked. Because it carries such a large portion of the intro and end, you should really bump up the reverb during that section, then take it back down as you enter the main theme to keep it from muddying everything up."

Now that's a good idea. It does sound pretty naked, yeah. I'm not used to writing pretty much anything with minimal instrumentation around it.

"Some additional *very subtle* atmosphere in terms of sound effects or other embellishments would have helped too."

If I had time I would've done this, but I wanted to submit before the competition deadline. But I can totally do that. Might help fill in the gaps in the intro/outro too!

"I noticed one of the beginning melodies on the guitar sounds very similar to one of my ideas ;)"

Hey you have like one million or something, one of my songs is bound to resemble one eventually haha.

"The overall composition and structure of the song is excellent, but I feel that everything in this song would have benefited from additional reverb due to the sparse nature of the mix."

Roger that. Glad you liked the composition!

Thanks a lot for the review man, if I find time I'll definitely work on what you mentioned! And hope that Bosa doesn't hear this before I'm done editing it.

[Calm Alien]

An excellent start for an ambient song, but unfortunately it ends up getting a bit repetative because a few of the effects, like that metallic echoey sound, end up being used too constantly and never change to an alternative soundscape. I highly recommend listening to the masterful works of Solar Fields to get a feel for how he very slowly transitions the ambiance through multiple phases in order to provide an entertaining, yet subtle listening experience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNiD9M 59FQE

PythonBlue responds:

Constructive criticism accepted. I guess I was just trying to get myself to write longer pieces than I usually do, and got too caught up with elaboration to throw in some variety.

[RoboTokyo]

So I saw the audio forum lounge blow up after you complained about zero bombers and every now and then I like to check "So are these really zero-bombing problems or do they just suck at music and don't want to admit it?"

You don't suck. You're fucking awesome. That kick in this song is better than MY kicks even though you clearly haven't figured out how to properly mix a song (but that's ok, your obvious incredible talent will conquer this in no time). That melody is superb and catchy, but the fact that the song was just thrown together shows in the failure of different elements to form a coherent soundscape. Figuring out a particular "style" for a song so that everything fits together is tricky, and takes lots of practice, so don't worry too much about that.

0:56 is by far my favorite part of the song. The potential of the song really shines at that point, but sadly you put in a very intrusive breakdown that, rather than provide variation for the listener, simply destroys the song's direction, and after that everything just falls apart. I would recommend trying to focus more on building better song structure and expanding your repertoire of musical techniques so you can sustain the song for more than 4 minutes, and supporting the melodic high points of the song.

[-A New World-]

Excellent

I swear one of the drums is clipping on a high frequency on my speakers, but then my speakers are crap anyway.

The song has an incredibly varied feel to it, yet succeeds in maintaining a distinct atmosphere through clever combinations of harmonic and rhythmic motifs. The production quality is incredible. It sounds like something out of a movie and far surpasses my own attempts at a similar atmosphere. I think there are places where the song could be refined, possibly with a few melodic embellishments and mixing tweaks, but its still absolutely incredible.

9/10
5/5

Step responds:

Wow, never thought I'd get a 9 from you, haha. Thanks a lot, and thanks for voting 5 too - it might just be the reason that this song got a Top 5, I owe you one.

"I swear one of the drums is clipping on a high frequency on my speakers, but then my speakers are crap anyway."

I was kinda lazy with the EQing this time, it's true :3.

"The song has an incredibly varied feel to it, yet succeeds in maintaining a distinct atmosphere through clever combinations of harmonic and rhythmic motifs."

It's something I worked particularly on. I'm pretty crappy at making long songs so I figured the only way to keep the song sounding like one song and not random, but at the same time satisfying my obsession of variety, was to grab some short drum rhythms and melodies, and repeat them in certain parts of the song. So I'm really glad you think it worked!

"The production quality is incredible. It sounds like something out of a movie and far surpasses my own attempts at a similar atmosphere."

That's thanks to East/West. And the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra soundfonts that you shared, which are GREAT by the way.

"I think there are places where the song could be refined, possibly with a few melodic embellishments and mixing tweaks,"

Agreed on both cases. Listening to it again, I definitely think I could've added a few more melodic embellishments, especially in that part after the second chorus, and I didn't work as much on the mixing as I usually do... I get lazy sometimes :3.

"but its still absolutely incredible."

Thanks for the feedback!

[Artificial Intelligence Evolved]

Pure Awesome

I don't care what anyone says about this, by the time the song hits 3:57, it contains such unbelievable amounts of win I fear the internet may implode around it. I could nitpick a couple parts of the song (especially the beginning) but the end just blows everything else out of the water.

9/10
5/5

EvilRaccoon responds:

Thanks very much Blackhole. I really appreciate that. Glad you enjoyed it!

[[HP] Artificial Nature]

rawr

it is t3h awesomez :D

ZaronX responds:

no u r :D

[Powrffs]

Hahahahahaha

I agree with trancecrafter in that, while not necessarily being your fault, this demonstrates how utterly broken the NG voting system is.

Unlike trancecrafter, I have better things to do then review crap, so I will instead summerize his review: "LOLWTF?!"