trunotfals's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Incise ~ Starburst]

First off i feel like i recognize that Nexus Lead before the drop (Single layer Lead - LD Square Lead 1?) ;P

I feel like your chord progression presents a little simpler (but not simple by any means) than what you wrote.

I'm interpreting this; I - i - vii diminished - IV - ii - I in B

I'm also going off my ears. But it sounds like a modal borrowing progression. Still a pretty good one, the "vii" to IV is a bit uncomfortable, but it works with the lead.

That lead writing is SO good, well done there!

Now just like mutty says, the loudness of the saws REALLY overtakes the whole mix, those can be way more in the background and still create that dramatic feel you're going for. Love the plucky lead so much man.

Great transposition, I agree with mutty, it COULDVE been executed a little better, but its much more of just a straight transposition for dramatic effect. Take a look at my song Transcend, I use a chord progression in the second drop that transposes almost seamlessly, Using;

Key of F#maj
Imaj7 - vi - I13 6/4 - iii 6/4 - I/G# (Acting as the vii min7 of A major, the iii 6/4 also acts as a ii chord in A major, while still sharing the same notes in F#major, making it actually a ii - vii of A) Into A major; Isus2 - V7 - ii. Then it goes into some weird complicated stuff with a flat 6 and weird sus notes and 13ths in the NEWLY transposed A major which brings notes back from F# major and does weird things to the brain if you try and analyze it and weird stuff ahah.

Anyway, your transposition is good! but it reminds me of pop, where they just transpose into the new key suddenly, take for example living on a prayer by bon jovi. that last chorus they just instantly transpose to another key on the WHOA and its great, its dramatic and impactful.

Long story short I just wanted to expand on mutty's comment that it COULD'VE been executed better, by using chords like the ii in your original key to ACT as the vii in another key or the IV in one key to act as the V in another key, then transposing to the I or i in the new key. BUT, i don't think you NEEDED to make it smoother.

I digress, WHEW. Still with me?

Now, Over all really good, the rhythm on your leads in the drops are great, but again, the saws overpower everything for me. the transition into the transposition into g is great, take everything out then a nice swell into the drop again. The bass, the snare, the hats, all overpowered by your saw synths. everything is mixed pretty good except your drops, just so much going on.

overall great piece, and excuse me, I love nerding out about theory.

Overall Composition; 7.5
Overall Production; 6.25
Overall Impression; 7

Score; 6.9

Well done!

Incise responds:

yea i think the same lmao

it's so improbable to have a chord progression without at least one tonic, though i could be wrong

here are the chord progression (without extension or nonchord tones)

in the key of F#minor/A major,
Dmaj - Bm - C#m - Emaj- C#m - Dmaj

the key could be D Lydian, but Dmaj doesn't sound like it's a tonic in this chord progression-

thanks, i tried to make the melody sounds like it's melodically singing, but not so much that it sounds unsuitable for an electronic lead.

i agree tho, my transitions sounds a bit rushed. i'm modulating from F#minor to G minor, which only has like, one semitone interval between them. as a result, modulation becomes tough to execute, because both of those keys are on the opposite sides of the circle of fifths. so, it's hard for me to toy with chords to lead up to the key change, mostly because of the fact that F#minor shares only 2 tones with G minor. i don't want to make it sound worse than it already is, so i tried to make the transition less harsh. i made the melody ascend into the new key, and made the last note of the melody section (F#) to be a leading tone of G minor, which is also the tonic for F# minor. maybe next time, i'll try to extend the transition period a bit longer, instead of transitioning at the final bar before the key change.

now when i listened to it again, yea i could pick up a LOT of problems with my mix (probably because i didn't take time in perfecting my mix first oof). i'll try to practice more with mixing and try to improve my mastering skills (this has been barely mastered lmao)

most of the time, i noticed that with my tracks, i tend to mix the saws/chords as though it's almost equal to the melody. probably because i tend to think that the harmony is just as important as the melody, so i tend to make the harmony as though it stands by the melody, and not behind it. i don't know how to get rid of this behavior though, so i try to work with it by trying to make my mix cleaner so that the melody can stand out more. but i can only do so much, and my percussion section suffers as a result. can you give some tips and tricks on how to remedy this problem?

and also no, it's not a nexus patch lmao (though it does have some resemblance hmmm). i made it separately using Serum while i was exploring on sound design with square waves. i then layered it with a supersaw lead, which could probably be the reason why it has some similarities.

oh yea, can you give me details on your score based on your rubric? i want to learn more about my technique, impression and all. thank you

[The Beginning]

Overall pretty good here. The main theme seems to get a little repetitive, and I couldve used a more catchy melody even if it's simple, to latch onto. The chord progression is great, but there weren't a lot of rhythmic variations throughout. There also seems to be a ton of parallel movement in your chords, where every note in every chord is usually all moving in the same direction every time. Using inversions can spice up the same chord progression in many ways.

I love the overall vibe and the way you mixed a lot of your background noises to be heavy reverb, and your snare to be light on the high end, yet somehow that snare still kind of pierces through the mix in a way i was uncomfortable with, though it still kind of worked. The section at 2:08 i dont think needed a double time, maybe just a more active high hit to give it a more driving sense of time. Your chord progression on the piano was quite splendid.

Overall Composition; 7.5
Overall Production; 7
Overall Impression; 7

Score; 7.1

[Hole In The Sky]

I have to say I'm blown away by your work on this one. The songs you've written for this contest are some of the best in your repertoire here on new grounds. We done here. The mixing in my opinion is pretty solid contrary to what Mutty reviewed. After all we all have different interpretations, desires, and headphones. A lot of edm wants to hear the piano very loudly, but I interpreted it as the piano really becoming a part of the ensemble. I didnt have a problem with the dryness of the drums, i just pictured a set player in the front of the ensemble. It all worked very well for me, and your writing and modal mixture use in your composition remind me so much of my early writing, that I've swayed away from these days.

Overall Composition; 9.5/10
Overall Production; 9.25/10
Overall Impression; 10/10

Score; 9.58

Well done glassed house.

Glassedhouse responds:

Thanks! Signing up for a Newgrounds contest, I initially feared that it would be somewhat slanted towards EDM/Dubstep music. But clearly, looking at the other entries means that simply isn't true. Thanks for the kind words! Means a lot.

[On to a Shining Season]

Im loving this intro, great mixing, great little wobbly high end sound effects in the background, love the bells/piano in background, love the vibe, great intro, great mixing, real full mix here. I remember enjoying this one very much while judging. Love when you bring everything down, the bells here are great, great melody and complimentive harmonies. OOh nice chord change before the drop at :37, love some spicy chord changes. Any time someone can properly utilize notes outside of the key, my ears are happy.

The drop is solid, great mixing, good layering on your snare. I always say layering your snare is one of the most important things you can do, a non layered snare sounds dry, bland, thin, (unless you have a pretty good sample, but even then, whoever made the sample probably layered stuff) So good job here. Love the clarity on your drop, no heavy reverb or maybe even at all on your bass. The panning of it DOES get distracting like ADR3 pointed out, im not sure i wouldve noticed it if i didnt read his review or not, but i think that can be toned down a bit. Love the background noises in your drop, i wouldve welcomed a BIT more variation in the drop, maybe more background noises, however you did start to introduce some variation later in the drop and it satisfied my ears, however i was even thinking i wanted some more variation, maybe more layers up before 1:12. its a very small complaint.

I like your mixing and waveform overall, this is my favorite kind of wave form to look at, i can almost tell things will be clear. Little jazzy section at 1:55 is chaotic in a great way. The trumpets are a little weird for me but i like their writing so im not sure about critique there haha sorry. I like the voice or synth you used for them.Great little section you have between 2:28 and 3:50, though i think it was dragged out a bit too long. The ride feels too midi compared to all the other stuff going on, i would bring your non accents down on velocity even more. Love the 3:15 section, reminds me of supergiant games music.

Theres the ride again, maybe a more natural sounding ride. Great writing in this build up, great transition!

YES good variation on the second drop i didnt want to hear the same thing a second time. Though it is catchy and i still wouldve welcomed it. I honestly love a super basic saw bass, put that thing low enough and it makes these gritty harmonics. Love that sub sound. I made Koroshimasu off of a basic saw wave and only effects on the mixer. fun stuff.

anyway.

SOLID OUTRO, no complaints or critique. and thats a big compliment. Love those drum effects, very very supergiant games. Great vibe at the end. Love it. I loved this piece and it is a great submission!

I scored you a 9 on composition, a 9.5 on Production (mixing and instrument choice etc.) and a 9 over all averaging to a 9.1 overall!

[Racer]

One thing I do like about this song is how clear everything is, I know whats going on, and I can hear everything. All of your guitar work is pretty good! It almost seems as though you can think of your key easier on the guitar frets rather than in midi when you're looking at a keyboard. Your solo was great, And I like the tones on your guitars. Youve got a pretty decent recording method without having a studio and thousands of dollars of microphones and pedals and all that.

Now over all, it is important, even in a song that you want to keep a high amount of energy throughout the piece, to add variation, you had the same guitar riff the whole time and your first entry of the synths seemed out of place, almost not in key, the melodies you have hear are a little chaotic as acxle said. I like the little riffs and variation you added at the end before your outro.

The mixing was good, however i felt like there was no low end, no foundation for the track to sit on, almost like there was nothing below 80hz, and it made it feel really mid high heavy. i could hear your bass, but maybe it could go down an octave, or you transpose the whole song so you could play on the lower frets of your bass, not sure, i just know there wasnt much low end. The repetitivness in this song is kind of what did it in for me for my star score, now keep this in mind, i didnt judge this song! I judged the underdogs!

overall- great submission to the Nguac!

Catpocalypse responds:

Thanks for reviewing. I still have absolutely no understanding of how it’s repetitive. I think, in fact, my track is one of the least repetitive and most diverse of the entire competition.
I have listened to many tracks on this site, and I know that very few artists use things like leads and transitions in the way I do. I don’t know what people are hearing when they listen to this song, but it’s obvious that what I’m hearing is completely different.
Again, thank you for your time and this review. I know you have a differing opinion than mine, and I just can’t understand you or the other judges perspectives. But I appreciate you doing this anyways. I‘m glad that I can at least have some reasons as to why my scores are the way they are, even if they make no sense to me.

[God of Thunder]

Pretty darn good intro to start off with here, but I do have one pretty early piece of critique. The sub is pretty loud at :39. Take a look at your waveform for example, its a solid block. Not always a bad thing but when i see it, it scares me. The sub is very low, so it doesnt conflict with the other voices, but the track is clipping, so all the voices become quiet. I think you have a kick in there too and its pretty quiet. A lot of people put a really really low sub, and then turn it up until they're speakers can play them or they can hear them in their headphones. a really really good thing to do is see if you can listen to your song on a nother system, maybe a sub heavy system or headphones, and then you might say OH wow yes my sub is there. one thing i like to do when i put sub in the 25hz-40hz spectrums, is put just a teeeny bit of distortion on my sub, just to create some extra harmonics so that it can be heard a bit easier, but only a tiny bit, and then my compression after. other than that a pretty cool intro!

I love the effect on the voice! Very cool, there seems to be a weird phasing effect that happens on some vocals, but not a huge complaint.

Good lead in to the drop!

See this drop is pretty well mixed! Albeit with a tiny bit of clipping here and there. There might be a little bit too much reverb on your sub voice, and a LOT of stereo effects going on with it too, taking away from its clarity, there's overall a lot of reverb on this drop too, maybe tighten up your reverb frequencies, move taht low band up to 250hz, and the high band down, low the decay bit. Maybe more than a bit. Over all, great sidechain compression on the kick and snare, they cut through the mix beautifully, great layering on your snare, I can barely hear the hi hats but i know theyre there, sometimes i like it that way so this isnt really a complaint, lots of high end stuff with your bass voices.

As for the over all feeling and execution of the drop, I think it just needs to be way clearer. I can hear whats going on but i want it to be crisp and i think its the reverb, maybe the reverb thats getting in the way of that here.

Overall great piece! I didnt score this one as I was a judge for the underdogs, but this was a great submission!

Benji-G responds:

Thank you so much for the insanely detailed feedback! I highly appreciate it! I will take these things in to consideration for next time :]

[Serrated Shadows]

Ah yes, this intro gave me very high hopes! i really enjoy the intro, good little harmonics happening, reminds me of a little bit of hair metal in the beggining, it sounds like you are moving power chords around and the instruments behind the guitars give me a bit of a dream theater vibe, by around 1:00, the chords get a little repetitive, the reverb you have on this track are fine up until the where all the instruments come in, Then you have to much reverb on everything its very hard to hear anything happening. At this point you should automate a lot of your reverb out. The guitar ends up getting over ballanced. I really love the design of the drums but after a certain point i can barely hear them. The melody youve written is pretty darn good but again, after a certain point, the reverb, and compression, just gets more and more reverbed until its just a bunch of noise in the 2k-5k hz ranges. You have just these great voices, and then your guitar is so loud and over reverbed, it just crushes everything. I love what was written here, but the mixing is takes away from the song entirely. Chord progressions do get a bit repetitive at a certain point, but i really love your melody, even though its repetitive, it could sond so good. I feel like your effects might be routed weirdly and you have your reverb BEFORE your compression, in turn compressing all the reverberation. Your solo I feel like is really good too, but again i can barely hear it.

Definitely take a look at your effects chain, and never ever put reverb before compression if you did it, always after, and when there is a lot going on, clarity is key, automate your reverb to go down a lot so all of that beautiful guitar playing can shine through. It was heart breaking to hear just this great solo guitar and melody guitar, overshadowwed and almost cast aside by the mixing. ADR3 said a lot of stuff i did and said it right.

EDIT: also, keep in mind, OVERDRIVES are a form of compression, i feel like you put your reverb before your overdrive, because you used clean guitar in the beginning and it sounded pretty good. Make sure your overdrives or other forms of effects are always BEFORE your reverb, never ever after.

This was a great submission though!

xZiriusX responds:

If only i mixed it right, dang. I'm glad you gave such a detailed and constructive review. ADR3 gave a great one aswell but i guess i was too shocked when i saw it hehe. I just realized i'm going too crazy with the reverb and just not controlling it at all. Maybe it was the pressure of releasing the track in less than a week, or maybe im just a noob still :P. Thank you for taking your time on doing this, people like me really appreciate it :)

[Release]

I need to get my hands on a good brass VST. This one is very good, however as a french horn player (And i wont judge the entire piece at all harshly on this) I HATE the french horn tone, man, no warmth at all. haha, and im not judging you, unless you can actually change the tone, i suggest warming it up a bit.

Now I studied composition with a focus in orchestra and choir, So i have a lot of critique for you! IM not going to go so far as to analyze the piece or anything.

The balance of instruments is very good overall! I dont feel like you established a very reckognizeable motiff, but i love the sounds, and the over all orchestration. Great tambors though not a lot of instruments used.

I love your chords and swells and use of the instruments swelling in and out of eachother, every bit of your harmonies and orchestration was very effective. I wouldve liked to see your waveform expressing some more dynamics, i feel like you actually compressed your master, but i dont think its needed in an orchestra piece. Not sure though, I also wanted more dynamics overall, but you do create dynamics by adding more instruments, which is well, how the orchestra works. I didnt hear very many cello in your strings, not sure how the VST works, over all, I enjoyed listening to this very much, very somber, very dramatic. with a slow piece, its hard to establish a real motiff, but i still very much enjoyed it!

potato-stick responds:

Ah yes, the horn sound does come off a bit "cold". Unfortunately, I don't have much control over it with Nucleus, as it has only a couple dynamic layers so I had to opt for lower dynamic to avoid the intense, aggressive buzzing that occurs. Maybe I could do some processing on the sound. But at the end of the day, its harder to achieve that with samples, so it might just be the library is to blame.

As for the motif, it is less in-your-face and much more subtle. I did quite a few variations on it from the beginning to the end, which might make it harder to pinpoint, so I could work on balancing that more in the future. In the past, I would sort of just do a more so repetitive structure which helps with creating a clear form to the song, but makes it harder to be expressive and display an evolution. Thank you for the feedback on that. I will definitely be working on that.

As for compression, I actually didn't end up using compression on the master. Maybe I do need to have a bit more dynamic variation, but I didn't want to be so quiet at the beginning that people turn it up just to get blasted towards the middle. Thank you so much though for taking the time to listen and review my piece! I will be taking your advice and applying it to future songs.

[Mountains; We Were]

Lets see, 6/4, 7/4, with mayb elike 15/8 over it, lots of poly rhythms and time signature fun in that second part. back to 6/4, 5/4, (this part is GOOD love that bass line.) Great phrasing with the 5/4 here (honestly really really good phrasing with all your time signature, you dont ever make the signatures feel uncomfortable) So far I've LOVED your ability to keep the main motiff SOLID throughout all of the different time signatures. Beautiful writing in this aspect. (I'm a trained composer myself turned attempted edm artist xD)

You definitely mix and master like a composer, which i appreciate especially for your song. You dont add a master compression, and everything is very clear and balanced, you balanced it like youd want your piece to be balanced if it were performed live. and you did a great job at it.

I do agree that it is missing some crispness in the first half, but the last half is just great, just great. Little bit of a block for you to get through with production, but your composition is solid, great variation, great interest held throughout the piece, im impressed!

Is this in dorian? It hits that amazing feeling that dorian gives me, my favorite mode. If it is you write it SO uniquely. maybe lydian i cant tell and dont want to go as far as to score this out just to know the key haha. my ears arent THAT good.

Glassedhouse responds:

Thank you for the kind words! I feel very happy with the reassuring notion that the compositional aspect is good, since that's mainly what I pride myself on (to answer your question, the song is simply in A Minor, but often feels like D Dorian)
I typically arrange in notation software like Musescore and then transfer the MIDI file to Ableton and tweak from there (I have a much more simple version this all stemmed from on my account as well). I do feel the "live" aspect of the song, and that's probably just my lack of actual production knowledge. Luckily, it seems to be working for me!
The first half seems easy enough to fix, and I'm very releaved that most people I talk to don't have any major issues that require an overhaul. Hopefully, the rest of the album goes as smoothly as this one was. I want to branch out to electronics, and experiment with combining that and the orchestra together. Thank you again!

[Adipogenesis]

Well first off, i love this song! great sound design, great samples, great presets, its very cohesive! you have great transitions and a very effective structure! Great little catchy sax part and it sits in the mix like it was recorded back in the day, loved that. Over all very great piece here. the only huge complaints that i have are i feel like your kick could punch a little more, and i can barely hear the sub, that being said, your whole mix is super compresssed on the master, look at your waveform, tahts not BAD, its loud, its good, but sometimes things dont have room to shine. Id love to hear it before effects on the master, but alas, this is the point of the judging haha.

I love the voices youve chosen, the sound design on your drops i just, feel like the whole song is a little top end heavy, and Im missing sub. theres a fine balance sometimes.

Not a ton to say about this one and thats neither good nor bad!

Great submission!

Walpang responds:

This is a great review, thanks!