trunotfals's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[Electro House] Marshmallow]

First impressions:

I love the pluck bass you have in the intro, overall pretty cool vibe going on in this funky little intro, I don't like the detunned bends on the lead near the ends, but that's about my only complaint, and an opinion at that.

Next little section is a very nice little build up, simple and effective. I LOVE that you add good dynamics and velocity automation on the directwave piano. A simple and easy recognizable piano, but can sounds SO good with good velocity automation. Big props here.

next little section gets a little muddy around 1:40 with a ton of things going on. I love the idea you carried back into here with detuning things near the end of your section, makes me think of the beginning and appreciate it a bit more.
The section at 2:00 sounds like its going into a pretty good drop, but then immediately sounds like another lead up. so you have a lead up into a drop that immediately turns into a build up, just made me a tiny bit uncomfortable. That "empty drop is FIRE." I call them fake drops, a lead in into a drop that is very empty and big and simple. Always a fun surprise for me.

Overall just a LOT of great idea in this whole song that it feels like you keep just wanting to reintroduce and add on top of other great layer. ADR3 said it really well. This is great but i also have this great thing but also this great thing i want them all to be heard. theres also in general a LOT of melodic content throughout the whole song, and i really wanted to find a singular idea or maybe two ideas to latch onto and bring me back home, but instead there are 7 or 8 really great ideas and themes and I dont know what to love so now im lost. but the journey was SO FUN.

Some overall mixing gripes i have like just alot going on around 5:38, once you pull everything away in this chaotic drops (i dont mean that in a bad way) your ideas are so cool during the quiter parts! I love the ideas in your brain and would love to see them executed more clearly. overall great! I love this submission!

[Alone]

Very dramatic, very interesting and crispy intro. Love the chords and just the pure drama adding in those super high violins always makes me think of the main character diving off the cliff to sacrifice himself for the love interest. love it.

anyway, great piano add in around :55

1:12 starting to add some edm DnB energy, love it, the moment your sub comes in around 1:25, the whole mix does get very very very distorted just like adr3 said, and then everything seems to go away from distorted noise.

Man your drop is pretty good, very dramatic,k good layering of synths, very reminiscent of Seven Lions (two reviews in a row i mentioned Seven Lions) Just big big stacks of synths and drama. Great drop, however, SUPER over compressed maybe? turned up really loud? you're getting distortion from peaking, I've added intentional distortion with peaking in my track, but everything else in the mix is crisp and clear. in this, you can tell the entire master track is getting clipped and distorted heavily.

I love the overall writing and harmonic content, very strong track and very strong drops. I would sobilly recommend automating those band passes that you put on what sounds like every voice, before some reverb, or in other words dont drop out everything into silence, keep it exactly like you have it but maybe add in some very very slight automation so that the whole mix doesnt dissapear into nothing, and maybe do a full cut of everything once or twice. I feel like im explaining it badly, but on that either band pass or compression automation that you add in those big stacks of synths in your drops, just add something in the spaces so its not 0-100 so suddenly. This is a technique used in a lot of edm where they pull everything out to surprise the listener, but they secretly have some delay or reverb that your mind doesnt really interpret.

Overall GREAT work, and ADR3 said something really great, mixing your whole track to peak at around -6db is a huge tip, leaving that amount of headroom does something MAGICAL to your mix and brings everything out once you master it and add your multiband compressor or whatever you do to master.

Glad to see you in the NGUAC!

[Dakota Rineer-Bloom]

Alright so right of the bat, I love your chords and that weird rhythmic synth fading in, good uprisers and good intro overall!

First big thing I have to say to you (and I'm half surprised I havent talked about this yet in my other reviews) is layering your snares, and sometimes spreading them on your stereo image with some simple panning, or a stereo shaper. You have a very flat and slightly punchy snare. sounds like a chunk of white noise. its not terrible per say, and might be two different snares but by itself it comes off as a bit bland, and id bet that it is just one. One of the best things you can do to make your snares stand out above the rest is layer it with 2-4 different snares to get just the right sound that you want, pitch bending them as if youre tuning the drum, and mixing them to be balanced right where you want it, often times ill add a snare sample that has a slight ring around 250-350 or so Hz, then boost that ring a bit in the mix to get that nice snare tone in the layering. Then ill add a body snare to thicken it up a bit, then a clap or some other high pitch snare or percussion sound, ive done a water droplet, to add some CRISP snap. Spicy crispness can help it cut through the mix, as well as sidechain compression on an eq or something. BUT thats just me.

The "ring" of your snare almost sounds to be in an almost kick range, which is actually normal ish for certain snares, but with yours, there isn't an accompanying crispness to it. Layer Layer Layer stereo image stereo image layer.

I like what youve done with your bass voice and then introducing an accompanying melody that bends sometimes up when the bass goes down, and then vise versa or the same direction. that is very fun. good synth stack you got going on but it does leave something to be desired. Sounds like you layered a couple super saws with plenty of chorus and lots of voices. Your Kick isnt terrible, but could use some sidechain compression with the synth chords.

Sidechain compression with your kick (and sometimes snare depending on your track) is the bread and butter of producing in my opinion.

Back to your synth chords, i would also like to hear more layers in those. what i mean by that is just copy those chords to another voice to add some harmonic and tambour flavor. Take literally any song by Seven Lions for example. Dude uses like 10 synths with all of his big drop chords. But they sound so FULL. No need to bring them into different registers, keep that range open for your lead.

Lead is really well balanced, and i like it with the saw synths.

Little repetitive overall but i love your dramatic style, and i also love your overall structure, transitions could use some spice and flare.

Pretty good mix, i just want a bit more crispy crispy things to give me the music tingles.

Overall great track!

[Winter Fall (NGUAC2020)]

Love me some drum and bass lets do this.

Great atmosphere at the start, great way to start adding energy with your hats, I love the variety you have with your hat samples and the panning. Good stereo field creation. The hats keep it chilled and layed back while still driving. you mixed them well to where they're soft, but they have so much rhythmic drive, very good intro so far.

Good balance, and simple uplifter into your drop, still very chill but the kick still stands out with your very tight sidechaining while not being overpowering to your chill vibe.

ADR3 REALLY has an ear for the low cut reverb frequencies muddying up a mix, and I very much agree with him, however, your pianos feel a lot like Mr. FijiWiji, he always uses pianos in his tracks, and theyre always very warm and calming, and pretty heavily reverbed, meant to lay a foundation and nice soft cuddly bed underneath his super chill DnB tracks. Its remniscent of that for me, and in this instance, i like it.

Now, OVER ALL, there is still a lot of reverb on some of your other sounds. Like the wobbly voice that you automate REALLY well in your outro, but during the peak its muddy. I like the heavy reverb on SOME of the things during the climax, like the piano, but it feels like nearly everything is heavily reverbed except your percussion, and I want something to get out of that back end stereo space and come to the front for a little.

Overall a very good Chill and Bass track, very Mr. FijiWiji esque, could use a bit of clarity added in for variation more often. But man, I LOVE your outro let me tell you.

Ok I'll tell you again then, I LOVE your outro.

Well done!!

[Blooming]

Great intro! right up into the main melody. Love the repeated chromatic lead and the way you utilize it as a little build up/hook. LOVE the bass lines i feel like you are a bass player.

Just, GREAT transitions up until 1:50. I loved your instrumentation up to this point but the string synths just don't do it for me. I mean even from the beginning it had a very 90's synth vibe but those strings could've been swapped with another cheesy voice just the same. I really just don't like the strings until they're layered with everything in the climax.

Man im really digging your transitions, and your breakdown right back into a full climax, especially at the 3:00 minute mark, really clear climax and i just love the instrumentation here.

I cant get over this hook its so good.

I love the use of band passes in your transitions, and even though you dont bring the music down to a softer point for very long, you execute it well. I can see this in a 90's video game.

Over all, very unique, and you executed a quirky and sporadic piece very well, I just wish that you took some different instrumental choices just like adr3 said, maybe take some time to design your own!

Great job!

[Kitchen Appliance Auditorium (NGUAC Knockout Round)]

Song made me think it was going to go into electro swing and it kind of did. WIth your picture i feel like you wanted to convince us you didnt try or give up? But no need to apologize, this isnt bad at all.

Now, i love the piano riff, great chords. The intro leaves something to be desired. The Constant open high hate is a little jarring but the overall idea is good, the cymbals could be different or a more unique sample, i like the over all composition and idea, just a driving technoish piece. Of course, i wouldve loved some variation, you added variation with the midi instruments doing their little climbing thing, bring in and out different instruments here and there, and that was about it. With a little more time i can tell without a doubt you wouldve been able to put in a little more love to this song.

Very good work for being on a time crunch!

[Journey]

So the song starts in a very chiptune style, chiptune is hard for me to judge because im not sure what kind of mixing problem one would run into. I'm sure its a lot harder than i think it is.

For instance, man you are making some SPICY TASTY chords but they are conflicted in the frequency spectrum. Your sub is great, but the "Bass" arpeggiated voice is SO close to the chords. so the chords get drowned by the rythm synth or "bass" like ADR3 said, and i have to really listen for those spicy tasty chords instead of just hearing them. i think that bass or rhythm synth wouldve sounded fine an octave down, or turned down a lot, or simplified when the chords come in.

Now im confused why you went from chiptune to piano, and the piano is pretty loud and over compressed, the violins once again are drowned by this rhythm you have going on with arpeggiated piano, i love the little arpegiated high notes you add in at 1:36.

this song got really overshadowed by that over balanced bass line or rhythm synth.

your transitions are a bit lacking overall, simply just going to a new idea instead of adding a transitional section. transition in my opinion and widely accepted in the industry, are HUGE. and can make or break your song. Yours arent TERRIBLE or song breaking, just more or less not really there.

Overall, ADR3 said it all very well, I can't add much more, great submission and Good luck!!

[Displacement]

Loving the atmosphere you create at the beginning, love that lead sound design. The eerie Pedal tone or drone is good and love how it fades out.

Great vibe you've created with the introduction of your drums, love the snare/clap layering, very rounded snare sound.

BOY do I love the way that the initial lead automates throughout the first minute. Great overtones created in that synth. the super high pitched melody at :44 feels a bit out of place for me, but i cant quite put my finger on it. great transitions!

Man all the different sounds you get from automating that initial lead! great variation at 1:30.

SOmething about that super high lead in the second half of your drops. Maybe its just a little much on the high end of its frequencies, possibly warm it up a little bit. It sounds GREAT doubled with the guitar like synth.

Overall I love this song as an ambient song. I TOTALLY see this in the background of Risk of Rain. Or in the background of a space building game like Satisfactory. I can SEE this in a game, but not actively listening. I want to judge this as an ambient piece, because this is a GREAT ambient piece, Great song to be on a game soundtrack. I dont think it's synthwave, however i think newgrounds limits us in our genre selections.

TLDR; as an ambient piece, this is pretty darn good, love your instrumentation, love that MAIN lead and that high lead i learned to appreciate. you need the variance. the structure is VERY repetitive, but that works for ambient. it was A, B, C, A, B, C, A, B, C.

Overall great work! Adding this to my favs.

BrandonTurner responds:

I'm so glad you like it! I really appreciate the kind words and the critique!

[4nZwar3 - Gerund]

~~~~This is an official review from an NGUAC judge for the 2020 NGUAC Knock-out round!!~~~~

First off, I always get scared when I see a waveform that is totally peaked and clipped at the edge of the waveform. That being said...

Once the drums came in at 13, GREAT MIX, super tight, powerful drums, and you can still hear the rest of the mix. So my fears are gone. Great work on mixing.

I will agree with (I'm just going to say ADR3 at this point ahah he's reviewed everything before me ahah.) ADR3 when it comes to the chord progression. It feels like you definitely just moved the chords around within the key with the same intervals. All the notes in the chords move in the same motion always. It's a bit uncomfortable to the ears, but the mind forgets about it once your lead comes in. Honestly once the drums come in for me too.

Whatever that little eerie voice in the back of the stereo image is is GREAT at :12.

This song reminds me of "Spag Heddy - Permanent"

The actually melody is okay. The constant pitch bending and portamento is a little uncomfortable.

The lead is a bit too loud, sits WAY over the mix. great reverb and delay automation at the end of phrases.

Okay this HAS to be inspired by Permanent. Your piano at 1:39 and the structure and transitions are fully inspired by this song. great song!

I will admit I'm wrong if you DIDN'T write this song based off of Spag Heddy's one, but I will put money on it. And it will be weird as HECK for you to listen to that song if you TRULY have never heard it. :)

All that being said, couple things here. The melody that you created comes off as very jarring. I think it wouldve worked better if you used the crazy portamento and pitch bends on one voice, and then doubled it with another voices that played the melody without the portamento and bends at all. it would clarify the idea of the melody and fix it entirely, makes the porta's an accent to the melody. When you hear the melody in the piano at 1:39, its clear and sounds great, a catchy melody. But when the lead comes in by itself and bends all over the place, it makes it seem very confusing and hard to latch onto.

The piano voice you use at 1:39 is GREAT. I can tell its not a blatant sample rip from Spag's song, i WANT that preset haha. Your melody is a bit different and GOOD when played by the piano, however, it is fundamentally similar to spags. Which is fine, this feels like an inspirative song! But its just NOT clear in the lead voice.

Over all, I could also use more sub, the overall structure is a bit weird due to when you decide to bring back in the drums, like the breakdowns at :12 and :38, and how you bring them back in and then back out before your drop. Love the drop though i think some WUB sounds are a bit over mixed, over compressed and eqqued a little uncomfortably.

NOW the drops, once the wub sounds come in, they take over your entire mix, the kicks dont cut through like they were in your breakdowns, the snares are very quiet almost not there, feels like a kick drop. great transitions and ideas for sound design throughout, just all the subby wubby sounds were mixed and compressed SO MUCH over the mix. Great great design though.

I LOVE fake drops as I call them, a drop that builds up into something sounds like its going to be BIG but then drops to something chill. This was 2:51 for you. However the transition into this one was a bit uncomfortable, could used a bigger impact then settle into the fake drop. Just didnt hit home for me.

Overall great work.

Answare responds:

Well, hi! I don't usually "answare" (ik bad pun xd) your reviews from NGUAC because I want you guys to have the final sentence, but it seems that a relpy is necessary for your commentary for two reasons: 1. You think this piece was inspired by Spag Heddy - Permanent, 2. You'd like to get the funny piano preset I used for 1:38.
While the second one is easy to clear out, the first one did indeed scare the heck out of me. It seems like I already knew the song but I didn't remember it completely, only a few things like the melody and a guy cheering up his football team as a predrop vocal, but I might had that melody in my head for years, misunderstanding it with an actual ol' west piece and finally using that as a source of material for this song and another shitty song called "Rotten Hope" here on my page. And that gives us to the second reason: The piano is a free VST called "4Front Piano" which has no modifiable parameters inside of it or whatsoever. I found it while looking for free piano VSTs on a YT video and I liked the sound of it.
Anyway, I hope I've been helpful. For the moment, I can only wish all the participants and myself luck to pass this round. Have a nice day!