trunotfals's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Abendland - Featherblade]

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

OOOh cinematic okay, here we go.

Great dynamics in the start, very good composition and simple melody, love the theme you created here.

The reverb you put on the mix definitely sounds like you wanted it to sounds like you were listening in a concert hall. I can hear through the muddiness and hope this was your intent!

Great structure and Melody established in the 1:57 area, and good choice of instrumentation on the voicing for your melody when you switch around the ensemble. Doubling flutes with the Glock, Trumps with the 1st violins, Great tambors it sounds like something i would've played in highschool if EVERYONE played MIDI perfect haha.

I WANT your Orchestral plugin please. The dynamics and tambor and articulations in the brass are VERY good in this plugin.

Great Cello counter melody around 3:05 when the violins and flutes are on melody.

Contrary to ADR3, I do think that your percussion cuts through the orchestra similarly to how it would in a Concert hall. Percussion has always cut through an entire orchestra. thats why you have 4 or so percussionist and 80 instrumentalists. It does sound centered, but it still hits the master reverb and bounces around the room. I personally like the reverb that you have added to simulate concert hall.

Over all composition: VERY good at first, love your melodies, but there were only two sections really. You had a great initial intro, And a really great main melody, but the over form is A, B1, A2, B2, B3, C(short interlude with amazing voclists) B4, B5, B6 and so on. I wouldve loved to hear a variation entirely on the melody or a small wind section tutti or something.

Overall, GREAT GREAT GREAT compostion here. WELL DONE.

Abendland responds:

Thanks a lot for your thorough feedback, trunotfals! For brass I mainly used Audio Imperiums Jaeger and Metropolis Ark 1 vst. Yeah, I totally agree on the shortcoming of some alternations in the melodies you‘ve pointed out. I just did not find more time to add in more, sadly.
Cheers, Chris

[[NGUAC 2020] claustrophobia]

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

I like to type my first impressions on my first listen as I go so HERE WE GO.

Loving this spacey intro, good instrument, good variation at the end.

That crash is a bit loud in the mix but loving everything else here.

Okay once the drums really kick in and the guitar track kicks in it gets a bit muddy. Lots of stuff all happening at once. The EQ on the guitar is really heavy in the mid range. ADR3-N said a lot of what I could say really. There are spots where your stereo and eq field are filled REALLY WELL, like 1:37 sounds pretty good, then there are certain instruments that are too conflicting, and you might consider dropping out other elements to make room for what you want to be heard, maybe try not to let multiple things exist in the same frequency spectrum. I REALLY love the sound and effects at 2:00. Sounds like maybe you have a bit crusher on a voice and i just LOVE this effect and the other creepy pads you added in.

The structure overall IS a bit iffy, but I really like your transitions, mainly the one into 2:00, big fan of that. The final section at 3:00 the drums could really stand out more. Maybe through some sidechain compression, maybe your mix is off.

Good small build up into a mini climax into the end with a held note, very live rock band style, it works.

Overall, loving the ideas here, could use some work on the mixing elements, and everything else that ADR3-N said really. They also know a lot more about guitar mixing it seems! Maybe some more dynamic guitars and a little more in between could be a good change of pace, meaning, some sort of inbetween of your big climactic moments with all the drums, and the ones at the beginning and 2:00.

Good work! Good luck in the NGUAC

4203 responds:

Thank you!

[Chilling With my Megadrive]

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

Trying to judge this SOLELY in the chiptune setting is a bit tough. But I've tried to listen to other tracks in this format and style. Your rhythmic transitions are a bit jarring. The song is GREAT, right up until around 30 seconds. Then the triplet transition into eights and so forth are so jarring and don't happen with enough context and intent. And maybe you meant that, you wanted it to be uncomfortable. But out of context, it was very harsh and jarring, and certain rhythms in your percussion just don't compliment what is going on with your synths. I LOVE your style of harmony and melody, lots of major 7ths and stuff, great theory stuff here. The :30s to 1:00 area was really tough for me. Over all I love your style. Very condusive to the genre. And very hyper active which is useful to create a feeling in a video game. Lots of harmony and great progression. Your overall structure of song was good, but not great, and the ending almost killed it for me. The song was overall great for it's genre, but as a standalone, it needs some work. Great work though! You really really make me want to work in chiptune.

Edit; Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE this track, I just have to critique it properly! Also when I said "its hard to judge this SOLELY in the chiptune genre" I meant i dont actively listen to it so i had to do some research for a bit to get myself in the mind set to judge the mixing and writing. "The ending almost killed it for me" simply because it just ENDED. Wouldve loved to hear an outro of some sort!

Really good job here! I also DEFINITELY did not mean to leave half a star. HAVE 4! And also, I'm a new surprise judge!

[ALGO - Electra]

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

Reviews tend to be the last thing I do as a a judge for NGUAC, BUT, I might be a bit biased in this one. Your mixing is loud, but stable. The waveform is big yet not clipping. The melody is amazing and your transitions are FIRE. the only piece of advice I can give you is to maybe add some variety. The leads and synths go so well together, yet I find myself desiring more, while also being in conflict with myself because it's so BOUNCY and catchy. Well done!

EDIT;

Gunna add some more detail to this because i listened and judged very quickly and not fairly while at work the other day.

I love the bendy almost cinematic background tones that ADR3 mention, the tonic tones that just bend at the end of phrases, VERY catchy and adds a ton of tension for your drop. love the melodies that you slowly bring in and then drop into everytime. the snares feel like they are a little bit too far back in the stereo image. Im glad im listening to this one now instead of in my big work van, the reverb wasnt the van, it IS your mix. ADR3 said it, the reverb is a little much and this song could be so much more crispy and bouncy with less reverb. Let the room the song is being played in add that big room vibe, when you do that by yourself in the mix because you want it to sound like big room house, imagine what that actually would SOUND like in the big room you want it to be played in. even more muddy and possibly incoherent. I really love this song, Very Melbourne Bounce House.

GREAT SONG and great submission!

[Time To Recoup]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH

[Colour Color Farge Coleur]

***This is a NGUAC first round review. Forgive me if it is short, there are a hundred songs to get through!! Further rounds will be MUCH more in detail on your review!!***

This is so original, and great.

Overall however, the harmonized vocals, are never lined up, those are very important to put extra work to line up your syllable, there were a couple moments of hesitiation in your FINAL mix where you were trying to line up with yourself.

As well as the mixing, when there are the big moments with drums, there is SO MUCH GOING ON, that everything needs to be balanced to be clean and clear.

Great job, extremely original. Well done.

Good luck in the NGUAC

[Khalden's Theme - Invincible Hero]

***This is a NGUAC first round review. Forgive me if it is short, there are a hundred songs to get through!! Further rounds will be MUCH more in detail on your review!!***

Great work here, I love your plans and designs for your dream game!

This song was great, hard hitting and conveyed a very specific emotion about your character. Welll done

The mixing was a big problem however. The drums were WAY drowned out by everything else, and those are VERY important for this style. I really only heard the low thump of the kick, and the tone of the snare. They were nearly completely drowned out by everything else being way too loud. Some further compression on your drums, as well as turning everything else down and them up, and then possibly some sidechaining wouldve made them pop much more.

WELL done though!

Good luck in the NGUAC!

[Dovax - Chameleon]

***This is a NGUAC first round review. Forgive me if it is short, there are a hundred songs to get through!! Further rounds will be MUCH more in detail on your review!!***

So i love what you did here. I just dont know if it was executed amazingly.

Even though there were four different drops, it still felt very VERY repetitive to me. I think because almost every build up was nearly xactly the same. that being said I REALLY liked this, LIKE ALOT, up through the first and maybe second drop, but I think this wouldve been a MUCH better song with some heavier variations on the build ups/verses.

Great song overall though!

Good luck on the NGUAC

[Zyzyx - Undefined]

***This is a NGUAC first round review. Forgive me if it is short, there are a hundred songs to get through!! Further rounds will be MUCH more in detail on your review!!***

Really well done! Surprisingly refreshing for a seemingly generic dubstep song (Its not generic at all.)

The only real thing I have to say is it feels a little over compressed or whatever you did to the master, the drops have a bit of clipping, but sometimes i like the sound of clipping on my basses too.

This is very loud.

I guess that's waht this genre wants though. I just like a cleaner mix personally.

Well done.

Good luck in the NGUAC!

DJ-Zyzyx responds:

To be honest I like a cleaner mix too! I actually didn't master this one, I just had my friend quickly do it for me. I now know how to master properly, since I made this a while ago xD Thank you for the review!

[Jacques Melissa - Nine-oh-nine hats]

***This is a NGUAC first round review. Forgive me if it is short, there are a hundred songs to get through!! Further rounds will be MUCH more in detail on your review!!***

I love your incredibly unique style, and I love your sound design.

Very little to say about this one. And that is a pretty good sign.

I want that whistle sound.

Good luck in the nguac!

Jakki responds:

I am flattered. Truly.

The whistle sound is from Sakura. I can't remember which one of them it was, but probably from Sonic Haiku bank

Thank you!