trunotfals's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Starlit Road]

Hello ILG924!!

I have judged this piece as a tryout to the NGAUC and will be judging your next piece along will all of the others! Congrats on making it to the knockout round!

Your piece overall was pretty good! Well done!

I gave it a 4 for "general" due to it lacking a bit of overall depth. It seems to have the same chord progression throughout, and the more electronic style drums seemed not to fit due to your intro not having very many electronic flavors or voices at all. The drums are about the only thing. And they have the same pattern throughout the whole piece, with no variation.

I scored it a 5 for "composition" for multiple reasons. Within Composition, I included instrumentation, dynamics, melody, and form. (among others but these were the primary focus points) The instrumentation was good overall, save for the electronic drums. They had a high frequency cut-off the entire song with no variation. In my opinion, in order to "sell" the idea of those drums, you needed to include more electronic elements. This could have been executed very well if done right. On a dynamic front, there didnt seem to be much dynamic variation within each separate voice. You did well at layering many voices to simulate a climax, but there could have been more automation within seperate voices to create more emotion. Your melody was changed often and many times. You had very many variations on your melody within your chord structure, but your chord structure was almost always the same. Your form was a little weird as well. it was fine honestly, but each new section, was almost completely different. Your small clmix moment at around 2:04 was very good, and I loved how you brought it back down, then went back to it, introducing some tambourine-like percussion for more energy, however you ended the piece immediately after this small climax. You almost always want your climax around 2/3 into your piece, then simmer back down to a smooth ending, thinning out the amount of instruments you have.

I honestly don't know why I scored you a 5 in "mixing" as that would apply to the balance of voices in your song rather than more complicated mixing techniques used in an EDM song. I must have had a reason but for the life of me I cant think of why. I apologize for that. Listening back at it now I wouldve given you a 6 or 7 in that category. LUCKILY YOU MADE IT IN!!! (trying not to show me deep regret behind my sweaty clammy smile)

I gave you a 6 in "Originality" because I actually enjoyed your piece in that aspect. It had very well written melodies and great intent and great energy. I simply think it couldve stood out a bit more in the "video game music" genre.

Overall, I think you needed to focus more on changing up the pace and energy of your piece. It was very stoic with the constant and consistent drum pattern, and I really wouldve loved to hear a flute/oboe duet or something. All in all I enjoyed your piece, but I may have judged it a little too seriously being from a strong orchestral background. Dont be discouraged by your score. There were many "low" scores on my part but that was due to what I considered "just ok" or "great" or AMAZING or PERFECT. there were many a song that scored much lower than you.

All that being said you should be very proud of this piece. Especially your melodies which I must highlight again, they were spectacular. Just try to execute the changes a little better ;)

Good luck in the rest of the competition my friend! I look forward to hearing what you make for us!

ILG924 responds:

That's a lot of good advice, and I'm glad I can recognize and agree with all the points that need work! I actually didn't notice it was the same chord progression throughout. I haven't studied much when it comes to music theory so I just mainly focus on melody, which is why I choose to write music in the video game music genre. I'll be sure to focus more on drum variation and different chord progressions in my next song.
Thanks for the review, it's very helpful!

[Forgotten]

This is almost amazing. The composition is spectacular. and the mixing was good until the climax around 1:06. The drums are amazing all the way through, but your guitar was always a little weird. It seems like it needs to be eq'ed differently. Not sure what happened with the guitar becasue your drums are perfect.

[The Road Less Travelled]

Hello DSyk!

I remember competing with you in last years NGAUC! Now I will be judging your entry along with everyone else's!

I was excited to see your name on the list! I have been reviewing the few pieces that stand out to me (as there are a lot of entries, so i don't review all of them) And I thoroughly enjoyed your orchestral piece! It was a great concierto style piece, a very somber ballad that I could hear being played as a piece in a symphony! Your form, chord progression and tambour changes and flow were all very beautiful! I have been going to school for composition with the goals of composing orchestral pieces so I really appreciated this a lot! I have very little negative things to say about this, your climax point was great, and your outro was also very great.

I can only say that it ended very suddenly. I would've loved to hear the textures thin out a bit more at the end, maybe solo clarinet with only harp accompaniment into just a simple harp luck melody at the end, that being said the ending was still very good! just a little sudden!

Great work and good luck in the first round!!

DSykMusic responds:

Hi Trunotfals, thanks for the huge compliment!

[-Synapse Vocal Version Remastered-]

Hello Cerzak!!

I will be one of the Judges reviewing you entry for the NGAUC!!

I have been reviewing songs that stand out to me as I go down the LONG list of entries for the competition! I just wanted to say that your piece was quite good! For it's genre it is quite good! All of your compositional ideas were solid and well executed! The vocal chops were really good and as someone who really likes to work with vocal chops I really quite appreciated it.

I think you could improve on mixing. The kick and snare were quite weak on the drops and the "dubsteppy" noises were also very high end heavy. Couldve used more sub on them as well as more low end artifacts in those sounds. I also think throwing in the vocals in the last drop wasn't a very good idea, at least not as loud and overbalanced as you had them. However I still have issues balancing vocals into more busy parts of my songs so I understand that this can be difficult to mix. I think for the drop you couldve automated the compression on the vocals, or volume depending on how you mixed it so that they really are just tastefully added in rather than overshadowing everything else that is going on. And the last verse before the end where you have a random build up into nothing (i.e. the very end of the song) wasn't articulated very well. I've heard other artists do something like this but it really seems to flow. I quite liked the section where you cut out a lot of your drop voices, and just added drums to chords and stuff, you couldve made a good outro with that instead of acting like there was another drop which made the form of the song feel a bit awkward.

Other than that great automation and great transitions!!!! Well done!!! Best of luck in the competition!!!

[Emmaus]

Hello adieuwinter!!

I will be one of the judges reviewing your entry to the NGAUC!!

First off I have to say That I love your style!!

I loved the chords you had going on in the intro, very great compositional style!! great jazzy chords and awesome little bends. Youre transitions were really really great (excuse my lack of proper diction to avoid usuing "realy" over and over) but i truly loved it.

The style of the drums you have going on were amazing, so smooth. It sounds like you had a professional drummer drumming just for you. So tasteful, so smooth, so jazzy. (I may be a bit biased, I'm a drummer myself) And I'm honestly curious how you did it. The wholesong just has this laggy little jazzy relaxed vibe to it. each transition was amazing, every thing flowed.

That all being said. I could never understand what the vocals were saying, there was always too much going on with the vocals, and way too much reverb on them. That would be something to definitely work on!

I wish you the best in the competition!!!

adieuwinter responds:

Hi trunotfals, thanks so much for the kind words! I noticed the reverb the morning after (was cramming work in til early hours of the morning), it's definitely something i'll note for future reference. I really appreciate your comments and I'll do my best as the competition continues!

[Journey]

Hello 5TanLey!!

I will be one of the judges reviewing your entry into the NGAUC!!!

First off I wanted to say great piece!!

Here are a few things!
I love the overall vibe so much. As a whole I love this song!
The only thing i didnt quite like is the transtions were very awkward. You had a cymbal crash just before the inital drop of each section, and then when it dropped, there was nothing but the traditional Amen break beat. This was not very satisfying to each of your build ups. I would suggest making sure you somehow make each drop section feel like the tension settles, maybe move that cymbal drop right on the down beat, or add a different one in the moment of the drop.

But over all you had great form, and great mixing!

Good luck in the competition!!!

5TanLey responds:

Thanks for review/advice, the song is far from being perfect, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[Random Robot Dance]

Great percussion and plucks in the beginning. Found you on the scouting list. Love the vibe and energy, great sounds and great mixing! THe only thing I have to say is it is a little repetitive for my own tastes, but very well done! You should be a great addition to the audio portal!

TWDJake responds:

Thanks so much! I did realize it was a bit repetitive, and I'm still working on making songs that aren't as repetitive! :)

[[Dubstep] - Adamant]

YEAAAAAA BUDDY!

LegatusRj responds:

^_^