Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM 2021 - R~ "Space Rush"]

This reminds me of the music that got me to Newgrounds in the first place, like some ParagonX9 quality dance music. Also trance is one of my favorite pairings with racing games (see ExtremeG, Distance, NFS 3 hot pursuit).

[AIM - Our Life.]

Proof that piano music fits Newgrounds

So when are you collabing with LucidShadowDreamer?

[Valley of Bones [AIM 2021]]

YES! Give me that metal!

\m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/

Collab when?

TSRBand responds:

Thanks for tuning in! \m/

[AIM - Timely Demise]

I absolutely dig this. I was so waiting for the percussion to come in and it was quite worth the weight. Only complaint is that it feels like you have competing frequencies in the mid and low range. Maybe it's because you have too much reverb with some of the chords and basses, or you just have too many instruments trying to play in the same range, so the mix felt crowded. Again loved listening to this

[AIM - The Hero's End]

This gives me chills. The combination of the choir with the brass felt so warm and emotional. Easily one of my favorites in the contest this year.

Everratic responds:

Thank you for the nice comments and for ranking this song in your favorite submissions :D

I agree that this brass and choir combo is wonderful.

Personally, I find it difficult to enjoy the song now because I'm now aware of some major mistakes. I have a bad tendency to filter out my songs' strong points if there is anything I dislike.

[AIM - Sunset]

I like the idea, but could use some refinement. To expand on RSK's point, the kick is too long. It's good that you sidechained so the low doesn't get muddy, so I'd say there's some good mixing, but the kick just overpowers the mix with how long it decays. It may also be too high of a frequency for the kick in terms of a drum and bass feel. Usually they're more in the sub frequency range.

[AIM - Stomach of The Beast]

For both submissions you have a really good sense for atmosphere. Delicious pieces to dive into. I with the 808 bass was more layered since it's a little dry on its own.

WakerLink responds:

glad you enjoyed the tracks, and yeah, the 808 bass could be a bit more interesting, still not very good at making synth 808 patches so this bass is a bit basic

[AIM - (OTG) The Nightmare Forest]

The pitchbending and reversed piano hits kinda broke my mind. Those are such cool effects and alone made for one of the coolest starts to a song.

[AIM - The Unmatched Power of The Sun]

Orchestral rock definitely fits the art and I really like where you started with this. Solid idea but needs some refinement. Easiest thing to fix, not that it's easy but doesn't require anything than your own ears, is the mix. I love drums and the percussion needs to by punchier. The drums have great tone and sound great, but because they're very short sounds you can get away with cranking up the volume of the percussion (although careful with cymbals, they're not as short). Could even throw a compressor on them to bring up the volume a little bit by controlling their peaks too. I'm not fond of the bass sound starting at 1:25 section. It sounds cheap in comparison to how you've got your other instruments and especially on its own. You could probably get away with it if you layered it with some other bass synths or if you wrote it so that it wasn't just static quarter notes and half notes. Most people would say "you need to buy better plugins man" which fancy sounding plugins will always help the sound sure, but you can also find ways to make you cheap plugins sound good. There's tutorials on youtube that you could probably find to help understand what sounds your plugins and VSTs best fit. It's getting an understanding of what makes your tools work best and where they're weak. To make an analogy, it's understanding how to use your hammer for nails and not your shovel. Sure you can use a shovel for nails, but it's better for other purposes.

Again I love what you've attempted with this. 0:33 has a great beginning idea you could use, but rhythmically outside of the melody there isn't much that's as interesting. The counter melody you brought in at 0:59 is something you could really develop in other instruments/phrases/or what have you. Like for example at 1:56, instead of just bringing in the lead guitar the way you did, I would have reintroduced the counter melody again with more subtle instruments and rephrased it in a different rhythm or something to make is sound different but the listener will still find it familiar.

Again really enjoyed it, and both the song and you have solid potential.

WakerLink responds:

holy crap that's a big one
yeah, the mix could be better here and there, still just learning how to properly mix metal/rock tracks because that's not my usual genre
about the bass at 1:25, the more I listen to it, the higher the desire to replace it with some sort of a reese bass increases, I fully agree with you on this one
however about the melody at 0:33, it was supposed to be just rhythmic flavor and that's it, but I do agree that I probably could have done some rearrangements of already existing melodies in the second part
anyway, thank you so much for such detailed feedback, appreciate it

[Rolling Waves - AIM 2021]

The percussion is a feast for the ears.