Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Anima]

You have the best harmonies in this competition. To the fact that you can sing all of the parts in this is a pretty good display of talent. Oh that flute. Is that recorded? It's sounds so real.

Lovely work. Love the voice as usual ;)

[Angora Adagio]

Oh wow

That realism is incredible. Well written and well produced. There's a ton of emotion in this.

But I'm just repeating probably what everyone else is thinking.

[Serenity]

The production and mastering is on point. I love that sound

8-bitheroes responds:

Thanks dood!

[~SW~ Simpler Times]

I think you've nailed down the mood correctly. It gets a little thrown off at times because the glockenspiel sounds pretty dry when everything else is reverbed to the stratosphere. I love the lead you use. What VST did you use for that?

Cool work

SkyeWint responds:

All of the instruments are from Omnisphere. :)

I actually kinda wanted the glock to be dry and almost like a music box, but I totally see why you'd say that too - just different views I guess.

[Typical Liberal]

I'm glad I don't have to face up against you yet lol. I'd like to know what all is recorded here, if you did it, and who else may have recorded with you. I'm assuming it's recorded and that's your voice, which btw is lovely. How do you go about making lyrics? Do you make them first before the music, or vice versa? Just curious.

Anyway sounds great. Love it

McGorilla42 responds:

Hey, Spadezer! :) Yeah, I played the piano and guitar and sang on the song and recorded and mixed it too (must still finish the mix and re-record some vocals eek). Thank you for the compliments on my voice because it is quite scary having people hearing your voice and lyrics!

I always write the music and the melodies first. I generally start on the guitar and find a progression I like and sing until something resonates, then I start recording and sort of zone out and wait 'til something else pops up that I like and repeat that process for a while until I have a vague idea of the whole song.

I guess you asked more specifically about the lyrics though! I actually write the lyrics dead last, which seems funny because you'd think that you'd want to have some sort of deep and meaningful idea in your head before putting any music down, but I don't like to write that way. It isn't the first time I've done it, but sometimes when I struggle to find a melody, I'll sing words on things I see lying around in my room - in this case, I had a bottle of water next to the desk that said "Typical Mineral Content". I started singing "typical mineral" and I liked the rhythm of it, so that's where that came from. I had an idea for the concept of the lyrics before they were all written, but yeah, changing "mineral" to "liberal" sparked the whole idea. Hearing people listening to your words is scary because they might think they're dumb/trite/too vulnerable (or maybe even good sometimes!)

tl;dr lyrics last & i did all the things

Thanks for the comment, Spadezer! :) And good luck in Round 2! :D

[Contigo Siempre]

I love the tempo change up that throws the whole song to a different feel. So we can expect a lot more massive stuff from you right? I kinda wish the claps were snares in the second chorus theme, but it doesn't detract from what you have.

[Invasion of the Court of Hearts]

The choir pack you have is vivid. What are you using for that?
The strings sound a little off, and the break leading into the rock section is a little too long.

As a whole I like the idea you have. The mixing seems a little underworked or dry, but there is a charm to this piece.

SourJovis responds:

The choirs are Soundiron Olympus Micro Choir. It sounds okay, though unfortunately it doesn't have legato. I had to use a pitch bend that went up from at the end of the starting note, then use a different sample of the note that it was moving towards to, and start with a pitchbend down, going up. That way both the starting notes and the notes it was moving towards to sounded right and not have that weird "chipmunk effect" you usually get by using a pitchbend. I had to use a crosfade inbetween the two notes that was exactly in sync. Took forever to make it sound remotely presentable. I use Zampled Euphonic Strings for the string sounds. I actually like that sample pack better than the choir pack. Though I must admit the results here are a little disappointing. Maybe I wasn't using them correctly. I'll have to take a look at that.

I've changed the breaking leading into the rock section since your review. It's still as long, but I've added a reverse guitar power chord. I think that makes it more interesting, so it doesn't seem as long.

The mix could've been better. I was only told 4 days before the deadline I was allowed to enter the NGADM, and that's when I started working on this. I was on holliday at the time, so I was woring on my laptop in the nights and mornings, so I didn't have much time. Besides the project was so heavy for my computer it couldn't play it back properly. It kept hampering, so I couldn't mix it very well. When a bunch of plugins crashed, I had to close the program and restart it again. But there were so many samples it wouldn't open the final file anymore. It took 45 minutes to an hour to load, and every time I tried to render it, some instruments crashed and were missing from the render. In the end I had to use an earlier project file that didn't have all of those orchestral instruments you hear at the beginning, and work with that. The sad piano part was supposed to be played by orchestral instruments, and after that there was supposed to be another rock section with orchestral instruments played over it. Together they played a more epic version of the sad part. All in all the song was a little over 7 minutes long. I hope to be able to render the full version sometime in the near future. So far I haven't been able to open the most recent file, and I have other priorities/deadlines to make.

[Deadshot Desperado]

I love your work. It sounds animated but vivid. And really clean mix too.

ConnorGrail responds:

Many thanks to you, Mr. Spade. Glad you could join me on today's wild west journey

[Xtrullor - Catharsis]

Epic indeed. I'll always enjoy some good orchestral rock

[F-777 - Super Duper]

This is the type of music that I was introduced to Newgrounds with. And I love it.

I will say though, IMO, it seemed like there was a section or two that I think was missing some sub or bass, but it doesn't stop me from liking this.