Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Crime of Spring (WIP)]

*Gasp* NGADM is here!?

Best of luck to ya. You'll have one less artist to compete against here, if that makes you feel better.

But what I know will make you feel better is by saying:

This is just the audition? This is going to be good. In short, I like a lot of what's going on. I really like how the bass and the percussion work together. I wish my Google Music radio stations had more songs like this and try to stay away from the derp fax machines and cliche builds. You know, this feels like a new Kirby bonus level. It's light and bouncy and the high pitched arpeggiating notes help give that sort of happy feeling. Also, jazz is good. jazz is always good. If you don't like your song add some jazz and 60% of the time it works everytime.

Best of luck and enjoy.
-Spadezer-

KabukiTunes responds:

Jazz is love. Jazz is life. Add a 7th to an unsatisfactory chord, and it becomes instant sex

Thank you! Can't wait for the competition to start!

[Dont]

Sweet!

The first part isn't bad. For what it is it's not so bad, but it does its job of setting up the rest of the song. The only big complaint I will mention is that I think the vocals would have been better an octave higher or have both this octave and the higher one singing at the same time (I'm sorry if this is you or someone you know but it makes him sound a bit creepy IMO). However I digress, which leads me to 00:45 when the chorus hit. Man, when you work at it, you can make big and beautiful atmospheres. I suggest whatever you do, try to focus on that and you'll go far. The chorus takes the melody of the lyrics and adds ton of emotion to them. The dubstep bits don't get in the way either. You did a good job in being careful that the wubwubs didn't take the feeling away. Props.

I do have to apologize about falling off the face of Newgrounds and then suddenly showing up all like "Woah cool a Pandasticality song!" I graduated college and during the last month of it both my laptop and my keyboard decided to give up, and I've spent up till last week getting a job. So I'll probably miss some contests this year but as this year progresses you'll get to see me more often. I don't know how I rank in your list of favorites, but this is my first activity in like six months and I'm starting to get antsy about making something now that I'm getting money eventually, but it's good to see... uh ... hear more of your music. I still have Future playing in my playlist. ;)

Don't give up ... on me ... unless you want to. That's fine. I won't judge.
jk lols
-Spadezer-

Pandasticality responds:

i get the afk from NG for a while, i just did that too, i was just so stuck up with work, currently working as a researcher so free time is rare, oh and the vocals weren't mine, it was a first timer in the studio, a friend of mine, never singed before and i thought id give him a chance and see if he could actually do something, i thought he did well considering its his first time even tho the vocals sound a little awkward.

Thank you for the review Spadezer.
- Pandasticality

[A Dream From the Past]

It's instruments like these that don't get used enough, at least from what I hear. Happy New Years btw! And I'll say not a bad piece. I really enjoy the harpsichord work in this, and I won't mention anything about the strings stuff, but they don't sound out of place.

Not looking to make in depth reviews at this point. I'm on a whole post-graduation-recovery state and I'm finally looking at Newgrounds again. But again.

Happy New Year!
-Spadezer-

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I like harpsichords, in general. As long as they are not used too much, that is...
I really wished I had better vsti:s though, especially for the strings :/ Either way, the production of this track was pretty lazy :p

Don't worry! Any reviews are welcome, and I like your ones well enough, as I'm sure all other receivers do too :3

Happy New Year to you as well! :'D

[Last Lightning]

This is pretty sweet. I would never expect you to make something like this, but I like what I hear. The intro is well done. The high-hat (if you want to call it that) is so nice. It's subtle but really effective. For the mixing, it sounds like you're using some distortion on the drums. It works, but I don't think it's the best. It's my opinion, but it doesn't damper the song. Looking at the composition, not much going on there, but everything else makes up for it. All of the sound fx and the mixing are pretty spot on.

Just some quick thoughts for ya. I'm really to see something like this come from you.
-Spadezer-

Pandasticality responds:

thanks again for your review Spadezer, much appreciated.
- Pandasticality

[liquid messabout]

Just a couple of notes.

I don't mind the pitch bend, but I think it's being used too often. It sounds like you're using it to isolate different sections, but I'd use something else other than that. The mixing is pretty good. The theme is pretty cool at first, but I start to lose interest around 01:30. It feels it doesn't change much style enough to keep me interested.

It's pretty though. Not quite my cup of tea, but it's pretty cool.
-Spadezer-

AeroMusic responds:

yupp sorry about that - honestly I think I shoulda uploaded 2 mins and just had it as a loop

Yeah not sure how I feel about the pitch bend aswell - I like it before the drop but maybe not in the main section
cheers for the review mate :)

[These Days]

Woah!

So Cool! I can hear the bass and percussion already. You should totally run with this.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks Spadezer!!!

I don't think I'll return to this, but once I get some time I will make an even cooler electronic song for sure (with bass and percussion too XD) ;)

[Air]

Wow, these zero bombers are harsh. I wouldn't have thought that they still exist here.

Anyway, my first impressions are that it seems to be a little too simple. The intro takes up half of the song too. I personally don't mind the intro, but it deserves a song that's a bit longer in my opinion (for how short this is I would get rid of the first 30 seconds, but this is only my opinion). Personally, I would have loved to see different things you could have done with the main theme. You set up a melody with a synth that works but doesn't feel quite right (can't put my thumb on why though). The build up is nice, and then once you get to the wub-wubs it feels nice. There's a little bit of brilliance here to. You're using an aggressive bass but you create a light and open feel. Now that I think of it, your style in this song is pretty similar to Blackmill. However, there's not much more than that. You do your wub-wubs and then your song just gives up on ideas and calls it good. Basically, if you haven't guessed by now, it feels too short. You could change up the rhythms, you could add a new melody to play with that could possibly play along with the first melody, you could change the chord structure, and the list is endless.

So to wrap it up a bit, your bit of Blackmill song could do more. It generally feels like there's another element needed, but the mixing is well done. Some of the synths could be reworked too. But the best part about this is the chorus. I would personally have messed around with variants of the chorus to make it longer and could possibly add depth in that way.

Still waiting to hear the next track like Future. That song got me hooked and I want to hear you make stuff like that . This song is a closer echo compared to your more recent stuff.

Be awesome, be more awesome, and repeat,
-Spadezer-

Pandasticality responds:

thanks for the tips, noted, blackmill is awesome, i like his music even tho its been quite a while since i've listened to it, this song is just one of those projects that started off with experimenting with random sounds and what not, this is what came of that, theres alot of space for improvement in this song, thank you for the review. <3
- Pandasticality

[Look Up]

Just one thing from me. You've got your mixing down really good. Your chorus and bass synths are working perfectly with each other. It creates a feeling like listening to the chord of a professional concert band. The synths are beautiful and the bass adds the perfect foundation.

Be awesome, be more awesome, and repeat.
-Spadezer-

Geoplex responds:

Thank you very much! ^^ My mixing and mastering abilities are what I'm really striving for right now and I won't stop until I'm better than AU5

[Seafloor]

Man you got some haters here. Only 4 votes and it's less than three stars?

I get a Metroid Prime vibe. It's pretty chill and I can really see this as like an underwater area in Metroid. I really like the snare you have. It's pretty sweet for the theme you're bringing across.

Two things I hear with this that I would change. The synths you have are good, but they're not solid. I'm specifically talking about the lead synth and the little whistle at 00:54. All of the synths do their job well (especially the bells. Those are perfect). The lead synth is really cool when it's quiet and chill, but it doesn't feel right when it gets closer to full volume. The whistle, like I've said is played correctly, but it just doesn't feel right like it needs reverb or depth. The second thing I'll point out. 01:38-end just feels awkward. It's not bad but just ending with that doesn't feel like it works.

Anyway, those were my two-cents. Bottom line is it creates a sweet feel, actually does inspire some imagery. It could be a little simple, but still could use a little work either way.
-Spadezer-

Pandasticality responds:

thanks for your review, much appreciated, thnx for the tips :3
- Pandasticality

[i can see you now]

Yay the missing NGADM piece! So because I asked to hear it at least, I feel that I have to leave something at least. Just opinions but take them as you will.

I love the piano part. It's so beautiful and emotional. I can't put into words what it's doing so I'll just leave it there. The guitar you have at first is perfect. The only problem is that you lose the reverb around 01:00. I know it's intentional, but to me it seems like it doesn't fill the track enough when you do that. Ooh, I like the reverse piano (I think that's what it is) at 01:35. It's a really nice touch.

The transition at 03:00-03:13 feels a little awkward to me. It's like 'Oh, were getting quieter now.' That is the extent of my complaints, which makes me feel bad, because I really like this piece. As always, I love the chill atmospheres you create and they're so full of depth. This piece is well done and quite solid. The mixing is done pretty well for the most part.

You are an inspiring artist/composer and I'll always try to keep an ear out for your music.
-Spadezer-

johnfn responds:

It's interesting that you call this the missing NGADM piece. In fact, if you compare this to my NGADM pieces you can see I did a lot of stuff ever so slightly differently because I wasn't worrying about appeasing any judges this time. Like, I never varied the chord progression or added new sections. I definitely would have done that for NGADM. Also I am of the opinion that the mix gets quite cluttered around the climaxes, but I didn't do anything about it because I personally liked the effect... hehe

You don't like that I lost the reverb at 1:00? Heh I thought that was pretty cool... Oh well.

On the other hand I agree about 3:00. I struggled with that for a while and eventually gave up...

Thanks for the review!