Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Event Horizon]

NGADM 2024 audition review per request

This song does have a fun style of high energy that I'm on board with, but there were a few issues that stood out to me that I think could have used some improvement. Firstly is that the instruments and synths you use come across as feeling cheap, and I think most of that is to do with that they feel dry. There isn't much processing, so the instruments don't feel like they're working in the same atmosphere, especially the synths that you start out with in the intro. I also recognize those Sytrus presets at 1:28 (that I've shamelessly used in my old songs like 10 years ago), and I can tell that you didn't touch those effects
outside of those initial presets. I think Sytrus is a fine and dandy synth to use, but a lot of their presets have too much reverb and delay IMO. Another issue for me was your synths and sound choices, which for me falls into the instrumentation category. The fast moving synth you have going crazy at 0:50 isn't up for the task that you're trying to put it through. You've got one that's trying to slide between notes in a legato fashion that really needs to have a more defined start and end. Otherwise, which you have in this example, the notes sound undefined in a similar fashion that a drunk slurs their speech. I also think that the kick you're using doesn't really work for this song either. For the type of style you're using, although the second one you're using in the 1:54 section works better. You'd want a kick that has a more defined initial hit (or transient) that can cut through the mix, especially when you're working in more high energy songs. My advice, look for sample packs that give you some good quality percussion sounds. Cymatics has packs of stuff that you can download for free that I'd highly recommend getting as a good start. Otherwise, if you're willing to give out some money, a service like Splice is good because you can get access to a lot of stuff with a simple search, and it really doesn't cost that much to use. And if you don't want to use it, you can pause your service pretty easily.

As for your writing, it is a fun piece and has some eurodance vibes that reminds me of watching Initial D. As Everratic mentioned below, the song doesn't feel like it connects with itself too well. You've got a lot of fun ideas, but the trick to making good music is trying to either tell a story through music or by exploring ideas in as many different ways as you can. This I've drawn inspiration from this rather old video that I'd recommend taking a listen to https://youtu.be/r9LCwI5iErE. Not much for me to say outside of that.

My biggest advice for you though is to listen to other music and study those songs. Find good music that you like and listen to how it works. Try to get an idea of what it is about that music that you like and what makes it sound good. How is that artist using the instruments they have in connection to the rest of the music. How are they using effects. How are they structuring their song. Look up youtube videos. I'm still constantly watching tutorials because maybe there's some tricks or extra knowledge I can pick up. Always be learning. Or if you find an artist that you like has a video going into how they made a song, that can be a great opportunity to see what they're doing and pick up some more tricks along the way. Rob Scallon is pretty sweet, and is very entertaining. If you haven't checked out any of Andrew Huang's tutorials, I'd highly recommend giving those a watch. Lots of good knowledge there. Especially with his 4 producers 1 sample series.

You do have good potential. There's a lot of fun ideas in this song. With some refinement, I think you could get to making pretty good music.

-edit- that video I linked wasn't the video I was looking for. Still a good listen, but this one is much closer to what I was thinking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5SkqX8vo2s

[Chirped]

I really like the harmonies that you got going on. Really funky rhythms happening too. Unfortunately I'm not well versed in jazz like this so some of what I say may be out of ignorance. It's obvious through this song that you have a mastery over harmonies and chord structure beyond what I could easily replicate, and it's to the point that some of the melodies feel like wrong notes, base feeling almost disjointed, and the song almost feels like it doesn't know what key it's in. However, taking into account the title of the song and how you've utilized the square/sine synth you use, I can see how this song could emulate the style or sounds of birds. Hopefully that statement isn't too on the nose because I don't think it was that readily apparent.

Taking in the whole song, it doesn't feel like it drives to any particular point for me. It does have a sense of flow and movement, but it's hard for me to give a solid definition of what sections are which outside of are there more or less instruments lol. But, the vibe is great. It's carefree and light, and I'm a sucker for the smooth jazz / coffee house style. Stuff like the Rhodes and the simple lead synth that accompanies the piano fits perfectly. I do get a sense that the sound samples of the synths you've used are a little basic, particularly in the piano, and the super dry cowbell lol, which removes it from feeling like a live recording. I don't mind it though because there's a really good display of humanization going on, and the "cheap" sounds give it some character in this example, but they do contrast the quality of the percussion. There's only a couple spots were the snare sounds a little off, like at 2:01 with the repeated 16th note crescendo, which makes me more impressed with how varied and authentic the snare sounds as a whole.

A couple notes on the mastering and mixing. The balance is really good, so that's not an issue. A non-issue for me is that you have some room left in the master volume (which would simply make it more consistent with other songs on NG). In general the instruments tend to feel a little dry (except the Rhodes). For me personally, I think the bass could have benefited from having a little more of a defined attack. Just something with a few more harmonics at the start of the note to help define its presence better.

All in all, a very well made song. Really the only issues I could have with this song would be in respect to my possible misunderstandings of what's going on in terms of composition and flow and some minor production stylistic choices. Solid effort. It took me a few times to study what was going on, but it was a good ride.

[~Time~]

Initial thoughts, I like the vocals. Some of the composition feels kinda plain though. Especially for a trance song, it would really benefit from more automation and flow. There's a lot of reverb which makes the mix feel messy. Some automation and ebbs and flow would make it feel less repetitive before the break. Fade out?! Tsk tsk. For shame.

Some main takeaways, the writing suffers from feeling repetitive. There's definitely a repeated two measure tune that you've got going through most of the song, but it would have benefited from some development and change ups. Maybe changing the rhythm more, flipping it backwards, or just simply playing around with it to make it more interesting during the song. Or even having counter melodies that work along with it to make it feel more special. I also want to repeat the idea of using automation. It's got a nice poppy, bouncy, happy early 2000's dance sound, and I would agree that trance is close for this style. Especially if you're making something that's close to trance, automate anything you can think of lol. Automating filters does a really good job of making things flow well without even needing to change up much stuff. Changing up the waveforms of individual synths adds a lot of flavor and spice to a sound too that you can automate. At the minimum, automating some gains/or volumes would help bring elements in or out smoothly.

Another thing is that some stuff and sounds feel like they're really dry while other things are marinating in reverb. I think the stuff you have in the background has too much reverb, like the piano and the plucky synth thing (probably the bells you mentioned). Contrastingly, the lead synth that you have repeating the melody the vocals use could benefit from having *a little* reverb to help it sound like it's in a big room, but you only want to use a little because it does need to sound close since it's your main lead.

Looking at the other judges' comments, I agree with their take on the bass and controlling your high frequencies, so I don't need to say much more about that. I do like your style, but it could benefit from refinement. This has some good Eiffel 65 Blue vibes and eurodance feel that I would personally be down for in the right context.

Some song recommendations I would give for you to study, take a listen to Let Me Go by Denis Kenzo or, my personal favorite, Oceanlab Satellite from Above and Beyond (the original Oceanlab one works too). But I'd recommend paying attention to how the bring sounds and gently transition, and also pay attention to how they're using their voices / melodies. Now these are full blown trance songs so they're focus is more about the groove compared to something like I'm Blue (da ba dee da ba dai), but it should still give a picture or idea on how once could focus on the flow of a song.

[Urge 2 Dance (Around U Mix)]

interesting.

[Illusion]

I seriously dig this. There's a lot of solid work that went into this, but especially for a psytrance song it's a bit too dry. The bass sounds really good, albeit a little tiring on the ears, but it really could do with some filter and slight reverb automation. It also feels a little too shallow too, so it probably could do with some beefing up in the low frequency area, and the higher frequencies of the base could be more stereo to help it feel wider. There was a lot of details in the background that really added some nice atmosphere to the mix, and I was soaking it up since this really grooves well. It's a solid piece that grooves well, but feels a little stagnant.

burningmagma responds:

Thanks, I'll make my next song more full. :)

[Why Do They Build The Walls Like That?]

What I need is some good rock/metal in the NGADM, and I think I got it

Mischa-head responds:

Thank you! More coming soon :D

[Ryzmik - "Digital Obsession"]

This has some really solid MDK vibes. If you clean up the mix so the basses aren't overpowering the mix, I probably would have you confused with them. Solid sound design

Ryzmik responds:

I didn't know this sounds like MDK, I had only listen his music in Geometry Dash. Thank you for the comparison!

[3manon X Yastik - Echoes of The Mountains]

NGADM 2024 Audition review:

I liked the general tone of what you've got here. It's an interesting fusion of a cinematic feel into a drum and bass style. The intro sets up the tone pretty well for what you're going to go into, and then the drums come in and take it and put it into a frenzy. I do have some issues with the production quality. While things are generally well balanced, once the DnB part takes off, the mix starts feeling muddy in the bass/sub area. It sounds to me like you have some unchecked reverb that clutters the mix up, and it sounds like it's in the cello/bass area. I first notice this type of issue with the bass drum that comes in at 0:43. Which, btw, that drums specifically sounds like you can't hear the attack/transient, but it trails off for a long time which will battle with the low end voicing. I also don't like how overpowered the kick is at the 3:00 area. I don't think the kick is a bad choice, but it distorts the whole mix every time it comes in, and looking at your waveforms makes me think you've got it slamming into your master compressors/limiters. To contrast, some nice things I notice. The stereo spacing of the instruments is nice, especially where it's quiet. The drums in the main breaks that come in I think might be a tad overpowering, but their presence is fitting.

I really like your melodies. There's good use of harmony outside of the main breaks. The reprise of the intro at 1:58 is touching, so great marks on that. The cinematic percussion does a good job of influencing the energy dynamics between the different sections. The only issue I have with the writing, that becomes apparent with the breaks, is that the melody is ditched for the high energy spots, and on top of that, the writing is a little repetitive in a way that feels uninspired. The main breaks are just some arpeggiating violin, with a nice (and honestly epic) chord progression underneath, and madd drumming. If there was focus on having a melody/theme/motif underneath the main breaks, it could have had some more driving force to carry through the whole song and help the listener latch on to something without feeling ambiguous. Otherwise, it feels like nice orchestral stuff broken up by Animal on the drums.

Overall, I think this is decent. It fits the drum and bass vibe pretty well, and still feels like its own and fresh piece. It has a decent flow throughout the whole song

3manonMusic responds:

You're absolutely right. It's true that I left some melodic variation behind to make room for the high energy drums in the drop, that was made by Yastik. I did that so the drums had more place to shine and the focus wouldn't be shifted. In terms of motif; I felt like the violin arpeggio was my main one, but I also realize that arpeggio's don't really work as motifs. And yea those mixing issues definitely need some work. Thanks for the feedback!

[AIM 2024 - The Spirit Fisher]

oh yeah, this is the good stuff. I was not expecting it to sound so clean at 0:50. Very ethereal and light, and I kinda wish I sounded like this. Very pretty

GameBoyFireworks responds:

Thank you so much!! Means a lot coming from you!