Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[TeslaX - Dark Deity's Sorcery]

This is an Official NGADM '18 Round 2 Review

Beginning Comments: Congratulations on making it to round 2

Production / Mixing: I was imagining what the mix was like based on the waveforms I was seeing and they didn't lie. It was definitely loud, but intriguingly I don't think it felt too crowded. I could here all the details you were adding into the mix and nothing felt buried. The quieter sections were handled well too. This sounds quite finished and professional. I think maybe the main growls/wub wubs in your longer second drop could have been taking down just a decibel or two, but still sounds pretty good regardless.

Composition / Structure: Such a deeply dark intro. Given the name of this song you stuck with that theme and developed it well. It's a pretty neat style that you have here and you didn't sacrifice the surrounding audio or music around those growls. This has nice little details that you've added in places and never has a stagnant chord progression.

Sound Design: So, obviously this is where it shines, and I'd wager you're using serum to use this because the growls and bass elements you're using in the second drop or so deep, rich, and metallic. Very unique sounds that make me wish I could recreate those somehow. Those sounds make me imagine a sci-fi style of Harry Potter that's set 100 years or so in the future, and everyone throwing around lights and fireballs around like some lethal light show.

Ending Comments: Pretty enjoyable ride. I had to listen to it a few times to appreciate it the most, but you showed a lot of skill and talent with this piece.

Score:

Production - 1.9

Composition - 2

Structure - 2

Sound Design - 2

Replay - 1.5

Total - 9.4

*Disclaimer - please disregard this copy and pasted note of a remnant disclaimer

TeslaX11 responds:

yup, 95% of basses in 2nd half of drop are made in serum and razor. Thanks for the review!

[Darkness and Light]

This is an Official NGADM '18 Round 2 Review

Beginning Comments: Congratulations on making it to round 2

Production / Mixing: All I can hear is the elven singer. You're piano playing has mystical abilities too, don't hide them too much like that. The piano would have benefited by some reverb or something to not sound so dry though.

Composition / Structure: Yeah the darkness and light line is pretty neat. The contrast is nice in terms of the subject of the lyrics and the style you have to compliment it. The subject being dark and ominous is reflected in the music behind it, but there's still a feeling of hope The lyric writing is actually pretty cool, I would like to hear more from you like this. It's so poetic, and it's not immature either.

Sound Design: The piano sounds a little tinny. For this type of contest being this far into it, I personally would have liked to have heard something a little different or more refined, but I'm assuming it's what you had to work with since this sounds like a live recording.

Ending Comments: Wow that man can sing low. Fantastic writing from you that I enjoyed listening too. The piano quality I wish was better but that doesn't impede my enjoyment.

Score:

Production - 1.75

Composition - 2

Structure - 2

Sound Design - 1.75

Replay - 2

Total - 9.5

*Disclaimer - I have headphones that cancel out the magical properties of elven singing to help make sure you don't get an advantage through hypnosis.

P.S. I will gladly lend my voice to any of your songs. I've wanted to sing a lot more vocals but I suck at lyrics.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

This is an Official NGADM '18 Round 2 Response ;)

Thanks for the congrats!

Yeah, I've had the opportunity to listen to the track on a few different kinds of speakers since I made it, so I've been able to tell that the vocals are a bit louder than they'd need to be, especially at a few parts. Now that the judging is over, I can rework the mix a bit when I get the time :3
The piano has plenty of reverb, but the vocals probably have more, which might make the balance sound a bit out of place?

I'm glad to see you liked my lyrics well enough! I actually have one unreleased song (not recorded) that I think is even better, both lyric- and structurewise. I've been trying to write more lyrics lately, and think of how to arrange around singing. It's quite fun! Now if only I could learn to sing half as well as Jordi too...

The piano isn't a live recording in the sense that I used a microphone, but it is recorded in one go on my electronic piano, after which I pasted the MIDI on a track with a piano VST (and ofc, edited the dynamics/velocities to fit the piano in question). I have my sights on a better piano VST that I want to buy at some point during the year :D
The piano VST I want requires 200GB of free disc space though, so I'll have to buy an external SSD first xD

Jordi can sing low indeed! I've known this for some time, so I intentionally wrote the last verse in a low octave, so the track could highlight that. It also sounds very emotional and pure like that, imo. Personally, since the range of the voice in this track is so wide I can't even properly sing it myself :3

Thank you for the review! I don't write too many song with lyrics, but if I do write something fitting for a different voice than Jordi's and mine, I'll let you know!

[Invincible]

This is an Official NGUAC '18 Knockout Round Review

Beginning Comments: It has a really bubbly intro and set s a nice tone. A little quiet but it's nice.

Production / Mixing: Most things here are balanced well. The overall volume is a little too quiet, but it sounded like a finished product.

Composition / Structure: There wasn't much to it. The bubbly synths you have going on at first were pretty nice. The bass gives it a nice happy feel, and there's a soothing choir synth going on in the back. You introduced the happy melody as it was going over the regular structure, but the song felt flat. There was very little development of chord progressions or meshing ideas involving the melodies you used. I would have enjoyed hearing the guitars that you introduced a bit sooner. You do, however, do a good job in keeping with the theme you have when you do develop it. Whatever you've added or introduced does a good job of keeping with a similar style.

Sound Design: Most everything had a quirky and happy style to it. I would have changed probably a couple of properties of a couple things, like the first lead synth maybe felt a little too sharp, and the piano at 4:11 felt too dry. Other than that they all worked pretty well.

Ending Comments: Not a bad piece. A bit too repetitive, but the theme was pleasant.

Score:

Production - 0.5

Composition - 0.5

Structure - 0.5

Sound Design - 0.75

Replay - 0.5

Total - 5.25

*Disclaimer - to make judging consistent with other judges, individual category scores are multiplied by 2 to make a total possible 10 points.

ZaneLittle responds:

I appreciate the feedback!

[The Last Defense - Jessie Yun [NGUAC]]

This is an Official NGUAC '18 Knockout Round Review

Beginning Comments: This is a high energy intro and yet subtle intro. Without even seeing the description at first, I could tell this has a similar flair to Hans Zimmer work for something like MW2 stuff, but with a fresh different flavor. *Looks at the description again* Yeah I could see this being done in 5 hours….. Wait, on an Iphone? I didn't know you could get garage band to sound like this

Production / Mixing: Very clean. The percussion is very crisp and the instruments blend well. There's a very good management in keeping reverb in check and still sounding open, except at 1:25 ish. That area I felt was a little too crowded and sounds like it was maxing out a limiter a bit. Aside from that this feels much like a finished product.

Composition / Structure: It's a great concept on having a lot of quiet energy and it crescendos into a good climax. The theme you've developed matured nicely, but it felt cut off a little short. Like it was missing an outro. There's the driving base that carries the song forward, the use of orchestral instruments and vocals to add emotion to the piece, and the digital elements used bring in some good contrast, while the percussion capitalizes the energy a lot.

Sound Design: You picked the right voices to enhance the feel of the song. There were a couple of synths I liked that you added in too. They blended well together and created a good atmosphere.

Ending Comments: I wish it was longer, but this sounded pretty good with what you have. The overall song was crafted well and worked pretty decently.

Score:

Production - 1

Composition - 1

Structure - 0.5

Sound Design - 1

Replay - 0.5

Total - 8

*Disclaimer - to make judging consistent with other judges, individual category scores are multiplied by 2 to make a total possible 10 points.

JessieYun responds:

Thanks a lot for the constructive review. I'll try to improve the things you mentioned in the future.

[Summer Night]

This is an Official NGUAC '18 Knockout Round Review

Beginning Comments: There was a lot of different directions you were hinting to got to at the beginning I thought. It took a while to get going, but once you did I could get a nice relaxed and jazzy vibe out of this.

Production / Mixing: It's very clean. The Rhodes I felt were a slightly too forward but the rest of the mix was good. Well balanced and easy to listen to. Considering the style, having it be easy to take in is a necessity.

Composition / Structure: The intro went a little longer than I would have liked, but there was a healthy variety of voices used to set the stage. The song as a whole felt a bit free form. Not saying it lacked structure, but the theme had a tendency to morph and float as it progressed. I was a tad dissapointed at the end too, because I could have seen this developing a lot more.

Sound Design: The variety of instruments used at the beginning was a bit to take in, but it was pleasant. I didn't feel overwhelmed, and I like how they developed towards the main groove starting at 1:09. I really enjoyed what you were doing after that point. The only complaint I have is I thought the beginning piano was recorded. With everything else sounding so real and crisp, I'm surprised by the quality of the initial piano. It doesn't sound like it's in the same type of environment or with the same microphone.

Ending Comments: I enjoyed this. Not a bad piece, but I would have liked to have seen a little more development.

Score:

Production - 0.5

Composition - 1

Structure - 0.5

Sound Design - 1

Replay - 0.75

Total - 7.5

*Disclaimer - to make judging consistent with other judges, individual category scores are multiplied by 2 to make a total possible 10 points.

EdKempeper responds:

Hello !
Thank you for this constructive review.
Yeah, I recorded the piano and I tried to work on the sound, but it was really hard (it sounded very "distant"). It doesn't fit really well with the other parts of the track. Same thing for the guitars.
I'd like to mix it on Cubase, but it doesn't work anymore on my new computer.... Not eassy to mix on FL ! :p
And the structure of the track is not clear, especially the last part wher the drums stop...
Anyway, it was an experimental track, i should have posted something I master instead of it.
Thanks again for your review !
Ed

[Until Then]

This is an Official NGUAC '18 Knockout Round Review:

Beginning Comments: Aww yeah. Bringing in the good lofi stuff. Hard to pull off correctly, but this is a pretty decent listen. A nice short song.

Production / Mixing: You had the right lofi feel going on, but my ears felt tired towards the end. The balancing was fine I think, but between a low frequency heavy piano and slightly piercing trumpet solo, it wasn't as pleasant as what this type of song should have been. The organ was spot on though.

Composition / Structure: You've got the right chord structure, you've got a blues scale going on, and you've got the relaxed and slightly swung feel. All of the right ingredients to make a good lofi/jazz song. Nothing offensively busy going on with either the chord structures or the melody which is good. It was easy to bob my head to. The structure felt adequate for the style, it was a little short so you couldn't have developed it as much as I think you could have gone with this. For example, you could have dropped out a few instruments to take the energy down a little bit, similar to what you did with the outro, to rebuild the main theme again with possibly a little different flair.

Sound Design: Not fond of the beginning piano. It sounds too filtered and hot in the low frequencies. In spite of that, the way you handled the instruments did not detract from the feel of the song. No I couldn't have thought of any other instruments to get the feel you wanted from this, but you handled well. They had the right dynamics and humanization to them (using most of this is MIDI). Also, I love organs.

Ending Comments: Not bad. Sounded a little rough, but I enjoyed it.

Score:

Production - 0.25

Composition - 1

Structure - 0.5

Sound Design - 1

Replay - 0.5

Total - 6.5

*Disclaimer - to make judging consistent with other judges, individual category scores are multiplied by 2 to make a total possible 10 points.

acxle responds:

thank you! glad you liked the organs :) will try to keep a more natural-sounding piano next time!

[Palace of Tales and Memories]

This is an Official NGUAC '18 Knockout Round Review:

Beginning Comments: I get the feeling of a rock ballad song. It was pretty open and had a hopeful feel to it. Not something I would have expected for a Newgrounds contest so it was refreshing.

Production / Mixing: For the most part I think it was good. The beginning was pretty good, I think the drums were a little too quiet for the mix, but the only part I would want to complain is that the synths that came in at 2:14 seemed to have a bit too much reverb I felt. Or at least combined with the guitar which I get the feeling also had some reverb, compounded a little with itself and made the overall mix feel crowded. Aside from that, the production was pretty decent.

Composition / Structure: The intro chords were captivating, and had a good impression for the style you were going for. After that it I could start to get a good feel for the ballad you were going for. It reminded me a little bit of top gun in a way. It wasn't "Danger Zone" but would I would have imagined replacing "Take my Breath Away" if I were to change it (lulz). Anyway, the composition doesn't have much going for it. A little slow which made it easier to put in the background and concentrate on something else. The progression of the structure wasn't bad, I liked the continuous rising throughout the whole song and it climaxed at a nice crescendo. I think it may have developed a little too slowly, but I do like how you've managed the energy through it for the most part. I didn't realize at first but the pads are a nice touch. They're subtle but add some good fullness to the song.

Sound Design: The beginning guitars sounded great. Almost live recording. The percussion when it came in I wasn't as impressed but I wasn't distracted by them once the song built some more energy. I wasn't sure about the synths that you brought in, but I feel like there was a lot of reverb to slightly mask what they were. Again, the guitars sounded great.

Ending Comments: Not bad. A bold choice to make a song of this style I think for a NGUAC entry, but decently executed.

Score:

Production - 0.5

Composition - 0.5

Structure - 1

Sound Design - 1

Replay - 0.5

Total - 7

*Disclaimer - to make judging consistent with other judges, individual category scores are multiplied by 2 to make a total possible 10 points.

350teric responds:

Thanks for the review man! Reminded you of “Top Gun” (hahaha omg). I guess it has that 80’s production undertone, with all the reverbs going on. Fun fact, one can say the guitars are live recorded, with no software and post production, directly recorded out of an amp with overdrive, delay and reverb effects. :)

[Jewel Box]

This is an official NGADM '18 Round 1 Review

Beginning comments: Hey cool, a music box song. The execution was interesting but the idea was unique for this contest setting.

Production and Mixing: It sounds like someone held the microphone really close to the box. It was a little hard to listen to with the higher frequencies as piercing as they were. It would have been nice to maybe filter out some of the higher frequencies down a little bit, and then maybe throw on a compressor or so to make the overall mix sound more polished and less dry. Not too much to comment aside from that.

Composition and Structure: I like the concept. It's bold to simply stick to one instrument like this for this contest, but I'm not sure if you should have gone with a music box, assuming the instrument was your inspiration. Regardless, you have a good composition made for a music box. It's peaceful in a way that fits the nostalgia of a music box. The chord structure and the rolls into the lead notes do a good job. Only real issue was that I felt like some of the sections felt a bit too similar feeling like the song dragged a little bit around the 1:00. Maybe I would have liked to have seen a little more development of the theme to keep some of my interest.... Speaking of dragging, missed opportunity to slow the tempo down as it was getting towards the end of the song in true music box fashion.

Sound Design: Well you picked a music box… not much to say other than that. A bold choice, but I enjoyed it.

Ending Comments: I think the song was handled well. It would have benefitted with a little more care for some mastering or production, but not a bad attempt in of itself. Music boxes I feel like are usually synonymous with nostalgia or innocence themes and you have a composition that helps reflect that. Sounds deceivingly simple and not something I would have expected in this contest, but I like the product you have.

Score:

Total - 6.5
Production - 1
Sound Design - 1.5
Composition - 1.5
Structure - 1
Replay - 1.5

SourJovis responds:

Thank you for the review you did one year ago. From your comments I've learned the most. Too bad you didn't like this song that much, but by explaining very thoroughly what you liked and didn't like, I was able to improve a lot on this song as well as finally finishing the multi instrumental version of this song I intended to submit to the NGADM18 instead of this one.

In the author comments under the edits you can see what I've changed exactly.

I changed the chords and structure a bit. What I took from your advice was increasing the tempo changes a bit more. Also I repeated the beginning at the end, but slowed it down to get that "true music box fashion" ending you suggested.

Production wise, you said it sounded like it was recorded from too close by and the high frequencies were to piercing. I fixed this by using different, less piercing samples. I've filtered out some of the higher frequencies with an equalizer, note per note, so the higher notes are filtered a little bit more drastically filtered. I've added/increased a few nice impulse response reverbs to make it sound like it was recorded further away so the sound is softened a bit. Also I made it stereo, which makes it sound a lot more interesting. There already was compression, but I did a little more of it. I didn't want to use too much of it, because I wanted to still make it sound like an actual music box, but it was enough to make the sound a bit fuller.

You may want to check out the multi instrumental version I finished after a year time. Like you said, this song works well for a music box, yet the other other version I created sounds very different and also works well.

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/872860

[The Elvenking’s Prayer]

This is an official NGADM '18 Round 1 Review:

This review is going to be quite different compared to my other reviews. Mostly because if I were to do it in that fashion, I wouldn't have found anything to critique on to correctly (take that as a compliment). I don't know if I could have said much other than the production is on point, the composition and structure fits not only your intent, but the lore of this as well, and you have an interesting sound design to use for this (more on that as later), and I could listen to this over and over without getting tired of your voice. So I'm going to need to revert to other methods.

So know I see that this song is formulated with Lord of the Rings lore. Fortunately I am a LOTR enthusiast, meaning while I'm not an expert in this subject by any means, I have had my fair share of homework to look into as I read through the trilogy and the Silmarillion for a LOTR class I took in college. Unfortunately I didn't pay that much attention to Thranduil as much as you did so I had to do a small bit of research…. Which I think you've outdone me on that too…

So now after watching a few LOTR scenes and songs, I've come back to listen to yours and the thing that sticks out the most is your choice of music. I bring this up because I know Tolkien was very keen on what music was like in his world. Similarly with the languages he used to portray different regions (for example middle earthen language was more harsh and violent while elven was more romantically Latin sounding). With all that being said I find it very interesting that you used what sounded like middle eastern elements used to portray Mirkwood sourced music.

After some other research I found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Depf1gKhBno
Now this song is not from Mirkwood, but it's still elvish and I would argue that the styles should be similar enough to know that while they would be different regions, they should still have the same elvish feel (btw, especially to bystanders reading this review, that's a really cool song).

Now depending on what part of you're song I listen to I feel like it could go both ways. You start off with a droning cello which I think is excellent. The root note also gives it a good Celtic drone as well which fits within the Tolkien universe. The vocal inflections and trills are perfect, but the key you use is what I question along with some of the instrument choices. The key your using I'm sounds like I'm guessing is a harmonic minor (again, based on some Youtube research, you're really stretching me with this one). In itself a great key for describing the mood you're trying to convey, but it misses getting the right feel of it being a Mirkwood elven song in my opinion (refer to previously linked video). I think this probably would have had a better effect if you picked more of a natural minor which I'm assuming that linked song is in.

As a smaller second point, the heavily reverb background instruments you have as a type of response to the lyric's call sounds middle eastern in a sense. Not the Irish strings or flutes I would expect for this type of song, but this is more of a continuation I feel of the previous paragraph.

So all of that to say I only really found one issue I could have with your song and it's that it doesn't have the right LOTR feel in certain spots, but I had to show you how much effort it took me to get to that conclusion and why I thought that. Aside from that, beautiful song and well made. I definitely appreciate hearing LOTR artwork since there's such a big rabbit hole to travel you could dive into, and I appreciate it so much.

Ending comments: It really sounds like the verse starting at 1:11 was really hard to sing. I thoroughly enjoy LOTR lore based music and this is a good example I think.

Score:

Total - 9.25
Production - 2
Sound Design - 1.5
Composition - 1.75
Structure - 2
Replay - 2

etherealwinds responds:

Hey hey!
Sorry for taking so long to respond to this - I meant to respond sooner but as I mentioned, I was travelling when I read it and intended to respond to it later. Meeting LSD was quite the distraction!

Thank you for putting the effort into reviewing my track so thoroughly and it's especially nice that you're familiar with the source of inspiration in so much depth! :) I'm happy you liked the technical musicality of the piece so much.

Yikes, I remember trying to read the Silmarillion and I really struggled with it. When I was writing the lyrics, luckily the Sindarin speaker that helped me with the translation also had a lot more knowledge of the lore than I did myself. In that sense, it comes in handy being a purist; something I can't really define myself as on any level!

In terms of how I went about deciding to compose in the way that I did, I didn't really think too much about referencing it back to the films' soundtracks and the specific locations. For me, I decided to focus on the mood of the piece; the darkness and the desperation, yet also the hope. I wanted to incorporate a sort of call and response to ignite a sense of interaction between Thranduil, the elves of Mirkwood and Legolas; I also wanted to carry that call and response element not only in the vocals but also in the instrumental to cut through the drone. I myself don't tend to think Irish strings or flutes when drawing on the darkness of the lore, but I would say that comes down to personal interpretation. I suppose it also depends on how you mix and compose those parts! I just felt the deep weaving performance of the stringed instrument really brought out the mysteriousness and darkness that perfectly conveyed the tone of the piece for me. It was really interesting to read your different interpretation as well! I'm happy someone managed to really get into the depths of the piece.

Once again, I'm sorry it took so long to get to this review and I hope it doesn't put you off putting as much effort into any future reviews - I really appreciated this one and I'll endeavour to respond promptly in the future! Have a wonderful day :)

[stardust [NGADM Round 1]]

This is an Official NGADM '18 Round 1 Review:

Beginning Comments: A very unique song. It was like a melodic dance trance song. It was happy but not overbearingly so. A very intriguing style I don't hear very much of.

Production and Mixing: I was a little removed with the first gated chords. The gate was fine, but I felt it was almost so much that I couldn't hear the chords. It was to the point that the kick was almost overpowering while piercing the silence they were leaving behind. Other than that, the mix felt very clean (the best being example at 1:15). You added some nice details like the panned snare at 1:37 I thought was a really nice touch, and I really loved the ambience you threw in at 1:05. That in particular was a really nice touch.

Composition and Structure: I never got the sense of a melody but I hardly felt it was needed. There is some sort of melody here and there but it's so minor I'd call it a bit ambient. On the other hand there was so much percussion and dance style synths going on that I couldn't really call it that. It was really well pulled off. The only thing I would think about complaining about is the outro. I like the feel, but it's just a contrast of mood / theme compared to the rest of the track that I felt it wasn't needed. Kind of through me off too because it felt like you had another direction this song was going to go to, but then it went off the rails and ended in a sense. Aside from that, I liked the transitions and enjoyed the ride you were leading.

Sound Design: I really enjoyed what you used. Nothing felt out of place and everything you used created a unique flavor to add to the overall end product. The only thing I would question is the snare particularly at 1:47. It sounds fine everywhere else, but it's big, and a little dull and tinny compared to what I felt should have been used at that section.

Ending Comments: I had no problem putting this on repeat as I was writing the review. I think you were able to pull of something very original and unique, and did a decent job putting in elements to help develop the song.

Score:

Total - 8
Production - 1.5
Sound Design - 1.5
Composition - 2
Structure - 1.5
Replay - 1.5

N1NJA-Official responds:

Thanks! I appreciate the review.