Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[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

[Sunset Highwave]

Yeah Synthwave!!!!!

It's done well too. Really enjoy the drums

EvilRaccoon responds:

Thanks Spadezer! :D

[Reveries]

Wow, I wasn't expecting the break going into the climax. It was well done. I'm a little concerned about the blending, the vocals do seem to be crowded a little bit, but I'm also listening on my speakers since I'm trying to multi task. But hey this is good

bassfiddlejones responds:

Thanks man!

[Seres]

It's so happy and open. The use of distortion, gating, and glitching is cool too.

Onefin responds:

dude i use that in literally one section

[Kids]

I love it. I will download it and sing along with it in my car.

McGorilla42 responds:

Hey, Spadezer. :) Glad you enjoyed it so much. I've disabled downloads but perhaps I should open those up if you want it. Otherwise, shoot me a PM and I'll email it to you :)

[Skye]

Came by to say that the mixing of the whole track is top notch. The percussion mixing in particular is superior. It's all so clean and powerful. If anything, the rhythm/backup guitars are a bit too quiet in my opinion, but this is some of the best metal mixing I've heard on this site.

JDawg00100 responds:

Thank you! I feel like I can always do better with my mixing, there's always that chase for the best tone and overall mix I can do :)