Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Velcro]

Aw Yeah!!!!

I like this a lot. It's like 90's video game synths with some funky jazz (unfortunately that's all I can think up for genres). That's besides the point though. I like what you're doing with this. It definitely highlights your abilities with composition and it's a bit farther than where you've come from. The mixing is quite solid too. I'd say with this piece you have a good fighting chance to continue on. I wouldn't say it's a solid chance, I'm not going to pick this apart like the judges will, but at least be proud of this piece. Not many people will be able to put something like this together on their own.

Keep life jazzy!
-Spadezer-

LunacyEcho responds:

Another year, another NGADM! Glad to see you again :D

=> 90's video game synths =>

Haha, figures you'd like that :P

=> + jazz =>

Thanks for the genre suggestion! That sounds about right.

=> mixing is quite solid =>

Yay! Mixing is something I haven't been *quite* up to par with in comparison to my competition.

=> a chance =>

Thanks! It means a lot to hear that from you. :D To be honest though, I think even saying that I have a good fighting chance is stretching it when you listen to my competition T.T I honestly wouldn't be surprised if JacobCadmus, JustinOfSuburbia, and Jabicho (am I encroaching upon the J group?) take the top three spots in any order. My personal goal is to beat a score of 7.5, since that's the score I got for my piece in the NGAUC. :P

=> Keep life jazzy! =>

You know it ;)

Thanks for dropping by and leaving a review! It's a shame you couldn't compete this year, I was looking forward to those new-wave game vibes :P But hey, now that you're here, why not stick around and enjoy the rest of the competition while you can? :D

[Pluto]

I won't say what others have said, but there is something they haven't said.

I've heard it another one of your songs Don't. Your mixing has room for improvement and some of your composition based thoughts could be better, but you have emotion. It's not something other Dubstep artists manage to slip into their music, and that's why I'm excited. Good mixing brings the house down, and good composition will wow the world on top of excellent mixing, but having emotion is where music hits home especially for people who can get over imperfect mixing (imperfect mixing, not bad mixing).

Keep composing, you'll get it.
-Spadezer-

Pandasticality responds:

thanks for the review Spadezer <3
- Pandasticality

[Racing the Sun]

This is good metal

As a stand-alone song I like it a lot. I've never played Race the Sun (Seen the insane videos though) and I tried to imagine this as an F-Zero song but it doesn't work since it changes up the feel of the song a little too much during the track. Not a bad thing though.

The drumming is solid. I love the guitar work, and I kinda wish there was some more NES sounds, like add them along with the melody.

The only problem with this song is that it's really good, but like the NES sounds, I feel like there might possibly been in some way/shape/form or smidgen of something that could have made it better. Maybe just a little bit of more detailed mixing or something with the composition, I don't know. But I like it.

Not too spectacular but 9/10 would listen 9 times straight.
-Spadezer-

thebitterroost responds:

Thanks man! Totally agree with the NES sounds, but I'm really new to it and didn't feel confident enough to really make it pronounced. I've only ever used something like the tweakbench Peach VST before, which just uses patches with pre-rendered sounds. This time I dabbled in one called NES VST, where you manually design the voices. Easier said than done, it turns out :P

[Tenebrarius]

I couldn't shake my mind out of the fact that I wasn't listening to the Piano Guy's next collaboration with Lindsey Stirling. I started to be able to at the end just because it's darker than their stuff, but it still says something that this is just about the same caliber is professional Youtube artists.

Good luck in the contest
-Spadezer-

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I love The Piano Guys! Same goes for Lindsey Stirling :)
Now that you mention it, I can hear the similarities.
Yeah, this track took a pretty dark turn. Though if you listen closely, you can hear many other things than pure darkness too, especially the sense of determination (I feel).
It's great to hear that you think the quality of our track is that high!

Thanks a lot for reviewing!

[Sidestep]

OH man! That Bass! Oh but the kick is amazing! Oh the Bass!

Seriously, your low frequency work is pretty spectacular. As for your composition this precisely a good drum and bass song IMO. There isn't much of a focused melody though, which is why I would classify as drum and bass. From what I can tell, that's the only thing I could think of that might hurt your song. That and the build at 03:10 is cliche but that is strictly my opinion.

But the mixing! I love the mixing. All of the bass work that you're doing is quite impressive and I have a hard time picking out if anything is out of place. This is well done.

I don't remember you making music like this.
-Spadezer-

AeronMusic responds:

Thank you very much!!
I know you don't remember, cause this is the first time I have made something like this. I like chaning styles a lot and will surely do that in future. I am really glad I got the mixing on point especially with the drums and the basses! I am really happy I got better headphones for mixing!
Drumstep is a mixture between drum n bass and dubstep. I classified this as dubstep because that was the closest genre I could choose from, in my opinion.

[Chip 'n' Swing]

Shoot. This is good.

I didn't know you could do this with chiptune instruments. You gave me chills listening to this especially at 01:15. During the whole song your chord work is amazing. It seems like you can make music theory bend at your will.

I tried making a review but I can't.

This is good AND IT'S ONLY THE FIRST ROUND!!!!!
D8

You've just gained another fan
-Spadezer-

Yahtzei responds:

This has to be one of my favourite positive reviews ever :D I have spent a lot of my life learning a lot of music theory, and I actually wrote most of this on my guitar, recorded it into my phone and then painstakingly transcribed into into my laptop. But at a certain point you've just gotta take the theory, screw it up and violently kick it off a building, preferably into moving traffic.

Thanks again, Spadezer :)

[Death Match]

So much better than Tim's mom (not that I would know. I've never met Tim's mom)

But seriously, this is much better. Really good guitar work and the singing is cool too. I like your voice. It's scratchy an a bit unrefined but it works really well. Keep it up.

Solid work. I like this.
-Spadezer-

Ceevro responds:

Well, the concept was a sort of story. It's told from the point of view of an older, gritty man with a personal grudge to settle with a cocky younger man who has no idea what the reality of the situation is. The major section in the bridge is there to show a few seconds of making his own peace with his possible demise before the violence sets in once again. The electric solos are meant to denote the actual fight, starting more chaotic and experimental, but pulling into more refined and precise flurries. The harmonic string-bends should denote screams caused by wounds, until the final high-Dm chord - the coup d'etat, finishing with one man silently walking away. Which one? Damned if I've decided! I'll leave that to the listener.

And I find it unrealistic to think that ANYONE doesn't know Tim's Mom, hahahaha!!!

[Codename: Michael J Fox (NGADM '15)]

This is cool.

I'd be careful with some of the repetition though. In terms of composition, you like to stay with one theme just a bit too far out of its welcome before you move on to a break. When the theme starts off at the beginning it's really cool, but the constant trilling can become a bit of a bother after hearing it about 30+ times (I apologize for being a bit harsh, but it's probably no wheres near the detail that the judges will be getting in). I love the break at 01:17-01:50. Not only is it refreshing but the atmosphere you're making is well done. 02:25 reminds me of something that I learned at NGADM last year. Volume dynamics is a beautiful thing. You don't want a song that's loud all of the time because listeners ears will feel tired towards the end of the song, but at the same time you don't want a song that's too quiet otherwise it will give the listeners a feeling of emptiness during the song. So I guess a rule of thumb is more dynamic contrast the better. Last point about composition. Do more with the ending, especially since you still have time before the deadline. The ending is too abrupt. All you need is maybe an ending chord to properly end the song. Like whatever chord you're in at 03:58. What you're doing is that you have a chord that's in the main key of the song at 03:58 (I don't know what it is but let's say that this song is in the key of D) and then it sounds like you go into the 5th chord at 04:02 (lets say A) which acts as a transition chord. The problem is that you stop there. You're not settling the song when it ends and it acts as a really bad cliff hanger. All you need is a guitar and synth thing striking the main chord again with a drum hit and that's all you need to make the ending a bit better.

Now for instruments and mastering. As larrynachos pointed out the mastering is good. The drums are also good. If anything they could be just a little louder. But the drumming really compliments the song and I never once thought that the drums were out of place. The kick is quite authoritative and overall the drums drive the song well. The guitar work is really good too. Especially at 02:25; I really love that part. The most brilliant part of this song I think (aside from 02:25) is the synth in this song. It just blends well with the guitars, and (just like I've said before) the mastering is done just right especially with the synth.

So to wrap it up really quick. Not bad. You could explore themes move and add a bit more variation with sections like 02:25, but fix the ending. Especially since you have time right now. Fix the ending. It doesn't need much. Do it.

Good work and good luck
-Spadezer-

JDawg00100 responds:

Yeah I'm probably going to get docked points for having a lot of repetition but that's just how I write. As for the ending it sounds really cheesy to me when I have the ending end on a note for some reason, I prefer it without one. I actually had a really drawn out sort of ending with different bpm changes and I also tried it simple but oh well, if that docks me points then I don't mind. Thanks for the detailed review though I will definitely use a lot of it in the future

[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!