Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

[Gold]

Oh boy! Another song from you.

Trap is definitely not my style though, so take what I say with a grain of salt ... or whatever. Getting some of the nitpicky stuff out of the way, it sounds like the track is so loud it clips at sections like 00:58 and 01:26 to point out a couple. The section starting at 01:50 is too open IMO. It's also during this section that makes it obvious that it sound like there's an accidental note at 02:03. I hear it other times but I'm assuming that it's the same pattern of strings that played before hand. The melody is ok, but in my opinion again it doesn't flow well. It seems to go...stop...go and it's like trying to get a hyper 5-year-old to sit still during a documentary about bees (I don't know but you get what I mean right?).

The mixing is pretty sweet, except the brass. They sound like they should be louder, but the mixing otherwise sounds pretty sweet. All of the reverb you're using and the delays play out really nice. You do some nice stereo work which is something I'm really starting to appreciate/learn.

So in other words, a little work is needed and it's not my taste. BUT it's still good. I can't wait to hear your next stuff. I want more songs from you to download.
-Spadezer-

Pandasticality responds:

theres a ton of flaws in it, its my first trap song so ton of mistakes are to be made, thank you for your review.

- Pandasticality

[I Want To Save A Princess]

I had no clue what to expect when I saw the title. Not even 30 seconds in I'm like "...Sweet!"

Pretty original and everything is so clean. With a fun theme and cleverly mixed instruments and synths, I was rockin' out to this tune the whole time through. I could almost imagine vocals going into this too.

5/5, and downloaded.
-Spadezer-

Mattashi responds:

Wow thanks Spadezer! I'm happy you enjoyed it and were rocking out xD
If you have any hidden singing talents feel free to add some vocals! :P

[Jazzimprov]

It ran out of piano memory after 8 minutes! I'm sorry I won't be able to listen to all of this. (LSD is fine for a nickname is it?)

But for jazz, usually the blues scale in any scale is a safe bet. You can make a lot of cool pieces in that scale, and what you have is fine from what I can tell. Especially since improve is the soul of jazz in my opinion. Jazz band was the best class in high school.

There's a good amount of emotion that shines through when you do this, and don't worry too much about how bad you are at this. First of all, you did this in one take. If I did this in one take it wouldn't sound as good as this. Secondly, especially with a solo instrument, the emotion makes half of the piece, and you've got that.

Just a few quick thoughts for ya. I enjoyed it.
-Spadezer-

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hahha, no , it was not the minutes of this piece itself that caused it XD
I already had about half an hour or so stored, and some of them using several intruments...
Don't worry about not listening to all of it; it's very samey the entire way through :3
LSD is a fine nickname indeed ;)

Yeah, I ran with the blues scale precicely for that reason :p
I've always liked improvising, although I was horrible at it when I first started. I'm still not very good, but I guess I'm slowly improving :)

I think that the one thing I've always had and invested into my piano paying is emotion, which I agree is one of the most improtant things.

Thanks Spadezer!

[Heartsteps]

There's not much more that I can say aside from what LSD has said already. Just to be nitpicky, I would've tweaked the melody synth at 00:55 in my opinion. But your production quality has improved. Be proud of that.

Now that LSD has mentioned it, your style shares some similarities with Johnfn. I love what you're doing.

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

LunacyEcho responds:

=> tweaked the melody synth =>

DARN IT! I spent so long working on the sound of that synth. I guess that the majority of the time, the reverb on the synth was too high, so I tried making it sound less reverb-y. It sounded good to me, but I guess it could've been brighter. Also, it probably should've been in a higher octave. Well, live and learn. :D

=> johnfn =>

Oh, wow. johnfn is one of my favorite musicians on Newgrounds, if not THE favorite, so I probably absorbed some of his musical ideas when I was listening to his pieces. Yikes.

Incidentally, this song was heavily influenced by a johnfn song - http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/563874

Thanks for the review!

[Impulse]

I've been finding that throughout the contest, you've made the best homework study music in my library now. You make beautiful themes and the amount of detail you put into your songs give it a lot of depth and this one is no exception.

You stick with a main theme and you give it some cool variations. There's a point or so you turn into some dubstep stuff which gives the main theme a nice break. The melody is a bit simple and I think you could have used a better synth, but that's just my opinion. You still manage to make it work with what you're doing throughout the track. The quiet section 02:39-03:56 is where I like the theme you have best. I hear some orchestral drumming in there too. Not something I'm used to hearing from you. I like it.

There's my two cents. And I can't wait to see how you pull the next round off.
-Spadezer-

garlagan responds:

thank you Spadezer!

[Borghild]

Just a quick review:

I feel like it's too empty IMO. The atmosphere you create in here is quite calm. I like how you utilize the flute throughout the piece. The composition is simple but leaves something to be desired. Overall, it's not a bad listen but nothing really jumped out at me to grab my attention (probably not the intent of ambient pieces but I'd imagine that ambient pieces can still make you want to listen). Again, just opinions.

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

ScottJacob responds:

I can see where your coming from i think, though it was always my intention to keep this a calm and restrained piece. Just a nice ride out into the country lol. I don't think this is necessarily an ambient song or not, i just thought it would fit best in there instead of dance or dubstep haha.

Thanks man, i appreciate the opinions