Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[so metal]

I really like the beginning of this. Not something you would expect to come from a metal song. I could tell where it was going though, and it had me really excited. And then when the metal finally entered at 00:59, I had a hard time hearing the main guitar lead. The backup guitar seemed a little to overpowering, and the drums didn't feel like they were punchy enough. One suggestion I have that could help: maybe take the lead guitar up an octave when it's playing the main theme (like at 01:00). I bet it will make it a lot easier to pick out once everything starts playing at once.

I like what you're doing at 03:04. It's a really cool blend of what the beginning theme was, and what your metal was doing. I feel like it started entering the rock ballad genre at this part, which isn't bad.

It also feels like when you were trying to play the main theme at the 01:00 section, it also sounded a little empty. The only thing I can think of is that if you quiet down the back up guitar and have it play a little longer it might help. But I'm not an expert in the metal genre, I just occasionally listen to metal.

I like where it's going, but it needs a little work.
-Spadezer-

lantaren responds:

yep, everyting you're saying would probably help, actually. I'm no expert on the metal genre (though I listen to a lot of it) and I'm certainly not the best when it comes to production, but I'm glad that you liked it. The hard part is trying to get everything that I want into the song, without altering the sounds of the instruments to work together better (as that would lose even more depth, I feel) and just trying to control it (especially my sloppy playing). Definitely one of my favorite projects so far, but it does need a lot of work.

[Lurkin' in the Jungle]

Nifty
The only thing I can say about drumming is make it emphasize the piece, not simply to give it rhythm. The percussion work in here is fun to listen to so you're not having a problem in this track. When I'm making my tracks, I've started to make each percussion pattern unique so at the end I'm getting about 8-10 different percussion patterns, and it's not even including sound effects. But each one is different in some way to make the piece a little more fresh. I try to take special care in making the kicks and the snare hits kind of accent notes and rythyms with my synths instead of laying down a steady beat.

All-in-all, it's jammin'.
-Spadezer-

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks!
Those are some good tips that I'll make sure to remember and think about. I haven't really done many pieces with percussion at all, so I'm totally new to it. I know absolutely nothing of drums and the theory behind playing them in general, so I can only listen and experiment :p (I know next to nothing of mixing either, which is a problem as well).
I know I should make several different drum patterns to keep a song interesting though. I'll make sure to use this once I have time to make a longer piece (which regrettably will take a while) :D

[Spectral Cosmos]

I like it. It's pretty simple and has some cool moments behind it. Usually I find that if it's electronic and it's composition heavy I don't think people mind too much if it goes in the video game genre. I do that at least and no one has said anything. It still does give a bit of a 90's feel, but you still make it your unique style. I can see this stuff being used for some Luigi's Mansion stuff.

Starting with the mixing first. It's not bad, but it does seem held back at times. Especially at 00:49. The chorus synths could stick out a bit more. However, you still make sure that what is telling the theme the most is heard. I like the transitioning arpeggios.

The composition is where you still shine, and I like that. It really helps to have both mixing and composition, but I find in my opinion a piece that's mixed really well but is lacking in composition is fun for a bit but isn't as entertaining as something that doesn't have the best mixing but is really fun to listen to. But like I said, it helps to have both nailed down. Otherwise it's like cold pizza that's three days old. Not as good as when it's fresh.

Back to your composition though, I like what I hear. It's like a dark cartoon (or like Luigi's Mansion as I've said earlier). It doesn't quite stick out as something that makes me want to download it and listen to it while I'm doing homework though *sad face*, but you're on your way. You use the simple chord changes quite effectively, and then you break it up a bit to keep it fresh at 00:49. The build up at 01:27 is a nice touch.

It could use work, but I wouldn't touch it (doesn't make sense but oh well). It's nifty and I look forward to seeing more of your work. While the synths you're using sound vintage, your style isn't.
-Spadezer-

LunacyEcho responds:

Hi!

=> video game genre =>

I guess so. I'll probably do that from now on, seeing as 'video game' entices more people than 'miscellaneous'.

=> Luigi's Mansion =>

Really? Sweet!

=> mixing held back =>

That's pretty interesting. In retrospect, I think what I should've done there is bring out the chordal synth, lower the velocities of the snares, and add a limiter to the master track. Well, it's a bit too late now, isn't it? :P

=> composition + production =>

I think Step once said that those are the two pillars of music. Different people can enjoy different aspects without having much of the other, but everyone can enjoy a song that has both. Your cold pizza simile is great! :D

=> simple chord changes =>

Who ever thought that Cm-Bm-Em would ever work? Not me, that's for sure. But it does! Somehow. I'm not well-versed enough in music theory to explain that. :P

=> buildup at 1:27 =>

Thanks! That's one of my favorite parts of the song, even though it's a really simple and overdone transition.

=> "While the synths you're using sound vintage, your style isn't." =>

I think that's a pretty great way to describe lots of my music. :)

Thanks a ton for the big review! I'll keep all that in mind.