Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Operation Fleshhunter]

Too hell-bent to be made from a human ;)
I didn't know I needed guitars with your style but it fits so well

LD-W responds:

I've found working with guitars (in both a lib sense, or plugging one straight into interface and just doing basic riff work) naturally much easier from a compositional sense, although it's more of a challenge design-wise to get a *really good* tone out of it and does require some pretty hefty, usually expensive processing chains to really get it how I want it to. Mostly because I grew up on a metal background and that's something I've been familiar with far longer than my interests in Industrial and Cinematic-type genres. A project like this is pretty easy for me in a more Gordon-ish DOOM sense (without trying to have it sounding like a copycat either), as alot of the effort is in design and mix before anything else!

It's not big news at the moment, but I am working on a Black Metal solo-project over the next year or so (something I've always wanted to do, and I'm now in the confident position to pull it off). I'll reveal more about it soon ;)

[Valley of Bones [AIM 2021]]

YES! Give me that metal!

\m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/

Collab when?

TSRBand responds:

Thanks for tuning in! \m/

[AIM - The Hero's End]

This gives me chills. The combination of the choir with the brass felt so warm and emotional. Easily one of my favorites in the contest this year.

Everratic responds:

Thank you for the nice comments and for ranking this song in your favorite submissions :D

I agree that this brass and choir combo is wonderful.

Personally, I find it difficult to enjoy the song now because I'm now aware of some major mistakes. I have a bad tendency to filter out my songs' strong points if there is anything I dislike.

[AIM - Stomach of The Beast]

For both submissions you have a really good sense for atmosphere. Delicious pieces to dive into. I with the 808 bass was more layered since it's a little dry on its own.

WakerLink responds:

glad you enjoyed the tracks, and yeah, the 808 bass could be a bit more interesting, still not very good at making synth 808 patches so this bass is a bit basic

[AIM - The Unmatched Power of The Sun]

Orchestral rock definitely fits the art and I really like where you started with this. Solid idea but needs some refinement. Easiest thing to fix, not that it's easy but doesn't require anything than your own ears, is the mix. I love drums and the percussion needs to by punchier. The drums have great tone and sound great, but because they're very short sounds you can get away with cranking up the volume of the percussion (although careful with cymbals, they're not as short). Could even throw a compressor on them to bring up the volume a little bit by controlling their peaks too. I'm not fond of the bass sound starting at 1:25 section. It sounds cheap in comparison to how you've got your other instruments and especially on its own. You could probably get away with it if you layered it with some other bass synths or if you wrote it so that it wasn't just static quarter notes and half notes. Most people would say "you need to buy better plugins man" which fancy sounding plugins will always help the sound sure, but you can also find ways to make you cheap plugins sound good. There's tutorials on youtube that you could probably find to help understand what sounds your plugins and VSTs best fit. It's getting an understanding of what makes your tools work best and where they're weak. To make an analogy, it's understanding how to use your hammer for nails and not your shovel. Sure you can use a shovel for nails, but it's better for other purposes.

Again I love what you've attempted with this. 0:33 has a great beginning idea you could use, but rhythmically outside of the melody there isn't much that's as interesting. The counter melody you brought in at 0:59 is something you could really develop in other instruments/phrases/or what have you. Like for example at 1:56, instead of just bringing in the lead guitar the way you did, I would have reintroduced the counter melody again with more subtle instruments and rephrased it in a different rhythm or something to make is sound different but the listener will still find it familiar.

Again really enjoyed it, and both the song and you have solid potential.

WakerLink responds:

holy crap that's a big one
yeah, the mix could be better here and there, still just learning how to properly mix metal/rock tracks because that's not my usual genre
about the bass at 1:25, the more I listen to it, the higher the desire to replace it with some sort of a reese bass increases, I fully agree with you on this one
however about the melody at 0:33, it was supposed to be just rhythmic flavor and that's it, but I do agree that I probably could have done some rearrangements of already existing melodies in the second part
anyway, thank you so much for such detailed feedback, appreciate it

[AIM 2021: Nobody & Stranger]

Oh this is cool. I would have not picked banjos and used them like this but they work so well. I think they're a little too much (either too loud or they ring out too much) but they still fit really well.

Bitbeak responds:

It's was a little experiment trying to get them to sit right in the mix, but I really loved how they ended up playing on the off beat. Thanks so much for the review, dood!

[To My Love]

Ah yeah this is nice. Lovely

AceMantra responds:

Hey! Thanks for dropping by!

[the otherworldly judge]

Really cool atmosphere and ambience. I'm guessing this is the phrygian scale being used here but it has a ominous feel but sounds really cool.

Troisnyx responds:

It is the Phrygian scale, yeah. ☺️ Glad you like it!

[Insomnolence]

Oh sick you're back! I dig this style pretty and like what I'm hearing. Bass is rich and there's a lot of textures in the synths

SkyeWint responds:

Sure am! I hope. Plan to upload more soonish!

I did actually upload two tracks today too, though the other is completely different. :)

[-Pirate Fox-]

Official '20 NGADM finals review

I'm surprised by the large amount of castle crashers vibe. I don't expect to think that's what you were going for, but it really had a sense of nostalgia for coming across that way. It has that lighthearted dance feel, and it has a great selection of sound choices used to create the full atmosphere. I definitely got the cartoony feel of a pirate like adventure, and there's some imagery of, again, a castle crashers style pirate level that I really would enjoy clubbing some baddies to. In terms of the writing though it did feel a little stagnant (also fade out lol really). Especially in the bassline. I liked the rhythm, but I would have liked to have seen a little more variation. I wonder how much I would have paid attention to the chord progression too if you'd focus on changing up the bass a little bit, but I also notice that the chord progression stays about the same (barring some key changes). As I pay attention to the melodies, there are tons of scotch snaps everywhere lol. The melodies themselves aren't good earworms since they move kinda fast, so instead of having a motiff or theme in the composition, there's more of an emphasis on keeping the feel similar with the style each melody has and what instruments are involved with it. 2:17 is a nice breakup with what you have going on here, which is great since it's a refreshing break, but I'm also dissapointed because I feel like you could have done more with that. Like I would have loved to have heard a melody developed in that section and drum breakdown before going back to the normal groove (by the way, the guitar gives me an Infected Mushroom feel there). Which on the topic of structure that also circles back to the bassline thing, the energy feels flat throughout the whole thing. It makes it come across with the sense of little progression. This is also maybe why the 2:17 feels extra special too.

What I think you did a lot better on though is the instruments and sounds you used. I question the drums a bit because they're surrounded by so many "real" instruments lol (aside from the VGM synths). The strings are super lighthearted and lush, there's a crazy cool amount of electronic stuff that really meshes with everything you got here, but the drums sound like older cheap dance drums lol. I don't hate them though, because I feel like they add to the nostalgia "Castle Crushers" feel like retro Newgrounds. I don't know if that's what you were going for, but for the benefit of the doubt, I'll run with that. However, I love picking out all the stuff you have in this. Like how you mesh the harpsichord with VGM sounds, the distorted guitar with the "squishy" bass, the marimba duetting the violins (or violas???), there's just a lot of cool details. Like the slammed drums at 3:37 is another cool detail I like, as well as the violin runs at 4:07. Just to listen to the sounds and details is an audible treat, and it's really fun to pick them out.

Yeah, really cool. I'm glad to see you here in the final rounds, and I liked what you have.

Preds responds:

Thank you so much for the constructive criticism!

That is exactly what I was aiming for, a cartoony, CC, inspiring, adventure-themed song! Glad that I could transmit it in the end.
Thank you for pointing out the VGM + Orchestral + Breakbeat mashup! Little details that most of the time are not noticed.

And yeah, I think my biggest weakness is still the basslines, and the chord progressions, I think I got used to do the same progressions as WF. I'll work on that!

Thank you again! <3