Spadezer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Last Light]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
I've really enjoyed every work you've made this contest, and this one is no exception. One thing I love about this contest is when people take risks like singing for the first time. You did a great with the lyrics. In terms of composition, the only thing I don't really like about the voice is that a lot of phrases you fall at the end of them instead of ending the notes. Otherwise this song felt very powerful. You created a large space that felt very inspiring and it actually supported your voice pretty well.

Production and Sound Design:
The drums were great. Especially right at 3:00. The strings maybe felt like they were a little too far in the background, but the vocal was very nice and centered where it needed to be. As for the vocals, your voice works great. Good singing voice and I think it paid off well. However, for this style you need to open up the palate to make it sound like more of an open and supported voice for this. Otherwise you could hold a tune pretty well and don't really need vibrato to avoid it sounding like it's strained. I'm not sure if I like the delay that was on it, but it felt pretty decently processed. However, past this point I think it would be best to get feedback from Jacob. He's a lot more knowledgeable about vocals than I am. Aside from that, for the most part it sounds like a finished product. Maybe a little tweaking to make it sound fantastic, but even at this point nothing stops me from enjoying this a lot.

Structure:
Yeah! I really like how it progressed. Great use of energy dynamics. 2:07 is a really great moment, and the way it drops to build back up again is a really good transition. Man was I jamming out with you at 3:16. Really cool moments. It maybe felt like it was a little repetitive near the end, but it's only maybe ever so slightly; even to the point that I think it might be based on taste.

Emotion / Conclusion:
Really cool work. Like I've said I've really enjoyed each one you've made, and the risk you took in this one I think will really pay off.

Composition: 9

Production: 8

Sound Design: 9

Structure: 9

Emotion: 9.5

CloakedSoup responds:

Thank you! The vocals definitely could have used more work; I'm used to singing with a classical kind of sound, and I've never done any kind of 'popular' singing before, so this was definitely an experiment for me. Maybe a different approach would be useful if I have more time to try out different kinds of sound for each section, but for now, it is what it is. I've been thinking of writing something that was more suited to the 'classical' kind of style of singing to show what I'm used to actually doing too.

[Wolfhome]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
Holy crap that humanization. I felt like my heart was getting ripped out of my chest for the first 2 minutes. I don't know what instrument / synth you're using but it hurts so good lol. Your composition creates a lot of imagery too. Just to use an analogy, it felt like a deep and mystic take on something like the lost woods from Zelda OOT. The song never felt too empty anywhere, and everything was carefully placed to add to the main theme.

Production and Sound Design:
This definitely sounds like a finished product. I can easily hear this in a video game or soundtrack setting. The only complaint is that at times the lead instrument feels like a little bit too much, but some of that might be taste, so it's not a big complaint. One small issue I do have is at 2:58, there's too much reverb going on and the mid-low area is getting muddy with what I believe is some brass showing up there. Pretty good otherwise.

Structure:
Simply great. Very coherent main theme, and easy to get caught up in. And then once it started picking up around the 1:40 with the driving synths in the back, it never felt trying too dull. And it kept growing too. I really like how you built the climax for the 3:00 area. You also did a great job with the outro too.

Emotion / Conclusion:
This is the most emotional this piece this round by a long shot. You really captured a lot of feeling and told a intensely heart-moving story through it. Beautiful work

Composition: 9

Production: 9

Sound Design: 9.5

Structure: 9.5

Emotion: 10

Baumarius responds:

Thank's for the review! I'm very glad that you were able to enjoy it! I had unfortunately succumbed to ear fatigue while finishing up the song, and couldn't hear the issues that remained or even tell if the song was any good at that point. I'll definitely work more on the expression and mixing of the duduk (the flute) after the competition is over, as well as the issues with the reverb and brass. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to record the duduk live for this too, if I manage to place third!

[Time To Recoup]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
I enjoy dnb a bit, and this fits the bill pretty well. You developed the main theme in ways that always made it feel fresh throughout the whole song, and never felt that it was repeated too much (which some dnb artists have issues with for my tastes). Looking back at the title of the song it really fit that description too. I can feel what you were putting into the song, and made a nice narrative, which is also kinda neat since dnb is mostly based on a groove instead of telling a narrative. Props for that. The only issue I really had is that I really wanted the 1:58 section to sound more full and well rounded similar to like what happened in 2:20 ish. I tell you what though. The more I repeated this song the more I loved it.

Production and Sound Design:
Very clean work. Everything you picked balanced well with every other element you had, and there's some decent details you added in, like the panning in the chords at 1:17, the plucked synths in the sides around 1:37, it all sounded professional and polished. Especially the drums. My only complaint is that maybe it's a little too dry in spots. This is also a nice work of combining electric and organic elements like the square(?) wave with drums and strings in the back. Pretty neat.

Structure:
Great work especially in how you built it. Like I said in the composition, it's really cool that you were able to tell more of a narrative with a dnb song instead of finding a good groove and developing it. With the title I can really feel the emotions you were adding into the writing, and I really felt it at the outro. In spite of the fact that it's a fade out, the fade out actually works well with what you're doing. I usually see fade outs as lazy writing or a cop-out (see my last NGUAC song), but this was a well intentioned use that fit. I could also put your song on repeat and enjoy it just as much each time BTW.

Emotion / Conclusion:
Well done. It had me hooked in the intro and carried through the song on a groovy chill ride that I never got tired of repeating.

Composition: 9

Production: 9

Sound Design: 8.5

Structure: 9.5

Emotion: 9

vocaloutburst responds:

As always, thanks so much for your reviews!!! That's super interesting that you took the title of the track and used that as a way to interpret the piece, I really love that!! Happy to hear you enjoyed it and REALLY happy to hear that the production sounded professional and polished, I really wanted to try to improve upon that throughout the contest!!!

[Staying with You]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
This piece felt intricate and masterful in terms of your playing and compositional ability. Listening to the song I could imagine a type of triumphant and joyful scene from a musical. It feels grand and celebratory mostly. The runs are well played and it feels also like a modern style of piano music.

Production and Sound Design:
I don’t have much to say about this. It's a solo piano, and it's sounded the same as your other piano pieces.

Structure:
Good use of energy dynamics. I also like the contrast of styles especially in the first 2 minutes. The first 40 seconds are really technical and even, and well contrasted by the swung and polyrhythmic section that followed. Then what you have as the most contrasting section of the whole piece between 1:00 and 2:11, which has a lot of emotion backed into it. Afterwards though I didn't feel like there was as much contrast or energy dynamics.

Emotion / Conclusion:
After listening to it a few times, what I kept feeling was that the song felt a little more on being technical than it is emotional. At the end of the song, what I take away from it was some well played runs more so than a theme I could latch on to. I still enjoyed it, and I could still pick out parts here and there that felt really genuine. You still did well on conveying the intended emotion, but it may have been lost a little bit

Composition: 9.5

Production: 8.5

Sound Design: 9

Structure: 8.5

Emotion: 8

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you for the review!

I tried to put together everything I've learned from composing for this year's NGADM in this piece, without forcing anything of course. I'm glad that the 'triumphant' sound came through. I often write melancholic pieces. This time, I wanted to challenge myself to write something mostly positive. Perhaps this is why you felt it was less emotional overall, since it plays on very different emotions. For me, personally, I'm quite happy with the atmosphere.
The intro was a little bit inspired by some of the techniques used in Liszt's "La Campanella".

As for the production, I actually spent many hours trying to get the right sound for this piece. I used a piano I don't think I've used previously this year, and was a bit obsessed with getting the sound like I wanted it. I'm afraid that maybe I overproduced it a little bit though! I'll have to think about how to best achieve a good sound for solo piano pieces.

You're right in that I wanted to contrast some of the faster sections of the composition, with the slower parts after the one minute mark. I feel that it's the parts like that one that really 'make' the piece, since they provide a well needed break from everything that's going on. I tried to do something similar at 2:57 and a few other later points, but maybe I should've taken a slightly longer rest in those parts.

While I agree that there are many technical elements of the song, personally I feel like that was in an attempt to portray emotions and an atmosphere that I couldn't otherwise get across. But I understand how it can also feel like a bit much, and that maybe more focus should be put on clearer melodies. I like trying out different approaches though :)

Thank you for listening, and for diligently judging throughout the competition!

[Flow]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
Personally between you and LSD this round, you guys have had the more emotional writing. Compositionally this piece was really solid. Everything you did with how you controlled the main theme, and every other detail you added, really helped sell the atmosphere to the song. On top of that it did not feel like a cliché trailer piece IMO.

Production and Sound Design:
The balancing could be a little better I think, and particularly at the climax. It didn't feel solid and well rounded (and I think I notice some over compression happening too). And the earlier sections feel like they're too quiet. However, the sounds you picked and how you designed the reverse notes was really good. The first minute was purely delicious.

Structure:
I really liked the "flow" of the song. There's a really good contrast between the energy you at the beginning, and then the climax really opens up and becomes huge. Really adds to the dynamics of the song and I thoroughly enjoyed it

Emotion / Conclusion:
Good work, I look forward to hearing more from you.

Composition: 9.5

Production: 8

Sound Design: 9

Structure: 9.5

Emotion: 9

CloakedSoup responds:

Hey thanks for the review! :D This is another on of my entries that was kind of rushed out, so I'm definitely going to go back to rewrite/re-mix a bunch of stuff. Thanks for all the great advice though!

[Fulcrum]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
This does a really good job bringing on the right funk vibes. Everything just jives really well, and I really appreciate how you utilized the organ too. I like that you went for a big band approach, and I think it worked towards what you wanted to do. It wasn't necessarily apparent that the big band feel was there, but I like what you did

Production and Sound Design:
The mix didn't feel too solid. There were some aspects that you got right, like how you added in the organ, and I like whatever the lead is, but it's overall a bit too quiet. Also, like what SplatterDash mentioned, the Brass sounds like it's in a different space than what the rest of the instruments are in.

Structure:
Like I mentioned earlier in the composition, it was a little unclear the direction you were kinda going, but what felt the weakest is that it was a similar energy dynamic throughout the whole song. However, it didn't keep me from enjoying the song a bit so it wasn't too bad.

Emotion / Conclusion:
I have a heart for funk style and jazz in general and I think you pulled it off pretty well. It felt as if there was some left to be desired, but I enjoyed it a bit

Composition: 9

Production: 8

Sound Design: 9

Structure: 8

Emotion: 8

vocaloutburst responds:

Again big thanks for these reviews!! I definitely felt like the mixing for this track wasn't what I wanted it to be at all. This track was honestly a great lesson in time management, I focused too much of my time on a few aspects of the song that ultimately didn't pay off and sacrificed time to create a good mix in the process. Happy to hear you still enjoyed it, definitely will touch this up in the future!

[Escaping Limbo]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
I'm not sure what needs to be said about this. There is no doubt the theme you were trying to create with this. I could probably guess what the topic was about without knowing of the description or the title. It's something that I could definitely place as your type of song, but it still felt fresh. All the work you've done with the main theme\motif is always present in each phrase, and so much of it worked towards bringing across the emotions you needed in the song.

Production and Sound Design:
The reversed notes are fantastic. It's also not just that you had reverse notes to make it unsettled, but you did a great job of blending them within the melody. To the point, even, that sometimes you can't tell when the actual notes end and the reverse notes took over the melody. I wouldn't have expected you to use sound fx in your music, but it also largely added to the imagery of the piece, and I never felt that it was a cheap attempt either.

Structure:
I bit of a longer one, but it was worth it. It was 8 minutes but it felt like 4. I really enjoyed how each section had a different variation of the same phrase, and each time it was well accepted.

Emotion / Conclusion:
Holy biscuits batman. This was probably one of the more emotional ones that you have made IMO. I welcomed it in, and left away with more than what I wanted.

Composition: 10

Production: 9

Sound Design: 9.5

Structure: 10

Emotion: 10

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you for the review, and sorry for the late response!

It's nice to see that you feel like I was able to communicate the theme through this piece. You're probably right that there are some elements in this composition that are somewhat characteristic of my style. Even so, when I was composing, it also felt very different from anything I had made before. I suppose that is a good balance! I'm glad to hear that the recurrence of the different mofits is appreciated. In my opinion, the structure of this piece is really well thought out, as I had to justify the length by having every second and minute make sense as a part of the whole piece.

Seems like most people liked the reversed notes, which is good. It was fun to see that I wasn't the only person to make use of them during this round in particular. I used two different methods for reversing the notes; one simpler, one much more intricate. For the simpler version, I layered NIs Una Corda on top of the main piano, and played around with the "reverse" knob. For the more complicated version, I used an algorithm in Cubase to reverse the entire finished MIDI, exported the audio, imported it, and reversed the audio, and then moved it a little bit earlier than the actual piano sound, to create a kind of wave motion. Naturally, I didn't have this running the whole time; only where it fit the composition and the theme.

As for sound fx, it is something I don't often make use of indeed. But I felt it necessary and additive for this piece in particular. I'm glad you feel similarly!

Finally, I'm once again glad that the length wasn't an issue, and that the emotions were able to shine through. Thank you for the thorough review, and for the generous score!!

[endK - Funkadunk]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
You had me with your funky writing style. I can't get enough of the quick bouncy pianos, interjecting organs in just the right spots, tasteful brass, fast bass, and tons of other stuff. It captures a very energetic atmoshpere, but there's such masterful craft in using so many different instruments only having simultaneously short moments but working towards a cohesive melody. Not many people, particularly in this contest, can pull of seemingly chaotic writing in such a pleasing manner.

Production and Sound Design:
In order for this style to really hit home you needed a strong mix and capitalize on blending well, and this is no exception. This sounds just like a professional product that I could here in places like streaming services or, better yet, I keep seeing images of a couple childhood games flashing in the front of my mind when this plays. The only thing that I might think about changing is that maybe it sounds a little dry overall, but it honestly adds to the character of the song in a positive way so I'm not sure in the end.

Structure:
I was bouncing the whole time. It was well cohesive and never really felt interrupted, but they energy dynamic was a little shallow in my prospective. I wouldn't say that I was ever bored of the song, but I feel like it didn't really explore the concept to it's fullest potential. There only really felt like two major themes, and the only time you really explored it differently was a short section at 1:30. Again, I enjoyed it a lot, but this aspect probably would have made it feel more special throughout the whole song.

Emotion / Conclusion:
Superb. I loved it. Super bouncy, super fun, and very well done.

Composition: 10

Production: 9

Sound Design: 10

Structure: 8

Emotion: 9

endKmusic responds:

I'm really glad that you liked it that much!
Thanks for all the nice words.
Since I tend to use huge load of reverb in my songs in general, with this one I wanted to try quite the opposite so it could sound somewhat firm. Would've been a totally different song if it wasn't like that.
Thanks once more Spadezer!

[Plümmet]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
Beautiful piano work at the beginning and instantly sets the tone for the piece. There's a lot of really intricate accents and annotations happening with everything at the beginning and sounds super delicious. I love the experimentation you guys did, because it really makes this stand out and sounds fresh. This still sounds familiarly like a 1f1n1ty song, but it's not a repeat. Like for example, using the chord at 1:09. Totally unexpected and didn't need to use it again, but then you go into 1:20 just throwing chords around and changing up the structure a lot to make it feel really floaty and unguided, but in a good way.

Production and Sound Design:
Everything felt a true presence with a gentle but firm impression. The piano and strings at the beginning set a good tone for how this whole song feels. Warm, and inviting, but everything felt really solid and defined into where they needed to be. And then you brought in some bells and synths to make it feel really bright and light. Even the bass supports the bottom in a somewhat lighthearted but solid foundation. I really like which percussion you chose. To be nitpicky, I only wish that the kick in the 2:12 section had a little more defined top end.

Structure:
Again, I can't get enough of that intro. It makes me jealous of wanting to be able to produce something like that. It brings in so much emotion. There's great use of motifs happening in the background everywhere, but I most enjoyed how the middle section of the song is a reversed / rewind progression of the beginning that flows so well. I did have a small issue with 2:50 to about 3:20. By itself it's a fine section, but in the context of what it's surrounding it I wish it had carried more energy. Maybe taking a few synths or sounds up an octave would get it right. It still compliments the song, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't feel super huge and climatic, but that could also be my tendencies to why I like super huge melodic dubstep songs which is a little different compared to this.

Emotion / Conclusion:
I want to collab with you guys, so that possibly some of this rubs off on me

Composition: 10

Production: 9

Sound Design: 9

Structure: 9

Emotion: 9

stardew responds:

nice!!! immensely helpful, tysm ( :

[Affliction]

This is an official NGADM '19 Review

Composition:
The riffs are nice and heavy, and you get nice grooves going that really gets my head banging. I wasn't anything super complex, which is ok, but I felt like for a NGADM contest setting you could have tried a little more (I am keeping in mind though that this sounds like a recording and the guitar work is super clean). I also kinda say that because it feels like it's left open areas where vocals could work, which gives it this sense of that there's more potential you could have tapped into, but ended up feeling a little reserved. I really like 2:22 - 2:58 though. Nice contrast with the rest of the song.

Production and Sound Design:
I'm really liking how this sounds. You have the right sound for this, but I think there's some cleaning up you could do. The kick is nice and thumpy, but the whole drumset I wish had a little more punch in the mix. The guitars are cool and remind me a little bit of Amon Amarth, but I think some of the low frequencies might be fighting with the bass a little. The balancing is pretty decent though, and I can imagine this as a finished product and really something I would be proud of showing to friends. I just don't think it's something I would expect to hear on the radio.

Structure:
You have a good strong intro that sets a nice tone for the song, and you really keep to using that beginning motif periodically through the song, and I like how it progresses. What you're trying out with different ideas makes it flow really nice and I think you pulled them off really well

Emotion / Conclusion:
I like metal and this is really solid. I think there could be a little work left to make it pop, but I still think you should be proud of this.

Composition: 7

Production: 8

Sound Design: 8

Structure: 9

Emotion: 8

JDawg00100 responds:

Thank you for the detailed review! I appreciate the kind words and critiques. The funny thing about this years NGADM is I wasn't planning on joining. But I haven't been making music anymore at all. Signing up was a way to force myself to get back into it, and I even bought ggd drums so I was pretty much starting all the way over. So I'm pretty proud of myself, even though I feel like I still have a ways to go. :)