Onefin's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[K-931 - Don't Stop]

Are you kidding me? "I have shared this song on New grounds as I think it's a great song, and that it should be on here for others to listen." NO! NEWGROUNDS IS NOT A PLACE TO SHARE SONGS YOU LIKE. THIS IS NOT A DUMPING GROUND.

[The Island (You are getting old)]

R4R

This track sounds like C418! Do you know him? He composed the soundtrack for Minecraft!

That being said, the atmosphere is definitely what you did best here. The sounds you used work really well together to achieve a serene and arcane tone which pulsates throughout the entire piece. Fit for an EP outro!

Never watched that movie. Is it a... classic film?

Now, my biggest gripe with this song is how long everything lasts. The intro, before any real melodic content arrives, is over 1 minute. On really low volumes, you really can't hear much anything up until that point. It feels like a completely silent stretch. And after everything builds up all nicely, it kinda stays that way for a good 3 minutes or so. That's a long time for a song to sound pretty much the same. And then at the end, you have an insanely long tail. It's more than half a minute.

There's no real melody in this song. There's nothing I can hum if I want to remember how this track goes. A melody may not have worked with the atmosphere you attempted to create, but it's still pretty much all pads. Decreases the memorability, you know?

Overall, great job. It may be overly long and stretched out, but for what it's got, it's a good conclusion for your EP! 4 stars, rated 5/5

AnOrdinaryVision responds:

Thanks for your feedback!

BTW The Plague Dogs is an old and pretty rare animated movie. More than a classic film, is a "cult" one.

[NGADM'15: Higher]

Why'd you delete Limitless? :/

EliteFerrex responds:

Decided I didn't like it. Might remake it later as an 8-bit track.

[Breeze of Memories]

R4R

Liked:
- First impression: Intro was pretty nice
- Beginning atmosphere
- Soft dynamic (although loud sections could have been louder)
- Tasteful drums, both in sound and in dynamic
- Pad sound

Disliked:
- Claves: they don't really fit and are way too loud
- Lack of impact at 0:45
- SFX: They're really soft for the most part
- Melody: it's there, but it sounds a bit lazy
- Piano: You have nexus, you could have chosen something better

Overall: Your track is soft, which is a nice alternative to some loud stuff I've heard. You have very tasteful percussion and your pad fills up the sound nicely. I just wish the melodic content was more of a hooker and certain parts would have a bit more impact. 3.5, rated 4

5TanLey responds:

thx for your opinion.

[escalate]

Dude, this sounds really good! It sounds super original and awesome! I feel like you could have elaborated on some of the cooler sounds, like the upward moving arp at 3:14. Also the ending could have been less abrupt and more of a conclusive finish. Good work, though!

DjDragonfire responds:

Thanks so much and you are right that arp did need to be elaborated and the end was abrupt thanks for the feedback! ;]

[Singleton (Original Mix)]

R4R

Truly the best part about this is the atmosphere, so I'll start with that. The mysterious and somewhat creepy vibe this track gives is really nice! You've achieved that with an excellent use of reverb, subbass, and intriguing sounds. Paired along with an awesomely clear master? Yes.

Other great things include the percussion, your sound design (especially the bells at 2:34 and the soundscapes), and of course, mixing and mastering.

Now, my biggest critique: lack of cohesive melody. The guy below me said the same thing, and I'll repeat him. I feel like this track would have been really tied together with an awesome melody. There are plenty of places where I could see melodies fit, like the part at 0:57 and 5:20.

Other complaints include mediocre transitions (the percussion entrance and the transition at 3:36 were quite sudden), lack of chord structure variation, and the inconclusive ending.

Overall, this track has a solid ambient feel to it, and is overall pretty cool! A few minor details need some attention here and there, but I'd say I'm impressed! 4/5

MaxPoly responds:

I fully intend to focus on melody a little more for now on. I don't plan on coming back to this, but I'll definitely keep this in mind for future tracks.

I'm also getting better at transitions bit by bit, it's never been a strong suit of mine from the beginning. I've had significant trouble cobbling a song together with more than one section, let along a full 7-minute track. This was kind of a rare moment of productivity for me, and I'm trying to keep releasing finished stuff as momentum, if that makes sense.

Thanks for the review!

[crystal grove]

Did you know that by rating your own song a 5 right after you release it puts it on the brand spankin' new audio board and allows for at least three times more views and even a review, if you're lucky? :)

DjDragonfire responds:

No I didn't :) I was wondering how long it would take for this song to get rated thanks

[FireStorm]

Wow! For a Geometry Dasher, this is really really good! Usually songs made by Geometry Dashers lack an element of fullness and depth which makes their tracks really empty and uninteresting, but this was none of that! As a fellow dasher, I commend you!

Right off the bat, I could hear how big this track would be! That impact really sold it, and the solid punch brought by the kick works well solidifying that stance! All of your sounds help to produce a really big, deep sound that is rare to the works of Geometry Dashers.

However, this track does have it's issues that prevents me from rating it a full 4.5 stars. I'm going to talk about those a bit more in this review, because granted, you're doing a lot of good things, but it's the stuff that needs improvement that will help you.

Let's start with your transitions. First off, there's a transition at 0:41 where you attempt to release tension into a drop. You did well building tension, and the release is really cool, but the transition process connecting these two things isn't very effective. One thing that could have helped fix this is a longer sweep up. You used a really short sound, almost like a reversed crash. This kind of thing requires a full-on sweep up, spanning many measures, slowly shaping towards the release, y'know? Something else that would have helped is an impact sound before the drop. I feel like if you had a big snare or two a beat or two before the drop, it would have helped sell the release.

The transition out of the drop at 1:50 was really cool, though! Although in my opinion, I thought it would have been better without the space at 1:53, that sounds kinda unprofessional.

The transition at 2:20 needs some work, as well. This one is worse than the previous two, though, as there is almost nothing going into it. I feel like you could have used, say, a low pass filter going into the section and slowly brought it out in the section itself. This is followed by the section at 2:48, where the big layered synths come suddenly and out of nowhere.

But the buildup starting at 3:15 is really, really cool! It works really well, especially with the drum lick going into the release! If all your transitions were like this one, I would have little to complain about! One thing though, I do wish the drums in the break were louder. They're a bit underwhelming as they are.

And... that's all for transitions. :/ Keep in mind that all the transition stuff I'm mentioning is pretty minor, despite the wall of text being quite long. I just wanted to elaborate a bit.

The second big thing about this track is the tuning. There are many sections where the different riffs played by the synths don't tonically align. This first big instance of this is the fast arpeggio at 2:23, which is actually really, really cool, despite the fact that it sounds off-key. The problem becomes even worse when the big synths enter at 2:48. The big leads agree with the fast arp, but not with the background riff that has played since the very beginning. It's a bit jarring. This problem is also present in the final drop, the ending, and even between sections, where the part at 1:54 doesn't match the stuff directly before and after it. I'd check that out.

The last thing I will criticize is the ending. I feel like you would have been better off without that last impact. You could have just let those last notes from that synth just delay away.

Overall, this is really, really cool track! Your sounds are big and your track has depth. You have a good sense of instrumentation and you know how to make a good dubstep drop! Just work on your transition and fix up some tuning stuff, and you'll be amazing! :D 5/5, 8/10, keep up the good work!

[Overpowered]

R4R

Yeses:
- Fullness of sound. You've achieved a great amount of depth that I don't see often in R4R.
- Beginning. What happens in the beginning is really cool and original!
- Synths. A lot of your synths are really awesome!
- Beginning drums. The bongos and snaps and stuff sound really nice!
- Melody. This is more of a "meh", but at least they were there and kind of okay.
- Atmosphere. It's not really "epic" or "overpowered", but it certainly is energizing and robotic!

Nos:
- Repetition. The same chord progression is repeated throughout without any change, and certain parts repeat exactly as they were before. Overall, not enough variation to keep things interesting for a long time.
- Drop drums. I hear some defaults in there. Don't use them.
- Uneventful transitions. This is something I have to work on, too, so I won't judge you too hard on it. Overall you could spice things up by adding in some more interesting transition sounds.
- Fadeout ending. I'm not one of them, but a lot of people will go insane when someone uses fadeout endings. Just a word of advice.
- 16 plays. Wow.

Musiken responds:

Probably the most useful review I've had on my works. Thank you very much!

I totally understand what you mean too. Repetition is certainly an aspect I've tried to change. I tend to choose chords and stick to them. For the fadeout, I understand the hate. I usually avoid it but I just couldn't find a way to end it, it never worked out even after hours of work. Lesson learnt though.
As for the views, I'm already on a few other sites which makes the low views on here not that bothering. As long as I get constructive reviews, I'm a happy man!

Thanks again :)

[Spaghetti On The Side]

Hm? Is Newgrounds no longer counting Geometry Dash downloads towards the download count? Because that download number should be really, really high by now. :/ Hm.