Onefin's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pluto]

Although the beginning had a bit too much saw for me, and the snare hit at 01:58 felt a little anticlimactic, that was an AWESOME drop! Your melodies are great, although I wish they were a little louder. Also why is the end of the track 20 seconds of silence?

Pandasticality responds:

the 20 seconds of silence is something i will take out after the NGADM Judge as given his/her review, theres really no reason for it to be there.

thanks for the review !
- Pandasticality

[Running Free]

What less would I expect from JacobCadmus? Time to talk about how epic this is...

I have a really hard time expressing the epicness of cinematic tracks like this because I just don't have the words to do it. Especially the sounds.

Lemme start with the atmosphere. I have not seen any "cyberpunk anime", so I can't get those vibes, but the atmosphere you created in this track is absolutely excellent. It's consistent throughout the entire track as you build to the climax and break down to, well, the breakdown, and head back up again.

Instrumentation. The instruments you chose for each part are perfect. You have a good sense as to what instrument should go where. However, I felt the choir could have been voiced better, but that's pretty small in comparison to the rest of the orchestral and non-orchestral sounds.

Progression. Very well done. Although I kind of wished there was a bit more volume difference between the second build and the second climax, you've done a great job swelling things up and breaking things down.

Your composition is really good! The melody is solid and sounds great, and all the background crud (really? the best term I can come up with is "background crud"?) that support it do their jobs really well!

Small complaint, I wish your kick was a little bit louder. But at least I could hear it.

I have to say, you've pulled another amazing track! I wouldn't expect any less from you. Great job, and good luck! :D

Jakey-San responds:

Thank you! I took your review into account, as well as feedback from the vi-control forum, and I've made changes to the track since then. =)

[Oak - Mobius (NGADM'15)]

WOW it loops perfectly!

I really like your melodies here! They're really cool and they don't sound like the same thing over and over again, as they do in a lot of other tracks. And your sounds are pretty cool, too! You did a good job for two weeks.

Now for my complaints. The line "Yeah my love is infinite!" feels really off-key. It doesn't fit, in my opinion. Also overall I think the vocals could have been louder. They seemed a little bit buried into the track, but I'm not blaming you much for that as my mixing skills aren't really any better.

Also you spelled "definitely" wrong in the description.

Overall solid loop! Although I vehemently dislike most lyrical songs, I can't really count this as a lyrical song. A little generic but overall good work, and good luck! :D

Oakwood responds:

Now that you mention it, it indeed sounds really off-key. Strange... I'll edit that later. Thanks for the heads-up!
The vocals were the hardest thing to process in this track, so yeah, they might be a bit soft. Can't help it. :s

Thanks for the review!

[Level 01]

You didn't use a dynamic link XD that's okay, I don't know how to do it either!

Man, that awesomeness at 0:20 hit hard! Although admittedly it could have been harder, it's definitely a lot better than what I could have pulled off, so I'm not complaining.

One thing I didn't like: that weird, high synth introduced at 01:17. I don't know what to call that. But I kinda feel like it doesn't fit the context of the rest of the track. Y'know? But your other sounds

Also at 02:33 you decide to raise the key signature a bit (raise the key signature? i dunno what to call it), and while it sounds really cool (a tried and true tactic), it was a bit sudden and unexpected.

But overall good work! I've never heard of you but I'll be sure to remember that username for the future... good luck! :D

1f1n1ty

JohnMontoya responds:

I appreciate the input! It's quite unfortunate I cannot use my full potential because I had to give up my $1,500 computer to my brother because his broke down. I'm doing my best trying to rework it and what-not but I keep having issues where FL crashes and it truly frustrates me. I'll admit it - I submitted this as is just in case I can't fix certain issues within the track. I'll do my best to focus on those aspects of the song so I'll have a fighting chance.

[Caliginous Newcomer]

How did I miss this track? Gosh dang it, I need to follow these threads a bit more closely...

I can't tell if your track is in 6/8 or 4/4, gosh dang it. I'm thinking 4/4 because that's where the snares fall, but you could have just as easily compounded the time signature. Hey, at least your meter makes the track memorable.

In my opinion, this sounds like it could work really well for a demon level in Geometry Dash! Sadly I can't make demons due to my inability to beat them but if this track was used it would be awesome! But you've disabled downloads... I don't know if that changes the situation. Lemme try.

...Nope! Still downloadable in Geometry Dash! ;)

I say all this, and lordedri may have no idea what GD is... hm...

I didn't know what "caliginous" meant before this track. Well, you learn something every day.

Enough side-ranting! Onto the actual comment that pertains to the song. I feel like you did a really good job! It sounds epic, that's really all I can really say. I don't know, I'm just blown away by the quality of the content that's coming in through NGADM. And your track here isn't an exception. GREAT WORK! Good luck! :D

1f1n1ty

Adjeye responds:

I disabled the downloads because I wanted to bring out all the NGADM tracks under one download package for free, this will consist of 2 tracks, or more if I get any further in this competition :)

Of course I've heard about geometry dash, a friend of mine (Forever Bound) composed a track for that :)

About the time signature, its 6/8 but because the beat is halftime the snares fall at whole notes, so the snares are like they are in 4/4, but the rest of the drums mostly aren't.

Thank you for your review kind sir :), I really enjoy reading them!

~Adjeye

[Majestic They Are]

I'm not one to judge a cinematic piece, but this is so good that I can't not leave a comment.

It's great to come across an orchestral piece like this one since most of the high-tier tracks in Newgrounds' classical community (as far as I can see, anyway) consists of tracks which are either really really dark or really really light. I have a hard time finding things like this, which are kind of in-between.

And it's sad that so many people look down on classical music, because they're missing out on things like this.

But regardless this is amazing! I really really like the bit from 02:32 to 03:00, that sounds awesome! Keep up the good work, and good luck in NGADM!

1f1n1ty

papkee responds:

That part of the song was actually one of the original ideas I had for it and I'm glad it worked out so well. I was worried the horns and the choir would muddle each other but they really played rather nicely together.

Thanks for the nice complements!

[Acceptance & Commitment]

I saw the genre "hip hop" and thought I wasn't going to enjoy this track...

...but YOU HAD ME FOOLED I loved it! Especially the part at 03:16!

But why did I expect anything less from midimachine? 5/5, 9/10

midimachine responds:

trap is so far removed from hip hop now that it's closer to dubstep lol. apparently people on NG put trap and glitch hop in this section tho? wacky!

[[NGADM] Undertow]

Wait, is your album art a picture of this song in your DAW?

House music! I clicked the link expecting to get something great, and boy, I wasn't let down! The sound design and originality in this track are amazing! Especially your drums, which sound awesome!

Man, the originality. You kinda fused ambient with house, which I really love. You've done that mix exceptionally well, far better than I would have done, anyway.

Some of the sounds you used here gives me some World of Goo vibes... like the lead at around 1:10. Don't worry, that's a good thing! ;)

Now, things I didn't like so much. I felt that a lot of this track kinda sounded the same. There were really no new (at least, distinguishably new) sounds introduced from 1:00 to 2:30, and your song started to get kinda boring. Now, you did eventually introduce some strings at 2:30, but the 1 1/2 minute stretch from 1:00 to 2:30 had a rough time keeping me interested. But hey, that's not a big deal, because regardless it's very pleasing to listen to. And it's not like my songs don't make the same mistakes. :)

Also, I have to agree with ChronoNomad about the ending. If there was one thing I would change over the remaining period of round 1 time, it would be that ending.

Overall, amazing track! 5/5, 9/10, awesome. Good luck with NGADM! ;D

1f1n1ty

Jimmypig responds:

Thank you very much! I just updated the song to add a few quality of sound changes, nothing over the top, I tried to add something different to the later parts but it sounded too much to my ear by then. I let the last note ring out properly though :)

Oh and yes it is my project file as the picture haha

[Type Random]

Alright, so I'm not a extremely good artist or anything, and I didn't make NGADM either, but I'm gonna leave this review to try and help an aspiring musician just like me.

The biggest thing I have to tell you is that your track just needs more stuff going on. I'm counting exactly three synths in this track. The first part of your tracks has the first two synths alternating, and the back half is just the third synth. Over all this, drums. But that's all you have. There's a lot you can try out and put on top of all these sounds. Try making a bassline or a sub bass. Try making arps. Try making plucky chords. Try layering two synths on top of each other by having them play the same thing at the same time. Overall a song with just one thing playing at a time sounds kinda empty, y'know? You can add more breadth to your track with more sounds.

Another way to make your song more interesting is by panning. You can take advantage of two speakers to make some sounds stand out without actually having to raise faders, and it just makes your song sound wider, overall. You may already be doing this, I can't tell at the moment.

Next, transitions. The transition from 0:17 to 0:21, in my opinion, is pretty sudden. To me, it almost sounds like you started a completely new track, since only the drums reappear, the chord synth is completely different. I would do something that can connect the ideas a little bit more.

Overall I think your song just needs more breadth. It sound kinda empty. Tip: Try listening to some of your favorite songs. Listen closely for all the elements that go into the sound you hear. Try to imitate that breadth. With some more experience you'll get better! Just don't give up!

Also, sorry if this review sounded harsh (it was kinda all criticism, whoops). My purpose in reviewing this track is to possibly help you get better, not to nitpick and tell you all your faults to your face or something. I don't know.

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thanks for your lengthy response! As for more stuff going on, maybe you're right, but this is actually designed to be an instrumental track for an R&B singer, so the vocals would fill it up. However, I do think that it could use a little flavour. A lot of my other songs are much busier than this one.

I don't pan at all. I keep forgetting that you can actually use it. But yeah, I will try it a bit more, perhaps even using stereo enhancement.

The transition from 0:17-0:21 is supposed to be pretty sudden I wouldn't change that, because it's like a drop, so I wanted it to be random and out of nowhere. And when the track is lengthened, it would make sense in the grand scheme of the song, because the same drop repeats. Maybe even a vocal sample would be inserted there as a kind of "trigger" to the chorus.

But yeah. The emptiness is partially because no vocals, but also because I probably need to include more elements. I actually tried imitating the style of a song already: LIZ - All Them Boys. But that song is a lot more ornate and beautiful.

So yeah. I will take this into account and perhaps release a version with a recorded vocal, or even an acapella that I think fits, and then lengthen it into a stereotypical pop song and see what you think then. Apart from that, thanks for bothering to review. If you want busier songs, definitely have a look at most of my other stuff. It's generally a lot more busy and weird.

Cheers!

[Evienne (demo)]

Man, 37 plays? This needs more than that! Even my tracks get at least 100 plays after a while. This? Is probably better!

Best of luck making NGADM, this is great stuff! :D

ElysianSky responds:

aww thanks so much ^_^ good luck to you too!!!