Onefin's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[a strong sense of wanderlust felt in a peculiarly glitchy sort of world (NGADM Cut)]

Yes yes yes! I was waiting for this one

I wasn't kidding about that title, it's ridiculously long, which gives it quirky uniqueness, and it super fits. Like, SUPER fits. I can TASTE the wanderlust in a peculiar glitchy place in this track.

This track is a progressive one, it takes its sweet time building up and releasing exactly once, which is fine - in fact, it's great and I think you did it pretty well! It could use a louder master in the back half I think but I'd take this :)

And yeah, I like what you did to that build. It's not jarring anymore like it was before, and the glitches help build the tension.

Biggest thing I would wish for is a proper outro :/ but besides that for the most part this is really solid! Best of luck to you man :)

stardew responds:

thanks for the review 1f1! curse you overtime, if you didn't exist i might've had time to add an outro!

i really appreciate the time you took out of your day to give me some advice while i was making this, this piece would be a lot worse if not for your help :^)

good luck to you as well

[Root Beer Float]

Is this a good time to start my NGADM '18 favorites playlist? I think it is!

Stellar entry dude. All that work on the drops paid off, because they're excellent. Such intensity, such lovely chords, such BASS (YES THAT BASS), such vibrato. Love it.

I also do want to reiterate that the builds are excellent. I know you think builds are hard and they are but these are definitely good. Also, god, 3:05 gets me every time.

The foley is great. I'm really glad you added that newspaper at the end, that's a really nice touch. The pouring is really gentle and nice. The cafe sounds, super good. The way it's incorporated into the percussion really sells the "root beer float" theme. It's so tasty.

After NGADM, promise me we'll collab on something :3

Miyolophone responds:

Ahhh thank you so much for the praise and your help along the way, 1f1n!

And yes, definitely, as soon as I have any semblance of free time

[Quixotic (Original Mix)]

Hey man gonna drop some words for ya

Lemme start by saying that when I saw the list of people in my pod, I was pretty sure that my climaxes would be the least impactful of the three. The power you achieve in the drops is exactly what I expected and what I was unable to achieve myself. So that already puts you in front of me

This is such a variety, it's awesome. You switched up genres but kept the same general theme - it's a good way to create scatterbrained goodness without abandoning cohesion. And then in the end you stitched it all together just to shove it in our faces. Brilliant. My favorite is the DnB drop, the bass is super satisfying.

There's a chord in there that I don't like so much, like at 0:52 going into 0:54, it just sorta rubs me the wrong way for some reason :/ don't really know why

I'm going in expecting to lose to this, it's great and mixed really freaking well, holy crud, and it's solid all the way through and stuff like that. One of us has to lose, but I'm sure we'll both score decently enough to come back as a backup when it happens :) Best of luck to you man <3

KaixoMusic responds:

Thanks a lot! Good luck <3

[CHIPS In About 3 Minutes]

hey man can you not make a remix of my song, like please do someone else's

4.5/5, faved

SplatterDash responds:

...

...no.

[Rebirth]

OMG DUDE WELCOME BACK <3

I'm gonna listen to all of these in sequence. I can tell from the first minute of this one that it's gonna be freaking amazing, though. :D Dude come say hi to us on discord! Do you have a discord?

AeronMusic responds:

THANKS <3

Yes, I do have a discord.

[Happy Birthday BlueOceans!]

I wanted you to end on a Neopolitan so badly but you didn't ; ^ ; solid rendition nonetheless :D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Wouldn't a Neapolitan chord here essentially just have been a Db major? Since the melody ends on a normal c, it would really just sound like a Db major 7, which would be a bit of a weird ending. Perhaps I misunderstood what you were going for :)
(Kinda sounds like it would lead to an F major)

[DJ Neat - Dreams]

Hey. R4R.

I'm going to fucus on mostly the criticism since your description seems to suggest that that's what you're mostly looking for

- The piece needs more dynamic variation. Nearly every section is loud, without any soft parts.
- At 0:37 you've given your drums so much reverb that it's making the whole thing muddy. You shouldn't really be giving kicks reverb that often anyway.
- It's good that you made your drop has some impact, but it could be improved with some more high end stuff, like maybe an arp.
- Near the end of your track you repeat a single drop twice and the track becomes incredibly repetitive. You should introduce more melodic variation in your track.
- Your transitions are literally just sweeps going up and that's it. There are more interesting and more effective ways to move between sections of track, including fills, pick ups, etc. Try utilizing a larger variety of transitioning techniques.

GGMiXsiMusic responds:

Thank you very much!

[Market Day (KindLing A0S1)]

I was told there were many reviews here that mentioned me

Well now that I'm here I might as well sit for your ride. And oh boy what a ride it was.

There are so many great things happening just off the beginning. The first minute is extremely beautiful melodically, and the drums are really, really nice. You have pretty good command of reverb and dynamics which is fabulous. The section at 1:15 sort of needed more going into it, but that slight disappointment is very quickly replaced by the drive of the kick drum.

And holy crap, you're changing tempo. Caught me off guard but I love it (mostly cuz I do it myself :P). Really nice modulation at 1:57 too. 2:06 has some sweet sweet bitcrusher going on

The tempo is going back up again. The guitar is back, the fabulous rhythm section returns, is that a flute? Man don't stop feeding me your amazing

Biggest couple of complaints would have to be: 1) I had trouble grasping onto one single melody over the course of the track. Don't know if that's just me or if there's just not enough emphasis in the track. 2) The climaxes tend to lack the impact they need to really sell themselves. This is something I struggle with too so it's okay.

Overall, though, this is a really solid entry. Amazingly perfect drum design, really good mixing and atmosphere, fantastic melodies and composition. Now let me go listen to the rest of your discography to see if I should smash that follow button. Good luck!

Miyolophone responds:

Damn, thanks for dropping by, man! I'm thrilled that you liked it so much, since I did have you in mind while I was making it (which apparently every single person picked up on?? I thought I was a bit more subtle than that lol). Good luck to you as well (despite your writer's block)!

[In the Mist]

Might as well drop an R4R since I'm in the contest too.

+ I like this chord at 0:38
+ Drums at 1:45 are really really cool
+ Sounds are designed decently for their purpose
+ Dynamics and transitions are generally well executed

- First minute is literally the same synth the entire way with not much else
- Kick at drop (2:16) is a bit underwhelming
- There is no reason for you to wait so long to introduce the hihat at 3:00
- After 3:16 the rest of the song is mostly stuff we've already heard before
- Some of the stuff in the drops aren't tuned exactly right
- Generally lacks a strong melody

Very few entries this year, huh? We all have a better shot at making it.

Voltus responds:

but that sweet sweet distortion on the lovely synth at the start... well I guess I'm too in love with details sometimes, yeah it's a frickin long intro... And an underwhelming kick... never had that before.

[Slowing Down]

DUDE.

SO BLOWN AWAY RIGHT NOW.

Where do I even start with you, garlagan? How do I even begin to comment on your literal genius

Once again you nail the melodies. Once again your drops are extremely crisp. Once again you pull off a bunch of small musical tidbits which fill your track with interest. Once again you catch me off guard with an unexpected sonic shift (2:07). Once again you create such a highly contrasted, highly detailed soundscape that I can't do anything but stand amazed. Seriously.

I don't even know what to begin to criticize. It's just all... so tight. So clean.

I rarely give tracks full five stars but this one has to take the cake for me.

garlagan responds:

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh thank you so much 1f1n1!