Geoplex's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Escape]

This is an NGADM 2015 review.

So I like the bells in your intro, though I feel that when the melody that comes in around 00:26, they could do with some more reverb or some delay as they're a bit dry. Otherwise they're nice. Nice riser and subdrop, as well.

I like the drop, especially the saws! The blippy square arps are great as well. I feel that the kick is pretty good for impact purposes, but to be honest it's a bit dull and could do with a lot more punch/top end. A lot of that is to do with sample choice in my opinion. It does its job well, though. Speaking of sample choice, I think the clap is a bit generic - it also gets very lost in the mix during the choruses, largely because of the prevalence of the hats and saws. Adding some top end to it might benefit it - I also think it'd make it sound nicer, personally.

I like the melody you're using in the chorus, but I found it to be a bit repetitive by 2 minutes in. Not sure about the switch-up at 2:30, especially when the double-kicks come in at the buildup to the next chorus. If you high-passed the kick significantly it probably would have been fine, but otherwise it creates a lot of chaos. The second chorus is basically the same as the first, and so the issues of repetition remain. As said though, you've got a pretty good melody. I really like the bandpassed saw you use in the outro, by the way.

Pretty good piece - good production, pretty good sound design/instrumentation. Possibly a bit repetitive but I enjoyed it.

[The House by the Cemetary]

This is an NGADM 2015 Round 1 Review.

So! This song is awesome. I'm just going to lead off with that, because you've impressed me with your cinematic mastery. It's hardly subtle in its story-telling, but it gets the job done in an eerily satisfying way that I find pretty immersive, and on top of that it sounds great and is well produced. What more could I ask for? Actually, one thing - a creaky door closing sound effect when the rain stops. Might be a bit heavy handed but I just wanted it so much.

Anyway, I'll try and deconstruct the song a bit instead of just outright praising you. The first thing I noticed is that your thunder sound effects sound like they have a weird comb-filter effect on them, as though you've taken a stereo sound effect and made it mono. Obviously not a huge issue, but it did irk me a little as they also had no low end (possibly as a result?) and the deep rumble of thunder would have been appropriate here before the instruments took the stage.

Your dramatic intro really is lovely, though. The strings might get a little loud compared to the percussion, ambiance, and the following piano, but they do their job well; and while TaintedLogic has a point about the transition to the piano, I didn't find it too problematic. It's certinaly appropriate for the visuals you're intending the audience to associate with the piece, imo. That said, during this section I find the scraping ambient sound effects a little loud - I mean, they're not pleasant sounds. Might be resolved by cutting their highs a little, because I think they're a little detrimental to the musical aspects of the piece.

The crescendo approaching the awakening of the monster works quite well, too; though I wish you'd made the percussion a bit louder here. It's probably a little too loud at 1:50, though, and unfortunately it suppresses the strings and other instruments you introduce. Other than that, this section is great.

I think the way you ended it is appropriate, but sudden, which is a little unfortunate. Some kind of outro indicating the recovery of the character, now in relative safety, might have been appropriate. Failing that, you could have implied they were caught :P crunch crunch, you know.

Your production is great as well. At -14RMS, this track is fairly loud for orchestral (as far as I'm aware) and simultaneously it's quite dynamic and spacious.

I'm sorry if I'm nitpicking, because honestly it's about the most I can do. I don't spend as much time listening to much orchestral music, but at the same time, I think this is a great piece that I'm struggling to say much negative about anyway. Impressive work.

Azhthar responds:

So... finally I found some time to respond to your review. Your review was so detailed and positive that I had too take some time to write an answer :) First... Thanks a lot! I´m really glad you liked the track although you aren´t that much into orchestral stuff.
The creaky door is missing you´re right ;)
For the rain and thunder I have to be honest I more or less took the sample out of the box. It could be that what you´re hearing is some quite heavy EQ I put on it because I layered it with another sample before which was a bit hot at the low end. I played with the EQ but it didn´t work out so I took the layer out and played the sample naked. It might be that I forgot to remove the eq and this is what you´re hearing...
You really have good ears because actually for the scraping sounds I increased the highs to make them a bit more present. They were not supposed to sound very pleasent but to give the track a bit more creepy atmosphere. You are definitely right that musically and for the piece as a standalone work this was not very supporting but I think in the right movie scene it would work well...
I have to regret with percussion layering and balancing I still have a lot of problems. Especially if the track is already that full like in the parts you refer to.
If I now hear the track with a bit of distance the end is definitely to sudden. When I wrote it I thought it was conclusive but a bit of distance to a track is sometimes good to get another view what could have been done different...
Glad you liked my production because I actually thaought it wasn´t that good. When I hear music from other people around here their music sounds always so clear and loud and I´m always getting jealous :)
That wasn´t nitpicking at all, because everywhere you had a point ;) Thanks again for the review!

[(NUB) Dont Leave]

This is an NGADM 2015 Round 1 Review.

So I really enjoyed the atmospheric aspects of this song. I think you've done a really great job with the subtleties and harder-to-notice parts, with complex percussion and atmospheric FX, especially in the intro. The pads are lovely too! I think the intro melody is a bit uninspired, but the rest of your general sound design really washes that away for me. It's really nice.

So onto the chorus - I feel that the transition could have been telegraphed a little better here, it's quite sudden. This is alright, really; it's nice for the impact you gain, but I find it a bit jarring. The drop itself is interesting, too. You've got this constant, sidechained distorted/detuned bass, which along with the sub kind of saturates the song - not in a mix sense, because the mix is pretty solid, but more in that it's a little overwhelming and heavy compared to the other elements in the chorus. It's almost slightly resembling of trap stylistically, especially with the way you've mixed the snare (it doesn't have the low end that typifies DnB snares), though this is hardly an issue as the snare works extremely well in the song.

The melody and lead in the chorus is good as well, though it might be a little reverberant. Barring the drops, your transitions are awesome as well, by the way. Structurally this song is put together well, and the softer chorus in the middle of the drop is just perfect. I don't like the generic clap sample you're using in it, but structurally speaking it's gorgeous and really aids the flow of the piece; especially when you bring the breakbeat back in. I have to agree with TaintedLogic about the "thin" nature of this section though, but I think it's also to do with the lows you remove.

The breakdown after the chorus is very reminiscent of the intro, but I don't think it's too repetitive. I just love the FX, man! It's sick. Damn. Again though, your transition is a little sudden. I also think the square pluck blip sound is a little simple and the song would benefit from something more interesting, with more detune and a longer release. It might clash with your actual lead though, so it would warrant some experimentation.

Just so I at least mention the mix a little, it's solid and clear, especially that snare. I like that you've kept the kick short, it fits quite well into the mix as a result. I think your lead might be a little quiet or as mentioned earlier, reverberant; but it's pretty audible. There really aren't any major mix issues.

Overall this is a solid piece, consistent and well structured. Well done!

nubbinownz responds:

Comically enough, this started out as a trap/futurebass track, but then i decided I wanted to fool around with trying to develop a completely new genre or an amalgamation of multiple genres.

As I said in the earlier response, this song was never finished, and I'm incredibly appreciative of you and tainted logic's in depth reviews as this will give me some more information when actually finishing the track.
You guy are awesome and I respect the hell out of the time you guys have put into these reviews.

[Chip 'n' Swing]

This is an NGADM 2015 Round 1 Review.

So I almost always have a soft-spot for chiptuney stuff, despite not playing many games as a kid beyond like, pokemon. It's certainly left me with a love for simple wavetable/noise based percussion though :P

So this song is lovely, and I enjoyed it, though it has the unfortunate characteristic of being very much like background music structurally. I understand that's a result of its inspirations/origins, but when comparing it to the other songs in the group I have to take this into account. There are some really really awesome melodies in there, particularly at 1:40 and 2:33, but I feel that there isn't much else that actually stands out throughout the song. It's all very consistent, coherent and flows nicely, but it keeps the same steady pace pretty much throughout. I understand though that this could be considered part of the genre.

As mentioned, this song is pretty damn sweet melodically. Sweet really is the word, it's just satisfying, and there's something about the purity of square wavetables that I just love. I think the melodies of this piece are the strongest aspect for sure - though with that said, I didn't like how you ended it. It was very sudden and caught me off-guard, and honestly felt a little rushed. Looping it may have even been a better decision, going back to what the intro started with, or something similar at least.

Production-wise there isn't a lot to say because this is a simple song with simple ideas, but what you've done works well. My only complaint comes from how quiet this song is. I know that, again, it's probably appropriate for the genre; but you've got nearly 5dB of headroom throughout most of the song. You're also sitting at -20RMS which is very quiet. You should be able to achieve louder results without losing any quality of your mix from these levels, in my opinion.

Anyway, this is a nice song. It's nice, it's quite lovely in fact. I don't think it stands out, but it's consistent and solid and enjoyable, and for that I think it's a great song.

[Sidestep]

This is an NGADM 2015 Round 1 Review.

Hey man. Something about this song resonated with me pretty heavily, to the point that this was the highest rating i gave out of all round 1 participants. I may have been spurred to do so partially because I thought you deserved to pass the round, and I felt that of all the judges involved I was the most likely to appreciate this song. That said, Group J was just filled with awesome stuff, you were up against some of the tougher opponents of the round in my opinion.

What impressed me most was your sound design in that first drop, although I don't think your structure necessarily stood up to this aspect. That said, a lot of submissions are difficult to score because one aspect of them is incredible, and others are lackluster. I don't think any aspect of this song is terribly lackluster, but you get the idea. I chose to go with my gut lol. Anyway:

Nice ominous intro, although it and the subsequent buildup don't move very far on their own, if that makes sense - there isn't a huge amount that happens, but it's spooky and ominous and it certainly caught my attention. The arps and sidechained saws you bring in for the buildup create a lot of tension, and I think the buildup functions quite well. As mentioned, first drop is pretty awesome. It's quite dynamic, the kick and snare have crazy impact and are easy to discern. Your mix just has so much space! You said you tried to step away from the loudness war, but you're still at -7.5RMS, which is pretty loud. For those levels your mix is pretty impressive in my opinion.
Sound design wise I just have to applaud the obvious effort. Not a 10/10 on coherency for the first drop, but it's good. It's coherent where it needs to be and I enjoyed it a lot.

After the first drop the song does lose a lot of its energy and flow. You're probably right to question the transition at 2:09, I'm unsure about the decision. To the casual ear though (which is what I used when I initially listened, admittedly - I think I was multitasking) it actually flows pretty well, honestly. Paying more attention I find it a little jarring, though.

So the second drop seems to be double-time, which is a great way to mix things up. I think it's more the way that you've gone about it from a composition perspective that makes it a little more questionable. Mixing is still good, sound design is pretty good (I didn't think it was as coherent as the first drop) but it's more the addition of chords in the second half that I'm not sure about. I don't even think they're a poor decision thematically, plenty of songs (especially dubstep songs) go from melodic content to completely unmelodic content. I just think it was the wrong place to put them. I hear you about not knowing how to finish a song though, we've all been there.

To summarize, your sound design and mixing are impressive to me. I thought that despite some structural issues, you had a damn solid submission, the positive aspects were too good to ignore, and it seems you're aware of a lot of the issues of this song yourself honestly - so I have to applaud this.

AeronMusic responds:

It is pretty loud but still not as loud as some of my other songs.
I didn't pass sadly but it was fun to make something again within time because that is quite hard if you criticise yourself too much and cancel every project you start.
But for real, I thank you a lot for taking time to write such a big and detailed review!

[Stompstump Peak (Onefin Remix)]

Hey there :D Dropping a review as requested - you should probably ignore the score/10 that I give, because I find those a bit arbitrary when it comes to analyzing and critiquing to be perfectly honest.

I'm going to start off talking about your mixing. I can hear your kick fairly well, though it has no high-end presence, so you might want to consider EQing it differently or choosing a different sample; though I get the impression the high-end on it can't be heard because it's being masked by the amount of stuff going on in the chorus, so maybe you should be sidechaining your arps to it or something - it might even sound cool.

Your leads and main synths are pretty clear, enough so that I can tell what's going on melodically - they mesh with the song pretty well, and you're filling the spectrum pretty evenly! I feel your mixing is probably the strongest part of this song, though I would have appreciated more brightness in the hats (some sidechained noise would achieve a similar result.) I think the bass could have less presence (especially on attack) but I do like how it sounds.

Despite everything being audible and pretty evenly balanced, I think your mixing suffers in an instrumentation sense - you've got a lot of different things going on up above 1khz, and at some point everything becomes a bit muddy. The pluck chords around 1:47 could honestly be an octave lower (take the lowpass off them gradually a bit, let some harmonics come through) and they'd probably fit into the mix a bit better. One thing I want to praise here is the little blippy plucky squarey arps in this bit, because their transients make them very audible - more so than the main melody, though.

Your mixing is pretty good in the other sections, there are a lot of little things I could nitpick out but many of them are a bit subjective and it would be tedious to read :P
One thing I will say is that the reverses that start after 3:13 are too loud, and too aggressive in the high-mids. They're a nice sound, but they stick out too much.

Onto mastering, there's one big thing I want to talk about - gain structure. Your song has a lot of headroom (it's at around -14RMS at its loudest) and while headroom is usually good, you're very clearly squashing the mix a bit (it's extremely evident at points like 2:00 minutes in, and during the subsequent chorus where I can hear some ducking.) Again, this isn't even a bad thing, but your song is very quiet for having this kind of sound. I'd guess that this issue stems from the mixing process, but that's only a guess. Either way, you can get a lot more volume out of your song for half the price in my opinion.

I don't know how you handle the process, so I can't really help much there - everyone does it differently, and there's no wrong way, but it's easy to make mistakes. If you have any specific questions I'd be more than happy to answer them :P

Sound design-wise you're pretty good - there are no points where I had any big issues with anything. I like your bass, and your plucks, and the bell lead is pretty cool! I don't like the formanty sound you've got with it in the first buildup/chorus that much, but to be honest it's pretty appropriate and works quite well. I think you could be using a better flute VST/sample, but the idea of a flute clearly works well. You kept it simple, and I like it.

Okay, so on composition - I haven't heard the original at all, and there are parts of your song that I like, but there are some others that I find a bit jarring. The transition at 2:33 comes to mind; there's nothing leading into it and it comes quite suddenly. I like what it leads into though, at 3:13. This part appeals to me quite well for some reason :P

Starting from the start: I like the chordless intro and how it leads into the chorus. It's a tried and true tactic :P the song stays pretty solid when you start introducing other sounds, too! I like the melody. I think it falls apart a bit around 1:32 with the flute though - again, the transition to the breakdown is a bit forced and I don't think the melody works well with your chords. Unfortunately of all the NGADM judges I'm probably the worst at communicating musical concepts (no formal training, I make EDM :P) so I'm limited in how I can describe exactly what I'm referring to here.

Anyway, props on your transition around the 2:00 mark! You worked your way back into the chorus really nicely here and I think it works real nice. The next part I'd like to talk about is at 3:45. While this works nicely as an outro, I'm not a fan of how we got there. The feel of the song is very dramatic beforehand, and immediately switches into a calm state (the instrumentation is good at reinforcing this though, which was nice). The outro itself is pretty sweet though, good use of noise, the low bells are awesome. The very end of it is damn spooky actually :P

Overall I think your mixing is pretty good, though some aspects of it need attention, your mastering could be better (though honestly despite what I've said, you avoided a lot bigger problems), your sound design is good, and the composition is alright, with attention needed to transitions perhaps. Again, maybe I would be sorted out if I'd heard the original; but I'm trying to judge this as a piece on its own.

I tried to be as objective/critical as I could, which is why this review might seem unkind - I hope it doesn't though, because that's not the idea. Keep going at it man :)

Onefin responds:

First off, big thanks for taking the time to review my track! I'm always excited for constructive criticism because it's so hard to come by these days.

Alright, so I'm gonna respond from top to bottom.

Ignore score/10. Got it. (subsequently looks at score)

You're probably hearing no high end in the kick because I took it out when I EQ'd it :P am I not supposed to do that? I don't usually sidechain extremely plucky arps because I feel like some of the notes will get lost if I do that... but I'll try in the future!

"I feel like your mixing is the strongest part of your song" Au contraire, I actually have no idea how to mix! :D Seriously, my entire process is just: 1. Move faders, 2. Raise biggest frequencies of each sound, 3. Lower frequencies that other sounds have that play at the same time, 4. Use the default limiter because nothing else I make sounds better. I really need to learn how to mix but everyone does it differently and I can't find good sources because they tend to be tailored toward a specific genre of music and/or are hard to follow. Bass could have had less attack... I don't know how to do that with BooBass, is there a effects plugin that can help with that?

With my very limited skill in mixing, it's really hard to avoid mud in my tracks. Knowing how to EQ would probably help. Pluck chords could be an octave lower? Not sure how I would implement that into future tracks, but I'll try my best! And the arps, yeah, since I thought the arp were really cool, I might have accidentally raised the fader too high.

Reverses too stingy? Got it. Taking note.

My mixing skills are to blame with gain staging. When I made the track I tried looking up some mixing crud and one source I found said to make sure all bars were in the green. So I did that. I also lowered the master fader to -6db. I guess in general everything could have been louder?

Specific questions... well, I have a lot of questions, but specific ones... Well, I know I've already asked some in the above paragraphs... I might think of some later.

Off of mixing into sound design. To be honest ALL of my sounds are presets :P I did mess with them a little bit but for the most part I didn't design any of them. The formanty sound I had to introduce because later I wanted to do an extreme pitch bend with that sound and I didn't want the sound to just be suddenly introduced in that pitch bend section. "better flute" Those two flute presets are the only flutes I have X| But regardless I'm glad you liked it! :D

Composition. It's okay if you haven't heard the original, stunkel hasn't, either, and I highly doubt any of the other judges have, given that the game the song comes from is highly looked down upon. Anyway, transitions. For me, transitions are win some, lose some. Or win few, lose most. I don't know. In 2:33, I basically had no other ideas X| so I had to go with that. I knew it was sudden, but I had no way to fix it. Suggestions? Maybe 3:13 appeals to you because it's in a different time signature :P I don't know.

Chordless intro? That's strange, I'm pretty sure I wrote in a chord every 5 counts... "tried and true" That actually applies to me a lot because I've tried that tactic in a previous remix before and it worked well so I decided to use it again in this remix! Transition at 1:32 is my average mid section to build transition. That means that I can use this advice in pretty much everything! Well, the chords are actually not my idea, I got them directly from the sheet music I referenced to make this remix. I thought they sounded cool though, so I kept them.

I guess the 2:00 transition is one of my wins, then. Yippee! 3:45, just like 2:33, is one the sections where I had no idea how else to transition. Once again, I knew it was sudden, but I had no idea how it could have been fixed. (I'm gonna ask for suggestions again) Whoops, I wasn't going for a spooky outro! The goal was to repeat the motif in the introduction, except extended. Maybe it's because the extension introduced a lot of lower notes...

Overall: I don't know how to mix or master X| but I'm glad that somehow in my amateurish fumbling of knobs I avoided problems. :D Transitions need attention, got it. If you had heard the original, it would only mean you know all the melodic riffs beforehand. My track is a pretty big twist on the original.

So once again, thanks for reviewing! I'll be sure to try to work on all the things you've mentioned! You keep going, too! :D

[~Echo~ Eternity (WIP)]

I can't tell if I'm easily impressed today or if this is actually that amazing. It might actually just be that damn amazing... I really love it. It's smooth and relaxed, and strong when it needs to be. Well mixed, well composed. I really can't say anything negative about it without getting specific and subjective.

You use the length to your advantage as well (I guess it's somewhat progressive) because 6:49 is a really long run time. Great job!

[Streetlight Cascade]

I never reviewed this because I suck, but I just clicked on it and remembered how gosh darn nice it is. Your melodies are magical.

If you ever return from your hiatus.... well, I'll enjoy whatever it is you upload :P

Alloud responds:

Thank you <3
I'll be uploading again soon. I have a few neat things started and more finished that I can't upload yet because they're for a game project.

[Geometry Dash]

Mmm, nice production, that's a damn sexy snare. Great use of swing, Lows to low mids could definitely use some more presence though, and as others had said, you transitioned too softly into the chorus.

Nice song though. How do you find time to produce so many songs every week?

[Blooming Nightshade]

This is actually really cool.

I'm hearing some sytrus presets (I think?), and it's more breakbeat videogamey than dnb, but newgrounds has a pretty limited selection of genres.

This song is damn creative and melodically consistent. Your composition is sound, and it's very appropriate for a boss fight. I like your use of slide notes and delay.

You're missing any power whatsoever in your mids, but honestly I'm enjoying this song regardless of that. Nice work!

Noisysundae responds:

That's true, not just your thought. I just tweaked those sytrus built-in presets a bit for this.
Yes, I tried to bring more mids by using those short, fast synths. But it doesn't have any pads in this (excluding the buildups) so it could be the cause of the weakness you pointed out. Perhaps I should add some more sfx too. Perfect mastering is still a long way to go for me.
I might be too pessimistic for writing about the cons rather than the pros but it can help me do better work later so it's worth a mention. Thanks for the review bro. :)