AED-4's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Best Friends]

(this ended up becoming a bit rambly but hopefully there's something useful dx)

Composition: High marks all around. Especially the melody starting at around 1:20, while containing only half notes, caught my attention quite effectively. The drum patterns are also nice, if not a bit simple. Composition is definitely the strongest suit of this song.

Structure: Likewise, good stuff. Good usage of percussions in transitions such as around 1:06 and 1:19. The song doesn’t linger on any single moment for too long, and there’s a good sense of direction, and there’s plenty of contrast between the sections, so the listener doesn’t get tired.

Instrumentation: I can see that it’s meant to be a duet, so I won’t complain about the sparseness of the instrumentation :p However, in these cases the need for the instruments to pull their entire weight becomes even more apparent, and I think here they are slacking off a bit. While as mentioned the things that are played are quite good, the things that are playing could use some refinement.

For example, everything sounds a bit “dry”, as in, the elements don’t seem to have much reverb in them. Especially for a song this sparse, having enough reverb to provide a roomier sound can be very beneficial. And this indeed also suffers from lack of humanization, but because that was comprehensively talked about in the NGMT reviews, I’ll skip over this. Percussions are OK, but the clap especially could punch through the mix a better, as of now it falls a bit too much into the background at some points.

Mixing: Mixing is OK here, nothing sounds like it clashes with the other elements, though this is of course helped by the light instrumentation. The stereo field could maybe be used a bit more though, meaning that some elements could be panned to the left or right more. For example, if you had 2 pianos (which it sounds like), you could pan the other a bit to the left, and the other to the right. Same with the cymbals, they could be panned around a bit, but I’m not sure if that’s possible in MuseScore.

However, one definite shortcoming is that I do think there’s a lack of low-end frequencies, and I think that harms the otherwise upbeat and bouncy vibe this song has. I’d ensure that the low notes of the piano are playing loudly enough, and maybe fiddle with equalization if that’s and option. Honestly, introducing a third instrument and having some sort of dedicated bass could probably help with that as well.

But yeah, overall, a very good song you got here, especially when it comes to the arrangement. Some improvements are to be found in mixing and especially sound design / instrumentation, but you are standing on a very strong basis already :) Lastly, I do think I should mention that “acoustic” music is not my strength, so take the things I have to say with a healthy dose of scepticism :p

I’ll also link this comprehensive orchestral mixing tips news post made by Everratic: https://everratic.newgrounds.com/news/post/1329330. Granted, much of it is useful only for higher-end stuff (doubt you have access to mic positions :p), but it still might give you some ideas.

[I Field The Same]

(Leaving a review here as well, after all this is sort of a honorary entry to the first phase :p)

Mix and sound design / instrumentation are very well done, that much I can tell immediately. Quite interesting choice to mix these glitchy / lo-fi percussions with well-defined acoustic instruments and clean synths, but I think does work well, gives a touch of sci-fi to it. Balance is good, everything has its own place and elements utilize the stereo field well.

I’m not entirely certain if that piano is the best fit to the song however, especially considering that other sounds are a fair bit brighter. Also at some points, such as 3:13 it kind of feels like it could use some additional clarity, because now it sounds like it gets a bit “entangled” on itself.

Structurally everything is in condition. The transitions between sections feel very natural, especially the one at around 1:30 leading into the calm break. That and the latter 2:41 breaks do indeed provide some fine contrast to the rest of the song, which is otherwise quite busy with all the melodies going on.

And speaking of the melodies, those are simply amazing. I don’t think there was a single moment in there where I didn’t vibe with the melodies, especially since they constantly keep evolving ever-so-slightly and get complemented with new selections of instruments.

Theme-wise this also perfectly achieves what it sought out to do, I can perfectly picture a pair of cats making their way through the overgrown ruins of a once great metropolis :) Nails that sense of playful wonder, while retaining bittersweet undertones.

In conclusion, good stuff all around, a true treat for the ears :)

[XLR competition: Cyber Hanger]

(BlueCheeseCult really gave an excellent review, so I’ll be using that as a base)

Let’s start from the composition, and I’ve gotta admit, it’s quite repetitive. In fact, it’s 1 track looped 4 times over. This is not ideal, as it’s quite wasteful making the file take up 4 times the space than if it just looped once (naturally), and the listener will very likely stop listening before the track has had a chance to finish even once. Looping the first part twice and adding some modifications to the latter part in the form of alternate instrumentation or melodies would help tremendously.

Generally, you always want your song to be ‘moving’ somewhere, and thus just repeating the same thing over and over will lead to, well, nowhere. Now there are some good ideas going on at times, but as BlueCheeseCult stated, they all stop prematurely before they have an opportunity to flourish. Overall, the composition seems really hectic, with little to no consistency from section to section.

Regarding the sounds/synths themselves, there’s really not a problem, clearly lending to a pseudo-chiptune motif. And I think that there lies potential for a good track to be extracted.

Still, the downsides mentioned do negatively affect the song in more ways than one. In the end my advice would be to spend some time figuring out how to construct coherent melodies, chord progressions and drum patterns, first working with a simple 4-bar section and then trying to expand that into a structurally sound song. Also spend some time analyzing songs that you fancy, and study how they are structured.

[XLR Hangar - Tuner Groove]

Interesting to see such a take on the theme, as the name suggests it definitely gives off a feeling that the emphasis is on the customization/tuning of the player’s craft. Actually the “junky” vibe can be quite fitting for the theme. After all it’s all about the infancy of AG Racing, and this brings out the unregulated daredevil side of that.

Listened a bit to the original version and indeed the updated version is miles better, doesn’t sound as booming which would have definitely negatively impacted the production value. In fact, the production quality now is quite high. Mix is very clear, and every sound stands out just right.

Now it seems that the track is essentially looped 2 times within itself, though the order of some sections seems to change a bit, they remain largely the same. I think it would’ve been nice to see some wholly new ideas in the second half, maybe presenting a section without the distorted guitar, or something else. As it stands it does end up a bit repetitive. Besides that, the arrangement is very nice (honestly, I’ve given up on trying to distinguish between composition and arrangement). Instrumentation is spot on, hearing lots of different sections containing lots of well-fitting choices.

Regarding the above (especially if you happen to read my other reviews), I’m glad to announce that in my ears you have nailed the snare sample(s)! Well the drums in general, as they are all around well taken care of both when talking of mixing and composition.

All in all, good stuff. Repetition aside all the aspects fall neatly in place. As with BlueCheeseCult’s submissions, I want to note that I’m in no way acquainted with this genre, so the comments I give tend to be fairly general. Thankfully BlueCheeseCult and BaryIsCool were able to give you helpful feedback ^^

(Also what the **** the guitar is a sytrus sample? How? *sanctuary guardians plays*)

IVELISCHPFULI responds:

Admittedly 1:24 was when I started to kinda lose confidence, like "oh god what do I do now", then 1:44 to 2:23 (before it loops) was "just getting it done" since the deadline was coming up. Glad to know that didn't go unnoticed hah.

The guitar part itself is pretty much behaving like a normal guitar (raw is fed to a mixer channel for distortion/effects). The "raw" is a Sytrus preset, I think under Guitar "Electric", one of the clean ones, but modified slightly. Then on one of the operators, I tie an automation to the volume Decay to simulate palm muting; with it I can also adjust how much of it. I would've used my actual guitar, but I've been having buzzing issues with recording ever since moving into my current house.

For the mixer, I have the raw go into one mixer, then "only" routed to 2 others. Both have the same distortion, volume and stuff, but 100% panned to opposite sides, with one side having a very slightly delay added before everything else for a stereo effect.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/283483005052518400/815851265312817172/FL64_2021-03-01_16-41-15.jpg

Greatly appreciate the feedback and I hope to see you again for whatever next music challenge!

[Plasmic Bloodflow]

Well this is quite a bit more intense that what I’d imagine someone would make for the prompt. Nevertheless, I actually think that this does work well. This is definitely gonna get you pumped for whatever the next racing event is.

Composition/arrangement is pretty well made, though the song does tilt towards being repetitive, but as you will read below, it’s not very severe. One thing that could use some improvement though is are the dynamics. The track is almost constant volume all the way through. It could help to have a section where you dropped the guitar in the background to give some more dynamic range to the composition, and that way let the listener’s ears reast a bit occasionally, though I suppose the intro does alleviate that. Percussions are well mixed and composed too, maybe the snare could be boosted a bit but it’s very minor.

It doesn’t have too much melodic content going its way, and what it has is pretty lowkey in the mix *but* I think that’s actually a strength. It retains the sense of variety with the short melodic sections and what I believe is vocoder effects. And little melodic content means that it will easily fade into the background, and as it already is pretty damn intense, I believe this help to establish an equilibrium.

But I gotta make a remark about those vocoded sections, I cannot understand a single thing what is said :p Though I assume it’s just supposed to be a sound effect and not actually necessarily audible voices. And they do indeed sound cool as-is.

Overall, the production is very solid. Now I gotta admit that I am not well versed in this genre, at all, so I can’t give much advice/critique in regard to that. But I trust my ears and my ears say that this sounds good ^^b

(Also a funny coincidence, my first ever submission was called *plasma*speed and I was inspired by some concept art of, you guessed it, antigravity race craft :p)

JensVide responds:

That is indeed a funny coincidence. Thank you for the feedback!

[Galaxy knag]

Now one thing I notice even before starting the music is that it’s quite short, only 80 seconds long. The problem with that is that the player would be hearing this music quite a lot, and a track that’s only 80 seconds long could get tiresome fairly easily. Your choice to make it ambient based does alleviate the problem though, as it will likely blend into the background.

Now starting the track and boy, does this got atmosphere in spades. Defo makes me think of wipeout. Very nice futuristic sounding FX to kick the track off, accompanied by some nice pads.

The drums sound ok. I see that you went for a lo-fi feel with a muffled amen break. It does actually fit quite well with the rest of the track, though the snare may be just a tad too aggressive when compared to other elements. I believe you are using a loop of some sorts; you could easily add even more variation with some fairly simple splicing work and doing some breakbeat-ish drum loops. Hi-Hats could also benefit from some additional patterns.

I also notice that there’s next to no bass being used? I think the track would greatly benefit from a fairly simple sine sub bass that ran along with the drums. Doing that would still keep to the atmospheric feeling while also giving the track some low end.

The pads and background FX are very good (if you read my other reviews, you’ll find me ranting about pads quite a bit heh). The low-passed nature of everything makes it sound like the music’s coming from another room, or outside a… hangar. (Actually, now that I think of it those sweeping FX sound like AG race craft)

Some sort of other synths (or other melodic instruments) going on in addition wouldn’t hurt, though there is the problem of finding a balance of atmospheric and melodic components in atmospheric tracks. Maybe something plucky with long release/reverb? For now, the composition does lend itself to a repetitive pattern.

Still, in conclusion, a very solid tune. I just wish it were longer.

[Null Gravity]

This has got a reeaally spacious feeling. Fits perfectly with the description you gave!

I am impressed with your usage of reverb. At first my primary thought was “man this is gonna sound so muddy” when I heard the quite heavy-handed usage of reverb. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that this was not the case. On the contrary, the mixing is excellent.

However, I do notice (but don’t hear) an anomaly in the waveform around the middle? The 0db level seems to be positively offset by around +0.5 for around 30 seconds, which I think is because of a new bass synth being introduced around then. Analyzing the waveform shows that this causes noticeable clipping, so I’m inclined to believe that some quality may have been lost.

The sound quality also seems a bit… grainy? But I believe this is a conscious choice by you to enhance the retro synthwavy feel.

What amazes me in this is how well you managed to combine a gritty, almost cyberpunk-ish feel yet make it sound optimistic. And then managing to combine these motifs with the beforementioned, this truly is a multifaceted composition! Perfectly nails the iconic 80’s retro futuristic vibe (dammit, we could’ve had flying cars and aggressive neon lights but all we got was a truck straight outta ps1 game)

Composition and arrangement are very solid. It does tend to get somewhat repetitive though as it’s mostly the same synths and drums playing all the way through, but there’s enough small variation to keep it from getting boring.

Also, that loop was seamless AF. Makes me wish that NG would bring back the old smart player that skipped the silence in beginning of mp3 files.

In an ending note, very, very good stuff. This nails pretty much every criteria given by me in regards to the challenge while doing what it does perfectly, and thus even though this was not a compo I’ll grant you 2 the nominal title(s) of “receiving the highest review score by me in this category”

Hypervolt responds:

Thanks for the review, glad you liked it! This composition was super fun to craft and the "competition" as a whole was a fantastic experience!

[RUSH]

Composition and Arrangement are top notch. I like how it keeps building up and releasing hype, until releasing it all at the 1:26 mark, culminating in a fantastic breakdown. Very varied structure and perfect length. Definitely not something one tires to listen quickly.

This is absolutely perfect for a boss tune. It lets the hypothetical player instantly know that something serious is about to happen, and soon. That bass build-up to 0:21 (when I imagine the opponent would be presented) gets you really pumped for what’s about to happen. Overall, this track really nails the guidelines I gave in the challenge.

The synths are excellent, all around. The basses, effects, leads, all work perfectly together and sound damn awesome. (Those synths at 1:26, if there was an audible definition of “s**t’s going down”, it would be that section, feels like air raid sirens going off.) Extra “points” for the modulation work on the bass, you really get everything out of that single bass synth, and also the fact that this loops very well.

Drums, however, could use quite a lot of improvement. Especially the kick, it sounds oddly muffled and lo-fi, like it has way too much mid-range frequencies. It’s also too loud compared to other elements. The snare could also be a bit more fatter to reflect the synthwork. Layering it with a traditional dubstep snare could work. Hi-hats are pretty lowkey, but they work well.

Very solid tune. Work on your perc samples and you’ll be putting out excellent music!

(Also I kid you not Cyberpunk 2077 trailer music was the exact same thing that came to my mind too when I first heard this, which is good as that’s a real banger :p)

[Class-S Debris]

First off, do not worry about this not being an orchestral epic! I chose really one-sided examples, but you could indeed work with any genre and style that you were able to work with :)

This one nails the boss theme alright. Gives me huge turn-of-the-90s arcade SHMUP vibes à la R-Type.

I have a hard time forming an opinion on the melodic content. On the other hand, I feel like the individual melodic elements are a bit dull, but there’s quite a lot of variation in them, which will work to their advantage as I’ll be mentioning below. Also, the melodies have definitely grown on me now on my 5th or so listening time. And that supersaw arpeggio break. Just brilliant.

The arrangement on the drums is also excellent. Love the small rolls and riffs that you have sprinkled all over the track. The drum samples themselves however could use improvement. As BlueCheeseCult pointed out giving them some extra “fat” would help, especially on the snares (sidenote, as of writing this I’ve complained about snares/claps 3 times. I’m beginning to think there’s something wrong with *me* dx)

As usual I would be ranting about the lack of pads but you’ve managed to fill the audio space excellently without them, so I will refrain for now ;p

I think that the fact this track has so consistent dynamics the whole time is a disadvantage, as it means that there’s a danger for the track to start sounding very monotonous to the listener. Adding a section somewhere where you dropped the guitar or everything *but* it could provide lots of variety.

Adding to the last point, another thing to note is that the instrumentation stays very constant, having the pulse lead, drums and guitar being major audible elements most of the time. Though I appreciate the occasional breaks to other synths.

Those two points together ultimately make this quite repetitive, though it is alleviated by the melodic content and drums.

In summary a very solid tune! Also, bonus “points” for making it loop well.

ctr34 responds:

Haha, I ve played R-type as well as Gradius, but I ve never finished R-type XD. Im going to look for pads and similar because Im starting to think that it could make my songs less "static". Also, I ve applied "stage gaining" to make the final product a little bit louder without losing sound quality. Im going to update this song right now. Im going to use your comments for further projects. Thank you so much for the review!

[Red Skies // Destroyer Encounter]

It sounds like the track is experiencing some rather noticeable clipping. Analyzing the waveform in audacity seems to confirm this. Consider lowering the volume if individual mixer tracks so that the master rarely goes above 0db, and then maybe adding some compression on master if needed. (That’s how I do it anyways).

Composition and arrangement are done pretty well, but the track is pretty repetitive, seeing that it’s essentially the same track twice (the bridge being pretty much the same thing as the intro, and there are some subtle differences in the later drop). The melodies are nice and expressive, so listening to them 2 times in a song doesn’t matter too much :p

Gotta admit I have a bit of a hard time to fit this to a boss fight scenario in my mind, sounds a bit too much like straight up EDM. I suppose some more abstractly themed skill SHMUP could use something like this as a boss theme, in the same vein how Geometry Dash levels often uses EDM songs.

Aside from beforementioned clipping the production quality is good. Like melodies the synths sound expressive and well crafted (if not a bit generic), and percussions fit right into the mix.

In conclusion this is a solid tune that I do in fact like quite a bit. Not exactly sure how well it fits into the challenge criteria, but as they say: “Those are more like… guidelines”, so yeah, keep the good work up and your levels below 0db ^^b

(Also how come the voice says “final boss” when the boss in question is the first one ;p)

RedSkiesOfficial responds:

Yeah I'd have to admit that I had quite the troubles mixing this one, or mixing in general, because my songs are always way too loud, because they sound empty in my ears otherwise, but it's especially noticable on this one, since this is pretty much the only (newer) song with clipping. I actually procrastinated quite hard on this one, since I only got the drop the drop done for like a month and the rest was thrown together just a few days before the deadline since I hadn't had any ideas for it, so it's no wonder it's not my best song (by far)