skyood's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[oove] Requiem]

I'm not a dubstep guy at all, but I'm digging this, which is a victory for you in and of itself. Anyway, since I'm out of my element, I'll only say this one thing ... ok two things.

1. I don't like the (suprise?) ending. It sounds like something an experimenting high schooler does to make his sub-par song "cool." You sir, are too good for gimmicks.

2. How are you not writing music professionally? If you're not, you should be. Yesterday.

broove responds:

I wasn't a dubstep guy either, but now for some strange reason I start to like it more and more.

People's thoughts really divide on the ending, but that's fine, because it sounds right to me.
As of the professional writing... if it happens, it happens. I'm not looking for anything really, I just like to make music, and I'm very glad that people enjoy listening to it.

Thank you for listening and your reviews.

[Joy]

Just plain beautiful. I would absolutely pay for this.

2c of critique: Don't like how at the very end the groove gets broken up by the distorted beat. The song puts you so in a smooth, relaxing, optimistic groove that I'd rather be put gently to sleep, or left hanging, at the end, not jolted awake.

But I loved the vocal, I loved the way it had an internal story, loved it. You re-set the bar for what I personally want to do.

broove responds:

I appreciate your critique and kind words. Hope you achieve that thing you want.

[One Of A Kind]

Good stuff.

3.5 for two reasons: the dirty/fuzzy/static thing going on (0:00 - :28; 1:20 - 2:11, etc) makes me want to shove a sharp stick in my ear in order to remove whatever that is. :P aka I find it annoying and don't know what it adds to the song, other than perhaps some variety. If the later is the case, there must be a less nerve-grating way to mix things up. Second reason is just that it's too repitive as it stands. However, I'm assuming that it's meant to be rapped over, in which case the repetitiveness is actually potentially a good thing to keep the vocal up front.

Overall though, it's solid. Beat makes me pay careful attention that I don't bounce my head considering I'm currently in the library, and all the other little things you have going on in there (other than what I already mentioned) add a lot to it. Keep going your thing.

Dre-17 responds:

Thx Yo. I Didnt Kno AnyOne Posted. But Yea lol I Appreciate Your Post Yo. Check Out Some Of my Other Tracks And Tell me What You Think

[Spanish sunset (draft)]

I like it ...

But I would like it even more as like the center/basis/melody for a fuller "chill" type song, because it gets repetitive ... which isn't the fault of your composition or anything, there's just not much there yet. Great idea to combine those two elements like you did. Love the feel of it, just really like it. Keep it up.

[Ambiente Dolce]

Nothing pastoral about it.

If I had to nitpick, which I often do for the sake of (hopefully) giving people something to think about to maybe improve for the future-- I think you need to use a bit of the EQ, if that makes sense, you have the little piano-ish part up higher in the later half, but other than that, it's all low rumble except for those occasional sweeps, and those sweeps start to all sound the same after a while. Let me put it this way: Through my laptop speakers all I heard was vague/muddy hum and the sweeps, I had to put on headphones to pick up on what was going on. Also, I think it takes a bit too long to "get going," but that's just me.

Having said that, I think you nailed the forboding mood you were going for, and would totally work in a game where it's just background (as opposed to this setting where I'm listening to it semi-carefully for the sake of giving feedback). It's obvious when I put on headphones and listened to what you had going in that low end that you did put real thought and effort into all that bass-y stuff. Love that you don't end on tonic. Good job.

Adam-Beilgard responds:

Thanks for the advice! I can see how some voices get buried (esp. on certain speakers), fortunately this makes no pretense to have any sort of melody. If you're familiar with the Defcon OST, that was the sound/style I was going for.

The main concern with this was the mood, and since you got it right away, I can rest easy!

Thanks for the review!

[TranceCrafter - Mind's Refuge]

A Quick one ...

I overall definitely liked it, very impressive and well-written ...

But there are several places where I just don't like the chord choices. I can't put my finger on exactly why, but there are several places where a chord jarringly sticks out in the progression. The most obvious culprit to me is at 1:08.

What I am _very_ impressed with is your use of velocity and tempo changes (and the subtle reverb) to make the piece feel human/played live. Great piece.

[Extinguishing Hope (Repost)]

A quickie ...

Pretty good, but not super-impressive to me. Mostly because the beat and the lyrics are fairly aggressive ... but the vocal needs more edge/stank on it to match the aggression level of the rest of the song. To be blunt, doesn't always sound very confident. A little chorus would be nice, too. Just my 2c, I'm really not much of a hip-hop guy. Take it for what you will.

[Candombe in the Amazon]

...

Ok, honest to God, I don't mean this as a putdown, but I could do this in GarageBand in about 10 minutes. On the other hand, it might be just what someone needs for background to a flash or something ... but I'm not impressed. If you're enjoying yourself, more power to you, I guess.

TrueDefect responds:

Haha yeah it is very simple. I'm still trying to get the hang of making music and I realize this is very basic stuff, I just didn't know what else I could add. I have the idea but not quite the skill to make it happen yet. I'll keep trying though. I really enjoy your songs, by the way. Thanks for the review.

[March of Supernova]

Too much of a pretty good thing

I don't mind what you've got here, it's essentially pretty good. But it takes waaaaaaaaaay too long to get anywhere. 8 measures (at the beginning exactly, it picks up a bit after that I think) of exactly the same thing is too much. No change in volume, no changes period. To be brutally blunt, my first inclination at about :20 seconds is to go "wtf," assume you're not capable of coming up with anything other than 1 measure repeated ad naseum, leave a crappy vote, and move on with my life. Get somewhere away from where you actually wrote this, and listen back to it as objectively as you can. It's pretty darn repetitive.

But it's not bad. Take what you have, limit yourself to no more than say, 4 measures of repetition (honestly I'd try to go no more than 2 measures without at least some slight variation), and try again. I have an inkling from what's here that you can do better than this.

[(S10) Militia]

A quickie

See my other review ... (I'll stop commenting on your related tracks :P) Same thing. I appreciate that you're trying to mix up the bass lines and the drum patterns, but there's just not enough elements. Look at this way, let's say hypothetically you have 2 different ideas per instrument/element/thing. WIth drums and bass that leaves you 4 possibilities. If you add a third, that doesn't give you 5, but 9. It's exponential.

Not bad, though. :)