skyood's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Son of Funda]

One thing that might help (and make more of a difference than you think!) is panning. Giving each instrument their own little space in the L<->R space, as if they were actually in the room. Small thing that makes a big difference, and as best I can tell everything is straight up "mono." But it's likely that you just hit the limit of usefulness/quality for whatever patches/sounds/etc you're using. Don't exactly sound realistic. But the music itself is well put together. Keep it up.

Ediblefungus responds:

Thanks for the advice, I'll try panning. I used samples and soundfonts for this one, not quite as good as a live orchestra (bit of an understatement) but easier to fit in a box. Thanks again,

Ediblefungus

[Fop Woppin']

A million chimpanzees on a million keyboards ... would only take 2 minutes to do this.

Gobblemeister responds:

So mad...

[Contemplative Bliss]

Excellent. What really made it work was all the subtle but important touches with the different instruments that say hello and then bow right back out ... the bass pluck here and there, the string chords, piano ... etc.

Only complaint is I didn't like the sound of the instrument that's doing most of the little arpeggiated chords (guitar, I imagine?). Just sounds overly dry and dead. Overall though, couldn't fully detract from the overall pleasantness of the track. Very well done.

TheBenjerman responds:

Thanks for the review! If you're referring to the instrument that played throughout (including during the string section) then yes that was a guitar, I'll look into it.

Thanks again, I appreciate it!

[Yearning]

"BIttersweet" is a perfect tag for it. Love the pacing of it, the way almost every note comes juuuust a little later than you'd expect it to. Nailed the feel you were going for, imo.

magnificat12 responds:

That slight delay is somewhat representative of the hesitation I feel before going outside my comfort zone. I wasn't thinking any of that when the piece was written, but it fits. :p Thank you for the review.

[HiiiPower - Stoner]

This is more like it. If you did this beat, it's much better/cleaner. Only hiccup is 2:02-:07 where you're not quite staying in the groove, but I have a feeling you know already knew that.

snp517 responds:

Yes, I was well aware of that little hiccup there. I'm pretty sure who ever did the remake of this beat inserted a pause that was just a litttttle bit too long. I was too lazy to try to fix it so I just flew with it. Thanks though for the critique; that is exactly why I post my shit. I need validation and outside opinion, negative or positive, they both motivate. Stay tuned too, much more to come. Peace!

[Bloop Waltz]

After a fairly quick listen, the only thing that frustrated me was the fact that the distortion/white noise is constant. In particular, the parts with the nice low bass just screamed at me that they wanted to break out of the strange in-between space their living in and ring out nice and clear. Just for me, that white noise is cool as a contrast to something, but having it through the whole song (paired with few changes in dynamics in general) made my brain itch for some reason. Maybe just personal taste on my part, though.

Really like the tune, though. Good stuff.

[War Drums]

2 stars for knowing to separate elements in the stereo "space."

Negative 1.5 stars for everything else. The cymbals and everything starting at :15 or so are a hot mess, there's no beat to speak of (What are you talking about? There's tons of beat! This song is all beat! Try snapping your fingers to it. Go ahead. I'll wait. See?), and nothing remotely resembling a melody.

If you're trolling: Congratulations, +10 internets for getting me to actually review this song.

If you're young (say sub 18), just starting out, or both: Listen, I'm not trying to discourage you from trying to make music. But listen to music you like ... what *specifically* is it that makes you like it? (and don't say a beat you can dance to, because I'm sure there are tons of songs with beats you can dance to that you hate) Find out and work on doing that. If you don't know how to do that, learn. Take actual music classes or learn an instrument (yes it will help even if you're trying to just do electronic music). Sift through YouTube, there are TONS of tutorials out there. Then keep trying. Protip: try starting with an actual melody/tune/hook.

[What About My Freestyle?]

I ended up listening to your track because it's categorized "classical." Rap music in the classical category seems to be a trend ... I don't normally review hip hop, so this pretty much just a first impression:

Most of the rap tracks I've heard on NG are strong on the background beat but the actual rapper sounds like a suburban 14 year old kid trying to channel their non-existent inner Eminem. You sir, do not have this problem-- if you are 14 and from a gated community, at least you don't sound like it. Unfortunately, you have the opposite problem. Good "vocals" but the beat underneath isn't very good-- specifically it isn't mixed very well. You almost have to strain to hear the bass and the little spoken sample overpowers the actual rap when it comes in. It should be reversed, with the bass all in my grill and the sample just a decorative touch.

All in all, pretty good, but the poor mixing job sort of kills the end result. Keep it up though.

snp517 responds:

HAHAHA. Oh my god man, I just now realized this mistake. Classical is def not the genre... Hip Hop-Modern is more like it. But yes, you are correct. I need to step my mastering game up for sure. Actually I'm just a middle class white 16-year old with a love for rap though, nice guess hahaha. If there are any mixing tips you could offer me, I'm all ears man. Thanks for the productive criticism bro.