TheVodouQueen's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[NeverEndingStress(NGAIC layer 3)]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

- Sounds like this belongs in a 2D-sidescroller cyberpunk zombie shooter, or something very akin to Hotline Miami (also gives me M|O|O|N vibes--the guy behind the Hotline Miami soundtrack). Lovin' it.

- Bass is hot and pretty awesome (I am a sucker for some good bass structure and noise)!

- The melody is crisp and I really enjoy the synth! How did you make it / what instrument is it derived from?

CRITIQUE:

- Would make a lovely loopable piece of media, (you can get the song to loop on your end, I think, for other people when they listen to it to get that same effect without them having to manually click the button...)

- Oddly enough, I don't have a whole lot to critique on this piece. My small two-cents I think is by the time we get to @ 01:16 mark, the song might warrant a new small piece of instrumentation and addition to the chorus melody structure (e.g. a bell in an arpeggio). Would give it a bit of spice before the loop, but that's about it....

- Maybe some glitching with the bass (e.g. dBlue Glitch or some other plugin) @ 00:53 would be cool--again, just as a means to spice things up and keep the piece lively. :D The kick I think also needs to break through the mix a bit more, to be thumping, out there, and heard, so some side-chaining with the bass might need to be employed....

Wonderful! Although you say you don't know much about Industrial, you hit it pretty square in the head and made a dope song in the genre! Good luck with the remaining Layers! :3

Arponax responds:

I get that alot....i would like to make music for games, movies or various animations so im happy that i got the vibes :D

I tend to mess with basses quite alot (mostly upper layers tho...when it comes to how bass works and stuff...i have to learn alot its like pretty big topic)

The sounds are made in Vital....The bass and the crisp lead is based on few randomizers that tweak some knobs, so it saves me automating time and sounds interesting XD

Its looped now.

Im thinking that i could like finish the tracks i will make for NGAIC after it ends....so i may work on it a big.

Thanks tho i didnt expected such long feedback :D glad you like it. (Other genres will be the same tho cause as i said im lazy to read about genres....so who knows maybe ill be lucky and hit it exactly as it is XD

[What Am I? (NGAIC Layer 2)]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

Oooo...I'm lovin' this. The weird vox-synth grabbed me from the get-go. This sounds and feels very much like some of the DnB you'd hear in the London Underground circuit. The very light, sort of "middle-of-the-line" vocals paired against an odd sense of "emptiness", the grating, rough-textured, glitched drums and harsh rolling bass is an impressive dichotomy. It felt simultaneously like they were fighting each other, and working together...if that makes sense. Seems pretty metaphoric of the adage "what am I?"--since we are, as human beings, always in a constant repeated struggle of figuring that out...sometimes agreeing with ourselves and others' perspective of that, and sometimes brow-beating against those things. Nicely done. :D

CRITIQUE:

I don't really have much here that I didn't agree with or didn't "like", as it were. Drums were pretty spot-on, and so was your usage and modifications with your synths. Volumes seemed balanced. I think the only two things I could nitpick is: 1) I think your bass could've been a bit heavier (i.e. louder / on top) in places, especially in build-ups and after drops (e.g. @ 02:30 - 03:09 & 04:14 - 04:42), and 2) I think the beginning vox-synth from 00:10 - 00:35 was just a tad too loud. Might not be the "volume" per se, but more that it seemed to clip for me (laptop was not happy about it and it came out as a rumbled squeak). . . . Also, I don't think the vocals were used too much--as it were--but, might've benefited from not being so static, (e.g. having them fade in and out of the background to the foreground, having them repeat in a slow-down effect, or whisper-bounce between left and right speakers, etc.)

Otherwise, this is quite a unique piece, and I really enjoyed listening to it. And it's very well done and planned for 6 hours max spent on it.

Good luck with the remaining Layers! :3

[malfunction]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

Was head-bobbing to this; defo has that 'Sonic' vibe to it, as some people described it. Later Bomberman titles utilized a lot of DnB as well, and the same sorta feel. I really like it, length and all, and I love the glitching towards the end. :D Would make for a fab Loop, (and I think you can have songs Loop in Newgrounds).

CRITIQUE:

Some people have given sound advice on how to conquer issues with clipping. Side-chain compression is a good start, (so your drum kicks and percs can 'pierce' through the bass mix, without compromising the bass presence and sound.) Sometimes side-chaining certain synth layers vs. other synth layers (like foreground and midground synths) just that *tiny* bit also helps people to hear what's going on in the midground when you want their attention there, without compromising your top layer volume and sound too much.

Another very good means, (as I've been directed and taught to do in some of my recent songs), is--after placing your FX for mixing where you want them to go, and before any volume envelopes are placed for automation--highlight all your track busses and lower their faders by about -10 or -12db across the board, including placing your Master Track down to around -6 or -7db. The latter is because before mastering you will *always* want the Master to be -6db there-abouts for plenty of headroom for mastering. The former is so you can adjust every sound to get it where you want it to be in the mix, without a lot of fighting and hassle later in the process. :) If you want your drum and bass prominent, you can do that via the faders, and then have it where you can just about hear the synths over them. That'll make for a perfect starting spot to gauge if your FX is doing the right things, as well as give you more room and space to play with automations to bring forth or push-back whatever elements you want to do that throughout the song.

One final thing that might help is to lace all your synths into their own volume bus, that leads into the Master. Do the same for your percussion, kicks, drums and bass (in their own volume bus). That way, you can control one or the other much more effectively in perspective with the entire track, without having to tag and keep account of every single track fader. Volume busses and FX sub-busses might sound a lil' overwhelming and complex, but once you get the hang of it, it makes combating clipping issues go smoothly. :)

Very jazzy. :3 Good luck with the remaining Layers!

**POST-EDIT NOTE: If you have space for an available VST plugin for your DAW, you can always download Voxengo SPAN (there's a free version) to slap onto your Master bus and watch the spectrogram to see your sound balance. It also shows places where it can clip where your DAW in rendering might not pick it up. It's a bit finicky and sensitive (sometimes I think it over-compensates on what's clipping and what isn't), but it's a good starting place to get used to looking at kHz spectrograms and for true peaks... :3

[song for ethan to rampage through the streets and slaughter people]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

Love the bass in this and the progression. Really does make it feel/sound like either something huge is pursuing you, or rampaging through the streets...(is that you, Gojira???? D: ) The up and down flow of this Dubstep treat is sound, bass is pretty present (although could argue it could go *EVEN HARDER*, if you wanted), and it's a good length and pace, not overstaying its welcome and keeping the excitement going all the way to the end! :D

CRITIQUE:

Only issue I think I had with this was the case of not enough modulations going on with your synths (especially the lead(s)), and they seemed to be lingering too much in the middle-ground of the piece. I really think if you brought them out a lot more forward and more poignant with the thumping rattle bass/reese growls in the back, it'd be even more scary and more powerful than ever before, (shouldn't feed the monster any more radioactive substances, but here we are...) It might've been me listening to this on a laptop as well, and not through headphones or wider speaker settings, but your lead synths didn't have much play with panning, LFO or stereo sines. So yeah, just something to keep in mind for next time. ^_^ EDM seems to love glitches and vocal chops and messing around with synth structures with effects--would've loved more of what you did @ ~ 02:00 in more sections of your track.

A lovely, headbanging piece nonetheless! :3 Good luck with the remaining Layers!

[A Bit of 16Bits Music [Full Album]]

This is so fantastic...

Throws me back to the sweet, sweet childhood good ol' days of spamming the ever-loving hell out of Sonic 2, Shinobi III and Gunstar Heroes... ♥ Lovin' every second of this and it's an inspiration to listen to!

Thanks for the hard work and gracing us all with this bop of an album. :D Godspeed to ya. :3

[HUMANHUNTERS (PixelDay2023)]

This is pretty fucking awesome for a first attempt. :) Very Doom/Wolfenstein/Splatterhouse in feel and tone.

I'd certainly play the hell out of this game, based on the song alone. ;)

[Dreaming Under Metallic Skies]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

Why does this feel like something we'd listen to at the end of a reel from the Blade Runner series? So melancholic...so solemn.... Like in and admist the brightly lit slums, under dusky, wretched, rain-filled clouds, all we can do is cry. Cry for our sins. Cry for our ineptitudes. Cry, in joyous celebration, of Man's defeat at the hands of unbound, unbridled capitalism, under said dystopian, acidic skies. I have 0 clue, but those are the feelings invoked within me in listening to this piano concerto. It's very beautiful and awe-inspiring, and a well done take on the three challenges you set out to conquer before you. :)

CRITIQUE:

I think I'm gonna somehow touch/drink some spicy 666 forbidden soup by even daring to critique something from the (in)famous LD-W, buuuuut...I guess just hear me out, take what I say with a grain of salt and the two shit cents that it is. xD Keeping in mind you went complete 'Solo Instrument' as part of the challenge, with 'Ambient' and 'Cinematic Soundtrack'...I think the piano you made could've done with a bit more variation. It stayed in the mid-to-high notes pretty consistently, and stayed within the same key pretty much throughout (AFAIK). It also kinda felt like it was played primarily one-handed, or two-handed on one side of the piano? I am unsure, however, I think utilizing more chords beneath the stunning upper-toned strikes would've added to the already given panoramic view via sound. If not, perhaps a change of key, or an interplay back and forth between two. Another idea that came to mind is specifically playing all white keys, or all black keys, as a form of leitmotif. Kinda like was done for Dark Souls with Gwyn's Lament / DS1 Theme, where the only keys played were whites. I'm unsure if any or all I've mentioned was employed, but that's my take.

Now I hope the chaos gods forgive me for my transgressions. :P

Good luck with the remaining Layers. TY for hosting the NGAIC this year, and I look forward to hearing more of your passionate work. :D

LD-W responds:

Thanks!

Yeah it's all fine: did what I could in 3 hours. Quick improv recording in one take and everything else slapped underneath it very quickly. If I was doing a piece like this for a more serious contest, I would definitely spend around x10 as much time, and go for a more complex and notation-rich result

[Vino Bueno]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

Woo! Finally some EDM/House! :D The Spanish/English vocals were so nice, TBH. Most people vote to do more fully melodic/harmonic arrangements with no vocals, so this is a breath of fresh air! Really groovy!

CRITIQUE:

My main issue is that the piece is fairly...static. I know it makes 0 sense because you have a lot of texture and backing pinning this all together, and they work wonderfully, but the thing with EDM is that there's usually a lot of bells and whistles going on. Panning, sweeps, tempo changes, key changes, additions of arp / taking away elements and putting them back, changes in velocity note-hits and pitch--you name it. And I did not hear a whole lot of that going on, so sadly, what we hear from beginning to end is practically identical. I'd (personally speaking, from experience and criticism I've had on my work before), do something like that, focusing in on how I can make any EDM piece warp and change and go crazy over time. EDM (and its genre-derivatives) seems to be pretty centric on the idea of transformation. Some people call it "ear-candy", but that is pretty essential to the genre(s) as a whole. Would've also been nice to hear the vocals chopped up and manipulated. Whether glitched, pitched up and down on an automation envelope, have an ad lib repeated and sped-up to help glide a build-up to a drop, etc. So like Arbel said, dynamism is key. :)

Otherwise, I think your mixing is pretty solid. Just needs a lot more bells and whistles to keep your audience engaged for the full ride, especially with volumes and pitch.

Keep up the good work! Good luck with the remaining Layers, and I look forward to hearing more from you. :D

WontonSauce responds:

late response but thanks for the critique! when i was makin this i felt like something was missing but i couldn't put my finger on in but ya hit it right on the head. appreciate ya takin a listen and ill def try to employ your advice in future work. again thanks sm!

[City Rider]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

Whoooa... I feel like I'm playing Streets of Rage or old school Double Dragon with this beat. Very SEGA-inspired, and I'm loving it! This would defo fit right at home with any of those games, or series of games akin to them. Especially the jazzy 'sax' sounding chippy. It really does throw me back to the good ol' days of solid beat-'em-ups with rockin' soundtracks! ...Hahaha, I can hear right now the power-up sounds and cheesy 90s commentator blurbs, while kicking the shit out of the bad guys and cleaning up the slummy streets from rival gangs...

CRITIQUE:

You say the "mixing is awful/a shit job". TBH, 1) it isn't (really it isn't), and 2) I think it's a real tough do to mix chiptunes/faketunes regardless. You don't have the same wide berth of sounds and hertz to play with as with normal arrangements, so the synths need to be spicy and poignant, and your bass and drums spiking it just right. I'm unsure what you used to make this song, and I am unfamiliar with trackers, but I have played around with NES/Famicom/SNES/Gen-emulation plugins like PSU and TB-Peach.

Most things sound balanced to me. Loops perfectly. Stereo image is coming through both speakers fine. But as was said below, I think the instruments need more space and are 'competing'--as it were. They're not neatly boxed into their EQ brackets, and I don't hear any compression? You might've compressed some, but I think if you did, they'd come out a lot crisper and fine, pushing forth the best aspects of each. Also a small sidechain comp between the drums and bass would fix some of the 'too much spread' aspect, while letting your beautiful kicks power through enough where if you lower the volume a lil' of everything else--bar the bass and drums--they'd come out giving us even more of a reason to kick some ass on the mean streets!

...Just my two cents tho. :) Not proficient in chiptunes (although I want to try and make a few of my own this year!)

At any rate, good luck on the remaining Layers. :D I look forward to hearing more songs from ya. o/

[Warm Winter]

** A NGAIC REVIEW **

o/ :)

COMPLIMENTS:

This feels very London Underground scene, to me. I'm unsure if you've heard of an artist called Burial, but it very much reminds me of some of his work. Got a lil' bit of Daft Punk-ness about it as well, with the 70s/80s dance inclusion. This is an interesting mix of Lo-Fi, Disco and Breakbeat, and its honestly got me grooving.

CRITIQUE:

I think your bell melody might need a bit more TLC on its mid-to-upper frequencies, as it seems to nearly clip that threshold between deliciously good (especially with the reverb on it) and ear-piercingly hurtful. So EQing a dip or two between 5-8k and 10-12k is probably needed? I think the bass and drums also need to be pushed a bit more, and present (more than likely by sidechain comp, if not already employed). It sounds like the bass and drums are competing for space moreso than riding / gliding along each other... They 'thump' real nicely, but not as much as I think this song deserves or I would've pressed for. I think someone below mentioned it, and I'll agree on that--I also wished this had a bit more variation going on. A slowdown in the tempo midway or towards the end might've been cool, or a shift in the key. I don't think it needed an additional instrument to hop onboard and take over the melody or add a layer of harmony, although some synthy horn or piano rhodes might've been cool. Or even some funky slap bass / 70s whammy guitar--since you wanted to ingrain some Disco into it.

All in all tho, this is a solid piece. Very funky and enjoyable. :)

Good luck with the remaining Layers. I look forward to hearing more from you soon. :D