Gravey's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[When you got a good frein]

Yes!

I love this! Simply love it! I love the blues, and therefore this makes me smile! Nice to see a good blues song near the top for a change here on Newgrounds.

This has a wonderful feel and groove to it. Utterly simple concept, yet still has me tapping my foot and bobbing my head to the beat. This is wonderful, reall just wonderful.

I love how the vocals are doubled, and you had them off more than a bit in areas. So it doesn't just give that chorus effect, but actually sounds off in areas. In other genres it would sound bad and lazy. But for the blues, it gives it some lovely flavor.

Oh, and the harmonica makes me smile.

5/5 and 10/10 overall. Great job.

This song has been favorited!

-Gravey-

Lundsfryd responds:

Thank you very much for the kind words. Just a note: The vocals are not dubbed. It is live and it is the slideguitarist who is singing the backup vocals..

[Tropicana.]

Haha!

You've been drinking to much Malibu rum my friend! X-D

I really like this song a lot. You did a great job at capturing the tropical paradise essence.

I would say that you could use some better samples though. I like some of the sounds you have going on, but a few of them seem really midi-ish. Maybe I'm an idiot though, I don't know.

As for the composition itself though, it is pretty much flawless. It sounds perfect for a tropical paradise setting in a video game. And that was exactly what you were going for, so I can't really say anything negative about the composition.

5/5 and 10/10 overall. Nice job here bud.

-Gravey-

Tomppaah responds:

Thank you very much! :) Some of the melodies came by accident and some of them i "planned" out, but overall i'd say they work very well together and give it this tropical feeling :).

You're actually dead on with the MIDI comment.. Well it's not really a MIDI instrument i'm using, but it's a soundfont. I guess there could be a more suitable sample for it, but as i wanted to finish this ASAP i hastily chose the soundfont :).

Thanks again and i'm glad you liked it!

[The Wayward Flying Machine]

It's Interesting...

I gotta say, you can write percussion very well. I'm quite jealous cause I always feel my percussion is sub-par in my songs. You though have quite a knack with writing percussion.

The solo strings really have a wonderful texture to them. I really like their sound and timbre a lot. And as always, you came up with a unique way of writing their parts so it doesn't get boring and dull.

But all that said, this song doesn't capture me quite like the rest of your stuff does. I'm not sure why, but it just doesn't.

5/5 and 9/10 overall.

-Gravey-

Aeris responds:

Probably cuz it's not "big" as most of my music, it's simple and repetitive :] I'm probably going to rewrite the middle part.

Thanks for the review, high regards as always :D

[Twilight in the Middle East]

I Like It...

...yes, I do I do I do. :-P

This is really cool my friend. Your style always makes me smile. I could tell a song was written by you even if I wasn't told ahead of time that you wrote it. You just have a very unique style.

I like the vocals. They fit the piece very well, and add a cool dimension to it. I'm not sure I like that piano type sound that comes in after the vocals though. The reverb in particular is what I don't like. It sounds...warbly...which can be cool, but I think it detracts from the song.

Now I like it when the rest of the ensemble joins in later. Maybe you could tone down the reverb when it is more the focal point, and boost it back up when the full ensemble kicks back in.

But really, this song is really unique and quite simply cool sounding. Me likes! :-D

5/5 and 10/10 overall.

-Gravey-

Aeris responds:

It took me a while to figure out you were talking about the harp xD

But you have a good point, I'll slap in a few envelopes and get it under control ^-^

I'm glad you like my style xD

Thanks always Gravey :]

Smilies :O

[<PS> (Black Key) Love Song]

YAY!!!

I like it a lot! You really made it a lot smoother than my original version. I like how you slowed it down as well. The tempo is definitely more to your style than mine normally is. :-)

I really like the lead violin. It has such a wonderful sound. It really was a great choice for the main melody.

Also, the percussion has an awesome sound. Really, it has such a distant, yet very tangible timbre to it. Not an easy thing to do at all, yet you did it wonderfully here.

I simply love this my friend!

5/5 and 10/10 overall.

This has been favorited!

-Gravey-

PenguinSam responds:

I'm glad you like it so much!

The tempo was the first change I made, I felt the need for this song to be much slower! And the violin just came naturaly! I like using the lead violin, it just has such a great sound to it!

And the percussion, I guess I just got lucky on that one! The program I use is made more for the priniting of music rather than the playing, so lucky me!

I'm really glad that you loved this! It means a lot!

<PS>

[S:U - Dark Distribution]

Pretty Cool...

I liked the beginning a lot. It really helped to create a cool atmosphere.

I like just about everything about it, except for the FL Slayer. That kinda hurt my ears a bit, but you work with what you have at your disposal. I recommend finding a different guitar sample or vst though.

Also, add some percussion. That would really help this little loop out a lot. You need some really mean hits or something in my opinion. Like big grating industrial machine like hits.

Besides all that though, this is pretty cool. The different synths really fit well together, and create a dark and mysterious atmosphere.

4/5 and 7/10 overall. Nice work, but still has some room for improvement.

-Gravey-

StaticStigma responds:

LOL, Thanks, man. Know of any vst's that i might find useful? i'm still pretty limited with the base FL contents.

[MH16: One More Time]

Very Cool...

This has such a happy vibe to it. It would be a really cool song for the main theme of a childs cartoon show. Something along the lines of The Gummi Bears, or whatever they were called back in the days. Yea, it would be perfect as the theme song for that kind of childrens show.

The structure of this is well laid out, and it flows very nicely. Every section leads in the next one effortlessly, and it really helps to make this easy to listen to.

Now one thing, I hear clipping from my speakers in areas. I'm listening through my speakers and not my headphones, so I could be mistaken. But I think I heard clipping at the 0:47 mark until the end of that section. Also, in the beginning when the piano hits those low notes I think I hear the slightest of clipping. I would double check the intro as well as the section at 0:47 just to be safe.

But other than that, this is a wonderful little tune. Very nice indeed, and I like it.

5/5 and 9/10 overall.

-Gravey-

FairSquare responds:

Yeah, what you heared is definitly clipping. I heared that after i submitted the song and was too lazy to change it :P
And the idea of this being a theme for a childs cartoon is very cool :D
Well, there's not really much i can say more about your review other then that i appreciate it and that i thank you for it :-)
Thanks!

[Solstice [DEMO]]

Hmmm....

It's a start, but that's all. Granted this is a demo, but even for a demo this is pretty simple.

My suggestions to make it better are gonna be kind of obvious.

1. Lengthen it.
2. More instruments
3. More layers
4. More percussion
5. Varied percussion

I'm not trying to be a douche, but asking what people think you could do to improve this song is almost to wide of a range. Because it is so short and simple at the moment, that really it needs everything done to it.

Now don't get me wrong, it sounds cool. I'm not saying it doesn't sound cool, but you should put a little more into something before asking for advice. Unless you have very specific questions you are asking.

This is a good start, but for the most part is too simple to really give any solid advice on. It is impossible to really tell where you are wanting to take this song at the moment. So commenting on it is difficult.

3/5 and 5/10 overall. Good start.

-Gravey-

jbarnett responds:

thanks and check out the newer, longer and better version that i will have up shortly.

[Kw- Robby Station]

Very Nice...

...BUT! You technically didn't write it. That being said this is awesome.

It is clipping though, quite constantly to say the least. You need to fix that my friend. Other than that though, the mix and quality of this song is spot on! Just fix the clipping and it will be perfect as a full mix.

I like the percussion a lot! It has that typical Kaizerwolf quality of awesomeness that I've come to know and love! :-) The rhythms are just awesome, and the percs themselves just have a perfect sound and mix. God I wish I could write percussion half as well as you my friend.

I like the different synths used in this song. They have a wonderful texture, and really blend together very well. And they really create a dreamy, yet dance like atmosphere. I wouldn't call this a dance song though, it is just something you could dance to.

4/5 and 8/10 overall. Like I said above, you technically didn't write it. So I knock a point off for that, and the clipping killed the quality standards. So ya lose another point there. But really, the clipping can be fixed easily. :-P

This has been favorited!

-Gravey-

nightsurfermusic responds:

Thanks! Like i said, i didn't rip the whole thing from a MIDI file, i actually recreated every melody by ear. I'm not sure where exactly there is clipping in the song, but i'll try and fix it up. :)

Thanks!

[B.Jo - iMeDr00p]

Interesting...

The claps in the beginning are kinda iffy. Claps are fine there I think, but you should get better claps to use there. They sound pretty bad, like FL Studio presets. That is never a good thing.

I like the pulsing kick, it is pretty cool sounding. Really gives the song an energetic and throbbing feel.

I think the problem this song has is the lack of layers. It is pretty transparent. So you should go back and add a lot of layers to this. Add some harmony lines, and even some counter melodies to go with and against the melodies already in place.

Also, you could think about adding some delay effects and the such to help fill this out a little. Now I hear some delay on the one synth lead if I'm not mistaken, which is cool sounding. But you could think about adding some other effects to more instruments when you start adding layers.

This is a good start though. You are on the right track.

4/5 and 7/10 overall.

-Gravey-

KikuMistoffelees responds:

Thanks^^ It's realy helpful :3