Gravey's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Before the Storm V2 - CaL]

Not Bad...

...but all the same it's not great either. It has some nice ideas, but you need to fill out the piece quite a bit. Some things to think about when you compose your next piece.

Layering - You should layer instruments a bit more to get a fuller sound
Reverb - Pianos often sound better with some reverb
Velocities - You need to vary the velocities a whole lot more
Low End - There really isn't any in this piece
Percussion - This lacks some serious percussion power

I do like this as a start though. If I were composing this track this would be my original scratch track in which I build everything off of. The idea being that all the main ideas are down for you right now. And you simply need to fill in the gaps to make it sound fuller.

All in all though it's a good start. Not great by any means, but the foundation for something really nice has been laid. I would continue working on this and building it up until it just screams of awesome sauce. ;-)

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

-Gravey-

ca1en responds:

Constructive reviews like this so helpful. I never really had a background in music of any sort but always wanted to make my own music. WIthout any kind of theory I just had to work a lot out myself, and without making good enough songs I don't really get great feedback like this often so this is what helps me learn the most.

I'll definately try to work on everything you pointed out, I may just have to get my hands on a new set of Percussion VST's from somewhere.

Thanks a lot!

[FS: ReBirth]

Interesting...

This is certainly unique.

I will say that by the end of the song I wanted to shoot that snare. It's just too much throughout the entire song. There needs to be a break from it at some point in time.

I enjoyed the piano quite a bit. I personally think you should add some nice rolling melodic lines above the chords near the end to give it some flair. Nothing incredibly technical or fast. But rather just some soothing melodic lines to add a new dimension to the ending.

Outside of that there really isn't anything wrong with the song. It is quite simple and has a unique charm to it. Would be well suited in a video game to be quite honest. I'm specifically thinking of a cut scene where characters might be shown making a long journey to their new destination in a montage. That is what comes to mind for me when I listen to this anyways.

4/5 and 8/10 overall. It's a solid tune, but not exactly great. But nice work all the same.

-Gravey-

FairSquare responds:

Haha yeah, i admit that i probably used the snare a bit too much in this song.
And i'll try what you said about the melodic lines above the chords :)
Also, what you said about that cut scene where 2 characters make a journey to a new destination.. i kind of got that idea too when i finished the song and listened to it to make up a title. My idea was a bit different though, because i thought of someone trying to cross a river. That's a journey too, right? :p
Thank you very much for the feedback. I really appreciate it.

[<PS> Now That Santa's Gone...]

Pretty Much...

...what I expected. You really enjoy writing slow lyrical pieces. I enjoy them immensely, but I must say it would be nice to see more energy in one of your pieces.

That being said, I enjoyed this piece. I think you would be better served to buy a more professional sounding sample library. I'm not sure what you are using these days, but there are some great options I would be happy to discuss with you. Because right now your samples are hurting you. Because with slow pieces every note is scrutinized far more because the listener has time to pick them apart.

As for what is written, I like it a lot. At 2:20-2:22 you might want to look at your chord structure though. Something sounded slightly off there.

I really like the build up after that though. at 2:57-2:59 I think I heard another odd chord. Maybe I'm just hearing things cause it's late and I'm tired. But go back and have a listen and make sure you wrote what you intended in those moments.

4/5 and 8/10 overall. Nice work bud.

-Gravey-

PenguinSam responds:

I have been having trouble with my sound library recently, and I am trying to fix it as soon as possible.

As far as the "off" chords though, I did check them and they are exactly what I meant to put there.

And as far as more energy, I think my next planned post will show some of that. ;)

Thank you for your review good friend!

<PS>

[Moonlight Goddess - BK]

Alrighty...

The intro before the percussion comes in was nearly enough to drive me away from this song. It's really boring and does not attract the listener at all. Once the percussion comes in though it helps to make up for it. Really enjoyed that percussion line that comes in at the beginning.

That being said, I'm not really sure what to say from a composition standpoint. It repeats a lot,and it seems like it's just a bunch of jabby synths striking my ears over and over. There is no cohesiveness to this at all. No backing leads, no real melody, and honestly there seems to be a real lack of harmony.

I think right now it's good as a start. Like as a base track, this would be great. But you need more layers and more going on. Right now it is a very transparent track until about 2:55. Then it becomes a bit fuller. But even then it's not a real robust track.

Right now to me it really just sounds like a lot of melodies competing for my attention. Nothing feels like it is building on anything else at the moment. And that is a big reason why I feel this piece just doesn't have a cohesive feel to it.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't bad. I just think you can do a lot better and can improve this track immensely. Thus why I'm pointing out it's shortfalls. I'd like to hear a version of this after you've gone back and added some more to it.

3/5 and 7/10 overall.

-Gravey-

[Real Guitar]

It Has Potential...

The intro is decent. I like where it goes and how it builds. It is a bit long though. Maybe trim the intro slightly.

The drums are decent in terms of what is written. Nothing overly technical or mind blowing, but they fit the song well. That being said, you need to work on your mic techniques if you recorded this live. If you are using midi drums with a sampling program we need to talk about your production techniques within your DAW.

The guitars are good and bad. I don't mind what is written, but all the same it's a bit boring for the most part. I personally would liven the guitars a bit with some more technical riffs. Having some leads soaring over what is already written would be nice. You sort of start doing that towards the end, but it would be nice to have the rhythm guitars in there with the leads soloing over top of them.

That being said, this whole track basically sounds like it was written for someone to write epic leads over. I can just see someone going crazy and soloing for nearly all track. It just has a good vibe for that.

One thing about the guitars. They sound distant. I'm guessing you put on some serious reverb on them to make this so. I would look at possibly changing that. But the guitar tones on the guitars sound great. I love the actual tones, its just that the guitars sound so distant.

4/5 and 8/10 overall. It's good, but not quite great yet.

-Gravey-

Theledge93 responds:

I did with what i have. i have a Boss ME50 pedal, and just lined out to my pc. i did have a bunch of reverb. but that's my taste i just like it. i kinda got fed up with the recording part and said fuck it. so that's why it's so shallow. i can see the backup-during-a-solo aspect. hopefully when christmas comes around the halfstack i want will be available. I actually tried to write over what i hae, but the two distortions clashed, and it sounded terrible. the drums are midi. the program is called BFD 2. overall i think this was a good first attempt at producing a recording oriented song.

[Terminator Them Rendition]

Ok Good Ideas...

..but you need to change some things up.

I appreciate the atmosphere you are attempting to create. You are going for that grand, epic, heroic atmosphere. I like it, but you've done something wonky and messed it up.

It sounds like you added compression after putting reverb effects on instruments. So the reverb gets compressed as well as the instrument. That is a major no no. Seriously, never do that unless you are doing something wonky with an IDM or house song. If I'm right, simply move the compression earlier in the effects chain so it is affecting the instruments before reverb is added.

I like the choice of piano. Nexus pianos can be fail. But their fake house-filmscore type pianos are great. I recognize the one you are using here because I used to use it a lot myself before I had a decent piano library. It fits this very well, and I like it.

The strings are a bit iffy for me. What you have written is nice. But I don't think I would have them accenting with the piano like you often do during this song. I would have them just playing long legato chords actually. Honestly the main area I have an issue is at the 0:30 mark. I don't like how you had the strings accented there. Just have them hold out their chords in one long legato movement.

Also, think of adding a counter melody, or even descant part in the strings beginning at 1:03. I think having another melody line above the rest of the ensemble would be very fitting there. It would add tremendously to the piece I believe. Do not make it anything to extravagant. A very simple and pleasing melody would work fine here. Something legato.

Also the mix is a bit wonky. You just need to tighten things up at the moment. Things seem to be a bit loose. By fixing the reverb issue that should help. There also seems to be some sort of white noise attached to the pan flute. Maybe that is intentional, maybe its actually part of the pan flute sample I'm not sure. If so then ignore this. But I would put some sort of high pass filter to get rid of that white noise that seems to be attached to the pan flute. It is really ruining the mix for me.

Lastly, I would lessen the mix of the reverbs a bit. Do not change the reverb settings themselves. Just don't have them set to 100% on your mixing board. You are using FL I believe, so I'll explain what I mean.

To the right of all your effects in the mixing console are little knobs. They affect the % of the effect on your instrument. 100% means that the effect is in full effect, and you can turn this knob all the way to 0% so it is not affecting the instrument at all. I'm guessing the reverbs are all at 100%. Lower them to 60%-ish and see how that sounds. This should help your mix out tremendously.

Nice tune, but it needs some work. Hope these ideas helped bud. :-)

4/5 and 8/10 overall. Nice work so far, just needs a little bit of love still.

-Gravey-

Theledge93 responds:

I love you.

[Nexus Midnite Remix]

It's Alright...

...but isn't anything all that mind altering. It's pretty straight forward and standard techno for the most part. Which isn't a bad thing really, it's just not really a great thing either. :-P

I think some of the samples used are a bit out of place. In particular the orchestral hits you used seem like they do not belong at all. I'm not sure what you were going for with them, but I would replace them with some sort of stabby synth. Because right now they really just do not fit the overall mix in my opinion.

I think the percussion is a bit on the generic side as well. You need to incorporate more loops and rhythms, as well as some more unique glitch effects. I feel like I hear a glitch here and there in the main percussion loop, but I'm not sure. I would turn this more into an IDM type song by glitching up the percussion and layering them a lot more.

Lastly, the overuse og gated synths in this is a bit much. At first it's an alright mix, but about halfway through I started to get annoyed with the gated synths. They are just too much for my taste.

Now don't get me wrong, the song isn't bad. You have a decent mix going on with some interesting synths and melody lines. And the main melody line is looping a whole lot, but somehow stays somewhat fresh throughout the entire song.

3/5 and 7/10 overall. It's good, but not really great. I'd put a lot more work into the percussion and synth lines if it were me.

-Gravey-

[Clematis | SessileNomad//Quarl]

Guess What...

You gets da 5zorz from me on this! ;-D

"and women's uteri open up in glorious song beckoning the joy of penetration from nearby seagulls"

That is the best part of the story my friend.

5/5 and 10/10 overall. <3

-Gravey-

SessileNomad responds:

as i said once before, i have no clue how to respond to this lol

[Flashlight [Pre-Release]]

Simple...

...is the word I would use to describe this tune of yours. It is quite laid back and easy on the ears, and doesn't require much of the listener. One can simply sit back, throw this on as background music and enjoy the song in an indirect way.

I will say that I think it is not quite varied enough for my taste. You really are wearing out that one rolling synth line. It isn't a bad synth line, but it does become stagnant about halfway through the song. I would think about changing it up. You could possibly have it slow down and just play a nice melody line instead of just being the harmony.

Also, this could use some more instruments or synths in it, as well as some percussion. Right now it seems to be quite thin and needs some more breadth and depth of sound. Adding some more instruments, synths, and percussion would help fill out the sound a bit.

It isn't a bad little tune. It just doesn't wow me at the moment.

4/5 and 7/10 overall. Not bad, but could use some more lovin' before you decide it's finished.

-Gravey-

Zageron responds:

Thanks for the input, and I agree with everything except the variation comment. I varied it enough, in my own opinion, to keep the song the way I wanted it to be. I do see what you mean though, and I am incline/entitled to disagree ;)

I'll do a little work, but I think I've about 'worn out' the song. I've got a lot of University time coming up so I'll be sitting down every day for a few minutes to build new songs.

Thanks again!

[Flashlight [Demo]]

Potential...

...this has it. But that being said, it is quite a limited view of what you are trying to accomplish.

I like the glitches you used. I think you should incorporate the glitches throughout the entire song. Glitches are such ear candy if you do them right. They help to break up the monotony of a song and really create some unique effects and textures.

Right now this is really simple. There just isn't a whole lot to critique at this time. Some things to keep in mind would be to fill out the ensembles overall sound. But try not to get overbearing with the mix. I think keeping it light will help it because it seems to be quite fast paced.

Also, don't forget to add some percussion. It has none at the moment, and that isn't a good thing. Having some upbeat and cathartic percussion rhythms could really help push this song along.

3/5 and 5/10 overall. This is the score I give all works in progress. When it is finished I shall give my final judgment. ;-)

-Gravey-

Zageron responds:

Thanks man, I'll definitely keep all your advice in mind. I've attempted to cure the ailments of this version already, and I've managed to. I'll be sure to let you know when the full song is up. :]