Gravey's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[ne0n]

This Is Wonderful...

Seriously bud, you've really outdone yourself here. The atmosphere of this piece is just extraordinary.

Honestly, I don't feel like breaking this down into technicalities because I feel this song is sort of above that. Everything just fits and sounds great. I've got nothing but love for this song bud. :-)

5/5 and 10/10 overall. Wonderful job my friend.

-Gravey-

Tokolos responds:

/thanks Gravey!
appreciate it

[|-Guitars and Drums-|]

It's Nice...

But I think it could be a bit better.

First off, that snare. Oh god it's so out of place. You should invest in some good drum sample libraries. Cause it sounds like you are stuck mis-matching between the preset FL kits. Which is hard to do and make the kit sound good.

Outside of that, the repetition is a bit much for me. I do like the guitars and how one is playing rolling chords and the other is carrying the lead. But I think you could have changed up the chords a bit more. For the most part it seems like the same chord structure throughout the entire song. I would work on incorporating some different chord progressions.

Honestly, right now the worst part is the drum kit. I hate nearly every sample you are using. What's written isn't bad. But the samples, they just don't fit. I know you don't really have anything better at your disposal at the moment though. So I won't hold your score back too much for it. But all the same, you should look into buy something like EastWest's Goliath. It would have nearly everything you need for music like this.

4/5 and 8/10 overall. It's nice, but there are slight things like the repetition that holds the score down a little bit.

-Gravey-

Theledge93 responds:

haha! you hit the nail on the head. i recently watched some tutorials on how to make instruments punchier, and more bassy. while i didn't apply that exact tone to the instruments, i used the same concept and tried to make the instruments not sound like the shitty prefabbed demo versions they were. apparently it didnt work.
and i didn't put a huge amount of work trying to write 40 different riffs for the song, because it was the demo, i couldn't save it. but if i had this project at home base, this shizz would be epic. i would use my real guitar, and a new amp i'm getting (Bugera 333xl-212 tube amp). this song would be orgasmic.

[Sounds Pretty Gravey]

Lol!

Ok, I'm not sure it sounds anything like me. But I do appreciate the attempt. :-P

5/5 and 10/10 overall. Why? Cause I'm nice like that. ;-)

-Gravey-

AccountableMasses responds:

Then who do I sound like then? :/

Anyways, thanks for the review. Look forward to hearing more from you..

ACMasses

[Kw- Absent]

Interesting...

You have a lot of good things going on in this submission. So where to begin? I guess I'll start from the beginning.

I like the atmosphere you are trying to obtain with this. Seems to me you are trying to get that sorta secret agent tone with this. A mix of electro and orchestral elements with a nice bit of ambient textures.

For the most part I like what is written. Although I think the strings could be varied up a bit throughout. Their loop gets to be a bit much after a short while. Maybe replace them for a segment somewhere with a slightly different progression.

Also, it takes too long to actually get up and running in my opinion. Most of the track lacks body. When the bass comes in it takes care of this issue. But I feel you waited to long to bring it in. I would have introduced it into the mix at 0:15 to be quite honest. It just takes too long to reach a full sound is my opinion.

When the bass and full percussion ensemble kicks in it sounds great. The tune has a wonderful tone and mix to it. And it really has that sort of spy atmosphere that you were aiming for.

5/5 and 9/10 overall. Some minor tweaks would make it better I would say. But all in all a solid submission for sure.

-Gravey-

nightsurfermusic responds:

Thanks. I agree, it is a bit slow to start. I sort of wanted to introduce each of the instruments. Thanks for the review though, I'll keep your suggestions in mind if I ever get around to fixing up this song. :P

[Ktr/wf1 Fuzion]

Ok, This Was A Surprise...

Because I listened to this, and wasn't impressed at all. Truthfully, not trying to be a dick but man this seemed rather lame to me. Then I noticed who wrote it, and I was even far more surprised. I want to write a review but I don't want to put off my buddy Wyldfyre, but all the same he leaves me critical reviews all the time so I feel like I owe him.

So where to start. I guess at the beginning. The song starts off with what is in my opinion a really obnoxious synth that goes nowhere. Like there is this nice orchestral backing that is attempting to set some sort of mood, and yet there is this synth that is just ruining it. Love the orchestral intro, but man that synth ruined it for me.

Then the bass kicked in, and sadly its a synth bass. I think you would have been far better with a contrabass there instead of that morphing synth bass. Because it's just too much. It covers up all the good orchestral elements and destroy the mood.

The percs in this are a really bad choice. I'm not sure why you went with an electro drum kit, and to be honest I think it would sound fine to use an electro kit in this song. But the one you chose is just to electro. I would have went with a more traditional and laid back kit. It really sounds like you were writing with a drum kit that was used in all the bad 80s and 90s pop ballads.

I enjoyed the break at the 1:40 mark. The piano is nice, but the velocities seem rather hard. I would raise the volume on the piano and lower the velocities. By doing this the piano will be the same level volume wise in the mix, but will have a much softer tone. And that would be a great benefit in that section of the song.

And man, that dig-a dig-a dig-a line with the toms that loops drives me nuts. Instead of looping that same drum cadence over and over I would write two to three different cadences. And then I would use that tom run as filler instead of a main cadence. Because it is the sort of thing that can become way too much rather quickly.

Moving onto the mix itself, well, it's really bad. I hear over compression in so many areas, such as at 1:25 and from about 2:15 to the end. It sounds like you slammed a limiter or compressor on the master channel and just had it kill all the dynamics in the song. So in the quiet parts of the song it is still roughly the same dynamic level. Yet in the loud parts, such as the ending theme, things are constantly sounding like they are whooshing in and out of the mix.

It's mainly with the synths. The reason being is the synths are all much fatter in tone than the rest of the instruments. So when you compress and limit things with a brickwall type setting it causes the synths to just overpower everything else in the mix.

To fix it you need to either raise the ceiling on your limiter, or lower the gain. Or most likely doing both would be best. Because the mix isn't clear. It sounds very cluttered and busy with a bunch of instruments fighting for my attention.

Lastly, the composition itself is very very rough. There is a main theme for sure, and it has a nice melody line. But truthfully that is about all this song has at the moment. Because the orchestral harmonies are covered up by those god forsaken synths you used. You can't hear hardly any of the harmonies in this song except when the synths cut out during the break about halfway in.

I hate to be such a downer here, I really do. But Wyldfyre always leaves me really helpful and critical reviews on my music, and seeing how all the morons below me basically said, "OMG TOP 5 GOOD!!!" I figured you would want an opinion that isn't based on the fact that this made top 5 this week.

3/5 and 5/10 Overall. Honestly, it would be a lot lower if I didn't respect Wyldfyre as much as I do. I know there are good elements in this song, mainly because they are there during the break. But the synths are far too overpowering and ruin the mix and tone of the song. If you need synths in it that is fine. But they really need to be lowered about 10 notches to fit into the song well.

-Gravey-

KTRECORDS responds:

WF1: Glad you listened to it and glad you were honest!

KTRECORDS: Can't please everyone I guess

[Gates_Of_Oblivion [Box-Killa]]

Okey Dokey...

This definitely is not my typical listening style, but you specifically asked for a review so here is one for you.

The song repeats itself quite a bit. That one main melody line just plays over and over as filter effect after filter effect constantly change it's timbre. It's a really lazy writing style. Instead of really creating a lot of melody and harmony lines that intertwine you just use filter effects to make the same line sound different constantly. I know it makes the kiddies on Newgrounds swoon, but I just find it to be lazy writing.

The percussion gets rather annoying after a while. Don't get me wrong, it sounds fine for a while. But there does not seem to be any change in the percussion throughout the song. There are times the percussion drops out of the song, but never really changes it's rhythm. Once again, it's a typical form of lazy writing I see here a lot on Newgrounds. Would be nice to get more rhythms in the percussion throughout the song.

The structure of the song is fine. It follows a pretty straightforward path that flows from one section to another decent enough. But then again, nothing in this song really changes. So transitions aren't necessary, or really even present for the most part. Mainly for transitions in certain places you added even more filter effects, had the kick and/or snare just hit at a machine gun pace, and then just sort of slammed the next section onto the end of the dizzying snare/kick hits.

In terms of Newgrounds material, this is pretty decent albeit VERY stereotypical. There is not one thing about this song that stands out from the crowd. The same synths, the same percs, the same melody lines, the same gates, really nothing about this really strikes me as unique or different from 90% of what I hear on a daily basis on Newgrounds. Does that make it bad? Not really. But does sort of make it boring for me.

I will say the big positive in this is it shows you know how to work effects into your DAW decently well. Granted for the most part it's all filter effects, but you used them in ways that the kiddies here will love. Like I said, I find it to be lazy writing. But the kiddies swoon for that sort of stuff.

To summarize the main points to focus on in your next song to make it better than this would be:

-Less filter sweeps.
-More varied percussion rhythms.
-Less reliance on gates to create melody lines for you.
-Harmony lines to counter balance the melody lines, instead of just filtering the song to make it sound different in sections.
-More varied and unique melody lines, with less emphasis on repeating and more emphasis on growing the melody throughout the song.
-Use more intricate effects. What you are using right now seem to mainly be filters, which are way to easy. Challenge yourself next time bud.
-Use less stereotypical percussion samples. I'm sure you could manipulate the stuff you have to sound more original than what you used in this song.
-More varied and unique synths. What I'm hearing basically sounds like the most stereotypical synths with just filter effects on them to make them sound unique. Try mixing it up so they are more unique and memorable.

3/5 and 7/10 overall. It's a solid song for the most part, and the kiddies here on Newgrounds will swoon when they hear it. But all the same there is a ton of work you could do on it to make it a lot better.

-Gravey-

Box-Killa responds:

:P thanks for your kiddy swooning opinions xD

[Paper Lighter - Enteroar]

Well...

It is interesting how you used some pizzicato strings in this song. But really this is not something I would really get into all that much. But you asked for a review, so here I am.

I think the mix of instruments, both synths and sampled real strings together, helps to make this sort of work. The first minute or so of the song is probably the best in my opinion. The middle section that sort of backs off a bit volume wise is sorta weak. I would do some work there to change things up a bit.

Honestly, the song just doesn't flow really all that well. There is no significant pattern of play. I'm not saying you should repeat the same patterns over and over when writing a song. But there is no real rhyme or reason to where and why sections change or flow from one into another.

The overall sound is not bad. The song's structure just really didn't do anything for me. But I'm really not a fan of trance music, so maybe that is part of it.

3/5 and 7/10 overall. Decent song, but could definitely use some work.

-Gravey-

Enteroar responds:

Yeaaa, Ima violin player so I thought Id try to add something different to it! :)

Think song was really an expriment, but I DID try having a structure in this song! Guess you didnt notice it );

That was something I had a lot of trouble with is trying to make it flow well, it drove me nuts. I spent like 2 hours trying to get it to flow. Can you message me some suggestions on how to make my songs flow?

Thanks for review sir! :P
~Enteroar

[The Natural Motion]

Nice...

...but there is definitely some room for improvement.

First off the mix. You use a nice array of instruments, and the choir helps out as well. The choir though I think could use a softer attack to allow them to sort of ease into their parts.

The mix is alright, but it feels like you put a compressor or limiter on the master channel. Because there are moments I can hear the reverb getting that warble effect I hear from so many song on Newgrounds. And it is often cause by compressing tracks after adding reverb, or compressing the master channel too much.

The piano is decent, but the quality sounds really bad. It feels like you are really hammering it instead of delicately tapping the notes. I'm guessing you are using a sound font which does not have multiple attacks, so it is probably not something you can really help. But I'd lower the velocities as bit anyways.

The composition itself isn't bad, but the main theme in the beginning does seem to stretch out for quite some time. The first two minutes really feel like it is just the same thing repeated over and over again with new instruments just being added at various points. I would do something to break up that monotony a bit.

I like the break and how everything sort of grows back into place after it. I like the ending bit, it is quite fitting and resembles the main motif enough to be recognizable. Yet it isn't the exact same so it is distinguishable from the beginning. Very good job there.

Overall it is a solid submission. But there are some things to tweak in my opinion.

4/5and 7/10 overall.

-Gravey-

Theledge93 responds:

i thought the sharper, more distinct attack on the piano made the melody really get stuck in your mind, and i tried to build around that lingering sound in your head. the second part was more of a refreshment, so the first part didn't get stale. but i definitely recognize your other points. except for the quality and that warble effect. I simply can't hear it. other than that thanks for the review!

[[BB91] Orchestral Theme]

Pretty Good...

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised when I heard this. Most of the people who ask me to review their audio end up being trance, dance, or some sort of electro artist.

But you my friend have a nifty little orchestral thing here. As a whole, it is nice. You have very good elements of orchestral and electronic music in it. The epic hits really help out this piece.

I think the mix has some issues. Because sometimes certain instruments sorta "jump" out of the mix. The french horn in particular at 0:29. Not sure what happened there, but it sounds like the program skipped or something. And suddenly the french horn comes out more in the mix, and not in a nice way. It happened a few other places as well.

And the low end is a bit muddy. I like the electronic hits a lot, do not think that I don't. But the less emphatic ones that are mainly the low end of the audio spectrum are just really muddy. Such as in the beginning. Plus in the beginning there is a high pitched ring to them, like you added some sort of bit crusher with a low mix percentage.

Overall though, this is quite lovely. Quite lovely indeed.

5/5 and 9/10 overall. Nice work here.

-Gravey-