Gravey's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[<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>

[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.

[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. :]

[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