TwilightShade's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hear That? It's Called Anger]

Not really angry...

This song has a decent Glitch/DnB feel to it, which is cool and pretty original, as far as NG goes. I personally dislike how much you panned each individual instrument, but some people might enjoy having their sounds that left/right side biased. From 0:20-0:52 the left ear experiences a noticeably greater amount of sound, and generally a lack of balance for that long doesn't do too well.

Also, the song ends really abruptly. If you wanted to make this seem more like anger in the traditional human sense, you could add a ten to twenty second fade-out section where the anger "cools off". Abrupt endings, especially when it seems like it's mid-measure kinda lacks professionalism.

Hope that helped (check out my stuff sometime),
TwilightShade

Milrata responds:

Um, My ear's arent that great to tell which ear is getting most sound, Oh that's right, i only have have speaker atm, so i can't tell what the full song sounds like

[-Orr- ST Conflict]

Not much for me to say that hasn't been said.

Aside from length, which just seems a tiny bit too short, the song is really well done. No huge issues to speak of. The classical theme with the guitar works well for creating tension and the melody sounds fairly unique.

Overall it's really good. You've got a nice piece here that I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy.

DavidOrr responds:

Another tick next to length. It's hard to find a balance of length and content for loops, since their purpose is to be loopable (and have a small footprint usually). It seems as though this may be worth of a lengthening out.

Thanks for the review!

[[KgZ] 8-Bit Catacombs]

I didn't know you were on Newgrounds!

This is GamerShadow from FFR, to let you know right off the bat.

This is a really nice 8-bit piece, especially for a first attempt. The intro is really cool, especially with the subtle "laser shot" sounds in the background beginning at 0:06. The tempo suits an energetic track such as this one, and you've got some sweet beat variation throughout. The only gripe I have with this song is that I can't picture this being used for catacombs. I feel like it's more of a "common enemy battle" track.

Still though, really nice job. I'll go through your other tracks and review a few of those as well.

KgZ responds:

Hah, thanks man.

[[Darkside]]

Awesome start, please enhance!

I love the evil overtone your synths create, it's a thousand percent badass and supplies a sense of power rarely felt in any sort of synth. The bass, ironically, feels underpowered and weak, when I'm sure in reality it too packs a wallop. In this particular piece, it works really well as is, so don't change it.

The vocals before the tempo change are awesome; keep them as they are as they too feel very malicious and evil. I'm going to suggest not speeding them up after the tempo change; the rapid enunciation detracts from the badassness of the deep voice, and you can definitely get away with normal vocals rhythm and pace-wise.

Although you've got an extremely powerful track already, it still needs more. Finding more sounds and synths with an "evil" feel to them would help tremendously in adding much-wanted length and variation. A few higher-pitched tones might give the song some pitch balance so that not everything is rock-bottom.

I really want to see you guys add more to this track; you could have a legendary track with the right improvements.

8.5/10

PM me if you revise this. I'm watching this song. =)

Varnik responds:

Awsome review! Thanks for reviewing this it is very helpful to get resposes back like this. We had a few problems making this song thats why it is so short and some things don't go together well even though it's still pretty good. We do want to revise this song but if we do it won't be any time soon.

Thanks agian!

[Encompass]

Pretty catchy, very strong.

There's not much for me to say about this piece, seeing as it's pretty simple in nature and is overall done very well. I believe it's Techno, although it is very quiet, and could probably double as an Ambient song.

The pacing, dynamics, and flow of the song are all pretty solid and contribute to the rather relaxed mood you've set up. The bass at 2:05 feels just a hair overpowering, and lacks the low-frequency punch that I crave in techno, but overall its strength helps prevent the rest of the parts from sounding like lifeless background noise.

The synths you use are pretty sweet; playing around with the ones at 2:03 for a bit might net you some really interesting results. I feel like you can throw in a trick or two in the tone to make it more appealing to the ears.

As a whole, the song is really strong as is, and has some sweet potential. This one stands out to me in particular because of the fact that it's low-key, but still has enough energy in it to keep the listener going. It's a special aspect of the song that you should try to preserve if you ever revise this.

Favorited, downloaded, etc. Keep em coming; I'll be waiting for your next submission. =)

Jimtopia responds:

First off, let me just say thanks for such a detailed and helpful review. These are pretty darned rare in the audio portal.

One thing I want to touch on is, in your review you said "The bass at 2:05 feels just a hair overpowering, and lacks the low-frequency punch that I crave in techno" I'm going to have to whole-heartedly agree with you on this, I really love the insanely low and powerful beats in some techno songs that make you want to tap your foot, or get up and dance, and I have no way of acheiving that sound, believe me I've tried.

You mention in your 3rd paragraph that if I fiddled with the synths at 2:03 I could make some "interesting" stuff, and I think you're really on to something there. I was very close to finishing the song when I added those, and had I spent a little more time on them, rather then creating them and calling 'em good, I could've made something really really neat.

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed/downloaded it, and I hope that I can keep up this standard of quality in my upcoming audio submissions.

Thanks again,
Jimtopia

[{B.A.B.} Nanodestroyer]

Interesting; but needs revising.

This is a pretty strong piece, and the interesting mix of orchestral and video game elements provides a good deal of that strength. You have some good ideas and a nice mood going throughout, but there are a good deal of hindering factors that kinda keep this song out of the major leagues.

For starters, the dynamics feel highly unbalanced, and completely off. Why is the beginning section of the piece louder than the end? Why does the snare drum sound like it's trying to overpower the main melody? If anything, the ending should feel almost overpowering, and the start should build up to that.

Also, the transition from :55 - 1:02 is far too quiet. It's also a complete reversal in mood; you have a powerful orchestral opening, and then you interrupt it with an ambient-type section? Either bulk up the transition with drums (in order to keep the flow of the piece going, that was also killed by the transition), or remove it altogether. It feels very out of place, but with the right handiwork you could incorporate it and use it to make the piece stand out.

And although the closing section is just as strong as the opening, it dies out in a flimsy way. No big symbol crash? No blaring trumpet or french horn solo? It almost feels like it's dying out; a car that ran out of gas and is creaking to a halt.

The title is the forte of your work, in my opinion. Nanodestroyer just has this awesome ring to it. Definitely keep that.

Overall, I could see this composition becoming very strong and well-developed with enough work. As it stands right now though, it's only slightly above average. Keep working at it though.

blackattackbitch responds:

About the dynamics, that was actually a problem caused because I forgot to change some of the settings prior to export. I wish I had the FL file to re-render, but I might as well just use the wav file.

And about the sound effect section, yeah I agree that it was pretty damn random, I was in a hurry to just finish it.

I'm glad you gave such a long and well-thought-out review, glad to know there's still a few reviewers left that give really indepth reviews.

I'll make sure to check out what you have on your profile, it's the least I can do for this review.

[Angreh Zombz]

Beginning of a good rave track, methinks.

What you have up here is downright solid; the bass is something I wasn't expecting to hear but it gives the song its own style and sets it apart from others in that regard. The melody is nice, too; the low tones push the work in the right direction.

Simply expanding upon this "stub" and creating a full 2:00+ song out of it would suffice, but if you worked at improving things you think are off, you could have a serious contender here. With enough luck you could have a weekly top five.

Gonif responds:

thanks!
yeah im working on it.
hopefully it will be done soon.

[AD - Snowflake]

A well-balanced combination.

This is quite a good low-key song you've got going here. I'm going to say that Ambient is your prevalent genre in this work, but you didn't lie when you said there was hip-hop.

The concepts work well together. The ambient aspect of the song serves as background noise, and does most of the work in setting up the mood, while the hip-hop portions keep the listener's attention and almost "stimulate the mind". They balance each other.

The rhythms and beats themselves are definitely catchy enough to listen to for four minutes, and the occasional piano note aids versatility and changes things up enough. It's an overall pleasant experience and definitely keeps a consistent feel throughout.

Not much else to say; keep up the good work.

AeraDynamic responds:

Wow! Thanks for the constructive Review :D I appreciate that! I tried to keep it as balanced as possible, I wasn't real going for a prevalent Genre to be honest ;)

[Red Fusion]

Exciting, happy, pretty quick.

I like this song in general. It's giving me the "happy vibe" that I haven't felt all day today. On a technical level, I really don't think there's anything super "wrong" or "bad" about this track; everything feels like it fits in well enough and nothing seems like it's out of sync.

It's a good length too. Part of why I liked it was because it was somewhat short. Two and a half minutes works well for this piece.

Nothing in the track made it stand out to me in any grandiose way, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. Good job, I like it.

Ambrossys responds:

Aw, I guess I'm not that good at the grandiose part yet, I will learn!

Thanks!