Everratic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Triumph]

I like the composition itself. It's pretty energetic and catchy. I think the instrumentation arrangement needs a lot of work though. One easy change you can make to improve this quite a lot is to layer to brass leads, which tend to sound thin when played solo in one octave. Don't just copy and paste the melodies though, because as you move further down in the register, it becomes increasingly difficult for the instruments to effectively carry a melody. I think the percussion lacks much-needed power; it could benefit a lot from more cymbals, or maybe even a shaker or tambourine. I noticed many missed opportunities to slightly alter the instrumentation to create some subtle contrast between different parts of certain sections. For example, one common technique is to play a phrase with a string ensemble, and then the phrase is repeated but with woodwinds (I'm not suggesting you do this exactly, this is just an example to help convey my thoughts). This is a solid foundation but it sounds incomplete to me.

[My Heart's Bitcrush]

This is a lot more interesting than typical dubstep. I love the piano parts, and the climax is so satisfying!

Spadezer responds:

Oh thanks! Coming from you that means a lot to me actually, especially the climax part.

[Scrownchy Kombat 2: Castle_stage]

I love it! It makes me feel like I'm playing Super Smash Bros Brawl again :D

MassiveMarioLuigi700 responds:

Hey thanks man!

This audio was inspire by Masahiro Sakurai's games.

Im glad you injoy it :)

Hey Stay tuned for my game Scrownchy Kombat 2, suppose to be up and finish this time this month.

[Wretchedness of Life]

I love it! It reminds me of Final Fantasy games.

[A City Not Forsaken Part I]

This is amazing. You're really good at designing otherworldly experiences with your music. It has a strong calming effect.

Phonometrologist responds:

Thanks Blue. I appreciate your description, because I really don't know what kind of "effects" people get when listening to what I end up putting together.

[Comet]

I love this so much. It's so energetic, catchy, and uplifting. My only gripe is that I wish there were more countermelodies or melodic layering.

8-bitheroes responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah countermelodies would be a good idea, something i struggle with a little.

[AIM - The Mountain]

Wow, I easily envision playing a medieval rpg while listening to this. It reminds me of the Witcher music I used in a Skyrim mod. This could be phenomenal if you had better vsts, but it sounds great as is. I encourage you to get some better vsts as soon as you can because you're clearly talented and might be able to be a video game composer someday, if you wish.

Quebi responds:

Wow, thank you. That really means a lot. I definitely need some better vst's, hopefully this competition helped that a lot. But honestly, thank you. It's actually my dream to compose for entertainment media, shows, movies, games, etc.

[A Future Unknown]

The violin composition is really nice.

I think this song would sound much better if you programmed the staccato note by note instead of using what sounds like action strings. Also, the song doesn't sound like it's being played in a real space; it seems to be mixed like its an electronic song.

I like what you were trying to do with this piece, but I think it needs more instruments for tension to be properly built. A brass ensemble would sound amazing here. I think more percussion is necessary as well.

With that said, I mostly enjoy the song if I listen to it casually. It would make good background music as is.

FateModified responds:

Hey thanks for the review!

Hmm actually I did program the staccato notes using Albion One. I’ve been listening to lots of trance lately and so I’m sure that’s why it sounds so electronic versus real due to my current musical influences. I wasn’t really going for an all natural acoustic sound. I tried adding some brass but decided against it actually. More percussion probably would have been good but the mix was getting kind of muddied as is so I didn’t add much more. My mixing skills still aren’t that great but I try. Thanks again for the review! :D

[Arise and Fight]

This is beautiful <3 The orchestration is amazing.

AceMantra responds:

Thanks! :D

[AIM - A Dreadful Space Journey]

I like the rich atmosphere and the large reverb that makes the song sound dreamy. There's a lot of cool percussive elements, and the combination of instruments is quite interesting. I find the song to be extremely repetitive; the theme is too simple to be repeated this much without significantly more variation. You used a lot of big percussion and fx to create good transitions, but the momentum would quickly die out because the rest of the song didn't change much. When you use a big hit or fx to signify an important transition, there should generally be more variation in the following section in a way that carries that momentum. You clearly improved your orchestration skills significantly over the past year, but one thing I think you should focus on is building tension over a long period of time and releasing it in a way that feels climactic. The main reason for my low score is that I happen to be more sensitive to repetitiveness than the average person, but I still think there are a lot of things to like about this track, which is why you got some high scores already and praise from one of the judges. Keep up the progress!