Everratic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[What Problems [LD38]]

I found this to be catchy even before it looped once! It sounds somewhat like a theme from a Zelda game, but Zelda songs don't have pianos with pitch bends. I wonder if you copied and pasted the violin midi into the piano channel. It sounds like a hybrid of a keyboard piano and guitar. I really enjoy it!

johnfn responds:

Hahahhaha yeah you got me. What can I say I was busy with the rest of my game :D

I find pitchbending piano to be hilarious because it's so impossible to do in real life. Unless you open up the piano and pull the strings i guess.

[Who If Not You - Now If Not When]

This is a spectacular track!
I love the percussion; it has a lot of depth and detail!

Montron responds:

Thank you for your review, BlueOceans!

[Deep Blue]

The pads and vocals are a beautiful combination! I love the ambience that serves to further establish the setting.

etherealwinds responds:

Thank you very much BlueOceans! :)

[AIM - The Lonely Hermit]

This is difficult to listen to by itself, but it's quite cinematic and resembles the art appropriately. The selection and usage of instruments, combined with the ambiance, work together to effectively portray a vivid, yet ambiguous story. This is the first time I've heard eating sounds in a cinematic track, and it sounds pretty cool!

I really like that you didn't take inspiration from the art at face value. For example, in the art, the sky is mostly clear and bright, yet in your track, the weather changes, which is indicated by the harsh winds and rain ambiance. Additionally, the character in the art is outside, yet your track contains eating sounds, which makes me think that the character either walked to the houses in the distance, or he's standing in front of a house or building, which would explain the shadow and the stone path.

The ending is nice and conclusive; there's no uncertainty there.

EctiBot responds:

So glad you noticed the details in this :D. Tried to make this kind of a dynamic continuation of the art.
I'll leave it up to the imagination whether the man is walking to the building in the distance or to the house behind him( I also imagined there had to be a building behind him :D). I can at least say that he is down by the water at some point and the character does walk into a house.

In the top left of the picture there are some dark-looking clouds. As these clouds get pushed over the mountain, it would begin to rain.

Glad you liked my wonderful lip smacks XD.
Thanks for the review :)!

[BRUCE: Bretta's Theme]

On the melodic plane, the song sounds very professional. The melodies sound familiar and effectively evoke a video game feel. You’re extremely talented and skilled in that you can listen to any soundtrack, recognize the defining components that constitute the style, and successfully imitate it while preserving your own style and preferences.

The way the melodic focus shifts from one instrument to another seems a bit undeveloped; it could be more seamless. But I do like the idea!

Your selection of instruments themselves is pretty good! As you noted, the quality isn’t the best, but thankfully, the video game feel negates this shortcoming to a decent extent. Such quality plugins almost sound welcome in this kind of song. I particularly like the accordion and woodwinds! The harp glissandos are very pleasing and do a nice job elevating the excitement.

The percussion is rich and impressive. You don’t use percussion very often, especially cinematic percussion, but you did a pretty good job establishing certain moods and creating vivid visuals. I adore the metal percussion with the panning effects; it makes me visualize an armed knight moving across the screen.

I can discern all the instruments, and the track sounds saturated, but I still have some criticisms of the mix. The piano in the beginning sounds harsh, like you hastily edited the EQ to force it to fit. The mix becomes somewhat messy once the drums and flute come in, probably due to the abundance of reverb in the background. The melodic instruments have noticeably less reverb, which almost makes them sound detached; but it’s not quite there. On my computer speakers, the harp glissando sounds fine; however, with my headphones, it’s begging for a place in the mix. The crash that marks the second part of the track sounds dry and linear; you could have used a lot more reverb and delay –and maybe you could have added a bell to both enhance the cinema and make the transition more defined? –. Fortunately, after that point, the mix dramatically improves, obviously because there are fewer, and different, elements.

I like the structure of the track, especially the fact that it has two distinct parts, but as I mentioned, some transitions could be developed more.

When I listen the track casually, it’s a really enjoyable experience and the melodies are quite catchy. This is one of my favorite tracks of yours from this project :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Those are quite some compliments, and some valid critiques!

I'm glad you like the melodies. I think I played it pretty safe in order to keep it interesting, Irish, and still original. Having a bit of a familiar feel, even if it's a new melody, often helps capture some attention and make a piece more easy for a first time listener to enjoy :)
There are way more skilled people at me, when it comes to capturing the elements of a genre or style! I try though, so I'm glad my effort shows. I actually really like that I never had to be confused abut what my "own sound" was. It kind of developed naturally! On the flipside, one often recognizes works as mine, when hearing them. Not necesssarily a bad thing at all, though!

I think I get what you're saying with the shifts in focus between instruments. There are some parts I feel work quite well, while you're definitely right about certain parts. This song is a bit wishy washy in structure, to say the least, and doesn't really take its time establishing its array of sounds. That's probably partly because I wanted to do so many different things, in so short a piece.

It's interesting that many people seemed to liken this to video games, and the music of say Zelda! I'm happy to hear that :)
I actually selected the instruments before I started composing. Partly, because about 4-5 of them were suggested by Jay, and partly, because I just took whatever I had with an Irish sound xD
So that's why they mostly go together stylewise, at least in the first part!
The quality of the instruments in the second part are better (which is another reason it seems to be better mixed), but they are less style-specific.

While I'm glad you noted my use of percussion, I admit to some laziness! About 50% of the percussion is loops, while the other 50% are things I actually "programmed" myself in the key editor. Percussion was required to drive the piece, I feel, and I wanted it to sound pretty good. I find loops are good for practicing mixing too, when it comes to percussion. Thanks to them, I've progressed slightly in that area :)
I really like the metal as well! I want to try out similar things in the future. I think the metals are actually ceng ceng cymbals. They are also loops, but I modified them a fair deal, to get the sound you hear in the piece. To begin with, the loops are fairly short, so I had to make them seamless, and give them the right place in the mix, and use them atmospherically. You'd understand what I mean if you heard the original sound :D

Thanks for taking the time to analyze the mix! I don't think I EQ'd the piano in the beginning. It's a preset of the Maverick, which happens to have a more in your face and "cold" (imo) sound. I recall you not liking that preset earlier as well, when I used it as an example for "Recovery".
I agree the mix becomes messy! I don't think it's the reverb, I think I simply crammed in too many instruments with similar frequencies at the same time. It's because I had decided to only use the Kontakt ones there, and I wanted to use all of the Irish/celtic ones. Silly, I know! But eh :V
In general, if the arrangement isn't good, no mix can save it. That said, the mix could be improved from what it is atm anyway, ofc. But someone more talented than me would have to do it!

I 100% agree when it comes to the harp glissando, and I knew about it when I put it there as well. I kinda like that weird sound though. I kept it in because the sound reminded me of a track I like from an old game. It's not just the mix, but the notes played actually don't necessarily go along well with the melodies played there. But I like the weird harmonies there. It also distracts the listener from main melody at that part, and makes the transition easier.

You may be right about the crash! I don't hear it. I just used it for effect, and though it did the job well of covering the tracks of the previous part. I used a fair deal of reverb, I think it's once again the sample that's not to your taste, and maybe I used the wrong sound at the wrong place (That crash doesn't have much of an actual crash, but is kind of more like this weak "dushhhh", kind of floaty and atmospheric). As for where I placed it in the mix, I think there could've been a better place.

The bell in a nice idea from the perspective of sound! But, I think that would've been a bit too generic there, and also wouldn't fit the genre or sound I was going for too well. But I think you're right about there being something missing... Well, it's like it is now! Thanks for the great suggestions :D

The mix improves indeed, because it's not as crammed, and because the instruments are simply better at that oint.

I'm glad you like the structure, because I think it's a complete mess! Not that I mind complete messes :p

Thanks again for all the kind words, and the super thorough and thoughtful review!

[Final Form]

This is the best drum and bass song I ever heard. The synths are so rich and dynamic, to the point where they seem to have personalities. I adore all the phasing filters you designed, they're so pleasing to listen to. The song has a nice rhythm that's indeed good for exercise!

Congratulations on the front page!

Montron responds:

Thank you for your review and thought. I feel like giving any production of mine a reason to tell some kind of a story to the audience, and not really matter if it was orchestra or electronic music. I believe people should have such dedication to the work, but I don't think most would.

[Cradle Of The World]

This is a great description, and it effectively draws me in. The song evokes a sense of mournfulness, yet it's still fairly busy, which symbolizes the military aggression. You're really good at enhancing the mood of your tracks with vocals, and I like the variety of instruments! This is a very meaningful and deep track.

Montron responds:

Thank you for your review, BlueOceans. :)

[Control Is An Illusion]

I listened to this on loop while thinking about something totally, and wow, the rhythm of your song seemed to accelerate my thinking and it helped me get to the root of the issue :)

I love this kind of music. It's very passive, but simultaneously, there is enough depth to enjoy it from an analytical perspective. Your sound design skills are excellent; some of the darker, apocalyptic sounds are very pleasing. And all the elements of the track together create a nice musical texture.

This song is particular gives me a vivid visual. It reminds me of the action from the dystopian story, "Divergent", which I think you read :)

Montron responds:

Thank you for your review, BlueOceans! I love Divergent. The fluidly of this track was inspired by Tangerine Dream musical style. The beats and synths were inspired Haujobb and Depeche Mode.

Thanks again for your review!

[La Última Dramática]

This is the masterpiece of a genius. You creatively combined two styles in an unprecedented manner: the style of a classically trained pianist juxtaposed with the style of someone who's musically inept. You were even cognizant enough to dabble with the sustain peddle to create a middle ground. This is extraordinary work! :D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Haha, which is another way of saying I just sat by the piano and din random stuff xD
But nothing you said is technically false, so well described xD
Thanks for reviewing!

[Leylines II]

I really like the introduction; instead of gradually introducing and creating themes, you fade the listener into a preexisting musical world. There is a pleasant, airy ambiance that has a strong presence yet is difficult to discern; it makes me visualize a sky world. The slightly distorted flute does a nice job at foreshadowing the trap nature of the track.

The bass sounds very crisp, and the drums sound light and clean, which further establishes the sky world visual for me. And the drum rolls are well-done and very pleasing!

The melodies themselves aren’t that interesting, but the pitch bends and automations vitalize them, and the choir pad creates a nice harmony. The piano also enriches the atmosphere and adds passivity to the track.

I have no problems with the mix.

I like the ending, but I think I would have kept more elements toward the very end. I understand why you chose to keep the static reverb atmosphere, but why did you fade out almost everything else? To me, it unnecessarily contradicts the lighthearted introduction.

This is a fantastic track! :)

midimachine responds:

hey thanks for the review! i've really enjoyed using these processed flute samples a lot lately.
honestly can't say i put a whole lot of thought into the ending, and in retrospect there are a bunch of things i could've done differently to improve it.

i really appreciate the comment about fading into a preexisting musical world. i feel like fade-in intros are underutilised or improperly used a lot of the time so it's good to know that i'm on the right track with it here. the piano is also sampled from a previous track (hence the II in the title), so the connection to another musical world is *actually* there as well!

thanks!