EctiBot's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The forgotten journey.]

First of all I gotta say I really liked how the track opened with that chord. Just immediately sets the atmosphere. A bit abrupt yes, but getting straight to the point works really well for this kind of track imo. I really like the chord progression you have going on for the first section. The chord voicing is really nice and it builds a lot of tension. The melody is a bit weak though, kinda feels like you aren't committing to anything and just playing different melodies that don't blend together that well. For section like that I personally prefer to treat all the melodies like a singular, one minute long melody. That way I remember to make sure that the melodies flow well together.

I actually really like the idea of the transition. I do feel like there is a better way to make the two parts blend better together, because right now it really ends up sounding like two different tracks. The main issue to me is that you immediately cut all the atmosphere as soon as the guitars are introduced. You have this really nice wide and wet piano going on for a minute, but then you transition to dry guitars that are very in the center. I think part of it has to do with your piano being of such higher quality than the rhythm guitar, but if you had made the guitars a little bit wider and added a bit more reverb it would have worked a lot better imo. I do get that you were going for a "in your face" transition, I've been there done that, but I've eventually realized that while those kind of transition can sound great for the maker, for a listener listening for the first time it's a bit too abrupt.

The section itself is really nice. As I said before the guitars are a bit low quality which the dryness kinda emphasizes. Reverb is your friend when wanting to hide low quality samples as long as you don't overdo it. You did a much better job here with the melodies. It's nice, catchy and flows really well. Nice work! I wish you had changed the guitar rhythm and drumb beat a little bit though. It gets a bit tiring to listen to after a while.

Overall this was a really interesting track. I would never expect anyone ot face the scenario this way, but it was a really interesting listen and you properly depicted the journey of a hero. Really hope you continue trying wacky transitions like this. I'm talking from experience when I say that if you keep doing it you will eventually figure out how to make it work really well. Hope the stuff I've written has made any sense, and if you got any questions feel free to ask :)

[A Hero's Purpose (NG VGM Challenge)]

A really strong track from you, which is not a surprise. It's really cool that you separated the track into separate chapters, and you completely nailed exactly what you wanted to convey for every chapter. Almost didn't have to read to understand exactly what was going on throughout.
You do a very good job by utilizing calm sections to create tension and make your climaxes sound even bigger which I always love. That part at 04:40 is especially well done.

Sound design vise you have great huge sounding drums that really sets the atmosphere, and as a sound effects junkie I really liked the way you used sound effects for the transitions. Also seemingly small details like that background wind effect at 01:54 and 5:04 really helps even further establish the atmosphere.

If there is one thing I can point out with this track is that it could benefit from more memorable theme melodies. I really like how you keep returning to similar melody patterns which really makes this feel like a full track rather than 10 different tracks, but a lot of the time the melody just feel like going up and down a scale which makes it a bit forgettable.
Also, just to really nitpick here it feels like the track starts a bit abruptly. I would personally start it almost completely silent then slowly bring in the strings with automation. It's very nitpicky, but you did a really good job building up the track everywhere else, so wished the intro got the same attention.

Overall this is a great track, and I really enjoyed listen to. I honestly did not expect to depict the hero's ENTIRE journey, but here we are and you did a great job with it. Hope what I've written made any sense, and If you got any questions just let me know :)

[God To Dog]

First of all, you got some extremely cool sound design going on here. So many interesting and warm sounds that evolves and really grabs your attention. You were also able to grasp the concept really well. When I wrote the scenario my idea was to see if people were able to create interesting and engaging tracks that were able to depict a solo journey, and you tackled that very well by creating a rich atmosphere that changes progressively.

Music wise I do have a couple of pointers though.
1. There's a constant timing issue with the synths. A lot of the time it feels like the synths come slightly too late or early. That's what often happens when you record notes into your DAW with a midi-keyboard. While slight timing offsets here and there do add some humanity to a track, if there are too many of them the track ends up sounding clumsy instead. Listeners need a backbone to grab onto, and that becomes very difficult when the timing keeps changing without any sort of rhyme or reason.
There are different ways to use timing offsets in music. My rule of thumb is to only use them to grab the attention when I want to tell them "Hey, pay attention, things are happening". In a slow moving track like this the timing offsets are doing the same thing where they drag the listener out of the experience and makes them pay attention, but when that happens too often, you just become the boy who cried wolf and the listener will eventually get tired of listening.

My second pointer is that the track ends up being a bit forgettable/. This is the major challenge with atmospheric tracks. While a lot of music will rely on a funky melody or a huge climax to leave an impression on the listener, atmospheric tracks has a lot less to work with. There are usually two different ways I personally tackle this. The first is that I may add a unique "theme" for the song which is either a recurring melody, chord pattern, drumbeat or sound effect. Can really be anything, some use water sound effects that will appear at different times, others will have a constant melody play throughout the entire track. The trick is, again, to give the listener something to grab onto.
The second thing I do is to make sure that the scenario I'm trying to depict really hits home. A lot of the time the goal of an atmospheric track is some times to leave an impression through a scenario instead of on it's own. Just think of all the great film and TV scores you've hear and ask yourself, "would it have left as big of an impression on me out of context?" Optimally we would make the listeners read a 3 page essay on what the track is about, but as that's not realistic we have to make 100% sure that the listener gets the atmosphere we are trying to convey through other means. Personally I tend to add a lot of foley sounds and nature ambiance to really drive home what kinda scenario my track is trying to convey. Some footsteps here, some wind here and boom.

That's pretty much all I have to say. Overall a great track with really cool sound design, but there is definitely room for improvement. Hopefully what I said makes sense, and I hope it's helpful. I could probably say some stuff about the mixing, but it's more than passable, and I feel like it's kinda pointless to nitpick on mixing stuff unless it's really bad.

Great work :D. Let me know if you got any questions :)

[Vessel Full of Dreams]

Should actually be illegal to make something this good. Just wow.

Phonometrologist responds:

It actually is and I have been banned from writing anything new for the rest of 2020 :(
Thank you for commenting!

[AIM 2020 - a weary heart]

The composition and arrangement is really good, but the mixing is a bit chaotic
Though there are a lot of mixing pointers I could mention, I think the main problem with this track is the way the "space" is handled. I would personally turn off all the reverb and delay effects(make sure them off both in the mixer and in the VST's themselves) and then go through them one by one to make sure you have a clear idea of what the purpose behind them are. "Why do I need to pan this" and "Do I really need this much reverb" etc. Once you start thinking about stuff like this consciously, your mixing will improve immediately

Yoshiii343 responds:

hi there!

apologies for taking a thousand years before responding to your review; it took me quite some time listening (and re-listening) to this track and countless others before i actually understood what you meant by my handling of space in the mix.

in hindsight, i probably shouldn't have panned the guitars too much, nor should i drench them in that much reverb; but i was worried about the frequencies would clash too much.

still, thank you for the review!

[Obelisk]

Sometimes I wonder if you guys are just physically unable to make something bad. This piece is insanely good, great work!

Onefin responds:

don't worry i'm in the process of making something bad right now

[AIM - Shh, please.]

Gotta be honest and say that there were a lot of issues with the vocal mixing and performance, but you just gotta love this song. I've honestly been jamming to that hook all week. You do a great job with creating an atmosphere that fits perfectly with the artwork.

Like I said earlier, the vocal mixing is a bit below par. The dynamics are all over the place, and at the most quiet parts the vocals kinda drown in the mix. Always a good idea to compress your vocals properly to avoid this problem.
Also, the retune speed on the autotune is a bit too much. Ends up sounding very robotic at times.

At the end of the day, there are some technical issues with the performance, but both the composition and arrangement is lovely

DarkHorseOrchestra responds:

Lots of issues with the vocals haha, thank you for taking the time to review man!

[Real Life Monsters (feat. Eric Vanlerberghe of I Prevail)]

This is insanely good. So many lovely riffs and melodies in this. Can definitely hear that the mix and master was done by professionals.

[AIM - sursum=corda.EXFLOW_cls.PANDAEMONIUM::STORMFALL/.]

-- Official AIM review --

It's not like I didn't expect this from you, but...wow.

What stands out first and foremost is the percussion. It's rarely I hear percussion this engaging and unique in a track like this. The vocals were also amazing as always. There are so many pleasing harmonies that I couldn't count them even if I tried.

The way the track builds up was an experience in itself and you were able to incorporate so many different ideas into this without it sounding the slightest bit incoherent. At 4:50 you introduce some complex melodic textures that I've never heard before.
Mixing is spot on. The vocals could have been slightly louder at times, but wasn't really a big issue.

This piece perfectly captures both the atmosphere and the story behind the artwork. Well done!

Troisnyx responds:

Eee thank you!

An example of the vocal textures at the end chorus is — in fact, please look this up because this and many others like it have been inspirations — Singing Hill, Harmonics Frelia. I'm glad it came out alright in the end.

[AIM - Decagon Isolation]

-- Official AIM review --

Really strong sound design in this one. The sounds are incredibly pleasing to listen to. The mixing is very well done and all elements blend nicely together. It gets a bit repetitive after a while, but you do a nice job in adding small details to keep the listeners attention. I do wish that the different sections varied a bit more though as it ends up sounding like a single loop after the 00:36 mark. Even though you do add interesting details here and there to vary it a bit, it still ends up sounding to repetitive as a song.

Overall a very nice piece that fits the artwork, but it would need some more variation for me to score it higher.