EctiBot's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - ホーガンのデッド]

AIM Judge Review
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Quite relaxing piece this.
The mixing is quite on point in this. The synths blend really love together, and overall I think the general sound of the track was great.
I do miss some more variation and dynamics though. I felt like the track could have gone to the next level with some better buildups. As it is now, I felt like the piece stayed on the same level throughout the track, which becomes boring after a while. I know that you tried to vary up the dynamics a bit by adding filters, and though I do think that's a great idea, it's really not enough.
I think the main problem with this track is that it felt like a 4 minute loop and not a full piece.

On the other side however, the reason why I felt like the track was lacking, was because there were a lot of great elements in it, and it was like you let me lick all the icing of the cake, but you wouldn't let me eat the delicious chocolate fondue that was inside ;(. As RF said, the drums sounds awesome. Really great job there. The chord progression was a little bit uninteresting at times. The Pararell 5ths is something I've a quadrillion of times, and though I don't mean that you shouldn't use them, you gotta change them up at times.

When it comes to the art relevance, I do feel like both this track and the art emits a chillaxed mood, though at the same time there wasn't much else in it that reminded me of the art.

Mixing: 5/5
Arrangement: 3/5
Sound Design: 5/5
Art Relevance: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

[Gallant Last Stand]

Interesting and original piece this :)
The mixing could really use some work though. Pretty much all the instruments are clashing and overtaking each other. Gotta work on the EQ, but you should also look a bit into compression as well.
The instruments don't sounds very cheap, which kind of ruins the sound experience together with the poor mixing.
Some of the transitions, like the one at 2:34, are kinda lazy. I believe it could have been done much better. As it is now it's like the song stops and starts on a new one.
Apart from the transitions I liked the arrangement and it was well thought through. I am a firm believer of structure though. Even though you want to be original and follow your heart, it is important that you don't get too stuck in "doing your own thing". IN my opinion music isn't about "expressing" emotions, but it's about "portraying" them. Thus if the listener isn't able to feel the same emotion you did when you made the piece, something is wrong. Focusing your song structure around basic musical structure principles, will increase the songs ability to portray your emotions to ANY listener.

As Zech already mentioned, this piece lacks background instruments at some parts. The part from 1:20 - 2:30 have no background instruments whatsoever. You should at least add a backup guitar with some chords here. Otherwise it just sounds stale.

Certainly isn't a bad track, and it has some really cool ideas in it. The mixing and sound design was what ruined it for me, but if you continue working on your mixing, and maybe get your hands on some better samples, I believe you can take your music to the next level :).

- Ectisity
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MysteriousPresence responds:

Thanks a lot for the review ! =)
Yes, the EQ is my huge problem, thanks for making me notice ! I'll try to balance better next time ! :3
But I thought that was a cool transition, why does everyone hates it ? X) Well I think it gives the feeling of a new starting song because the next step is beginning at this moment !
Well... I'll try to conform too ! Even if it sounds sad to me... as long as I give people emotions... :3
I confess : you're right ! The 1:20-2:30 part has no background instruments... like really none ! But I'll work my details next time !
Well I'm afraid I never used any sample, and I don't wanna start using some !
Thanks again for the review, and glad you liked it a bit ! =)

[AIM - Unstoppable]

AIM Judge Review
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First of all, I really liked the intro. Pretty rare to hear a good intro like that nowadays. My problem however is that I felt like the intro never ended. The transition at 0:30 isn't really big enough to make me feel like it's a new part of the track. The track from 0:30 to 1:10 is just repetition. If you are going to repeat the same part that many times, you need to change it up a bit more. What you did with changing the bass note now and them is a step in the right direction, but it still could use some more work.

In general the entire track is a bit samey sounding(repetetive) because of the bass. Honestly, I was tired of listening to that same bass pattern with just one and occasionally two notes after 1 minute. Hearing the same exact bass at the same exact note and with the same exact pattern, really tired out my ears. It's not like it's unusual for music producers to have the bass only play one note for some parts of a track, but having it play for the entire track becomes a bit too much. Pretty much, like I said earlier, it feels like your track is a 3 minutes long intro.

The mixing is spot on. You have especially done a good job with the eq and each synth has it's own place in the mix. goes really well with the art as well. The sound design in this is decent, but it's a bit uninterestinng at times as I feel like I've heard the same exact synths a million times.

Mixing: 5/5
Arrangement: 2/5
Art Relevance: 5/5
Sound Design: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

TIMETRAVL responds:

Hey thanks for the review,
I already knew it was a bit repetative but It's kind of what I've wanted to do, it's hard to describe that feeling :)

Concerning the synth it's an from an emulated Juno 60 (not entirely sure).

[A.I.M - Entering the Beast]

AIM Judge Review
--------------------------------------------
Solid HM piece this :).
Really like the arrangement of the track and it's packed with energy. A lot of the riffs sound really cool and original, and you have a lot of layers going on which makes the track sound full.

I gotta critisize a couple of things though. First of all, like RF already pointed out, the mixing is poor. At the parts were the lead guitar played alone like in the intro especially. The guitar has a lot of unwanted and painful frequencies which you might wanna cut. The kick is not as powerful and bassy as it should be, and tbh I think the kick sample all together sounds pretty cheap.

A general problem I hear that you have in your mix, is that the low end is very muddy. It can be hard to notice that the low-end is the problem, but usually when a mix sdounds muddy the first think you want to do is to have al ook at your low end. Try to analyze each instrument seperately with an equalizer and think about which frequency range you want each instrument to be heard in. As an example, usually you don't need any low end at all in hi-hats. In the same way, you don't need any high-end in a sub. A basic principle when it comes to mixing music is, "if you don't need it, cut it". If there are frequencies that you don't need and/or can't hear in an instrument, cut it. Even though you might not be able to hear a difference between cutting or not when the instrument is playing alone, the difference becomes really clear in the full mix.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that you need to put an EQ on every single instrument and sample and remove the unneeded, unwanted and unaudible frequencies.

Otherwise the track is pretty good. The drum patterns can become a bit uninteresting and generic at times, but they are fairly decent. I'm a bassist myself so I will always wish for a more interesting bassline, but that's 100% personal opinion and isn't really needed.
The energy and action in the piece reflects thesense of danger in the art, though I feel like this piece would have fit more with a picture with a little more action in. Art is pretty subjective though.

Mixing: 2/5
Arrangement: 4/5
Art Relevance: 4/5
Overall: 3.5

Keep up the good work :).

Insomnimatic responds:

Thank you for this review/judging! You actually reviewed one of my guitar only pieces back in 2014 and your review along with others encouraged me to keep writing and posting here on Newgrounds so I wanted to say thank you for that!

Each song I do I notice I am getting better and better with mixing but I still have a ways to go. In this song I did cut out some of the frequencies I did not need but not a lot of the low ends like you mentioned were needed to be cut. The kick is actually from the Superior Dummer 2.0's sets. I can't remember which one exactly it is but I think it was a DW kick from the Heavy Metal package. Not exactly cheap for the sets but maybe cheap in sound? Haha

I like to keep the drum tracks powering through songs to help the guitar out for the most part which I'm finding out isn't always the best method to go with. I need to work on my fillers and make the drum its own instrument instead of a backup for the guitars. I don't play bass too often on its own/ practice as much but I think I will start to do that soon or at least learn what makes a great bass line for this genre. Mostly root notes but I did add a few spots where the bass had its own part.

- DareDevi424

[AIM - Staring Down The Barrels]

AIM Judge Review
--------------------------------
Interesting track this. It surely got some of the juicy 8bit elements that we all love. The way you combine basic 8bit synths with good drum sambles and awesome sounding supersaws is pretty cool. You are also able to keep the interest up throughout the track, so I never really got bored of it.

One criticism I'd like to come with however, is the intro. It starts to abruptly in my opinion. I think it would be better if you didn't have the kick playing in the intro. Having it there kinda takes away the effect of an intro. I know that you did this because the track is looping, but as the loop ends without a kick I believe that it would sound just as good if you removed the kick pattern for the first couple of bars. Also felt like the first 50 seconds in the track were a bit uninteresting as well.

The mixing is quite on point. Can't hear any major problems, and the drum samples fit perfectly in the mix :).

Overall, this is a really nice track. I didn't feel like it had many elements that blew me out of my soccks, but it's nicely done. Also fits well with video game theme of the art.

Mixing: 5/5
Arrangement: 3/5
Sound Design: 4/5
Art Relevance: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

[AIM - Dusk of Eternal Night]

AIM Judge Review
-----------------------------------

The mixing is done decently. Your choice of volume levels are a bit wierd at points, especially the percussion. There are not many issues with the mixing except from some clipping issues, but this due to the fact that there is not any low-end to mess with the mixing. The track in general lack some decent low end. There are no form of bassy sound that really hits your soul if you know what I mean. It's like having a full orchestra, but without the tuba's, euphonium's and cello's. The best sections in an orchestral piece is probably even more important than the lead parts. The reason why orchestral music sound so epic is because the bass parts are done really well and builds up tension. Also a general lack of decent compression which RF already has explained.

That's another thing, building tension. This track lacks dynamiques. Even though you change the melodies and patterns around quite a bit, the song still sounds flat. This is due to the lack of a proper bass section as I mentioned earlier, but it's also because of a lack of good percussion.
I was really missing some drum-play throughout the track, and when you did introduce it at 1:30, I felt like it happend way to suddenly. You went directly from having no drums at all to having a powerful drumroll. I think the drumrolls in this track sounds good by themselves, but the way they way you build up to them could be done better.

The sound design is not too too bad, but the strings and percussion sounds very flat. The strings would have sounded much better if you tweaked it's stereo settings and maybe work a bit more on the reverb.

Most of the melodies were nice, but I think they could juse some more work. They are a bit uninteresting at times. Just experiment
The arrangement otherwise is done very nicely, and you make sure to keep the listeners interest up throughout the track, by varying the melodies.

When it comes to art relevance, I believe that the track does portray the art in some ways, and how you perceive art is up to the individual. Still, I don't think you caught the dark mood of the art as well as you could. This is mostly due to the lack of dynamics and bass sections.

Mixing - 3.5/5
Sound design - 2.5/5
Arrangement . 3.5/5
Art Relevance - 3.5/5

Overall - 3.25
The track had some decent melodies, the mixing wasn't too bad though this is mostly because of the lack of low-end. I believe this track could be really good with some extra work, but as it is now there are too many issues.

Ectisity, Judge

Ps. If you are ever in the need of decent feedback, just check out the Review Request Club. We'll give you decent review without requiring anything back :).

Verdusk responds:

Thanks for the review!

Clipping issues noted. I'll try to work more on transitions next time. (Including build-up) I'll pay more attention to the bass as well. I've actually included cello and viola here, but I'm guessing they are way too subtle (and they're extremely simple too)

I think I forgot to include enough darkness because the view is so beautiful. Also imma check out the review club whenever I finish another song.

[AIM - It's Not You, She's Dead]

A.I.M Judging Review
--------------------------------------------------------
Mixing - 5/5:
The mixing has been done quite well actually. Can be quite difficult to nail the eq'ing in atmospheric darkwave tracks like this, but you've done a great job at it. The general mixing sound very smooth, and I don't really have many complaints about it.

Sound Design - 4.5/5:
The synths are designed really well, and really helps building up the mood you were going for in this track. That sawy pad of goodness at 1:28 sounds amazing.
I do have one critique though. The drums and percussion sounds too flat. Especially the snare at 0:16 lack any type of depth to its sound. Because of this, it really stands out in a fairly atmospheric track. The snare sound you got going is probably perfect for a track like this, but you should work a bit on the reverb settings of it. Not really a major problem though.

Arrangement - 4/5
The arrangement is done in a way that keept my interest up throughout the track.
The part from 1:20 to 1:52 was epic, but I felt like you repeated the same thing over and over again without making any changes. It's true that there should be a lot of repetition in this genre, but when you repeat the same pattern over and over again for 30 seconds, the listener will most likely be tired of it after a while. from 0:16 to 0:52, you repeated the same melody over and over again as well, but here you added some extra layers after 15 seconds which kept the interest up.
Also, throughout the track I felt like the drum progression was a bit lackluster. Pretty much the same old 1-2 pattern over again. You really should vary your drums a bit. Add some fill ins, swithcu p the timing of your snare and clap hits, alter the pitch of your hihat, do whatever as long as you make sure to vary your drums. The one things that more often than not make a track sound samey(boringly repetetive) is the beat. By changing up the beat, you will be able to build up a lot more energy in your songs.

Art Relevance 5/5:
Probably the most important thing in this contest is that the track represents the art it has been inspired by. Your track builds up a dark and sad mood without sacrificing energy. In this way this track represent an intense and action-packed situation at the same time as it is representing a sad and dark mooded world. This is exactly what I see on the art you chose. The entire universe of the image seems to be dark and evil while the fight taking place is actionpacked and suspensefull. You certainly nailed this part.

Total Score - 4.625/5
Overall a really good track that represent the image well and has great mixing. A bit samey at times, but it still able to build intensity in a great way.

Ectisity - AIM Judge

Reptiore responds:

Thanks thanks, I am very self aware of my issues currently, but it was nice to hear some verification and not just being over-critical of myself. While I am looking to improve on those aspects, especially working on expanding on melodies. I am currently working on a computer from 2006-ish that cannot handle so many voices coming in from my pads and sometimes chords. It's quite a shame, but I definitely thank you for the verification, as mentioned.

I think everything that you have said in this review is an overall blessing as it verifies my analysis of myself- above average mixing, good at setting the mood, decent sound design, lackluster melody transitions, repetitive/lazy drumlines. (Which I have no excuse for, I literally just take the cookie-cutter patterns I hear in droll popular house tracks and use them everywhere.)

I wish I had more to say, since you have given me probably the only legitimate review on this website, aside from Real's circa-2015. Alas, I am socially awkward, antisocial, and all around abrasive.

[Knock Up]

The intro really isn't that bad. Maybe add a small and minimalistic over it, and it will sound great!
This is a pretty nice track, and I love thebsynths. really easy on the ears. If I were to comment on I would say that the lead synth 0:40 has some bad and annoying frequencies. Try to find this frequencies by boosting different frequencies until you find thebreally bad ones and cut them.

The mixing is done pretty well. The noise clap and percussion does disappear a bit in the mix, but not too too much..
The song was a bit samey because you repeated the same melodies a lot without any variation.

Overall a good track, but it can be improved.
4/5
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Demonic-Overmind responds:

yep, you got that right, I couldn't fix the problem with that square lead, I guess it was clashing with itself to get that weird sound.
I know I repeated the melody, but it was not too much, I mean, this is how house music is, right?

Thanks for the review.

[Goldust]

Decent track this. The mixing is done very well, the volume levels are perfect, and the eq is on point. Still, it didn't really hit home for me. he reason is that I didn't feel like it had anything that made it stand out. Don't take me wrong, I'm a huge fan of mainstream music. The problem with this track though mainly lies with the sound design and melodies.

The lead supersaw you use at the beginning is really harsh on the ears, and isn't really satisfying to listen to. The bass you use at the drop sounds very harsh uninteresting and doesn't really catch attention. Everithing that comes after 1.16 is actually great and I reaøly enjoyed the track from there, but sadly it only lasted for one minute.

I also mentioned there being a problem with the melodies. Simply, they aren't rememberable. Sounds very plain and samey, and I think you should work more on making interesting interesting.

Overall a good track, and you have all the technical stuff nailed down. Just need to work a bit on creating your own style and make music that will catch peoples attention.

3.5/5
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[May Vibes]

Oooh, this is actually quite good :D.
Really love that bass, sounds epic for something made in sytrus :D.
Still there are a couple of things I need to point out.

First of all the piano. IT actually sounds like quite a decent sample, but I feel like it needs a little high end boost to make it sound a bit clearer. Also, I would personally a bit more reverb on it. You have some reverb going on already, but it's mainly on the low end while I think it would have sound better to focus the reverb more on the hi end parts.
Secondly, the eq needs to be a bit better in general. The piano frequencies are colliding a lot with the mid range on the reeze bass. I would suggest lower some of the mid range frequencies(The parts where the piano shines the most) in the bass in order to let the piano shine. the main eq problem though is the percussion. Try to turn down the hats and crash a tiny bit in the hi end ranges. As it is now, none of the other instruments are able to shine in the hi-end at all, and thus I feel like something like the bass aren't able to fulfill it's potential.

Overall a pretty good track. Love the melodies, and the problems mainly lies with the eq.
4/5
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5TanLey responds:

sytrus is a master tool dude :P

Thanks for THE review that actually says something valuable, I´ll work on my mixing