headphoamz's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[redemption]

Love, love, love the intro here. It sets a very calm mood, almost retrospective. Your chord progression is beautiful too, and that synth that carries everything is beautiful.
I personally didn’t understand the sequence that came after the intro; it seemed almost silly with the wavering synth, like a “spooky graveyard” kind of synth that came outta nowhere. I like your Rhodes that play around 1:45, and then we get back to that warm piano + strings combo that is beautiful.
I think everything besides the beat was amazing. Ethereal’s voice as usual is smooth and wonderful, but I would have loved to hear how it originally sounded. I realize this is trance, but the beat made the other instruments take a backseat, whereas it might have done wonders to make your synths shine.
Your piano is gorgeous. Hearing it just makes everything better. I also gave high marks for the way you chose to end your piece here. Very clean, and not often do I hear a song that doesn’t fade off or just abruptly end. You closed it out nicely.
This may be one of my favorite tracks from you, even though I gave you a bunch of nitpicking. The song almost felt nostalgic to me, and was very atmospheric as all your pieces are. You know how to set a mood and carry it throughout.

NGADM Round 3 Score: 9.2

[Here]

You have some interesting chords going on here. The piano is for sure my favorite part out of everything – very clean-sounding, even though you distorted it. The instrument makes the piece dark and emotional. 1:02 brings in a very Gorillaz-like rhythm that has a bit of an attitude on it, kind of bitcrushed and minimalistic.

Great mix here. Your production quality is excellent; I’m digging the reverb. You have some cool progressions throughout as well, that make for a chill frame of mind when listening.

Overall, though, I thought the song was lacking in a melody or particular direction. I listened to the whole thing waiting for something to hit and make the piece more exciting, but I felt like it began to drag its feet a bit at 2:04. Everything was well put-together, and rhythmically speaking, it’s perfect. Nothing is offbeat or intentionally slow – but it was a little weird. The end especially caught me off-guard and it felt like the song slowed to a halt, then sped up and went off a hill somewhere.

It is a unique piece, however, and it’s well-produced!

NGADM Round 3 Score: 8

[There]

Love the glitch starts off the song, and as usual, you have some really cool voice clips that tie the beat together. Super solid vocals that strengthen the melody.
That main synth is too good. 1:07 is killer; I love the flow and ease into the different transitions here. So many different sounds all over the place and they all mesh so seamlessly.
The echo at 2:34 is beautiful. You manage to make a song start afresh here, and it sounds different but in the main vein of everything electronically and my ears are all abouts it.
I felt it did get a bit repetitive as times, but that’s my only gripe here. Your mix is spot-on and bright, nothing too sharp. Bass is sounding good as well. You have a knack for revisiting older styles of music – this one is almost feeling like a Daft Punk classic ’97 mix.

Colorful synths, punchy beats, classic Garlagan. Great work!

NGADM Round 3 Score: 9.3

garlagan responds:

Elspeth! What an honour! Thanks for the encouraging review!

[Survival of the Hungriest]

Your beginning is extremely inviting! There are some suspenseful atmospheres being created and this easily sounds like it could be in a cinematic scene where the character must remain silent.
The 0:17 instrument – bassoon? Contrabass? Gonna bug me - I felt it added the best of tensions to set this track in motion. Beautiful piano, too. All of your instruments sound live, by the way (save for the chorus that comes in) and they’re very smartly fused together in that 1:03 transition to total darkness.
Outstanding percussive work, as always. You know how to ramp up tension and create a sense of panic for the listener. Your staccato strings in the background also help strengthen the sense of confusion/loss. Perhaps our main character was being chased down the psychopath during the middle portion.
I’m struggling to find a main theme throughout the piece; even though everything sounds great, I just want to return to some kind of motif, something that is recognizable before and after the gigantic percussive party, or maybe even during. After the song was over, even though it was amazing work, I couldn’t remember how it went – the piece went where it needed to go to conduct the scene properly, however, and that’s what excellent cinematic pieces do, so I didn’t want to judge too harshly here.
The transitions, though, are excellent, absolutely flawless work here. The silence that comes in after everything has finished exploding(?) at 3:46 is something right out of a Michael Giacchino phrase. The softness only adds to the overall bleakness that you feel after all this has gone down – sounds like a death might have occurred. Your chorus near the end is especially stunning, in that it helps highlight your strings and they all end up sounding heavenly.
Conclusively – your mix is fantastic, production value is off the charts (in typical raccoon fashion), but I would have enjoyed a theme to hum afterwards. Very lovely work.

NGADM Round 2 Score: 9.1

EvilRaccoon responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback. I've been eager to see what you thought to help me improve on my weaker points. It looks like your thoughts are echoed by many others here, and they are absolutely right.

Your picking out great little ideas, like 'a death had occurred' etc that were in my thoughts when I was doing this so it's great to know i'm not a lunatic making up stories that only I'll be able to identify with. XD

Thanks again, I really appreciate the time you took to listen and review my track! It helps a lot!

Oh and at 0:17 it was both Bassoon and contrabass! The Bassoon was more frontal.

[Aurora Dawn]

There’s an amazing softness to this song. Upon first listen, afterwards, I felt very calm and relaxed. Your voice is soothing, smooth, and sounds like melted butter might sound, as usual!
1:45 was the part that made me really sit up and analyze. I appreciate the way you’re singing here as it gives the melody more variety to work with, but it went a different way than my ears anticipated and ended up sounding a little discordant. It is stylized singing, so I don’t totally want to discount that, but I didn’t feel it ended up fitting very well here.
The piano is excellent. I love how deep it sounds, quite literally; it’s as if it were being played on a gigantic scale from an ocean floor. It does appear a lot more Japanese-influenced than any other culture, and I’m all for that. Your understanding of traditional Asian melodies blows my mind (specifically, the use of the Hirajoshi pentatonic scale in several other pieces!). have a great intuition on how long notes should be held, and there’s a perfect balance of strings and keys working together. The reverb has a long delay, but it works for the mood that you’re setting, which to me, seems haunting, wistful, and maybe a little sad.
I have to disagree with Step here – I think your mix is brilliant. For some reason my ears couldn’t get enough of that transition at 1:58, and both of your layers are supporting each other. However, what you’re doing with the voices is, to me, a little more flashy than the song needed. I realize your intention to add interest to otherwise tied notes, but again, it felt like it was added as a showcase of vocalization rather than give meaning to this particular musical sequence.
Your harmonies are beautiful, though, and that’s what really stood out to me the most. Very pretty instrumentation and composition work. I would love to hear you play this with a harp!

NGADM Round 2 Score: 8.6

[Voluto]

Right off the bat, excellent production quality. Your instruments all blend together very seamlessly, and dat beat! Great job on the compressor here. The bass isn’t too punchy, either, which can be a common problem in dance music. Doesn’t encompass anything and it makes the rhythms pleasant to listen to, as well. As for the best of the best, 1:37 is my favorite sequence. Everything definitely feels like dance here, with kicking beats and evolving synths that drive the song happily forward.
I feel the issue here might have been that the piece didn’t have anything particularly memorable about it. It seems like I’ve heard the song before, and the melody wasn’t anything really outstanding. However, the mix of the whole thing is beautiful and the enveloper you have over everything gives it a pumping beat that doesn’t quit.
Thing is, I would have also liked it to be a longer dance song. It felt like you just started to get going, really started writing, and then quit. But I can also understand that you might have been a bit rushed (even though it doesn’t feel like it) – in this case, repetition would have been fine by me, as my groove was cut a bit short. :P
I keep coming back to the beat and how much this reminds me of Snowboard Kids (the soundtrack was pretty fun to that game!). Your chords throughout, especially those soft sevenths that you throw in there, are reminiscent of something that pops, is exciting, and is a crowd favorite. I hope you DJ somewhere because I’d totally pay to hear your beats!

NGADM Round 2 Score: 9

AeronMusic responds:

Thanks so much, Headphoamz!! :D

"I feel the issue here might have been that the piece didn’t have anything particularly memorable about it. It seems like I’ve heard the song before, and the melody wasn’t anything really outstanding."
- You kinda summed up half of EDM, like this one. :P

"It felt like you just started to get going, really started writing, and then quit"
- Sort of true, yeah. Wanted to make some slightly different melody and chords in the third drop at 2:32 but
it didn't turn out very well and since the clock was ticking I had to keep the melody from the first drop...

"I hope you DJ somewhere because I’d totally pay to hear your beats!"
- Haha that's cool but I don't know if I ever want to become a DJ. :)

[ghosts]

You have a fantastic beginning here, with those three notes that help progress everything along. The reverb might have been a bit too much with both synth and percussion, but your transitions are excellent and the arpeggio slowly getting louder gives the song passion.
The percussion that comes in shortly after is a little off-putting and I definitely wasn’t expecting it. It might be a little louder than the other instruments, but I know you said your mixing was a little rushed, too.
I would have also liked to hear a little more rounded bass, rather than that one particular note now and then. The double beat that you have going on sounds a little bitcrushed, almost like it’s been converted one too many times, and so doesn’t match the production quality of your other instruments.
However, what really stood out to me was the compressor of the entire song. It sounds like you smashed all of it together and some of it ends up sounding a little louder (like the percussion in the first few parts) than others. BUT – it also makes your sequencers sound totally kickass. I would have loved the whole song to be like your works at 3:40, because oh my gosh so amazing. Just total ear candy here, with all the beautiful blips and arps flying all over the place, and it sounds like a video game soundtrack where you’re just entering the boss area and you need to find out a weak spot, pronto.
Love all your glissandos – you are a master at putting them right where they can show off the best! Plus, the song itself is intrepid and flashy, but not to the point of being obnoxious as some experimental tracks can be.
I’d even go so far as to say this was one of my favorites of yours, composition-wise – it was the mixing that did end up bothering me a bit. I would love to hear this fully mastered!

NGADM Round 2 Score: 8.6

[Two]

Great intro. Very Alan Parsons Project, actually – I enjoy how you implement everything together very well here, and that one driving synth that comes in around 0:50 is an awesome path to the main rhythm.
However, my main problem is with that particular beat overall. The random backbeat (with the toms and hat) just doesn’t make rhythmic sense to me and it seemed like it was struggling to find a place to fit in.
You have some really good buildups in this song as well that lead to some nice driving riffs, like at 2:25. Nice, chill rhythm here and a very full mix (you always have awesome mixing!). I would have enjoyed it more had it been sped up, but I realize it’s more of a chillstep/trance piece so that doesn’t factor into the scoring.
At 3:25 we’re taken once again to that interesting rhythm that seems like it’s trying to catch up to your main track, and as much as I want it to be a part of the song, it just doesn’t seem right for it.
I also found that the frequencies in the background become a bit noisy after a while, and there are irregular frequencies that might have been better off not being there. You have some nice delay going on towards the end – melodically, it all works wonderfully together and the filter that takes off the roundness of everything is a perfect final mix.
Conclusively I enjoyed this piece, but it felt very repetitive and the frequencies got to me after a bit. However, your mixing, as always, is on point and the idea behind the song is great.

NGADM Round 2 Score: 8.3

[Supernova]

NGADM Round 2 Review
I absolutely love your buildup here. You have some amazingly warm melodies that really help set the mood of the track right away. The vocals blend really well, too. I think the effect that you used to mod the voice was awesome – really fit well, even made it a bit more robotized which ended up sounding super cool.
It did begin to feel a bit stale after awhile, though – the chords started grate a bit as you used them throughout the entire piece. I really enjoy the choice of synths and the fading back in around 3:25, but the chords could have used a bit more punch, maybe a key change here and there. I would have also liked to hear a little more bass around this part.
However, the entire track was extremely well-produced. Your quality of music is always mind-blowing and I feel this is an excellent example of what you’re able to do with mixing. It’s a great showcase of your sample library as well, as you use a range of instruments here and they all work very well together. I enjoy the switch to a dubstep beat as well, towards the finale of the song. Mixes it up and makes the listener more involved. Speaking of the ending, the choice of the music box-like VST was pretty nifty and very clear-sounding, but I feel it could have been better as a fadeout or maybe even a final percussive note, rather than just ending it after a few more sequences of the same chords.
Overall, though, just nitpicking - you have a great variety of instruments, extremely well-produced, and fun to listen to. The vox were great, too! Thanks for making this, Solarex! I wish you the best of musical endeavors. :)

NGADM Round 2 Score: 9.6

KabukiTunes responds:

Thank you very much! I'll take all of these things into account while I'm going back and working on the track for professional release. Nitpicking is ok, it gives me things I need to work on.

Thanks for your review!

[No Time Left]

So I’m getting a sort of “lost in space” vibe from this upon first listen – I think the instruments, or whatever is playing in the background, is a little too quiet. The chorus comes in and it doesn’t sound like a chorus – just a synth. A blending or longer release of the chorus might make it sound more organic. I can hear the melody though, which is a big plus. The drums slowly come in and blend in with the radio static.
Reminds me a lot of Halo. I enjoy the piano keys at 1:32, which give it a desolate feel, and you’re clearly building up tension here for something with the drums. I also enjoyed the random vocals at 1:45, which were almost like a sing-yell.
Although the instruments are good and arranged well, I find the problem here to be that the song lacks that breath-taking factor – it’s all good music, but it’s music I’ve heard before in hundreds of soundtracks and very basic stuff. I do very much admire the work you must have put into this mix-wise, because it truly sounds wonderful on my speakers, through my headphones, and on my laptop… but it’s just missing that certain something that really gives a song its long-lasting effect. There’s not really any particular instrument that stands out, other than the random piano, and the drums don’t really go anywhere. This is a cinematic piece for sure, in that it helps enhance a scene – but I’m not sure what scene you were going for here.
Your keywords were “epic”, “war”, or “end”; I got something more along the lines of “space”, “emptiness”, or “stealth”. It wasn’t excitable as a war track normally is – war is passionate, filled with spontaneity, and is indeed epic, but your track here is very low-key. Perhaps if you went with something like “espionage”, I’d be inclined to agree!
Overall – great mix, good instrumentation and arrangement, but I have heard it done before. You took a leap with your mix and did wonderfully, so big kudos to that!

NGADM Round One Score: 6.8

Chemiqals responds:

This wasn't actually for the NGADM! =P That was "Swan Lullaby". Thanks for the feedback on this one though!