AudioVision's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[XS - Murder Mystery]

NAC Creepy Chronnies Judge

Alright, hearing the damn box song gets me pissed off. Can't tell you how many times that thing has fed me a shit weapon. Good use of that sound bite. I was trying to figure out where I'd heard before.

Your piece has a grooving creepy feel going on. I dig it. The sound mixing was great and your choice of sampling was great too. I enjoyed the variation you put throughout to keep everything moving and interesting. Certainly an interesting idea for a song too... fuckin' zombies.

Anyway, the only thing I didn't enjoy was a little lapse in originality. While utilizing the music box was cool, the general dubstep BWAWAWAs and WUBs have been used a lot. Like I said, you did things good enough to keep it grooving and interesting, but I would have liked you to have mixed it up even more.

Great song! Creepy and funkeh. Crunky, perhaps? No, wait, I think there's already Crunk music... I'll have to think of another name.

[First Thing's First]

NAC Creepy Chronnies Judge

Nice! I'd say this is actually one of the creepier pieces in the contest. While I'm not usually a fan of house, I'd say this one was a keeper.

I like the way it starts off with that single piano and synth and all off a sudden picks up pace. Sound choices were great in keeping it creepy. Mixing was done pretty well. For the most part I have a pretty good impression of this song.

My usual problem with house is simply the repetitiveness of it. And even though there were repetitive bits throughout the song, I felt you mixed it up enough, even in little ways. to keep the pace flowing and interesting. Therefore, for the most part, you avoided the usual pitfalls of this type of music. I enjoy that you mixed up the drum pattern throughout the song too.

While still hitting some of the repetitiveness of house, your shifting beat, sounds, and melodies keep it interesting enough for a replay value. Kudos on a good and creepy entry.

joethesouleater responds:

awesome =] thanks for the review, it means a lot

[In Fm]

NAC Creepy Chronnies Judge

This was a good dubstep entry into the competition. It incorporated that creepy element into the sound as well trying to keep to true dubstep.

I liked the use of organ in the song, which gave a creepy sound, and then the sudden throw into dubstep which sort of sets the listener off guard. Your use of sound in this piece was great in finding that feeling the competition was looking for.

I suppose my issues with this piece are less with the track than the entire genre of dubstep, in that, well, it all sounds the same. Besides the organ, there just wasn't enough originality in this song to thrill me. With such a vague topic as the NAC this time, I would've liked to see you do more with it. I also found the organ sections after the initial organ solo to be a bit lacking. When you hit the organs, it sort of takes steam out of the song. I would have added another instrument, perhaps something a bit deeper. I couldn't tell you exactly what to do with those parts as I can't decide myself, but I would just try to spice them up a bit.

A good dubstep track and a fun, short listen, but I would've liked to see a bit more originality throughout.

The-iMortal responds:

Thanks for the review :)

[HallowGlitch]

NAC Creepy Chronnies Judge

A nice creepy tune and certainly fun to listen to. However, it lacks a little something for me.

Your overall use of sounds and instruments made the song just right in the creepy department, just as the contest was looking for. I could see someone running away from zombies to this track. I enjoyed your frayed, glitchy sound, and the beat was steady, but in a way that tricked you into thinking it was unpredictable. Like someone before me, this would be good in a madness-esque animation.

For my tastes, the mixing was a bit off. Again, like someone before me said, it should have been "faster, harder, louder". The song needed a bit more of a kick to really get off the ground. My biggest problem was the repetitively of the song, and the lack of substance. Mostly, the song was the same noise over and over again with slight variations in beat. Before the song was done, I was sort of hoping for more, but it just was too similar the whole way through for my enjoyment. The bass could have also been a bit stronger in those low notes you had.

A creepy tune with potential, but I'd work on mixing it to get the most out of your sound, and working in a bit more variation throughout the song, to keep it interesting. Despite any criticism I've given, you did good work on this song, and it's a great addition in the NAC.

EoD696 responds:

Thanks for the constructive criticism :) truly appreciable. I guess I've found myself in a rut with the construction of my pieces over the past few months. I might've made 30 seconds of actual music for this one, and spent the rest of the piece tweaking it's mix. Somehow, that has served me well in the past though *shrug* I've taken a step back from production/promotion as a result of my compunction for that. I'm a real musician, but I'm trying to give people what they want. Now...I'm wondering if that was the right decision. Thanks again for your comments, I do appreciate it :D

[Moonlit Shore]

NAC Creepy Chronnies Judge

The song wasn't quite "creepy", but as you say, it was eerie. It had some great elements and was a good listen. I enjoyed your entry in the NAC.

I enjoyed whatever sample you used as your main instrument. It had an electronic feel while maintaining that level of "eerieness" you were going for. The mixing was fantastic on this submission, although myself I might not have put as much reverb on that piano. Your piano orchestration was pretty spot on, a good background tune and ambiance for the rest of the song.

I didn't quite like the songs reliance on beats and drums however. I felt if you took those away, there wasn't a lot more to this song. Sometimes like at 2:43, I felt the drums ended way too abruptly, as if you couldn't figure out what to do between the parts with the drums and the quieter parts. Even though you only utilized a few different instruments, I felt your mixing and background sound (strings with modification?) was adequate to fill in the bare space to make the track very full sounding.

Great piece, interesting sound, sort of a mixture of orchestral and electronic elements. A good eerie tone, and enough to keep the listener interested. I hope you do well in the NAC!

OpenLight responds:

Well thanks! To be honest, I didn't "rely" on the drums and beats, but this was the first song I tried them in, so this was basically me trying out a new style in a sense. That means that I did focus heavily on the sliced drums and I put emphasis on the beat rather than the melody. I did try to keep the piece moving though, but I see what you mean.

As for the parts where the drums seem to just kinda cut out, I did that intentionally, but I understand that it isn't normal haha. I increased the intensity of the drums in certain parts then immediately cut them off to both show a transition and create an unexpected change.

Thanks for the review!

[Halloween Town (Sonik)]

NAC Creepy Chronnies Judge

Great mixing and a grooving beat. Being creepy has never been so danceable.

The beat made me bob my head and the sound was creepy. Good choice of sound for the song. The mixing was fantastic, especially when you merged the sound of rain and the music into a transition. I'd say around 3:00 is where your song had the most steam, and has to be my favorite part from there on. But then, there is the house dilemma.

I understand house music is a repetitive dance tune. But the repetition kills me. Maybe if I was on a dance floor I wouldn't notice, but I'm judging based on sitting here with a pair of studio headphones. I listen to a song a few times before I make a judgement so I don't snap to any conclusions, and it just starts getting boring. So while I can appreciate your mixing and sound, and appreciate house as a genre, it just really seems like alot of the same over and over, with a varying beat. I also felt you could have added a little something at 2:00 to keep the organ interesting, something "bass-y".

I love the grooving mood you've got going on, and your sound quality is great. The problem is, if I'm not distracted with dancing on a dance floor, the song gets a bit boring. But you've got a good thing going, so I'd keep going at it.

[Flying Spider Colony <(FTA)>]

NAC Creepy Chronnies Judge

I certainly took enjoyment in the fact that this is much more orchestrated than your average newgrounds track. I like the title as well, found it quite fitting. I could imagine such floating spiders throughout the track.
I was a fan of the orchestration the whole way through the song. Great classical styling, no "soundtrack" style orchestral. I enjoy the "falling"/"floating" feeling your melody exhibited in the beginning.
Good choice of instruments as well, except for one thing, which i'll address later. As for the organ, as you say, it could have been ironed out a bit more, but overall it was a good bit.

I found some of the transitions in your piece a bit lacking. I would have liked to see a bit better fluidity through your transitioning. Also wasn't too big a fan of your rugrats-esque bit from 3:42 to 3:48. The piece could have used a bit more polishing mixing-wise, to make everything a bit more crisp and full sounding, but that didn't much detract from your song. I found that the harmonies you would make in the song sometimes wouldn't fit quite right. Occasionally I'd find a pairing of notes less "creepy" and more "awkward". But this was the minority.

Overall, a great piece, and I'm looking forward to following some more of your work. Simple but enticing orchestration with a minority of flaws, and a welcome break from the usual BZZZZ BZZZZ BWAWAWAWAWAWAWA of dubstep on the 'grounds. Keep up the classical!

FaeryTaleAdventurer responds:

Thank you for reviewing, AudioVision!

It's nice to know someone notices the direction I tend to take on my classical pieces. I assume by "soundtrack", you mean the over-dramatic and/or with-technopop style music, not to say that's all bad, but I guess you could say I am a "traditionalist" in this case (I have experimented with more modern styles, myself sometimes).

About the instruments, I did want to maybe throw a choir in there (actually thought about using a more natural form of the AMG mTRONMix choir, instead of always trying to tweak it in my songs to make it sound more realistic; the natural sound has a more creepy electronic feel to it). Chronamut did emphasize that vocals should be included. I actually thought about putting my voice in the track, to perhaps interact with Itsy and the environment (though I don't think I have a good Itsy voice!).

Transitions are definitely something that I have heard in the past works of mine that need some build-up fixing, and I have imagined recently some things I would've love to have tossed into the mix (i.e. a harp gliss to the front door opening).

The "Rugrats-esque" part was actually the roar of the queen (if you guessed that the Mellow Organ was used, you were right!) *goes to add another line to Author Comments*. I had thought about using one of the monster roars from WavePad, but I think any of them would've come off as just plain cheesy. Speaking of Rugrats, I will definitely say that my biggest influence(s) for this song was cartoons I grew up watching in the 90s, namely the ones by Warner Bros.

I always try to aim for quality sound in my songs, but I literally finished making the song on the due day, with just a few hours left to mix/master (very busy guy), so that's definitely something I'd like to focus on the next time I decide to commit to another NAC. Personally, I thought I was already listening to a live orchestra (something I didn't think was possible with GarageBand) in most of the song, before I even did mixing/mastering! But I attempted to do it anyway.

I agree with you whole-heartedly about some parts of the song, I just want to kick myself about not deciding to fix, when it came to harmonizing. In a number of cases, I didn't really know what to do. I'm actually not too happy about some of the minor changes I made to the trumpet lead when you and the queen are lifting off.

Again, thanks very much for your judging. It's nice to know that the classic classical isn't dead just yet. Though I can make a wobble bass, I'd probably just use it in a classical beat, as my electronica skill isn't all that good. Dub'n'Classical, sounds scary, but who knows?

-FTA

[It's Tha Return]

Good track.

This was a catchy tune, and for an electronic song, it was pretty chill. Probably the first I've heard in while not blasting in my ears.

My problem with the song is just the repetitiveness. The sound changes a little, but by the end of the song it's just been the same 3 note melody and beat with minor additional elements. I did, however, appreciate the simplicity of the sound.

I also wish you'd done a little bit more with the ending. It was fine, but I think you could have done a bit more with it.

Also, what's up with PMing us to review?

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thanks bro, I like the smooth vibe. But yes, the song is very repetitive. Repetition is one of my greatest enemies at the moment.

Thanks bro :)
Benny

[Artificial Intelligence Evolved]

Pete.

Respect man. Respect.

[Zero Bombers Pwned!]

It's like... my life story...

This... this is so relatable...

Stalagmite responds:

IKNORITE XD awesome brah =D pleased you and so many others relate XDDd