NiborBobbin's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[-Surrender-]

For the review!

Now the intro strings are too loud which drowns out other sounds so I would start to look at mastering the string (may be turn it down a touch). The same goes for the .... monster synth? (Not sure what to describe it as). The melody is too repetitive and difficult to listen to.

Despite your comment about drums I can feel the kick on the bass which is a sign of good EQ(ing).

Going back to the main synth, it really does not fit well in this track as it is too harsh and thus results in distorting all the other sounds in the background. Also, Im sure this is a preset from one of the FL synths (HL harmor or harmless comes to mind). I would steer clear away from the presets for one reason:

The easiest way to differentiate between a good music producer and a person in their bedroom is by the samples used. For example, the best house and dance have high quality samples (drums), while never EVER using a preset (you will find that the best DJs make their own samples). A classic example is DJ Sasha - Xpanda.

This song on the whole was very difficult to listen to and needs severe improvement. Start by looking into that main synth! Personally if I had ownership of this project I would first get out the FMDRIVE synth (mega drive vst), up the beat and turn it into a graveyard game level.

Applesnitch responds:

Yeah, this song sucks and I know it. Turned the master WAY TOO LOUD.

[Nova]

So lets start from the top:

WRONG BASS DRUM. Make it harder, louder but not overpowered. That way you can emphasise the guitar. Because of that I feel that the song really was wack.

Your guitar is OK at times and not to well at others. For example, the intro was excellent (really had a smile on me). But then the weak drums come in and there was not backing to the main melody so it was very bland. Then you have your headbang section at 52 seconds but it was really lacking.

Check out a song called agalloch - limbs. You may find it good inspiration. This is because your section at 1:08 had a similar sound.

There is much I would change but otherwise you are really not that far off!
For now, work on your drums and think about how to complement your main guitar properly with harmonies.

mastercloak responds:

Dude, this is awesome. Thanks a ton for the constructive criticism. I'll definitely heed your advice.

[It's Snowing]

Constant arpegio on the harp ruined the intro. Try using more of a strum from low to high quickly and only on the beat every so often to make a more dramatic sound.

Choir, well done.
Sleigh bells. Again, nice!
Flute, I would have used a different instrument. Piccolo I think would have done better.
The church bells where very nice

As the song progressed you really outdid yourself which is why I feel that you need to change the harps.

All in all, it was a lovely song

LawnReality responds:

Thanks for the advice about the harp, and the flute! I'll keep it in mind for future tracks. I'm glad that they didn't stop you from enjoying the song too much. :)

[There Is Hope]

Ok. So lets begin with the review.

Your background drums are too loud. But as the song progressed it sounded very nice. Almost like avatar.

Your melody is OK and builds well. But you are not taking advantage of the higher notes. Bring in some drama to the high end of the scale instead of relying too much on the lower end. This is what horns and oboes are good at.

1:55 that was cheeky with the drop and I very much liked it.

1:57 your use of the horns. Well done

I think your strings are too powerful at times but that is a preference as opposed to a requirement. How to improve? Just bring in more drama (complicated melodies). Layer that with more harmonics and you are done.

Earel responds:

Thank you :)

I take in consideration everything you said

[Zelta - Cyrin]

Ok. So:

The intro piano and synth where clearly presets from a synth such as sytrus in fl studio. The drums where silly and not properly EQ'd. The melody and lack of bass made the song very boring and bland.

Parts of the melody do not even work with the song (1:00). That needs to be fixed as soon as possible. 1:20 where the song goes up in tune is also pretty bad because parts of the song stay in their tuning resulting in a discorse in the song (i.e. very painful to hear).

1:52: That is the sytrus preset, again a bad move as it makes the song obviously cheap.

I dont think there is anything you could do to save this song other than:
Change the drums to be constant
Stop with the "du du du du du" of the piano because its boring
Stop using presets and craft sounds to a more professional sound
Dont allow sections of songs to be in a different tuning.
Be more creative in your melodies and get some harmonies in there

[Ztarmaster - Frostbite]

This song was very random and disjointed. Random effects and synts added and then taken away. This is something that should have taken less than 1 hour to make (primarily just looking for presets to shove in).

No structure, no eq on drums, no build ups, no melody.

[Palinka - Space String (insta album) (final mix)]

For dubstep this is quite bad.
It sounds like you have used that plugin (cant name for the life of me), that enables you to enable effects at specific points in the pattern. This results in a bland dubstep sound. Your synth strings do not fit into the song which is why it makes this track rather flat.

Dubstep typically involves incredibly harmonic sections with a bass drop. Here I just here random noises with ocassional wobbles that dont wobble correctly. What I mean is that you should try wobbling the cutoff instead of a repeat.

Your intro is clean and nice, but thats not what you want for dubstep (sounded more like a trance, progressive house intro etc). The chord that jumps in 0:21, no. It sounds cheap and tacky.

I would consider redoing the entire dubstep sections and get better wobbles with more chaotic yet harmonic instrumentals.

[Pálinka - Sunlight (discotheque album)]

For club music it would never work.
Firstly you have a plucked sawtoothed instrument that sounds like a video game. The melody is very bland and has no harmonies involved which is a key factor in club music. You will also need vocals and lyrics to make anything that will be considered to be played in a club.

The drums where too processed resulting in a crackling which is not good for DJs in general. But as I type this I realise that you may have used a limiter on the master control, dont.

The sounds where repettitive and boring on the whole. But this sond has better chance at being progressive house instead of club.

A good effort but much improvement is needed.

[Cosmic Fire]

The song lacked the typical harmonies of a song where you would have lower notes acompany the higher notes. Because of this the song sounded more flat in placed (for example: 0:15 and 0:22). The drums where fantastic for this song (being video game).

I think what makes this difficult to use in a game is how the e-pianos and main synth are very high pitch making it difficult to concentrate on the game. Its amazing how much damage can be done with high pitch high frequency bells and synths.

All in all I would change the main synth to be more sawtooth based (but a mega drive brass could do well there). At the same time I would add extra bass layers to really bring out the lower end of the song and make this track complete.

DanJohansen responds:

''The song lacked the typical harmonies of a song where you would have lower notes acompany the higher notes'' - This to me sounds like formula working something I am against and I don't really like following set ways when making instruments work together.

I can understand how the high pitches can annoy some people, I don't have against tracks that has it personally, I kind of dig that moment of holy shit when it happens in tunes, but if it was places within a game and the SFX used interfered with each other, I think toning down the high pitch with EQ or a sound change would be in place. I would still want the OST released with this version in such a case though.

Glad you enjoyed it though!

[Steven Universe - Stronger Than You (Flaytic Remix)]

First thing, not techno.

Secondly, you have talent but I feel that the over use of gliding synths ruins the intro slightly.
But when I hear the lyrics, wow. I am very VERY impressed. This song is too fast to enjoy but at the same time it is very nice and I can tell that alot of work has gone into this.

Chord progressions, typical minor to major but hey I use that too so....

I notice that you also wobble the frequency of the synths at times, dont unless its the last note on a loop. Otherwise it can sound out of place.

I am a harsh reviewer who has high standards, so from me, 4/5. Well done and keep up the work!

Flaytic responds:

Well first off, techno was the closest of the given genres this was closest to.

Yeah I, too, feel like I overuse the vibrato sometimes. Its a bad habit I'm trying to break.

Being given a 4/5 from a harsh reviewer is enough of a compliment to me :D Thanks for you review!