UnknownToTheKnown's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mellow-Dee [8-bit]]

Liked the gritty crushed kick however at 1:20 it increases in loudness and throws the mix off a bit.
The main body of the project is great, however it stays great for a couple of minutes before it starts to grate on the ears. It's missing some juicy bass, and I think some Neo Moogish Wendy Carlos type bass would fit in great at this point, to give the entire mix structure and flesh from the ground up. This is just my opinion though.
Overall, enjoyable to listen too. Good stuff mate!

CANDYdisturber responds:

Thanks for the review! Greatly appreciate it.

Bass is pretty hard to do in chiptune since the only real thing i can use is saw/square waves, and since I already had so many going at a time it would've ended up breaking most of the clarity in the leads; but that's definately something I can try and look into.

[Rough outline 2.1]

Love the Albioni inspired bassline.
The chordal transition from 0:13 to 0:14 was a bit off for me. I'm not sure what the first chord is but i certainly know the second one is Dm. Is the first one BbMaj or Fmaj? Whatever it is, it sounds a bit wonky to me. This is just my opinion though.

Loved the last chord. Sounded like a bare fifth to me. Love bare fifths.
Overall, the chords were decent, nothing very interesting - just generic chords - however I enjoyed listening to it. Very soothing.

Good stuff, cheers!

[Lucid]

I was expecting something slow and dreamy but instead you opened with what can only be described as a pirate type theme.

The sounds are decent, but sound a bit too MIDI for me and un-natural. Which is to be expected if you're solely using FL Studio.

Musically, a bit thin and dry. Nothing that stands out to me. Not quite sure how to describe it. A think you should try deep bare fifths in some low string section and perhaps fuller chords in the high strings? You could even do octaves in a Double Bass section or something. Just fill it our a bit,

The synthesized bass was a pleasant surprise though.

Overall, not bad at all. Looking forward to your next piece!

Mdrums responds:

Thnx for the feedback! I'll try to apply it in a new piece :)

[Cavern of Void]

My honest review?

Extremely disjointed. Sounds are off beat. As if you attempted syncopation (which i believe is an aspect of Blues) but missed by about a demi semi quaver - throwing everything off balance. As a result, I struggled to enjoy it.

Jazz wise? Sure, you throw a few chromatics in but It's not as jazzy as i was expecting. It sounded more like a theme from a platform video game. This is just my opinion though. If you want jazz then use some jazz chords. Maj7ths, A7b13, etc... I can hardly play jazz although I should get into it.

Overall, extremely decent - but not my thing.

Cheers!

zktaichou responds:

Thanks for the review!

I had intentionally made the sounds that way. It is sort of my own musical style. Maybe I have weird musical taste haha. I made this knowing it isn't everyone's cup of tea =)

And you're quite sharp haha. If you check out my other releases, they are indeed oriented more towards video games. Maybe that is due to my upbringing with mostly video games =D

Cheers!

[Booming Track [DEMO]]

Don't listen to others if you should finish it or not. That's your decision.
If you WANT to finish it then do. If you lack passion then maybe not.

My opinion?
Very promising. A slow start, the piano was quite terrible actually. Very blocky and lacking depth in the mix. However, 0:28 redeemed the entire track. Nice Kick, just be sure the sub Bass tailing from it doesn't distort your mix and drown your other sounds. The "discotronic" lead which enters as well sounds good too!

However, theirs something going on in the mix which is turning it a bit muddy. Check your reverb levels on all your sounds to make sure the tail from the reverb isn't causing this because at 0:38 you can hear a big difference in the mix when the Kick stops. You might want to check your compression levels as well. The kick is bringing your other sounds down.

This is just my advice though. Good stuff mate!

[All will be here [Piano]]

Decent chords. A bit generic for me though although i must admit more creative than most i've seen where. Whether you intended that or not i don't know. I could have sworn I heard a Maj7th somewhere. Then again i am tone deaf. The piano rhythm you have going on starting at 1:29 was... well.... not my thing. Broken chords may have worked better. Or arpegiated. All in all though - not bad at all. Good stuff mate!

Calamaistr responds:

The intention was to make a piano track from the melody of its respective 8 bit predecessor ;)

Thanks for the review :)