UnknownToTheKnown's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[First Flight]

Choir at the start was alright - although their were a few leaps in your soprano section which sounded unnatural. As Palestrina said - "Many steps, few leaps." And he was a master of choral music back in the day. Nice suspension around 2:13 - for a fact your soprano is playing a high C note but I'm trying to figure out what the strings are playing. Is it a Bb Major chord?

Sound wise, nice and thick sounds - very cinematic. Not thin at all. The Horn section is mixed very well, although my headphones are picking up a bit of Mid peak - just a bit. It may have been overall clipping though because of the nature of the climax of the piece. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Strings as well - very well executed, and they play THAT motif which you would certainly find in cinematic pieces - that broken chord type arpeggio so I was very pleased to hear that kick in.

I'm not sure what else to say rather than good stuff mate!

Cheers!

[We Know]

Piano was absolutely fine. Well executed suspension around 0:04 which resolved nicely around 0:08.
Vocals were a bit thin for my taste but had this pleasant ethereal texture to it. Almost breathy/airy.
Wasn't a fan of the percussion. A bit plastic and thin for me.
The vocals jump out of this mix around 1:18 which drowns out your other sounds a bit. You always want to vocals to sit comfortably just on top of the mix.
As for the vocals themselves - nothing special but do just fine in the project.
The chordal progression is generic but that's absolutely fine considering the message/emotion you want to get across to us.

Overall, quite good - certainly pleasant to listen too. Good stuff mate!

Back-From-Purgatory responds:

Thanks, glad you like it.

[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!

[God Is A Girl]

Smacks of resemblance to DJ Splash - God Is A Girl.
Perhaps influenced?
Either way, loving the bassline. Nice simple sawtooth wave with heavy eq cuts around the high and low ends. Melody is alright. Might want to tighten the bassdrum up just a TINY bit. The sub bass could affect your final mix. I also liked the ascending piano arpeggio. Very typical of Hard Dance. It has all the elements to be a great full bodied track.

One musical suggestion. At around 0:18 the notes go, Eb,F,EbF.
I notice you do this several times throughout the beginning. Very boring. For the style of this track you want a catchy almost "jumpy" melody. This melody has long drawn out notes that stay in the same area on the piano. More quavers. More semi quavers to give it a lively rhythmic feel! If you nail that you'll have a very good track here.

That's 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 :)

[The Runs Runner]

I have no experience with how video game music SHOULD work. But i love creating so heres my feedback. Add a a gritty square lead 1 or 2 octaves above the arp you have on this video. Make it a catchy melody/motif. Make sure it doesn't CLASH with your bassline musically. Change the drum loop. use something a lot more electronic. If you have to make it then so be it. Down sample a drum loop so it becomes unrecognizable - convolution reverb to give it presence, but so that it doesn't leave a tail of echoeing - distorting your mix and maybe some DBlueGlitch on it.

As for sounds? Get some synths in their! Strings? Choirs? Get some sounds in their and completely mess around with them with effects etc...

This is my advice for now. I have no experience with Video Game music though. At the end of the day - It's your project. Your creation. Your call. Good stuff mate!

8-bitheroes responds:

Thanks I appreciate the feedback. I will look into some of these suggestions and experiment.