Nimble's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Follow that car!]

I love how we both ended up writing in 5(3+2) at some point in our songs :P

The composition is great, even though it's a bit anti-climatic. it creates this aggressive, down and dirty mood that doesn't get out of my head easily. it's awesome. The production is also very good, with a few minor issues(the bari sax gets hidden in the first phrase) all in all, this piece is very worthy of a win. Hope to see you next year on the field, I'll be rooting for ya from the stands in the meantime :)

acmeDyne responds:

Frankly, I'm amazed I'm still in it. I really expected you to win. I haven't even thought about what to do for the next round. Thanks for the kind words and encouragement!

[Necrostatic - Zombie Jam]

you have the right idea about what a dubstep song should sound like compared to what you hear, so that's a big plus. however, there are a couple things i want to address;

The music stayed at a near constant volume. This is probably the biggest problem since ALL types of music have their highs and their lows, their softs and their louds. A lot of (arguably mainstream) dubstep starts out very soft, with a piano sample or something of that nature, and continually grows larger and larger until the drop- here it wasn't the case. it was a consistent volume the entire time and stayed that way, even towards the end. dynamic volume is critical in keeping an audience interested in your music.

There was variation- enough of it to keep me listening, so you did well on that part. what i didn't feel though, was the filling out of a track. you know how some music sounds like there's only like 3 people playing and there's really a million different things going on at once and vice versa, where a jazz combo of just Piano Drums and Bass can easily make a track sound like it's alive- this track was more on the side of the former rather than the latter. I would say that by using more, different synths with the ones you use and just having a kind of background sound (whether it be chords or what have you) will fill up the track more and not make the vocal samples sound like their talking- it'll make it sound like an actual sample.

I hope this feedback helps, even if just a little :)

Necrostatic responds:

Thank you for your review.

About the constant volume: I made it that way, because of fearing overcompression or clipping. I heard several new artists, which just slammed vsts all over the place causing great volume distortion, where I´ve seen people on the other hand sidechaining so much that they overcompressed their Vst´s, resulting in an unwanted change of volume. It was just safer for me to do it that way. But I will keep an eye out for that and try to lessen the volume of buildups and boost the volume, when going into the mainpart.

Dubstep: I choose that genre, because it mostly describes the way it sounds. Newgrounds lacks a secondary genre, or a tertiary genre. It was a little bit out of the genre as it was supposed to give it more my touch and to not stay stringent to the dubstep genre.

VST´s: I will try to add more VST´s to it. It is just difficult to come across good ones. Most of them are just muddy and I don´t like it. But I have access to a few good VST´s, so I will try to add them.

Background sound: I always wanted to do that. But whenever I tried to do that, it sounded out of place. Maybe you can get me some input on that one.

Drums & Bass: There should be more of them and more variation to that. I simply didn´t notice it, because of the many synths going on. I will try to lessen the VST side a little and put more drums into it + variation.

Vocal: Yeah that was from a text to speech program. I wanted to try, whether it works or not. I thought it was OK on some parts, but maybe I have overused it a little. If you mean the part, where someone talks over a period of time, then I have to say that it was meant to be so. A singing voice wasn´t needed there. That would have destroyed the rhytm of the song and the beat. Singing was not an option. This part was meant to be like this :).

Next track: The next track is in the works. There are real vocals and they fit quiet nicely in that mix. I will try to use your feedback on my next song.

Thanks a lot for the review!

[Observation Deck Battle]

Sorry if i'm being a bit too harsh here, but i'm going to address a couple things;

While you may think a track can work as a long, chill piece, your music won't be the only thing on someone's iDevice, nor will you be the only artist they listen to. either add more content in your song(in the form of different chords, key changes, different sections, what have you) or cut down the length. simple enough.

Change is a good thing, even in music. I heard a couple small changes in chords, but that's about it. the same glitchy pattern, the same rhythm throughout. add some variation, go full glitch and mess stuff up in the process, at least in doing so you would've taken a couple steps outside your comfort zone.

since this is a battle theme, it'd be characteristically correct to have the drums at the beginning, and to have some high-level action-y stuff going on. now, the definition of style and being in style changes from person to person, but battles themes are typically HYPE HYPE HYPE SO MUCH HYPE- didn't really feel it the HYPE from this track. maybe make it a little faster.

The drums are WAY TOO COMPRESSED. at the very least lower their level in the mix.

Use more than one instrument, or at least change the main synth. instrument variation is change, and like I said earlier, change is a really good thing. if you don't have much to begin with- look all over the internet, there is plenty of good, free stuff to use.

I hope this helps. :)

FortressLord responds:

Thanks. I read carefully through it all, and I agree with most of it, but there is a few instruments and the drums actually have a compression effect purposefully added for a digital feel, although I agree this would not normally work.
I will on future tracks take your advice though, and half score shows I'm at least on the right track.

[-La Pura Vida-Salsa NGADM]

This song sounds more like Latin Jazz than Salsa, but you had the right ideas flowing around. As IYD said, a lot of the feel that comes from Salsa is the percussion, which was there, but it wasn't very influential through the course of the piece. The composition and instrumentation is very solid, with exception of the trumpets doing falls and hits every 2 seconds, it makes this less enjoyable. you don't have to remove these at all, it might just be that they're loud in the mix. It was a good listen other than the reasons listed. I apologize if i'm being a bit harsh here, I'm hispanic myself and am only trying to help.

SoundChris responds:

Thanks a lot for leaving your thoughts here! You are right that i didnt have followed all of the forms which are typical for salsa - in some cases i have broken the rules by intent, in other cases because of my lack of knowledge about that style of music. Maybe you can call it "latin influenced jazz" :D If you say the trombones are a little bit to loud - thats possible. I actually dont know how the piece really sounds: According to my headphones the track has been well balanced, on my mac on quicktime it was also ok. But when i tried to play the track on my windows computer and the hifi-device the brass seemed to be much to low.

For the near future i think i have enough from salsa, but someday i think i will try another one and then i also will try to bring the percussion in front, maybe add some singing and will work on the brass sound as well.

You dont have to apologize my friend - your review is really appreciated - always glad to learn more about music so i can improve my skills :D So thanks man!

All the Best,

Chris

[Dreamyard]

I really like this piece compositionally and the instrumentation just compliments it the whole time. i get the whole vibe of good dreams and nightmares from specific parts of this song, and the only gripe I have is towards 3:10 that section is a bit too long, but it still sounds good. a lot of the song is driven by chordal harmonies and stuff in common, which is a very nice touch. can't wait to see what happens in this match-up!

Kor-Rune responds:

Thanks! Less metal, noted and appreciated! I'm usually not the headbanging type

Glad you liked it!

[timeslip]

uh, wow. this is pretty incredible. The composition itself is stellar, the sounds are very fitting. It almost feels like staring up at the stars at night(or the beginning to some indie movie) and I cannot get enough of this. I am humbled to be your opponent this year and can only imagine what you're bringing to the table. please tell me what inspired you to write this(and maybe the changes, because they're pretty sweet :3)

acmeDyne responds:

Thanks! There was no specific inspiration for this one. I was fooling around on the guitar and it just sorta came out (two days before the deadline, lol).
I'm very impressed by your music and I won't be surprised if I'm knocked out in the first round again (really struggling with my entry). I can't wait to be done and have the time to listen all the submissions. See ya on the battlefield!

[Chant de l'Eveil]

oh jeez this is great.

The sounds, the mixing, the vocals are all great.
The form of the piece is great.
The panning is weird, but justified.
The overall experience is for the most part, great. Reminds me of a certain MMO.
There are very few errors that were barely noticeable in the first place. This is definitely going into my NG music :)

[LB - On My Wings]

This progression is very..pop-ish, for lack of a better word. The melodic line/instruments don't change much throughout the entire song, and although there are a few parts where this song does change, they're few and far between, usually only variating the drum rhythms.

Now, it's not to shoot you down or anything, but it's just my personal thoughts about what you could improve on for the next time. the production value is remarkable,the audio itself is very clean, and the instruments sound pretty good, but composition-wise you still have a good amount to learn, and it's okay if you do.

LazyBucks responds:

I hear ya.

I'll work on more variety for my next track.
Thanks!

[Paradox Palace- Zx]

The first thing I noticed was the awkward pan change in the beginning line,it is original in all sense of the word,but I just didn't like the constant change. That wah wah wah bass is pretty sweet though. One thing I'd like to say is that not changing the main synth makes things something to sleep to,but it's alright,since you're starting out. I do admire that you picked a simple major progression to keep throughout the song,since you are just starting out as a musician of this caliber. You're alright for just starting out,If you improve a bit more who knows what you could be :P

Review Request Club

ZxOOxZ responds:

Thanks aLOT! Im really working my hardest and yea, I hope so :D

[6.12.12.2]

Jesus,from the first few seconds this sounds perfect. Just run after run I'm hearing and it sounds awesome. You say this was a study piece from a music theory class? It's damn well made if so. I honestly can't call out anything wrong with this piece,except for the fact that it was a tad too fast. I like it how it is now,but it would be grander to hear everything clearer and with a bigger sound. Also,if you played this yourself,you have some talent.Impressive job.

Review Request Club