JoshuaHughes's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Awakening]

I can just imagine an entire orchestra being built around this piece. I've never heard of Cave Story, but maybe I'll give the soundtrack a listen. It's cool that you panned the left and right hands of the keys. It really gives tracks a fuller sound.

PaperMikes responds:

You should! Perhaps the game a try as well? Thanks! I'm really pleased with the result. ^.^

[Almia]

Makes me think of the old Surrealist period when Salvador Dali was big. That's what's so great about the piano. It can pretty much fit with anything if you play it right.

maquecosa responds:

that's right!

[Space Monkeys]

Oooold dubstep. I like it. With one exception. You keep switching between this sort of 2-step beat and a typical 4-on-the-floor beat, which isn't bad in itself, but it just doesn't seem to jive with me. It doesn't kill the track, but it just makes me wish the 2-step beat was there throughout.

Nice job with the rate changes on the wobble. A lot of people don't want to bother with doing that and usually just cut up the same wobble over and over again.

Lyzrd responds:

thanks for the review :)

I'll keep in mind the beat changes. The reason I changed it throughout is because I was worried that the track wouldn't be progressive enough if I stuck with the same beat the whole time but I'll see what I can do about giving it a few twists

[Duke/Snake/Narrative Demo]

I was focusing on the voice and payed no attention to the words spoken until maybe the 2 minute mark, and I was like "What the fuck is this guy talking about?" It caught me off-guard so much that I cracked up laughing. It's like you're reading from the longest Mad Libs sheet ever.

So yeah, voice work is solid. I would focus more on the pace of your narration. They say 50% of a good speech relies on the way it is delivered. For instance:

"It all started when our hero, Solid Snake, woke up in a vineyard."

You're long pause after "Solid Snake" threw off the tempo of the narration a little bit. Try to make an even pause with both commas the commas before and after "Solid Snake." This is what a radio personality told me before when we were talking about his job.

OldManCricky responds:

My good man, you've given me one of the best tips to keep in mind! I'm highly grateful for your review, it added quite a good piece of knowledge to further boost my experience of voice acting.
Thanks a bunch! :D

[Cucumber Battering Ram]

Awesome drum intro! A little quick to jump into the slow acoustic guitar though, don't ya think? Everything else was very well done, especially that lead. Heavens! Some electric sustained notes over an acoustic is always nice, in my opinion. It's a solid track, man. Keep on rocking!

lyszczek responds:

Thank you very much for your opinion! By jump into slow acoustic part, you mean the first acoustic part after drum intro? Then, honestly, no. It felt right to me and it still does:) Anyway I am really glad you like the rest of the song. It feels really nice to hear from unknown person that he likes your music. Thanks again and have a nice day:)

[Red]

Nice stereo effect with the strummed guitar. And the eastern instruments really add some pizazz to the track. A word of advice, though. Layer your instruments. When reverb and stereo effects fail, layer the shit out of them. You'd be surprised at how hollow your instruments sounded before. Sounds like you kind of got the idea with the stereo strumming part, but it works on other instruments, too. ;)

Iviqrr responds:

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate the advice and I'll try my best to implement some of it into my next song :)

[Anti Resonance]

Great job with this one. Is this your third song ever on a DAW? Sounds like you already have some theory knowledge. That's good. I would look more into the drums, though. They sound very muddy and lackluster compared to the piano and oscs. Nothing much else to say. Pretty soon, people will be asking you for help with FL.

Lethal-Input responds:

I was in band for three years about 6-7 years ago if that means anything. I would always try to constantly analyze songs in my head and try to think of my own beats. I wasn't even familiar with the term "music theory" until a little bit ago lol. Still not exactly sure what that is... I did used to make a little bit of music on a game called "LittleBigPlanet" (a game where you make levels for the community to play) but the sequencer is much, MUCH more simple than FL. Thanks for the feedback. Drums are definitely what I have the most trouble with =P

[Afraid Of The Dark]

This is a very interesting track that seems to be caught in limbo between ambient, glitch, and old skool dnb. I've never recorded a track that would resemble anything close to ambient, so feel free to take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt.

If this were me working on this project, I would invest most of my time working on the drums. To me, it's what's keeping the atmosphere of the song alive. Of course, mixing the pads and fx noises to the best of your abilities should also be a priority, because they are what's setting the mood for this track, but the drums are where it's at. It sounds like you already know a thing or two about filtering and chopping, but try also experimenting with panning and phasing. Oh, and compress, compress, compress. Whenever I feel slightly off-put about the sound of the drums, 9 times out of 10, it's the way it's compressed (or not compressed), and the kick to me is ever-so-subtly off-putting. Just the way it snaps on the high ends bugs me a little.

I really like the atmosphere that the pads are providing, though. PM me a link or something to the finished product, because I'm very curious to hear how this turns out. Best of luck.

Glowtide responds:

Thank you for the review!

Yes for me as well the drums and effects are what gives this track it feel. I was thinking of adding some panning and maybe cutoff filter to them or even a phaser or flanger just to add some variation. With the compressing and EQing I tend to do that when the song structure is done so I will compress all of the drums like you said and add some effects to them. Again thank m you for the review I will send you a link to the song when it is finished!

~Glowtide

[Deepsea]

I liked the range in the melody. It's like something you would expect from a puzzle game or something of the equivalent. The bit at :33 gave it a more eastern feel to it, and I kind of preferred it over the lead, in all honesty, because it does get tiring after a while. Maybe throw in some other instruments to preserve the freshness?