JoshuaHughes's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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?

[Eclipse]

It's great! Did you record a fountain or something for the first half? Nice to hear some atmosphere along with the plucking.

etherealwinds responds:

Recording heavy rain sucks it seems xD so glad you like it!!

[Nerve Damage]

A great chill house track. It sort of reminded me of "On the Run" and "Time" by Pink Floyd, in that it feels like two seamless tracks. If you were to ever put this on an album, you should take into consideration splitting this into two, because not only is it cool to have two tracks flow into each other like that, but it also defines where a certain part ends and a new one is beginning.

[Space Odyssey]

This is one of those tracks that you play when you're driving out really late at night in a rural area. The beginning has a very industrial feel to it, and then the mood of the piece seems to change midway from ominous to a sort of "revelation." I'm digging it.

[Scatterbrain - Covered In Star]

Very nice! Sounds very star-like, if that makes any sense. It does trail on a bit after a minute and a half, though. Feels like it would have been better suited as a really awesome loop, instead. That's just me.

Deepshade responds:

Thank you for your input !, yeah that chorus section might have been better off just being 8 bars instead of 16 , im really happy with the middle 8 like section at 02:12 though and it is intended to loop aswell ! :) ( my song title, was too long for NG , "Covered in stardust" is the actual title xD)

[just hold on]

Wonderful tune! The two things that really made this stand out was the use of fading and delay. My only resentment for this piece is that some of the frequencies on those high notes were a little hard on the ears. It's ever-so-slight, but when I notice it, it's unpleasant. Nothing some notch EQing would have cured. And maybe it's just me. Anyway, great job on this one, man.

johnfn responds:

yeah i buy it, there are some really high frequencies in this piece. i think that different headphones/speakers have different responses blahh. kinda annoying. i can just notch them away yeah. thanks for the review!

[Zombie Showdown CLIP]

I like what I hear, but I swear every Ableton user throws that yelling sample in at least one of their tracks nowadays. The breakdown was just plain awesome. It really sort of "set the mood" for a build.

The only thing I didn't particularly like was the lazer sound during the drop. It sounded a little out of place compared to the growls around it. Maybe try to work with it at a lower octave? Other than that, I am very anxious to hear the completed work sometime soon. Cheers!

[At The Ready]

Next time try 64th notes. Gives any piece a nice warped record sound ;).

I liked the synth at :37. Reminded me of some old JMJ. As for everything else, look into reverb and compression religiously. There's not too much going on throughout the piece, which isn't inherently a bad thing. In terms of house music, however, this can make a track go stale fast. Your piano, while sounding good, can benefit from reverb greatly, since there are places where it is the only instrument playing besides the kick or clap.

Speaking of kick, this is where compression comes in. You can keep the kick from being lost under the instruments by evening out the volume levels with compression. I noticed that when the JMJ sound comes in, the "snap" of the kick is buried under it, leaving only the bass audible.

But that's just my advice. Take what you want with. Overall, I'd say this track is untapped potential that could have used some FX for a better outcome.

R3SP4WN responds:

Thanks for the advice and the review!

[The Final Bloodbath]

Sounds like you went back to the genre's roots with this. Terrible quality, as it should be.

[Thanksgiving]

So much degradation. I love it. There's something very entrancing about this beat, A good highpass intro. A great bass line, although maybe not tweaked enough for its full potential. Perhaps messing around with an exciter? But 1:52 is what sold me. It's clean and smooth, but you can feel the aggressive undertones behind it. And those drum fills really kept the beat from getting stale, which in my opinion, too few EDM artists pay attention to nowadays. This is great. Looking forward to hearing more.

buyj3llo responds:

Thank you Thank you.