JoshuaHughes's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Abyssal Depths]

Sytrus is such an underrated vst, and this just goes to show what kinds of incredible sounds you can get from it. I love the panned distortions you have playing throughout the track. They kind of serve as a good eerie contrast to the quiet mood going on, although I wouldn't be opposed to having the volume on them lowered just a teeny tiny bit.

The reverb on those drops are just awesome. Reverb like that instantly makes me think of a big creepy cave. And that soft bass with a touch of distortion is like icing on the cake. When the pads started coming in, the piece was starting to remind me of Earthbound when I used to play a long time ago. I think it was around the last level? Someone will surely correct if not.

This might be a little weird, but my favorite part had to be 4:32, when everything except the distortion seemed to stop for a second and then resume. I thought it was a great touch that kind of gave off a "what's behind you?" sort of feel. Like the distortion caused the track to actually skip a beat or something.

This is an awesome piece, dude! Best of luck in the contest.

JRob responds:

Sytrus really is underrated, but making good synths in there takes some time and practice (and a bit of production knowledge could help some, too); however, Sytrus synths typically a lot sound better with some added effects (like layering synths and stereo widening). After hearing what full wave rectify does to the song when put on the master track in my song Descent into Psychedelic Madness (I went a little overboard with it in that song), I thought putting a couple short bursts of extreme distortion would make the song a bit more interesting so it didn't stay completely flat throughout (unlike Descent, this also has a second instance on the master track of WaveShaper set on bitmunch instead of just the full wave rectify - probably pointless to have two, but it made something of a difference at least). The only burst I was really worried about being too loud on was the second to last one; I made the automations on it only turn the WaveShaper instances on about 50% instead of at full since there was an extra synth in that burst that didn't exactly work well with the distortion.

Using the right amount of reverb had been a bit difficult for a while back; I usually feel like I use too much when I do. Odd you would get an Earthbound vibe from this, since I never played any of the games from the series.

Thanks for the review

[Frolic]

I really like the upbeat tone to it! The piano sounds pretty bright, and the melodies seem to flow together very well. There are a few problems I have with this one, though. The instruments are pretty simplistic overall, especially the sampled drums. Maybe you could throw some reverb on them to make them sound a little bigger? I think there's also a little clipping going on. Are you keeping everything below 0dbs?

I like your style though, man. Those melodies are really catchy, and I'd be hard-pressed to find someone sustain a bad mood over this. Keep on keeping on!

PaperMikes responds:

Oh! I don't think I've experimented with reverb much, but I'll totally explore that in the next one I make. I never noticed any clipping, and I didn't really pay much attention to my decibel levels. Thanks! I'll be sure to take those two things in mind. ^.^

[Descent Into Psyche...]

This is crazy! Definitely don't want to be in a dark room with this playing. I really liked the degradation of noise towards the end. Really trippy. Only thing I didn't really care for was those squares at 1:20. Felt just a smidge out of place. Wonderful atmosphere, though. Is all your other stuff as wacky as this?

JRob responds:

Thanks

Towards the end I used a wave shaper to give the master track a shit ton of distortion. About the square synth, that was somewhat intentional. The song, as the title implies, was supposed to gradually become more demented and eerie starting from a minute in; after that point, things start to sound off (that detuned synth, for example), until it goes full psychedelic.

This is the most psychedelic song I've done so far, and nothing else here on NG I've done comes close; the first song I'm going to be submitting also has something of a psychedelic vibe to it like this (and I also use a similar method to that of what I used at 2:40-3:00 for short bursts of extreme distortion in it).

[The Virus Is The Cure]

This is amazing! Where do I start? The piano in this piece and the use of delay behind it is off the chain. The quick melodies make me think of a sort of psychological tick that's beginning to creep its way into the mind, and a bunch of pent up anger is ready to be violently expelled on everything around it. I can imagine something like a neural parasite ready to activate a killswitch and assume full control of the host.

Your unique distorted noises in the intro really set the tone of the track in motion. I was already feeling the virus theme to it. The hats in this are pretty solid, and it's great to hear some chopping and pitch altering to keep them fresh. It's cool that you used different snares too. I always hear a lot of heavily layered snares that hit throughout entire tracks when in some parts that kind of thing isn't really necessary.

Now for the big noise. Yeah, it's kind of rough, and I'm not really a fan of not-so-subtle phasers/flangers, which is what this sound seems to be running through (or maybe a high-res lfo filter?), but it just works so well with the track, I couldn't possibly be that negative about it. It delivers the message so well and knocks you on your ass at the same time. And the distorted bass backing it up helps tremendously.

Glad I started following you, because this is really a wonderfully awesome track that I'll definitely be favoriting this for future listening. Can't wait to hear something that you'll actually be excited to release!

Also, you may or may not know, but Tom likes this as well. Check out his latest news.

MutualCore responds:

Woahhhh, Tom Falp :D

(He's famous.)

[Chimera 2.0]

Thrills don't always have to come through fast-paced genres! I enjoy every intense moment as a thrill, such as your wonderful piano that starts of the track. I do have to say though that your drop is pretty messy and seems to be forsaking a lot of clarity in exchange for loudness. It's interesting because I've never really listened to chillstep as dramatic as this one. It's usually very minimalistic with some ambient themes. Or maybe I just don't listen to enough of it. What would you recommend?

I love arps, and the one in this piece is no exception. I always find plucked arps to be great in orchestral pieces because they just seem add an aura of mystery and epicness to everything. All in all, this is a good track that unfortunately has some noise conflict diluting the mix. Nothing some EQ tweaking can't solve.

Kabalist responds:

I'm really glad you liked the intro! I've been working on the mix lately, and this song is currently undergoing some changes.

Well, people define chillstep in different ways. I think what separates chillstep from any *insert random word here*-step is that it doesn't necessarily focus on a bunch of wobbly mumbo jumbo, but instead creates room for other musical aspects which, in this case, is orchestral elements.

If you haven't already, you should check out NG-user Haywyre. He's a great artist, although he might be more in the dubstep area.

Thank you for the constructive criticism, Josh! Sorry for the late response.
Take care.

//Kabalist.

[Insomnia (Redux)]

Shorty but goody! If you were going for screaming with clarity, you've really got it man. Didn't have to look at the lyrics and I got most of it right. I hope some big names here catch wind of your work, because it is crazy heavy.

[In Your Saliva]

I like it! I was a bit suspicious with the intro, but you definitely brought the beat. The detuned pad was pretty cool and immediately gave the piece a surreal feeling. It's almost like those old 70's horror movies with the sort of rough quality that actually help support the atmosphere. There's a lot of simple sounds I hear that kind of conflict with the tone a little bit in an interesting way, like that bell instrument in the beginning and the LFO you used right before that drum hit came in.

But then you bring in what sounds like a randomized computer-like sound that begins to bring an amount of complexity to the mix, followed by the beat which has a distorted kick pounding to an otherwise clean sound around it. I really like that sound at 1:33. It seems to solidify the track as a robotic-themed instrumental from then on.

The piano was a bit of a miss for me. It seemed to have brought an adrupt change in the rhythm of the track while not giving any indication beforehand. I think it may have worked better if it was a little quieter and didn't have so much sustain behind it, but that's only a maybe from me. Also, the track gets a liiittle bit muddy when it's playing. Maybe it could have used a little more EQ work? I don't think it's being drowned out so much as that it just sounds like a few conflicting frequencies are going on.

This is a really neat DnB track. I actually didn't have any complaints with the drums themselves, and I can get pretty meticulous with them, even when someone else made them! There are a few things that could use some ironing out, but I think this is overall a really good track that the audio portal would surely benefit from.

MutualCore responds:

Thank you! It's not exactly newgrounds but someone already picked the track up for their youtube video. I've been producing for 7-8 years but it's been 6 months since I've finished anything and I'm using borrowed hardware so I'm out of practice... but thank you so much! It always means a lot when people take the time to leave a thoughtful drawn out review. Bless your heart. Thor be praised.

[Perception]

The startup with the detuned synths was a nice way of kicking out a good techno beat, and the liveliness of the bass afterwards really got the atmosphere settled in, The track seems to fall off the wagon a bit at 1:06 with only the hit of the chords playing. I kind of knew what you were trying to do, but I would have attempted to add some more subtleties along with it to keep the piece from breaking down (in a bad way).

I thought the transition with the arp filtering up was a nice way of getting back on the saddle, and I could hear the shape of the chords starting to become more bright, which was also a nice addition. However, it's around the 2:20 area where conflicts in frequencies are starting to make themselves known in the mix. The chord synth and the arp seem to be battling for a number one position, making the buildup sound pretty messy.

I also begin to notice around this point the weakness of the snare. It just sounds like it could use some of that low end "thump" to really assert its presence in the center. I'm sure a little reverb wouldn't hurt either. I think the hats could also benefit from some verb to make the high ends sound a little wider.

I think it's a nice techno beat with a few faults that are really bringing it down from being an awesome techno beat. I'll follow to see if you throw out any more material.

TeraVex responds:

Okay cool to here!
I'll be sure to fix this up because your opinion matters greatly!

[Nuclear Winter]

A little late for Christmas, yeah? I joke. Yep, that's the melody from Carol. I think you did a nice job with the bellwork. They're very clear and shine outside of the dark brass and percussion underneath it. I thought the pizzicato was also a nice addition to the melody. What happened to the cymbal at the end, though? Was there an exporting problem or am I hopefully going to get an extended mix out of this?

Ryuno074 responds:

Oh, it's meant to loop. I take a lot of jobs from an independent game company and the boys wanted to do a quick seasonal game.

http://thoughtvandal.com/index/?page_id=119

You can check it out here.