RobinDB's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[My Mind]

You know that feeling when you have a ton of gum in your mouth, and it's sort of used up but you're still chewing it, and there's that like, grippy/slippy texture on your teeth when you squish it down?

This song felt like that all over my body

[ericdoa - search and destroy (marshall4 remix)]

Love the instrumentation, and the chord structure. Sounds dope.

[schizophrenic]

Love the vocals, and the contrast at that switch to the crushed heavy section. Left me wishing there was another vocal bit before it ended. Still love it though, great work.

[Department of Government Efficency]

I love how the different sections blend together, and the overall feeling of despair. Melodically I think it's pretty solid, and I especially like that bit at around 1:50, when the lead guitar drops into that dissonant tone and just hangs there as the song progresses. Plenty of variation and movement within 5 minutes to keep the listener engaged while maintaining a consistent feel. Great work.

One little thing, because it could just be my sound system, the kick drum seems like it could use some work. I'm not sure if it's over compressed, or just too hot in the mix, or what. Either way it didn't really ruin the song, just sort of stuck out to me, and I wanted to have some sort of constructive feedback for you so there it is lol.

Sherlock-Bones00 responds:

Well thanks for the response. I'm not sure about the kick drum. I didn't really hear anything that stood out to me. I'm not a drummer and I hate programming drums lol. So maybe I'll pay more attention to it on the next one.

[Awakened from Cryosleep]

I feel like video game music in general has a sense of nostalgia to it, maybe it's just my generation having grown up during the boom of consoles and handhelds. But your songs always seem to have a deeper emotion being brought out. I honestly wasn't too impressed with the dubstep section, I feel like to really rip it away from the rest of the song it needed a really gruff bass synth, and some more creative wobbles than that one mid-range one that sounded a bit like "yi-yi-yi". I think you know what I mean. Once it break out of the dubstep section it's 5 stars again. I hope you keep working on this and find a way to make the dubstep part really slammin.

[Sky Tram City]

Interesting sound. It definitely makes it sound futuristic. As far as I can tell everything seems EQ'd in the right places, and the melodies are catchy, the progression throughout the song keeps it fresh. Since you've written it as a video game song I would suggest making it loopable, but that's my only thought on it. Very nice work.

[A glare goodbye]

Nice melody, and the synths work pretty well together. What you need to start looking into is equalization and mastering. There are a lot of different things to learn about all that, but EQ'ing is one of the first things you should learn. There are lots of different techniques, but a good one I like to use is called Subtractive EQing, which is where you reduce the frequencies on a track that don't add to the overall mix. Like on the higher melodies, you would want to reduce the low frequencies, and on the basslines you would reduce the highs. That opens up for space on the wavelength for everything to blend together.

Before I turn this into an essay, lol, this song is catchy. It'd be nice to see you keep working at it.

Merpy responds:

Thank you ill check that EQ and mastering stuff

[[Dj-U] Lost In Time]

This song is super chill. dat piano man. dat piano. It's so clear and simple above all the other synths going on. Maybe not so good when it's by itself at around 2:10, cuz then it sounds a bit too simple. Try to keep it paired with pads like around 2:20. It's just that by itself it has no atmosphere, it's too raw, maybe a touch of reverb would help. Besides that it's a catchy tune, and I'm always looking for excuses to try being a vocalist, so maybe we could collab on some lyrics? :D

Dj-UnKnOwN responds:

Hey man thanks for the review! Sorry i haven't responded to this comment, i actually thought i did :P!

Anyway, yeah I've had a few people tell me that the piano sounds a bit too 'dry' by itself so i'm definitely considering doing back and giving it a little room.
I'll pm you about working together ;)