Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Cosmic Beach]

Cosmic Beach, G2961
Composition/Structure:10 Production:8 Emotion/Atmosphere:9 Art Relevance:7

Loved the song but I wanted to take this moment to point out that in regards to "inspiration" so many audio artists are missing the low hanging fruit. In the image you choose to reflect I can spot a lion, a Gundam, car traffic, moving water, an entire cityscape full of potential noises and sounds. The song is great but I would have loved some atmosphere that reflected the actual image. I did appreciate the vaporwave/synthwave relationship though so I still gave you an inspiration score I thought was fair.

Regardless it's still a great song and I loved listening to it. I know the genre subtly nods to late 20th century music culture but I would have loved hearing this with drums that hit a little more powerfully. There would have been very little risk to adding emphasis to those drums. Could have probably compressed them some more, not sure how much side chaining if any is happening but that's also an essential technique to get those drums shining and pounding at maximum EDM strength. The textures are all lovely though regardless of power. The patches all vibe hard and the melodies intertwine beautifully. This was a great song, despite any misgivings it might seem like I have. Ignore the competition scores if they bother you at all, you know you wrote something really cool. Thank you and good luck G2961!

[AIM2024 - Arrhythmia]

Arrhythmia, NahuPyrope
Composition/Structure:9 Production:9 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:10

So I might be making my own conclusions but I saw the blue colors in the art and felt your prog style was appropriately "bluesy." My hubby has been learning blues guitar so I got Kingfish and John Mayer playing non-stop over here. Piano melodies gave me an inkling of twinkling stars, have personally played with that vibe for a piano OST once when the characters in the toon were star gazing. The lyrics help bridge any denial that there wasn't inspiration. Feels like you nailed that category and it's so incredibly well done in my opinion.

Since your song is so good I decided to take a minute to describe my issues on Composition/Structure and Production. I literally took off one point because that ending felt a little bonked, you had a little white noise sustained that just magically stops and it's very noticeable. If that was from a recording you could have automated the volume out as if it were a reverb or envelope effect. Same with the piano melody, it just kind of stops. A longer release would have been perfect, sustain peddle, automated decrescendo, reverb... it was kind of the one flaw I could note in that category and it's such a small nitpick. I almost gave that point back for beautifully working in those 7/8 meters. I love triple meters & I love time sig play but it almost felt like a personal bias to give that point back for creatively sustained meters while that ending kept hitting my ears... I'm so sorry Nahu. I just heard that ending again and it feels too noticeable to claw that point back. It's such a bad ending for such a great song imo xD

Prog genres usually have incredibly potent mix downs but felt like there was some power missing in the mix. Drums are just a little too dry and lacking some of the power I wanted to hear. I don't know how you did the drums tbh but some more compression would have pushed those bassy drum tones to a new height. Hi-hats sounded like they were coming from the middle. They're inoffensive as is but some notable pan bias on them aux perc could have made that mix a little more dynamic. Panning the hats to a side could easily have been offset by another instrument's stereo locations. The rhythms are so wonderfully written, I wish you had panned them up harder to give them more presence :p

Hopefully you get a perfect score from one of the other judges because this has been one of my favorites. Super groovy, very creative, hits the inspired category like a hurricane. I hope my crit doesn't come across too wild, you wrote something special and beautiful. Goodluck NahuPyrope!

Edit: Was feeling really down about something and came back around to this song. It picked my spirit back up, thank you. It's so wonderfully bouncy. Mix could still hit harder but the song still vibes really nice. The "vocaloid" part sounded ever so slightly uncanny but I found it really interesting none the less. I'm not sure what it is about that voice but I feel a slight discomfort from hearing her and I don't know why. The lyrics gave you some nice relevance points though so it's a weird critique, kind of contradictory. Maybe a nice choir or female voice patch, an "ahh" or an "ohh" elsewhere in the song would have tied her in a little better? If she were a real vocalist, you'd have her all over the song and not just boxed into that middle section, wait... DID I REALLY WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND START OFF ON THIS REVIEW AGAIN?? YOU'VE HYPNOTIZED ME PYROPE D:<

Edit 2: Hi.

NahuPyrope responds:

You're amazing Quarl, thank you so much!, I appreciate everything you've said and agree with most of your points!

[Snikio - Sound of Death (AIM 2024)]

Sound Of Death, ItsSnikio
Composition/Structure:9 Production:9 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:5

Had to leave this one a review for the AIM because I felt compelled to explain that 5 under art relevance. Given that the subject matter seems to be death, did you think to include church bells? As far as bass music goes, the song is great but I can't discernably make any connection to the art aside from a general "creepy vibe." Church bells could have helped bridge that connection to death and seems like the right thematic direction to go into. Too many people in this contest don't seem to understand how to take an image and convey sounds in a way that reflects a larger narrative or idea, commissions often come from that skill set. Instead, the average contest entrant just picks some art that seems to suit their style without making an honest stab at reflecting the low hanging fruit provided in the images.

Along with church bells you often hear choirs associated with the narrative of death, I'd have accepted a simple choir patch to convey that realm. You have one patch that begins to convey sounds as if they are alive and in pain. I loved that but it just wasn't enough to get the inspiration score further along. Sometimes percussion instruments can be used to convey certain kinds of sounds, would have loved to hear some rattling bones or clattering teeth.

As I've told others, there is so much more that could be done to convince me of the inspiration. Since I have to sit here and listen to everything in the contest with sensitivity, I take the time to read what people post. There are conceptual ideas people share that I might not have caught onto and I'm always respectful when people have a lot to say about their work (I would love to know more about that spooky instrument patch). The fact that I can say more about your work than yourself demonstrates a missed opportunity. I love this contest, all the entries are beautiful. However, I don't want to be in a situation where I'm genuinely trying to discern "subjectivity" in a contest where the winners will objectively accomplish their reflective themes.

I checked your catalogue to get an idea of what kind of breadth you might be capable of demonstrating. I upped art relevance from 1 to 5 because you clearly are capable of demonstrating inspiration in many forms. You don't just have one dissonant sound, you have many feelings and techniques to pull from and your catalogue demonstrated that. I doubt I'll judge again next year for all the time it consumes but I hope you enter again next year, and you genuinely spend just a little bit more time trying to convince the judges that you were 100% inspired. Subjectivity is my least favorite part of a competition to judge but that's why I look for songs that are undeniably inspired by the art. I want songs to objectively convey all the ideas and feelings presented in the art. In a way you choose a tough image to convey but I took all of one minute to come to the church bell idea and why it was necessary. You could have used the author's comments section to "defend your thesis." I can't argue with someone when they spill their feelings and ideas. I can only better understand their perspective when they share and it will probably never hurt to include more in that section. The judges are your peers, we've all competed, and we respect the community. Don't be afraid to share your thoughts with us <3

That's about all I wanted to share other than that you wrote a really cool song and it vibes hard. Don't let this review get to you too much, I had 127 songs to go through but this was one of my favorites from an "Emotion/Atmosphere" perspective. That shrill instrument patch, goosebumps. Stay strong and I wish you the best with the other judges of the contest! Good luck Snikio!!

Snikio responds:

thank you!!!

I have to admit, YOU GOT ME. You definitely have a discerning eye. yes.. In the process of choosing the art and making the song match it, I didn't put much serious thought into it. I agree with you but you rated 1 firstly??? thats cruel haha

thank you for your constructive reviews!! I will listen to you and come back with a better tune!

[AIM - Nadejda]

Nadejda, H20Silnava
Composition/Structure:7 Production:10 Emotion/Atmosphere:5 Art Relevance:1

I gave adamisiah the same score for the same reasons. Since I reviewed his song early my review went on for paragraphs about why I wasn't convinced by the supposed "inspiration." As a fellow bass music enthusiast I kind of hate it when I have to sit here and ponder if the submission is an honest stab at the spirit of this competition.

From spoken word to background samples, you could have done so much with your skill set to reference the art. As an avid fan of DNB it hurts to sit here and force myself to hear subjectivity where there is none. I can't realistically say that this song references the art you choose. Is it good music? Hell yeah, the music is great but what does that have to do with cyber dragons? Looking at the art the obvious thing to reference are the words "danger" and "caution." You could have recorded yourself saying those words and put an effect on it, a cinematic intro with some sirens and alarms screaming would have been perfect. Sometimes judges get weird about samples but I'd have killed for a dragon roaring in the background. There is a figure of a person, any vocal stabs would have signaled that you may have considered the human figure fighting the dragon.

Given that the obvious is missing from your composition, you're banking on subjectivity and I HATE THAT. This is not a contest for subjectivity, give me objective cues that signal the imagery. Adopt cliches so I'm that not totally in the dark, go after the low hanging fruit. I love the art, I love the song, but how am I supposed to tie this work to the spirit of the contest? I always tell people to at least say how the visual work inspired the decisions they were making. I don't need people to write essays but every word you write takes away my ability to steal points from "inspiration."

Give some of the other subs a listen, there's always an impressive breadth of talent in this contest. You have some impressive skills, I gave your catalogue a quick check to see if you were challenging yourself. You have a lot of DNB. Even a lot of your "Jazz" has that bass music/trip hop spirit and an overall sound that reminds me of sample culture. It's all good, I love the sound you're making! I just don't think this is an honest representation of "art inspired music." Composition/structure scores resemble the tone and energy levels that stayed relatively static through-out the entirely of the song. With a little more time put into creating an atmospheric intro/outro that echoes potential sounds in the art I'd have gotten that up to a ten. Emotion/atmosphere scores kept getting lower as I kept getting angrier that the obvious low hanging fruit was missing from your song. I don't like getting angry when I listen to DNB, I want to feel inspired. Normally I wouldn't have come across your music, so I'm grateful you entered. I followed you so I can keep hearing the sounds you make but consider what it means to make music that is truly inspired by imagery and isn't just an excuse to make another roller. Every choice you make could reflect the art from the choices of instrumentation to samples. Convince me next time!

Good luck in all your music pursuits H20Silnava, you clearly have some good technique and a sound that vibes hard. If this review bothers you at all, ignore it. Push your stuff towards labels, I'm sure there are people out in the world that would love to groove to your music. Peace and love <3

Silnava responds:

Actually, I think it's the other way around. I think my work fits well with this artwork. I actually get the feeling that the judges just didn't get the feeling I wanted to convey. It's kind of sad. I was making this track, parrallelly looking at this art and thought that it fits the vibe here. I tried to do a dnb vibe of desperation. A vibe that it's not going to work and it's the end. The lyrics in the song, which I sang in my native language, also roughly emphasize this vibe. Fire, blood and warnings. Also the extended vocal melodies were also made by me to emphasize that this is the end and these are the last seconds. I didn't want to make something like cinematic, just my favorite genre - DNB. I'm very proud of this track. And I was very surprised and even a bit upset by your opinion. But anyway all people have different views and I appreciate your opinion. Thanks for such a great comment and evaluation of this my favorite track. <3

[AIM - ¡WAMYCCIÓN!]

¡WAMYCCIÓN!, DancarMar
Composition/Structure:9 Production:7 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:5

"I hope that the judges of the event tell me that I have to improve..."

Those were you're words not mine! The song is very exciting, I loved it but at the same time I'm looking at "the pieno has nothing to do with the drawing" and wondering which if any decision was influenced by the imagery. I did a little homework on the beret thinking it would have come from French culture but realized the beret has been in fashion since the bronze age. Mass production began in the 19th century in the south of France and the north of Spain but in that instance, which culture should your sound potentially reflect? I thought that maybe the background colors would coincide with some kind of flag but I'm not seeing any connections to any flags and the artist is apparently Australian. I'm at a loss trying to connect the audio with the visual.

I thought I might be able to connect her clothing choices to the beatnik scene of the 1950's and 60's but that sound was completely different from this prog-swing-rock you've written. I gave your catalogue a quick look to make sure you were challenging yourself in the spirit of the contest and it's tough to say. I heard a fair amount of diversity and breadth in your catalogue but at the same time your sound is still growing, mostly informing itself. I appreciate that your profile was honest about being a high school student, I know your sound is going to be amazing in the coming years but you might want to consider how to improve conceptually tying your music to imagery. That might involve picking better imagery but I wanted to avoid judging the visual artists that got dragged into this, it's not fair if I have to start judging the art too!

Since inspiration is typically the category I take the most points from I'll start there. While people will make the argument that "the inspiration and the subsequent work is subjective" I feel that subjectivity is an excuse for poorly reflecting the source material. I want to hear objective sounds that reflect the visual faithfully which includes the instruments people choose to use, samples that can be tied to the themes in the art, some words from the artist that may direct my attention towards choices that were made to reflect the spirit of the contest. I'm actually very happy that you talked about your song because as a community we should be encouraging each other to share our feelings, everyone here is your peer. You have a passion for writing music and I completely understand that from what you wrote. Out of respect to subjectivity I start my baseline score for "Art Relevance" at 5 and I wasn't able to move the needle in any direction but down. Past a certain point the scores don't really matter, so I kept you at 5.

Took a point from composition for going right into the song, that outro might have better served you used as an intro. It would have helped introduce the motif instead of going right into the action. Sometimes I don't feel like writing intros, I focus on the hook instead and that's my own failing. Despite basically skipping the intro the song still managed to hit a number of different intensity levels, lasted a fair amount of time, and kept my interest. I can't take more points from composition/structure because you still did a great job!

Production happens to be one of the easiest categories for me to take points from, the only people getting a perfect score on production have three things going for them:

-They're seasoned professionals.
-They're better at mixing than me and I'm mad at them because of it.
-Their production was good enough that I couldn't justify nitpicking their scores.

Ignore that second bullet, it's petty. The point I'm trying to make is that almost everyone can brush up on their production skills, myself included. It sounds and looks like you got compression figured out, you might be over compressing a bit but so many producers forego loudness as a goal that I'm happy for you because now you have to work backwards to fine-tune all the little things that separates a pro mix from a kid that can slap a compressor on everything. Dynamics were very static, simply put dynamics are the variations in loudness. As a life long drummer I can tell you that all I get to express emotion with is loudness. I can crescendo or decrescendo a drum roll to build or release intensity. I can accent the pulse with powerful drums or choose to playfully drop ghost drums about to create syncopations, playing with the upbeats. Dynamics go for all instruments, the guitar could use some dynamic life breathed into it. While you can play with note velocities in MIDI, I sometimes save time by just automating the volume lane on an instrument and drawing peaks and valleys, then copy/pasting the automation across the song. That technique takes like half a minute to pull off and doesn't always work out without finesse but it's reliable. For the majority of the song dynamics might not matter as much since all the other instruments can layer over minor mistakes but it becomes incredibly obvious around 2:04 when the guitar appears solo. You have a very digital guitar sound, I usually avoid using a guitar if it sounds too synthetic. That doesn't mean "don't use guitars," just saying that you can clean them up! You might need to use better VSTs. You might need to figure out how to emulate realistic guitar dynamics. Whatever research you might do in regards to programming guitars in the future, this is still a decent start.

The instrument that comes in around 00:17 is just another instrument that would benefit from the life that dynamics can breath into them. Every instrument hitting the same dynamic values comes across with a mechanical result, very MIDI. I also play piano so those piano tones were relatively easy to hear. One of my favorite things about the piano are the dynamics, the instrument is easy to play while switching from loud to quiet. Compared to a keyboard, even an amateur can instinctively play the piano with dynamic emotions. Spring loaded keyboards have less dynamic control but they still give you some sense of loud vs quiet. Unfortunately, your piano sound is just as digital as the guitar.

Since I couldn't do much to justify improving your relevance score I might have been a little lax on that production score. Given your age you still have a great sound, I'd love to hear what you sound like one or two years from now but it's most definitely a "young" sound. It can take years to improve, sometimes we plateau for a while but I feel like you already have an advantage over your peers in regards to loudness and composition. It was easy to justify giving you a 10 for Emotion/Atmosphere, this song jams hard! Relevance scores can be improved by thinking conceptually and talking about it. I imagine that the girl's ear rings might make a jingling sound when she walks, incorporating a rhythmic instrument to reflect that sound might have been wise. It's something most judges wouldn't have noticed but you can try to bridge that kind of conceptual idea by mentioning it in the author's comments. If there was more indicator that the girl was French that could have been reflected in choice of instruments. From accordions to the barrel organ, there are culturally important sounds I like to hear artists echo when it's an obvious choice. Again, it's hard to tie the girl in the image to a specific culture but had you of said "this girl is probably French so I sampled the sound of a baguette hitting a drum" I'd have been able to lend you another couple of relevance points. Not everyone judges a contest the same way but I hope I've given you enough to think about!

I really enjoyed your song and I hope you stick with the community as you progress. A review like this could potentially be misconstrued as an attack but it's not. I want my peers to write the best music they possibly can. Despite your age you are obviously my peer and I'll be rooting for you in the future! Goodluck DancarMar and keep rocking out <3

DancarMar responds:

Ok, I have a lot to talk about, first, thank you very much for everything you have told me, it helps me a lot since I am someone who started composing literally last year.
Second, I am aware that this song is not one of the best from this year's AIM, it is a song that is not one of my favorites due to its composition, its somewhat disordered structure & the instruments,I feel that this song could have been the best if I had looked for another image that matches the audio, that the instruments sound more realistic & that it is more dynamic when you listen to the song
& lastly, every day I am experimenting a lot with the sounds and instruments I have to make a decent song, because the majority of the songs What I do is, honestly, bad jobs, although I am improving.
This song serves as an example of what I should do & what I should not do when composing a complete song, I am sure that in the future I will have better equipment, but but I'm still young, so I have a lot to do and not waste the advice & recommendations you've given me to make a good song.
Having said all that, I don't take it as an attack or something like that, rather, I take it in the best way because this is gold for my mind & I learn from it, so I don't make the same mistakes I always make.
Without anything else to say, judge, I appreciate that you took the trouble to write about this song & I am also grateful for having this great opportunity to show my work,It is a very nice experience to participate in the AIM & I am excited to know who the winners will be & who will be the top 3 best!

[Snow Girl's Adventure [AIM]]

Czyscy, Snow Girl's Adventure
Composition/Structure:10 Production:5 Emotion/Atmosphere:9 Art Relevance:7

Give me a second to clarify my scores, I went low on production. It sounded like this could have been written in Sibelius, a program known more for notation than production. The melodies and rhythms are wonderfully inspired but the instruments all have a mechanical/digital MIDI sound that's not always easy to fix. Could have been the mostly static dynamics, the relatively low-fi unchanging drum samples, no discernable panning... I switched to my headphones and the sound got even more flat. The production is the easiest thing to nitpick but I regret saying it because the composition from a notation point of view is phenomenal. 2:32 reminded me of the kind of prog stuff my friends and I wrote in highschool, it's a very exciting section.

We can't all afford top tier plug-ins, I've never bought anything other than core software but for your own sake and style I'd recommend looking into better instrument plug-ins so you don't have to compensate with better production techniques. Some people vehemently bemoan loudness but you're over limiting and the track sounds flat. Comparing what you've written to some pros I gave Rush, Tom Sawyer a quick listen to compare the drums. Maybe you're listening to a lot of 1970s rock but drums have gotten so much more important in the mix in the last 50 years. Would love to hear this song with some phatter drum samples and more dynamic range. When I don't feel like going back into MIDI and reworking velocity values I just automate a volume lane and quickly draw up some peaks and valleys, it's an ok technique that saves some time and headache.

2:55 is supposed to come across as dramatic but those little drums are like mosquito bites. I'd have automated in some momentary drum reverb for color. I'm not a fan of washing out drums with reverb but introducing it sparingly can help add depth, space. I have a lot of work in front of me right now, I've gotta keep moving but I've been impressed enough by your work in the past to know that you have a lot of talent. You're writing some great material but I feel like you're starting to box yourself in. Everyone hits plateaus and I think you're on one right now. Focus on fidelity, sample quality, and loudness for one solid year. You'll come out the other side sounding like David Maxim Micic <3

(EDIT: 420, nice.)

Czyszy responds:

I can't argue with this review except for this bit:

"Maybe you're listening to a lot of 1970s rock but drums have gotten so much more important in the mix in the last 50 years. Would love to hear this song with some phatter drum samples and more dynamic range. "

I'm obsessed with the boxy late 70s style drum sound/vibe for a long long time so that's a 100% creative decision. A bit eccentric? Marmite even? Sure. But I'd have note that I'm fully aware of it and doing it on purpose.

[AIM - Catching Coelacanths]

Catching Coelacanths, SoulSecure
Composition/Structure:9 Production:7 Emotion/Atmosphere:9 Art Relevance:10

I was getting burnt out from writing reviews but I just wanted to say that I took points from production because nothing was particularly impressive or revolutionary about the mix elements but it still managed a "less-is-more" perspective. I couldn't stop smiling, it's a very feel-good song. The lyrics are sung kind of lazy but it works incredibly well with the vibe you created. This song has the magic of being 100% relevant to the art, performing to the spirit of the competition beautifully. I wanted to dislike the drum kit, I'm owning up to my bass music bias though. The minimal back track really helped the vocals shine. From a composition perspective I have to admit I was craving all sorts of percussion. The snaps were nice but I'm always hearing space for chimes, tambs, guerro, drum fills, drum rolls, swells, crescendos, decrescendos. I'm very demanding like that. It's not easy to nab a high score with something so minimal but I think you deserve every point you earned, maybe more. Good work SoulSecure!

Edit: I love Cake.

SoulSecure responds:

My mixing and production skills are pretty basic as far as I know, so any advice on that front is welcome.

I was still recovering from destroying my vocal chords when I sang this song, I only more recently regained my full range. Regardless, the vocal style here is influence by jazz singing, crooners, and actually John McCrea of CAKE is another influence here.

I don't think I'd add a ton of percussion to this but dude I can totally hear the guiro in here, like I think that needs to happen at least! Maybe not cymbal crescendos but a jawbone into the instrumental section? I held back a lot to keep it minimal and was concerned about doing too much but outside of that I might add to this...

Thanks!

[AIM - Apocalyptic]

Apocalyptic, MU53
Composition/Structure:9 Production:6 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:6

Hell yeah, fun melodies and ideas! Had a lot of respect for what you had to say about your work, people forget judges are their peers and we love to know what's up sometimes. Providing data shows a technical knowledge that signals authenticity to the community. I'm always saddened when people have nothing to say about their creations.

I feel compelled to disagree with your statement "this is my first go at something like this." At 16 years old every new song must feel like it's something totally novel but I'm going through your catalogue hearing dance kits, dance rhythms, familiar EDM genres, triplets, clap snares... your building a music language as you go but you're still in the forest of youth. The more you learn about music the more it all ties together. In music there is constant evolution, there's always another instrument to learn, another genre to try out, another rhythm to arrange; eventually the very idea of music means something completely different than when you started. It's an honor to get to hear promising new talent, your arrangement is fun and exciting. The track reminds me of a lot of the stuff that my friends made here a long time ago.

The orchestral elements are well woven, the industrial noises were inspired. The mix kept getting me down but I'm looking at your age and looking at the mix like "it makes sense." With a perfect mix a lot of the weirdest ideas will get a hall pass. That kick drum is the focus in this mix, would have loved to hear some dynamics from it. Creating a difference in velocity between the notes on the pulse and the ghost notes, velocity diversity on your drums can really help out a groove. I've been playing the drums for 20 years, dynamics is one of the few ways a percussion instrument can be emotive. A 32nd note drum crescendo or a decrescendo is a drummers way of saying "I have feelings." The kit samples are good but I want to introduce you to some drum modeling techniques...

I love hearing goofy new snare sounds, contemporary EDM producers will make the strangest tones work. Pitching the snare sample all the way up usually gets a snappy trap/nuero sound. I layer snares and play with their levels/pitch/resonance until they mesh together. I'll usually have three or four snares working together in any song. Eventually I merge all the snare signals to EQ and compress, then the new sound gets sent to a digital mixer (my DAW is Reason). I do the same with my kick drums, two or three work together to make a new sound. From the sequencer you can layer the sounds or use the samples individually to create fake dynamics. (You can also layer synths to get cool new tones.)

Learning how to master automation lanes lets you make interesting changes to everything as the song evolves. Panning data, pitch, volume, BPM, envelopes, almost anything you can automate you should try at least once. Opening up the release on an instrument with an automation lane sustains the sound in a way reverb just can't.

I haven't touched on why relevance got a short score but it may have been because there were visual cues leading to obvious foley choices, why not sample some nuclear bomb stuff? It's literally a cliche beyond a cliche, every one has sampled those old timey duck-and-cover videos but I wouldn't have cared. Gotta be careful nabbing samples but at your age and your situation I don't expect you to buy thousands of stock sounds. I nab video game sound folders from google searches and pitch bend them to feel better about myself and my naughty sampling habit. I'd have dropped some bomb sound samples, tanks rolling around, swords clanging, guys stabbing each other, babies crying, dogs barking... the word I used earlier was "foley," you can build a soundscape with these ideas and transport the listener into the image.

Since the artist used classic paint techniques I'd have orchestrated the fuck out of some sections and tied the ideas together claiming it to be some kind of 19th century romanticism. In truth I just like hearing orchestral sounds in my EDM genres. That intro could have had an entire section of bass drum swells, cymbal swells, French horn brams, chimes, gongs, timpani, waterphones... the art invited so many excuses to use classical techniques but you might not have those ideas available to you yet, AGE STRIKES AGAIN! FOILED BY THE THINGS WE HAVE YET TO EXPERIENCE.

I wish I could sit here all day and share ideas with you because your age is interesting. I do hope you spend some time checking out the other contestants! The winners always have some pretty inspiring stuff, I'm in love with this years batch of virtuosos. Good luck MU53!

MU53 responds:

Holy long review. Sorry it took me so long to respond to this, but better late than never. I'll respond paragraph by paragraph.

By first go, I think I meant genre-wise. But yeah. After going back through all of my older uploads, I see what you mean by me making a common "language" of sorts that I've sort of penned. A unique style if you will. In terms of genre-wise, the Industrial part was new for me, but I think I did alright. I will definitely improve this, and even fully overhaul it.

Yeah looking back at this now, my mixing was pretty horrendous. But credit to me, I wove in the industrial/electronic and orchestral elements in really well. I can probably do better in my remake, but it's a solid start. Also at the time, my inexperienced self had no idea about the nitty-gritty of mixing, like sidechain. I only knew soundgoodizer LOL. But seeing your input on this, maybe it's worth practicing. Definitely will take that into account.

Oh boy. It's just clicking for me how bad I done goofed by not including any sort of nuclear stuff. In my defense, I did NOT know how to sample stuff at all (still don't, but I'd like to think I have gotten a bit better). Since I'll be remaking this, I'll definitely go full on in the sampling department.

You bet I'm going to orchestrate the fuck out of the intro on my redo of this piece. I will also make it a bit faster in terms of pacing. Also, might be more melancholic.

I checked out some other entries, and I might take notes from those and implement it into my piece in someway.

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for having me this year. Looking forward to the next!

[AIM - Darkness]

Darkness, satanicpotatoe
Composition/Structure:7 Production:5 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:8

Reminds me of an old Iron Maiden tribute album I used to bop. Big growl, guitar has a nice heavy sound, drums are alright. They're not very dynamic but they hit every blast beat in the book of 4/4. Kind of would have liked to hear that vocal growl go to different textures, you're hitting me with one static throat bass the entire time. Mix felt kind of flat too, I think there's some serious tonal deficiency and it might be the drums? I don't know if you could get more mid range from the guitar but maybe a second guitar would help? I mean, you start to go there with that solo but then it disappears almost as soon as it's introduced. It was also too loud for the two seconds it was there but I think that guitar tone would have worked nicely with the rhythm guitar you had, just got to find the space in the mix for them both.

I have no right to tell people "pick better art" but there is so much stuff on Newgrounds that it feels like a cop out that you choose some basic black and red textures. It came across like the art was chosen to suit a style you like making but then I looked at your catalogue and I don't believe that anymore. Would love to hear you producing more work, you have some very diverse sounds! This song comes completely out of left field in that context. When I look at the art again I'm left disappointed because it comes across like you were more inspired by the title of the art than the art itself. "It's subjective" is not a good enough argument, there is so much visual work that can convey conceptual ideas to the judges in a fair way. Expecting us all to have an art background is weird but I'm one of the few judges that verifiably has a BFA degree. If I wanted to I could say some things about the art you choose but it probably wouldn't be kind. I will have a much easier time saying nice things about the song because I genuinely liked it.

I gotta keep moving, lot of songs to review but this was a good one! Hope you have a fantastic day Mr. Potato!

Edit: production score was a little lower than you probably deserved but I didn't go back over every song to fix stuff up. It took so much time to judge this competition. I've gotten really detached from my computer so I'll apologize where I think it's due but at most I'd have only given you another one or two points. Hope this doesn't feel like an attempt to hurt your feelings, just pointing out what was probably the easiest quadrant to take points from. You wrote some killer melodies and rhythms but the production fidelity was missing power in a genre that's all about power. Sorry satanicpotatoe but I do hope you find all the fidelity techniques you need to hit the next plateau! Cheers.

satanicpotatoe responds:

Thanks Quarl!

I remember that Iron Maiden's tribute album with songs from Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, etc. That was a good one!

As for the art, I know it's a pretty crude piece of work, but when I was looking for inspiration I liked the vibe it gave off and immediately got ideas.

You got me, production in this genre isn't my greatest strength and for my own band we deal with a recording studio for our albums because mixing this genre requires a lot of skill and every element that isn't optimal shows up immediately.

Thanks for the review!
Cheers!

[Dream of Forever ★]

Dream of Forever, Lucasberry
Composition/Structure:7 Production:7 Emotion/Atmosphere:7 Art Relevance:7

That intro brought a nice smile to my face. Cute melodies, nice structure, warm sound. Mix didn't pound as hard as it could have though. I like a retro sound as much as the next person but there really is a gold space where you can have a perfect mix down and a nice retro sound at the same time. I heard you panning, I liked the locations for a lot of the tones. It's a fun song but it does kind of move along at one energy level and that's where a professional mix down and fidelity techniques could really push your sound to a higher tier. I go kind of crazy for people when they drum model, building new drum sounds from layering and modulating the drum samples until you get fresh new sounds. It's not just a dubstep thing, producers of every genre can benefit from layering, pitch bending, compressing, and EQing their drums.

On that note, I went into your library to see if you have a diverse sound and damn, like so many other artists you really spread yourself across a plethora of genres, ideas, and techniques. Massive respect Lucasberry. I wish this song went as hard as some of your other stuff but it's much easier for me to assume that you wrote this in the spirit of the contest given that variety.

Edit: Before posting this review I realized how short it was without adressing much. To drive a point across, better fidelity could have positively influenced production and emotion/atmosphere scores. Sometimes one element can tie itself to multiple fields. The track lacks a lot of power that could have been boosted with professional mix techniques. I didn't spend a lot of time talking about fidelity units but you have a great sound and some fidelity tutorials could help you eek out more power and emotion. I might have gotten a little lazy when I was judging this one: 7,7,7,7 seems like such an average score posted from a place of indifference but I don't regret it. You wrote something great and I hope you're proud of it but it could have been better. Wish you well Lucasberry and have a good one.