Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Great Autumn Social]

Spadezer, The Great Autum Social
1]Technicality 2]Production 3]Composition 4]Emotion 5]BonusPoints
10,10,7,9,10

How did the number one seed end up in losers bracket? YOU HAVE SHAMED YOUR FAMILY NUMBER ONE SON. DISHONOR IS YOURS.

Production is crisp, synths and drums are well done. Gotta love the furry dubstep convention vibes but maybe less would have been more? It wasn't the introduction that I'm talking about, the happy forest creature sounds were a great mislead. I'm thinking the sections at 1:13 and 3:13 didn't need bloody woodland creatures crying continuously, one good grime scream rising into the action would have sufficed. You gotta know when you've put too much dirt on a track. Those little animals are distracting from all that lovely synthesis and music.

The breakdown midway through the track also distracts from the musicality. I appreciate the story you're going for with aliens and stuff but you didn't need to reintroduce that "Retarded Animal Babies" motif in it's entirety. Maybe something sadder or somber as a mid song breakdown would have made more thematic sense? It's as if the aliens arrived, fucked everything up at the first drop, then the woodland creatures forgot about the alien bloodbath and tried enjoying themselves again. IT'S A MASSIVE CONTINUETY ERROR. You took a big reduction to your composition score because the journey back to happy woodland festival music felt a little random, unnecessary, and copy/paste. You shocked all the woodland creatures out of their peaceful fun times with that first drop, then they go back into happy times before screaming again for the remainder of the song? They must be very shortsighted forest sprites, or they suffered brain damage in the initial attack. Maybe I could pretend the screams in the second half were from pleasure?

I'm focusing really hard on the woodland creatures because it's obvious that you wanted us to laugh and enjoy that element (yo, I did) but less is sometimes more. You write some perfect dubstep but by perpetually introducing a comedic effect I got the feeling that perhaps you weren't feeling this project 100%. Sometimes comedic elements are introduced when producers are feeling a little lazy or uninspired. I put a goat in a song once because I didn't know what to do, just thought it was funny. You're better than that Spade. You're a beautiful golden unicorn but today you have shamed your family, YOU HAVE SHAMED US ALL. WE FEEL YOUR SHAME BECASUSE IT SLITHERS OVER US LIKE AN ANACONDA OF GUILT AND REMORSE. DON'T LET US DOWN AGAIN SPADE, JUST DON'T DO IT, JEEZ >:c

Spadezer responds:

How did the number one seed end up in losers bracket?
1) eliasalija.
2) this contest took the exact weeks that I had the least amount of time on this year. I was rushing ideas to my screen like a mad man. I'm lucky I made it this far

I guess the second woodland creature party was unclear. It wasn't intended to be the same group but a different group having a similar party, but yeah musically it didn't differentiate to make enough of a difference. It's a shame the section the length of the sections don't reflect how much work was put into them, particularly the dubstep part. Or maybe they did have short term memory loss just for our entertainment. But yeah, this one was more story driven compared to music driven so that's likely the artistic direction to have more screaming compared to artistically symbolic screaming. Could work in my favor, or could knock me out. We'll see what happens. Maybe it's proven that I can bleed in a sense, lol

[Hunt]

Sequenced, Hunt
1]Technicality 2]Production 3]Composition 4]Emotion 5]BonusPoints
9,10,9,8,10

Sorry to greet you in the losers bracket but at least I'm being forced to write reviews this time. It's easier to score meaningfully when you have to write a short essay, I've had it too good up until now. A problem with moody EDM genres is how repetitive things can start to feel, especially to outsiders that hate EDM. Eight minutes can be a little risky if you bore a certain judge the entire time. Length isn't the flex you might think it is. Luckily I loved all the pulses the entire time, the music felt incredibly alive with the evolving grooves.

It's a little unfortunate that I wanted to grab an instrument and jump in because that usually implies that there was more space available. I suppose there is always more room in a drum circle for additional elements; my hometown had a weekly drum circle on the beach that had to be shut down because of how massively popular it got. The drum circles I attended involved grabbing a percussive instrument, a leader would run around and conduct newbies with a rhythmic pulse and place them with similar instruments, then that leader would conduct certain players to rest while other sections shined. Those drum circle memories allowed me to look past some of the moody emptiness in favor of wanting to join in with my own tools. Knowing I could have propped some melodic solos on top of this with a keyboard or string instrument is what led me to remove a point from technicality. To be fair, it's kind of hard to judge for technicality because a lot of people are sitting in front of a monitor mousing it up. It's the least favorite criteria I chose to judge with but I will stand by it to help the people that are making full use of their creative tools, sue me.

A point came out of composition because I was left wanting for a discernable climax to the overall track. Something simple like a vibrato sine or Rhodes keyboard solo. I know you compose for dance floors but you can risk getting a little more creative with the Newgrounds community. That same composition point I removed ties into emotion. The one moody dance pulse was expressed expertly for 8 minutes but it lacked a wider range of emotions you could have expressed with a simple hook. Every point I chose to remove circled back the very basic concept that I just wanted a little more from this. Gotta give you credit for avoiding a cheesy hook though, I took points off of someone else's track for writing a particularly bad hook. Motifs, can't live with them can't live without them...

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

An added thought: I took yet another point off emotion for that meager two-word author's comments. Incorporating the authors comments is a concept I introduced during the Art Inspired Music contest. You should feel welcome to write up some additional thoughts or feelings for your listeners, intention is something I value. There are people on Newgrounds that care about your feelings and goals, we're creative peers. If there happens to be a judge that scores for something like "emotion" take advantage of your author's space to build anticipation with a few sentences or thoughts. I had 8 minutes to sit still and listen to this track and after giving it about 20 listens I would have eventually read whatever you felt was necessary to share. I spent almost two hours this week just listening and grooving to it, why waste my time telling me the sub genre when something like "I was very hungry when I wrote this" would have told me more about your emotional state? Music is all about energy, emotions, tension, pulses... we can't enjoy music without a human element.

I sheepishly judged losers bracket instead of winners because up until now I wasn't required to write reviews. Truthfully I was very burnt out after AIM. Giving everyone the feedback they deserve can be hard but I love sharing these thoughts. A lot of competitors love getting honest feedback and interactions, so I understand why I'm being asked to write reviews but it always feels like a small slap in my face when I can easily say more about someone's work then they can. The happier I am with a track, the less I write but you wrote so little that I now need to go back and review all my other scores to make sure I'm consistently angry with people that didn't write enough (actually they all wrote plenty, you're the exception). For future reference, a few sentences can speak volumes and endear a community to your struggles or vibes. I actually think you'd appreciate Uxvellda's data driven author's commentary. I recall old regs from my highschool days that would similarly include just data, tools, plug-ins, length of time spent on the track, number of instruments. Author's comments will give you a chance to add authenticity to your webpage, people that don't know who you are can become endeared to you for your feelings, ideas, or general vibes. I encourage artists to strive to be more than just a webpage. Toy with my feelings more and stand out by pointing to the things I wouldn't have noticed or cared about otherwise.

I know the author's comments has nothing to do with the actual music but before you accost me for taking a point off, I'll share with you that one of my favorite college professors encouraged everyone in her class to blog or publish a book. Artists can't expect their work to always speak for itself so an artist's statement is a huge opportunity to direct your viewers attention. Sometimes an artist has a great idea but delivers it strangely. Artists have so much potential, spread your creative chops and write when you get the chance. In the AIM, people would color the author's comments with poems, lyrics, short stories, images... and I loved that. It shows passion and care, sensitivity to details. When people love what they do, I can relate to that. Spend more time talking about your music, life is too short to risk not having a voice.

IMO, at your age you should be more of a role model for others still trying to find their way. Don't hide who you are behind some sick grooves. TELL US WHO YOU ARE. TELL US WILD KEIZER. TELL US THE STORIES OF YOUR HEROIC BATTLES. TELL US HOW MANY KINGS HAVE KNELT TO YOUR POWERFUL MUSIC. TELL US ABOUT THE TIME YOU RAN INTO BATTLE WITH NOTHING BUT A GUITAR AND EVERYONE STOPPED FIGHTING SO THAT THEY COULD HEAR YOUR BEAUTIFUL CHORDS AND STYLINGS. TELL US KEIZER. TELL US EVERYTHING D:<

Sequenced responds:

I once had a peanut butter jelly hamburger

[Real Me]

AkioDaku, Real Me
1]Technicality 2]Production 3]Composition 4]Emotion 5]BonusPoints
10,8,7,9,10

I really loved this super heavy track. Industrial hiphop. Cutting to the quick, the mix really hits lows and highs expertly but there sounds like an entire mid-section of texture is missing. The track also got a little repetitive which is a rough critique for a track that's under three minutes long. I gave a wonderful 10 for technicality because live vocals are tough to incorporate perfectly but I took points off in production because of how flat the vocals sounded. A better recording could have filled up some of the missing textures I was complaining about. There was also too much reverb for my taste. Reverb is something I like to automate in and out to get better fidelity from certain sections but it sounds kind of like there's a little reverb on everything. THIS SONG WAS RECORDED IN A CAVE. Less is more ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

I know what it's like to work extra hard on a unique sound and commit to it but I thought the glitch patterns on the 1:40 vocals could have been teased in better. Once again, sometimes less is more. Level automations might have turned those sounds into sweeping eerie ghostly echoes. Sweeping sounds like that in and out of volume can sometimes work wonderfully, sensually rubbing ear drums instead of becoming a grating element. I have a lot of respect for the work that went into that effect but I'm not sure that the payoff was maximized or pleasing.

I'm having a hard time finding more to say but I want you to have a good day AD. You have some serious creative integrity and everything I hear from you stands out. May the power of music go with you!

SkankyMojo responds:

I completely agree with you on everything there. You've got really good ears, some of those things you listed we're time crunch comprises and that fact you picked up on them confirms to me your judgement is on point. The things you've brought to my attention are fantastic to be made aware of. Genuinely thanks for taking the time to post feedback and thank you for the kind words and score. <3

[Uxvellda - Theia]

Uxvellda - Theia
1]Technicality 2]Production 3]Composition 4]Emotion 5]BonusPoints
10,10,10,10,10

I'm usually really easy with my contest scoring but I truthfully had a hard time trying to find something I didn't like about this. I just couldn't do it this time. I could have nitpicked the climax's kick/snare drum pattern for a static continuous velocity but I've been playing a lot of drums lately and to be honest just staying consistent irl is hard. Keeping the drums to the climax was a great surprise. I usually want more organic stylings from EDM percussion but I think I'm forgiving those max velocity climax dubstep drums because of how well done the intro was. The hard-hitting static kit was a perfect contrast from that heartfelt cinematic intro. That three minute introduction allowed the climax to hit extra hard. I loved it, very humanized orchestra and choir sounds tie the pulsing drums back into the wonderfully crafted atmosphere.

Great job Uxvellda, looking for minor errors in this is driving me insane. Just... take this perfect score and go hide with it somewhere. Don't tell ANYONE I'm giving you a perfect score, they'll take away my judge card :c

Uxvellda responds:

😳 I'm so flattered lol

[After All]

I came to drop love but stayed for the tags. eewwwwww, nuero lmao!

This sounds reslly good on the kitchen google speaker. Tiny snare slaps, Id have been tempted to layer in the occasional big snare for fills and breaks but I was still loving the moody atmosphere. This track rolls <3

Is that an elephant sample? lol.

CryNN responds:

No elephants were harmed in making of this track xddd

Yes i think it could have more variations damnnn. Im in amiddle of an artist block rn

[Qshunt - Trust Issues (NG Version)]

lmao I don't even remember what the samples I sent you sounded like. Can't pull out any familiar sounds in this so you really took the track in your own direction entirely. The song is maximum nuero tier, love it. Professional sound Qshunt. Really great reese synth, clean drums, big bass, 10/10 :')

Qshunt responds:

Thanks Quarl!

I wondered about whether you'd recognise any of the samples?

I used most of your percussion hits and the full drum loop. I ran the loop through an HPF and sat it back in the mix to complement the rest of the drums after the breakdown.

The stabby synth was based on one of the hihat hits, fed through a vocoder among other bits and pieces.

It's way better being back on my proper monitors though.

I think the mixdown shows that haha!

Thanks for listening and thanks for the awesome review! :D

[beauty of something unrecognized (ADM ROUND1)]

Sorry it took a little longer to get around to reviewing your song, it was a very short list. I HAVE NO EXCUSES, I AM A TERRIBLE FRIEND AND LOVER. Here, I started to quarter myself as punishment. Take my intestine and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction with it, it's the only way I'll learn my lesson.

So I really loved your track, I had to open the score sheet to give you the best feedback possible. I came down hardest on production with an 8/10, the feedback your about to get might seem a little extra or infuriating. Though I loved your style I can guarantee certain headphones are going to sound thinner and possibly painful. You can counter that by pushing the bass tones a little harder. Audio Technicas in particular offer up a flat response that can really hide sub sonic frequencies in such a manner that makes bass music sound wrong. Even with my subbier Sennheiser's the bass is noticeably lacking. This is a mastering issue, the track might sound better on your gear but I specifically own a few pairs of headphones and monitors to try to get a better idea for how something I write is going to sound to others.

Though a track can become over compressed and brick unnecessarily, something I like to tell people is "you need to mix a few bricks to understand your limits." A compressor could help amplify your bass tones a little more which will give the track a little extra power. The intro is most obvious, that bass could have been more potent. The climaxes you wrote are almost full, there's not much more room but when I warned you about the feedback being infuriating, this is it. I'm nit picking that bass. It sounds a little more potent at 3:20 but I'd have included one or two chromatic slides to help distinguish it from the lead and give it a little more organic style. Genres like nuero or dubstep perfectly merge the subs with the leads but since your instruments are so different from each other I'd have gone a little harder in distinguishing the bass from the lead with bass melodies that depart from the harmony a little bit. The final two minutes in your track could have used some legato bass tones and chromatic pitch slides to drive the track across the finish line.

I took one point off "technicality" and one from "emotion." I probably took one from emotion because my issues with the bass will effect the over all power and delivery of your climaxes. Technicality can be unfair to judge for Newgrounds competitions when people are mostly just sitting in their chairs writing music with mouse and keyboard but that score might also loop back to the bass just holding down a tone the entire time. For a bass tone I can make out so obviously, it just kind of sits there doing one thing the whole time. That sub was practically crying the entire time like "NO ONE PAYS ENOUGH ATTENTION TO ME. EVERYONE TREATS ME LIKE I HAVE ONE JOB BUT I CAN DO SO MUCH MORE. I'M TIRED OF BEING LOOKED DOWN ON AND TREATED LIKE MUD. I HAVE PERSONALITY, I'M MORE THAN JUST THE BASS GOD DAMN IT. I WENT TO COLLEGE." At least that's what I heard. I'm speaking directly to your sub bass right now, it's going to be ok girl. I could hear you loud and clear behind everything else. You'll be strong, we just got to fatten you up a little. As soon as we can get HalfDemure to start paying more attention to you I suspect you'll become one of the most potent aspects of their music. You're more than just "the bass," you're a hero. You hold everything together. We love you... bass.

Sorry if this isn't the review you were expecting, I've been really busy lately but I'm glad I got another chance to listen to this. I remember loving it when I heard it in the queue. Have a lovely day Michino :3

CrowdDoll responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback, I agree a lot to your point especially I see the Sub Bass as something like a support to the whole track and I never thought he's going to help me more because I thought it's going to sound very off for my style. And I also agree with you that it felt too compressed and I do lower the frequency of the Bass in mastering so it can sound more clean.

Thank you so much for the criticism, I promise I will now look the Bass more better than before and I will never let you down. (Pssttt btw Michino is my Discord username not my real name)

[A Colossal Oh No]

Disclaimer: without the score sheet in front of me I may review this a little differently than I did in the fever pitch of trying to score everyone else fairly in two weeks. This review is just an elaboration of why I may have scored the way I did and everyone I'm reviewing today will receive this little disclaimer, kisses.

As said in private message, I'm starting to recognize your unique style and funk from the previous contest. There will be times when the integrity to maintain a distinct style can harm your standing in competition. Judges might get tired of it eventually but you don't have to worry about me today. I'm loving the technicality and composition. At times your style is a little too sporadic which may turn off others but the evolving melodies and tempos are still in my opinion lovely and wonderful. Your progressions are heroic. Probably my biggest complaint is going to come for that tiny jazz kit. With some basic drum engineering tricks you could create a unique drum sound that matches the energy of your style...

Don't get me wrong, the inventive auxiliary percussion was exactly what I loved but I was still missing a potent kick or snare drum. I wouldn't say you necessarily needed some big ass Excision or Koan dubstep drums but there are some dubstep producers lake that out there who are processing some interestingly inspired percussive sounds. Lets try some IDM drums? I'll give you some technical ideas to get unique tones but first a few classic artists I love to name drop are Square Pusher, Aphex Twin, & The Flashbulb. Certain nuero and breakcore producers have tickled my ears with unique drums, Noisia, Unknown Error, Receptor. Even hiphop producers have been making drum kits that can snap with unique potency and funk. I'll talk about layering samples to get new sounds but always start with drum samples that sound good in their own right. A bad sample is a bad sample...

I like to merge and layer complimentary drum samples from the drum machines into fidelity units. Specifically I'll use two or three kick drums and three or four snare drums. I merge signals like kick samples or snares then send them to a graphic equalizer, then a compressor, maybe a stereo imager, maybe a distortion unit (bypassed until wanted), and then to a mixer. I suppose you could give every individual drum sample a string of fidelity units like that but it's quicker for me to just send all the snares to one place and all the kicks to another. This will still give you a lot of tonal control over your drums. Color the graphic EQ with automation lanes to program cool tonal switch ups. Aside from engineering a unique sound, another benefit of layering is that you'll have a handful of extra drum samples laying around. I love using one or two layers of the snare drum for introductions and break downs only to pair them back up with the bigger drum samples for hooks & chorus's.

For emphasis: this track was wanting at times for much bigger, snappier drum samples.

I love bending the pitch of snare drums and hi hats via automation lanes to match the energy of a track or melody. Snare drums can quickly bend pitch and become their own fills or rolls. Climaxes can have snares or hats that suddenly sing higher or lower. This style of drum programing would handily compliment your zany melodic and tempo switch ups. Automation lanes are your friends, experiment with them. One more time, I just wanted to compliment that creative auxiliary percussion. Think I heard a wrench, a spring, some change? That kind of creativity is needed for the primary aspects of your drum kit too! You have such a nice little unique style growing here. Pair your melodic style with equally heroic drum programming. What do kids call the style these days? Future bass? You can be the lord of future bass!

My computer crashed while I was writing the first draft of this review. I didn't have to bring it up, I just wanted credit for writing this review twice. I'm not sure how much more I could say but good luck! If the style of my review sucked at all please let me know and I'll work on my cadence, tempo, and tenor. Thor's blessing Zechnition!

Zechnition responds:

Thanks a lot for your words! I've been frantically taking them into consideration, and made sure to include the Flashbulb as one of my references for my next piece early on :)

also, who knew intense pitch bending snares sounds soo cool!

[ADM Round 1 - Vibin Out]

Disclaimer: without the score sheet in front of me I may review this a little differently than I did in the fever pitch of trying to score everyone else fairly in two weeks. This review is just an elaboration of why I may have scored the way I did and everyone I'm reviewing today will receive this little disclaimer, kisses.

Woot, loved the technicality on this. I could easily hear this track as the menu music for some video game like The Sims or an old television game show. If I took a point off for that metric (which I doubt I did) forgive me. I'd be surprised if I took points off for composition either. Perfect little progressive jazz ditty. I might have taken a point off for production, you could have pushed the bass a little harder. Sounds are just a little thin. Nothing in this mix save the kick drum is really low enough to battle the bass for the lows, go louder. You might have been able to get a little braver with your pan data but sounds are crisp despite relatively static field locations. Great dynamics from everything. I'm genuinely getting curious how I scored this...

TO HELP GIVE YOU THE FEEDBACK YOU DESERVE I HAVE OPENED THE SCORE SHEET only to realize that you got a near perfect score from me. You're making me work here, I just spent half the day writing two reviews, you really wanted to know what my score was about? Your music is amazing but to be brutally honest it's not quite perfect nor totally unique. I don't like handing out perfect scores. In the spirit of that while trying to be fair I may have been a little too harsh? Something that would have helped net you gain my last "spunk/personality" point may have been to include some kind of introductory studio recording atmosphere? Someone else introduced their track with the sound of an exhale into their microphone. You could have recorded a small conversation in the background to make it sound like a band was coming to an agreement about when to start the beat. Trying to emulate that live gig sound would have gave this just an extra inch of spunk in my eye. This track is so perfect, it's almost "too perfect." A one off vocal sample coming from the background is something that can happen in a live studio. Sometimes the drummer will give a small woot and their voice will get picked up off a drum microphone. It's so fucking extra to even mention that you should have done something like that but I'm trying so hard to give you some helpful feedback.

While looking at the scores I'm quick to notice that it was the other judges that were more critical. I was very kind to your track but IMO, it was deserved. You went really hard and killed it with something I can totally appreciate. I'm sorry that the other judges didn't hear what I heard but being aware of their production habits, I will tell you that they are all EDM nerds. Like the metal heads, EDM nerds go extra hard nailing production quality and fidelity, eking out sounds that paint the entire spectrum. That's going to result in a bias against genres that don't take full advantage of sub sonic frequencies. I can almost guarantee that is what happened. Don't take that personally, last year there was a judge with literally zero music qualifications or music written. When it comes to Newgrounds you have to be the change you want to see and volunteer to judge when contests roll around. It sucks not getting to participate but I think it's more rewarding to have to listen to what else everyone is doing, taking note of the community in its entirety. There is so much diversity in music here but Newgrounds raises some blood thirsty hard style advocates. You felt torn to write a metal song, I'm going to advocate you do that next round. If there were some more jazz heads on the judge panel this year you'd probably have done better, I've seen perfectly written bebop get voted down in the past. In 2013 camoshark wrote "SuperCollide" and I still listen to that track from time to time. If I remember correctly, he was eliminated from round 1 of the deathmatch with some low scores BUT IT WAS FUCKING PERFECT JAZZ IN EVERYWAY. I will never forget that song nor how much I loved it. I will always look to it as an example of why you got to play to "cliche" Newgrounds genres if you want to get past round one of the deathmatch. In the future, Dubstep and Metal it is. Don't tell Sequenced I said that, or he'll throw a fit. Know your audience, know your judges, play to their favorites, win more often. It's just a theory I'm working on, DON'T TELL ANYONE I SAID THIS.

Regardless of what I'm telling you, the other judges may have had perfectly legitimate reasons for their scores. I wish I could take the time to leave a review for everyone in the contest because everyone deserves some genuine feedback. It's always going to be an incredibly diverse community here but if you want to help your jazz peers you have to join the judge brackets and promote them a little. I doubt the other judges are as familiar with jazz as I am. I love jazz, it's one of my favorite genres. You may have brought a knife to a gun fight. Whip out your heavy metal dick in the next round, wave it around a little, slap someone with it, make them beg for it :0

For context I'm linking to that camoshark track. Note the waveshape in the visualizer, his bass frequencies are filling up all that extra space. There is a lot of warmth to their production. Take my initial critisism for mix and compare your audio to this track:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/545364

OH, ONE LAST PARTING THOUGHT: I'm wearing Sennheiser HD 650s which push better bass frequencies and drown out thinner sounds a little. If any of the judges are using Audio Technicas you may have tickled their ears a little with this mix leading to harsher production crits. I got a pair of Audio Technicas because they were very highly recommended by the Newgrounds community and I wanted to know what they were hearing. The headphones offer a flat response, useful in their own right when mastering against monitors with subs but I fucking hate them. Powerful genres like dubstep or metal are so flat on them that they punch ear drums out without the subs to balence them. Mixing entirely on certain Audio Technicas would lead to completely different mix down choices. I'm willing to bet all the EDM judges have headphones that hear differently than yours which led to harsher production scores. I'm like... 50% certain?

I hope this was helpful and you don't lose sleep thinking about mastering issues. I know I do sometimes. Have a good one Teffy <3

TeffyD responds:

Thank you for a thorough review, and I agree with a lot of the production and composition critiques you mentioned. A big problem for me has always been that it's only me involved with all of it, and 90% of the time it's rushed because I only had 7 days total to make the song lol. It's not perfect in the sense that its "too" perfect, no missed notes (other than my shit guitar playing lol), all on beat, etc. I use ATH-M30s so I understand what you mean by mixdown choices like that. I am very happy that at least my music gets the jist of what I'm trying to make across, like a menu song or something.

Judges can score it how they please, and I understand some might be used to EDM or Metal or any other certain genre that Jazz for example might not be their forte. Next round I'll attempt a metal song to spice it up, and if i survive to round 3 i might go out swinging with a fast fusion song who knows lol.

[Coming Out Swinging]

Disclaimer: without the score sheet in front of me I may review this a little differently than I did in the fever pitch of trying to score everyone else fairly in two weeks. This review is just an elaboration of why I may have scored the way I did and everyone I'm reviewing today will receive this little disclaimer, kisses.

With that in mind, I'm going right in assuming I took some big points off "production." I'll get to what I liked and what you did right in a minute but that fuzz throughout the track is a little annoying. There's no excuse for that grainy white noise permeating the entire track. This song with cleaner sounds would have scored much better. I thought it was the drum kit but after listening a second time I can now hear white noise going all the way back to the ambient intro. I've seen lofi hip-hop producers use white noise generators to emulate record pops and sizzles but something like that can get really old really fast if it isn't doing the surrounding track any favors. Romantic record fuzz needs to done perfectly or else it's just noise that doesn't contribute anything. I actually love all the technical nuances to this song, the musicality is nice but I may have taken off a point or two as my attention span waned very quickly for a short two minute track. I keep focusing on that white noise, it's just too distracting. Spontaneous note, those record scratch samples sounded great in comparison.

As a beatboxer and amateur vocalist myself, I got a lot of respect for anyone that uses their voice to convey musical ideas, rhymes, or lyrics. You had a lot of spirit in that regard. Thanks for sharing those intimate feelings and ideas in your comments section. Music conveys lots of feelings, you got that down really well. That last little section reminded me of some Circa Survive indy rock. I'm sorry if I took off points for "emotion" or "spunk/personality," because you clearly have that in spades but again I'm not looking at the score sheets today. If you want a mathematical breakdown of why everyone got the scores they did, you should join a math competition instead, music is subject to opinion and bias. IMO, the brevity of your track conveyed a lack of inspiration or direction. It can be hard to hit three minutes but that's the undiscussed minimum I was looking for. I have a hard time taking off points for "composition" or "emotion" when people go as far as four or five minutes. Not everyone can write a six minute track, hell at that point I get frustrated and fidgety. A perfect song can be two minutes long but to stay competitive it might have been wise to try to write something a little longer to match the energy of your most competitive peers. There was totally room to write a longer atmospheric introduction. It looks like you have three distinct sections of lyrics, the instrumental parts in-between them could have been longer and more nuanced. I loved that sample play at 1:10 and the lyrical flow before it was inspired. You're lyrics are strong but the delivery is battling with the mixdown of the rest of the track. I'm not very good when it comes to mixing hip hop but I can point out that your lyrics are getting a little over powered by everything else. If I may focus a little on what I think might help, panning high frequency instruments like rides, hi hats, and pads off the the sides a little more might help give you some space. People often don't take full advantage of panning but keeping that sub bass in the middle with the vocals also center but lightly sidechaining the sub bass might give you some added clarity. The more clarity you can get out of your vocals the more "mistakes" we might hear but it all comes together and a good mix down will only benefit your singing in the long run with everything working together perfectly.

Aside from hiding the vocals a little that sub bass was awesome, nothing else to say about it. Loved those chromatic pitch slides.

It's obvious that you're over compressing the track while making it quieter, if only accidentally. There is visible space in the wave shape via the Newgrounds player. That is negative space in the mix that you're not taking advantage of. It took me a long time in Reason 4 to realize that there was a preset limiter on the master out that needed to be bypassed, you might be dealing with a similar issue here? I'm not looking for a huge brick but you can compare your audio to someone else's in the contest and see what I'm talking about when I say your wave shape is visually smaller in comparison. There's room in the stereo field being artificially taken out of this via some kind of mastering/fidelity tool. It's robing your music of much needed power and stereo space.

I'm actually not hearing any note worthy panning. Briefly if I may say, learning how to creatively balance sounds left vs right is a game changing nuance. Over ten years ago, Rig mentioned to me that panning sounds can create the illusion that they are louder than they actually are so you can pan a sound then turn the volume down a little which helps create space in the mix for other sounds. You can get really experimental with your panning data, sometimes people will use a stereo field to emulate live dynamics. I like to program drum fills that move through the stereo field starting on the left side and moving to the right side with each tom drum in it's own location. It creates an aggressive illusion of movement but you can emulate that with almost any instrument. Imagine a vocalist using pan data to create a back and forth conversation, a statement in the left ear followed by a rebuttal in the right. There is definitely style in how people choose to pan but when I don't hear much sensitivity to pan data I like to try and point it out. Good panning aids fidelity as much as if not more so than anything else.

Sorry if I didn't hit on everything you wanted to hear about, once more I'll point out that I'm not opening up the score sheets today to verify anything, my opinions might be more nuanced today while writing reviews. This should be more than enough to help you identify how judges might approach their opinions. We all have our own styles and ideas, never forget that the people judging these competitions are your peers regardless of their taste in music or cultural backgrounds. You have the same potential as anyone else here, just have to keep an open mind and keep moving forwards while learning new tricks everyday. Have a good one AkioDaku and continue to cherish your music like a good father <3

SkankyMojo responds:

Cheers for getting back to me that's all really good to know. I just wanted to understand the low production score more than anything, cos that threw me a bit, not that I think I'm the shit or anything. I just like to know where I'm failing, I fully appreciate your disdain for the noise, I'm just a sucker for noise and run a lot of things through my digitones saturation for that reason, so don't worry I've not drawn offence or anything. I'm just relieved it's a taste issue more than a glaring error I missed. I will be careful not to over do it in the future though. As for the headroom in the master, it's rendered out at -14LUFS with a peak RMS of -1.1 to meet streaming standards. So that will always leave a gap on the NG player, would you recommend treating a master for NG like mastering for CD in said case and just hitting a -1dB full-scale? Seriously though, thanks for thanking the time to go through this all with me, its really helpful and appreciated. <3