STEPHEN4705's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[grooveT3K - Promise.]

Nice one :D

Some really nice synthwork in this track, a really nice fusion of sounds for the most part. However, I think you need to choose your drum sounds a bit differently. The drum sounds in the intro sound pretty good, but they could be improved. The kick sounds pretty good, as does the snare, but I think that you might want to try messing about with sidechaining (making the other synths get quieter as the kick gets louder), but its not essentially and it still sounds pretty good without it.
Some really nice sounding all the synths though, especially around the 1:30 mark, that sounds like it took you a lot of time to do, and theres a whole ton of breakdowns in this track that sound really awesome.

The VST sounds sound pretty nice. If you're looking for more FX plugins, take a look into dblue glitch: it can make some really awesome experimental effects. But fabfilter is pretty awesome :D

grooveT3K responds:

Hey mate!
Glitch is an intersting little piece of gear, I enjoy playing with it when im out of ideas.
As for sidechaining I have applied it on almost every synth, it might not jump straight out because it is rather subtle compared to how much I would normally apply and the size of the sound wave of the main kick I used leaves little room for a big wooshing sidechain.
The break down at 1:30 has about 6 seperate automation clips to make that effect and it did take a while to get it to a level I was happy with.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and review my track, I appreciate all the feedback and support!

Cheers mate!

[I called my momma]

I like the sound of this!

Like the fact it doesn't start instantly, makes it feel a lot more natural. The guitar playing sounds nice, the drums sound good, like the vocals a lot, only thing I dislike is the length.. but who am I to talk about length when half my tracks are extremely short :D

This was a great listen!

10/10
5/5

Ste :D

Doumaaa responds:

Hey thanks a bunch! :) You're not the first one to mention the length, all my friends tell me the same. But these things just come out of the blue, I record them in like half an hour and they're done. Like most of the stuff I upload. The songs that are long are the ones I really work on.

Regards,
D.

[I Heart 8-Bit]

I heart 8-bit too! :D

Love the simple, but effective melodic layers. Like the kick and the clap sound, but it sounds awkward, like there is a clap before the clap and its actually quite a painful noise to listen to.

The synths are fantastic though, really like those!

9/10
4/5
Ste :)

Skullbeatz responds:

i really don't know what i was thinking when i added these drums. maybe you'll like the new version better? thanks for your review man :)

[Chill To This]

Nice

The strings sound nice, the guitar sounds really nice. The drumloop isn't too loud, and is well put together. The trumpets and bass go together really well. My only worry is the simplicity of the chord progression in the string, try going for something a little more complex next time perhaps.

Even so, the melody changes throughout the entire piece and the composition on the whole makes this a great track.

Nice job.

9/10
5/5
Fav'd
Downloaded.

Ste :)

digital-musician responds:

First review for '11. Thanks for the comments.

[Desultory]

You should get the full version of FL.

This song proves to me that you should get it. The piano melodies are strangely relaxing over the top of the rain noise in the background, and suits the weather outside right now (snowy).

I think if you got the full version of FL you'd benefit really well from it. The drumloops sounds quite nice, but I think the open hat should be changed into a closed hat. The background synth is nice and relaxing, and kinda makes me think of a slow motion olympic runner.

If you get the full version of FL9 (I reccomend the boxed XXL version) however, you could really improve your skills and take your already good compositions to the next level.

Very well composed piece, I like this one a lot. Let me know if you upload anything else.

Favourited as an artist.

9/10
5/5

Ste :D

thatguy669606 responds:

Thanks a lot for the support man! I'm going to have a guitarist joining me after the holidays and we should be adding some guitar to the past few ambient tracks I have done. He has a really awesome delay pedal we are going to run through my halfstack, so we should have some really interesting guitar to add to the stuff.

I'll stay in touch with updates. If you would like to collab or work together anytime just let me know. You seem to have a knack for mixing, of which I still don't have much of a knowledge of.

And...I did manage to get hold of a copy of the FL 9.7 beta, so I will have fun!

Edit: Life gets in the way of shit. But still working on stuff.

[.The Dreamer.]

Dreamy?

The melodies all flow together nicely. The pad sweep sounds nice as well, and it all flows it along. I think that a piano melody over the top of it would suit it quite nicely as well.

Sounds really nice though, I hope someone uses this in a game, it would suit it perfectly in a cloud level/dream world level.

9/10
5/5

Ste :)

johnfn responds:

Thanks :) I thought about going for a piano melody too, but I wanted to deliberately keep it in the background. Also, I have a tendency to overdo things by adding too much instrumentation, so I thought I would go in the other direction.

[Silhouettes]

hmm

The piano in the start with a few notes could have done with some more reverb on it to help fill the gaps between notes. But as a composition, this sounds very nicely done. Sounds a lot more relaxing than most NG tracks. I think that there needed to be some faster piano melodies come in at the minute mark however, just so the listener didn't get too bored.

You could really take that first minute and change it into a completely different track, you know. Perhaps change it from minor to major, increase the amount of notes, add more chords, broken chords, whatever, you clearly know how to compose well, but I think theres a lot more work that this track needs.

Its nice as it is for perhaps a brief soundtrack, but I think you do need to add some more things to it to get it into flashes for the whole length.

7/10
3/5

Ste :)

thatguy669606 responds:

Stephen,
I would like to thank you for the constructive criticism. Keyword "constructive," unlike some douche-bags who zero bomb a song because they aren't a fan of the style.

I agree, it could use a little more composition and reverb to make the song more "whole." I am currently using the demo of FL9, sooooooooo, around 2 to 3 hours into composition I get tired of editing and I usually just say fuck it and export the mp3, as I cannot save a .flp file with the demo. When I can get some full fledged software (I know I can pirate it, but I choose not to) I will definitely take my time with my tracks.

Thanks a lot man!

[Une Affaire Romantique]

Beautiful

I cannot rate this down. At all. The piano notes are beautifully placed, the strings in the background add an extra layer to the track and make it a lot more interesting. I would like to see this with some delay or reverb on the piano though, just to make the intro have a little bit more of a fill, but apart from that this track is FLAWLESS.

Great composition, great sounds, I love it!

5/5
10/10
Fav'd!

Ste :)

DJ-Athens responds:

thank you very much good sir:)

[[TRANCE]]

Hands Up Trance

I think Hands Up is more a sub-genre of techno than trance.. I think things like Oceanlab and Aarmin Van Buurin are trance.. but no complaints from me really.

Nice happy melodies here, you did a pretty good job with this song, you might want to switch up the melodies a little maybe make it a little less repetetive in parts. The drum change in the middle was maybe a good place to add a new high melody.

Nice work with this!

8/10
3/5

Ste :)

LineFreak responds:

oh wow, i hadn't looked at this song in a while, and there were three reviews!

Thanks for the advice, this is one of my first songs in FL Studio, so I can't do much. but thanks anyways :D

[Awesome (joshhunsaker)]

Been far too long...

..since I last heard this song. I've had it on my phone for a year, and never was able to find it again, until today. This is the song that inspired me to write my track "long way from home". Its a beautiful peice, and its still stunning to me. Such a shame that it isn't longer, but oh well.

Still, I think you are a genius for writing this piece my friend. I can't do flash but I would like to collab with you at some point, I haven't made anything as good as this, but there aren't many people that have.

I know the feeling where you can't extend a track when you feel like you might ruin a perfectly good track, which has happened to me so many times before, its a horrible feeling, especially when it sounds as good as this does.

10/10
5/5
Fav'd
Need I say more?

Ste :)

SuperGoodSound responds:

let me know about the collab stuff : )