Score: 8

"Ah nice sounding"

submission: Eight Miles Away

date: October 25, 2009

I must say you sure know how to do your mixes, it's got a nice, clear and open sound that I really enjoy. Thankfully I can adjust the angle of my chair, it came in very handy, because it feels juuuust right to lie down a bit while listening to this one ;) It's a very relaxing theme. Still I think the composition is a bit lacking. The ideas in the song are very nice, but it takes a long time before it gets anywhere and the track is quite repetitive with few contrasting elements, I kinda feel you should do something more with it.

Score: 9

"wow, love this"

submission: Rudy P. - Sucker Punch

date: October 2, 2009

Full of energy and punch right from the bat, the piece has a very nice and clear hi-fi sound that creates instant high expectations. The bass is relatively mellow, but that only creates more tension during the more mellow parts (with the filtered drums and all). The various tracks are nice and fat when that is required, but they never take too much space in the mix. The drums sound great (though there's a bit of an unpleasant hi-mid boost on the snare) Love the drum programming too, very nice fills. Plus, you elegantly and seemingly effortlessly transition from the typical breakbeat to those nice half-time, almost dubstep-like beats at 2:33, and back again.

The mix isn't really lacking in the bass area, however I think the treble is a bit extreme, I can't listen to this loudly because the treble is almost painful. That's the only catch really, it's a pretty sick tune overall.

Score: 8

"nice backing"

submission: The_Jazz_Lab_{Flux}

date: September 5, 2009

The background is very nice, lovely chords and, as far as I know, great sounds, but it's overshadowed by the rather cheap sounding lead synth. Put a lowpass filter on it or something, it think this piece would sound much better (and more flash friendly!) if the lead synth wasn't as prominent. Not much more to say about this loop, please take my suggestion into consideration though.

Score: 7

"don't know about this one, sorry man"

submission: Dark_Awakeining_{Flux}

date: September 5, 2009

Sounds like it has been compressed by a ridiculous amount... it's like you entered the loudness war with nukes. If you look at it in a waveform editor the track generally looks like a solid block. Careful with that compression, it severely damages the sound quality.

A note about the composition- it's all straight 16th/8th/4th notes: the piano plays a little awkward straight 4th note sequence in the beginning, then a melody of 8th notes. The drums also have this robotic preciseness, it all ends up sounding quite lifeless. You may want to experiment a bit with the phrasing (i.e placement of notes and pauses in the piece), to make the piece sound more expressive, lively and interesting.

I'm not so sure man, it's a decent piece of music, but I believe the things mentioned above are quite important, and thus didn't find myself enjoying it much.

Score: 9

"quite sweet"

submission: Espantos (K)

date: September 5, 2009

I love the concept, it's a very interesting fusion of a hip hoppy beat and brass instrumentation on top. The samples sound quite lo-fi and harsh, so unless that's the intention, this song could benefit from higher quality samples (most of it is fine, really, the trumpet first heard at 0:09 just makes a bad impression).

The arrangement is nice, very different from most compositions heard at NG, the instruments complement each other nicely. Most of the instruments tend have very repetitive themes though, after a while it all sounds like one big rhythm section. Something like an acoustic guitar solo would be a welcome melodic addition, which would probably fit perfectly with the style of this track as well.

Looking forward to a finished version of this, please pm me if you finish it because I love the idea

Score: 10

"righto"

submission: §Arbiter§ - Glory, Sacrifice

date: August 16, 2009

I admit I haven't listened to any of the other entries, so I can compare it to anything, but you certainly put the theme to good use. The main theme is very strong, the rest of the orchestra complements it very well (the piccolo flute in particular did a good job, the variation on the main theme is great). Overall it sounds like the was made to be this way, and the theme doesn't ever sound 'forced'. The mix is nice and thick, but also clear as glass for the most part, the flute seems to get drowned a bit in the very middle, but you know that's a nitpick.

Love it! Fantastic work, you go win a contest with it or something. No constructive review for you :)

Score: 8

"Review title"

submission: Experimental Menu Theme II

date: August 3, 2009

The noisy, distorted pad, along with a subtle bass and a bass drum hit at every beat, establish a suspenseful atmosphere from the first moments. But that is quickly interrupted by the off-key glockenspiel- I think it's one semitone too sharp? You'll need to have that looked at, other than that everything flows nicely together.

After that, mostly everything keeps going in a familiar manner, nothing too exiting before the track hits the end. For a menu theme this should work well though. You might want to cut it off entirely at 2:00 to keep the a nice flow, after that point you're just watering down the track by removing its elements one by one.

Nice work on this one too, no major flaws (perhaps except the glock), but the track is nothing too special either.

Score: 8

"Great composition, but watch the levels"

submission: Experimental Menu Theme

date: July 30, 2009

I suggest you revisit this song and bring down the master volume (and perhaps the bass instruments as well), there is a quite intense digital distortion throughout the track, especially when the bass is at its heaviest- you can see this with the "SimpleWave" vizualiser here on NG, or any audio editor.

The composition is very good- the use of percussion is great (can I ask were the samples are from? I'm having a bit of a trouble finding the right percussion samples myself). The rest of the instruments produce nice tension and drama at the appropriate times. I couldn't hear most of the brass (except the swells) the first time I listened through it, it is perhaps something that could be brought out more imo.

The use of reverb makes it the piece creates a nice and big atmosphere without being too muddy. The various sound effects compliment that very well. Great work! You just need to bring down the general volume. How long have you been composing/producing?

Score: 10

"I must say"

submission: Ethereal (loop + W.I.P)

date: July 29, 2009

I must say it sounds pretty sweet even though it's a wip. The lead is very similar to a type of lead that was used much in gameboy advance generation games (pulse wave with a relatively short delay), so it brings back memories from 4-5 years ago I believe.

The bass has that very delicious, nice and fat analog sound. That's a rather high range for a bass but I still love it. The arpeggiated synth is nice and airy, gives it that ethereal sound, I think this would be amplified with a more prominent delay. Good work with the drums too, nothing too fancy but it fits very well in the mix.

Great use of the stereo field by the way, it really fills up and makes the piece less one-dimensional. The only thing I slightly disagree with is the panning, sustained percussion sound- sounds a bit harsh and could use a bit of filtering or something similar imo.

Anyway, sweet little loop, keep going on this

Score: 8

"Nice 'ne"

submission: Bright Futures!

date: May 29, 2009

The clean plucky synth (is that supposed to be a guitar? If so, not too realistic) reminds me so much of Guitar Pro that I can't help being distracted, I'll try not to let that change my opinion :)

The drum kit is a bit saturated with reverb- you might want to chill down with the reverb on at least the bass drum, be careful with the hats as well. You should generally be careful with reverb on drums when making upbeat tunes like this anyway. I enjoyed the bass, I like how there's both that funky, cheesy filter sound and a more basic, subby bass. It fills the bottom up nicely without getting too muddy. Big pro there.

The guitar was a positive surprise, but what did you do to it? Sounds very muddy, which I believe is a result of either too much reverb, too much distortion or too much modulation, it's hard to tell a note from another at times.

Very nice composition. The mix does, in my opinion, need some work. A very promising song overall though.