Score: 9

"chill"

submission: <MWA> Don't Forget [DEMO]

date: September 22, 2009

I like the mood here, it's well mixed with plenty of space to breathe. I really like the break at the end. I don't know how I feel about the bass though. The portamento/glide makes it really weird sometimes. It sounds great at the end of the measure, but when you have several notes clustered together it's really just causing problems and sounding sloppy. (like at :11-:13) What I recommend doing is duplicating the bass and for those shorter notes, transfer them to the second synth, and bring the portamento/glide time wayyyy down, or otherwise change the sound. Try to make it more dynamic. I guarantee that will help a lot. And I'm not really a huge fan of the overall sound of the bass either but I like more electro, saw basses anyway so just personal taste. But it works here and you're on the right track.

Score: 9

"lol"

submission: Rezie - Moon Beach (Clip)

date: September 12, 2009

This sounds kind of like the track I'm going to submit. Except yours has a more creative chord progression. It sounds well mixed but it sounds a little soft to me. Maybe you should try putting some light overdrive on some of the synths like the bass, to warm them up. It's mushing together a bit.

Score: 7

"Dude..."

submission: [RM] - EnTranced Space WIP

date: September 2, 2009

I can hear the bass clipping... not good. Back off on the compression, the whole mix is really squashed sounding. You loose dynamics the punchiness of sounds that way, especially kicks and high hats. Don't try to make it this loud it just doesn't pay off. Professional songs get really loud from careful mastering and brickwall limiting, and it's not easy to get right.

Overall pretty generic sounding but it progresses nicely. And I hear the sour note people are talking about. It's because you go out of key and hit a minor chord. It happens at 1:00, just change that middle note in the 3 note arpeggio, move it up a half step and you'll be good.

Score: 9

"Now that is a panflute"

submission: ~BH~ Crystalline Cloudscape

date: August 25, 2009

I like the atmosphere here, it's really airy. Nice piano arp. Only thing I don't like here is the 4 on the floor beat at this tempo. ARRHHGGGG it's like being stuck behind an old lady on the freeway. No offense. But 4 on the floor is a really driving beat, and has a lot of upbeat energy that really conflicts with the tempo and everything else in this song that's nice and peaceful. The stuttered kicks only intensify that. When you slow the tempo down, I personally think at a certain point it's better to use breakbeat (around 120 bpm or so), I think it makes it flow much better. (and I think it's just slow enough to possibly go double tempo with the percussion) But anyway great instrumentation and mixing here.

Score: 10

"Very professional"

submission: -Three Pirates- Barons theme

date: August 24, 2009

This is great. The only thing I don't really like is how widely everything is panned, I think it's a bit disorienting. On the other hand it makes you feel like you're standing on the director's stand and the orchestra is surrounding you. Correct me if I'm wrong but most of the time don't orchestral producers try to make it sound like you're sitting in the audience? Well here the way you did it actually works very well for the atmosphere you wanted to create, a boss battle. It just sounds a little "stretched" on headphones, and lacking in the middle. I think moving more instruments closer to the middle would make this sound better.

Score: 9

"It's good"

submission: House Menu Loop

date: August 17, 2009

But it's missing some high end in my opinion. If you added some piano/electric piano to top it off that would be excellent. I think it needs more sustained/reverby sounds to balance out the harsh sidechain.

Score: 9

"Sexy house!"

submission: [Microgalactic]

date: August 5, 2009

I'm loving the pads with the sidechaining. It gets a little repetitive but it's definitely trippy. The only thing I can criticize is the bass. Should be louder, I can hardly hear it at times. If you added some saws on to the bass too it would help it come out and really give it that house sound. It would be a small thing but it would definitely give the whole track more balance. But overall good job.

Score: 10

"I must have"

submission: Para - Smog Step Sanctuary

date: July 29, 2009

listened to this 20 times already :) I saw it when you posted in the dubstep contest thread and I'm using it as inspiration (though mine sounds nothing like this) I was hoping you'd get best of the week, you definitely deserve it. It just flows perfectly, there isn't a second of this I don't love. I just wish it was longer.

Score: 9

"Cool"

submission: -:YRX:- DaughterOfJustice

date: June 18, 2009

I like the mixture of genres here. The strings sound really thick. I really like how the amen comes in (with the dry faded in on the reverb?) Don't think I've heard that before, makes it seem like it's coming towards you through space (whoa) I think you could've sliced up and varied the amen quite a bit more though. The piano threw me off a bit though. Also I liked the bass but it only played for a very short part of the song and had kind of a random sounding pattern, I don't think you really needed it there, or you could've worked on the structure a little more to get it all to fit in better. Overall it works well and is very creative.

Score: 10

"What a rush!"

submission: Os Vs Mjattie -of Softest Rain

date: May 13, 2009

I haven't felt a rush like that from anything on Newgrounds in a long time. Simply beautiful. It starts off very nicely with the rain and the piano. The piano melody sounds a bit aimless at first but it falls together. At 1:12 it started to remind me a bit of some of Reasoner's stuff. I totally did not expect the beat to come in at 1:20. That gave me chills, great piano work! I'm not really sure if I like the synth that comes in at 1:54 It sounds good when it's buried under the beat though, maybe it's just the distortion that's bothering me, it doesn't really fit with everything else. Overall I love the harmony and mood here, and the instrumentation. I think you could've brought out those strings a bit more though and maybe added more layers of them. The rain is a wonderful touch. The feeling this gave me I've been trying really hard to create with my own music, but this surpasses anything I've made. I'm inspired :)