Troisnyx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[bLACk iS thE sOUL]

Drums are a touch dry compared to the rest of the piece, but that said: the growl of the subharmonic bit, the voices, the lyrics and the processing on these are *haunting.*

ADR3-N responds:

Oh thank you! You're absolutely right. I added a very light verb and didn't sidechain, as the majority of the drums are chopped dubstep breaks and hihats from various genres. I didn't pingpong a slap back for them either to conserve ram as the individual vocal chains demanded a lot. Other than that, it's a pretty cut and dry track with 4 vocal lanes and about 7 dubs at most

[The Drummer (No drums edition)]

I only got to listen now; thank you for this. Parts of your piece almost brought me to tears.

DarkHorseOrchestra responds:

You're very welcome! Thanks for letting me do this!

[Rock 'n' Roll Hijinks]

The feel's mostly on point, but there are some things that I feel could be done -- palm muting the bass and guitar in softer sections, or varying the dynamics of the drums. I think these would go a long way to helping the feel of this.

As it stands, there are sections where many things feel quite dynamically identical to previous sections (and, if your waveform is to be believed without listening, it does suggest that). So even in a rock track, dynamism is a sure-fire way to improve your pocket.

For what there is though, this is very tonally sound and it brings to mind extended versions of things that sound like TV series openers. I especially love that honky-tonk.

You also got me at that ragtime sound that you went with that honky-tonk; ragtime is one of my favourite things to play on piano and this one got me smiling.

Codefreq responds:

Thanks for the feedback! :) I’ll keep those things in mind. I made this for my YouTube channel in part to represent of the type of thing you could create just by drawing music on the computer (i.e. not recording live instruments). Everything is programmed manually, even the drums.

[50 CC's Stat!]

I'm not just getting the ER vibe from this, I'm also getting the odd JRPG vibe (especially Ar tonelico) from this, which makes this especially cherished to me.

I do feel like the transitions (including the reversed vocals) could use more volume, impact, gravitas. Same with the guitar at about 1:17. Right now, they feel like a background element -- and they could do with being a great deal more forward.

Otherwise, I love this to bits. You've nailed the feel you were going for. The melody is very memorable. I remember every accompaniment element in this, this is just how memorable it is.

wobwobrob responds:

Thanks so much Troisnyx, you absolute legend!

[Storm]

First off, decent harmonic writing, and solid melodic writing but it's hampered by your lack of dynamism.

That piano, that features heavily here, could seriously use some humanisation. As it stands, all your notes are at the same volume, and a great deal of soft-loud here would aid you when you're trying to convey the feelings of urgency and dread of an impending storm.

There's also not much to ground this mix: where's the bass? It's not just the drums that set the feel of a piece, it's your bass as well, and a groove on the bass would have amped up any feelings of dread.

Now, coming back to what you have. That key change took me by surprise, but it fizzled out really quickly. I would like you to come back to this, extending the piece and making it a good bit longer — there are a lot of good ideas here that I feel that, with a good sense of pacing and that dynamism that I mentioned, could make for a strong piece.

V1ZION responds:

I appreciate your help. I tried experimenting with bass but it didn’t work out. Yeah, all the piano notes are the same volume, except for the beginning and end whole notes. I definitely will come back to this and make it longer. I do think that there’s a lot more potential for this. I’ll try to experiment with velocity and maybe add a bass track somewhere. I am going to stick with the semitone and work with that a bit more.

Again, thanks. :)

[Starship Beats]

That bassline is a thing of beauty. I daresay it made this track what it is; everything beautiful about it spilled from there.

Mix is a bit muddy due to lack of air, but nothing I could quite fault.

XLRSTONE responds:

Thank you!
I really appreciate the review, you hit all the points!

Happy NG anniversary BTW. Going to check out your music soon!

[Tlatelolco Feel]

Solid piece. I'm horrified to have only found out about this now. Solidarity with the survivors and the friends and loved ones of those who died. You did good, writing about this.

VariableGR responds:

Gracias, Esto lo hice con la intención de que México desde hace mucho no es seguro, pero protegemos a la gente cuando vienen, o cuando necesitan.
Gracias por escuchar 😍

[Shanghai Dream]

Nice use of Mor Li Hua in this piece; I remember that folk song.

[We Ride At Dawn]

The progression in here, especially when the choirs kick in in full force, is sublime.
It also does sound a tiny little bit like A Fleeting Dream (from Final Fantasy X), albeit if you did a much more sombre iteration using a leitmotif from there.

Work on giving your track more air in general and increase that reverb tail in the end; it does feel a little bit stifled. Otherwise, your instrumentation is solid, your vocal harmonies are on point.

Fatal-Exit responds:

Thank you for your thoughts Troisnyx, means a lot, I'm gonna work on the mix a little more before I make the itch.io download available.

I always feel a bit conflicted about the ends of tracks. Either I feel they end way too abruptly: that might be the case with this, or else they have huge tails that result in 10s of seconds of almost silence, it's hard to balance it sometimes.

[Red Light Daze]

Yeah, NGL, this does nail the SimCity vibe. There's... something partly urban and partly RTS about it -- some of the instrumentation you've introduced here gives me Age of Empires vibes. It's super nostalgic for that reason, and it's a joy to listen to.