Troisnyx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[~Echo~ My World (Club Mix WIP)]

Right off the bat, you have an amazing sense of buildup and good chords to go with it. Then the kick comes in, and it seems as though the frequencies go through the roof.

But that soon dissipates, and any such sense is compensated for by the fact that you are quite fluid and dynamic in the way you develop this piece. You diversify a lot, but then you stick to one set of chords as a theme by which this piece will end.

This piece is very chill, but just gives me the 'office' impression -- the end is memorable because of that theme you use, but it strikes me as phone advertisement music to a degree: very atmospheric, but a portion of this piece hasn't grabbed me. It takes a while for me to be close to immersed. Something is being dragged out -- some might say the intro, some might say the ending, but I am certainly getting that impression.

Good work, but I was looking to be taken hook, line and sinker by this piece -- didn't quite get there.

7/10.

[Slow]

Right off the bat, I'm getting the vibe of being in some shady back alley, trying to punch my enemy and send him flying into the nearest manhole... so props to you for creating something that can evoke visual pictures.

There's a bit of variation on everything else but bass and chords -- and while I'm aware this is a short loop, it can kinda do my head in when I listen to it for long periods. There's a lot of lows and highs, but hardly any mids, which contributes to that gangsta feel, but splits my ears a little bit. I think that's something associated with music of this genre, rather than your skill, so I will not dock points for that.

Overall well done, but I feel it could do with a bit of variation.

4/5.

Jayk-O responds:

Thank you! :) I will keep this in mind,

[Irish Folkmusic Score]

Rhythm-wise, it has the makings of an Irish trad piece. It sounds like a jig, something in 6/8 time, and I like that beginning.

Harmony-wise, there tend to be too many conflicting melodies. It's not that they're out of tune, but rather, they're all competing for attention, going in separate directions, and it sounds chaotic. In trad music you'd have three melody instruments, tops, and they'd all play the same melody (uileann pipes, tin whistle, fiddle). Alternatively, there'd be two melodies, but they'd make a good balance between each other, each one shining at its turn, while the other is slightly subdued.

Chords are alright, I suppose, but the overall impression is that I was left with my ears darting all over the place.

Have you listened to trad tunes before? Things like O'Sullivan's March, Cherish the Ladies, The Wind that Shakes the Barley... etc. The melody has you darting a bit, but if you were to arrange these with chords on a piano, you'd find you wouldn't need that many. One every beat or so, tops, but not every section in the piece would be like that.

Hope that may help fuel your imagination, and all the best with future pieces.

3/5.

[Over the River]

The first impression that I get is partly medieval, partly electronic céilidh -- but the styles sound too mixed up for me to be lost in the dynamism of this piece. Instead of a mishmash of everything and anything, it would have sounded perfect with only one EDM style of preference (house? trance?) and medieval style. Some parts sound like classic Sonic, which just doesn't fit. I love céilidhs, and when I hear something along the lines of a céilidh dance track, I want to dance out. I want to be merry. 4:38 is one example of sections I enjoy in this piece, and for what you did here, it was the climax -- but I could've sworn I was yearning for an even bigger climax...

I also notice a lack of humanisation in some instrumental parts -- they all sound like each note is being played at the same volume..... I've been notorious for that same error in past years.

Your melody hook is catchy, and your chords are amazing. Good chords are part of what makes a song special in my ears. Even in the sections which I find meh (e.g. 0:47 onwards), you show good skill with thenotation, your bass moves about playfully. Some parts of the melody don't catch me because they seem to be darting all over the place.

This song needs to be remade along the lines of a Celtic dance anthem -- full of expression, full of passion, all within the same context and genre, with a memorable melody extending beyond just the proverbial chorus -- but with the same good bass and chord work.

3.5/5.

larrylarrybb responds:

This song does have multiple genres, but I thought they merged together pretty fluidly. And a Celtic Dance based on this song's chorus would be pretty cool! I might do that one day if I get the time.

[Rana Teya]

As someone who does conlangs myself, I really thoroughly enjoy how it sounds. The voice is something befitting a song from Adiemus, what with the way it's arranged -- and I am pleasantly surprised to come across this.

This is one of those tracks that works with so little, and yet gives out so much. I have no complaints with regards to composition or mixing. Favourited.

5/5.

[Wanderers Go West]

The music, for the most part, sounds like something off Final Fantasy X (ever heard the theme from Bikanel Desert?) Now I can kinda sorta visualise what you're going for here, and it's solid.

However, I have three gripes with the piece.

FIRST: Instrumentation.

Depending on what kind of feel you're going for, the ideal choice of instruments could go one of three ways.

1) Set it purely to piano, for four hands, and make it soft and delicate.
2) Set it to something very remotely oriental, like a koto and a shamisen for some of the parts.
3) Make it sound like it came from a western! Guitars, harmonicas, subtle basses, possibly an oboe for melodic accents.

The instrument choice here, by contrast, is uninspiring. It sounds bland and generic -- although not all of it can be blamed on instrumentation. You see, with the right technique, even the worst instruments can sound cracking. Which leads me on to...

SECOND: Volume control.

The instruments here are played with the same volume with every single note. This makes it sound unnatural and very stereotypically reminiscent of a MIDI.

Now, to circumvent this: listen to someone play the piano. Doesn't matter what his skill level is. You'll find subtle differences in volume between notes. It's a natural human touch we give to our instruments. In sequencer language, we call it humanisation.

If you are using FL, open the piano roll and look to the bottom of the screen. You'll notice some green vertical bars. Other sequencers ought to have the same function. That is your note-for-note volume. You want to play around with it. Hold left click and run your mouse through it, and see what it gives. Change it around, make some slightly softer, and others slightly louder. The key is for it to sound natural.

THIRD: Mixing.

Now this could cover tutorials way past the character limit of this section, but this is what I notice: everything is panned to the centre!

To the side of each instrument you use there ought to be knobs for channel volume and panning. You'll also have a mixer, which you can access in the View menu. The whole point of panning is this: imagine your instruments are in a room, and you're gonna sit there and listen to all of them being played. You want to place them at different parts of the room for the best sound you can get. Try moving the knobs left and right, and the volume sliders up and down, and see the difference it makes.

I also want to cover reverberation, or reverb. Again, this is done so that your instruments sound as natural as possible. You have different settings, like if you want it to sound like your piece is being played in a studio, or a hall, or a cathedral... Confirm with me if you do use FL: if you do, I'll help you with some tricks on it when I get the chance.

tl;dr: Solid ideas, but suffering greatly from lack of humanisation and mixing. With the right tweaks, it would prove very atmospheric!

3/5.

VacantVirtuoso responds:

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review, a lot of the things you explained made a lot of sense, i pretty much have no music background or understanding of this program at the moment which shows in this piece, also the program i use is indeed fl studios, thank you again.

[8Bit Starlight Remix]

The people who made bootleg versions of Sonic for the NES, including Somari, ought to have taken a leaf from your book. Not saying that piracy is good in any way, but Somari and its music are hackneyed in comparison to this. Allow me to give this a general 'well done.'

My suggestion would be to try make this piece your own and put a different spin on it. Like the way Picopict does for Mario themes.

If you did this without expansion chips, would you still be able to produce this many layers of sound, out of curiosity?

Keep up the good work!

4/5

VolcansMusic responds:

I probably could do this without an expansion chip, It probably wouldn't sound quite as good, but I could probably get it pretty close. Thanks Trois! Glad to see a comment from ya. ^^