Troisnyx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Neon Runner]

For what this is, I am really enjoying it. There's a 70s, 80s vibe about this -- part of it does bring back Queen (you know, with the synthesisers bringing back vibes of "I Want To Break Free"). But it also feels like the dance music of the time, too, which you seem to have reproduced well.

I guess when it is time to put lyrics down, you'd doubtless go for something layered, much like a lot of 80s music -- but you've set some really good foundations. Everything seems to have its proper place for me; I have no complaints with regards to mixing.

AceMantra responds:

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really wanted to give off an 80s nostalgic feel.

I'm a little hesitant to put in lyrics because I've never mixed vocals before. I'm definitely going with your layering suggestion though. Maybe I'll give it an early "Duran Duran" sound.

[NGRMC 2018: Jazz Reharm]

So many sound ideas in this track, I love your progression, your piano lines, the drums. There's the slight delay in the instruments in part and it can be a bit disconcerting but otherwise, I love what you're going for. I really do! 💓

Docking a point for both the abrupt ending and the mixing. With regards to the ending, I'd feel eased out of this if this were left to decay, or perhaps if it were slowed down or sustained. Mixing, that is an entire kettle of fish to be handled another time -- but to begin, I am sensing things being panned to extremes on my headphones, and sound normally doesn't come out that way. It feels a bit warped.

All the best with your submission! Outside of the things I mentioned, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Poosac responds:

Hey! Thanks for putting out a review. I gotta say, you really have good drummer ears since I wasn't able to hear that slight delay. I went into fl to find the problem and yes there was a small gap between some notes and the beat line thingy https://imgur.com/a/rZLxool.

And about the weird panning. I just noticed until now. It wasn't my intention to pan the drums like that (I had no idea how they were rendered that way). So I (cheated) a little bit and changed the panning of the drums :** but next to that I didn't change a thing since yea, this is my submission to the competition. And the ending part I totally agree, I had a hard time finding a good ending for this piece, I thought this would be (good) enough, but yeah I totally agree.

All in all, thank you for this amazing review. I'm glad you enjoyed it! And I also wish you good luck with your submission!

[Purity 1]

The melody, chords and feel actually feel like Mylene Farmer's songs when it begins. Not so much when the piano does its trills later on, or later when the piece advances -- it gets that feel again in the end. It changes feels a lot, but the intro was what grabbed me the most.

The piano is mixed the best out of all of them -- I'm not sure about the strings; they sound a bit too synthesised for my taste. The instrumentation is otherwise effective, and it's one of those tracks where 'less is more.'

Erso responds:

Thank you for your criticism, I'll improve these things. I don't exactly understand what were you trying to say about Mylene Farmer's songs. Is it good, is it bad, I don't know.
Piano... «mixed». Don't be kidding me, the only thing I made with it is channel volume changing and maybe some velocity changes.
Synthesised strings... Well I imported them from DirectWave, as much as two other soundfonts. I tried searching different things but didn't find anything that would fit better than this one soundfont.

[Nyctophilia ~ Irrational]

Right off the bat, the melody is catchy -- but would benefit from a little bit more reverb and a lot more expression; right now, it seems as though they're round about the same volume level, each note on that melody. The drums are spot-on, I guess.

The song has the feel of a pop song, but only if that lead is sung -- it gets annoying by the 1:18 mark when one realises it's been repeated a lot. It doesn't give me chance to appreciate the nice buildup going on in the instrumental, and I really mean it -- the instrumental gently eases in.

1:58 was a nice change of pace. That pad that comes in for added rhythm sounds quite nice in the whole mix.

I'm at 3:31 and I find the song itself quite repetitive; without singing or variations in the melody it feels that way to me. I found myself wondering if it was going to be the case for 6 minutes. The pad at 4:12 could've been added earlier, to build up the song, or to merely give it a gentle ending.

You seem to have gotten the mix down well. The only thing I'd recommend is to perhaps revisit your sections, see what arrangement of sections makes songs enjoyable to listen to by most people -- and perhaps see where it takes you.

3.5/5. Voted 4.

Nyctophilia responds:

This has helped me a lot and I know how to improve... Thanks! I can't really add lyrics as I'm not great at singing and can't find vocal artists (well it's more that I haven't really tried but never mind XD), but yeah this has really helped me, thanks!

[Wind of Prairie]

There are things I could nitpick about this one; the lower hand drums being so heavily reverbed is one, the jarring shift from high reverb to low reverb is another, but I'm not going to do that here. Probably the only thing I'd suggest is about the same reverb on the flutes and other winds when the rest of the music dips out, but other than that:

I think this music needs a jarring shift. A lot of music of the prairies that we know and love comes from idealised western films, which of course don't paint an accurate picture of what happened here -- many of the settlers fled persecution in their own lands, only to persecute others. The strings(?) have chords that sound like fraying nerves, which is precisely what happened here.

If anything, if I try to picture a scene to this music, it'd be that of the mistrust (and perhaps distrust) that comes about when the natives and the settlers met on the prairie, with air distorting in front of one's eyes due to intense heat if you go further south -- that even if either side says they mean no harm, both sides are extremely apprehensive of each other and they know that one side is basically going to proverbially skewer the other in the rear. I can see it now: I can see faces twitching in disgust, just as the natives and settlers meet.

eluukkanen responds:

Thank you for the broad review of the track Troisnyx! Idea was originally to show the distrust between native and settler folk, so I am glad you got that out of that. Thank you Troisnyx

[The Groblins]

The instrumental reminds me of Simon the Sorcerer, or the old PC game series by that name. Until those pads come in when the pace slows down, it doesn't quite fit.

I do get the general feel of people making mischief, but at the same, musically, it's all over the place. The rhythm of the notes certainly does give a playful, mischievous feel, but chord/melody wise, they clash too much for it to be entirely palatable to my ears.

Also, the ending is quite abrupt. It'd have been nice to turn this into a loop, I'd have liked to hear it as a piece of background music.

I have no complaints with the mixing at this point.

TL;DR: Rhythmic feel is there. Really not sure what to say about the melody and chords. There is a part of me that likes this a lot, and a part of me that doesn't.

4/5?

Trash-Man-1 responds:

I agree with everything you said. I wondered myself about about the pad section. I'll try to be more careful on future songs. I have a nasty habit of going all over the place. I'll also try to extend my outros as well. As for the clashing, it was a risky choice I took, so in the future this shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the review. Nice to get the information.

[Easter is Coming]

I have no complaints with the mixing, only the feel. ;_; It feels a bit.... underwhelming for an Easter track. The only thing I can really associate this is with green blades rising. The piano and harp sound mysterious, and that's nice, but it just doesn't really go anywhere.

Springtime evokes the feelings you've put into this piece; Easter is quite different. When I talk about Easter, I talk about a burst of joy, I talk about new life, I talk about resurrection, about hope that comes rushing into you when it had been previously lost through the bleakness of winter (and the bleakness of life). All that was missing from the piece, and so it's kinda meh to me. Easter is my favourite holiday of the year because of what it signifies, and I especially hate that it's given such underwhelming treatment compared to Christmas, even in music.

eluukkanen responds:

Thank you for the feedback Troisnyx! Nice to see your view and take on it. Easter means many things to different people, nice to hear your thoughts on it.

[The Awakening]

The beginning had a mighty ancient feel to it, but when the rest of the music kicked in with the electronic things, it gave me a Xenoblade Chronicles feel. I think the violin is actually identical, too, in terms of the sound patch used. Xenoblade Chronicles has one of my favourite OSTs so I am glad that you captured something of that feel, if only to my ears.

EliteFerrex responds:

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm not familiar with the XenoChron OST, so I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the review!

[Sharing a Drink with the Midnight Sun]

There is something very lounge-y about it. A satisfying kind; you know I am a sucker for good chord progressions and you've done exactly that. It is singable too; I found myself actually almost singing the melody line that has appeared at least twice in this piece. I would happily listen to this toasting the summer goodbye -- it feels like a piece for the twilight in spite of its title.

Well done, Lucid. And just a final note on the sound quality, it didn't sound too choppy to me, or particularly harsh. It felt like a mellow-ish, beautiful thing that you'd play in the living room, which is probably one of my favourite sort of ambiences. So, no worries there. ^_-

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I can kinda see what you mean with lounge-y, since it's a pretty rhythmic piece, with many "number" chords :)
Since the challenge revolved around chords, I figured it was right for me xD
I love playing around with unconventional progressions, while I try to make them sound nice. It's cool to hear that the composition is singable too!!

I'm glad it doesn't sound choppy. While I added a VST to the MIDI, I tried to soften the worst parts. Thanks for listening, as well as for your input! :D