Troisnyx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Crossroads]

The intro provided a slightly Metroid-like feel, but I couldn't make out the phone call too well.

When the rhythm kicks in, it does sound quite tight.

Not sure what to make of the piano or the chords; they're fine as a sequence of four bars and do provide a sense of melancholy. I think, it works well with everything else in the background, but just felt a bit too spartan when repeated by itself.

2:20, I am glad you brought a bit of the intro.

2:30, you transitioned well, but maybe my taste is that there ought to be a halfway point, however short in time, between that absolute nothing and then everything coming in.

I have no complaints about the production; everything I pointed out was musicality, I guess.

The title does fit the mood of this piece quite well. It brings to mind someone who has either been snubbed, or fired from an important job, or abused, or in distress and calling the police, arriving at a crossroads, and that phone call bit was probably left ambiguous because you wanted to leave it to us...? It's a good mood piece, but a tad bit repetitive for me.

5TanLey responds:

fair points, definitely still have things to learn

thanks for your words :)

[SSJ3 - Big Arms (Sonic 3 Final Boss)]

I like that you've got the Sonic-esque synths in the beginning, already nailing out the feel of this piece. The balance is nice, I wouldn't change anything about the mix. As for the actual sounds: a little bit more dist on that guitar? Just a tiddly bit? meep?

The most striking bit is what you've done to the original. You added your own spin. And now, this sounds like something that I could not just headbang to, but something I would happily have as background music to Smash Bros, or something just that awesome. You've varied the feel so much, obviously to avoid being repetitive but in doing so, you've turned it into one of the most enjoyable VGM covers I've come across. I am legit blown away.

Hopefully, this marks a start of how your inner cry for doing originals, for having your voice heard, comes out. Onward and upward!

Shiverwar responds:

When it comes to VGMs as short as this one, I had to add something else to it to make it stand out, so I pulled out all I could in this one! Perhaps a little more distortion could work, but I didn't want to make the guitar sound too overpowering, so I left it the way I did.

I hope this marks the beginning of a new chapter in my musical life, but we'll see where this goes! Thank you for taking the time to look at this mix, and look forward to my next one!

[Minimal Zelda Remix]

There's a Metroid-like vibe I get from this, and your synths do sound marine, including the percussive ones. I like your choice of instruments; however, docking one star because the balance and reverb seem very much out to me.

The melody, for instance, could use a little wetness to add to the whole marine / ethereal / otherworldly feel that the Windfish has, and then when those other percussive voices come in at 0:52, they can be toned down a little bit to give way to the melody.

1:20 loses its timing, coming in a beat and a bit early, but otherwise, it seems alright.

I'm not quite sure what to make about 3:15, the dissonance that happens there; I think, like with the percussive bits, it can be toned down a little bit, add a volume envelope for effect. Ending is mighty abrupt. Sometimes, letting things reverberate on their own is enough. <3

I gotta say, I love the feel of this thing. I REALLY do. If I were actually inside the Windfish, this is what I would hear, I imagine. Thank you for sharing this with me. Do the necessary tweaks / balance checks and you should be on your way!

Kelpalots responds:

Thank you so much!

[Between Broken Lake and Dried up Shrine [8-19-2017 8:24]]

I don't know which idiot voted this down because there is something very, VERY video game ambient about this one. Something that sounds at once broken, and adventurous, and desert-like. It brings to mind a journey under the hot sun, where your vision is blurred and all you can see are mirages, but you know your journey is going to be worth it. It engages me so deeply, it reminds me of that hard-wrought journey.

There are many bits here that do relax me -- there's that flute-like sound that you use, not sure if it is an actual flute sample -- but it brings to me an oasis in an otherwise dry, hot land. That, and the piano bits. I would so happily storyboard a journey, with the accompaniment of this piece. It inspires me.

Kelpalots responds:

:D Glad you liked it! I actually did recordings with the piano for all parts, though one repeats a bit obviously. Oh man, the journey for this track is so good to have had! I like to hear what stories come from people when they listen to my music. Thank you so much!

[Space Fantasy '17]

I get a Bowie vibe in places, R.E.M. in others, which makes me want to listen even more. It does bring to mind 80s synth pop. So if there's a lack of humanisation in some of the parts, I suddenly realise 'oh hang on, synthesisers, there's a general feel being created here.'

I love those little sweeping synths, which I can catch better in the beginning and end.

I'm not sure about the main lead vocals in places (especially the verses) -- I don't know whether it's deliberately shaky or not. But the vocals in the chorus "Welcome to my space fantasy" were alright, most of the harmonies were on point. Listening louder, I noticed backing vocals that were otherwise hidden, they sounded like a background choir drone, and I tend to like that nuance that you added.

I am a sucker for nuance and buildup. Pity there were no more verses.

maxxpump responds:

Thank you for you indepth review, I love David Bowie and REM's pretty cool (loosing my religion). I've had a lot of time to practice this song since I composed it and I think I got the vocals to a point that they are not bad at all. A majority of my music comes out with a 80's style flair, I was brought up listening to a lot of 80's artists. While doing this live it does have a second verse which I dropped on the studio version as I didn't want the recording to be to long, kind of was wanting to go for a radio edit as it were. The lack humanisation stems from my love for listening to Gary Numan and I think overall the vocals and orchestration really make this something which sounds very unique.

I probably need to play with the vocal mix a bit more, as some parts are up too loud while some of the backing is too quiet. I'm still going to do a completely remastered version of this for a new album project I am compiling.

But I will look into making a extended version maybe when it gets recorded at one of my upcoming gigs, I'll figure something out!

[Voice Performance 2017 (Korean & English)]

I am truly glad to have cast you as Newgrounds' own Nene, I REALLY am. I caught this just by chance in my Audio feed, and not only are your expressions impeccable in both languages... your English is impeccable!

I only know a tiny, tiiiiiny bit of Korean so it didn't get me through all of this demo but I presumed that a lot of it had to do with the flow of what it was you were saying at any given point in time, e.g. the student chiding her classmate for dozing off in class. Amazing vocal clarity, at any rate -- and I'm looking forward to having you on board the project when the script is done!

JessieYun responds:

Hi Troisnyx!

Thank you very much for the comment! I'm really glad you enjoyed the performance :D
And me too! I can't wait to get started!

[Glitchtale - Bete Noire]

Already from the beginning I sense a very dark, eerie, foreboding vibe about this. Then 0:44 changes the atmosphere from ambient and ups the pace quite a bit. You have a good sense of buildup here.

1:16 sounds to me like I'm escaping from something trying to devour me (or a stage trying to devour me). There's an otherworldly, alien feel to it. That lead that comes in after this point might as well sound like you're having Hatsune Miku sing this; it brings that to mind for me, with those grace notes. It feels soulful in comparison to the rest of the piece. Interesting juxtaposition. One that doesn't sound jarring, either. It seems to fit quite well. ^_^

2:17 sounds... a bit bare for my taste, but everything has its place.

2:40 is back to the soulful melody vs the alien background. 3:03 turns it up quite a bit; it sounds more foreboding than soulful there.

I have no complaints about the mixing. Everything seems to be in order there.

3:40-odd, feels like an abrupt ending and 3:59, an even more abrupt ending. No distortion noises; it just pops out. It felt quite strange to me. Did you intend for this to loop?

----

One thing's for sure: you HAVE certainly upped your quality. I'm nitpicking here and there but otherwise, well done. I quite liked it.

NyxTheShield responds:

Yeah ie ffed up the ending, I think I uploaded the wrong file buuuuuuuut it kinda worked hahahaha Glad you liked it!

[Joy Ride]

Since it's short, I should be able to tell in a bit of detail what's good and what isn't as much.

Your mixing has improved since I last heard from you. With the exception of one particular section (0:51 etc.), everything seems to have its proper place in the mix.

I'm not sure what to make of the string-like pad in the background. It sounds...... I have no idea, like something that belonged in some cheesy song, which is probably not what you were going for here. There is always an appeal for picked clean electric guitar in things like this, but that's just what I imagine here -- you could perhaps imagine something else that sounds as awesome in there.

0:51 is a bit of an oddity. What are you going for here? 4/4? 12/8? You've got what seem to be drum loops that do a sort of 12/8 beat on a 4/4 song. On the one hand, you have straight 4/4 and on the other hand, you have a 12/8 beat. Now, done well, it could provide for interesting rhythmic patterns. Done not so well, as in this case, you're left wondering 'what on earth happened here?'. On my second listen, I noticed that other things were clashing too -- basslines against melody, for example.

1:06 keeps things simple and brings it all down, of course. Your resolution of this piece is good.

The main troubles with this piece are that:

1) it is very short -- which wouldn't really be a trouble in and of itself but it is compounded by the second below, i.e.

2) it is too repetitive.

We listen to things and they're varied a fair bit; good songs tend to vary in texture, in loudness, or even in thematic material. If a song is too short, or too long for the average, it needs to have enough to make it interesting.

You've nailed the loud-soft of this piece, but not so much the texture, and most certainly not the thematic material. I was left feeling a bit let down at the end when 1:06 came in and the first question that came to mind was, "what, that's it?" I feel as though you were going for the car advert vibe, almost, and some of them do it really well. But this one feels underwhelming to me.

My recommendations: study your favourite pieces. Try to write down, describe in your own words, what makes a piece awesome. And train yourself not to say "oh because it's awesome and I have no words." Yes, I understand some songs can leave us breathless. But once that feeling passes -- we are able to try and imagine what led us to feeling that way. Was it the instrumentation? Was it the tempo changes? Was it the themes, or the soft and loud? Was it something else, like key changes or otherwise technical stuff that most songs wouldn't do? Or was it because the song was simple, but effective -- and if so, how?

Hopefully, doing this, you may be able to focus your learning, and find the areas you would like to start improving on first.

Spikrin responds:

thanks for the constructive critism! Im still working on my music, and getting better, i recently got inspired by renosance, by home. i want to make a song maybe similar to that song in some way.

[Troisnyx - Can You See The Clouds Divide (Iori Licea Version)]

Anytime.

I like those bells you use for top-end frequency, it all sounds magical. The rest of the background music may be simple, but sounds quite full and backs it up well. And the end slidey thing, whatever that is, actually sounded quite nice -- I'd have loved to hear just a little more of it.

My only nitpick would be spacing -- how much of it is going to be instrumental and how much of it is going to be vocal, etc. But I understand it's not an exact science; we're bound to make errors and we're bound to have some nice moments when it comes to spacing.

Well done!

iorilicea responds:

Oki, Thanks for your review!
And yes... It's not an exact science but the good times will be come ...