pichuscute0's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

159 Audio Reviews

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2021-09-28 03:45:01

Honestly, this is really well made. You did great sound design here and it's mixed masterfully, too. The second half does some really cool stuff with the drums/rhythm in particular that I'm a big fan of and I appreciate the snare choices, too. The first half reminded me a bit of some of the music you might here in a game like Splatoon, which is a good thing, I'd say.

Definitely a bit weird, but nothing wrong with that at all.

Falling Leaves

2021-09-28 03:38:04

The drums give a very old jungle styled vibe, nice! I really like the ambient-ness of the song overall, but I think the piano gets a bit overbearing at times and can feel a bit dry too.

Can't Stop the Time

2021-09-28 03:31:28

Not bad! It reminds me a bit of DnB from a little over a decade ago, which is a nice blast from the past.

It's a bit of a personal preference thing, but my main criticism here is the sound choices. I think I would have leaned a bit more heavily into gritty sounds if I was making a song of this type. I think the lack of much of a defined high or high-mid range in most of your synth sounds ends up making the song feel like it's been mixed less than ideally. The dark snare drum you're using here doesn't necessarily help things either, which otherwise may have been able to fill some of the gap. I do see what you were going for, though, and otherwise I can't fault much. ^^

Devoted

2021-09-28 03:25:36

Not too bad. Think the vocals work alright, so I'd say job well done on a first attempt at that.

If I had any critique, I'd say I'm not a huge fan of the some of the piano sounds as is. They feel a bit stiff sounding, so varying up note volume or finding higher quality samples might help in that regard. The piano also get lost in the mix a bit, so I'd be careful how much you're putting in the same frequency range without EQ/sidechain.

reddyxu responds:

Thanks for the critique! I'll keep that in mind
I believe it is about time to change up my pianos so I'll see what I can find

Yurgenburgen's Theme

2019-08-25 20:59:36

Not bad. As some others have said, though, some of the instruments can get lost in the mix a bit. A bit more dynamic range in the song both through mixing and composition (crescendos and what have you) would go a long way. In particular, I noticed myself often losing the piano during the 2:20-3:00 time stamp.

This is otherwise quite a nice dark/moody piece, though. A pretty generally good job.

Axeph-Null - Euler Characteristic Zero

2019-08-25 20:34:23

I used to make IDM something like 10 years ago, haha. I may be a bit outdated, but I'll give some feedback a shot.

Did you synthesize the drums yourself? They've got an interesting style to them that sounds quite cohesive. I quite like it, although just a tad more variation/progression might do wonders tipping it just over the edge. That snare is especially iconic, which I dig.

That said, I'm unsure whether the other bits of the song blend very well with the drums or each other. While the sounds are made well, the composition is missing something. That main pad feels like it's missing a chord progression or root note that would give it the musical context I think it needs to stay interesting. In particular because it's a very simple 4 note loop that never really changes (even when the second pad does to a transposed version of the pattern). Creating a more ambient styled "stage" like this for the IDM drums to shine is a good idea in concept, but you may need to work on both harmonic variation within that stage and the progression of the drums, so that those drums can truly shine as intended.

I'll also admit, that ice-y bell sound doesn't do a whole lot for me. While it does sound cold, which was probably the intent, it also doesn't add a whole lot harmonically to that base sound you start with, making the combination of the two sound more busy and dissonant, rather than coherent. This type of dissonant sound can be used to your advantage if you really go all in, but I think it'd need more work and variation to really drive that idea home if it's what you're going for. As it stands, I think I would have preferred something that created a bit more harmony with the main pads you've created here.

No clue if that makes a whole lot of sense or if that's helpful to you, but good luck on your future music! :)

acheney responds:

Thank you for your review! I'm sorry about this song being repetitive. I guess that I just enjoy ostinato melodies more than most other people. I make music for myself to listen to, and so I incorporate characteristics that I know that I will enjoy. I'll make sure to add in some more melodic variation in the next song that I make. I'll also take the consonance of my instruments into consideration (although that bell instrument sounds fine to me!). And yes, I did synthesize the drums myself, and I am honestly surprised by the fact that they sound so good to me.

T y p i c i t y [Chillhop]