SoulSecure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[A Stroll Down St Pancras]

It's not my favourite from you but this sounds like a lot of work that reminds me a bit of Michael Jackson (no offense intended) and while normally these instruments in these tones would be slightly jarring the idea of emulating buskers makes it all make sense.

It's a little muddy with reverb in the lower register. I had to learn myself that too much verb is a thing so I'm speaking from experience here :P

I don't have time to do a big review right now, but just want to encourage you to keep going!

[Dark Recess]

Nice man, this is the kinda stuff I like to hear coming through the portal. Got a Halo one and two vibe with a trip hop sound. Could totally see this being in a flash video (or whatever they're gonna be called after flash dies).

It's got this chill, but kinda epic vibe with also a night vibe, but it makes me think of big vistas even though it's called Dark Recess.

What's your string synth? Sounds like the default FL soundfont player string font. I actually use that and like it myself if that is what it is, so no worries :P

Anyhow, great job!

Mel responds:

Thanks for the feedback! i have omnisphere so yeah! uh! thank you

[À cause de l'ombre ~ version définitive]

Oh man that chord at 02:35~ That was so good right there, what is that a 9 chord or dim or something? Perfect spot for it. YES you did it again at 05:47! Those vocals with the freq pass on them that come after that point are fantastic, same as the kind of thing I love to hear in lounge music.

0/5 no massive dubstep drop >:( NAHHH JK this is great man. I could see how this would be a great middle track on an album with a big song after this. Love all the 'simple' or you could say 'retro' synth work. Your vocal style here works very well with the instrumental. I could pick on the way you EQed your vox, but you could do the same to me :) I mean really, vox EQing is so subjective and most of the sound comes from our own voice and the microphone used and the distance from it anyway.

No I really don't have anything to legitimately add, I think it's good the way it is. Every time in the song that you have the freq passed vox is my favourite instance of vocals in this track.

Troisnyx responds:

The chord at 2:35 was Emaj7. 😁 Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad there are parts in this song that you've notably enjoyed.

[Stranded on Juniper Island]

Hey man, just wanted to drop some encouragement on you. Love this track in particular. It's so chill, I could see this in a mystery game where you're on an island and you can hear waves in the background and the protagonist in sandals running around with footstep sfx.

Hope this gets picked up for a game! Good work!

Tapestoppa responds:

Thanks man!

[The Annual Butterfly Count]

Pretty neat. If you'd like I might be able to play some baglama saz for you on this. :)

Possibly responds:

Certainly, if you want to, feel free.

[Phasma]

Neat stuff man!

AlteredSignal responds:

Much obliged! To be honest, I wasn't expecting many positive thoughts on this, but I'm glad you liked it.

[Medieval]

Good to see you're still posting here. It reminds me at some points of the music from the Robotica Farms level of Syro 2. It sounds like if you took the Banjo Kazooie and Saga Frontier 2 OSTs and mashed them together you might get this :P

Good work, it may not have fit their needs, but I like it. Congrats on the front page!

[Wait For Me]

This is good, but it just doesn't grab me that much, especially in the big sections. Personally I don't like overbearing compressed synth chords crushing everybody in their path that much. I think you did a good job of isolating the percussion from that carnage and you can pretty clearly hear the other instruments as well, it's just a personal preference thing. I'm very opinionated if you couldn't tell lol.

I'm gonna say it like this, the song is good, there's nothing inherently wrong with the mix or anything, I just personally think it's a boring song. Now it's not that it's ONLY boring, it is also serene and wonderful in the section starting at 01:55 and when you start coming in at 00:27 the instrument selection is phenominal, but then it crashes and burns for me with the chorus and I'm gonna say it again, THAT'S JUST ME. I enjoy listening from 01:55 onward cuz you have this great atmosphere and S P A C E thing going on with the pad work and the birds and I love me some birds man and when it goes into the chorus at 03:07 I find it much more palatable than the first chorus section. I think it may go without saying, but to go to that S P A C E after the carnage of the chorus' oppressive synth chords is like a breath of fresh air and a sigh of relief.

Perhaps I could describe the movements like this: You get together with your friends and chat (beginning) then you decide you're going to play some HARDCORE FOOTBALL (first big section), then your buddy falls through a tall hedge after getting SLAMMED and you go through to get him only to discover a gorgeous courtyard with a fountain and birds bathing (down section after chorus) you then decide that maybe you should just play regular football instead of nailing each other over and over and you commence play (final big section).

Transitions in this song I feel are a strong point, good work on them. I can hear the experimentation going on with the sheer variety in this song, and you can literally see variety when you look at the NG waveform, but whether or not some of the non repeating elements would be considered progressive or whack may be up to the individual listener cuz I'm not sure what to make of certain things here.

I hope you found this in good humour as I am not trying to bash you or anything The more I listen to it though, the more I appreciate this song for what it is. Once again good work and GO FOR GOOOOOOOOOOLD!

Oh and before I go and hit 'submit', I just noticed your tag that says, "story." Do YOU have a particular story in mind for this piece? Would love to hear about it!... But maybe after the judgement so listeners can draw their own conclusions like I did :P

RosesWolf responds:

Hey man, far be it from me to turn down constructive criticism; if anything I really appreciate just how in depth you’ve gone. DnB still is very uncomfortable territory for me, especially the more energetic kind -I had actually meant for this track to be Liquid DnB, and I may change the first drop to fit that too in due time. This track was largely meant as practise, and experimentation with DnB, transitions, and some music theory.

I think that maybe some of the reasons it sounds so uninteresting to you lie with the compositional choices I made; this song doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of tension, its pretty upbeat and safe throughout. I mean, hell, the main chord progression in the choruses is a classic 4, 5, 1, nursery rhyme stuff. I mainly chose to go with this so I could experiment with a little trick known as the minor plagal cadence, which is when you take the major 4 chord (Fmaj in this case), follow it with the parallel minor chord (Fmin), and then follow that with the root chord (Cmaj). Because of the chromatic descent present in these chords, it’s a very satisfying resolution. Further i also wished to experiment with diminished chords, and how they can be used to modulate to different keys.
Another reason for the uninteresting composition may lie in the song structure, as it is pretty basic. Again, trying to play it safe here to really focus on the practise.

I think the main reason the second chorus fits better is simply because the transition into it is a lot more gradual and natural; the large synths don’t come out of nowhere. Speaking of, mixing those was a nightmare; I’m an orchestral and ambient boy, I’m not used to mixing lots of synths, lmao. But in that sense, it’s real nice to hear that the ambient sections sounded good; it would have been rather embarrassing had I failed on home turf.

I’m real glad that repeat listens have given you more of an appreciation for the song. It’s not my best work, I’ll admit, but I’m still rather proud of the result, simple as it may be. And yes, there is indeed a story behind it, though I’ll take your advice and leave that for after judgement day.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed review; I really do appreciate it!