SoulSecure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[YPJ Technical Mecha]

Sweet.

EDIT: Yo wait you made this for the contest? Go for gold baby, but don't stop bein' you! This is a good example of that right here.

zybor responds:

:) Thank you for your kind words as always, SoulSecure.

For two contests, but I don't expect to make it in NGUAC because their judges are not fan of stuff like this, every year I failed in NGUAC and NGADM because I do stuff I love instead of conforming to contest. And I totally agree when @Quarl when she said she entered contests not to improve herself. Same story for me, I do it just for exposure and fun. Hardly won anything for past years beside Robot Day and Madness Day.

Thank you once again :) Have a great week and take care.

[[SD] The Coolest Hospital]

Hey man, heard this on YT right before they deleted your channel. This is a sweet remake. Good to see you've got it on here.

[Adaptation]

Gotta say, I was disappointed when listening to the opening that it didn't go into the intro riff of Crawling by Linkin Park lol. Augh! 2:52 just hit me real time and I love it. Not much to say since this is a really great sounding wall of sound that has dynamics to keep it from getting boring.

Great job. Love the... well it's not exactly a normal snare is it? But yeah the 'snare' lines are really awesome.

zybor responds:

Thank you for your review, SoulSecure! :) Have a great week and happy 4th of July.

[Samba n2 2nd version]

Right up my alley.

[Låkdøûn]

Chillin' and slightly illin' but in a good way lol

[AIM - Ice Mouth]

I'm jamming this on my phonular phone, so Lord willing I'll listen to this on my PC at a later time to more properly review.

As it stands right now it sounds pretty fantastic. It is what it is, a nice icey piece that would fit in well with a Donkey Kong Country level. Love it!

Edit: Listened to on headphones. I don't hear anything wrong, still a sweet song that goes nicely with the picture.

CaptainBoomcake responds:

thats a good description for it, I see it! Thanks, I love making icy sounds so I am glad the obsession shows!

[Ordinary]

It is not free VSTs that I'm impressed with and it's not a factor in my score (not saying that's not cool and all, but I think you get it). I turned this track on and was grabbed immediately by the unusual melody presented which betrayed the title of 'Ordinary'. I was pleasantly surprised by this song and the quality is top notch cinematic music in my opinion.

I like the feeling this gives the picture, like it's about to be a huge adventure and the picture is just the first moments of it as the song starts to take you further from the hole in the ice into the rest of the story. Really reminds me of MGS.

Fantastic work! Love your take on sea exploration, so exciting!

zybor responds:

Thank you for your awesome review! :O

Yah I wanted a fancy title but couldn't think of any so Ordinary was chosen. Also, it fits the idea of free tools that seem so ordinary and often get overlooked by musicians, who undermined their real potential. The goal of this project and other used free instruments is to prove that tools don't define a composer. Like my late grandma used to say, "To an artist everything is a pen, but if you had no skill for it even the best pen would be useless."

Thank you again for the review! :) Take care!

[AIM - A sky out of reach]

This is cool. I haven't listened to one of your songs in a long time and it seems you've improved.

When 2:24 hit on my first listen through and that synth arp started I was just like AW YEAUH!

I take half a star just cuz and your probably not going to like this, but I hate your ending. Lol I hear this from my wife on certain songs I make where she's like, "Oh that build was so cool, but then you did THAT," now I get the feeling. I thought it was going to go full on EDM crash and burn for the end. On my first listen through I didn't get it at all, but on subsequent listens I understand whats going on, but i just don't like it. IT'S ALL ME AND MY EXPECTATIONS MAN, IT'S NOT YOU T.T

In any case, great theme, cool song and if I could change it I'd vary the ending.

[AIM 2020 - O'Malley]

This is right up my alley. I love to listen to 90s/00s style electronic lounge and this captures that feel I like very well.

I love how crisp the drums are compared to everything else, super swank.

I agree with Yoshiii343 down there about your bass. I think it'd be a good idea to add another layer over the bass. Like, add another synth that plays the same lines as the bass generically, but not the transitional phrasings and put some lfo modulation on the synth and blend it in with you bass. Nothing too hard, but something smooth to fit the feel of the track. It would give the bass more movement (as said in Yoshiii343s review) without making it too busy, because you aren't changing your bass line. I would bring it in around 3:06 personally.

Otherwise, I would just like a little moar bass volume personally. Bah, I'll just crank it on my stereo!

I was not a fan of the piece of art when I first saw it, but your track man. Listening to the music and viewing the piece gives it so much more depth than I realized was there at first. Of course the added depth of music period, but I'm noticing things I hadn't before and was forced to think of how the art inspired the music.

Anyway, great job!

WolfgangMiakoda responds:

When I get back to working on the piece, I'll definitely take this into account. Drum & Bass is still largely new territory for me, as is Jazz, so this was a rather challenging, albeit really fun project to work on.

As for the artwork, I kinda felt the same at first glance. It didn't really strike me much, and had it not been for a completely random flash of inspiration on behalf o the cat, I might have looked elsewhere for my inspiration. :3

[The View From Here]

Sounds like somebody took some inspiration from Midgar up in here with your Final Fantasy sounding lines. Even if this was accidental, it definitely works considering the art. While I'm on how parts of this remind me of game OSTs, of course with art and a sound like this it reminds me of Phantasy Star Online.

I like your very lyrical synth lead start, it grabs the attention. I love bendy, slidey synth lead lines!

My only real issue with the song is the mix is so dark. Like it needs some EQing to brighten the the whole thing, I'm not sure if you just need to put an exciter on this or what, but that's my opinion. I may listen to this on my Fishers to see if it's just my headphones for some reason, I'll update you on that. In any case, the darkness I thought might be a stylistic choice due to the association of synthwave with nostalgia these days.

I also am not a fan of how the song is compressed, but this is a stylistic thing so I'm not going to knock you for that lol.

Something that struck me as missing was hard panned pads. I don't think they are necessary though.

Cool song, goes well with the art.

Update: listened on the hi-fi, still sounds dark and compressed, but if that's what your going for it's not an issue :P

ChronoNomad responds:

Granted, I do love me some Final Fantasy, but in this case any similarity is purely coincidental. Or, at the very least, a random act of subconscious. Granted, it's those kinds of things that seem to spill out unbidden when inspiration strikes. All that aside, I've never actually played Phantasy Star Online, so I don't really have a reference point for that one.

Ooh, I quite like that you referred to that synth lead as being lyrical! I've always been a fan of grace notes and slides, so I incorporate them into my own music pretty often.

Hmm, I personally find that there's a pretty nice contrast in the mix between the background instruments and harmonies, and the generally brighter main melodies. Of course, if you're talking about the overtones of the music in general, there's a certain level of dystopian ambience that I feel is inherent in a location such as this. Kind of like the atmosphere in Blade Runner, there is always darkness lurking just beyond the light. Similarly, though it is ironically quite bright in DaRR1o's imagery due to all the artificial light, you can see by his tags that it is actually night. My hope was to conjure up this imagery within the music, as well.

Thank you for such an in-depth review, SoulSecure! Your time and effort are very much appreciated, and it's reassuring to hear that the art and music go well together.