SoulSecure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

RosesWolf 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.

[AIM - Children of the Sea]

My power went out in the middle of writing my review for you, so sorry if this review is terse, but I'm trying not to just say, "forget it!"

It sounds neat to start. Being a Christian on a worship team this beginning melody reminds me of some of the melodies we use in CCM.

At 00:47 I suggest changing the xylophone's melody line to a different instrument, like the washed out oboe that has a trumpetesque timbre your using that literally just goes away at that point and would be a nice layer insrument for that section regardless. It sounds really unnatural to keep this little plinky thing going while the string section is swelling like that. Another option would be to increase velocity of the xylophone there to make it sound more naturally orchestrated. I get that you're going for serene underwater, but- oh it just hit me that at the end of your song you bring in a piano, you could give the piano better incorporation by making the xylophone bit the piano during the loud parts, cuz the piano is pretty random.

So anyway at 01:22 I would go back to using xylophone and then at 02:07 I would either switch it to piano or have the piano and the xylophone play the same melody layered over each other. As I think of it I would go with the former.

I like your Grant Kirkhope-esque waltz you threw in at 01:32.

I dislike how the song ends and would prefer an ethereal wash to end the song rather than a swell and some weird cadences. The thing at 02:43-02:50 sounds like I'm starting up Fallout 3 since it is the same melody and chords. I'm not saying your ending is uninteresting, I just don't like it and am not so sure it lends a lot to the composition.

To conclude, I generally like the song, but there are things that are clawing at me about it. The instrumentation and arpeggios of the song have reminded me of the FF7 OST, specifically 'Anxious Heart' and 'Tifa's Theme' (not that the song is a lot like these, it just reminds me of them in a way).

[AIM2020 - Petrochemical]

Dude, I love this! Great job, I like how well it goes with the picture you chose! It's a nice piece to listen to while looking at the picture.

[Can't Be Swayed (Ft. Pink Nois)]

I think the vocals are too aggressive for the instrumental during the rapped parts, they should be spoken more softly IMO. I would also double the vocals for the verses, but that's more of a personal preference and I don't think that would be necessary. The vocals I think should also be mixed more quietly since at this point you're probably just keeping these recordings (AKA they are too loud).

This song is pretty much a smooth jazz song with quick, palm muted guitars. Reminds me a little bit of some Dave Brubek mixed with the Spyro OST (Stewart Copeland) except without pianos. I get that you have a busy guitar riff going throughout the song, but it needs some improv or a solo to break it up and make it more interesting. Like, right after the first chorus you could put a busy solo there and after the end of the song you could easily jam a trumpet solo or keyboard solo while dropping most instruments except the palm muted guitar and light drums with a bass line that riffs off what the soloist plays. Man, after that you could finish on a big chorus or a drop out chorus. Like I feel the song has more potential.

As it is the whole song is a bit of a plateau. Yes, I hear your swells, but they are mixed/played in a way that the volume of the song isn't much affected, this is another reason to mix your vox quieter. It needs to be more dynamic.

I enjoy the sound you got here and your drum mix is really good with that hard hitting snare ( reminds me of this one song from the Trigun OST) Nothing sounds like it's badly EQed and I get the work you put into it. Keep it up.

(listened on headphones and some old 2003 emachine pc speakers)

TeraVex responds:

Wow what a great review! I greatly appreciate your feedback! I can tell you gave the tune a good listen! As for the mix, I slightly fixed that issue in the mastering phase as the master was realllly loud which I fixed while mastering for release with the album. The vocals are still a bit prominent there, but I think the overall loudness issue was alleviated. Believe it or not, this track was going to have a horn section but I couldn't get them recorded due to the sudden change in scheduling due to everything closing. I'll always think of it when I play this tune!

[Silje Karlsen Think Back In Time-Funeral Polka Metal feat Chicken]

I forgot you did this. 5/5

[AIM Splendid Works]

5 outta 5. Very classical

[A Name Means Nothing on the Battlefield]

This is great, has that MGS/Fallout 3 military base music sound.

[Carbon]

Love the riff and the instruments used, it's just way too repetitive. It needs more variations and maybe some vox w/distortion on them or some toasting vox. I like it as a concept. I'm sorry I can't currently give mix feedback as I'm not listening through headphones right now.

But seriously, when everything came in at 00:35 I was like, "Aw yeahhh," but then it just basically repeated over and over. Like, I get that you had a few drum pattern changes and took instruments in and out, but it needs more overall variations.

AlteredSignal responds:

I felt like I'd ruin the piece and make it incoherent if I added more stuff, but can't disagree on the fact that it's repetitive. This happens when you want to keep it simple, but don't want to force odd variations here and there, my bad. For a vocal track's instrumental though, I think it'd pass.

[The Fallen Lounge]

I like this, especially the first part. I recommend adding some high end treble to the entire track, maybe put an exciter on it. ---- EDIT ---- Just found out my headphone jack is going bad and I wiggled it around to listen to the song again and it sounds so much better in this regard. So the problem here was on my end, not yours. o.o

I'd also suggest panning your high hat somewhere... As I'm listening I'd pan around a few of your instruments as well, it's very much like a 'wide mono track' rather than a stereophonic experience. Now, there's not much wrong with that if that's what you wanted, but some panning would give more depth to the piece.

I think the piano is too loud to start with, and much like the other instruments it has a muffled sound to it (which is why I recommended an exciter). ---- EDIT---- It's not muffled anymore thanks to the aforementioned wiggling. I do though hear a huge difference in timbre between the higher velocity notes and lower velocity ones. I recommend putting those notes in separate instrument tracks and EQing them to sound more congruent.

Honestly that first riff on the frequency isolated keyboard is great and you could make a whole song just revolving around that. If I rip that idea off I'll add you as an inspiration!

--- EDIT ---- In the second part of your song when a honky tonky kind of keyboard comes in, it sounds like you're slamming up against your limiter.

Overall I think it's a nice song, but the mix is messy. I wish I could help you clean it up more with better advice, but I've gotten verrrrry bad at mixing these past few years, because I forgot how I used to do this stuff.

Celudoc responds:

Thanks for the listen and the tips! This was also one of my first ventures into playing with piano velocities, so I'm sure I made mistakes in here with that. Will definitely try to fix when i release it again into an album.

I definitely will take any mastering tips and tricks that are offered, as it's still kinda confusing for me (I only recently understood what gain staging is, if that gives you an idea how new I am with mastering).

I've not tried dedicating specific notes to a whole new mixer track before, I usually just dedicate instruments and then side chain; so I'm rather interested in that concept and may try that in later tracks.

I'm not sure if my ears are honed in enough to detect it yet though. If you have any good comparison videos or resources i should check out for that, I'd be grateful, as it's rather confusing on what to specifically search for when it comes to mastering and final sound quality, since there's so many opinions on mastering correctly out there, it can be a tad daunting.

Thats why I really appreciate the criticism and tips from the userbase here. Thanks again!