Gario's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Corridors of Time]

Worth the hype, I'd say

There's a lot to like about this song - it rightly holds it's high position on the portal. It's not the live instruments that enchant me with this song, but it's the combination of timbres. There's something magical about the light guitar, bonjo drums, celesta and vocal 'oo's (Especially the vocal 'oo's - they're pretty amazing).

The melodic guitar parts are very well done, but I feel they sometimes get lost in the background (especially in the beginning area, before they're risen up an octave). The celesta, while cool and an iconic part of the source, tends to just sound like it's 'there', after a while. I'd love to hear them drop out from time to time - that makes their effect more pronounced, and serves to give some focus on some of the other stuff going on in the track, which is neat in and of itself.

Great work on it.

Twone responds:

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the comments!

[Jungle Zone (Sonic1 Game Gear)]

Pretty good arrangement

In terms of production, it's pretty good (I hear a little fuzzy clipping on the strings, but it's almost negligible so I wouldn't worry about it). It nails the theme well, and the style just sounds so right.

Perhaps I'm being a bit picky, but those string attacks should be decreased so they don't each have that fade in entrance. It's a bit distracting since they're carrying the melody quite often.

Nitpicks aside, I think you achieved precisely what you set out to do, so great job on this.

[Can u guess this game track?]

Zelda 2, Final Castle

Classic song... the melody is pretty drown in this track, so it might be hard for people to tell what it is.

[Cold Winter Skies [Chiptu]

Chiptunes, awesome

Always like to hear what people have to offer when they limit themselves to few channels. With six channels, though, this sounds pretty hollow - polyphonic voices can do you wonders thickening out the sound (listen to some of Follin's work on the NES, like Silver Surfer, to get an idea of what I mean). I liked the custom reverb, though - another classic chiptune effect that sounded very neat, here.

The XM dives and such were well placed throughout the song - something that I'm not proficient in, myself. Nice work, overall.

SuperBastard responds:

Thanks a lot for the review, man. I agree that it does sound a little sparse for having 6 channels. I wanted to keep it down to 4, but I got bored with that and slapped on the extra two, which I only really used for the 0CC arpeggios and an extra voice for the melody. I probably could have done more with them, and I suppose the extra voice did end up being difficult to hear, even though I set it to a relatively high volume. I'm considering going back in and either adding a slight vibrato to help distinguish it or giving it some panning, so check back later if you're interested in hearing whatever improvements I settle on.

That said, I appreciate the generous score, especially from someone who seems to understand the magic behind the music. Cheers :)

[You Spin Me Right Round - 8bit]

Dat Triangle...

Very awesome triangle wave action coming from this track. I am a little disappointed that this is more pseudo-8-bit, but I won't let my purist preference take too much away from a pretty enjoyable remix.

Nice work on this, it kicks ass.

flaminglog responds:

I used famitracker, this IS true 8-bit. I can provide an NSF file to prove it. (If you want to try to make a remix using the 2a03 module be my guest).

Glad you liked it though!

[Stargenx - Bloody Tears REMIX]

A decent arrangement, though muffled

The arrangement is pretty fun, overall, though I suggest brightening up your guitar with some EQ'd highs. Right now it sounds very flat and uninteresting - even sequenced guitars can instill life into a track if mixed properly.

Otherwise, this is alright. A nice chill arrangement of a classic track.

Stargenx responds:

Thanks for the review! That's a good idea, thanks for the input!

[MegaManWindMan-Metaljonus]

Woah, great to see some sexy metal work on Windman

This is some great stuff, here. The metal works great, and the electronica blends quite nicely. The arrangement is catchy enough, too, and it's freakin' windman (which is awesome, in it's own right). I suspect you could get a lot of mileage if you cleaned up the production in the lower end of the EQ, and mixed the electronic sections so they were more prominent when they take lead from the guitars, but other than that I don't see much wrong with this one.

... Alright, there's a funny note in the arp sections (0:37) on the second harmony, but it brushes by so fast it doesn't affect the mix too much. Love this one, great work :)

[Dynamite 8-Bit Remix]

On the bright side, it's mostly within the limits

... but on the down side, it limits itself a little too much. Why no Triangle love? Needs some triangle wave in there :(

I think the mix could use a bit more balance in the mixing. Keep things within a pretty close level, and make sure the sound doesn't hit the ceiling too hard (which happens here quite often on the main track). A slight nitpick, but the instrument combination on 0:22 goes against NES conventions (2 rectangle, 1 triangle, 1 noise, 1 PCM). I know not everyone goes for the true NES limitations, so I won't knock you for that.

It's a decent effort. Keep on truckin' and you'll get the hang of it.

mythicman95 responds:

Thank you for the excellent review sir, and here is the official response to what all of what you said.

I agree that It could have used some more balance. I did not know about the conventions of the NES at 0:22, and thank you for being specific, as I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint the exact moment for a while. Oh... and about the triangle waves...
This entire piece was supposed to have more of a bite than an actual slick texture of sound to it. If you wish to hear a good use of triangle, check out my Ballad of Special Fred song. It pulls it off well I believe. But flawless review.

[I CAN DO IT]

Random review time! #1

Let's see how often I can do this... You'll be my first one. What an honor.

Let's give this a whirl.

Well, it's got a nice texture to it. Great glitching and chiptune sounds. I'm liking the sound effects. I'm not hearing too much wubwub in there... a blessing and a curse, since on the one hand I don't like too much wub, but on the other hand many people do.

The track sound like the highs are heating up quite a bit overall. You might want to do a high pass on the bass (or over the whole track, even) to get rid of that clipping on the upper end. I like the idea of singing over it, but with a track as full as this one is I suspect you'll have some real trouble getting the voice to fit into the mix. When writing with the intention of vocals to go on top, less is more. Write a light track, add the vocals, then finish off the cool effects/extra instruments. That'll save you a lot of grief later. If you can make it work, I'm all for it, but I suspect you'll have a lot of work ahead of you, for this track.

Nice work overall, though - keep it up.