Gario's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Final Fantasy 8 - Force]

Ooo orchestration

The use of the instruments are pretty conventional, and the stabs that are in it are fairly well placed. There are some parts towards the end that are arranged quite nicely, which kept my interest well enough. There are quite a few things that could be better, though.

The instruments don't sound human. They really sound like a computer playing the parts. People do not attack the notes the same way throughout a song, nor do they stick to the same dynamics. When writing computer orchestral music you need to be paying attention to how a real orchestra would be playing the music, if you want it to be convincing. Set your velocities to affect the volume and try to make the sound a bit more human.

lThose pizzicato strings are... um, a bit too insane, there, for any human being. It's just not possible, so you should avoid it, if you could, since it really takes the listener away from the realistic atmosphere you're trying to create, here. A harp glissando and/or a piano would serve you better, for that reason.

The mixing is a little sporatic, there. While I hear the panning is correct for an orchestra (nice touch), the ambiance and spread seems too extreme, so lower the reverb to a less church-like and more hall-like setting, and fix the spread on your instruments/master channel (whichever it may be).

The bass tracks are too quiet, here. I'm not hearing enough in this to ground the rest of the track. Mind you, since this is an orchestra track simply raising the volume might not be a good idea, so try to achieve the volume by doubling the bass with a bassoon, tuba or something like that. It'd help give depth to the track.

Y'know, I think I've seen you post something on the OCR WIP boards, haven't I? I think I've heard your other stuff before. Ah well, it's certainly a good effort, here, and I hope my advice helps.

CrackMasterK responds:

I do notice the "inhuman" parts you mean. I mostly only put that there so keep to the original theme. Gave them extra reverb to give them a more synth sound. The Church sound it only because somtimes I feel the instruments sound a bit "flat" without drums playing along. I am a fan of adding drums later on to keep the listener listening.

I know the crowd over at OCRemix, they can be harsh. I know in my experiences, they have actually private messaged me saying i'm a terrible musician and should not post anymore on the board so I left OCremix board for awhile since there was no respect for me there.

I do try to play with velocity but somtimes my EQing is off and drowns out the basses or makes the high crackle a bit with distortion. As like any art the more you do it the better you get. Because when I listen to this compared to my first attempt atleast this kinda sound like a real orchestral mock-up.

If you ever want to collab on any music or projects just let me know I'm not a prude or ignorant musician so It's easy to work with me on "just for fun" songs.

[ParagonX9 - Infinity]

Nice loop

Very nice, for what it is. Nice tracking to this one. It's simple, but it's clean. Very catchy, too. I heard a flash entry here that used this track in it some time ago... is this an older track or something? They didn't give ya credit.

I gotta find that flash sometime and harass it a little bit.

ParagonX9 responds:

That song you heared must be 'Triple Gear' which is an old song
i posted on an alt account few years ago.
This song is sort of a remake of that song =]
Thanks!

[Numa Numa (Game Boy remix]

Classy

For what this is, it's pretty close to perfect.

Great translation of a classic tune to a classic system. It obviously isn't written for the original GB's format, but it's still quite good.

BadCommandCo responds:

It was written in the original GB's format. Read the description.

[Alive in the Nighttime]

Huh, wonder what the current rating is for...?

It's bland, sure, but the beat is pretty solid. You fill out the soundscape very well without production problems, and your drum selection is quite interesting. I personally like the use of 7ths and 9ths in the harmonies, but maybe other people don't? Eh, if people don't like 7ths and 9ths then they have no taste :P.

Your texture is bland, though. That arpeggio in the background is lame - make it more interesting. Gating, different texture, whatever, but it's lame, right now.

Not bad at all, really. Hopefully people don't turn away from this with it's current score.

Cam3leon responds:

Ha! Well I appreciate the feedback, sir. I guess I held back on overemphasizing the arps because I intended for this track to be an instrumental. As a standalone track, I admit it's pretty subdued and repetitive. But I can definitely embellish it and make it more varied in the long run though. Again thanks for the review!

[Sonic 1: Star Light Zone]

Not too bad, really

I'm hailing from the OCR forum, here, but I like to use the board here, when I can. Alrighty, let's see what we've got, here...

I hear some descent about the variety of sounds you use for the soundscape from the other boards, but I feel they could actually work well together. However, your lower mids are dominating the sound too much. You'll need to balance them better in the mix by bringing them down and/or bringing the other parts up.

Some of the liberties you take with the theme (like at 0:26) do not sound good. It seems you were expanding on the original and the effect was intentional, but it just sounds like a mistake here. The counter melody habitually gets out of tune from time to time (like at 0:21), so be ready to take a good look at that line again.

I hear some complaints on the OCR board that the song 'just starts'. While as a song that isn't a good thing, this could work out as an excellent loop if you take the silence out of the end, there.

Nice texture, overall, nice drums, and with the exception of the counter melody that tends to get out of wack you take very nice liberties with it. I suspect you could get some more volume out of this track if you play around with the compressors and such on the master board, but the volume isn't too quiet, either, so that's a nitpick.

Not a bad track. It could be better, but it's certainly not a bad track, as it is.

Cam3leon responds:

Greatly appreciated! And yes I did take intentional liberties with the track in the beginning, just to switch the main melody up a bit. For the most part, it's a straight-up arrangement but I guess I could've integrated the counter melody into the mix better. I'll tweak the sound as well. But thanks for the refreshingly thorough review!

[Reploid Deployment]

Ooo, synthy!

While I still hold some reservation against the guitar, the harmonic synths are much nicer, and those solos & new themes are very nice additions. This is certainly an improvement from your last upload of it.

Not as long as my last review, but what I said 'bout the guitar still holds, in my mind. Even still, good track, better with the classy synths & solos.

DrMackFoxx responds:

Note to self: get better guitar sounds. Still, glad you think version of Reploid Deployment is an improvement. :) Glad you liked this tune and thank you very much for the review! I really appreciate it.

[Reploid Deployment - Beta]

Another original, another review.

I can see where you got your inspiration, and I can make the connection to MMX easily (fake guitar and rock sound + synth, yay). I think you sort-of overkilled the sound, though.

That 'guitar' sounds too much in-between 'fake' and 'real', so I'm getting an 'uncanny valley' effect, here. If you're going to go fake, make sure it's really synth-y - that's what made MMX guitar so classy, back in the SNES days (Protricity made a great example of this on the OCR track 'Brainsick Metal' - check it out sometime). Either that, or you can try to make the guitar sound more realistic one way or another (better samples, more human execution, dynamic variation... a combination of these things). The guitar right now just sounds like it tried to go for both and missed the mark on both fronts.

The soundscape, while fitting for the SNES, seems like you could've filled it harmonically a little bit better than with the keyboard synth you used. Experiment using simple textures rather than block chords with more solid synths - you'd be surprised how much better the soundscape could be filled out.

Otherwise, the loop is quite effective - the point of repetition is rather seamless (even while a little obvious with the silence - that's not a bad thing, really). Go, Megaman, go!

DrMackFoxx responds:

Ah. Well, I am using a rather old software synthesizer at this point as I can't seem to figure out how to export .WAV files directly from my MIDI-sequencing program, otherwise I would use my more-versatile soft synths: Roland VSC and Yamaha XG. The soft synth in question? WinGroove (And this one lets you convert MIDIs into WAV files directly through the player, but only using it's sound set). This program was made back in 1995 and it even runs on Windows 3.1 (Good old 16-bit Windows, eh?) So I understand the tone data is kinda... odd here and there.

Perhaps you can please recommend some cheap or free software synthesizers?

I am working on an extended and improved version of this track. I'll be sure to let you know when it is complete. :)

Thank you very, very much for taking the time to leave such very thorough critique! I really appreciate it and I'm glad you liked this tune. :)

[Industrial Ruins]

I said I'd review your original...

...so here ya go.

Simple, smooth, atmospheric. If you set this up to sound sneaky (as in 'I'mma-spy-in-the-80's-tryin'-to-snea k-ur-national-secrets-lawlz') you hit it on the head.

The soundscape, while a bit lo-fi, fits the mood quite well, especially that bass. Some of the harmonic progressions sound a little foreign (and not in a good way), and the track ultimately is repetitive.

Still, not a bad venture into composition, there. Good luck with future endeavors.

DrMackFoxx responds:

Sneaky-sounding, eh? I guess that fits in well with this track sounding foreboding and dark. I would agree that this composition is kinda repetitive. Just a fairly simple tune, overall (I only used 5 MIDI channels for this).

Thank you very much for another helpful and thorough review. I really appreciate it, especially as I really have a lot to learn about MIDI composing. Glad you enjoyed this tune, as well. :)