Kwing's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Chiptune Clash]

The tone and composition reminds me a lot of Super Solvers: Challenge of the Ancient Empires. I like the sound of this a lot, but the melody wanders aimlessly for a lot of it and makes the whole song sound more like a solo. There also isn't very much in the way of dynamics and development. This is par for the course for video game music, but makes the ending feel abrupt; I think this would work better as a looping track.

My recommendation would be to take some of your favorite parts from this and condense it into ~30 seconds, then use it as a bridge for something a bit more structured and repetitive.

YESEvoi responds:

Thanks for the advice!

[Bludgeoner]

I'm an easy target for djent stuff, and this is damn good. A tad repetitive, but enough changeups to keep it from being a glaring issue (with it going full Doom toward the end.) Mixing is a little muddy but otherwise tight.

[Would Rather]

I like the layering a lot, but I'm kind of lukewarm on the sample choice. The drums are a little weak, and sometimes it just feels like there's too much going on, especially with the samples being kind of short and repetitive.

Curious to see how this sounds with vocals over it, the tone is different and the 3/4 time signature would be challenging to spit to.

glitchs2d responds:

Thanks for the feedback. The beat may still change a bit by the time the full album is done. I have been listening to a lot of Ka and Roc Marciano recently, which is why the drums are on the weaker side. Honestly, I may remove them altogether in the end.

The flow of this song is atypical, to say the least. Most of the project is pretty traditional, but I really wanted to break out of the typical hip-hop structure for a few tracks to push my creativity.

[Rock Candy V2]

Great tone and wonderfully groovy. Fantastic production. Melody could stand to be a bit more complex.

[4am]

Heard this in Dead Fish Clicker and was a huge fan. Feels like authentic boom bap but with just a little bit of lo-fi in there too.

[|30| INTERMISSION]

It's pretty quiet and chill, but I could see this being really good background music. This is pretty much exactly what I wanted (a 120bpm loop) and there's just enough layering to keep it interesting while also being unobtrusive if voices or sound effects are being thrown on top of it.

[Prognosticate]

Sounds like Periphery with just a dash of Blue Stahli. The mix of clean and harsh vocals make this one a real keeper.

Hard to understand the words - the mix could be a bit cleaner. Ending is also very abrupt.

[Hierophant (Instrumental Version)]

The syncopated percussion and horizontal composition really shine here. You have all the complexity of jazz without sacrificing any of the djenty brutality.

[Apocryphal (Instrumental Version)]

This really has it all. Spooky Doom-ish synths, growling bass, chuggy groove. Maybe a tiny bit repetitive but that's really the only nitpick I have.

[Gone]

I like this a lot.

The first minute or so, the synth seems just a little harsh to the ear (in the same way square and sawtooth waves can be kind of grating) - would have been nice if the sound were a bit mellower, but otherwise the everything sounds fantastic.

The melody that comes in at 1:08 has kind of the opposite problem. The timbre is fine, but the melody just kind of dawdles. The first section has a nice compact little loop that resolves itself, whereas the second section sounds like it's TRYING to do something more complex (like a question/answer structure) but doesn't really resolve itself

The ending is also a bit weird - the snare just stops suddenly and it while it works fine for an instrumental, I feel like it would be a really weird way to end the song if someone were rapping over it.