Kwing's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Just Another life]

Let me start by saying I absolutely LOVE the musical themes here. That said, I feel like this song suffered death by a thousand cuts in tiny things that just felt off or awkward. The drums felt kind of stiff and redundant and something about the mixing on the guitar sounded muddy to me (same for the drums at 3:03.) Melodically, everything up until the 2:03 mark sounded great, but the transition into the next part seemed graceless to me, and I really wanted the riff at 2:31 to incorporate something different from its first permutation (in general, while the riffs were great I wasn't happy with the level of repetition.) And to top it all off, the studio fade at the end just felt like a REALLY hasty conclusion.

Style and mood-wise, this is the song closest to my own preferences that I've had to judge this round, which is probably why everything I didn't like was so immediately apparent to me. On the plus side, this is EXACTLY the kind of music I want for Kabel's soundtrack, so if you want maybe we can work together in the future!

XxCowMeatxX responds:

Thank you so much for this detailed and thought out review. Even though i have been a musician for a long time i have only recently learned how to mix and record properly. In my eyes i am still pretty bad at it and i think it shows. This is something i try to improve on daily. I am going to take everything you said and work on all those little things.

Thank you for the awesome review! \m/

p.s. I would love to work with you in the future.

[Jodan da barbarian]

I really like the sound and aesthetic here, but this is just too repetitive and in-your-face with no breaks or pauses. While completely appropriate for an action game (especially a beat-em-up or shooter,) there isn't much musical sophistication. More importantly, you have some interesting melodies that pop up around the 1:30 mark but they get drowned out too easily by the same loop that persists throughout the whole song.

["Infinite Skyline"]

I listened to this several times trying to figure out why I didn't like and finally realized that despite the variety of melodies you're playing with and switching between quieter and thumpier parts, there's not a whole lot of suspense or rhythmic variety - it's too easy to get lost in the constant droning, which makes this song unfortunately forgettable. I recognize this could generally be said about a lot of techno, especially from the 00s (maybe that's my problem - I really didn't like that era,) but I can honestly say I didn't find this song to be that engaging.

Ryzmik responds:

Thanks for your honest review and the great details.

[Infinite]

There's some definite groove here, but it feels like a lot of it gets lost in some repetition and lackluster drums. I'm not sure how much that's a product of not having vocals, but what you have now sounds a little naked and any part in which the song isn't actively progressing (which is a lot) sticks out like a sore thumb as a result.

Ritz190 responds:

I would say most of the problem comes from lack of vocals. I write these songs with vocals in mind but never actually put vocals in them. Oh yea the drums need some work for sure, I just started using ableton and it really helps writing drums easier but I agree that they lack power and I'm working on fixing that for future songs but I like them better than my old drums. And possible tips on how to make this alittle more lively? Feel free to pm me! Thanks for the review! :D

[Senses]

That synth is ridiculously catchy. I could definitely see this as the soundtrack for some kind of puzzle or rhythm game.

You've chopped this song up into a bunch of different segments (they're immediately obvious when looking at the waveform) and some are better than others. The intro, for instance, is kind of repetitive and doesn't build toward the part that follows. On the other hand, the whole section that follows 1:13 is great.

larrynachos responds:

I tried to do a better job of giving a song clearer structure. I wanted to vary the main melody, but every time I tried it ruined it. I'm also still terrible at intros and outros. I feel like sometimes people listen to the first few bars and assume they know how the whole song is going to go, especially when I start with a particular synth + melody and just loop that first pattern for most of the track. Something I need to work on for sure, but I never have a clear vision of the song in an abstract sense. It's all patterns to me ><

Thank you for the review, Kwing!

[Secret of the Woodlands]

I'm a huge fan of the deep percussion and the swinging 6/8 meter. The instrumentation is really something else, and the rising intensity at 1:53 and 2:34 make me think this could be broken up into three loops if you made a game with adaptive music (Nier: Automata does this by having quiet, medium, and dynamic versions of each song.)

There is a bit more repetition here than I would like, but given that it's video game music I think this is a necessary evil. More importantly, you actually have a bit of anticipation in the aforementioned parts doing as much as it can to maintain interest.

[Illusion Confusion]

There are layers, sure, but most of the sound in this song is coming from very simple loops (boots and cats.) The mix of acoustic and techno isn't inherently bad, but again the amount of looping really prevents you from being able to make the most out of the fusion.

VortexVisionz responds:

Thanks for your honest review! I agree that the beat is a bit repetitive and and needs more flavor in the mix. Then again this was created in a very short amount of time. Hopefully next time I’ll have more variety in my upbeat songs

[Edge of The Cliff]

I like the sound of this a lot, but many parts of it sounded more like a jam session or improvisation, ode to some odd transitions or repetitions that could and should have incorporated a bit more variation and flair. Certain parts of this song are definitely more memorable than others - the solo at 3:05 alone was worth bumping the score up a bit.

Metallica1136 responds:

Thanks for your review, glad you enjoyed the solo :) t's funny you mention it sounding like a jam session, I actually do listen to quite a bit of jam music like Umphrey's McGee (just got back from seeing them in fact), and happen to play in a jam band.

[Invincible]

The intro/outro were cool, but the meat and potatoes of this came off as extremely repetitive to me. The percussion and bass really only played two different melodies each (with that one switch-up at 3:38) often leaving the main synth to do all of the work - for five whole minutes, no less. There's some interesting bits around the 4:28 mark, but it seems like too little too late as far as introducing variety.

ZaneLittle responds:

I appreciate the feedback! I'll keep that in mind for the future.