Kwing's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dragon Slayer]

Interesting listen. I like the mood, but some of the compositional elements make the tone feel somewhat inconsistent (is this supposed to be in major or minor key??) What I noticed a lot were a lot of weird and unpredictable twists in the melodies, which is great, but would feel more at home if there were some more predictable variants and the riffs you currently have were your B sections instead. What you have now seems like it's a confused half-breed of power metal and progressive, which isn't bad except that some (not all) parts feel a little awkward and your transitions aren't great. The quiet chugging sections also feel kind of pointless - I don't feel like they're really building to the more energetic parts.

Hope this isn't too critical of a review - I actually really liked this piece (2:55 - 3:38 sounded more like a jam session than a song but holy shit it sounds amazing.) There's just a couple hiccups here and there standing in the way of this being outstanding.

350teric responds:

The compositional approach is instinctual rather than reasonable. Therefore at some points it follows some rules and in other it does not. The rules in composition are made subjectively by the author. So, I hope this gives an answers to the mentioned unjustified discrepancies - "hiccups" with the conventional approach. Thank you for the review! :)

[Felix Zophar - Vapor]

I really wasn't a fan of the sounds you picked out for most of this track - a lot of the synth sounded flat-out corny to me and the percussion wasn't doing it for me either. The melodies were generally okay but sometimes sounded kind of awkward and didn't seem to go anywhere.

FelixZophar responds:

Okay... Well, I'm a fan of it. I give it a sticker! A smelly sticker!

[BREAKING THRU]

Wow, I was not expecting to review a pop song in this competition. Interesting. The first thing I noticed was that you didn't compress the audio into oblivion here, which makes some of the subtler elements still audible - this is appreciated. There are a lot of cliches here (trap samples, lyrics, Autotune,) but the reserved tone that comes as a result of mixing (as well as the snapping during some parts) add a bit of original flavor. Production is tight and the vocals sound good, but most of the musical ideas here are bordering on vapid. Also your ending is really awkward and sudden.

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thank you for your comments, Kwing! I aim for catchy pop with a slightly melancholic and soulful twist. The autotune I'll need to work on making less obvious. The vocalist wasn't too confident so I plan on rerecording that with another vocalist and keeping the original rap intact. I do adore a lot of pop cliches but with a melancholic twist. But I agree that the ending is awkward and I plan to change that. Again, thank you so much! <3

[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.

["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!

[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.