nsmadsen's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[I'm Done]

Really nice!

Isn't it amazing how rainy weather can create some of the best writing sessions? I have a piece that I wrote called Rainy Afternoon that I'll upload soon. (Kinda wish it would rain right now... LOL)

I really like the mood you've created here. Very atmospheric and leaves plenty of room for the listener to imagine various things to the music. That's really important as too much music is way too cluttered. What hardware/software did you use to make this song? Very nice job- kept me engaged the full time! Gonna check out more of your work now!

Anti-Citizen responds:

For this song i used FL Studio with in house effects and synthesizers, the strings come from the garritan personal orchestra, the drums and effect samples come from some computer music magazine sample cd's and the rain is a mesh of water/rain samples from a couple of video games. Anyway glad you like it and thanks for the review! :D

[two glasses of melancholy]

Interesting mood here!

Although a few of the instrument choices struck me as a bit off or odd... the overall mixture works well and you've created a nice mood. It feels more like a jam session rather than having a fully realized melody (which is more than fine... especially in the jazz genre).

Would be interested to hear what inspired this tune! Thanks for sharing.

vibe-newgrounds responds:

Thanks! I composed this track for a computer game featuring a magic potion bar, but it wasn't accepted.
So there is no special story, just some of thoughts how to mix a pub, magic, witchcraft and mysterious mood. :)

[Voice Acting Stuff VIII]

Needs serious production work and more variety.

Hey,

First off, you really need to get a mic pop filter. They help take out the explosive sounds and P-sounds that are all over your recording. Nice thing is you can get them for really cheap!! I feel like your VO could have a good deal more variety. Both in subject matter and in "characters." Keep in mind the whole point behind a demo reel is to show off all of the variety of your VO. From the reel, I'm not hearing too much variety. Also take out the wind noise from 3:11-3:18. Most clients will just fast forward. Also work on the volume and take out the intro and outro. (If you leave one in then only leave in the intro.)

Listening through this I'm curious what your goals are for this "mix tape." Are you wanting to get hired for jobs? Or are you just experimenting? If you're wanting to get hired then I'd pull together the best material you have, spend some time making it sound better (more production work) and take out all of the gaps or misc talking. Clients are often very busy and don't have too much time to browse demo reels so you want to make your best impression right from the get go. I hope that helps!

Maxin responds:

Thank you and yes I plan on getting a Pop Filter. I don't rely have a "Goal" for this dub. I was just an improvised thing I like to be with what I hope are funny little impressions and something original at the end. So This is not meant to be Professional. I appreciate the Constructive criticism and I thank you!

[- Sorrow -]

Lovely

I love the mood here with the piano. Very enjoyable and you have nice pacing. Heart felt, reflective and not too cluttered. Great job! The bass hit at 1:00 is a bit too loud, especially before that was just piano with some light glockenspiel. The movement and support when the strings, oboe and harp come in is really nice.

You need to finish this piece! I could see this going much longer and really has a ton of potential. Thanks for sharing. 9/10 because it needs to be finished!! :P

FuNaNdMoRe responds:

First of all, thanks for reviewing on this song.

I'm sorry to disappoint you but I won't finish this song. If you want to listen to an extended version of Sorrow, check out my profile

[Summer Holiday]

It's okay

There are some decent ideas here and there with this piece but the problem is the guitar feels like it is a collection of strums from a loop library that is re-organized. Plus some of your harmony choices (particularly in the middle section where things break down) don't work as well as they could. If you are going to use loops like this, and hey most people do in some form or fashion at some point, then at least really tweak the production to give the music as much of an organic feel as possible. As is, each strum is exactly the same volume and speed as the one before and after it. This feels very artificial. Maybe try adjust the volume so the strums don't sound so machine gun-like. Then change the speed of some of the strums as well. While you certainly create a summer-like mood.... this piece could have been much better in my honest opinion. Hopefully some of my suggestions will help!

Cuzone responds:

Your review is very well-written and your criticisms are extremely constructive, I thank you very much for that. :) Unfortunately, I don't wanna mess around with this song anymore, but I'll definitely think of this review when I'm writing music in the future.

By the way, I'm not using loops of any sort, these are samples but I composed everything.

[Smooth Bossa Nova]

Excellent

Hey man,

Composition: you've got some fantastic stuff happening here!

Production: a few of your samples could be better. But hey, you work with what you have, right? A minor point but overall the mix is really nice!

If you're really only 13 then I'm VERY impressed!!! You have a very bright future in composition/audio production. Keep it up!

Tombor911 responds:

Thank you very much! That is encouraging.

[Orchestral Theme 3]

Epic!!! But the production falls short...

Musically this piece is VERY strong!! Production-wise I felt that you could have made things have more impact. For example the low brass lines could have more weight and come through a bit more. Dynamically everything is basically sitting at one level and I feel that really detracts from the delivery of the music. What I'd advice is tweaking both the velocity settings in the tracks then the volume automation to give things more swells and impact. It's just too stagnant right now. The pipe organ is a nice touch!

You have some really nice things happening here, now it just needs a bit more polish on the production side. This is why I'm not giving this a 10 rating yet. Fix this and I think you'll have an extremely solid, PRO level piece here.

Gravey responds:

Odd how it's a "PRO level piece," yet you say the production of it fell flat. Not sure how those two things coincide.

Thanks for the criticism. Always good to get some honest feedback.

-Gravey-