LunacyEcho's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mad as a Flounder]

This song has such a distinctly video game-y vibe to it! I can totally hear that Bowser’s Castle influence, but this song also has a decent structure that makes it work well as a track with standalone. The composition here is pretty solid; you’ve pretty much nailed the technique of taking a simple theme and adding variations upon it as a way of making parts of a song progress. I also enjoyed details throughout the piece like the various temporary key changes that provided harmonic interest, and the interesting use of that D D G F# motif throughout different parts of the song. Well done on that front!

If I could make one suggestion, I’d say the biggest way to improve the song would be to keep an ear out for repetition. This song is a tad on the repetitive side, since much of the song has a similar vibe in terms of instrumentation, energy level, and structure (especially since, if I’m not mistaken, the second half is just the first half copied-and-pasted again). It would be cool to hear you add some variation, such as by introducing new instruments to carry the melodies, or by adding new sections that contrast the amount of energy at any given time. That’s a really quick way to elevate a track, since it means that you maintain the audience’s interest for a longer period of time! I might also make some other nitpicks, such as that the sound design is rather muted and the percussion is masked by the heavy low mids and basses, but the biggest thing to work on here, in my opinion, is to be thinking about how repetition affects the listener in a piece like this.

All in all, well done! Thanks so much for taking part in this Video Game Challenge; I hope this has been a good learning experience.

Anonymous-Frog responds:

The song is looped twice, yet it's still pretty repetitive. I'll keep that in mind.

[Why Are We Here]

Gosh, this doesn’t sound rushed at all! It starts off so absolutely cute and home-y, but quickly grows into an incredibly-produced electro section. The theme in the next part is super memorable, and then we’re back into more insane dubstep! The clock chiming transition out of that section is absolutely dripping with story, and the somber, melancholy vibes that follow (plus the RAIN EFFECT) evoke such strong scenery. I can’t believe you hadn’t been scouted before this; there’s enough talent here that it’s more than deserved.

A few highlights here: I really like how you adapted the theme from the soft midi part into a melody for the big dubstep section directly following it; it’s like your hero is taking what they’ve learned and applying it in big climactic scenes. I also liked how you used the same chord progressions in different contexts to create such drastically different moods, such as in the last two sections of the song. I personally really love elegant compositions that sprinkle in motivic tidbits everywhere, and this one doesn’t disappoint!

In terms of things that could be improved, I do think the quieter midi sections do stick out a bit, especially during sudden transitions like 0:23 and 0:47, since the instrumentation is so shockingly different. Sudden change isn’t a bad thing (i.e. I think 1:45 works really well because of how drastically *everything* changes), but I do think smoother transitions between the simpler and more energetic sections would do a lot, especially on the first few listens. Aside from that, I could mention a few nitpicks, such as the kick missing a little bassiness in that last big electro section or the first chime being super dissonant compared to where the dubby section before it finished off, but nothing really detracted from my overall enjoyment of the track. (Oh, also it might be good to be careful with synths that go uuup and dooown like at 0:36, I hear the mods don’t like that)

In the end, I think the thing I’m most impressed with is your vision to combine sections with super simple midi instrumentation with incredible skillfully-produced electronic elements. It works super well, and provides a good sense of progression—I’m really feeling the journey here, from the humble outset to the energetic climax to the wistful finish. Incredible work!

SeanAlexi responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[Time Machine Adventure]

whoa it WORKS!! i listened to this song and after i was done i had traveled 05:44 into the future

johnfn responds:

I have no idea sorry

[a strong sense of wanderlust felt in a peculiarly glitchy sort of world (NGADM Cut)]

~NGADM 2018 Official Review~

let's talk structure

stardew responds:

hi luny! 🖕

[GM,BW OST - 01 - Time Ray]

nice waveform

Miyolophone responds:

thanks i made it myself

[Candy Clouds [Future Bass]]

oooh this sounds very different than normal ectisity stuff, but i really love it and am glad you're branching out into cool new genres!! nice artwork too, great stuff all around :D hella vocal chops

EctiBot responds:

Glad you liked it! I've been working on expanding my skillset this year and exploring new genres, so I'm glad that shows 😀

[A New Day]

the flugelhorn sounds so cool!! can't wait to hear what you can do with it in a more complex composition :v

Everratic responds:

Thanks for the comment. I hope to use it in a more complex composition soon. I've composed without a decent brass library for so long that I don't really know how to compose with that family yet. Let's see how fast I learn.

[-Arcade Prix-]

tbh people compare your style to waterflame's a lot, but imo one thing that really makes you stick out is how much more variation and progression you have in your tracks, which makes them super fun to listen to. this is really good stuff (especially that nostalgic snes synth brassy sound at :45!!!); best of luck in the top 8!

Preds responds:

Thank you so much :) Glad I can slowly move away from being Waterflame v2 without changing my foundations! And yeah, one of the main points of this song was to bring nostalgia in some way :)

[Natural Phenomenon]

--NGUAC ‘20 Judge Review--

Gosh, there’s so much about this song to like, from the clean mixing to the wonderful soloing to what I can only assume is live instrument playing on multiple fronts. It’s impressive work, and shows a ton of musical skill on your part, and you totally nailed the vibe of a funky jam session with a bunch of mates improvising over a funky tune together!

Compositionally speaking, there’s so much going on in this song (mostly super smooth and funky solos). You had some great melodic lines (1:57 and 3:01 stood out to me in particular) and I really enjoyed your silence-into-double time transitions at 2:25 and 4:15. In my opinion, your raw musical skill is the best part of the track, and the subsection that I awarded the most points to in your breakdown. I won’t critique your soloing skill (not that there’s much to critique), but I will say the one thing that the song seemed to be most in want of was a catchy motif! A lot of funky jammy songs like this one will have a good root melody and use that as a basis for improvisation as well as structural development, but I couldn’t really identify anything performing that function in this song that didn’t seem more like a harmonic texture than an actual motif (like those noodly synth arps in the beginning and ending). There was that melody at 2:29 that came back at 4:18, but that felt like a borderline arp-esque texture given how uniform it was rhythmically and how little variation there was upon it in its different appearances. To grab those few extra composition points, I’d recommend working on a good motif and using that to develop your solos, which would create a richer musical experience than just basing it off of the chord progressions. That said, your skill is still very evident here, and nothing I’ve mentioned here detracted from the fact that it was a pleasant listen.

The production of the song was also rather well-done. I’m very impressed with how clean the drums are, as well as how clean the guitars and synths are—it sounds like you paid a lot of attention to making sure they all got their own distinct space in the mix. I did think you had some of the most interestingly-produced drums of your bracket, though, since it sounds to me like you either played the drums live or you have an incredibly intricate method for adjusting the note velocities on some pretty high-quality drum samples. In either case, while the drums occupy a good space in the mix, I’d recommend going into each drum track and tweaking the leveling/compression/limiting some more (which should be easy to do if they’re samples; if they’re recorded live, it sounds like you had a separate mic for each drum anyway so that shouldn’t be too hard either way). I found that there was often a bit too much variance in the volume and force behind the drum samples (particularly the kick), both comparing note-to-note and comparing across the whole song. In fact, toward the end, it sounded like even though the backing track was receding, the flat volume of the drums was rising, which was a bit of a weird sound. I know this sounds a bit nitpicky, but as a drummer myself, this stood out quite a bit to me, and hit me harder upon listening than other small production nitpicks I could make, like the fact that the bass is a bit hard to hear when not doubled with that clav-y sound or the clashing synths in the 2:51 section. All in all, though, your production was very clean, and I feel like a bit more work toward a more uniform master would rocket this up to the top.

In the end, though, I felt like the biggest area for improvement for this as a standalone NGUAC track was that while it had the spirit and the energy of an improvised jam session, it also had the looseness and lack of focus of one. Despite having a ton of different sections to the song, there was only one that repeated, making the overall point of the song a bit hard to follow and making the melodic content feel underdeveloped. There isn’t really any specific part of the song I could point to and say “change this to make it a perfect track”, but I feel like putting in a bit more thought from the get-go into how to make a cohesive structure would do wonders for a track like this. There’s no one specific way to do that, but as an example, if you were to adjust that 2:30 melody into a stronger motif, introduce it at the beginning of the song, and use your solos to build upon it, that could potentially be a way to adapt this song into a more coherent one.

I do hope I’ve justified my score here to you, since it was so different from Everratic’s, and I understand that not everybody shares this opinion! My pop-flavored sensibilities might be shining through here, and admittedly, all judges have their biases. You are certainly a talented composer and producer, and I’m sorry that the stars aligned just out of favor for you—you were certainly very close, and I have no doubt that you would’ve written a song for finals that would’ve been just at home among the others. It’s a real shame, but it was a very competitive All-Stars bracket this year. All I can say for now is that I hope you keep writing music and that we can have the privilege to see you in next year’s NGUAC!

Composition - 26/30
Production - 24/30
Structure - 6/10
GSM - 24/30
Overall - 80/100, normalized to 8.0/10 (M=8.0)

ChrisisD responds:

First of all, thanks for your lengthy response and review, I really appreciate it! In response I can say that it was indeed sort of a jamsession rather than actually fully producing this song. I've only had the one weekend to make it, which turned out to be nearly all of Sunday. And as for a main motif, yeah it lacks one!
Yeah, all the points you make are very valid. I didn't spend much time mastering and as for the (live) drums, I only noticed they were getting louder towards the end when you pointed it out.
And as you said, I listened to most other admissions are so utterly different than my music. Started to wonder if I'd have to develop my Dubstep skills anytime soon 😅. But you more than justified your score. Thanks again. And who knows, maybe next year.

[Overworld Song]

--NGUAC ‘20 Judge Review--

Sorry this review took so long! So, the thing that strikes me most about this song is how well I can project an image onto it in my head. You’ve done a great job at distilling a lot of the best qualities from video game songs and injecting them in here; I can practically see a protagonist setting off on a journey through some looming adventure world, and that’s a really tough skill to learn, so kudos to you on that. But let’s get into the more nitty-gritty aspects of your track.

Compositionally, you’ve got some beautiful melodies in this song. I think the most key aspect of what makes them good is how well they fit the vibe of the piece (the sound design helps a lot with this), like that Undertale-esque bell melody at 0:25 or the piano at 1:04. I recall giving you a decently high composition score, and I think that the best way to bump it up even higher would be to have more melodic and harmonic development throughout the song. acxle already mentioned this in his review, but your chord progressions were on the simple side, especially the IV-I vamp that made up the majority of the track. Songs in this ambient-ish video game-y genre usually have some good harmonic variation (often upon a strong motif, which this track also lacked, although that’s not always a bad thing). Even something as simple as a key change towards the end would do wonders for that kind of thing, since it doesn’t look like you’re intending for this song to be a loop anyway. That said, you’ve definitely got some great compositional chops, based on what’s already in this song. Don’t be afraid to flex them a little more and take some risks!

In terms of production, I enjoyed a lot of the sound design in the piece—particularly the slightly detuned piano and that strong kick. You had a pretty full mix as well, and kudos to you on doing that with those lo-fi drum samples (I loved the filters on those samples during transitions like 0:24 and 0:50). I did think that that arp was taking up a lot of space in the low mids, almost to the point where it was overlapping with the bassline a little bit, but a bit of EQing should get that fixed up. The chordal synth that comes in at 1:36 and stays for the rest of the song also clashes quite a bit with the arps; I’d recommend tweaking the sound design a bit to give them both some more space (this was the biggest production issue for me, since it thickened the mix to the point where it felt weighted down in the mids). I’ll actually disagree with steampianist here and say that I would’ve preferred a bit more high end on the hi-hats, but that’s a super minor thing. On the whole, I thought your production was pretty solid—there were just a few things here and there that could’ve shot it up to the next level.

In the end, I felt like the biggest issue with the track was the general lack of variety, which is sort of a structural thing but also sort of an intangible, tough-to-define quality that can be hard to fix. Besides the intro and outro, much of the song maintains roughly the same texture (aside from a small break in the middle), and there’s basically no relief in the song from the low mid space taken up by the arms. That, combined with the lack of harmonic variety (your second chord progression, while different from the IV-I, nevertheless maintains a similar harmonic function and sounds rather interchangeable with the IV-I) makes it so that the song as a whole gets, for lack of a better word, a bit boring after a while. You have these super engaging melodies and a great sense of production—don’t be afraid to make things more interesting!

On the whole, I enjoyed your song quite a bit. My commiserations for being sooo close to making it through to the final round, but I can tell you’ve got a lot more music in you and I’m excited for the work you’ll put out in the future if you keep up this level of skill. Hope to see you in future NGUACs!

Composition - 26/30
Production - 25/30
Structure - 7/10
GSM - 23/30
Overall - 81/100, normalized to 7.4/10

BeeFef responds:

Thank you for the long and detailed review! First of all, the thing you said about how well you're able to picture a scene corresponding to the song in your head — maybe it's partly because I tend to get little videos playing in my head for things anyway, but that kind of thing has been something that I feel like I could pull off at least pretty well for quite a while if not longer. I remember there was this thing my father would do with me back in the day where he would tell me to play what a certain scene or scenario "sounded like" on the piano, and I would improvise that and he'd often be impressed. So maybe it's something that comes more naturally to me.

Some other things I wanted to point out:

The sound that you hear at 1:04 that you were talking about isn't a piano. It's actually the FL Studio Plucked! plugin with an instance of Pitcher (FL autotune plugin) on it. I wrestled a bit with the mixing and stuff with that track/channel, mainly because the plugin is nightmarishly varied and random when it comes to the sounds it makes when I have it at just one setting the whole time and I didn't want to export it into audio multiple times and then splice those together (I did that with the whole track instead).

I actually didn't use any drum samples. The kick came straight from a plugin called KickWOrK and the snare came from a custom thing I made from scratch in Sytrus, which is another plugin in FL if you didn't already know. I think even the high hats came straight out of a plugin.

The whole lack of variety/not enough content thing seems to be a recurring theme, here. Not knowing what to add to a song after a certain point is one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to composition. I feel like I got at least a little better with that with my KO round submission, but yeah. And also, what does GSM stand for?

Speaking of the KO round, I don't think I was actually *that* close. I got a 7.58 or so overall, which put me in the middle of the AAJs in terms of the scores for the submissions for that round, and still a decent distance away from making it into the final round (I would have needed more than a score of 8.33). I hope I can get some feedback from those judges to see where I went wrong with that song.

I'll probably be back for more NGUACs. Thanks again for the review!