LD-W's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[CRY.NN - Men In Shades [SIN 3.5]]

Both club & animation-ready as always :bop:

CryNN responds:

exactly. call me mr. universal atp :D

[AIM - Bellowers of Grief]

The most important part is ticked: it 100% matches up with the artwork. As mentioned in other review(s), it does have immediate TES Skyrim vibes, which is excellent since that's one of the greatest orchestral-ambient OST's in VGM history, so being able to do something comparable with ease like that is a testament to your skillset!

Since I'm always a big fan of cranking the volume up and basking in the fine-detailing of layered texturing, I do want to give a special shoutout to 2:34 to 2:57 as being one of the best orchestral ambiences I've outright heard in a long time, from anyone

Since you're after some useful feedback from another pair of ears, the main things which I'd say are worth double-checking and potentially revisiting in a track update would be the following:

- The piano used and primarially featured at 0:51 to 1:11. While it does sound nice, from my perspective of the soundstage towards the right side, it feels like the lower notes are jumping too far away from the mid-notes, and are diverting off abit too far to the right, making it sound more like you've got two piano's positioned there next to each other instead of one (which is fine if you've duplicated instances and performed some extra positioning to DIY a Piano Ensemble AGE-style, but not something intentionally sought after from a single instance). Also around 2:43, it sounds like the low notes are diverting off to the left-side of the soundstage randomly. I do also feel as if the sound is a tad too full on it considering it's perceived position x distance, and it could benefit from being thinned out abit (but not so-much as to destroy it's warm-rich tone), or alternatively made more distant

- The signal noise situation in the quietest part of the tracks (mainly 0:50 to 1:11, and the outtro). It is understandably a pain to deal with and something which I've noticed in particular with certain Spitfire Libs in other works/demo's I've checked out, but any attempts to reduce it without a negative influence on detailing is always a big plus. Acoustica Standard or RX Standard may be the best two options to consider, and both can be demo'd to see which of their DeNoise algo's you prefer. Or a Waves option such as X-Noise can also help here!

- I'm detecting something going abit odd at 2:26 to 2:28 in that two second window. While the slow vibrato coming from the ensemble is playing, it actually sounds like it's 'warbling' the room noise in and out in an unnatural way alongside it. Which makes it very strange as that's the only tiny part of the track which does that. Possibly signal noise being dragged along for the ride and interfering?

Overall, a top-tier AIM piece with only a few small bits to mention <3

Everratic responds:

Thanks for the detailed mix feedback and review!

[Particulate Matter]

NGAIC -

This caught my attention immediately upon hearing it the first time. Very good Orchestral Drone which fits the theme you're specifically going for, insta-fav'd!. Are you utilising Spitfire Orchestral Swarm for this? There's a few small parts which sound somewhat familiar upon playing this back a few times

As ironic as it may seem to say this based around Particulates: I think there's too much 'air' in the overall mix, possibly from the mic signals (if you are running SF Orch-Swarm, it's a known side-effect of it that I also struggle to deal with). If that's the case, then there's not a huge amount you can really do about that tbh, other than (as a compromise) running those individual sections through careful DeNoising via RX or Acoustica to deAir it gently without compromising on the close & gentle detailing that the library samples are meant for. Or alternatively, very careful shaped filtering above the 10kHz region and then individually boosting-up the most detail-rich frequency ranges on everything else individually.

nyxl responds:

Thanks for your comments! You are close with your Orchestral Swarm guess, but it's actually Albion Tundra :)
Having a lot of "air" was what I was going for, but perhaps it's indeed too much... Maybe I have to listen on some different speakers and check what can be done. I actually used a woodwind articulation that they simply called "Air", it might come from there.

[To Destroy The Altar NGAIC Layer 4]

NGAIC -

Classic War Metal! Spot-on guitar tone, spot-on with the rough-ass mix vibes which are a staple of the subgenre, spot-on with the consistently aggressive direction. Only thing I'd really say would be lowering the gain on that solo guitar performance by around 3db to balance it some more, otherwise all good!

Shame that you weren't able to get vocals done for this based off of what you mentioned in the Audio Pub, but there's always the future to consider doing it!

[FD - Imminent Peril]

NGAIC -

The upper mid-point of an adventurer, cascading further and further down into the unknown nightmares that awaits them on other floors and their hidden paths.
When I play it back a few times, I imagine more of a dirty-silver aura as opposed to something strictly grey: a hint of a metallic blue shine, masked underneath a smog which wants to repress it. An atmosphere for those who are knee-deep in their journey, and are starting to come to the realisation of their situation

Another excellent piece as always! Apart from spending abit of extra time looking at the soundstaging of the bass-work around 1:45 onwards (some centre-presence of it sent to mono around the 35-40hz area would work pretty well!), I've got no complaints!

[FD - Requiem for a Dying Universe]

NGAIC -

Listening through it at random during the week, I actually think this could be very interchangable with Atmos-Black if the Guitars were tuned up like half-an-octave and given a few slow-doublekick segments haha
But yeah, pretty decent funeral doom with a symphonic edge to it. I could imagine some good Saturnus/DOOM:VS sounding vocals elevating this to another level if presented with the opportunity to record vocals in a similar manner! I can't nitpick too much considering the genre, but a boost over the entire drumkit from around 8Khz to 14Khz by an extra 1.5db in that region (before any reverb) I think, could balance things out a tad more in the mix department

Good stuff as usual ;)

ForgottenDawn responds:

Hey, thanks for your feedback! If I were to perform vocals without destroying my throat, they would probably sound like a mix of whispering and very distant, distorted growls. I wanted to try something different with the drums this time around and decided to put them way in the back, for better or worse. Anyway, it was a fun experience 👍

[NGAIC 2023, Layer 3 - F I F T H S H I P H O M E]

NGAIC -

Combined with the artwork and your wide sound design-array of mixed source, it really does have a dream-like quality to it, especially with it being 13/4 throughout! (cngrats for giving the challenge a go!) The melody-and-design blend approach, weaving in and out from each other definitely makes it a standout entry in contrast to alot of others on this Layer, and it's definitely refreshing to hear this approach being taken. Pretty much the only things I could casually nitpick would be to look at getting the kicks in the main segments of the track to match the punch and subharmonic presence of the kicks in the bridges.

Good stuff ;)

[House Of Immolation NGAIC Layer 3]

NGAIC -

Yeah it definitely has 00's demo tape energy to it! Respect for staying in 13/4 throughout aswell.
All things considered, I can only nitpick that the guitar solo is a tad too loud compared to everything else (I'm not expecting perfect balance lol, but dropped by like 2db would bring it abit more in-balance, since the centre-image is already left fairly open for it!). Fun stuff overall ;)

Banana-head responds:

Thanks for the review!

[Memorial]

NGAIC

Quick thoughts/notes!

- Don't worry about time-rushed pieces: it's a fun challenge as opposed to a contest! I also ran out of time and had to push something out in like 3 hours. If you're rushed in later rounds, just do something quick-and-small, no worries!

- Yeah taking a minimalist approach which has a strong solo instrument center to accompany a crafted atmosphere is always a reliable choice to do in a hurry. I'm not one to really judge emotion (my sensitivity to it is pretty much ruined due to saturating myself in some of the most 'lurking in the darkest of voids' sounding type genre's for years on end haha), so looking at this more from a analytical perspective, it feels like you've picked a decent key and notation-approach to convey what you're after, especially since the other reviewers seem to also think it works, so I'll take their word for it and say good job!

- Piano and Strings could do with some extra reverb, maybe around 5.0s worth on the decay on an 'ambience'/'large hall' model and around 30% wet could do the trick in a hurry

[FD - Aurora Australis]

NGAIC

Already heard this one a few times and made sure I was the first to favourite it upon release! I'll go off on some quick thoughts and notes:

- Always a big fan of layered pads and textures (especially the really synthetic and vocal-like results!). We're probably two of the biggest enthusiasts around here for designing and 'collecting' a whole arsenal of options to allow us to do that and have a big design edge over others. Even in a quicker Space Ambience piece, it's definitely a showcase here of your mastery over creative, evolving, scene-building options, and why you're always a step above the rest in that department!

- The second half really does have a nice 'sparkling' quality to the high bands which is pleasant to hear on open-backs and monitoring speakers turned up loud. Perhaps it's worth a tiny bit of extra 'air' boost of around 0.5db @ 40k target for it just to drive it a tiny bit more and make it truly become perfect? (Brainworx MAAG EQ4 or it's equally good freeware brother Luftikus will do that really well)

- Only mixing feedback I can give would be to have a closer look at the bass processing: the sub sounds like it's almost 'behind' my head in the soundstage when playing this back on open-back headphones. Experimenting with a quick boost-and-cut of ranges below 80hz may be a quick fix for this: there are certain parts of it which can incur that effect unintentionally, but can be a pain to spot at first glance.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thank you so much for your glowing review! Bass processing is still a work-in-progress, so I'm definitely saving your technical notes my next Ambient pieces. I look forward to your Layer 2 entry!