LD-W's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[NGAIC 2022, Layer 1 - Pariahs & Peonies (INSTRUMENTAL)]

NGAIC

Heya!, I've seen your request for feedback, so I shall list off some quick thoughts and notes!

- The left-panned hi-hat is probably my main complaint about the piece: it could do with some DeEssing above 15.5khz and the gain on it dropping by around -2db just to get it under control abit more.

- I wouldn't worry about dBlue usage: it may be common, but it sounds good regardless! It's only other composers who would be bothered by it, which is only going to be like 1% of the listeners tbh haha

- If you're looking for realistic flutes at a good price, I'd highly suggest looking at some of the options for Soundpaint which are now available in the $20 range. They're H.A.L driven aswell, so the legato results you're able to get from there are really good

- Reallly nice-sounding vocal chops at the beginning and end! A pinch of chorus + some tape-warping to get that?

[Super Bright Colours]

NGADM FINALS REVIEW

Welcome to the finals lad, good to see you here! You've done super-well this year. Perhaps in a future ADM if the stars align, it would be great to deathmatch against you ;)

My scoring for everything in the Grand Finals is very close between each competitor, so the way I'm going to approach this is much more stream-of-conciousness, little standouts and notes that I've picked up on over several playthroughs. Yours has alot going on within 3:28, so I'll try my best to timestamp bits I'd like to praise, and bits I'd like to nitpick to help push you even further in the future. I won't reveal what I've scored, but all I'll say is that you're somewhere in my personal top-3 for the round ;)

In the first 60 seconds sequence, I'd first like to praise how clean and how well the guitar plucks are EQ'd. Clean enough to stand out, just the right amount of post-8k freq balance to sound sharp without being overwhelming, and at a well-balanced gain. To that extent, I'm using that as a measuring stick against everything else in that segment, which does mean I feel as-if you could do with some fine-adjustments:
- Strings, Piano and the Sax (in the later part of that section) could really do with a subtle pinch of extra MAAG-styled Air Band (the freebie 'Luftikus' does this very well for no cost). Set the high boost to 40k, add around 1.5 to 2.5 on the Air Gain, and you should experience abit of extra sparkle (really nice on anything vocal-like aswell!). The theremin-like synth could do with similar treatment, setting to 20K and then given a similar 1.5 to 2.5 boost
- A small extra touch of submarnonics could also benefit that section and several parts beyond that. Just a very small %-boost via bx_subsynth or Waves Renaissance Bass should allow for everything to feel a touch more three-dimensional in their presentation
- The ping-pong delayed chip-lead around 0:51 could do with being dropped by around -1.0 to -1.5db, otherwise I've got no other nitpicks for it!

1:40 to 2:15 section is also very solid! The sliding leads, alternating hats and chord-work underneath are a thumbs-up this side. Some small parts I'd like to go over here:
- The kick could do with a tiny bit of extra 'punch' via parallel compression, alongside a small touch of subharmonics added to it like with what was mentioned earlier. Waves H-Comp is god-like for that exact duty on kicks, but if you don't have access to it, AudioDamage's RoughRider3 is a very capable freeware alternative which allows for parallel (wet/dry). 30-40% wet it, experiment with an attack value around 12 to 25ms, deep threshold/sensitivity all the way down to it's heaviest value and you've got some solid results!
- The snare could be gain-boosted by around an extra 0.5 to 1.0db I feel, otherwise it's pretty ok!
- The brass at 2:01 I feel is getting abit lost in the mix there. Repositioning it to a left or right pan just to get it away from the center of the soundstage alongside a small +0.3 to 0.5db gain boost could really help it stand out more without any extra EQ work!

For the last third of the track:
- The looser 808-esq kick could be given similar treatment to the kick described earlier in the track with tightening up a tiny bit to give it some extra punchiness
- The theremin-like synth lead which returns at 2:54 could do with a small gain boost, 0.5db to 0.8db just to help it stand out abit more

Outside of mixing nitpicks, I would like to give general thumbs-up to how you've handled reverb-usage, especially with the crystal-clear decays on it which are not being inhibited by any kind of unintended dynamics affecting them (an issue that has been noticable for a few tracks in the contest). Your delays-usage has also been very solid in the context of how well it sits in relation to the rest of the soundscapes you've designed across the piece. Other general processing seems pretty lite, but it's enough to make sure that individual elements can be identified when referenced across different systems, so that's all good!

The crystalline qualities of your designed synth-runs is an especially nice touch spirnkled across the piece which really does augment the atmosphere that you've intended to project, and something I've come to expect from your tracks almost like a signature-feature of your style. The overall design-palette across the piece as a whole tbh is near-perfect, almost as good as what you accomplished with 'A Slice of Astrophyllite' earlier in the contest!

If there is one thing which I'm really not sure on, it's the compositional direction of the last 25% of the track. There is to a certain extent abit of a jarring difference between how you laid out the middle-chorus, and how almost-different the last 25% of the track is. Almost gives off a mental direction of 'relates to the presented sound palette, but compositionally like a different track'. It's a tough balance to achieve with a more progressive & daring piece like this, and the rewards can be immense if it works out. While the other judges might feel differently to me in this: I think that last section of the track gets a 'sort-of/not quite' from me. Stands out as very solid on it's own of course, but it's main compositional differences (i.e. the pulsing synth riser, it's sudden change of kick-design, it's structure sounding more like a traditional chiptune-like piece instead of the more 'open' atmosphere and experimental-feeling sections before it, and all of the mentioned combined together with a speedup) I feel makes it abit too different to give you perfect compositional or design scores (albeit they are still very high!)

Beyond that, yeah. The other competitors should be feeling rather worried: you've made the most of your limited amount of time and squeezed every single droplet out of every single second of this track that you're able to. Top work!

Those are the main notes from me for now. I'll give you a ping if suddenly edit in anything else!

Zechnition responds:

Thanks for all the suggestions, and especially the freeware options for plugins! I plan on remastering this piece eventually, so it's all very helpful :) . You might have guessed but I only allocated a few minutes specifically for mixing, so a LOT of issues ended up getting through.

[zetsubō no hatake]

NGADM Feedback Request

Your entries was one of the ones which did score above an 80-average, so my feedback here is mainly going to be the specific nitpicks to keep in mind if you're approaching a similar project in the future.

- From a mix perspective, I've personally found that the piano sounds like it's being brought too far forward in the centre of the soundstage and could do with moving further back, either from decreasing your close-signal, or remodelling how it sits in the soundstage with a positoning toolset such as dearVR Music/Pro (in stereo output instead of binaural!). There's also a situation with too much of a 'robotic' brass output to the left of the soundstage after 2:25, which I'd assume would be from a TM Pro ran Kontakt patch with speed control? If so, speeding it up abit should help eliminate that issue. Volume automation around 2:35 on the staccato strings to boost their gain upwards by an extra 1.0 to 1.5db would also be beneficial.

- From a 'Production Elements' perspective, the main nag would be the seemingly inconsistent reverb response/tails when it comes to certain sections and articulations playing. The staccato strings from my end when played back, seem to be drier than the rest of the string ensemble. The main staccato/staccatissimo brass parts aswell (along with the short arcs) also seem to suffer from being dry compared to everything else. My #1 piece of advice in this scenario would be to reapproach *all* of your libraries, strip their built-in reverb down to 0, and then insert your own quality reverb plugin onto every single mixer channel, model a hall/chamber enviroment, and then use that as the baseline preset for everything, followed by fine-tweaking the wet/dry and tails according to how close/far the perceived audience would be from each section of the orchestra (but make sure it's fine-adjustments only!). It's alot of extra work, but worth it once you've got reverb consistency!

- Atmosphere-crafting and Design choices are 'fine-to-decent', but one way to boost it further in this kind of project is to bring some more woodwinds into it, they're not to be underestimated and a few good legato flute lines towards the lower registry and even some single/double staccato burst rythmns within a few minutes of effort can make alot of difference, and potentially land you a tangibly higher score! They also in a traditional orchestral arrangement help fill up the center of the soundstage, which is something this track is fairly lacking in, so it's worth setting some extra time aside to plan out how you want to approach your inclusion of winds (either in a 'leading' role in smaller sections, or supporting rythmns/arcs/bursts/legato's in busier sections)

NoStereo responds:

I wanted the piano to stand out a bit, but maybe I did take it too far forward which hurt the overall mix. I'll admit I ran out of time when I was adding the brass section and wasn't able to spend time tweaking automation and stuff. I will keep all this in mind for next time!

Good advice for the reverb, I was using the built-in reverb like you said, I'll def strip that out and model my own from now on!

Thank you very much for the lovely feedback!

[Beware - AIM]

Actually a really high quality track here in all areas measurable. You could 100% slide this into a network broadcast show/animation no problem. If you're building up a portfolio site at some point, showcase this track near the top

[nightmare in dream land]

Maybe you're blursed enough to make entries like these thinking that they'll not get through, but get all the way to the finals anyway!

[Archway to the Unknown]

(VGM Challenge Category Review)
(Score is hidden as standard for all entries in the category)

The first thing which comes to mind when checking this VGM entry out for the category is 'Rogue Legacy' for some reason, in particular imagining the almost spacy-like forest section from that game in some ways. Maybe also a touch of Minecraft's 'End' dimension almost from certain design touches you've made in the piece.

While this doesn't go in the direction of a more cinematic and terror-like state like I've personally envisioned for the theme if I was to go and enter my own piece for the category (maybe sometime later in the year haha), this kind of entry does explore more on he probability of a more mystical, somewhat tangible result on the possible outcome of entering into various Outer Realms. Perhaps more decipherable, but still nethertheless a lot of danger.

Mix sounds pretty fine to me, design choices for the direction also match up pretty well. It does stand alone pretty well as a VGM piece and it can certainly fit the theme under certain circumstances. The category theme in itself has alot of chance to it, so it's sort-of the same for alot of other individual's entries where it can or can't fit depending on the environment that is on the other side!

Kassich responds:

Thank you for the detailed review! I agree that this category could go in a lot of directions and it was great to hear how you would have gone different with it!

[Transforming Landscape]

(VGM Challenge Category Review)
(Score is hidden as standard for all entries in the category)

I think from a purely atmospheric approach, this is probably one of the closest to the particular category theme out of all of the entries made. In an explorative JRPG 90's way, this would certainly work out as a top-down explorative part of a game's OST, perhaps the protagonist/part is going between broken islands through portal archways and interacting with either NPC's or runic arrays.

I don't have any issues really with sample choices if they're all pretty fitting together and in a VGM sense, as while they do to an extent not of course sound 'realistic' (more late 90's/early 2000's soundfont-like in some aspects), if everything else is following similar tropes, then the 'character' of the design choices as a whole works out. The general mixing for the piece is pretty alright as well, I don't have any major complaints about it. Quite nice to see someone else on NG using Alchemy, I used to use it yeeeeears back, when it was independent from Apple and available on Windows, I need to see if I can find my old installer again at some point!

Yeah, I'd say that this both works out from a standalone VGM piece under certain game styles and it's pretty close to being 'fitting' for the theme (which does bring up the whole question of what is and isn't 'fitting' for a Psuedonatural setting beyond randomness i guess haha)

[Random Outcome]

(VGM Challenge Category Review)
(Score is hidden as standard for all entries in the category)

Now when I'm listening to this piece a few times throughout the month, there was something that those particular design choices sort-of reminded me of in theme. After abit of time reflecting upon it, the one place where I can imagine this sliding right in at home would be in Starbound's FrackinUniverse Mod, preferably for a Cyber Sphere biome planet or similar in a randomised planet, perhaps at the surface of the planet, or just beneath it where some of the mini-boss like NPC's may reside.

I don't have much to say on production and mixing elements of the track as-is, as it's pretty well-done. Design choices are pretty straight forward and merge together well in context of how the entire piece comes together.

While I think it's abit of a stretch in regards to it fitting as something 'Pseudonatural/Outer Planes' beyond a few certain cybernetic generations, the track itself does certainly sound 100% like Game Music and something where I could hear it in an environment as mentioned in the first paragraph and think that it's selectively chosen for that particular environment. I do feel slightly bad though that this is one of the shorter reviews, although in other ways that's ok as there's not much for me to nitpick at about certain bits I supposes haha

[FD - Into the Chasm]

It's a pretty basic track in composition (which isn't an issue for this scope of genre's), I'd definitely say that anyone else listening to this should and would be focusing much more on the design choices made, as it's what makes this track.

The track is best enjoyed on speakers. Headphone listening can be just as good under the circumstances that it's mainly a consumer pair of on/over ears or earbuds, as I've found the tape hiss in proportion to the tracks somewhat low amplification to be pretty distracting when checking it out on monitoring systems.

First thoughts when running through this for the first few times is that it's a tad more Berlin School in design choices while taking the simpler dungeon synth and dark ambient composition approach (sort of like a slower Offermose in some ways). It's pretty refreshing to hear the warping tones coming from likely either the analog-esq synth patching alternating up/down in it's tuning, or a tape emulator pulling the duties well. It fits the 'empty chasm' theme approach you're going for. That kind of theme trope is usually done either in a more subdued and simplistic matter, or a sparkly and almost crystalline/ancient vibe. You've definitely got the first one sorted for sure.

If you're definitely committed to doing a full story-style Dungeon Synth (with Berlin School design) album, let me know when you're getting closer to completion and I'll definitely listen to the whole thing ;)

ForgottenDawn responds:

Wow, now that's a review! Berlin School, definitely, and I'm glad you caught that. I'm influenced by 60's and 70's classics, as well as 90's "black ambient" (Les Légions Noires) and Aphex Twin. I was being... very enthusiastic about the tape emulation thingamajigger I grabbed a while ago, so I wanted to immediately put it to good use. Funny thing about the hiss is I actually lowered it from -40 to -55 dB because I thought it was masking everything a tad too much. But yeah, I agree it's better enjoyed on speakers. Just testing the waters, is all. Thanks for your feedback and I'll surely share my next work with you~

[I Feed]

I'd absolutely love to try and do some kind of Industrial Metal cover of this in the future if you're all fine with me trying it? ;)