Decibel's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Melting Ice]

Old School Much?

Okay, I sort of agree with sontuk but he didn't need to be that harsh, I gave you a 5 for the time and effort, but I'm sorry - this needs so much work it's unbearable.

The first bassline that comes in was a tragedy, it sounded terribly off key, I'd suggest moving some of the notes around, maybe you can build a decent arpeggio.
What'd be cool too is if you'd build a crescendo ; Which means it starts off very quietly and starts getting louder, and spans for about 16 bars.

The waltz-y rythm that kicks in after the bassline isn't bad either, it's just terribly off key, as is the rest of the song, Please, for the love of god, work on that :P

The main melody sounded very NES Lake Level, I liked it, and as a single melody it would sound very good.

So anyway, not a complicated track, very care-free sounding, but it could use a change of instruments, some drums, maybe some pads and strings here and there.

So yeah, 5/10 and 3/5

Work on it :)

DahDoctow responds:

Alright, I'll get on that! Thanks

[Facing Your Trials!]

Can someone say, 10 Years ago? :P

Yes, it has a good basis for a classical track, but it lacks the composure and realism that the professional classical composers on here have. It's the MIDI though, that's what's ruining it.

The intro was very nice, it eased into the song and built into a solid track. The only problem I encountered with this though is that you have an instance in the song where a flute is soloing, yes I understand it's a solo but you could have layered some strings and added some brass chords around it to show some realism, despite the mediocre instrument patches.

The melodies themselves were quite good, from what I could hear at least, because you have quite a muddy mix, which I will comment on later..

The whole flow of the song was also quite good, one thing led to another very well. The transitions were good enough too..

Drums were.. Frankly I don't know what exactly to say about the drums. They're barely noticable. They lack the compression and stereo enhancing that a solid classical track would have. If you ever open up the project file/session file/whatever Be sure to EQ and compress the drums first, TAKE ACTION YOUNG ONE! :P

I'd suggest downloading a demo of Ableton or FL Studio and replacing everything with soundfonts, sure it's not the real thing but it's much better compared to the PS1 Quality instruments that can be found here, as XsakuX said.

Anyway, Overall a little gem, which needs a whole lot of shining.

I hope you've taken what I've said into account :)

7/10
5/5
-decibel

CheckeredZebra responds:

Haha, I can see what you mean about the flute somehow soloing over an entire orchestra >.>;

I have issues with making percussion sounds/parts, and I cannot really edit said sounds. </3 But hopefully that will change sometime soon. they were in fact the last thing I added, as I hate doing drums because I don't really "feel" percussion parts. Dx Just something I need to work on.

Anyhow, this was a very helpful review, made me think about the realism aspect of it, haha. Thank you :D

[Sea of Destiny]

Yarrr ;D

Like the guys from the RRC said, It sounds extremely piratey, And If I do say so myself, Pirates are the bomb. But all jokes aside, it's a good track, better than the bare average of the classical music here, I'm not saying it's the best, but with a few fixes here and there, it could sound much better than it already does.

K, Intro. Frankly I think it starts off way too abruptly, I would have added maybe an instance of strings, slowly increasing in volume, and then I'd insert your intro, but hey, that's just me. You are the producer after all.

The melodies were alright, nothing too memorable but not a discordant trainwreck, so I'm 50/50 on the melodies. My favourite melody though was the flute which started at about 0:17.

Strings, well, you can't have a classical track without strings, but on the other hand you can't have strings without a backbone. In my opinion, it needed something more, some bass staccatos to back it up, maybe a cello melody in the sidelines to tie the track together, it's those little things that make a solid track.

Drums were alright, but you overused the bassdrum a little too much :P I'd remove half the hits you had in the actual bass drum rythm, and then maybe layer it with a snare for more emphasis.

The instruments themselves weren't perfect though, far from it. You actually need to fix them up because you have a slightly muddy mix goin' on here.

The first thing I would do is compress the brass you have in the background, and maybe increase the high-end by just a little bit, because when listening to this on my laptop speakers, I could barely notice it.

I understand that the strings took the leading role in the song but you can't leave beautiful melodies and instruments like the ones you applied (such as the piano, if I'm hearing correctly) move along with so little presence.

Overall, quite a beautiful uplifting track, but it's missing those little tidbits that would make it awesome! :D

Well Done :)

9/10
5/5

-decibel

I'm keeping an eye on you dude ;)

TheBellmaker responds:

Thanks for the review!

Intros were never my strong spot -__- but I've been improving in this area in my proceeding songs. This song was more a quickie for me.

In this piece, I was trying to make sure at all time that I had a "main melody" and that everything else was subordinated to it. Thus, this led to other melodies, like the piano, being overwhelmed by the others. I shall take your criticism on this matter into consideration, as you do have a very valid point here.

WHERE ARE THOSE TIDBITS?!?!?!?!!?

haha one day I'll find them.

[~SW~ Keeper of the Dead]

Otherwordly..

Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of ambient music, it's probably my least favourite genre in the audio portal, but I know a good track when I hear it, and this is one of them. If you could just give some final trimming, it'd be top notch!

It starts off wonderfully, I love the little whispering sounds in the background, I can imagine this in som sort of Harry Potter movie, or some dark film with gray skies and thoughts of dismay.

The wind, though a nice touch, was too loud for the track itself, I'd lower the volume, then compress it, then add a filter, just to keep everything clean, but other than that, Nice job anyway.

The pizzicato strings gave it that creepy videogame effects, for some reason I found them 'playful' more than anything else, it boggles me why this is though.
The pizzicatos themselves sounded brilliant, the little taste you added makes me want more.

The bells in the background were a nice touch, they were the icing on the cake, production-wise. I think it's the main aspect of the song that makes it creepy. Well, that, along with the strings.

After the pizzicato strings, you can hear some sort of glockenspiel or bell, it's also a little too loud for my tastes, I'd lower the volume to that also.

The strings were probably my favourite part of the song, they were also the one thing in the song that needed to be slightly louder at times, rather than quieter, hehe.

Now, mixing. As I said before there were some assets that need compression and filtering, those would be the two main mixing problems because other than that I couldn't find anything wrong with the general mix, it wasn't muddy at all, apart from the extra 2 seconds of reverb every now and then (Yes, I'm that fussy)

Anyway, it's a nice, atmposhperic track, which has the chops to be in some playstation game or children's movie, If you had to do some final touches, it'd be a hell of a track, and I'm sure you can perfect this.

I Have mixed feelings on this track, I don't know whether I should call it perfect, or just the beginning of a masterpiece, If I were you I'd extend it though.

So Yes, You get an 8 and a 5 :P

-decibel

SkyeWint responds:

Alright then, I'll make the strings a bit louder. I agree, they're a bit quiet sometimes.

As for the bell synth, they were actually the bells in the background, only brought out more. I think I might bring them down a bit, but not the first three loud notes of theirs. That's honestly my favorite bit of the song. lol.

Thank you for the review!

[To Those Who Listen]

Please Tell Me You're Kidding

Why do you insist on making an awesome song? Couldn't you have just let the overly-ambitious young musician win? :P

Anyway, this is really amazing, it's trippy at the beginning and starts to get all glitchy-baroque towards the end. It's just crazy :D My favourite sound would be the 1 beat instance of Music box you threw in every now and then.

Spectacular job IO :)

InvisibleObserver responds:

But I am an overly ambitious young musician?

Thanks for leaving some comments foo-stick-Mo-Jenkins.

[Bionic Millenia (RD2011)]

Awesome!

This, this is just beautiful, good job, I love the chord progression you got going on that bass synth. And the choice of percussion was sublime. What I'd work on is the bass synth itself, it needs some brushing up to be ompletely honest, some EQing, some Filtering, etc.

Other than that, this is one of my fave tracks for robot day, I'd definitely give this some points, Also, I love that Square Pluck Perc <3

Nice Job :)

djInTheDark responds:

Thanks for the tips, glad you liked it!

[[DJ_ITD] - Theory of Motion]

Review Start

When it started, I expected it to be a little slower, at least 130BPM, this seems too fast for my tastes, and I know it's strange but the drums seem more suitable for a slower song.
Next in business, the ride is way too loud and the clap needs a bit of a lowpass filter.
The Piano melody is quite nice, the layers it had were spectacular, so yes, congrats on the pianorification my friend.
I fell in love with that lead synth/bass thing, it's amazing.

I gotta go shower, you get a 10 :p
and 5/5 too.

djInTheDark responds:

It's supposed to fall under Hard Trance, which tends to be in the 135 to 145 range, so that why I did what I did. And thank your for the other two volume notes, much appreciated. Also, it's funny because the lead synth use to have a lot more to it, it was detuned and vibrating and a whole bunch of other stuff but it became really over powering so I got rid of all the window dressings and got this. Less is more I guess!

Thanks for the review!

[sPhly - Memories]

Review Backk :))

Reall Sweet sounding, it has that certain cuteness to it and warmth and stuff.

The only problem I encountered were the drums, They were a bit simplistic but other than that, it was pretty awesome, it progressed well, melodies were original and it was very good quality -)

Nice Job, Keep it Up =)

[deciBel]

Shoephly responds:

^^
thanks alot for taking the time to review this, means alot.
As for the drums, i agree to a certain degree, but it was a conscious choice i made, wanted it to sound kinda simple/funnyish.

But yet again, thanks for the review ^^

[Remember (Down-tempo Loop)]

Pretty sweet :)

It starts of with an amazing piano melody, I would have fixed some of the chords, one or two of them don't harmonize very well :/ But other than that, that 16- bar piano melody was sweet throughout the uh, 16 bars ;P

The piano itself could have used a little bit of the delay with the cutoff at maybe 30% but that's just personal preference.

The drums were amazing, I really loved them, seriously, they were amazing. I loved the ragga-ish rythms, like the guy under me, but I also loved the fact that it's in a trance song, that's a wonderfully original way to got, I applaud your creativity.

The drum hits themselved were very good, high quality is another factor which I like in the drum beat, bonus points for that ;)

Although, for some reason I heard like a split-second long crackling noise, I think I was anyway, I suggest skimming through the song file again, just to prove I'm not crazy :P

Another Thing I loved about the drums was the slight swing on them, the wow factor just doesn't end.

The other synths were very good too ;;

The bass-ish synths which went every beat was very nice, sounded a bit rough, i would have added a parametric equalizer and reduced the trle by half, raised the bass and middle by just a smidge and lowpass it, with a little reverb on the top, but again that's just personal preference, do with it what you wish.

Last thing before I stop, That ass was pretty sweet, I'm not sure if it was 'hand'-made or a sample but it fit pretty damn well with the rest of the song, congrats.
I don't have anything else to say, but congratulations, I haven't heard a song like this in a long while, it touched my heart :')

Yet another amazing song from one of my favourites =)

10/10
5/5

Take Care :)

djInTheDark responds:

Well you probably already know this if you listened to the original version, since that one had a swing to it, but since the speed was twice the speed as this one, (if I recall the original was somewhere around 132 bpm or so and this one is around 73 bpm I think) the swing became twice as apparent. All this entire song took was some simple rearranging, and excluding things that wouldn't have worked, like the ride cymbal or some FX that I was using. All of the instruments are exactly the same as the other version, with the add of the extra synth I put in for the sake of not being too repetitive at 1:45.

And the crackling is actually, believe it or not, a cpu problem. My computer tends to lag when rendering very high quality sound files, since the system is very bogged down right now and I'm running out of space. That, and I have Vista. ;P

The bass synth, was in the original as an arpeggio. So it's appearance is as upfront which is why it is so present with it's current eq settings. I may go back a change a few things eventually.

Oh, I'm glad you think my ass is so sweet. No, unfortunately, my ass is not hand made, but it can fit very well in quite a few places besides this song. :)

Lol, jk. I know that was a typo. There were several bases involved to make the whole section (obviously). The upper bass with the most strong mids, along with two other pad-type bases were made in massive. Then there were two subs I used, both were samples, one an actual sample of a primarily percussive sub, and the other was a revamped sine wave.

Tbh, there was almost no creativity involved, lol (at least from my perspective). It was a simple "hmm, what is that? aha!" moment. Thanks for the review!