Suspended-3rd-Chord's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Milk{Take Me Away}]

An Excellent Track...

I'm not a fan of this genre but you've definetly opened my eyes with the wonders that you did with this track. It's one of the best trance tracks I've heard on NG and deserves to be up in the charts. It's truly great, it had me bobbng my head all the way through!

I really like that swirlhing pad texture you bring in at the start, and slowly fade in the drums with a nice EQ to start. The key melodies are a nice preface for more goodness to come, everything mixes well in the start. And I like I said, the intense mix had me bobbing my head once it came in. Lots of energy and emotions packed into this track indeed. I Like the arpchip in the second half too, you've really got a superb choice of synths in here. They sound pretty original from what I've heard, did you make or tweak them? As far as clarity I like the level of reverb on anything and the nice delaying effect on the keys. The pingpong delay effect on the synth in the interlude is really sweet. Kick, snare, clap, and hats are well rounded and brought out well so they dont get lost in the mix.

Can't find much wrong with it, but the part at 4:00 you might want to pan one of the saws more to give it more balance and definition. I also think the bassline could be a tad louder.

superb work here man. first trance track going into my favs!

Mrmilkcarton responds:

I can't say I can take full responsibility for the synthes. The way I like to build my synthes is to take a preset that has a general sound, then tweak them to my style and liking. Some of the VSTIs like nexus really limit me to doing that so to over come it I have to use some weird EQ settings and a few other mix tracks. So its a mix of original synthes like the bass and some not so original like a few of the pads. The lead sounded terrible without the mixing that was used though.

As far as the bass not coming out thats a personal choice that will probably change through out my songs. I don't like the bass to seem like an overpowering substance of the song that way more attention is spent on the actual melody and lead. I've never been one for loud basses but maybe I'll have the next one stick out more.

Thank you for the review I'll certainly look into that panning and keep your suggestions in mind for my next songs.

[Solus- For Schala]

Good job Solus!

mmm...I love those keys in the start. such a great melody. a nice dark sound too. I loved it when the sax came in, it reminded me of FF8 "Time Compression" which is one of my favorite tracks of all time. and just when you think it couldnt get better you transition into that fabulous section at 1:09ish....just really loving that piano sound. Lower harmony moves really well, and each chord is effectively placed with some nice dynamics throughout. Flute is really nice too, though I think it could be a tad louder and use just a touch of more stereo reverb. Theyre all extended notes too, and yet it still sounds very nice. I always feel that I have to chop up the extended notes in my compositions because it gets boring, but in this instance it didnt, so good job. Trumpet is good, but I think you should have stayed with the woodwind theme and used an oboe. Melody is good on that too, tho. Harmonization in the end is really good too, but I think you should have the flute play extended notes along with the sax and piano. all in all, I'm dragging out this review out, outstanding work here solus, yet another person adding this track to their favs :D

SolusLunes responds:

With the sax/piano/flute harmonization just before the end...

the reason that sounds so good is because it's sparsely used. If it was for the entire song, it wouldn't sound nearly as awesome.

Also, yes, I could have used an oboe/clarinet/whathaveyou instead of the trumpet... but it just doesn't have the same majesty. :D

Glad you liked it though :D

[Our inner kid]

Wow.....i saw this on symphony of specters

where you were advertising it in the radio section. I like it a lot so I had to review this. It's a very soothing, beautiful piece, like TT said below. I to can see how the first section goes along with the theme of being a father. I can see it in a movie or video game while a father is peering into his son's room, just to check on him, only to see him gently lay asleep nice and snug under the covers. Like the choice use of xylphones ( or glockenspiel?) as they spark some young child themes, and it meshes very well with the slow harp arpeggiation in the background. Oboe moves very gracefully as well, the beginning is very excently composed. The strings come in very effectively, too, and the flute solo was another great addition. The chimes add some nice imagery, and I like how you ended on the solo extended string chord. The subtle percussion is an okay addition, as some more intricate rhythms arent really needed for this piece, but at the same time I dont think it does the track a whole lot of justice. To round everything out some lower strings might be a nice idea, but that too isnt necessary for a floaty peaceful track like this IMO.

clarity is very good too! sounds very nice and pleasing. The woodwinds could be placed a little more to the right or left tho, methinks.

Well, excellent track man! The track flows very well with the story, this should easily make the radio I think :D

Fuoco responds:

This is probably the best review I've ever recieved.

Your words make me so happy and bubbly inside! Apparently I managed to compose what I was aiming for, because I like what you picture with this song :D
The glockenspiel was indeed to spark a child theme, especially at 1:40 and forth.

The precussion was originally castanetes (as it is now) and another sound that wasn't on Garritan's library. So I ended up using two different castanetes, wich was not supposed to repeat over and over as it is at 1:15 and forth but wasn't bad either.

I agree with the lowering strings, some parts sounds like the rest of the instruments are drowning with the strings. But seems like Finale doesn't match too well with Garritan, so using a "p" dynamic was exactly like using "FF". I used the volume controls and somehow it ended up well too.

I don't know about placing sounds to the left or right. I've never messed with that function, but I will once I get to my computer and see how your idea turns out. I might edit it :D

Thanks for an awesome review! And thanks for your support!

[sad purple faces]

O.M.G

man i really like this piece...its so beautiful. Love the glitched drums + minimalistic melody in the background....its rare when you see a bunch of hectic drums actually have a relaxing effect. not overdone at all, you've got like a million samples, everything well spaced, chopped, spliced, reversed, whatnot whatever FX you put on there makes it for a very unique, effectively interesting loop. What plugin do you use for making your drums sound they way do? Very well put together, I like the little ambience that comes in and out in the background and the voice in the second half and how you chopped it up a bit before going back into the main mix. Really sets the tone. Love the ending, swell synths in here too.

if I was to give criticism, maybe a touch of reverb on some of the drum samples would work well with the track. I also think it would be cool if around the 1:45 mark you shift the pitch on the vocal note with the bass and give the track a different flow in energy. well, not much can be said, I absolutely love this clip. Always a pleasure listening to your original style man :)

snayk responds:

I used distortion and glitch effects on the drums.

There is reverb on the drums, but it's very subtle. I didn't want to overdo it because I really wanted that digital/electronic sound. Working with the vocal pitch is an interesting idea.

Thanks for the great review!

[~{HN}~The Twisted Symphony]

Magnicifent Tune

I like the traditional classical style you did with this number! It's a a wonderful little loop. I don't really know how to follow up a review from THE MAN himself, but here it goes!

I actually can see a bunch of royal British people eating dinner on a large table, a butler serving them tender lamb, while drinking fine wines and sipping tea with their pinkies raised, munching on a delicate buttered crumpet or two. IMO I think its perfect for a scene while the character's exploring about a castle gathering info about a grand event or regal ceremony in town. Very relaxing and easy to listen to, would be great music to study with as well.

Instrumentation was done great. Like the violas (or whatever string instrument it is) to start the piece, the flutes playing during the less layered parts, while the strings and horns move exceptionally well in the background. Panning seems done rather well and mixed up to reach adequate levels to simulate a realistic symphony, nicely. Composition is ace, melody is a great start to a tune with. The flute and strings (and strings and horns in the second part) harmonize and compliment each other quite well. I also like how the lower string voice moves in the background at 00:24, it sparks a sense of hastiness.

as for criticism, nothing much can be said reallly. all in all, it is short but developed good for the time it was built in. some drums wouldnt hurt in here, like a light timpani hit or roll when transitioning to sections with a cymbal used sparingly too (or this could be expanded with when you make this longer). To me that chord you end on could be a more resolving a chord (two notes down or three notes up would more fit the tonal presence you've established in this piece methinks); but I happen to say that to A LOT of people so feel free to ignore me here :D and it doesnt matter either if you make it longer, just feels a bit chopped off.

anyways, marvelous work TT, this will be a definite addition for my favs once you make the full version (and I don't even like this type of classical that much) !

Twistedtechnology responds:

freakin sweet. i made ur faves with a subgenre you dont even much care for XD I know how you feel about the unresolving note....and actually i left it there to see if you'd pick on me for it :P guess it worked ^^ all in good fun sir. i was thinking about throwing some percussion indeed. Definatly a cymbal here and there.

And omg ur view on the song was actually close to what i came up with. mine was a bunch of british people in one of those super fancy balls, all dancing in circles, with the one arm beind ther back and the other placed on the partners hand in front of them. close huh? XD Thanks a ton for the review. I greatly appreciate both of yall's opinions and any help that yall can spare. it means a ton.
~Twistedtechnology

[Thracian-Jazz]

mmmm hmmmm

wow this really is very good....
after seeing you on a lot of people's favorities, I had to check this out! I'm glad I did :)

I really like how you start this one, with the pounding bass and that other percussion on the side, I thought it was going to transition into a battle-esque theme. When the saxaphones came in it sounds really sharp, love those melodies and how the piano rolls along with it real nicely... Flute sounds really nice in there as well, and I like the trills it plays. What instrument is that specifically? Saxaphone solo is truly amazing and smooth too. I could see this as some type of detective theme in a foreign country... reminds me a bit of the jazz themes in the soundtrack from "The Talented Mr. Ripley" if you ever seen that movie.

not much more I can really say...like people said below, it really is flawlessly performed and recorded... Great themes, very nice sensibility with your chord progression structure and everything...this is real enjoyable one for my favorites! Great work sorohanro!

sorohanro responds:

this is (if you'll ask me) my best jazz/ etno-jazz tune for now, not only playing but also quality of sound
that flute is in fact Kaval -a very old folk flute from the Balkans, notably Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania and Turkey, played by Marc Anghel (who plays usually folkclore)
the theme i wrote under influence of Theodosii Spassov (probably the greatest kaval player)
as for the saxophone parts and solo, those are played by Petre Scafaru
on trumpet and keyboards-me (Mihai Sorohan)
i'm glad you liked it
thanx for the nice review

[Fractal Tune - Dreaming]

good stuff matey

I'm liking the themes in here, the melodies float around and change freely with lots of action- just like dreams. sounds a bit majestic too. Some of the harmonization makes me a bit sleepy actually haha. The beginning caught my ears, sounds a bit like an old school RPG game. The intro was nice with the extended string an oboe notes, with the mallet percussion glistening in the background. The riffs are pretty crazy and progress rapidly. I like how the different melodical percussion riffs kinda fuse together. Some of the unlayered sections sound really nice. my favorite section would have to be at 1:55 with the pizzicato strings and harp, reminds me of a flowing stream of water with a bright moon glowing ahead, the arps move real nicely. unfortunately that part was only like 5 seconds :(

I think an underlying flaw here would be that some parts are a bit undeveloped and the composition is well, random. With using an original method of composing by using a fractal tune, you come up with some pretty damn original themes in your tracks, but there could be more work revolving around transitions and making each section flow more smoothly. For example, like at 00:28 i thought you were building up for something more epic, but it just kinda cuts off and drops down. The extended note at 1:08 is begging to resolve to a note higher thats its on, so maybe chop the note and half and put the second note one pitch higher. I thought the ending was done pretty okay tho, you should have kept the strings going and just made a nice, soft ending with more stability. So some manual editing by changing the notes in a piano roll or stave wouldnt be a bad idea :) Also, if you took a theme or two from the fractal program and then just developed it with another sequencer that might be a cool experiment too. Minimalism is never a bad idea, if you want your stuff to sound a tad less cluttered and have more direction.. But hey, it still fits the dream theme!

well, its still a very creative piece and theres a lot of work put into this, tons of different instruments :), i just think if it had more direction and more carried-out themes it would make for a more well-rounded track, but maybe thats just me. Keep it up, your style is quite unique!

gleegleep responds:

Thanks for your thoughts; I really appreciate it. About the building things up and making things flow more smoothly etc, I now have some audio-editing software that can help me do that (e.g. adding effects and adding other fractal music tracks). I'll see what I can do. Again, thanks a lot! :D :D

[[ G o t M i l k ]]

Yesssssss

I remember first seeing this on your myspace page and thinking to myself "damn I would so use this as my song" if I had a myspace profile. This track is very unique and has a boatload of intracies and snippets and is very professionally put together and mixed, it sounds like it would take forever to make.

The synths are some of the best I've heard. I love the horns in the start, and they have a great melody too, and the little reversed and skewed bits around the side compliment the intro perfectly, and have full control- they don't sound like you just stuck and plugged a bunch of random sounds of your ass at all. I sure as hell wouldn't be able to utilize and blend something as complex as this. So its really amazing. I love the beat, works and flows really well, sounds a bit hip hopish, just real nice. The kick is a charm too, I like how its a sampled phat bass kick with a bitcrushed one on the top, no? subbass moves very nicely, and the main melodical theme is ace. Lots of chippity chop chippets, I don't really have the words to describe how awesome everything sounds in here without sounding like an amateur fool. The interlude was just absolutely sick, those intense bending bits, sound like a rocket taking off right into the crazy interlude.I love the chopped and pitched vocal bits, and those things that sound like a hyrbrid between a whale and seagull call haha. Then there's a nice relaxation section with the strings to compliment the later half, its just electronica working to its fullest.

So I've listened to this track atleast 200 times now, I still absolutely love it and just thought I'd let you know. This is one of the best tracks I've heard on NG. Keep up the good work, I'm sure you will :D Absolutely no criticism from me at all, this deserves nothing less than a 10/10.

Kingbastard responds:

hi man, thanks so much for this review. I only just read it and am glad you like the tune:) This is possibly my favourite electronic trk of mine, was definatley the most fun to make.

Thanks again, keep on listening:)

[(::Surfing On Color::) GWC]

Nice groove

Well this seems like it has more work put into it then your"beyond the sun" and other related new wave/ambient tracks because the different riffs have more rhytmical flow and are not just the same whole notes over and over. anyway, this has a cool sound and a good selection of synths with cool effects. Nice of you to put drums in here, although they might just be premade drumloops but I won't assume :). very cheery vibe in here, sounds like a spongebob dance song. Yes, spongebob is what this track reminds me of. And that's always a good thing.

I like the arpsynth thing you start with that has an interesting filter effect or something on it. The pad in the background's voices move nicely but again it wouldnt hurt to change up the rhythms even more than you did in the background. Chop up a note into two, split it into two dotted fourths and one fourth, use rests, etc. it will help break the repetiveness in here-even tho genres like this need some type of repetition, it needs more elaboration for being 5+ minutes. I especially like that echoing synth that hits at 3:30ish, in comes in and out in a nice fashion. One more synth melody would be great in here too, you need like a lead saw type of dealy in the high spectrum. That pad as 4:14ish was cool to and had a nice texture. It would be nice if you put more work into the end, and put in some new reverbed samples to go along with that ambient texture. The harmony seems a bit awkward in the finish too. you started off real nice with bringing the synths in, with a bass and snare and beat, and gradually adding more to the track. But once everything started rolling, it just sounded like you were making your own riffs and just pluggin them into an adlib generator. So, I would work a bit more on transitioning.

well, i'm itching to give this an 8 but honestly I dont find this track to be too amazing. However, i still found it enjoyable and its more imaginative then a lot of those generic FL techno and trance tracks if you know what I mean...:P keep up the good work fatty!

FatKidWitAJetPak responds:

LOL, you hate me so you give teh 7. :( As always... Well anyway thanks for your review! :

[cover of syncopation]

not bad

Well, this is a pretty good track to solo over. The soloing was decent but nothing extraordinary, and in some parts it sounds like you're holding a bit back, but has some interesting bits for sure.

The main problem, as the reviewers below me addressed is the mixing. From the quiet parts in here, it sounds like you've got a voice that would be enjoyable to lsiten to and you shouldnt be shy to bring them out, if thats the case. The overall mixes seems like it has a decreased quality whether its just if the volume is lowered and/or the EQ might be butchered to comprise for the lead guitar? Because IMO, the lead tone doesn't mix in all that well. I would keep the same track volume, and trying raising the overall master volume on your PC, and possibly on your output pedal/amp/guitar. Your tone is pretty crisp, but a bit weak, so a thicker chorus, reverb, EQ (more bass), and maybe the neck pickup would sculpt out a better tone, I dunno-its been a year since I recorded myself. Another cool thing to experiment with would be panning different guitar riffs more to the left and the right, like they're battling. Some more lower riffs wouldnt hurt either, for instance, maybe some distorted tremoloed tripplets or palm muting licks for fills in between and around the original power chords would be nice.

enough with the damn suggestions from me because I'm not sure if thats the type of feedback you're looking for. I thought the little lick you opened with was weak, but when the track gets rolling your improvising over the top sounds nice, and planned out well as nothing sounds too random or out of place. I like the chords you use in the first solo. The solo that starts at 1:20ish was a bit uneffective IMO, it would sound great if you had a distorted wah (here I am assuming you have access to all these effects, sorry if im leaving some useless suggestions and you dont have all this equipment) our spiced up the notes with some pinch harmonics. I especially like the note at 1:37. Then ending on the laidback blueish solo is a nice fit for the end. And the chord you strum at 2:44ish was nice, and good job with transitioning back into the themes you used in the first solo. One thing I would certainly like to hear more in here is some legato licks, as I don't think you utilized much hammer ons and pullsoffs, if even any at all.

So overall, a pretty cool improv session over here, a refreshing contrast. I'm only giving you a 6 because you didnt make the backing guitar and drums. But of course a 5 for a good cause and it doesnt look much people have yet to remedy zero bombers. anyways, sorry if you didnt like my review DWexperience, and what was said in here of course was my opinion, i atleast hope it helps for future projects :D

thedwexperience responds:

honestly man i really meant no offense with all the other stuff. i think your reviews are pretty right on. thank you very much for taking the time to actually analyze my work. that is what matters most to me, that people sit down, calm down listen and actively listen. then leave good meat and potatoes feedback. i really dont even care how people rate my stuff, as long as they like it for some reason.

for the legato, i did use one hammeron in the heavy part and then a few pull offs later on but truthfully the legato is something that either is there or not and it didnt come to me that time.

i do appreciate your feedback, probably more than anyone else only because i do know you know what your talking about but even more because you can say it all in terms much more effective than "sounds cool but somethings off.. " so thank you. please do check out my other stuff, none of this is too serious. its all stuff i dont care if someone else rips off. of course these arent any of my real songs, this is a taste for those with whom i play with so they can know what they get themselves into. but your feedback is greatly appreciated.