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

[RGH: Badass Showdown(Film)]

everything i would look for in a badass showdown

lol @ knuxrounge tho, i can see what he's saying. most people would probably expect showdown music to have some tension and fast paced, battle melodies, with overly fast drums and lightening speed guitar shredding that opens up vortexes to the netherlands. but this one is laidback and cool, just like a badass unflinching in battle and just. getting. the. job. done.

I love how you start this track off simple with the droning contrabass note, simple toms, a subtely swelling synth, and then you bring in the quiet higher string melodies. Perfect job with that. You build tension with keeping the mix quiet and simplistic. I really like when you transition into the main beat and include the pizzicato strings, and shift between major and minor keys. you even picked up the beat around 1:26 when the badasses really get into the brawl, throughout you create an excellent scene like you described- and it even loops perfectly. This would be very suitable for a sniper scene.

Excellent composition and sequencing the parts, and outstanding job with the mixing. lemme also add that i like the fuzzy snare sample you use, and the echo effects on the ride and snare hits.

keep it rolling as always BadAssGuyHead :D

-Review Request Club-

RyeGuyHead responds:

Oh yea, glad you liked what I did with this number. Was really pleased with the results, nice to see such a positive response.

"BadAssGuyHead" u rule!!

[(FMC) -=Soaring=-]

freakin awesome dude

this could use some polishing, but i love the main ideas. this could be used in one of those basic but addiciting flash games.

I really like the piano you start with, some excellent lower harmonies and glissful higher arpeggios. the decaying echo effect you use is nice as it inspires a floating feel. strings come in nicely, and great sequence of everything being layered around 1:45, very happy scenery, great melodical work. Glissando comes in pretty suddenly, doesnt really add much to this track with me, and you might be offkey. The ending was nice. but it was essentially the same as the section before, so you might want to mix up the melodies more. I do like your ending tho.

mixing could use some work. first, it wouldn't hurt to raise the drums and pianos volume. The plucked synth that harmonizes with the piano in the first half could be panned to the left a bit to give more room to the piano (another cool thing you could do is lower the volume, and have it pan from speaker to speaker in the background- this is a bit more advanced grounds), Drums fit for the trance style, although I think they could use more variation. You will want to definetly make your kick louder, EQ more bass, and make your claps and hi hats louder too. may want to reverb the clap too.

there is some cheesy elements in here, but for some reason i really dig this track, i love the main ideas and overall gleeful sound this track emits, so good going, good going :)

-Review Request Club-

FunkmasterCatking responds:

Yeah, I kind of got lazy at the end and I thought if I added anything else it would sound all distorted, but I never thought of panning some stuff to one side.

Thanks for the review!

[The Grass Can Be Greener]

w00t

well thought out and put together track. the rhythm track works really well with the main themes. I like the poppy melody on the saw synth, backed up the electric sounds, lyrics and vocals work well- i do indeed like the vocoder effect you use, pretty creative from my perspective. Drum beat is nice and original sounding, i like the samples you use. this could use some bassier sounds, the saw kinda works, but I would have turned down the course knob -24 on one oscillator on the clean sounding synth. not sure if it would make the mix sound muddy or more full. its already pretty damn sweet, it would be good if you made this a full song and broke this up into sections- maybe a chorus with some blasting drums with a phil collins esque reverb sound for the vocals!

Keep up the good work.

-Review Request Club-

MusicIsBliss responds:

hahaha, phil collins esque, i like it
wow, thanks for the positive reveiw

the main reason i didnt make the lead fuller was because i had made it oscilate between really full, and not so full. at some points it obviously made the song not as filling, but at those points the lyrics sounded sharper, and it added more variety to the song.

I look forward to hearing your reveiws from any other songs i send to the rrc

[KR- Sonic 2 Mystic Cave]

well....

this is one of my favorite sonic tunes, actually i like all the old school sonic tunes very much <3. You definetly have the same tune down indeed- but to the point where I have to question if you just straight uploaded a .midi file into FL studio and replaced it with instruments (which is not allowed, you need to make original remixes from scratch). the dynamics are fluid and the panning is spaced which makes me question that, lol. whether you did or not, you use the same instruments used in the original composition, and it doesn't have enough of your own personal flair; so don't be afraid too add your own style by messing with instrument selection and altering the melodies and rhythms yourself. if you did arrange this from scratch tho, great job doing it.

some more suggestions:
-There is clipping throughout most of the track put some compression on the piano
-Put reverb on the piano for depth(why not a model with a large room size and a good deal of decay to recreate a spooky cave theme?)
-Drums wouldn't be a bad fit
-That loudness in the end sounds unprofessional, gradually work your way into it or just don't include the increase at all

Well good luck, keep doing these sonic remixes but dont be afraid to experiment more.

-Review Request Club-

knuxrouge responds:

I don't use midis, I start from scratch and work hard.
I use a Brass, keys a Sytrus and String. I dont quite understand what you said about the panning, but I was testing with my growing mixing skills and I guess that was a result. I don't use effects alot, mainly because I don't see any real need to use them. I'm not too good at originality, I'm still working on that part. Its better when I have the main flow in mind in contrast to thinking one up. Thank you.

FPCs are a bitch to use for me, I use them sparingly. The loudness at the end was intentional as to add a bit of spookiness to the track.

All and all, thanks for your review.

[I Like to Hit Things]

Good show chap

this works quite well as a standalone piece. it could be used in some lighthearted and funny play or flash of sorts, like a mime riding a unicyle or something. But it's definetly a joyful composition throughout despite you saying it lacks variation. real nice catchy rhythm scheme, joyful higher pitched melodies with the graceful lower tones, overall an excellent composition. some nice tasteful dissonance in here too, which helps the mood. tempo slowdown was well executed, and the arpeggiated chord you ended on was beautiful.

one thing this could use is some velocity and dynamics variation. as long as its not percussion its not a big deal with me, but it'll make your sound more authentic. reverb is not really needed here, although if you slap some on you could create a more "live" feel. i would usually say add strings or another instrument to accompany the solo piece in this track, but this is already very entertaining by itself that the piano accomplishes the job alone.

-Review Request Club-

WritersBlock responds:

Thanks for the comments. I'll probably put some more attention to the dynamics and expression. Cheers for the review. Very helpful.

[Boss Fight Number One]

Very Good

this is pretty sweet, but some of the sounds and harmonies could work better together. The backing filtered synths don't sound to great with keyboards upfront, you might want to select a different sound. The harmonization seems a bit awkard around the transitioning at 00:13, it might not be a fault in the actual composition but the synths classhing. its not too bad in the second half, so no real beefs here.

One aspect of this track I love are the kickass, fast paced battle suitable melodies. The piano riff in the intro is sweeet, you establish it with some nice melody, use the "galloping" triplets, and do a great job of using the same theme and harmonizing. I really dig how you have the super fast arpeggios, with a nice guitar (or whatever) chord progression to back it up. the ending is abrupt, you might want to slow it down before it ends, or atleast end on an extended chord/note. I would definetly love to see some phrasing done here, and here the same portion that you used in the intro, but that's not necessary for a boss battle piece.

Mastering work...could use some polishing. I mean it's nice and full, takes up the stereo, but the panning, is weird? I like how the piano flies around my speakers, but it kinda takes up too much space from the other sounds. Like the main synth you used, I can't hear it all during certain times. And the drums could be a tad louder, and the closed hi-hat should be panned to the right a bit.

But who cares? This is pretty sweet man.

an1ma7ion responds:

Thanks! I need a little encouragement to get me though the day

[8Bit Cutscene Loop]

Hardly has an 8-bit feel

The main melody is the only part that sounds geniunely 8-bit. the bassline has a tiny bit too much depth to sound 8bit (might just be me). My favorite part about 8bit tracks are the drums, so it was a bit disappointing to not seen any bitcrushed drums in here :( I recommend you google and download the program bitcrusher, so you can make your drums have that 8bit feel :)

as far as the composition- it's on the plain side and nothing to interesting. The lead melody you use sounds pretty nice and could work as something catchy, but it doesn't have a lot of instruments to support it. I would definetly like to see a more varied progression, and possibly some extended high pitched notes; just like one or two more synths in here. As for the drumbeat, its nothing interesting but it fits for this type of style, but it would sound much better if add some driving sounds to accompany it. Also, woulnt hurt to throw in some hi-hats as well for good measure.

its on the simple side and could use some more work to refine an 8bit sound- but its not horrible, keep trying :)

Dark-Frando responds:

Ah, I wasnt aware that such a program existed, I'll look into it and see what i can do, thanks =)

[Feel Good]

Been a while

good job mixing, chopping, and putting FX on various A'cappellas (sp?). the intro is nice, with the fuzzy bassynth, the unbutchered gorillaz vocals, but the melodies on the top created some unwanted offkey dissonance and clanged a bit- might be what you were going for, but I personally didn't like these riffs. the vocals after are nice, good job with the deep arena reverb simulation. i especially like when you chop up the vocals. beat is pretty good, might wanna EQ some more bass on the kick tho cuz I can't hear it too much. Harmonization is a bit weird around 02:30, but and it starts getting really awkward when the vocals come in. I actually don't feel good :) - but i guess the twisted feel is what you're going for? hehe, good job with that. I would definetly like to hear some more smoother, harmony in here but its all up to the listener lol. Good work with the blend of vocals in the end tho for sure. This might just be one of those tracks that you have to listen to multiple times before you start to appreciate more.

nice remix S-H! :)

TimeBender responds:

Thanks a lot man! that really made an imprint.

[Not so Simple]

ouch

I can tell your new and just messing around with the various sounds in FL so I will try not to give too much advanced criticism just yet...also WritersBlock hit the nail on the head with his review. aside from the sounds, there just wasn't too much to this piece. There was just a simple dancekick, which doesn't fit in much with the composition...try using a kick "in real drumkits"

But besides the kick, try adding hi hats (why didn't you keep them playing consistently?)on each measure, add a crash at the beginning of every four bars, a snare at every third measure, and then fill in the kicks to how you like it. That should help you start making basic drum patterns. And like writersblock said, FPC is a good start. you'll eventually want to look around for more realistic samples on the web and load them into FPC once you get further experienced in FL.

The guitar melodies nothing greater than okay, but they lack an interesting rhythm (it may sound better with a drumset in the background complimenting it). I like how you panned both of the guitars, but they could have a more defined direction..you might want to put some light compression on them, and work on messing with the effects within the FL slayer plugin to make your own tones instead of using the overused, boring presets ;).but really, i would love to hear a different sound altogether...

Once you get a good drumbeat done, add some organ chords or a rhythm guitar to play in the background, and put a bassline in the center. then you will have a much fuller sound, and a more complete composition.

Keep making music dude! everyone has to start somewhere. Have fun :)

-Review Request Club-

aldlv responds:

your review was the best...
thanx
(& the title was funny)