Buoy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Weather the Storm]

The arrangement and vocals are beautiful, and you did a great job making them jam together. Most of the instrumentation is nice (not sure about the accordion), but it does sound more computery than it needs to since every note is right on the grid and there is little/no variation when motifs are repeated. The vocals help a lot with improving that though :)

Did you win?

Step responds:

BUOY holy crap it's been too long! Nice to see you around again.

It does sound kinda computerised. You're not the first to bring that up! We're probably making another version of this with clearer vocals and a few other changes, so we'll likely look into that.

We did win, results were announced in the below video! (the top contenders were announced 11 minutes in, and 19 minutes in the winner was announced)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JjEpm4bRBs

So that's pretty cool.

Thanks for dropping by! Hope you're doing well.

[~ES & SW~ Center of the Rainbow]

Good music. The harmony is fun (but not very varied). The melody is sometimes solid, but in some places it's just kind of slavishly following the chord progression and not really holding up on its own. Nice sounds and mix, with the snappy drums, juicy filtered synths, tasty basslines and all. I think the song would be much stronger if you compacted it down to 4 minutes or even less by cutting a lot of the ambient noodling in the first half, because it takes ages to get going. The longer version makes for good background music though.

SkyeWint responds:

Oh damn, hey man! Where have you been?

Sadly, that is the case in the beginning. Maybe if we had the time to make a more consistent and developed theme, that would have been awesome. This was about 5 days of writing and 2 days of mixing.

Oh well. It's good to see ya, glad that you enjoyed it at least! (btw, i have another song you might enjoy more which I did alone but spent a lot more time on - Reflection.)

[YOU KNOW WHAT!?]

This is music.

Father-of-Death responds:

That's true.

[In Memory of Buoy]

Turns out that this dumb thing has made people think I was actually dead. See http://buoy.newgrounds.com/news/post/961137#comments and http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/588957, as well as my PMs. On second thought do not see my PMs. Anyway, I am here to confirm that this is indeed the case. I am now a spooky ghost, booo.

[~SW~ Colorless]

I found the atmosphere and this to be incredible... haunting, ominous, huge.

SkyeWint responds:

Dude, Omnisphere is amazing.

Thanks a lot for the review.

[Four Brave Champions (CS)]

Doing this kind of jazz version of a heavy orchestral soundtrack is an interesting choice, and the main melody works pretty allright in this setting. The main problem is that the mix needs work - the cymbals and hats are very heavy and the chords from the piano+sax get buried beneath the drums and the main melody. Some of the instruments also sound too sterile and midi-like. So I imagine this arrangement could sound brilliant if sounds/mixing aspects were reworked.

[Pick Me Up Baby (Cover)]

The main issue with this cover is that structure-wise, it is largely a carbon copy of the original with replaced instruments. Hence the only new elements of this version is the rock band instrumentation. That part is done very well though - it has a nice, fat and wide mix of tight guitars, good vocals and a drum beat that somewhat keeps the spirit of the original.

[xKore-Entropy (Masq Rmx)]

What strikes me about this is that it sounds really coherent, the samples from the original are mixed so well with your instruments that it's not clear where the original ends and yours begins. The FM-y bass fits in very well (it tends to be a bit dominant in your earlier tracks). Generally this track sounds more large and atmospheric than xkore's. It doesn't venture very far away from the original in terms of mood and structure and everything, so I think there's potential to be even more adventurous.

[The Genocide]

Woah, that was unexpected. Different tempo, completely different style and set of instruments. That slap bass is siiiiiiiiick. It hits amazingly hard at 1:45 (that part has way too much of the high frequencies though), and the calm part afterwards is groovy as hell. Other than some issues with mild distortion and the high frequencies, the mix is good too. Congratulations, this is a great cover which really surpasses what I though one could plausibly do with the original.

SourJovis responds:

Thank you for your review. Glad you like the slap bass. I like it too. I took your comments to heart, and I made an alternate mix with less high frequencies, removed much of the mild distortion. It does sound a little less loud and bombastic, but it's more pleasant to the ears. You could listen to it to see which one you like better. The link is in the description.

[Sea of Grass (Jazz)]

Hm, I could barely recognize the original theme in there until about 1:38. That said, this is a wonderful and very authentic jazz guitar piece! Some of the harmonies are just incredible. This is certainly a favorite song of mine in its own right. The low-key minimalist approach works great here.

SilverPoyozo responds:

Thank you so much!Sadly it felt very incomplete and disjointed as others have stated, but still...I really tried to make justice to the original song.And I hope I did.