Buoy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Turning The Pages]

Man you liked that shitty piano and guitar synths didn't you. But I'm hearing a few other instruments too, and they're actually playing together and giving each other space, which is something even more experienced bands neglect. And I'm glad you were quick to change your drum kit to something more acoustic-like, even if it sounds like it's from a Casio toy keyboard. The drum beat still plays the same rhythm as the piano, which as i mentioned previously is kinda cute

Oh and it clips like fuck. haha

Step responds:

Haha yeah I was still using MIDI instruments at the time, don't forget :P. Those only have one piano sample and a small handful of guitar samples.

The composition on here isn't too bad considering this is like my third ever song. But it does clip yeah - Sky Falcons used to clip like crazy too, but I fixed that a few months later. This, however, I never fixed.

Also how is it cute that the drums and piano play the same rhythm that's like the worst idea ever :(.

Thanks!

[The 10 and a half heroes]

A lot worse than your first thing, the horn sounds are particularly bad. And the piano has this weird phasing issue. And the drums just follow the melody instead of playing a beat, I mean lol what? That's kinda cute though. I'm still hearing some direction in the chords, and call-and-response melodies, which is more than can be said about a lot of beginners.

Step responds:

Haha, yeah these are still all MIDI instruments. Thinking back, I'm almost certain now that THIS is in fact the first track I ever did.

I've overdone this melody to high heaven though, as you know now, by making like four remixes of it.

Thanks for reviewing :3.

[Sky Falcons]

Didn't suck as much as I expected at all! You obviously started off with a much better sense of melody and musicality than I did. I mean that flute could have sounded pretty good at times if you had the samples you have now. And some of the piano chords are pretty good, even though the piano samples are terrible. And the drums are classic fruity loopy beginner stuff. Still leagues better than most of the stuff i remember dealing with as an audio mod.

Step responds:

I do agree that this is better than a lot of stuff we deal with when audio modding, haha. Still, I bet if I actually started on a DAW instead of some crappy music notation software, though, it'd have sounded terrible.

The flute isn't bad because Echo did all of it and he had a lot of music theory knowledge when he started off with music. I did the piano stuff though. And there's also a violin playing a middle C note for almost the whole track which is insanely stupid, what was I thinking :(.

Thanks for the review!

[Reset (Instrumental)]

Definitely the superior version. There is some fantastic detail both composition- and sound-wise in this song, and it really shines here unlike in the other one where they are drowned out entirely by a (imo) mediocre vocal track.

Shanath responds:

I'd say both versions do their job nicely. It's more of an acquired taste depending if you like vocals or just full on instrumentals. The feelings both tracks give off are also a little different so they could be considered two different songs altogether.

Thanks for the review! And of course for providing your guitar skills to this project. :3

[Where Water Once Was]

What a gem. Full of jazzy treats and with a sweet shuffle rhythm. I love you man

[Ancient Stories 2]

I actually wrote a somewhat thorough review of this when I thought it was made by the other guy, and it wonâEUTMt really hurt to post it here anyway. Though of course in light of this song being written 13 years ago, a lot of the opinions and suggestions are useless and unfair. :) Here it is:

The first 20 seconds are wonderful - the flute playing a suspended chord arpeggio and the chilly atmospheric instrumentation go hand in hand to create the feeling of a huge landscape. The deep, distant drum sets the listener up for the full blown percussion to be unleashed. The percussion section is pretty sweet - nothing like a traditional drum kit beat, the rhythm is more like a shaker on steroids. Still kicks nicely.

After that comes a good minute thatâEUTMs mostly focused around the melodies of the two flutes. They are great. Solid melodic theme that goes through the song with just about enough variation (the key changes are very obvious, but effective) to keep it interesting throughout. Some more variation would still be a plus here. The same «shuffled percussion + flute melodies» theme goes on throughout the song - you never really do any playful stuff with the flutes (you have two different but similar lead instruments - that just screams for a flute duel or a call-and-response thing!) or change things up to really grab the attention of the listener beyond the theme youâEUTMve already established fairly well after half a minute.

Instrumentation is a bit of a mixed bag for this one - the quaint 90s RPG feel isnâEUTMt a really huge problem since those instruments donâEUTMt dominate, the mixing is pretty good and the reverb that envelopes them is glorious. The breathier flute (I donâEUTMt know which is which instrument), percussion and guitar parts sounds great and organic. The ditty in the left ear that starts at 0:50 is the only thing that put me off a bit, it only served to annoy me after a while, and it doesnâEUTMt really add anything - the entire percussion section already plays that same shuffled shaker rhythm. And it has none of the organic folk sound that the rest of the instrumentation has. This is obviously not a major issue.

Mixing-wise, the high mid range is a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that goes on there - two flutes, occasionally strings and choir, and guitar. Leaves me with ear fatigue after a couple of solid listens. Some balancing out would be nice here. Maybe consider panning each of the flutes noticeably to one side? Other than that, the mix is pretty solid, and everything except the choir is heard as much as I want it to be.

[Woke Up This Morning (Dix Mix)]

okay what

C-G-B responds:

You can kill a man but you can't kill what he stands for. Not unless you first break his spirit. That's a beautiful thing to see.

[Don't We All?]

holy shit, that caught me off guard. Amazing intro, and wonderful production all over. The vocals were great but the way they're mixed is a bit loud, dry and jarring.

Kor-Rune responds:

Thanks! I'll mix them down some next time, I never get it right til someone lets me know, so I really appreciate the review. Thanks, man!

[Paper Planes]

ahh... reminds me of that one time I made a song named something like "paper planes". It was crap but I should do it again..

As for the song, it's pretty neat. The drums especially are nice and well rounded, much like a Deadmau5 track (probably due to you using the same samples). The song doesn't have the immersive lush sound that I think you're going for with the detuned pads and stuff. Maybe some more reverb and pads will do the trick, I dunno. I enjoyed it quite a bit anyway.

Nmanif responds:

Thanks man, I really appreciate the feedback! Yea looking back, I don't think I quite got the sound I wanted, but oh well! I'll probably come back to this one in a month or so and fix things....but right now I've been working on it too much...so everything is starting to sound good....when in reality it reaaallly needs work hahaha. Again, thanks for the feedback :)