Buoy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[Another Expedition]]

naw man

I have heard that loop a lot before- must be a FL or Reason loop, not sure which.

I'm not really sure what you're going for here- a song that fits the jazz genre? A song with jazz elements? Because as far as I can hear, this doesn't have any of that. I feel the saxophone acts more as a way to insert a "standard" jazz requirement into the song or something, if you catch my drift. A jazz song certainly doesn't need a saxophone. You can get the jazz feel much more easily with two things: 1. seventh chords, and 2. shuffle rhythm. And, if you have the music theory, a 2-5-1 chord progression (disregard that if that went completely over your head... i dunno how your music theory knowledge is)

And as seel mentioned, I think a flute or something else without the sharp sound of that saxophone would fit better in a very calm and smooth song like this. And maybe a sample set of actual jazz drums would do better than the synth drums here

Still, I enjoy the background very much (i.e the tune minus the sax and drums). There are some very pleasant and delightful synths, so I would expand more on that airy ambient feel than trying to insert jazz into it.

[Waryax ~ Demo]

sounds very nice.

You did a good job not making anything stand out too much, so everything sounds pretty pleasant. Well, except the detuned synth lead that gets too loud in the "human voice" kind of range in the end of the tune. I'd recommend bringing down the high mids on it just a bit, so it would still be listenable with headphones at higher volumes. As of now I can't comfortably bring the volume up to more than half of my headphones' maximum output.

And I don't really like this style overall, it's something about the whole piano and drums things that don't appeal much to me. So I didn't enjoy it as much as someone else would probably but that is of course just me, so don't mind this last paragraph.

[In Mist She Was Standing]

hah

awesome two first seconds. The rest of the guitar part was a bit well, I didn't like it as much. But it would be beast-ass as shit if you added the guitar melody one octave below. Unless that interferes too much with the bass. Still, the awesome low riff in the beginning is too much of a false proimise for me to forgive.

Really nice melodies though. And nice tunage overall. Though I agree that the hihat sounds like shit. I'd just ditch it and replace it with something else.

I enjoyed it at this tempo despite what you say, after hearing this I'd probably think of a -10bmp version as too slouchy.

seel responds:

Yeap, hihat definitely sounds like ass in a can, can't argue with that. Gonna use Superior 2 for drums when I remake it, I used EzDrummer in this for some reason. I kinda agree about the tempo, I'll probably bring it down by no more than 5 bpm.

Thanks for the review!

[Premoeffect - Stroma]

oh man

I love that sound. The excessive reverb on it works, oddly. I'd still take that reverb down a bit if I were you though. Could of course use some brushing up mixwise (the high end is a bit painful at high levels and the kick is fairly weak for example) but otherwise, this is beast-ass. Love the synth sounds you're using, some very clever transitions and synth tweaks that keep it exciting. Awesome tunage.

[/_Now Is The Time_\]

What the hell is SineRider doing with his alts lol

Great mood in the beginning, only a few flaws later on imo- I don't think the 808 type snare fits too much, nor does the cheapish nylon guitar thing, and well I don't really know about the sax. Aaaand it's dragged out quite a bit and gives me the bores after a couple of minutes. But good song still.

WildeKeizer responds:

Yeah, it does get boring.

[Contest Winner because it owns]

omg

best entry yet.

[RiRi's Song Pt. II]

Yesss

This is the very specific kind of hip hop I enjoy. Until 0:26 with the just horrible bit crushing noise. Which goes away after a while fortunately. I would just ditch that and replace it with a more pleasant effect. Otherwise, don't drive the bitcrusher as hard- subtle use sounds good, excessive use like here does not. Unless you're aphex twin or something

Other than that little issue, lovely funky little background beat.

JackRocker responds:

Hey, I appreciate the review! I'm a big fan of your music so getting a review from you is a pretty big deal for me. Not a fan of the bit crushing, you say? I'll have to experiment with some other effects and see what sounds good. Glad you liked the funky background beat. Funky Hip Hop is my favorite style of Hip Hop as well. Thanks again for the review, I'll take it all into consideration, and do some editing on this tonight. Now to drop you a review...

[Machinery Mayhem]

like it

I can just hear the awesome potential in this. With thicker sounds, harder drums and just nicer production over the board, this would be some really badass shit. And with some reverb and other ambience, it would be a GREAT factory level kind of soundtrack.

[Dancing With The Devil]

ha :D

This song has some surprisingly interesting melodic stuff, what with the leading tones and rhythmic variation and all. Just calling in to say I'm pleasantly surprised with this little piece of tune. Fits the RPG kind of mood very well too. To improve... well I guess the drum kit sounds quite bland, and a more prominent bassline wouldn't hurt.

Kyrieru responds:

Thanks a lot for the review.

At this point I suppose I should start experimenting with other sounds for drums rather than just using a single soundfont all the time...

[MrSaint - Flying by (WIP)]

err

did you have some direction or theme in mind when you made the melody? There's hints of a "call and response" type theme (i.e the high notes 'respond' to the low note) in the latter half but other than that there's no apparent direction. So as a result it sounds quite random and well, not very thought through. Some things I would recommend you to try out if you're going to make melody-centric songs is: figure out a simple catchy "main" phrase, focus on that phrase with repetition and have other instruments/embellishment notes serve to bring out that main phrase rather than take attention away from it. You do have a repeating main phrase here but the bass, drums and higher piano notes are all over the place.

Sorry if this review is just an onslaught of criticism, it's just a wip so don't worry about it :D haha

MrSaint responds:

Thank you very much for the criticism, mate! It helps me to find the source of the problem.

Didn't really have a direction, just random stuff in A minor scale, but I'll continue working on this piece, putting more thought into it