Buoy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ethereal (loop + W.I.P)]

I must say

I must say it sounds pretty sweet even though it's a wip. The lead is very similar to a type of lead that was used much in gameboy advance generation games (pulse wave with a relatively short delay), so it brings back memories from 4-5 years ago I believe.

The bass has that very delicious, nice and fat analog sound. That's a rather high range for a bass but I still love it. The arpeggiated synth is nice and airy, gives it that ethereal sound, I think this would be amplified with a more prominent delay. Good work with the drums too, nothing too fancy but it fits very well in the mix.

Great use of the stereo field by the way, it really fills up and makes the piece less one-dimensional. The only thing I slightly disagree with is the panning, sustained percussion sound- sounds a bit harsh and could use a bit of filtering or something similar imo.

Anyway, sweet little loop, keep going on this

[iKONiC Instrumental]

Sick as fuck

Man. Right from the beginning, you've got that dark, deep, bassy atmosphere. It's seriously fat as hell, especially when that distorted bass is introduced. The drums (as well as the other percussion) turn me off a bit. I think they'd fit much more into the atmosphere if they were more gritty or distorted. At least change the open hat, give it some flange or something, it sounds distractingly much like a stock sample right now. I think I hear a distant kind of piano sample in the beginning?

I think the atmosphere would be improved generally if you allowed a couple of elements more reverb (I guess the shaker or open hat, vocals perhaps, could use some). I realize it might fuck things up since the mix is so chock full already, so take my tip with care.

Anyway. This is some incredibly sick shit, darkest thing I've heard in a loooong while, I love it.

Mid-Night responds:

Oh thanks! :)

[Hong Kong]

This song

I'm absolutely blown away by the atmosphere you have created with this piece! :D If I close my eyes while listening to the intro, I immediately feel like I'm soaring over a large, grassy highland with rivers, lakes, steep mountains and falls. It's been a long time since a song has been able to do something like that to me. The timbre of the flute is absolutely brilliant, same with the strings and percussion (I love the sudden changes in intensity around 0:42). The clear, thin metal-like percussion just adds another dimension to that- high pitched metal percussion is, in my opinion, always welcome, no exceptions.

Now after that fantastic intro, the less impressive break with percussion and bass was a little disappointing- I was expecting a beautiful, grandiose sort of resolution to that build-up. Eventually the familiar atmosphere returns, with (hopefully intentionally) a hint of heroic struggle from the brass, choir, timpani-like percussion and the overall composition.

You've done a swell job with the stereo field- I can clearly hear it when analyzing the piece, but even though it is pretty much unnoticeable when casually listening to it, it adds so much to the atmosphere.

I hope you realize that you're much, much more experienced and skilled than most of the Newgrounds userbase, so I can't help but praising every aspect of it. Please keep up the fantastic work, and keep submitting!

nathanallenpinard responds:

Much thanks, and wow...that's a hell of an interview.

The image I had was a large cinematic shot of Hong Kong at night, distant, to where you see only the buildings and the lights. At the percussion break, that's where a chase scene on foot would begin, so it calms down almost to let any sound design through that starts, or dialogue.

Then later upon when the brass come in, it's increases, possibly with a car chase, or some other vehicle (though a shortened version as this was a concept) then upon the theme at the end, that's when a helicopters rushes in to pick up Arkady.

The end was Velvet (who at the time was the enemy, but had a thing for Arkady) looking at the distant helicopter flying away.

The whole scene it's pouring down rain.

[Solus + SBB- Switchback]

yes

The wang-bing is misplaced in relation to the third yogga of the xomp-gong, that must be fixed, other than that it's probably the best song ever made.

SolusLunes responds:

Well goddamn, I'm pretty sure the third yogga was what you were responsible for.

[Guide to Sophisticated Living]

Fantastic

All the instruments sound ridiculously fat- did you put chorus on absolutely everything? Got any tips or tricks to share?

Anyway, hire a sax player and have him and your bass player (or your bass soundfont, ha) do a combined sax/slap bass solo. Please, for the love of God, do that

That's all.

Hyper-Freak92 responds:

I love slap, and I love sax. That's totally something I'd do.

In fact, expect a song today that's a bass vs sax soundfont battle. lawl.

Which means I should answer the next most obvious question - Yes, everything in this song except for the guitar is a soundfont.

[Collosal Collaboration]

Sweet

Love all the treble you put in here. The piano is thin as hell, but I consider that a good thing in this piece. Those square waves are raw and unfiltered, almost 8-bit like. I love it! Even the bass has a LOT of treble.

It doesn't really sound finished though. It evolves into this funky square wave solo thing at about :26, then keeps doing that until a very abrupt ending. So there's not too much to say about it, except it's short. If you guys try and continue on this one, I think it'll be great. For now though, it's mostly a disappointment due to the short lenght and abrupt ending. :(

Very cool sounds and feeling though, nice one

Aydin-Jewelz123 responds:

ye thanks for the feedback, it was pretty rushed and im busy with another project at the moment but will do something about the length pretty soon. thanks for the advice =)

[lost my pants]

HAHAHAHA

BRILLIANT.

TheBardOfBlasphemy responds:

hehe, thanks man.

[Rucklo - A Better Tomorrow WIP]

Hey Fucklol!!

So a review with the production-aspect in mind it is. Prepare for a very opinionated review that is more about ideas for improvement than it is about the song itself.

I really don't like the plain, sharp triangle wave sound in the beginning. I think it'd benefit from a little, subtle bit of chorus or unison right before the delay, just to make it sound smoother. Reverb and delay effects tend to sound horrible and unrealistic on plain triangle/square/saw waves. The shaper and filter automation is funky, would be cool to hear that automation stand out a bit more.

Cool throaty bass. Really rough and unpolished sound, but I think it has its own character and should stay like that. Subby and boomy as hell too, I like that. The automation work from 1:40 or so is nothing short of godly. I don't know quite what you did there, but it sounds like there's feedback on the synth- ftw!

That distorted, resonant kinda filtered drum beat at 0:30 or so was WICKED AS FUCK. There are some great variations of that, like that waltzy slow variation at 2:48. Fantastic :) However, the main drums sound a too poppy and high pitched for my taste. I really love dnb tracks (all tracks actually!) with deep, hard drums, so it was kind of a disappointment after that awesome filtered beat. Those little shaker fills are swell too, I didn't notice them upon the first listen.

The piano has a great deep sound, proper amount of reverb and all. The melody sounds like improvisation, musical doodling if you like, no distinct melody or anything (I'll get back to that later). Try to do something more out of it and it will be great. Ooh, comeback of that raw waveform synth. It just played the intro again and faded out, which is fine I guess.

I don't know man- the song has no catchy melody and sort of wanders from one vague theme to another one. It never really had me hooked. I think you should take these ideas and rearrange the track a little, make each part stand out, and first of all give it a more recognisable theme. That's my opinion anyway.

You really have some sweet as hell sounds though, so keep it up! I expect nothing less than awesomeness from the final result ;)