Buoy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[§Arbiter§ - Glory, Sacrif]

righto

I admit I haven't listened to any of the other entries, so I can compare it to anything, but you certainly put the theme to good use. The main theme is very strong, the rest of the orchestra complements it very well (the piccolo flute in particular did a good job, the variation on the main theme is great). Overall it sounds like the was made to be this way, and the theme doesn't ever sound 'forced'. The mix is nice and thick, but also clear as glass for the most part, the flute seems to get drowned a bit in the very middle, but you know that's a nitpick.

Love it! Fantastic work, you go win a contest with it or something. No constructive review for you :)

Arbiter responds:

Thank you for an indepth and well balanced review - I'm honored by your praise!

[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

[brokenbeat]

Sounds great

The kick really packs some punch, very ear-pounding at a high volume. Snare is nice as well, perhaps a bit damp. I'd like to see you get more crazy with both bass and drum programming, the little fill at 0:07 is very promising, but it never gets crazier, right

Anyway, great for a mini snippet thing. Keep working on it, I'll be looking forward to a finished product. This - rhythm section/break/whatever this is - sounds neat already, but a full arrangement/mix would be very swell. Send me a PM if you make something huge from this

jarrydn responds:

Thanks man!

Yeah, it's a little boring. I've started going in a new direction with it. Much cheezier, kind of veering towards rave-breaks.

I still haven't got the hang of writing fidget-house style basslines, so I'm going to practice a bit more before I try releasing anything along those lines :P

Thanks for the review man, I'll let you know when I put some more stuff up :)

[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! :)

[[ RaveLeNation. ]]

You must've read my cookbook! :D

"Right off the bat, insert THE most generic chord progression in the world, accompanied by a very thin, very horrible and very generic sounding synth lead.

Now, insert a generic kick on every beat, insert a generic bass and some other random generic synth that follows the generic chord progression without a single variation at all.

Repeat everything, then after a minute or so, remove one of these vital ingredients once to create the illusion of diversity. And then, by the very end, the whole song is randomly quantized into triplets to make it seem more interesting.

Make the master volume as loud as possible so everything gets that flavour of overcompression and digital distortion that we all love.

Serve."

[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.