Buoy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sinking Island]

This is an incredible improvement from your previous submission, in every aspect. Better harmonies, a great main melody and whatever you wish to call that background synth thing that plays something that's both a melody and a chord progression (seriously that was awesommmme). I really enjoyed the intro as well - the combination of the video game-ish melody and the straight kick drum at 0:13 is really quite hypnotic. And while you do have loooong melody lines with a lot of variations on the main theme like you did in the previous song, it feels a lot more consistent and meaningful here.

I really like transitions like 1:42 as well - you spread the sparse and the intense parts nicely so that you never exhaust the listener too much, despite the song being very high frequency oriented so to speak. The sounds are pretty neat - you've got an airy and open mix that properly showcases every synth you've got. Drums sound thick and kickin' too.

Two and a half minutes is about the point where the song starts to feel very tiring and I tend to skip it at that point - after that you just go on with the same themes you've used previously with little variation anyway so there's no point in listening further really.

So yeah overall a big leap forward since last time!

8.5/10

[Descent (MSB)]

Nice, after showing off with some dubstep with kickass production, what else to do but make an electro house banger with kickass production? :) Most of my comments on your previous submission apply here. You have a very definite style that feels something like a mix of xKore's production values and Haywyre's sense of melody.

Also what an incredibly catchy and wonderful melody you introduce at 1:02 and use as the main melody throughout the rest. It has both a cool tonality (highlighted with the 4th and 5th notes) and a very detailed, organic, kinda slushy bitcrushed sound. The generic electro pad complements it very well, both tonally and, er, timbrally. There are a few other melodic goodies as well, but only that one really stands out (and admittedly it feels a bit tiring by the last time you repeat it).

The mix and general production is fantastic as usual, though it could possibly be a bit cleaner during the busiest parts. The highs are also a lot harsher than in your previous submission.

9.3/10

GrantBowtie responds:

Thanks - I appreciate the comments.

[Children's Overture]

This submission definitely has one of the best and most unusual themes. The harmonic content of this track is just amazing, and in my opinion the most immediately impressive part. After a long while of struggling with the guitar to find out just what the hell you're doing with the chords, I just can't figure it out. It's kind of lydian, kind of harmonic minor, kind of none of these and kind of both, all I know for sure is it's intriguing as hell.

The instrumentation fits the composition perfectly. Particularly the opening stands out to me as incredibly lifelike, but the instruments sound great and organic throughout the rest too (that double bass has balls, man). The piece also has moments like 1:06 where the sophistication gives way to beauty for a moment. And everything just flows nicely and smoothly.

I have two problems with this song, a major one and a minor one: It simply doesn't have the length to really develop enough to amaze me, and the trumpets sound somewhat off. :)

9.3/10

[Harmonic Symphony 12]

I loved some of the tunes from Animusic man. Harmonic Voltage and Heavy Light especially. I think you captured some of the great things about Harmonic Voltage, and most of the variations and new stuff is neat too, but the mix is a bit hot and compressed and I'd still prefer listening to the original unfortunately. c:

Rinileki14 responds:

Fair enough ) Thanks for listening and the review!!

[-conclusion-]

So this starts off as an uplifting trance song with a very standard chord progression and a very standard drum beat - those core elements are not very original at all (the chord progression in particular is becoming a bit of a joke), but the instrumentation and variation around the tried and true trance formula is what gives the first half of the song its charm and character. Despite the song having a bit of a thicker and richer mix than most of your collection, the simple orchestral instruments are still a dead giveaway :) Almost seamlessly, then, it transforms into a more dramatic, soundtrackesque and breakbeat-oriented piece that's more reminiscent of your previous submission. The instrumentation is mostly the same, but the playing style is more vigorous and the pizzicato and sampled drumbeats help making some variation.

I personally really liked this song structure and how you were able to create a big contrast despite the instrumentation not changing much. A bit different than the standard single-genre formula and I think that's a good thing.

The mix is fine too most of the time, loud and clear. The low mids are a bit dominant in the latter half perhaps. There aren't really any big issues here. Overall a mighty fine submission.

9.0/10

[Midnight Lights {7x}]

The intro is great - it quickly and neatly introduced the listener to the track with lush filter sweeps, a standard breakbeat, neat chords and wide, rich sounds. The sax is a good addition that brings a sense of authenticity to the song, which is very much needed in a genre like this. The opposite could be said about the wobbly synth right after that, which sounds more or less uninspired and out of place, especially since we live in a time where everything that starts to remind one of dubstep immediately feels a bit cliched. c;

Mixing is good, there aren't too many elements in the song that could cause problems but the ones you have fill the frequency spectrum nicely enough. The drums do snap nicely but they're truly utterly boring as hell. They go on and on without dynamic variation apart from a few fills where one would expect them, and without tonal variation apart from a few filter sweeps - for 4 full minutes. And nothing about it makes it stand out from other bland breakbeats.

Mostly this same lack of variation and interesting new content goes for the entire track and is the one big blatant problem with this track.

8.0/10

[Supplication]

The first thing I'd like to note about this track is that you've made a fantastic intro - the piano chords immediately bring a wonderful melancholic atmosphere that's unique to this entry. It's got a bit of the same mood that I feel in songs like some variations of the jazz standard Autumn Leaves, and Supertramp's If Everyone Was Listening, off the top of my head. You introduce a cello (probably?) with a strong melody here too, and when the intro ends after 25 seconds the listener is left with a really memorable snippet.

After that, the vocals are introduced, and they have many of the same problems that I mentioned in your previous submission - mediocre sound quality (an improvement after Prompter Te, where it was pretty awful), doused in reverb, and a lot of excessive vibrato and out of tune singing (critically so during the last 2 minutes). Still, you're conveying the intended emotion very well, and the lyrics aren't bad at all. The singing also supports the chords along with the violin and the bassline in a way that leads to some fantastically beautiful resolution and chord movements. Then when the interlude at 3:26 comes, it breaks up the track into separate sections very nicely. Great flutes and authentic piano playing and a nice introduction. Overall a great addition to the track, probably my favorite part.

The biggest problem, for me, is that you're not taking advantage of the sheer length of the song. When a song is close to 7 minutes, I am expecting a variety of ideas and moods to be expressed, and most importantly, I'm expecting to hear more than one chord progression! In this songs however, the musical ideas that create the aforementioned atmosphere go on and on well beyond the point where they lose their freshness.

8.0/10

[Her Wish]

This is definitely one of the most thoroughly and objectively pretty songs of the round in well, every aspect. Your strings sound fantastic, as does the oboe, the choir and the flutes (the harp, the glock and piano are comparatively bland but it doesn't take anything away from the track of course). The mixing does them justice too. I don't know to which extent the playing style is something you programmed or if your instrument just does that, but both the emotionality and the sound of the instruments is greatly enhanced by the way some notes in a chord lag behind others and have different release times. And it feels more complex and engaging too!

Another objectively pretty aspect of the song is the chord progressions. For the first half they mostly float around and convey a mood, while in the second half they create some interesting variations on that mood - the chord at 2:01 sounds dissonant at first, then it sounds brilliant a few seconds afterwards when you realize what just happened (for me at least). The new set of chords at 1:20 is wonderfully uplifting.

This is also a song I've downloaded and keep listening to occasionally regardless of its ngadm submission status because it's relatively short, easy to appreciate (but still mentally stimulating), and overall just does its job really well. So there's not much wrong about this submission that knocks it down, but it's also clearly not developed enough to bring it all the way up to a top score either.

8.5/10

Bosa responds:

Thank you, good sir! I shall pour all the money from my bank account into yours.

[Jazzy]

oh man. I think you should get a DAW like Cubase Elements or Logic whatever, play with it and see just how much better your songwriting will become when you can see the different tracks laid out in a sequencer. You have tasteful chords and good tone and a nice playing style, and if you could get it all down and structure the ideas a bit I think you've got potential to become really awesome.

ANGELGRIS responds:

You are right man,in fact I`m working whit a new recording program and I`m planning to re-record most of my songs again,with a decent audio and more arrangements.I`m glad you liked.