Buoy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Reviving Happy Times]

t-t-t-thaaatttt is one nostalgic stab progression

I don't know why but that chord progression reminded me a ton of something I've heard before- anyway it's quite a lovely progression, it just annoys me how I can't figure what I was reminded of. The percussion line sounds suspiciously much like premade loop, but I'm not one to judge that- some little fill right before it kicks in would do good to make some more integration.

Then after it's evolved into its max, there's not too much interesting stuff going. Might want to change that- a few changes in theme for a measure or two could do good to add some variation. 'tis a very good theme, so I'd love to see more from it.

Vewy well done.

THEpower responds:

thanks, man! maybe I'm gonna think about some variations or change some stuff, because I think you're right, there's not too much in the middle

[Brain Cocktail M-1]

Mighty nice

I hear quite a bit of the mp3 floss tho, am I right when I assume it's a very low quality mp3? :P

The tune itself is not too intense, mainly because of the little offensive drums, and lack of snare. That might just be part of the "style" but I'd like harder drums in that. Repetitiveness also makes it kind of a bore- for even minutes, the composition is the exact same without changes. Which is why I like the changes very much- but of course it's not exactly a good thing.

Lovely synths though, the mix is a bit muddy but so be it. I enjoy'd for sure, though I reeeallly wanted to skip a few minutes in the song there.

EchozAurora responds:

Yep, not only is it at 112kbs..

I had to render it out at mp3 a total of three times. =[

The first time, rendering the mix. (That's the good version).

The second, chopping it up into NG-sized sections.

The third, exporting it from my f'd up lame encoder in Nero to FL where I rendered the final NG cuts.

This music was originally made for one of my friends who arranges raves around here... (That means trippy people were the target audience) so the changes are rather subtle, and it is made much smoother overall than I normally would crank out.

I may indeed upload the full 1-3 section and post a link in a newspost once I have all three parts up. If you liked this at all even, definitely look for the other parts, as this is the longest, and least varied segment.

[apeman]

Vewy vewy nice

Kind of makes me think there's supposed to be a robot playing a marimba, but something got wrong and it makes all funny digital noises from the errors- but well, that's just me I guess. I especially loved those voicy digital noises around the second minute and out, very unique sound, haven't heard anything close to em before.

Very original and interesting sound indeedo

snoballandthmonyshot responds:

cheers sbb,
yep, i had a lot of fun with the wierd noises in this:)

[Mega Man X2 - Stage select]

GRAAAAAAAAAAGH

This is one of the very few tunes, and for sure few remixes that make me want to go out on a kitty murdering massacre with my chainsaw labelled "killing device for professionals", drink my own beer and urinate on the chopped up kitten corpses, then crush the beer bottle and torture innocent kids to death with it after cutting holes for me to stick my dick into in their body with a drill.

That's not really usual for me, but I like the song. The original version was blargh thoe.

DarKsidE555 responds:

Yes, that would be swell.

[+ plus]

arr

The distorted bass combined with the massive sub bass makes an impression of unwanted distortion in the song, at least in the fade-in of the beginning, when the distorted bass is so silent you can't hear the notes, but still notice the dirt of it. Might want to fade in a distortion amount with the volume control for a nicer effect in the start. Now that's just to give a nice first impression to keep the listener through the song, not anything major at all :)

Might also want to adjust the level of the kick and get rid of the grainy sound of it- compress is and distort just a little bit for a harder effect- and finally make it nice and audible, cause it now has the horrible mix of being hardly audible yet making a painfully compression-like effect to the track. D:

Some kind of soft pad drones- windy, euphoric or dreamy, your choice, would do good through the whole track for adding more of the "night city" mood of it- you know, this is the kind of music you'd hear in the background of- I don't really have any examples right now, so I doubt you'll ever get what I mean- but try some very soft and silent, moody pads throughout (I know you have a few, but making em more constant would do good).

That's it for my suggestions. Might look like negative, unneeded nitpicking, but I just want to try and help where I can- I actually think this track is a damn good one. I sure did enjoy the clever melodies, subtle fifth pads, original percussion (especially hats- you did the entire thing all yourself? That's pretty amazing for an one-afternoon job- if it's completely original that is ^^) and gated synthage.

Now I just hope you're still active so this big review wasn't written for nothing.

Auecs responds:

Oh boy.

Where to start on this one...

Well...

First off, I might in fact distort a little with the bass. I wouldn't really know because I made this song on a pair of headphones and it sounds perfect on them.
I do not really hear the kick drum distorting. It is at an unusually high pitch but it is maybe better like that so it can pierce through the heavy bass in the background. I need to test this song out on a bigger system and adjust accordingly. You can probably expect a re-release of this song at some point. (if i have time)

Not quite sure what you meant by adding in some wispy, dreamy pads. The song is full of them. Take another listen. I think the song had a very late night feel to it. that was part of the reason why I filtered out the bass and, well, everything in the song at some parts. A nice dreamy build up. The kind of memory you have after a long night out on the town.

Your review was ery technical. I understood everything you said, but you probably could have simplified many of your points and saved yourself a lot of time. I generally know whats up when It comes to technical talk.(ok ok ok. I will stop reviewing your review LOL)

I am more interested in what you have to say about the composition of the track and the feel of it because that is what my aim is with my work. Technical shit comes second. To answer your question, yes this is a 100% AuECS original cooked up in the laboratory.

Thanks so much your your review :-D

[Karco - Apology (Trance Remix)]

Agh

That straight four on the floor beginning makes the tune very very very very very boring- mostly because of the intense repetitiveness and the lenght of it. It doesn't really evolve much, there's the same stuff going for the first two minutes. About no emotion there, so it turns out to be incredibly laidback.

The structure is kind of awkward- there's this little trance doodle around for the first minutes, then it seems like you just copy and pasted the original song in there for the next part, then finished it off with the same thing as what you started off with (seemed like, I'm pretty sure that's not what you did though). It's not exactly an original twist to it (well, of course it is original, since you made the first song)

It's a decent tune and all. But not anything new or interesting. Feels rather empty, like it needs much, much more- and it really could be a fantastic tune if you really wanted it to be one. Don't know, I neither like or dislike it.

What a bleak review from my side :/

Karco responds:

Not much to say about diversity, read the below responses... :\ Laid back is a new one, I can see where you're coming from.

As I was making the song - and consider that nearly all of it, save a few volume tweaks, was made in one night - really, what I wanted to do was to FINISH something. I guess I cut a few corners by thinking that way. :P

I know what you mean by a fantastic tune, I've actually got one (in my opinion) in the works, and hopefully it won't go the way of all of my other ideas - I was able to work to a point on them, and then the inspiration abruptly stopped coming.

Not really a "bleak" review in my opinion, especially considering most of this has been said by other reviewers, which probably makes you right. :P Thanks for the review.

[Happily Ever After -r]

yay

You're kind a spreading the synths all over the track, so it sounds pretty empty in parts, and lacks a bit of integration- you might want to layer parts over each other instead of drastically changing them as much as you've done in this track.

Again you have great melodies, you really got a talent for that. Drums have a good sound in this track too, but the beat is very repetitive for about all parts except the very beginning.

Nothing much to say about this track. I like it, but I think it needs to be pressed a bit together with the result being shorter lenght but a better tune overall.

yeah

Rawrthaas responds:

Thanks :D

[Boss Song II]

Har

Great stuff, the drums really kick the quality of the track up quite a few notches, they really have a punchy, aggressive nature. Then there's just ear candy around it, with some refreshing synths, some emotional and other aggressive, you'll probably get what I think of the tune- it's full of goodness! :D

One suggestion tho- when you use the same melody for three different synths in a row, it really just sounds like you want to show off the synths. Make some slight, noticeable variation in their melodies to make it sound better.

Yeah, you've made a great song basically

Rawrthaas responds:

Oh that's great. A 10 from you :D

[Moonlight Rave -r]

well, yay

Great rave track you got. The start is pretty damn repetitive, which isn't really much of a problem for the listener, but it might be for you, since people could think it'd just go on like that forever and just leave the song without finishing listening to it :)

But of course it changes, with a lot of exiting changes. From 1:24 and out the tune is pretty much an emotional trance paradise of a song. When that supersaw is gone and you replaced it with some thin square synth though, it drags the attention to the kick, shamefully revealing how basic and plain it sounds. Some multilayering and shit could do good to make a great kick- but that's just me and my nitpicking. The tune is great as it is right now.

Rawrthaas responds:

You're right. When the saw goes away and is replaced, I was hasty to put in a second melody/variation thing.. Guess it didn't come out right. Thanks :)

[Nodea]

bah

Do you record, or do you just never quantize? Cause a lot of your stuff has timing issues. Makes it sound clumsy and much more amateurish. :P You got nice instruments in the song, that's for sure though. Add some fitting, subtle effects to 'em, and you'll have it sound much better.

AND QUANTIZE YOUR STUFF DAMNIT :)

ConradB responds:

I don't even know what a quantize is