FinaLee's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Last One In The Pub]

I kinda like it! In most cases, I'm not in favor of poor emulations of dynamic instruments like guitars and even drums, but I think the theme of the track gives it a certain charm. Of course, I still say you guys should invest in real instruments for the kind of sound that I think you guys are striving for. The novelty of something like this can wear off pretty quickly.

Angelsosa responds:

Salutes, my friend. Thanks for your review, you're probably right. The sound of the instruments is the biggest weakness of this tracks. But, the song still has pretty nice riffs and melodies, hasn't it?

[Entropy]

Hmmm, there are some interesting melodies that have potential, but this feels too much like a two and a half minute screw around to be taken very seriously. There's not much cohesiveness between your melodies, as evident by the long periods of silence and lack of a steady rhythm. I'm under the impression that you've just started to get into the art of music, so one of the basic tips I can offer is that playing with two hands is generally more interesting than playing with one. A consistent rhythm on the left hand gives your melodies more structure and width.

I'm also not a fan of the quality of the synth that is emulating the piano sound, but I think the player's skill is much more important than that. That's just my input, brother. Keep practicing!

[Forest of Dreams]

Nice and chill introduction of what will hopefully develop into a super epic piece! :D I think the plucking is a little too metallic for my liking though.

Grandvision responds:

Yeah, reducing the velocity would reduce that, but the overall quality of the samples aren't that good.

[Gothic Rock]

The strings are pretty neat interesting in the opening. They seem to have a wave-like loudness to them that invites something a little more...disruptive. :) Drums are pretty tight. The snare especially has that sizzly snap that I like to hear in metal and hard rock tracks.

Guitars are pretty solid in the opening, but I think they could have benefited from being a little more layered. Instrumentals are probably hard to get right since they can't have something as distinguished as a voice to keep the whole track fresh. It would have probably helped to fill out the stereo sides a little more and just leave the kick and snare near the middle.

The solo was pretty sweet, though a little messy. The part where you were layering a 5th(?) on top of the original in particular could have been cleaned up a little better, performance and production-wise. Still a pretty tasty set of licks, though!

Cool jam man, but its still a little too raw and parched for me to consider it a full-fledged track.

[HEXAFLEX]

You had me at the woodblocks. I give this six out of six flexes.

[EnV - Dynasty (Preview)]

Right on, man! I really like the soft percussive sounding lead in the beginning. Also digging the Eastern theme to a dance track.

[Bluesy (Bluesy Test)]

Pretty cool little mellow rhythm you have! Are you planning on adding a lead onto that bad boy? Maybe throw in some fills for those drums to keep things chugging along. What are you using to record with, by the way? I can hear a very faint line buzz from the guitar that harshes up the chillness of the track. :/

MisterSatch responds:

Thanks, yes i go to add a little lead for the next step. Some fills must be revisited. The record is made with a SM57 on a Vox combo.

[Closing my eyes ¨WIP¨]

I think there's too much release/reverb on those strings. They sound very muddy and out of context compared to the dryness of the kick. Hard to make any more observations beyond that. Hopefully, you'll have some other instruments around and a lot less repetition so that it will be a lot more appealing to the listener. Good luck!

[Ocarina of Time - Volvagia Battle]

Really captures that N64 feel to it. The delay/reverb synth that's panning around the mix seems a little bit out of place, if only because I'm so used to not hearing it in a more orchestral piece. Stellar job with the rest of the instrumentation though man!

MiguelVolkov responds:

Yep. I know sometimes it is hard to hear synth sounds with an orchestral arrangement, but that's just what I'm trying to do... All of my experiments involves both, the electro and the orchestral (or acoustic in some cases)... I'm just trying to find how to mix both kind of instruments in an efficient manner.
Thank you so much for your review... Everything I read here is useful.

[No name (beta test)]

Love this one. The gated melody, the panned hats. Even the drop has a little bit of a unique flavor to it. The kick and snare sound pretty unconventional for the genre. I think you can get away with the kick on this one, but you could probably do with layering another snare sample that adds some more of that low end snap.

Minor nitpicking: The track might benefit from having some more of that 300-400hz range scooped out so it doesn't sound so muddy. EQ is always a big deal, and when it comes to production, giving each instrument a specific area on the EQ spectrum can prevent frequencies clashing and dirtying up the mix. I think the snare suffers a little bit of this during the drop. Also, personal preference here, but I would probably make some of the vocal samples an ever so tiny bit more pronounced in the mix.

I can't really give you a good name for it though, man. It sounds very ethereal and aggressive, so maybe you can think of something by describing it? I don't normally get too caught up in the name, anyways. Very, very awesome track though.

Saao responds:

Thanks for the advice, but I am really trying to get a good name, so far I've got no suggestions