Casper's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[apocalypse keeper]

The first time I listened to your track I didn't notice you made it with MuseScore, despite that, most of my problems with the song are the mixing and sound selection. The drums sound fairly basic and could use some compression while the other sounds are dry and simple. I like the slight buildup and fade in at 01:24 to 01:30 but it gets pretty repetitive. The melodies themselves and the idea isn't bad, which is why I gave your track a score of 6.5/10. Sorry you didn't make it past the first round, but don't let it discourage you since you show a lot of potential:)

detalexip responds:

thnx

[D4 - Aerodynamix]

Great metal track, very professional sounding overall. Only thing I can critique on is that I think it'd be great to have some drum fills throughout to ocasionally spice things up, as well as help transition and move the song forward. The outro is definitely very unexpected, but other than that it's a very solid song. My final score is 8.5/10, good luck forwards:)

D4W1LL13 responds:

Thanks so much for listening! I will keep note of what you've said!

[Ev]

From 01:10 there's definitely some compelling melodic ideas and they sound straight out of some old nintendo game, however it feels incomplete and It's rather unmixed. The arpeggio is a very nice addition, but until you polish your sounds, mixing and melodic ideas together more I can't give you more than a 6/10. Don't let that get you down though, with some more practice you could make some amazing tracks, since it seems you are capable of having some pretty beautiful melodies!

[Contact]

Although you could use some slightly better mixing in terms of EQs and compressors, this is an all-around captivating synthwave/disco song, and the melodies make up for it. This definitely has vgm vibes throughout. I would also look into some reverb/delay play, maybe some automations to keep things interesting without actually adding more melodies on top of each other. My final score is 8/10, good luck fowards:)

[Chicada - Godspeed (Original Mix)]

This track is a very well mixed, in my opinion top tier trance track. The acid bass is great and the breakdown that eventually culminates into 02:58 features some interesting changes. The only thing keeping me from giving this track a higher score is the relatively slow pacing and lack of additional melodies/ear candy to give it variety (except the change from the breakdown, which also stays the same until it goes back to the main beat with the acid bass at 04:00). My final score is 8.5/10, not bad at all!

[The Flutes World]

The peak of the track at 0:48 is great and does a lot right in terms of composition for the emotions you were going for, although the beginning of the track is way too long and simple. My gripe with it is that it's not very consistent, I would have liked to hear something that progresses steadily and immerses you. That being said, the sound selection is great and I'm hoping to hear more from you :). My final score is 8/10

[okaynow]

There's a lot of experimental stuff going on with this track, and not a whole lot of melodic components, in fact most of it is dissonant. The overall bitcrushed vibe is interesting and it does a lot, but it quickly gets overshadowed by the other things going on. If you could structure it out a bit more, work more on some chords, melodies, harmonies, maybe re-sample them and chop them around I'm sure you could come up with some amazing sounding concepts. The mix isn't bad, but it doesn't do too much either as the sounds you use are pretty dry. You can keep your dystopian/otherwordly vibe and still have harmony and melodies that are in the front of your track. Until then, my score is 5.8/10 but don't let it discourage you! Work around with different ideas, keep making music and I'm sure you'll improve a lot:)

[CHARACTER SELECT //Level 356.98FM//]

Oh man, the atmosphere is on point :3, all the sound effects make it feel very nostalgic, as well as the instrumentation. The only thing I would have liked to hear more are the drums, even if filtered out, with some compression and slight sidechain and it would be a banger. You can still keep a mellow mood and have the drums knocking. The track does end up being quite repetitive, but with some more melodic elements, maybe a few melodies that come in and out at various times and some more mixing, it could be a great track. My final score is 8/10

AVVENTURA responds:

I will Definitely remember this for future tracks ty so much <3

[Xtraktor - Shadows]

You've done a great job on setting the mood as something grandiose and dark. All of the drops are great, although there's certain times during your track where it feels like there's too much packed together in one spot and it tries to do a lot at once. One thing I would have liked to hear is some stereo field action, maybe panning around some things during the drop for some variation and ear candy, but take that as a nitpick. The composition, sound design and various instrumentation are all top tier, and my final score is a 9/10

[A Rainbow Of Impossible Colors]

The song feels a bit all over the place thematically and definitely gets better as it goes on, but for a first attempt at color bass it’s fairly well rounded! Intro sounds more like something closer to dubstep with some slight cyberpunk undertones but, like the rest of the track, is brought together by various effects and transitions. The synths themselves sound great, although the processing is a bit rough around the edges, and there’s definitely some harshness at various times. Something that seriously drags the track down are the drums, mostly sound selection. Snare can easily get obnoxious on replays, there’s times where they are too spaced out and the lack of hi hats/shakers/foley fails to add something rhythmically interesting to fill the background. I don’t know if you were inspired by this, but there’s times when I listened to your track that reminded me of “Shiver” by False Noise. I know that track isn’t color bass but it’s similar in atmosphere/theme and I think you did a great job creating the overall vibe of the song, but you should give a listen to that song to notice how it fills dead space with ear candy and how it uses diverse drum sounds throughout the track. Sorry if I was too harsh on some things, I just think you have a lot of potential and would hate not to see you making some light adjustments to your future songs to hopefully get some major recognition:) My final score for your track is 7/10

Artackni responds:

Don't worry about the feedback being too harsh, it is way better than not saying anything bad about the song in order to "not hurt my feelings"

One of the main reasons for such emptiness is that I usually make really fast songs (200+ bpm) where high tempo helps with it.

I definitely did improve my percussion by a ton after releasing this, which hopefully will be seen in my NGUAC song as well as songs that I finished but can't release yet for various reasons.

I personally like how the snare works with the 1st color section but it does definitely need some variety, one sample for the entire track with 3 distinct parts is not enough. And the same snare doesn't work as well for the 1st section, for example.

As for the harshness of a lot of the sounds, I took notes and will not repeat the same mistakes, hopefully.

Thanks for detailed feedback :D