retrobox2's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Frog King]

Awesome work, it would have been awesome that you could have submitted this for the contest. As some people say some errors in the mastering but I really loved the structure is pretty original, and the transitions between instruments felt so natural.
Really good work.

samulis responds:

any Crackling and such is Finale's fault for not being 64-bit compatible yet, I swear! XD

I'm glad you liked this. I really try to make my music something other than the run-of-the-mill orchestral you find a lot these days.

[Tankmen Sudden Encounter]

Wow that was an amazing orchestration.
I am a big fan of Gustav Holst and you really delivered that sort of classic sound he and Bernstein had. I was pretty surprised of how realistic all the articulations felt and how in the midst of the chaos you achieved such an amazing balance. The anything I don't like is how it ends, it sounds kind of odd but at the same time it has the classic feel of the hollywood cues so I guess is just my personal taste.
Amazing job again.

Bosa responds:

Thank you! I will be reviewing your work soon.

[The End of Destruction.]

Really good stuff. Starting with the composition itself, it sounds solid and it with a big ensemble this would sound really professional. I like the way you used the harmonic progressions, you really took advantage of that and the magical and dark feeling was done perfectly. The overall sound remind me of the main theme from fable, but of course in a more delicate way.

Now I am not sure if this is a sample library or real players, if what I am hearing is a mock-up then awesome sound that you deliver and if you used real players then more amazing because nothing can beat a real performance. The only thing that I think you could have worked more with is the reverb. It sounds too light and too small for the sound that you can extract from this one. Try to get more depth on the bass frequencies and give more room to the reverb. This will create this giant but delicate and dark atmosphere.
Awesome work,you really surprised me and sorry for my English.

[What Is Happening]

OK so first of all electronic music is not my main genre but I know about it and I produce electronic tracks from time to time. Now lets go to the review

I will start with the melody/harmony. Depending on the genre the electronic music relies more in the harmony. For example the electro house may use harmony but is not something necessary but when you are doing dance music, most of the producer use at least the basic of harmony. I know that you are doing something experimental and there were some cool melodies in the song but these melodies could have been exploited more with some basic chord progressions. Try to interact more with pads to create that sort of space where the bass and the lead are free to do whatever they want and with some mid-register synths (Something to reinforce those middle frequencies). I like your intentions in the middle of the song and you have some good really good ideas that with practice they will blow your mind. Also remember to use more the oscillators filters.

Another thing is the drums. Try to make more balance with the bass. They need presence too (search for sidechain compression) so try to make some room for those. Also some new samples can help, check out the kev willow free drum samples.

For the mastering there was missing experimentation with EQ, Compressor, Stereo Enhancement, limiter and other stuff. When you are in this final part try to boost up the overall volume of the track and then work with the compression. In this song the compression needs more work, trust me if you learn to use this it will make the master so clean.

I know that pointed out a lot of topics but if you don't know any of them just search on google there is so much information about this stuff. Oh and try some new synths there is plenty of free synths to play with.
Keep it up and sorry for my english!

[Project Saviour]

Wow great song. First of all I was really impressed with mixing and mastering, and your samples sounds really good. The only thing that I didn't like is that it was kind of repetitive but overall the melodies and atmosphere were great.
Awesome job!

Emid responds:

Thank you friend :) I am really glad you like it.

[Tribal]

Great melodies in the whole song and interesting work in the harmony. For me the song has a lot of potential but most of that feeling and intensity was gone with the dynamics. Some instruments sound too small even if they had an important role on the song. For example in the beginning the strings just feels out of place, that intro feels like the ethnic drums are over everything. Now when the ethnic instruments starts everything starts to flow again and it sounds great. Then in the 1:31 where the strings have this kind of aggressive role the volume was too low. If you bring the strings up and maybe some cinematic hits you could give the song another color. If you play a little bit more with the automation this song will blow your mind.

I was really impressed with the atmosphere that you made with the lows and the percussion. The pizzicato part was really original too. Now the ending was really awesome but again the problem with the balance between instruments. In my opinion that ending should have been really intense and aggressive.
Anyway great song!

BlazingDragon responds:

Excellent review, thank you for the constructive criticism!

To be honest, this is hardly a finished work. I procrastinated and the compositional aspect wasn't even finished this afternoon. It would have been a shame to not participate though, so I slapped on an ending in about thirty minutes and submitted the piece. No mastering, no time spent blending the dynamics, and not even any automation. There is not a single string crescendo in this piece. No compression. The only thing I did was EQ some of the ethnic percussion. :/

I feel a bit guilty submitting something so rough around the edges, but I like the composition and want to share it via this contest. And besides, while I have composition experience, my mixing and mastering skills are very minimal, so your comments are very valuable to me. I hear so many epic ideas in my head, but I'm not to the point that I can convey them properly through software.

Thanks again! :D

[Milkdromeda's Prophecy]

Great song you really put some really well done harmony and atmosphere in this one. The song seems really alive and you manage to get a really interesting structure and climax. The choir surprised me as well as the percussion and the transition between the different feelings was something really smooth and everything felt in place. The mastering and mixing was well done too, specially the lows, good job on that one.

Listening to the song was like being on a journey through space and time. The only flaw was that although it was a really sentimental and beautiful song it didn't told me much about you wanting to do your best song ever. It was more like a really beautiful song for a movie sentimental scene. Besides from that beautiful and outstanding song over here.

JosephAS1 responds:

Thanks! :)

[Recklessness]

Really intense song It contains a really good intro and a awesome climax. I liked the play between woodwind, brass and choirs. The melodies were good they got the feeling of the song but in my opinion they were a little bit forgetful. Another thing is your brass, you have some good samples but when the brass appear for the first time it felt out of place. A reason was that I felt that it appeared to sudden and it kind of made the song feel like different song. Another reason was that the brass needed more reverb and more EQ. It sounded for me too synthetic.

I loved how you ended the song and overall I felt like a warrior in the middle of a war when I heard this song, really good.

[Honoris Causa]

That was a beautiful piece really nice melodies, flawless transition and it contain a really epic feeling on it. The only thing that I'd recommend you is a better mixing, there were times that I had to force myself to hear the melody. In the beginning it felt nice like it was a intro in crescendo but then I noticed that the melody was below the strings so I was kind of upset that I couldn't hear clearly everything. You can work a little bit on the compression too but overall it was a awesome song.

raxxroth responds:

Thank you!

I wanted the marcato strings and the minor lyrical crescendos (if you mean those) to be a great part of the melody, not just as background ambience. So it was my intention to make the strings stand out expressively. Perhaps I should've mastered it more thoroughly. However, I wouldn't say that the melody is below the strings. But I understand your point. Thanks for the critique!