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.

[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! :)

[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!

[Chill out, robo!]

Pretty original song but for me the song screams for more instruments like a violin, arp or something like that. Your beats were really cool, they had some really interesting syncopate (not sure is that is how you write it on English) Although the composition was good the bass was kind of annoying I would like to hear that bass with some better EQ work on it. The part that you had a kind of dubstep bass on it was a good idea but I'd recommend you on putting more intensity on that LFO because it sound kind of abstract and you couldn't appreciate it too much. Another thing I got to say it was the way that you play with the drum and the bass timing gives the song a nice diversity.

Aistis responds:

Thank you for your review :)