blackattackbitch's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[.HLS. Move On RMX [wip]]

Good shit!!!

Sounds very professional. All of the drums were exceptional, I have to say. And I especially love the piano melody, it's so sad.

The only things I don't like is when you put the oscillating filter on the drum track after the piano melody ends and how the end just cuts off instead of finishes.

But all in all, this was an amazing piece, very entertaining! 5/5 10/10 despite the things mentioned above!

heartless1298 responds:

Yea I was thinking about taking out that oscillating filter on the snare, and now I will. and maybe you didn't see, but this is a WiP (Work in Progress), so there are still many things to be fixed.

Thanks for the review!!

[-:YRX:-MachinRAa Black St]

Yep, you found your preferred genre

and you're a shoe-in for DnB. The synths sound great, the drums sound awesome, and everything fits. I especially like that dropping effect you did.

My main suggestion is to add melody. I know you don't feel comfortable in that territory, but you have to take the risk. Melody does add richness to a song.

Other than that, I have no other real complaints. Nice song, it definitely does sound like a boss battle.

YouriX responds:

Thanks a lot BAB for the tips and yes melody is my kryptonite. But i guess i have to take a risk and see what happens :)
Also thanks to point out my good points ;)

[[\A Hero's Last Stand/]]

I love the religious sound of this!

Another top-notch submission from you, man! Although TBH, the name A Hero's Death doesn't fit too much. However, if you called it A Hero's Last Stand, it would fit perfectly, as that's the image I get in my head when I listen to this song. This song has so much emotion in it, it's simply amazing!

The buildup in the beginning with the choirs was a great idea. And the section after that was full of emotion.

It might have been a good idea to lower the volume of the piano section, especially the piano, in order to convey a bit more emotion, you know?

All in all, this is a very emotional piece, reminiscent of what I was trying to do with a recent piece. The violins are probably the most emotional portions of this song for me, I don't know what it is, it's just a really good sample that's absolutely perfect for this song or something, it fits amazingly into this piece.

Exceptional work! I'll say that a million times, cuz it's true. This is one of the best songs I've heard recently!

paradoxphenomena responds:

Thanks for another well thought out review. Its always good to hear from you. I will gladly take on your suggestion for the name as its a better fit than what I can come up with.

I will however work on the mastering as you mentioned the piano could be a little quieter.

Hope to hear from you again as your reviews are most helpful.

[MH16: Dynamics Experiment]

Yeah I noticed the swell too....

It's funny, dynamic control kinda just came to me over time, I never really thought of it until now actually. And now that it's come time for me to kinda impart my own knowledge on it (which is actually pretty limited, I would suggest getting advice from Intero or Paradoxphenomena in the art of dynamic control since they're awesome at it), I gotta assess how I do it myself. Hmm....

Well, I guess I'll start with what you want to avoid. Heavy compression is a big no-no. I know a lot of people will tell you that this is a bad idea, but beginners might wanna set the compressor to just eliminate clipping. Then just lower the imput so that only a bit of your song is actually compressed.

Now as for instruments, well your instrument choice will definitely affect how much volume is increased. Flutes playing octaves won't be nearly as loud as trumpets playing chords, you know?

Also, it depends on what you want to express in that particular portion of the song. If you want a certain part of the song to express an explosion of emotion, then have the volume of the instruments raise for that particular section, then let it die down, as you don't wanna keep the song "up there". And dynamics are essential to beginnings and endings too.

Wow, I really suck at giving advice on dynamics. I guess it's best to show by example than by the written word, you know? Well, luckily I know of some songs that are excellent examples of great dynamic control. Listen to these songs:

Paradoxphenomena- Silent Night
Intero- The Menace
Danman87- Entering the Stronghold (well, that song's just amazingly amazing all around)
Brokendeck- NBTB: Soundtrack Version
Blacknote- Both his Mac9 entry and his Mac8 entries are good examples.

Plus you could just turn to your local classical station to hear some actual dynamics, cuz what's better than hearing real instruments?

Well, that sums up my advice. Yeah, I know it sucked, but I tried, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Wait a minute....

FairSquare responds:

This review really helps alot!
I can't really think of things to say, but i would like to say one thing: Thanks!
I mean, you give such detailed reviews and advice me what to do :-)

MH16

[A Battle Scene Loop I Mad]

2 things

1) YOU CAN PLAY THIS!!! I CAN'T EVEN PLAY THIS HALF SPEED!
2) This song is teh shitz!

Lately I've taken an interest in crazy overwhelming melodies thanks to that one song "Authority" by Rig and Maestrorage. No lie, this song kind of reminds me of it.

Now you mustest turn this into a full song complete with VSTs. It's too awesome to leave alone, man.

The only thing I don't like in this song is the looping, but that's mainly because MP3 literally sucks as a format, so it aint ur fault.

This gets a ten because I'm completely amazed at the fact that you can play this thing on a keyboard and the fact that you did this with no VSTs and a broken comp!

Just let me know if any bombers try to zerofuck this song and I'll 5 bomb it until it reaches above 4.00 again.

SessileNomad responds:

haha will do my friend

yeah i can play this, ive gotten alot better in like one month since my pc wa all fucked

i would like to do this with a guitar vst. but i dont know of any, the harpsicord i like

and i actually realized after submitting that i had a longer version, on my HD, but i didnt render it yet, so yeah youl probly see this somtime with full song idk

peace out man good to be back in the biz(music biz that is)

[MH16: Hopes And Dreams]

I like how you use a slightly altered...

version of the A minor scale. The funniest thing about that is if you change just one note in that scale, this song has a completely different feel to it. Right now, it feels midieval and energetic while also slightly cheerful. The perfect song for an adventure, actually.

What I like about this piece is the articulations of the woodwinds and the drumbeat. And the cello staccatos blend well into the background and enhance the melody well.

Yes, I'd probably say that this is one of your best pieces, if not your best. But with you improving every time I see you, it's hard to say that definitively.

So far, the only thing I can say at this moment is to add just a slight bit more variation to your piece. Just a slight bit and you should be good. Cuz there is a significant amount of variation in this piece, but since the chords remain the same thoughout, you're now forced with the task of compensating for that, which you've done quite well, I have to say.

Everything else about this piece is perfect in my book. Great instrument choice, great melodies, great in general. I'm favoriting this jawnpiece.

BTW, could you do me a favor and check out my newest WIP, cumulonimbus? If you're wondering about the name, you'll have to check it out to see (:^P

FairSquare responds:

Lol, i didn't even know i used that scale. I know nothing about scales and stuff :P
Thanks for the compliment about me improving :D
And i don't really know how to change chords :S
Really thanks for your review and for the favourite!
I'll check out your new WIP now.

MH16

PS: Nice smiley (:^P

[potc dance remix]

Sorry, but this will be very constructive

First of all, very bad choice on a beginning, in terms of instrument and melody choice. Having the piano hit that D note over and over makes the song sound extremely bland from the get go. Now I will say that it's hard to make a catchy beginning and end, but the main melody should have picked up from the get go to keep the listener interested.

Also, the choice of FL Keys was a really bad choice. You should have downloaded something like WST22FStein Grand Piano soundfont for the piano melody, that would have helped greatly.

When the dance remix starts, several problems present themselves to me:
1) Some of the notes are out of tune. I can't pick out which ones though because....
2) The song is too cacophonous. I can hear the notes that aren't in tune, but I can't individually pick them out. In addition, the melody is too fast and crazy to be followed by any human ears.
3) The song changes tempo too much to be danced to. It's closer to a techno song than a dance song.

And the drumbeat could use some significant improvement too. Although this is one of my weakest points as a musician, I would recommend that you improve the drum beat a bit. At the moment, the main drumbeat is simply a kick and a snare alternating every half a beat.

But there is one main thing I have to praise you for, and that's tempo control. I can't hope to control the tempo as well as you have in this song. Well done with that.

Also, the piano doesn't really blend with the beeps well. The sound landscaping needs a bit of work.

That pretty much sums up my review. I hope it was helpful a bit. If you have any complaints or questions, just shoot me a PM.

Review Request Club

[**DEMO**trance**DEMO**]

Sorry, but the highest I can give this is a five..

Because of these reasons:

Chord progression
Clipping
Lack of compression/mastering

Now the chord progression is one of the main problems in this song. It's really not a good choice to progress like this

D minor
A minor
F major altered
A minor

And with the melody chosen on the third progression, it really sounds bad on that particular progression. But more importantly, this progression sounds uninspiring and flat. Almost robotic.

Second problem is the clipping. That can easily be fixed with compression though, or just by turning the volume down.

But that leads me to my third problem: mastering. Mastering is an essential aspect to music. As I see that you tried to emphasize dynamics in this song, it's important to master it in a way that also emphasizes the dynamics.

Another problem that didn't occur to me when I started this review is the drums. The drum beat is way too simple. Where's the high hats? Snares? All I can hear is a kick and the one ?snare? roll at :16.

But you do use some good techniques in this song. Namely in the beginning, because that was quite a creative beginning. Also, it was a great idea to emphasize dynamics in this song.

I see you tried to get the sidechaining effect in your bass, but you didn't quite know how to do it. That's the effect of heavy compression on the kick and bass synth together on a compressor. When they are heavily compressed together, when the kick hits it will actually lower the volume on the kick, creating that phase-in effect on the bass.

I would type more, but it's late and I'm tired. I think I've said most of what I can say in regards to this song. Shoot me a PM or stop by the audio forum if you want to learn more in regards to music production. That's where I learned a good deal of my techniques.

RRC mothafuckas! (Review Request Club)

Assios responds:

Whoa, thanks for the awesome review! It really helped med a lot! :D

[Rig, MRage, DS555 - Authority]

My hands are shaking from the POWER of this song!!

But I can still review this song critically.

Some of the drums should be brought out a little bit more, that's my opinion. That seems to be the only problem that comes to mind, at least for me.

I love the intro, it's so foreboding. And when the guitars come in, OMFG!!!!

This beats the shit out of anything Michiru Yamane has ever composed, although it sounds like her style. To be precise, this sounds like the last room in a castlevania game, right before you fight some kind of mega-dracula mixed with sephiroth from FF7, that's how epic that last section was.

I just wish it didn't cut off so suddenly at the end and die out.

Send me a PM when this is done, I DEMAND TO HEAR THE FINISHED PRODUCT OF THIS SONG!!!!

[Clenastro {=MMD=}]

Well, I do know you read reviews

And I write this review in the hopes that you will read it.

For a dance routine, yes this would go perfectly.

The intro was perfect, I have to say. Nice and powerful. The ending was what was flawed. You shouldn't have launched into a melody/chord progression like the one that you used to finish. It was very unclimactic and it makes the song feel as if it just ended right there. Furthermore, you should have let the song finish fading out, for a smoother end. A second of silence is much better than an instant cutoff, you know?

Other than that, I can see no problems with this song at all. The only problem is a matter of taste. The chord progression variation at 1:37 just doesn't feel very smooth to me, but I'm sure others probably love that sudden change.

And that sums up my review. Nice job getting top ten in the MAC9 and nice job on this song. I'm downloading it right after this, but I'm not paying 8$ cuz I'm poor.

Oh and you should make this song a donation-type song if you want to charge for it, since it has been uploaded on to a free site.

MilkMan-Dan responds:

For starters, thanks for the insightful review, I often find that people have different expectations for how they think a certain piece should end, leaving some to be quite disappointed in it. That being said, I wrote this with a dance routine in mind, and wanted it to end with a "pose"... as it were. I also wanted to make it slightly loopable should it need to be. This obviously takes away from a climatic ending, but it serves it's purpose. I'm not saying it's perfect or even the right direction for it, I'm saying it was intentional regardless ;). I will certainly put more thought into a more satisfying climax for future instrumentals.

As for the Audiojungle site, that is simply a site where people can "choose" to buy my music for outside applications (such as commercial applications), but since I upload to Newgrounds as well, anyone can use it under the Newgrounds licensing terms for free. It's an option... kinda like a donation, should you choose.

Take care and thanks for the review. You're a good new addition to newgrounds, and an active one too. Keep up the good work.

MMD