Akyut's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Visha OST]

Some pretty phenomenal texturing, Tennon : )

Thanks for sharing!

Tennon responds:

Thank you!

[BrainETR - Blaze]

Very cool mix of influences, here : )

Not too many comments other than general EQ (ick, the hard part), and maybe sum extra work on transitions between disparate sections of the song. Should look to create those 'wow' moments a few times per song!

Am sympathetic, though. I usually spend more time on transitions than everything else in a track combined xD

Thanks for sharing!

[Smeave - Thundersong (NGUAC 2023 Knockout Round)]

E(b)m best key! My first thoughts went to HK with 'dirtmouth', probably my favorite piece from that whole soundtrack (outside of Grimm Troupe stuff) and that's awesome!

Really enjoyed this submission, especially where you took it heading into 3:00 and beyond. The stretch from 0:44-1:40 is beautifully written, and this really held my attention the whole way through.

Very well done <3 Thank you for sharing!

Fox4567 responds:

Thank you for your kind words!

[Odyssey of Echoes - MsFluent]

Seconding octopus' comments on the dance perc/cinema feel combo, is a really cool combination. Sort of reminds me of Age of War, and that's a really nostalgic feeling for me.

Congrats on getting this done in time, am enjoying watching the competition so far : )

MsFluent responds:

Glad you liked it <3

[Decayed Men]

Very very cool chords on display, and the grace notes added to the right hand of your keys sounds great in context.

For added variation, why not write some minor edits into the pattern for your pad/lead? When approaching 4 minutes, it will be more difficult to hold the attention of your average listener. I think there's a good opportunity at 2:32 when that strong melody returns. Experiment, and have fun with it.

Would also be great to hear some more significant changes in the overall volume of this track, would aid in dynamic and really sell the more instrument-full sections when they all come in full-strength. I can see some minor variations, but no visual tells that define separate sections of the song, or 'events on the timeline'.

Well-done, and thank you for sharing : )

TOUGHSHARK4 responds:

Thank you so much!

[Lost]

Love the wideness of your stereo field, but not having a central element to focus on that's in your face takes some of the impact away from this track.

Experiment with some upward compression on your bass, 3:1 or 4:1 ratio is where I'd start (and then adjust to your taste from there.)
This should move the sound up in the field, volume-wise and spatially, from the bottom middle to... middle-middle. ha.

Ideally, this will leave your side image nice and wide (would definitely Mid/Side the synths further to remove a little of the extra frequencies right in the center of your field.)
Usually you'll want to keep your sub in mono. It's fine to have width on a mid-bass, and a combination of these both will give a sense of space to the low end while leaving the sub down center.

Very nice work on this,
thank you for sharing! hope this helps.

NGC5194 responds:

Thank you for the feedback! I'll keep this in mind for whatever I come up with next.

[The light work]

First of all, nice work on this : )

Drums are nice and punchy, though I'd take some time for the next track and see what you can figure out velocity-wise on things like your hats/bass.

Let's break that down a little : Your hats are firing Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta (4 times per 1 measure, 4 measures per 1 bar.) at exactly the same volume for every hit.

If you were to emphasize the on-beat hats (either through lowering velocity on hats 2-4 or raising 1-3) hitting on 1 and 3, you'll have a groovier TA-ta-TA-ta motion as opposed to the straightforward Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta. Try it out, experiment with emphasizing different rhythms (ta-ta-TA-ta, or TA-ta-ta-TA-ta-ta if you're feeling adventurous. That one specifically will give you some interesting syncopation to play with.)

I think you'll like what some more intimate edits to the groove will bring to your music.

Why does this work?

Go find a video of a drummer on youtube (Drumeo is *great*). I want you to pay specific attention to the motion of their wrist, and how that bleeds into hat/cymbal grooves in some of your favorite songs. When the tip of a stick strikes the surface of the hat, a lot of the time they'll carry the rebound bounce into the next hit on the piece. That's what you're trying to emulate.

Drumeo has some great resources as far as live drum-throughs go, and I think it's worth checking out a few of their groove tutorials.

You can add another layer of complexity by making minor variations in your bass as well, emphasizing the groove you're following on your kit.

Main arp in the track is actually pretty solid!

Apologies for the essay, but I hope it helps you in the future. Thanks for sharing!

[MEMORIES OF US]

Beautiful. The only nitpick I can offer is regarding the strings, a little bit of post processing to bring out the depth of the room/stage (maybe some verb, slight cuts to high end EQ?).

Seriously. Nitpick. The progression is haunting in the best way, like the ghost of an old friend come to visit.

Thank you for sharing <3

reethepeethe responds:

Sorry for reading this only now, but thank you! I'll work more on that, but thank you! If you're interested in hearing more of my works, you can find me on many listening platforms, where I have tons of more songs to listen too! - RE3ZE

[Feelings I Usually Keep Inside]

Absolutely loving this soundscape, and your melodic work is really well-done too. I'm not sure I'm parsing the arrangement as well as I could be, and if I had to chalk that up to anything, I would point towards room for more automation. There's a lot of changes between each individual section, but the transitions feel a little sudden without an element or two to tease them in.

I like to bring synths in with licks/one-off melodies by starting them in the bar immediately before major changes in arrangement, that little bit of lead in can do a lot in terms of pathing for the listener (especially in genres where flashy production/complex sequence changes are unnecessary, or jarring. Think the play here is to strike a happy middle ground.)

Of course, all of this is nitpick, because at the end of the day it's a gorgeous song. There's a lot of depth to the choices you're making chord-wise, and the lead melodies have a good amount of character. Looking forward to seeing what else you post in the future : )

[The Echos of Muras]

Cool stuff, am really drawn to music by storytelling (especially instrumental) so would be great to hear more about 'Muras'. Ever record any of your campaigns for later review/inspiration seeking?

ToddlerPuncher responds:

We don’t usually record our sessions but we do have a designated note taker. The note taker is one of the players and one of us DMs take our own notes (We have two DMs) That usually helps us DMs keep track of what the players know for story events. I usually make the music specifically for the campaign but I felt like I wanted to share it with the rest of the world in some way too (even if nobody else will have the proper context.)