MoCreatureGuy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Clock Tower]

0:42-0:48 and the subsequent melodies like that sound pretty good.
The melody on the song is pretty good, it sounds complex, has emotion behind it and makes me feel like I'm in a bossfight of sorts, is that your goal?

One thing I noticed was the instruments sound flat. I think you know what I mean I don't really know how to describe it though, they just don't have an intense feeling of emotion or depth to them.

It's not a top tier song, but it's pretty good to be honest, something I would listen to, yes. Hopefully it gets verified :)

ILG924 responds:

Thanks, yeah I was going for something higher intensity, mainly influenced by music in Ys games

I think I know what you mean about 'flat', I used a lot of old sounding instruments to mimic old videogame sounds, except played through their original samples rather than the more compressed stuff you'd hear in an old game. Since that was such a big influence for me, adding nice dynamics or articulation into a songs isn't really one of my strengths. The leads probably would have benefited if I played around with some vibrato or something though

[Work, before you may play]

EDIT 1: I don't know how to reply so I edited my message :/
So first off, I took a quick re-listen, no it's not a cacophony, still, I wasn't able to pick up on the melody or beat the first time, it's not very strong. Secondly to address your comments
1. "Loops aren't supposed to be very long, the entire point is that the loop stops and starts
seamlessly."
Loops can absolutely be long, 34 seconds which is too short, Subnautica has loops at least a minute long for reference.

2. "It's a chiptune, you don't have a lot of variation. and using 20 instruments doesn't make a
song better. Only when the song actually needs it."
20 instruments is not what I meant, I never said a number though, my bad, but usually when I listen to good music there are around 8+ instruments a lot of them barely noticeable and in the bg which prevents the song from sounding like lots of noises.

3. "have you ever made an actual song? having 30 instruments or 10 doesn't matter, if it doesn't
sound good, it just literally doesnt' sound good. Adding extra instruments could ruin it even
further."
I didn't mean use a ton of instruments, I meant use them to add variety to your songs, I listen to a lot of stuff and generally what catches my eye is a unique use of a new instrument or sound effect I don't usually hear along with a strong melody or new style of beat. Also that song from 2018 is trash yea.

Either way this song doesn't hold strong even for chip, I raised my review from a 1 to a 2, but you can definitely make some major improvements in the melody, sfx, and emotion you feel when listening especially if you're going for a video game/story style of loop songs.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
uhhh...
It starts out meh, but then it transitions into a cacophonous nightmare of sounds especially from 0:17 to 0:27, there are barely any instruments used and the melody isn't very strong throughout the whole song. The beat doesn't match up with the melody either, and that just worsens the cacophony in the song. It also isn't very long, it doesn't sound like you put too much effort into this.

You're gonna have to make some major improvements to your music in the future if you want people to like it.
Suggestions:
Add variation to melodies when reusing them to make them stand out more
Make the beat and song feel in sync before
Add a ton more instruments in, but make sure they fit... growls, crystal sounds, distortion sound fx, theremin, piano, different types of synths, etc.
Make longer songs in the future

ThisMight responds:

I love feedback, but since you only have 1 song from 2018 which has a reply stating: "From the bad MIDI piano to the shitty synths to the lack of any musical sense, this is bad. Straight up awful.", AND my ears. i've written some points down for you:

1." It also isn't very long, it doesn't sound like you put too much effort into this."
Loops aren't supposed to be very long, the entire point is that the loop stops and starts
seamlessly.

2:"Add variation to melodies when reusing them to make them stand out more"
It's a chiptune, you don't have a lot of variation. and using 20 instruments doesn't make a
song better. Only when the song actually needs it.

3. "Add a ton more instruments in, but make sure they fit... growls, crystal sounds, distortion
sound fx, theremin, piano, different types of synths, etc."

have you ever made an actual song? having 30 instruments or 10 doesn't matter, if it doesn't
sound good, it just literally doesnt' sound good. Adding extra instruments could ruin it even
further.

If you actually knew how to make chiptunes and loops, instead of shitty piano synths, I would definetly have taken your feedback.

[Oximo49 (How it Began LP)]

Oximo is too repetitive imo, if you go look back at some of your older songs they'll have a lot of highs and lows but this stays roughly the same volume and intensity the whole time. The melody also stays almost indistinguishably the same for the whole song and the melody isn't a melody or "beat melody" that warrants that, even if it was you should still have distinguishable variations of a melody in a song.
Examples of repetitive melody
ie 0:15 => 0:58
and 1:15 => 1:58

Didn't really enjoy this one as much as some of your other songs, the repetitiveness and the melody really ruined it for me and the instruments just didn't mix well and were too harsh on my ears(and there wasn't really any good melodic break in the song to relieve that).

Also I'll add this on, not related to this song per se, but you use a lot of electronic sounding instruments in your songs, which creates a style for you, but it would be interesting to see what you could do with some other instruments such as brass, piano, theremin, flute, guitar, etc.

[Empress of Light Theme [Remix]]

I had to go listen to the actual empress of light theme for the first time because of this...

Honestly you blew this song out of the water, the og was meh, good enough for a game, but you added a lot of harmonic elements, melody, beat, and flow to this song that it so desperately needed. However you still kept some bad elements. Below I timestamped some stuff.

1:10 - really good melody/trance
~2:20 - good buildup

Around the 2:55 there is too much silence in that part, you killed the intensity of the song in that section and before by dragging on the mellowness too long.
Other than that you added a few unique instruments after that that I heard in the background.

Overall it's a pretty solid remix of a theme that wasn't the best from the start. Good job mate. 👏

DrayxMusic responds:

Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate the feedback. :)

[Want To Change]

WOW that intro wtf, that caught me off guard, phenomenal use of unique sound effects at the start and great transition from nothing into something, it feels very natural.

The voice in this song really scuffed it up though, it just doesn't fit it's too harsh imo, actually from a second listen it's eh, but it could work nicer if it was quieter more "backgroundish". After the intro though I feel the song degraded a lot, you hooked me but you failed to keep me interested for the rest of the song.
It was also a bit too repetitive, same melody, same instruments, `similar voice`.
Try changing it up midway through the song, add a new instrument that makes the listener go WTF, 😲🤯, use remixes of old melodies in the middle of a song to make it seem more unique, or if you're going for a calm song, add moments of intense "almost silence", key into the emotion of your listener, make the song an experience that you can also strongly imagine. And for the voice, at least in the future, if you know any people, get them to record some lines for you to add to the vocal variety of your song, although not everybody has a good voice so it may be hard but you could always modify the voice in some way.
EDIT: I noticed you did remix a melody later in the song around 2:08-2:14, could do a lot more of that.

And that sums up my review!

Quarl responds:

Thanks :)

[K-4998572 - Accelerator]

My overall take of the song is it lacks any diversity, and it definitely has room for more instruments, your use of chip sounds and effects are decent. Really though the song lacks any emotion, highs, and lows, try improving there and of course you could always add in more instruments such as drums, bass, growls, strings, piano, theremin, etc.

You could've had a pretty good song if you built up the song more after the start, maybe have the frequency start becoming really fast until it sounds like you are holding down a note. Or maybe have a part in the middle where the beat carries you emotionally such as a repeat with a slight modification of 0:40 later in the song with a drum beat in the back. If you redid this in the right way it could be really good.

K4Music responds:

ik what you mean, but after lots of piano songs with more emotion i just wanted to make some fun music. THe buildup of the frequency idea is a great idea though; I'll keep that in mind. And you're right about needing more instruments. Thanks for the review :)

[:Tempus:]

I clicked on the first song that appeared in the audio tab but HOLY CRAP, it was actually a good listen.

Suggestions...
- Add more effects and instruments to future songs, strings, piano, brass, theremin, etc. not all at the same time, but maybe all at the same time ya never know. Also improve volume variety, for instance having a very quiet part after a very intense parts.

Otherwise this is good as a background track and is something I would see being used in a video game. Good work, but make sure to improve in future songs and hopefully you had fun creating this! 👏🌊

[Sharks & modus - Prism]

Incredible Song! :)
The synths especially at the beginning and at 2:12 & 2:24 work really well with the overall atmosphere of the song and the ones at 2:12 add a really nice contrast to the void that came before them.
Overall this is a really well made song, however it does lack the carry, pop, and intensity that a song of this genre likely should have, 4:08 is a somewhat good example of a synth/intensity that you should include more often throughout the rest of the song.
One other thing you could improve on is at the 1:25 section(and other parts too) you have too much harshness in the sound for too long a duration, adding in some harmony/melody in there would make those parts easier to listen to.

Cheers(I mean what else can I say) and good luck with producing in the future :)

Sharks responds:

Thanks for the feedbacks

[F-777 - Dragon Fight (2015)]

Nice song the upbeat parts are especially epic, some of the highlights from listening were the transition around 3:04 and the upbeat part before that starts at 2:14. The upbeat parts in this song are overall very well polished and give a stomping vibe.

Only real qualm was 0:40-0:51 with the fairly muted drum

[Party in the USSR]

Overall, a really well made song with a great melody and beat, however a few things I noted while listening.

There could be a bit more variety in the song such as what is used at 3:46-3:49, 4:07-4:09, and 2:00-2:26 to spice up the melody at 1:27.

The underlying beat(The drum and snare) throughout the majority song never changes and could definitely be improved on.

Thanks for the amazing song and keep on producing 😀

Hippokopter responds:

About the drums - I've found that doing kick/snare fills can mess with the mix too much for my liking, and I honestly didn't even consider doing any in this song because it would muddy up the low end too much (I went with toms instead). Kick/snare fills work way better in other, less dance-oriented songs, lol.

About the (lack of) melodic variety - yeah, ik that I had to do an embarrassing amount of ctrl+c ctrl+v, but hey, that's music! I tried to switch up the second half more, though xD