Xyirx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

["Final Moments"]

Almost perfect.

I have to say I'm impressed with this piece. Piano shines so bright during the first half part of the song, playing touching melody, accompanied by soft thunder effect in the background. However, as strings kick in, I think it quickly dominates the timbre that of piano....that the whole piece sounds "gray", meaning mixed up and couldn't find something to lead the song in a clear manner.

Strings are strong instruments to use but you also have to be careful on their volume and reverberations as well. The only suggestion I would give you is to draw a clear boundary of the instruments better. Loudness isn't the only way to make song touching and uplifting, softness, silence or even pause also are. :)

This track does seem unfinished, but I feel that it has enough potential to make a grand and epic song with your skills. Keep it up.

[Ethereal - KC]

Okay

The melody sounds promising to me. It seems to have potential to be catchy and adventurous-like. As for the percussions, I think your open hat dominates a lot of sound room, in fact, a little too much and uncomfortable because of its loudness. You may want to tone it down to match with your other instruments.

Also, I suggest you to make your track a little richer with another solid bass, other than just low octave arp, probably make it plays as an upbeat.

Oh, I have a personal opinion for this track. It just comes to my mind once I'm through listening this 5 times now....Try changing the instrument for main melody to violin (with proper velocity adjustment and release time), this track would sound really, really touching. :)

KennyChu responds:

thx for the comment. i was trying to get the bass right, i think there is a little problem with bass.

Next version will be up soon...

[The Road To China Town]

Sensational

I love it when the music is played by feeling, without the constraints of tempo because it gives out so much more emotional and poetic value. This track is one of the mentioned type. I do enjoy listening to the soothing guitar strings being plucked....Each note tells a story. Each note tells feeling. Each note tells the intensity of emotions.

The only thing I want to point out from here is the reverb which seems to be too exaggerated. Yes, it does help in bringing more intense atmosphere but also make the song too entangled too.

The rest of that, you earn utmost respect from me.

Xmusical responds:

thanks for your kind comment.means a lot:)

I too find it quite reverbed but I might fix later on.

[Swept with the Wind]

Need more....realistic plays.

I like this track because of the scoring. The whole piece has a very high tendency to be epic and uplifting track because of variations in instrumental plays and melody writing; however, the thing that I would like to point out to improve this track even more is the realism. Almost all the instruments played here sound very "robotic". They surprisingly sound crisp, abrupt, and linear. Piano and percussions are clear example of this. They made the whole song so stiff and not as expressive as it should be. I recommend you to find nice samples/soundfonts or at least consider go over the mixer and put subtle effects such as reverb just to make your song more believable as live recording. Other than that I think you did quite great!

Xyirx

Theledge93 responds:

Thank You! i got rid of some of the reverb so i didn't have any accidental compression issues. thank you for the review!

[Besieged (Sample Excerpt)]

Wow!

Starts like any other classical trailer music, but has distinctive sounds during mid-course. I really love the percussion during 0.20 a lot because it gives the listeners some time to break and imagine the picture along with the rhythm. You could use a little more bass drum or timpani towards the end of the excerpt though. Drum roll alone in successive patterns could sound a little awkward (according to my personal experience).

Another great piece to listen to. :) I'm sure it'd fit really well as soundtrack.

[Milan Song (lullaby)]

Peaceful lil'baby....um, I mean lullaby

I really like the tune you're playing. So relaxing and peaceful. I don't really know whether the blurry sound emitted from your guitar is intentional or not, but it does give the fitting context for the song. I admit that was actually hoping for a little clearer audio output though. Anyway, this would be used perfectly for video game or film BGM. Nice work.

Devereux responds:

Thanks for the review, it's actually a bass guitar I'm playing, not a guitar
As for the sound, I'm still experimenting with sounds trying to get a nice solo bass sound...which is proving quite difficult
Thanks again for reviewing =)

[Inspired By Flim (loop)]

Short and not powerful enough, but nice try. :)

As a general critique (because I admit that I have little experience on drum and bass genre also), I think this loop sounds okay but lacks depth. The spectrum of sound seems to be flat and in the same plane. For example, the drum loop itself, to me, sounds pretty dry and not powerful enough to propel the song forward and does create obvious sense of repetition throughout. You could tweak the EQ and give a little bit of delay and reverb just to make them feel grand and energetic.

As for the pad and piano-like synth, they sound sort of mixing up in gray timbre. Of course, I can hear the triad in my right ear and undulating synth at the center, but I don't really know which one to focus on due to the overused reverbed effect and long notes. I suggest you to tune it down a little bit and pay more attention to the quality and role of each sound. Which is the main melody and how should it be played to be heard succinctly. Hope these help you.

You could also listen to the top-scorers among the NGAP in Drum and Bass genre, then compare them to yours. Find out what they focus on their songs and what makes their songs powerful and catchy. You'd definitely improve in the upcoming works. :)

Xyirx

[Minor Light - Passion]

Nice track. :)

Pretty light and smooth track, I see. The relaxed feeling I got from listening to this is pretty obvious and clear. I like the song as it plays towards the end where you've got bells to create more sentimental value into it. The drums could be varied a little bit more throughout the song, rather than than just the cutout freq. More varied patterns (little is enough) would totally make your song more colorful.

Xyirx

julius33 responds:

Thank you for the review...
Yea your pointing out my errors atm since my songs dont variate as much as they should and i dont put as much effort into the general sound. Rather, i spend 90% of my time mastering everyting -.-
But thanks for the review!

[F!!king Nasty! NG Mix]

Nasty.

Very powerful and energetic track indeed. I listen this track almost throughout and feel that you really spend a lot of time on it. The bass drum is really well done. If you've got some time, you should tell me how you master it so well. lol

I'm not going to go into the minute so much. Overall, this track is considered very good, just a little bit repetitive. You've got a rare 10 stars from me.

Review Request Club

Dj-GST responds:

Thanks man!

For the kick I use a limiter, it keeps the bass the same without the distortion.

Glad you enjoyed it man, Like me on facebook and follow me on Twitter!

To hear the full mix go to my Souncloud page.

-GST-

[But then I saw her-Malin Theme]

Bb Eb

Classic tunes....predictable yet works almost all the time. Very well done on piano use. I could imagine a young man sees a beautiful girl in a slow motion out of this short song.

PS. Nice choice of Key