ObsidianSnow's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Breathless (instrumental)]

Breathless...

What can I say? You, sir, are an artist in every sense of the word.

This is, without any doubt, one of the greatest things I've heard on Newgrounds - and quite possibly outside of that, too. I strongly encourage you to continue making music like this, because this is one of those golden nuggets buried in the steaming pile that is known as the majority of the audio portal.

I really have nothing critical to say, which awards you with one of these lovely things---> 10/10, 5/5, Favs, DL.

Power to you, Ic3m4n!

Ic3m4n responds:

Speechless...
Thank you very much! Glad you like it that much :D
That was very motivating :)

[Final Goodbye (Final Edit)]

Nice.

I love the piano bit at the beginning. It's pretty epic.

Strings and effects are really well done as well, and the balance is great. Your cousin has a great voice, too.

A couple tips:
Try adding more reverb on the piano near the end - sounds a bit too harsh in there. You could also tweak the filter frequency on it right around there, too. You could also add some sustain or attach a delay line in there instead, but that's up to you.

But those are just small things, and hardly worth docking you any points for.
10/10, 5/5.

Power to you, Equation!

Equation responds:

Thanks, unfortunatly i lost the project for this but I'm currently recreating it, I want to extend on it and make it more "powerful" and yes I agree about the piano at the end, for some reason I didn't stretch it out so it sounds quite "blunt".

Thanks for the review.

[Background Music Concept]

mmm...

It's a very smooth ambient piece, and I like it.

I'm assuming that the odd pauses here and there are just small mistakes on your part, so I'll overlook those. I would award a ten to you, except for one small thing: the harsh chords at the end. You may want to revise those chords - they sound out of place with the rest of the song. Also, this is really up to you, but you might want to consider rearranging the notes of your arpeggios a bit just to provide a bit more variation - play the same notes, but in slightly different orders.

As for the white noise, you can get rid of some of that using Audacity. I believe it's a free download, and it's made by Propellerhead, which is the same company that made Reason. Search around a bit, you'll find it. Then just play with the filters until you get rid of as much of the white noise as you can.

4/5, 9/10, nicely done. Good luck with the MMORPG, too... I'll have to check it out.

Power to you, RyeMcCrory!

RyeMcCrory responds:

Well, I thank for for taking to time to compose such a lengthly review. To be honest, I did not expect anyone to actually come across this, but hey, apparently some did. ;P

I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion on the ending. I used two chords, E Minor and the one below it on the second fret, on the D and G strings. The name escapes me. Anyhow, I forced the strings a tad too roughly, and it's rather obvious they were added as an afterthought at the end.

I have Audacity, actually, but don't know how to use it effectively, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. I do like the sound of rearranging the order of the notes, and will remember it once I (if) put it down on paper.

Yes, the pauses are the one or two seconds where my fingers slipped from the strings, or where I had placed my fingers incorrectly. I have been practicing this little piece since I've submitted it, and hope to post an updated version as soon as time permits.

Thanks for the review!

-Rye

[Phobia - Ambience]

Slick.

I like it, and yes, this is certainly ambient.

It may be a bit repetitive, but I don't think that's a bad thing: it flows properly and with a legitimate ambient feel, so I wouldn't change anything in terms of repitition. Besides, there's enough background variation that it remains interesting the whole way through.

One thing I might suggest, however: The bassline seems a bit harsh in contrast to everything else. You might want to consider lowering the filter frequency on it a little to make it blend a little better - but really, it's not very prominent anyways, so don't worry too much if it's not working for you.

Great work - 9/10, 5/5.
...Looks like your first submission, too. I'll have to keep an eye on your work... expect future reviews from me. ;D

Power to you, Yutoro!

Yutoro responds:

I have songs another song in the process at the moment, which unfortunately i cannot finish at the moment. For some strange reason, Reason (The program i use) can't find my sound drivers and i'll have to reinstall, but when thats done, music ahoy!

[Perfection - Mjattie]

Tasty!

This is great. Really different from what you usually do, and damn, it's smooth. I think this is definitely one to be proud of. I really like the way that the flow seems to hop along... lol you just caught me bouncing in time to the music XD

The phrasing is terrific, and all the little variations and additions that occur along the way are awesome, too. I've been listening to it nonstop for about ten minutes now (progress bar is out of sight)... and I haven't once caught where the loop ends yet, so really slick job with the looping.

People keep saying that it's repetitive - I say not really. As I said before, the variations and background additions keep it from getting boring. I could listen to this looped for hours. So just ignore the complaints about overrepitition.

Not much else I can say about this one - and I certainly can't say anything negative. As the name implies, this is Perfection.
10/10, 5/5, favs. I'll be putting this on my mp3 player for sure.
Outstanding work here.

Power to you, Mjattie!

mjattie responds:

thanks man ;)

[Dreaming with pianos]

...

woah. This is an excellent mastering and effects job. Works really well for just chilling, I gotta say. The parts all have a really human feel to them, too - did you use a keyboard to record the piano? It really sounds like you did... Makes it so much more real. Such a nice flow, too.

...but I'm beginning to repeat myself now. I'm just so lost in the music.

Outstanding work - 10/10, 5/5, Favs. Tasty.

Power to you, Stalagmite!

Stalagmite responds:

thank you so much! i really appreciate these kind reviews! yes. it is all live keyboard music. i recorded it about an hour ago.
however there is a light vocal track behind, also playing the percussions. but the piano, strings, flute and synth air are all live play. :D:D:D
i was tired and inspired. i am glad you can appreciate it LOL. :D:D:D thanks so much

[Await]

Perfect.

What more can I say? You've really got something here... You have some real musical talent, silencefreedom. Nice work.

Power to you, silencefreedom!

silencefreedom responds:

I just a guy that love to make some music for more than 2 years (too short). Just a unknown musician in this community.

Thank you for the comment! :)

[Rush Of Fire]

Good... good...

I like this... made me a bit nostalgic of the North American version of Final Fantasy III. Unfortunately, that could also be a bit of a bad thing. I know you said that you were keeping it game-ish with your MIDI's, but I think you might want to consider doing a few things: finding some better patches, playing with the current patches a bit, or just dropping back completely into full-out MIDI feel.

It just sounds too much like something that would come out of my old, yellowing SNES, while also sounding like a half-hearted attempt at making it sound real. I don't mean that as a huge critisism, but a relatively small one - I think that you should essentially either try and make it much more realistic or completely MIDI. The mix of the two sounds is just confusing.

The song itself is great - I think it works really well for the situation you've described.

Power to you, Diniden!

Diniden responds:

Hey thanks for the advice. I completely agree with you and had this in mind when I made it. My problem is I don't have money for anything really that great and I also don't really know where to look in the digital world for programs with good samplings to use for orchestra etc. Do you have any programs in mind that would have better samplings that would either be relatively cheap or free? I can even break away from MIDI samplings if you know something good.

Main reason for the MIDI also is the power tab program works with a music staff (a lot of other programs just use the annoying piano set up) If you know of a better sampling program that uses a staff that would also help me a lot.

Thanks again for your reply : )

[The Last One]

Mmm...

It was great, but I have to bring up something that I hope will make a big difference here. Your vocal patches are fine, but there's an issue when you use them the way you have - they have an exessive release time and a not quite enough of an attack time. It makes them stop sounding like real people. Try playing around with the settings in those departments a bit. Hopefully this will bring more attention to how awesome this music is, and less to how the voices sound like bad MIDI's - which I don't think they really are.

I really liked this. A couple tweaks more and you might catch me drooling... lol

Power to you, silencefreedom!

silencefreedom responds:

That was what I want with the vocals, actually I used Vocaloid for the vocal but sound freaking weird so I changed to Symphonic Choirs for more realistic.
The problem was my Kontakt Player didn't work in Sibelius and FL Studio so I switched to Samplitude Pro for the notation parts. Really hard to use.

I glad ya like it and thanks for the admits! Love your stuffs too!:)

[The Heavens Cry]

...

This is indeed a brilliant ambient piece. I really have no suggestions for this one. I think that to change this at all would be to taint it. This is another of your songs that I've found that I suddenly feel compelled to add to my upcoming flash submission (the other was Return of the Knight, if you haven't read my review there already). You just seem to have a style that matches my vision of the storyline. I really hope I can put this one in there somewhere... I'm rapidly increasing the potential file size of the game... o _o It's likely already to be at least 15-20 mb, which would mean that it would have to be reviewed by NewGrounds staff... Nonetheless, I feel that this song fits, and I will do everything I can to make it work.
10/10, 5/5, DL, favs. Again. You're really getting to me, here.

Power to you, SkippyFox! (seriously, please make more!)

SkippyFox responds:

wow thankies! 0.0 Hey if you wish to use it on any flash or such, go ahead! XD i just make my songs for peoples enjoyment and relaxation of possible and if you can get some use of it in there... go for it! haha X) thanks a lot for the review, it means a lot to me ^-^

Ps, i will surely check your game when you get it here ^_~ XD