GronmonSE's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[(DJ Martcore) Next generation]

Hmmm.

...top 5? Hah. And to think that a second ago I was reviewing one of your other tracks. Well, not much to say really, except for the fact that the production method sounds very similar to the other. As far as the melodies go, they're great. The piano sounds awful though, and again, the track is too repetitive. The mastering job isn't very good, I can barely hear the crack cymbals and the piano could have stuck out more. The weak kickoff at 0:25 was a huge turnoff for many people, including yourself. You should have made it sound big, exciting, inspiring, etc. Instead, it's an unemotional transition. You use FL 7 XXL? Good. If you ever need help with mastering, better piano quality (even though I use digital pianos), or hell, even a better kickoff, send me a message and I'll try helping you, albeit I'm clearly no expert.

Nice job.

[~!~ If you were here ~!~]

Not bad.

I absolutely loved the lead, but y'know what kills this song? The repetitiveness. It's basically the same melody over and over and over, with no variation whatsoever. The melody has a shitload of potential and should be reused in a better song. Also, the bass that comes in at around 0:40 sounds awful, I'd suggest using a different one. The piano at 3:00 sounds awful too. I'd suggest STARTING with the piano and then kicking off with a trance lead. The kick was very nice, but the lack of some actual trance beats and climax also killed the song.

Polish it more and dedicate more time to your tracks, I noticed you've submitted 54 tracks in two months, what the hell? That's like making a track a day, which shows that you don't take enough time to make you tracks. You should work on that, son.

[Virgin Girl]

Hmmm....

This sounds like 80's stuff, very interesting track. Can barely understand the lyrics, but love the voice for the song style. The melody that kicks in at 1:01 is offkey with the rest of the tunes by the way, which is a turn off to me. The song's rather repetitive, you should add more variation to the tunes and the voice should stick out a bit more.

Still a nice tune though, could be great if polished enough.

[Tokyo Blues]

Very nice.

I always screw up when I know it counts too, heh. I'm not exactly fond of the overall tone of the Sax and I would have loved the background to stick out more, but considering it's sort of a "jamming" session, I can't actually complain about how professional/neat it sounds. The playing's fine IMO, very little mistakes. Nice work anyway. 5'D because I'm feeling nice today :D

RadioactiveRhino responds:

Sorry bout the backgrounds, was playing them out of speakers, and the mic is 'noise cancelling,' so I suppose it tried to oust the backgrounds. Then again, I did warn you to turn the volume up :P
And, as for the tone, I guess today just wasn't really my day :(

Thanks for the review!

[(NUB)Time To Go Home]

Another great track :D

It's sad when really good tracks overshadow the rest of an artist's tracks and people seem to ignore them, but ignoring the fact that we all loved your other track (you know which one), this is indeed an amazing track. I absolutely love the mellow drums and the soft piano, not to mention the beautiful sound that steps in at 1:14. There's so many different sounds in this track and they all help build the track's atmosphere, it's awe-inspiring. I was expecting a climax after 2:14 considering the beats increasing "strength". Can't exactly say I was turned down by the lack of climax, but it would have been really good. Pretty decent finish too.

I absolutely love your work. The piano doesn't sounds fairly realistic, it's not digital, is it?

nubbinownz responds:

the piano IS indeed digital :( i'm working on getting some studio vst's but the lack of the climax is part of the song intentionally . thank you so much for another great review.

[SMRPG Forest Maze Remix]

Very nice.

Congrats on uploading your 200th song for starters.

SMRPG...it's been such a long time since I played it. I don't recall how the original song sounded, but this remix is brilliant. I love the instrument choice and the orchestra, as well as the drums. However, I'm hoping this is merely a WIP, because I feel like the song is too short. It's not a loop because, well, it's not loopable. Short length and abrupt endings are the turnoffs, but otherwise, it's a great remix. Nice job.

-Review Request Club-

[Cry - J]

Very good.

It's a pretty jazzy tune. The chord progressions are quite nice and the overall mood is nice too. Something I noticed right away is that the bass drum sounds too distorted, and that really turns me off with this song. I think you could have added some some reverb and a tad bit of delay to the piano because it sounds too plain. That electric organ solo is very good, I'm loving it. I wish there were more of it in throughout the song. Very decent use of dynamics too. Overall, a great song, you should make more like this.

-Review Request Club-

[(FMC) -=Soaring=-]

Eh...

Unlike most of the other reviewers, I disliked the piano used on the first half of the song. I started enjoying the song at 1:42. It sounds like you abused the poor Delay effect. The melody is way too repetitive too. As WritersBlock mentioned, it sounds a bit like Snowboards kids too, a bit retro though. The sample choices could have been better, as well as the mastering job. Overall, you seem to have nice ideas, they just need some polishing though. The beat should have stood out more, it's like, drowned out by the melody. Keep it up and use everyone's advise on your next track ;) By the way, the tail of the glissando gets distorted because of the overlaying of notes or the high level of delay, could have lower it a bit.

-Review Request Club-

FunkmasterCatking responds:

I tested a bunch of different levels with the delay effect, I ended up changing it to this level at the last second because I thought it resembled flying more.

Thanks for the review!

[The Grass Can Be Greener]

Heh..

I originally had low expectations due to the vocoded voice, but it's actually a very good track once I have the lyrics in front of me :D It's a pretty funky track and doesn't get tiresome despite the repetitive lead synth and drums. I'm not a fan of the lead synth to be honest, but eh, the drum and lyrics make up for it.

Not much to this one really, nice job all around. 4/5

-Review Request Club-

[Beyond the Coast]

East West Symphonic Orchestra Gold?

You sonofa...

I want that program so bad D: No wonder the sound fonts are so good. I'm not sure what instrument steps in an 0:20 (shame on me, yes?), but I felt like it lacked a bit of dynamics, it stayed the same level all along. Minor detail to me though. The overall piece is quite good, it reminds me of those beautiful pieces in Ogre Battle 64 (ever played it? Excellent game.) I feel like the violin at 2:03 doesn't belong in the piece, it strays from the overall feeling and theme in my opinion. The harp is fine to me, I don't mind the repetitiveness, not to mention that I love the short break at nearly 1/4 of the song.

It's a great track, I would love to hear more classical tracks from you since your gallery is lacking in the genre. Glad you have a good orchestral program, even though I must admit I'm a tad bit jealous haha. Keep it up, mate. 5/5

Suspended-3rd-Chord responds:

Hey thanks for the detailed review! you have every reason to be jealous XD! there's a still a lot of interesting stuff to utilize in the program that i haven't uploaded yet.

as for the criticism-yes, the strings and oboe (the 0:20 instrument) could indeed use more dynamics. never played ogre battle 64- I will have to look into seeing a Midi sometime, thanks for the comparison :). as for the violin- to each their own, but I don't think I would take that out because I wanted to ended with laidback, unlayered section, just featuring a solo instrument playing (eventually duet).

Thanks a lot for the helpful review and good numbers! :D I will definetly be uploading more classical tracks (if I finish them). My last track is also classical but its just listed as a VG track for its purposes, if you're interested.