Birdinator99's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[An Overtaking Sky]

This is super; you're getting so much better!

A very relaxing piece! The instrument at 0:20 is very appropriate, and everything has been reverbed very well, especially the snare. Piano solo at 0:57 has some cool licks.

This is easy to zone out to; my kind of song. I think I'll download this one.

There's really not much else to say! You keep a steady course going with that great kick drum, and some slight rhythmic changes with the hi hat and snare. The way you wind the song down slowly is great as well.

Good title too.

Keep it up!

OpenLight responds:

I take it I should make more like this haha. I'm stoked you liked this. I don't think my newer song was all that great in comparison, but hey maybe I'll be surprised lol. Thanks!

[Aerial Ace - Main Theme]

Can you tell me what you used for drums? Curious.

SonicYM2612 responds:

I used a few soundfonts for the percussion. The snares, kicks, and toms are from 8rock11e.sf2 and 314_Good_Rocky_Drum.sf2. All the cymbals are from 1-TamaRockSTAR-se3.sf2. You can find these soundfonts freely on the internet. Hope this helps! ;)

[The Fall]

This is some solid atmospheric shit, dude. Nice work.

The thing that stands out in all of this is the effective placement of sounds. Reverb, low-pass filters, and of course volume levels are all used well to blend everything together. I love the way the rain swells in and out to keep you listening!

The little girl crying and the glass breaking, especially towards the end, are great choices. You've definitely achieved what you set out to here.

My only beef is the "help" at 0:30 -- it cuts off too quickly, and feels unnatural. Try putting a delay on it, and see if it helps.

I swear I heard Gollum in there somewhere. Maybe?

Valon129 responds:

Thanks a lot man. It's really nice to have a review and it feels good that it's a positive one.

I'm going to try to improve this "help" thing using a delay like you said.

If there is a Gollum sound it's definitly not intentional tho haha.

[Monochrome]

Dat Chorus

Mmmm, this is good -- very unique feel to it... Those are some damn good VSTs; what are you using? Thanks for the pitch bends btw

OpenLight responds:

Sweet! I finally made a song good enough to get some great reviews from some of my favorite Audio Portal artists.

I'm not 100% positive what VST pack this is. I'll search my previous messages (I got them from TroisNyx) and send you a message with what I find.

[Frootza - Phantom]

Pleasant melodies, good driving beat. Like the break at 1:40.

Nice uplifting tune you've got here. Some of the cymbals are pretty subdued at times, and I wonder what it would sound like with them turned up a bit. Other than that, nothing that blows my socks off, but a favourite nonetheless.

frootza responds:

Awesome! Thanks for the review. I still feel like tweeking the hats, you aren't the first to mention them.

Happy that you made it a favorite!

Frootza

[Sinking Island]

The 1:43 transition is great -- I love it, don't change it!

The one around 2:43 -- I love the sound of it, but a think it would sound better if you suddenly transitioned to it like with 1:43.

Other than that, I like the chords, melodies, blah, blah, blah...

The hand drum feels pretty out of place, but it has a great rhythm. Up to you, I guess.

Congrats on making it into the second round!

OpenLight responds:

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

[Stuck (Entry for RAC7)]

Sounds pretty good. Some of the cymbal hits are too loud, and there's a solo in there that gets drowned out, I think.

Remember, if you want the best chance at winning, you need to post some links showing your "research" or something, plus promote your track!

adilovemetal responds:

hey there! Thanks a lot :D
I didnt exactly get your point, what do you mean by showing research? I did not do any research, I just thought Finland, Sweden, and other European countries, and all i could think was metal... Metal is very prevalent in these countries, so I just made a track and went with it Will it be ok if I publish my REAPER DAW save file?
Improvised the solo and the mixing, but was too lazy to work on the drum hits, that would mean again rendering the drumtrack I made in FL Studio...

[The Mare and The Tortoise]

Nice bass choice, good use of vocals and reverb -- I expect to hear you on the radio soon, heh.

midimachine responds:

i don't! :P

[~SW~ Ipex#836]

Man, this song's got it all.

Wonderful thing you've done with the intro. Very atmospheric, little synth blips and tweets everywhere. Good way to start.

I like the jazzy lead that follows at 0:58. Great riffs there.

The bass is well chosen -- fits perfectly for a good groove. Blends with the smooth pads and synth effects.

Great dramatic change at 2:06. Very contrasting. Good use of bass wubs :D Jazzy leads continue?!?! Yay!

Return of a good friend at 3:31. Good choice.

Transitions are all really well executed.

4:43 scared me the first time, hehe. Nothing wrong with it, though.

Lovely chord progressions and harmonies, and wow, what a great ending, relating back to the intro like that. Almost works as a loop!

Fuck. I had no idea you were this good. The effort clearly shows, and I'm uber jealous. I couldn't go back to the drawing board enough times to be this good.

SkyeWint responds:

Heya! Thank you! :D

So, point-by-point response...

"Good way to start."
To be honest, that was just a random FX Sytrus preset I found in FL Studio. Granted, it wasn't one of the default ones, but still...

"Great riffs there."
All that jazz is one of the bases of this song. I was planning on having the jazz+bass combo, and worked fairly hard on that.

"Jazzy leads continue?!?! Yay!"
YES. Dubstep with smooth jazz mixed in. F. T. W. That was an idea I had that I don't think I had heard before.

"Return of a good friend at 3:31"
Yeah, the main synth. I actually decided to use that synth because of Animusic (Harmonic Voltage). :D Also, if you don't know Animusic, I HIGHLY recommend you look it up. Now.

"Transitions are all really well executed."
Transitions are... something of a specialty of mine. ^_^ As Step would be able to tell you...

"4:43 scared me the first time, hehe. Nothing wrong with it, though."
lol, really? I thought that was a cool bit. xD Guess it could be a bit startling though if you weren't expecting it...

"Fuck. I had no idea you were this good. I couldn't go back to the drawing board enough times to be this good."
Pssssh. I went back to the drawing board so many times with this. :P (as you can obviously see from the description) Honestly though. If you want, I'd love to work together on a song! :D ...if I'm actually better than you (though I don't know about that), maybe that would help a bit?

In any case, thanks a ton for the review, it's definitely one of the better ones I've gotten. :)

[Outside the Atmosphere]

Hey man, glad to see you got in this competition. I can speak from experience; the farther you get, the more fun it is, and this track sounds great (love the piano), so you shouldn't have a problem with that!

I would've really enjoyed potentially competing against you, but unfortunately I botched my audition piece. Maybe next year, eh?

OpenLight responds:

Ha yeah I don't know how you didn't get it but your stuff last year was outstanding. Thanks for your review!