TiGeR's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[NP - The False Memory]

Would *bittersweet' be an accurate explanation?

Hey it's me again! When I first read about the the Orchestral NAC I was actually thinking "Man, NP should join this. Now that would be truly epic" and I was considering telling you about it, although I soon figured you might be busy with other stuff :p. Still, it's great that you found your way and time for this competition!

What the reviewer below claims to put him off, is in my ears very interesting. It makes the song 'bittersweet' (once again, that's the only word I can find that fits the emotion I want to express...). Personally, I feel like the main theme is the bright part you use in the beginning and constantly relate to throughout the song (first repeated at around 1:17). While the song for the most part is pretty dark, which imo is relating to your situation with the hospital, the main theme is constantly trying to fight it's way through the darkness that this song expresses. At the end light overcomes dark and once again you hear the bright main theme, although ending in the tonic chord of the minor parallel key but in major rather than minor (wow I don't know how to discuss music theory in English. I would be able to make more sense of it if you were Swedish, haha), which makes the word 'bittersweet' come to mind once again. Very abstract explanation but meh, I hope it makes some kind of sense at least :p.

Ah well, enough with my stupid intepretations :D. Great work on this track and I hope you make it into the top 8 of the competition!

~TiGeR

ProudAardvark responds:

Hey tiger! Thanks for the detailed review. Your English music theory is spot on - it's funny because some of of the music I wrote out paying attention to the theory and some I just "felt" like the end chords. Your comments about the "hope vs darkness" resonate with me, but I'm not sure myself if the end represents the triumph of hope, or more of an acceptance of darkness. I think the end was inspired by the Chopin noctunes where he has a "departure of the soul" dying phrase. Ok wow I just read this and feel like a music nerd ;) thanks for helping me reflect on this a little more.

[Decisive]

Good stuff!

It's really fun that you are experimental in your musical creating! This is one crazy mix between DnB and chiptune, and it works out really really well!

I like how the intro is entirely based on chiptune sounds - even the drums sound like they come from a NES game (which is awesome of course!). An improvement would be a better transition from intro to the "verse" or whatever you would like to call it :). When the DnB drums kick in I'd personally like to hear some more force in it, and a good way to do this is to add some cymbals and more percussion. Another way to lay more emphasis on the transition could be to let the drums gradually build up and then go into the verse. There's a lot of ways you can do this and it's all personal. It's by no means bad as it is right now, but personally I would add a little more force to the transition :).

I like your little bridge starting at 01:08 with the piano and the strings followed by an 8-bit lead synth. It's a really smart thing to do, adding a little variety to the song :). Dude, I as the crazy person I am utterly blown away by the use of glitch drums in the bridge. I freaking love it man! Did you happen to listen to a few Lawn Wake songs before doing this? Those songs contain some of the craziest drum patterns I've ever heard :p.

At the next bridge/stick/whatever @ 04:06 I see you're doing some more crazy drums. It sounds really awesome here aswell, but I think you should turn down the volume just a little because when the drums kick in there you can't here the mellow bass anymore. So, a little lower volume on those drums would be prefered :). Nonetheless, the transition to the next part here is awesome! The 8-bit melody here is extremely well done and it really shows that you are a very musical person. Another varation thing that I really love at this part, is after playing 2 times in the original key, you move up 2 halfnotes and start playing the same thing in this new key. I love that kind of stuff, it really adds to the variety.

Overall this is probably one of my favourite tracks from you. The mix between NES and DnB is lovely. Like the reviewer below me said, this is a new genre of 8-bit :D!

Keep up the good work!

~TiGeR

AvizuraNG responds:

Thanks! I've always been a big fan of Drum N Bass and VGM.
My first tunes were VGM tunes, but I removed them cuz they weren't that good.

Thanks, I got inspired by GBC music, then added some of my own sounds (Vibraphone etc.)
My idea was actually to move from 8Bit (Chiptune) into more bits and more.
Ah, well, I'll add a buildup some time, but I can't edit this song anymore, because it was featured in the top 30 and has 3000+ listens. :S

Haha! That part, oh yeah it was inspired by 90s dance music (That piano), Like your flying really high, then fall back on the ground and fight your Earthnemesis.
Oh thanks! :) I got the idea for the IDM break fro Iridium's "Clean versus Dirty".
Then I composed my own little break.

Oh that! Nah that's just a little synth, not meant as a bass :p
Thank you again! :D Yeah, Typical Chiptune ARPS :P It's not that hard to compose actually, just compose an arp and then move it to other notes etc.

Haha! Thanks man! I love it when people enjoy my songs ;)

[FP - The Oddity]

Very good song you got going here

First of all, I gotta mention that some parts of the song feels very J.S Bach-inspired. Like 00:25 til 00:30 and then 00:40 and onward til the end. Yeah that pretty much covers the whole song but you get what I mean xD. No hard feelings though, as Bach was a musical genius. You should be proud.

I have to say that I feel like you worked on making the piano sound dynamic (I recall I reviewed one of your songs long ago, pointing about this exact thing). So that's indeed a great improvement. Gives the song a really good flow! Quick question: are you playing this by yourself or doing it via a sequencer program. Doesn't really matter though, but if you're actually playing this I am damn impressed ;).

All the staccato bass notes give the song a very light feeling (which probably is why I keep thinking of Bach when listening). But the melody notes are legato and sadly I think this fact troubles the harmony between the bass and the melody, if you understand what I mean. I was thinking, maybe you should try to have the melody notes in staccato (except when taking those long chords) to so to say give more harmony to the song. That's the only improvement I can think of right now, but it's of course up to you and what feeling you want to give this track. It's a really beautiful track nonetheless! Oh... I also wish it was a little longer :/

If the song was just a tad longer, I think it could've easily hit next week's top 5. But unfortunately the NG AP voting system is incredibly electronica-biased so in order for a classical song to hit the top weekly it has to be outstandingly good. I feel like this track has that potential, although it's little too short. One can hope, though!

Keep up the good work!

~TiGeR

Fr0zEnPh0eNiX responds:

Wow! Thanks man, best review I think I've ever gotten in terms of C&C.

My girlfriend (who is a very talented pianist) has given me a laundry list of things to improve this song, so I'll toss up an updated version as soon as it's complete.

I did use a sequencer for this tune, but I do intend to learn it as I believe it's within my ability to play it.

I'm not sure which of my stuff you've review, but please do more, your reviews are excellent.

[Timbre On The Walls]

...

One thing that kind of upsets me is how pretty much all of the reviews here are slightly narrow-minded, not having any kind of respect to songs that are outside of the "norms" of how "usual" music sounds. The 7/4 does indeed give you a "strange and unusual" feeling, but that doesn't equal it being bad. l. Even a 13/8 can sound good if the artist knows how to implement it well. Yeah, the song has it's better and it's worse parts. I gotta admit the the flanger-effect on the drums was a little harsh and could've been removed or at least reduced. The part from 00:41 without any bass makes it sound kinda empty to be honest. And the small part with drums only, around 01:12 is also very empty. Not totally sure I if I like those parts After that it gets really cool though. The bassline you put after that part is really, really groovy.

Some other guy reviewed and said "you play the weirdest chromatic melodies I've ever heard", and to that I just shake my head in agony. Apparently someone hasn't listened to atonal music because this song, my friend, is nothing. What KirbyFemur has done is basically using a normal scale and adding a few tritones every here and there. Yeah, it jumps from minor to major at times, but that's not really that "wierd" in any sense. You do put quite a few exposition notes here and there, that are off-scale. But in the meantime, this is used a lot in Jazz and Blues f.e, so it's not uncommon by any means.

Anyway, the thing that struck me the most was the chord progression in major in the beginning, where you add a tritone to some of the chords. I think it sounds incredibly good. The bass doesn't play around only with fifths- and octaves-progression only, but you also try your limits by playing around with almost every note in the scale. I could've sworn I even heard the bass hitting a couple of major 7ths every now and then. I think it sounds really interesting.

The song gives me a very soothing feeling with all these major 7ths throughout the track, and even though I think you sometimes go a bit "too" crazy with the piano, I don't think it's too huge of a deal. But yeah, be careful with the off-scale notes, while they can be really cool when implemented in a good way, they can also ruin a song badly. Although I don't think it's bad at all in this song, but just so you're aware of that kind of stuff in future compositions ;). And also, please remove those "transitions" where there's only heavily flanged drums playing, they are just totally unnecessary in my opinion, they just take up place. And the sound on the drums is also quite hard, like slightly distorted, which makes them stand out a little too much. You shoulda reduce the distortion just a little, I think many people would enjoy this way more then. It would be a totally relaxing tune!

But anyway, this is a really interesting track. Even though some people seem to be terribly scared of anything else than 4/4, 3/4 or 6/8, don't let that hold you back when creating your songs.

Wow, this is quite a long review :S. I hope you find anything constructive in here, man!

Cheers,

~TiGeR

[Some Cheesy Trance Thingy]

Cheesy!

Really interesting song! Can't say much on the mastering part since I'm not a wise man in that aspect. But in a creative sense, this song is really, really interesting. Gotta love when it changes to shuffle @ 1:29, which imo was awesome sauce. And well, while it was probably your intention, the bass drowns the other sounds at times, especiall when the shuffle mode kicks in. The main synth thingy sometimes seem to not get enough place in the mix, but it could aswell just be my headset that sucks. Don't know, that's the only negative thing about the song that struck me.

Anywho, your stuff is as always top notch, impressive and inspirational! Good job on the track!

~TiGeR

mr-jazzman responds:

Ah yes, you'd be commenting on my compression job. Yeah, I wasn't too sure on that. I'd edit the bass compression, and then there wouldn't be enough bass in the mix; then, I'd edit the treble, and then suddenly the treble was drowned out. I dunno. =P I'm gonna have to work with Maximus a little more closely, especially for my "Like A G6" dubstep remix. Thanks for your kind words TiGeR, even though this isn't my typical style!

[Halloween 3 FX]

Woah

Gotta admit this stuff blew my mind. Gives one a perfect halloween atmosphere. The freaky laugh in the beginning gives me the creeps, can't deny that. Now I'm gonna have nightmares, bah >.< great job though!

~TiGeR

axeFX responds:

Sorry about that! Thanks for the review!

[xKore - Eden]

Speechless

Normally I would try to give some constructive criticism... but when listening to this song I'm just speechless. Your mixing and mastering knowledge is just way, WAY above my level so there is seriously nothing I can give you except a "GREAT JOB!". Hope you understand :)

Cheers,

~TiGeR

[Crom - Skyscrapers]

Simple but awesome

While it's very simple (very few and simple sounds used), it's still really good. Not too repetitive, musically very well sounding, keeps one entertained throughout the whole song. Even though you play around with both the bass and the melody quite a lot making the song quite rounded, there's still so much things I feel like you could've done. Added a couple of instruments, playing around with EQ and mastering settings, adding delay effects (chorus, flanging, reverb) etc. There's so much that could make this yet awesome song, even more awesome! Still you did a good job, nontheless.

By the way, this song could be put in the Drum and Bass section aswell, I think :p.

Cheers,

~TiGeR