AndrewRG's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Evil Bunnies]

Interesting sliding voices. I like that you put this in swing. Very cool!

GdabZ responds:

Thank you !

[A Dramatic Scene]

Almost sounds James Bond-ish. I love your drums/rhythm, and agree that it would benefit from better synths/samples. I picture some sort of get-away scene here, or maybe some sort of "investigation montage". Fairly good musicianship; me likes!

R4R

alternativesolution responds:

Ooh, thank you :D Your input is appreciated.

[Nice Knowing]

Hey MockOff,

Not a bad tune. Very atmospheric and relaxing. I can definitely see it being used the way you'd mentioned. I'm having a hard time figuring out your chord progression, though. It's also a little difficult to pick up on the feel of it rhythmically. Are you using 4 or 8 bar phrases? You might want to double-check your phrasing. I do very much like your choices in instruments - pleasing to the ear.

Take care.

MockOff responds:

I'm using 8 bar phrases. Rhythm sounds fine to me, but that might just be self-bias.

Thanks for the kind words.

[D.O.E-Reinject]

I'll get the criticism out of the way first, since I have highly positive things I want to say.

Con: The chord progression sounds weird to me - specifically, I don't think you're keeping it within a certain key. Double check which chords you're using and figure out if they work together.

Pros: Lyrics = FUCKING AMAZING. Epic end-of-the-universe heat-death horror! Gripping the last scraps of rock left in the universe!? Planets eaten by stars; galaxies eaten by black holes... The misery of immortality... Thanks for the nightmares. Asshole.

XD

R4R

Lich responds:

Thanks for the review.

I did load up the FL project of this from the dusty corners of my 'Old' folder and have a look at how I sequenced it chord-wise. Yes I did play around with what key it was (it was in 3 different keys) but I wanted to experiment in the original and all I done for this one was just touch up on the sound quality overall.

[A Rural Village Afternoon]

That's quite a good sound for Finale. I'm going to have to look into the VS library.

Very nice piece. I can visualize it being used exactly how you suggest.
No real criticisms. I might suggest bringing down the volume of the strings just slightly in a couple of the most dramatic areas, but I do very much like your use of dynamics. It's not too melodic that it would get annoying listening to loop-after-loop in a video game. Good use of dissonance and chord structure.

LeoMDK responds:

Hey, thanks for the rating/feedback ... I got a selection of VSL instruments included when i bought Komplete 9 ... they include enough to build a standard orchestra, which is nice. Finale works well with VSL instruments when you use the keyswitch library made by a user (they are available at the VSL website under "user area"/"needful things". The VSL instruments and the user-made articulation keyswitch library make Finale sound much better. The only frustration I have with Finale right now is the company's reluctance to make FInale a native 64-bit program, so I still have to mix Garritan instruments into the orchestra where I can in order to save RAM.

As for the piece itself, I tried to use dissonant chords & mixed-meter/syncopation to create interest while keeping the melody fairly simple and almost secondary.

I'll consider the string volume ... maybe the volume is a bit distracting for a background loop?

[Final Fantasy VII Theme]

Hey CelestOrion,

Very good arrangement! I'm curious what software you used for this.

My only criticism would be that it could use an overall rebalancing in terms of volume and dynamics - especially with the strings. There are a few instruments missing - brass and harp licks, etc.

I would appreciate your criticism on my arrangement of this. Good to see someone else has arranged this song!

CelestOrion responds:

I perfectly agree with you. It definitely is missing some touches that I never got around to adding. This is one of the first tunes that I did getting into digital arrangement, so it really doesn't hold a candle to some of my later works, but glad to know that you did like what was present!