WritersBlock's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[World's Bounty]

8bit, or chiptune, as it is also known...

is hard to make whilst still sounding good. Music in it's most basic form of waves. I like 8bit, but the thing is that since the technical arrangement of it is so simple, there's a very high importance on the composition. The composition here was quite pleasant, so I'll give you extra points there. I've done a bit of chiptune myself, although I've only managed to pull it off good once. But the thing is that now we're not limited by videogame sound systems, there's no restrictions as to what you can do with those square, triangle, sine and saw waves. I'd like to hear this song with a bit of effects on it. Delay, chorus, reverb, phaser, go nuts! So that it'll stand out that extra bit when compared to the old mario tunes. Good work. I liked it.

-Review Request Club-

TheReno responds:

Well thanks alot, Im glad that the general feel by everyone is that they liked it. I guess next time I will mess with the waves just that much more and try to get the best sound possible xD Thanks for the review.

[Not so Simple]

Needs work

It's really hard to get a really good classical rock sound without guitars. First of all, there aren't too many people who know how to get FL slayer to sound like a real guitar, one just off the top of my head would be jrayteam6. I'd suggest trying to find some FL Slayer tutorials out there, using a real guitar, try finding a better guitar VSTi (I think I remember seeing one somewhere, a little while ago) or trying to work with different virtual instruments. A rock song usually sounds pretty simple, but most of the time a lot is going on. As well as the lead guitar, there's the rhythm guitar and a bass, and drums. If you want to reconstruct those instruments digitally, you need to have really good samples, and most of the time this costs a lot of money. You could probably get some good drums by using the FPC and using techniques and patterns that sound as if a real drummer would play them, and you can add realism to the drums by adding reverb. I think you can probably improve on this if you add a bass, maybe try and get something good in slayer or search around. You could probably get a passable rhythm guitar with FL slayer if you sue it right, but the lead is a bit of a problem, you could replace the lead with a violin sample or flute sample.
Also, there's the structure of your song, once you've got your base chord progression, you can vary the lead around that to get a few versus, connect them with a second progression for a chorus, add a third progression for variation as the bridge, intro, outro, wham, bam, you're done.
Hope this helps break it down for you.
Good luck composing music in the future.

-Review Request Club-

aldlv responds:

wow... that's is an awesome review
thanx... It will help me a lot

[Electro Blues - Wayl0n]

Reminds me of

the game on newgrounds: Fancy Pants Adventure. It has a nice fun feel to it. Great loop, and great for your first. Welcome to the AP, this is very enjoyable, would probably work really well in a funky game. Great work.

10/10 and a 5/5 for encouragement.

-Review Request Club-

wayl0n responds:

Well thank you!

[(_RGH_) Kingdom Grunt(KGVB)]

This is cool, but

I don't really see someone rapping over this, it's great how it is, although it is a tad repetitive, it's missing the hip hop vibe. The synths are great, but a lot more electronica. Great song, I say leave it as it is. Good job.

-Review Request Club-

RyeGuyHead responds:

i dunno what to do anymore

[(_RGH_) Climate Loop(Remix)]

Right from the start

it gets my attention, it loops very well, the variation in the song is simple, but enough to make it the kind of loop that won't get old if used in a game.
The synths used were cool, they're effective, and the drums are great, short and punchy, it's mixed really well. I could listen to this over and over again for a while.
Great work.

-Review Request Club-

RyeGuyHead responds:

whats stopping you

[KR- Sonic Adv 3 Cyber Track]

Cool

The organ/piano combination was nice. The melody and panning were done well. A little soft in a couple of places, but as a whole, it's a solid track.

Good job.

knuxrouge responds:

Thanks.

[KR- SMB Mushroom Kingdom]

Soft

It's very soft...
I think the bassline could have been turned up a fair bit and the lead up a little bit. It's pretty good for a straight cover, but I think it needs a bit more filling out, it's a fancy pants song, you can go nuts, maybe have another variation of the lead lower down, chuck the bass down the octave, and add in a few more layers to the lead (maybe an octave higher) as the song progresses. Meh, I'm just doing my thing picking out how I'd like it to sound. It's got that SMB charm, light, happy, nothing aggressive, so I guess the softness works out. Nostalgia indeed ^_^
*jumps up and hits block. Coin appears. <bling!>*

knuxrouge responds:

Thanks. I know that I could have made it more jumpy, but the last time I added an extra instrument in to liven it up, it destroyed the song and I had to do it over again. I fondled with the keys abit on this one, they are custom-edited for this song.
It is plain, but I've grown to like that.
But thanks for your review.

[KR- Megaman Zero 2 Opening]

It's cool

Your latest works have been impressing me. The mixing has been a lot better,instruments are spot on. Great work, keep it up.
Although, if I were to offer some constructive crit here, it would probably be to add some middle-low end slow strings in there for a bit of added depth, other than that, it's great. One for the BVG collab.
=D

knuxrouge responds:

Sweet, thanks. I have had alot of time to practice in my time gone.
Your suggestion has been noted. I used an Esemble instead of a shot in this one.

[~BH~ Through The Snowfall]

For sytrus synths you made yourself,

it's awesome.
Regardless of that, it's still awesome. Slick composition. Great upbeat epic VG track, very cool to listen to.
Great work.

ErikMcClure responds:

Thanks! Nowadays I only use custom sytrus synths in my songs, so essentially all of my 2008 songs have synths built entirely from scratch.

[KR- Sonic 3D Volcano Valley]

This is real smooth

The sustained bass was nice.
Strings were good.
Piano was nice.
Brass was decent.
Overall, the shape of the song and the classical format was well executed.One of your best!

Good job.

WB

knuxrouge responds:

Thanks.