EctiBot's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Sea of Stars]

As RF Said, the piano is too dry. Could really use some reverb. Really enjoyed the melodies in this actually. I didn't feel like the melody fit together with the chord progression at 1:20. I do think this track is a bit plain and lacks some other layers to make it really interesting. I do think you did a good with what you have atm though. Really liked the strings you added.
The piece fits the starry sky in the art in a decent way, though I do think it would be even better with more layers. The transitions are decent, though I do think there are more creative ways to do them.

Overall the mixing is not too bad, but the chord parts of the piano and the piano lead should be mixed better together. Kinda clashing with eachother atm.
There's a lot of potential in this track but it's lacking some things.

Arrangement: 3/5
Sound Design: 2/5
Mixing: 3/5
Art Relevance: 4/5
Overall: 3/5

Zechnition responds:

Yeah I'm still learning how to do some of these minor touches in cinematic music that make all the difference, thanks for the review! =D

[AIM - Wheat Breakfast Sheepman]

A.I.M Judging Review
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RF said that this is the most unique track he's ever heard in A.I.M.
Of the 338 audio tracks I've reviewed this is my first time I've heard something like this. Can't even properly put it into the genre.

If you didn't understand it already, I think this track is amazingly wierd. It gets to the point where I wish to unscrew your head to have a look at wtf went on in your head when making this XD (no offense ofc). This is the first time I've written a review and felt like the piece is simply beyond my comprehension. The synths are great the arrangement is wierdly spot-on and it probably is the art that I've felt fit the most with the art so far in the contest.
I wish, like RF said, that the synth in my left year had a bit more reverb on it. It's a bit plain as it is right now. Would be cool with a bit more sub as well.

Mixing: 4/5
Arrangement: 5+/5
Sound Design: 5/5
Art Relevance: 5+/5
Overall 4.75/5

Quarl responds:

Thank you so much for that review. I'm debating going back and fixing things up a little but when a track get's published it's so hard to go back into it. I have almost a month left, if I go back to add a sub bass and some reverb will senpai notice me? I just want senpai to notice me. Notice me senpai.

Hold on, I'm 27 years old. Am I senpai yet? Is someone out there waiting for me to notice them?

[AIM - Rainbow Curse]

A.I.M Judging Review
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The melodies, chord progressions are pretty decent.
Still, I have quite a few problems with this track. First of all the mixing. All the different saw synths are clashing with each other all the time, and makes this grating noise. Need to work more on that. In addition to this, the drums could have been mixed in way better. Especially the snare simply doesn't sound good in the mix. Personally I would switch out the snare sample completely, but I do believe that a lot could be done with EQ and compression to make it sound better. The mixing isn't really that terrible overall, but there are a lot of small things that deduct from the larger picture

The double time beat part at 0:56 was really awkward. The reason for this is not that it's a bad idea in itself, but also this is a lot because of the snare sample you use. It has some sort of wierd delayed attack so it really throws of the beat when you play in quickly in sucesssion like that. That kind of snare is meant as a "one-shot", meaning that it's not supposed to be a central part of the drum pattern, but rather be used for fill-ins on the end of each part. I also personally don't think you should have a double beat at that entire part. What I mean is that I think it became a bit too much to hear it play for 40+ seconds. Maybe just have it playing for the last 20?.

The Arrangements is fairly decent actually. You keep the interest up in a good way and the transitions are well times.

The track fits very well with the kirby theme of the art, though the art is not only about kirby. It's about a SLEEPING kirby. I didn't really feel like you captured that at all and the track is way to energetic to depict a sleeping kirby.

The Sound design is quite good actually. Really enjoyed all the synths.

Arrangement: 4/5
Mixing: 3/5
Sound Design: 5/5
Art Relevance: 3/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Evilgrapez responds:

Thanks for the review! Never took the fact that Kirby was sleeping into account while making the song, actually. :P Maybe a chillout song would have worked with the art better. I'm very happy about the sound design. I usually don't do that very well, to be honest. Thanks again!

[A.I.M - Burning Witches Light My Way]

A.I.M Judging Review
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First of all, I want to say that I didn't feel like enough effort had been put into the intro. The track just suddenly begins without any buildup or forewarning. I agree with RF, something is missing in the beginning.
You certainly doesn't seem to have any problems with building up tension though. You do it in a great way throughout the track. Some of the instruments is a bit low-quality. Not much you can do about that, but I feel like the mixing could have been done better to compensate for the quality. The quality of an instrument is usually heard in it's hi-end, so if you want to turn a low-quality instrument into a decent one you need to mess a bit more with the hi-end.
There is also a slight problem with the violins on the short notes. Too short release like EDM said.

The track fits very well with the art. I've made it a rule to myself not to read the description of this tracks while judging them, because I believe great tracks are able to portray the art on it's own without additional text. You did this in a great way, and I didn't need to read the text to feel like it went well together with the art. Great work :).

Mixing: 3/5
Arrangement: 4.5/5
Sound Design: 4/5
Art Relevance: 5/5
Overall: 4/5

Shozi responds:

awesome thanks a lot for the review Ectisity! Yes I think the hardest part for me in a track is the beginning, how to let it sound interesting from the beginning on. still have a lot to learn in that case. also mixingwise im still a newbie and dont really know how to get more quality out of certain instruments, thanks for the tip! Hopefully I´ll be able to use this new gained knowledge wisely in my future tracks. I am very happy with the overall judgement :)

[A.I.M. The Way Home]

A.I.M Judging Review
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Great, Great piece this :).
Mixing is pretty much flawless, thei nstruments are of a really high quality, and the arrangement is great. I love how the basic elements of the piece is the same throughout, but you make those subtle changes that keeps up the interest in a very good way.

Tbh, I don't really agree that this doesn't fit with the art. Sure there are some very subtle fantasy elements in the picture, but it's not in the focus at all. The song depicts the feeling of finally returning home after a long journey in a great way, so I'll personally give you full marks in that category.

I agree that the hi-hat sounds a little bit wierd though. Too me it doesn't stick out were it should. I believe that the hi-hat should shine in the hi-mid frequencies, but as it is now it'ssticking out in the low-mid section.

Arrangement: 5/5
Sound Design: 5/5
Mixing: 4.95/5
Art Relevance: 5/5
Overall: 4.9875

Personally, I couldn't really find any major faults in this.

cody104 responds:

Thanks a bunch , means a lot that you liked this song. When I can I'll see what I can do for the hi hat, The guitar used is an epiphone sst solid body acoustic electric, I always get great quality when I record with this axe, it's one of my favs to record with.

[AIM: ZAZEN]

AIM Judge Review
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Interesting piece.
First of all I want to say that the distortion on the instrument is really annoying to listen to. Distortion can be done very well, but in this case it was not satisfying to my ears. The mixing in this track is fairly decent, though there aren't too many elements to mix in the first place(that sounded rude, but it was actually a compliment XD). Bass could have been a bit more apparent as well.

The track has some realy interesting melodic elements. Really liked the part at 1:50. I felt like this track could have used a bit more variation. Kinda is the same thing over and over again at some points.

I want o emphasize again that there is too much fuzz/distortion in this track. To test, I pulled out my urbanista headphones which probably is the kind of headphones most people will listen to this track with. Was pretty much impossible to enjoy the track, and it really bothered my ears. So yea, I would cut down on the fuzz a bit, and I would also advice you to listen to your tracks with "normal" headplugs to hear how your track would sound like for most people.

Overall a decent track though. Little bit lacking in terms of elements, but reflected the spacey/dessert/ZEN theme from the art quite well.

Mixing: 4/5
Arrangement: 3/5
Sound Design: 3/5
Art Relevance: 5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

[AIM - This is War]

AIM Judge Review
-----------------------------------
o_O.....

Sry, saw you were quite new on the site , so really wasn't expecting this. The riffs are awesome, the guitar sound i sick, and the arrangement is very good. There are some issues with the mixing. The guitar gets overpowered vy the drums and times and I feel like the bass could have shined through just a tiny bit more. Bass does lag a bit. Had the same problem with Reaper at times when I was using it, really annoying. It's hardly noticeable though.
This track made me think of a buildup to an epic batle even BEFORE looking at the art, so I don't need to say anymore about that ;).

Mixing: 4/5
Arrangement: 5/5
Sound Design: 5/5
Art Relevance 5+/5
Overall: 4.75/5

I feel like I could give this track a 4.5 due to minor mixing issues , but the quality of this track, the art relevance and that amazing guitar solo has convinced me otherwise. So much work has gone into the track, and I had a great time listening to it. Keep it up :).

NahuPyrope responds:

Hey!, I'm so so glad you liked it!, And yeah, I know I have some issues with the mixing xD, And yeah, the bass could've shined a lot more, you don't know how happy this review makes me! haha

[AIM - ホーガンのデッド]

AIM Judge Review
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Quite relaxing piece this.
The mixing is quite on point in this. The synths blend really love together, and overall I think the general sound of the track was great.
I do miss some more variation and dynamics though. I felt like the track could have gone to the next level with some better buildups. As it is now, I felt like the piece stayed on the same level throughout the track, which becomes boring after a while. I know that you tried to vary up the dynamics a bit by adding filters, and though I do think that's a great idea, it's really not enough.
I think the main problem with this track is that it felt like a 4 minute loop and not a full piece.

On the other side however, the reason why I felt like the track was lacking, was because there were a lot of great elements in it, and it was like you let me lick all the icing of the cake, but you wouldn't let me eat the delicious chocolate fondue that was inside ;(. As RF said, the drums sounds awesome. Really great job there. The chord progression was a little bit uninteresting at times. The Pararell 5ths is something I've a quadrillion of times, and though I don't mean that you shouldn't use them, you gotta change them up at times.

When it comes to the art relevance, I do feel like both this track and the art emits a chillaxed mood, though at the same time there wasn't much else in it that reminded me of the art.

Mixing: 5/5
Arrangement: 3/5
Sound Design: 5/5
Art Relevance: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

[Gallant Last Stand]

Interesting and original piece this :)
The mixing could really use some work though. Pretty much all the instruments are clashing and overtaking each other. Gotta work on the EQ, but you should also look a bit into compression as well.
The instruments don't sounds very cheap, which kind of ruins the sound experience together with the poor mixing.
Some of the transitions, like the one at 2:34, are kinda lazy. I believe it could have been done much better. As it is now it's like the song stops and starts on a new one.
Apart from the transitions I liked the arrangement and it was well thought through. I am a firm believer of structure though. Even though you want to be original and follow your heart, it is important that you don't get too stuck in "doing your own thing". IN my opinion music isn't about "expressing" emotions, but it's about "portraying" them. Thus if the listener isn't able to feel the same emotion you did when you made the piece, something is wrong. Focusing your song structure around basic musical structure principles, will increase the songs ability to portray your emotions to ANY listener.

As Zech already mentioned, this piece lacks background instruments at some parts. The part from 1:20 - 2:30 have no background instruments whatsoever. You should at least add a backup guitar with some chords here. Otherwise it just sounds stale.

Certainly isn't a bad track, and it has some really cool ideas in it. The mixing and sound design was what ruined it for me, but if you continue working on your mixing, and maybe get your hands on some better samples, I believe you can take your music to the next level :).

- Ectisity
Thx for requesting a review from the:
{Review Request Club}

MysteriousPresence responds:

Thanks a lot for the review ! =)
Yes, the EQ is my huge problem, thanks for making me notice ! I'll try to balance better next time ! :3
But I thought that was a cool transition, why does everyone hates it ? X) Well I think it gives the feeling of a new starting song because the next step is beginning at this moment !
Well... I'll try to conform too ! Even if it sounds sad to me... as long as I give people emotions... :3
I confess : you're right ! The 1:20-2:30 part has no background instruments... like really none ! But I'll work my details next time !
Well I'm afraid I never used any sample, and I don't wanna start using some !
Thanks again for the review, and glad you liked it a bit ! =)