EctiBot's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tiger]

Ummm...................
What in the friggin world! What you made the last time I reviewed one of your tracks was good, but this...... 3.41 minutes of pure genius.
The buildups, the synths, the structure, the mixing. It's all really really well done.
One thing I'll say though, is that I feel like the effects were too loud compared to the leadsytnhs. The mixing is very well done, but the general volume of the leadsynths are too low so they don't really shine that well through the mix. If you just turn them a tiny tad up, it would be perfect.

Overall an amazing and creative track. You have really taken huge steps since the first time I reviewed one of your tracks, and I just love seeing a musician grow like this :). Of all the requests made to the RRC this round, this is the first that I'll have to give a full score to.
Great work, keep it up! You're headed for greatness if you continue like this :D!
- Ectisity

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Felocai responds:

Thanks man, thats really nice to read :3

[Nebulae]

This is a hard one actually.
In a way, I think it's poorly made. In another I love it and think it is genius.
The sound design is rather uncreative and full untouched presets that I've heard thousands times .
I would advice you to do as Sequenced said and try to learn a bit more about sound design. I'm in the process of learning it myself actually. There's a lot of great books and youtube tutorials about it that I would really recommend you to watch if you want to make that sound that defines your music.

As for the good stuff, the mixing is great actually. the sounds work really well togetherr and fill each other out. The structuring of the track is very creative, and I never felt bored while listening to it. I do think it needs some variation in melody thouh. While you did a grat job with the structure, that only compensates the fact that the melody is samey. Also, did you put a phaser or something on the kick? I love that effect where the kick changes volume and it's intensity. It's close to genius for this track.

Overall a good track, but there are some small things you can fix on to make full use of its real potential.

- Ectisity
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Drewpy responds:

Honestly, this review is one of the most helpful and substantial that I've ever received, and I appreciate it a bunch! I will start to try to learn sound design now, and I'm sure that'll take a while to get down, but definitely worth it in the long run!!! And actually, fun fact, I used 2 completely different kick sounds. I was a little worried about how that would work out, and I'm stoked that you enjoyed it! I'm experimenting with repetition and structuring a lot right now, and I have yet to refine my taste in style with melodies. I'm going to try to add more variation and make my tracks more dynamic in the future. Again, thanks so much for this review, this actually helps me out a lot!!

[Bosque]

Very nice guitar work this. A lot of creativity put behind it. You were able to do a lot fit a fairy simple melody and chord progression, and I appreciate that. I do feel like this track could have been more though if you had used more samplers. There's a lot of different overlaying melodies you could have added to some parts of the track to make it more full and exciting. I would have loved a bass part as well, but as a bassist myself I guess that's only my preference. I don't know if you only had 4 samplers available, or if you purposely limited yourself to 4 samplers, but I believe you can take your music to greater heights if you sit down and try to see the full potential of a melody and chord progression. Without vocals, tracks like these are solely driven by the excitement of the composition, so you need to add that extra little that makes up for the vocals.

Overall a great track though, and I really enjoyed listening to it. I felt like it could be better, but it's a good start. Can't wait to see what you make in the future :).
- Ectisity

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xdsebaxd responds:

I really aprecciate the extend feedback. It was very helpfull. I try better for the next time.

Thanks!

[[Tsets] - Piano Bliss]

This is going to be one of the few songs I'm actually going to favourite. Not because it's perfect, but because the ideas are pure genius. The sounding of the piano could have been better. Personally I would have used stereo separation to open it up a bit, but basically my problem with is is that it sounds a bit too stale.
Other than that I think your song is amazing. You are one of the people I've seen on here, including myself, that are able to utilise tempo modulation in a good way :D.

The ending is a bit weak, and could have been better planned, but overall it's a great song that deserves 5 stars.

TsetsukenMusic responds:

You know what, that's actually not too bad of an idea to use a little stereo separation to make it feel more dynamic, i'll play with it and see if I can make it work a little better.
I had a review the other day saying that there seems like there is something missing, something that is "key" to making this from stale to becoming a really beautiful piece. I'm still working on that.

I love playing with the tempo! it's actually something still very new to my style and I think it adds an amazing dynamic having the modulation, so that's HUGE to me that you view it that way :D. I will say this, that your review has been one of the best ones that I have received on any of my songs!

I've been unsure what to put for the ending, it does kind of just "die" at the end and I agree. Something that's being added to the list of stuff to play with :P. It might take a bit to find something that can be somewhat "frisson inducing" that fits the end and I feel like this is something that I need to work on overall (throughout all my songs). It's hard to see (at least for me) parts that truly need to be worked on until someone points it out and that's why I love posting here :).

I extremely appreciate your review and thank you!! :3

[Galloping]

Great as always, poinL
Such and incredibly soft and soothing song. Really is the definition of a chillax New Wave track. Only thing I actually can comment on is the 8bit clap/ snare that comes in at 2:20. Personally I don't really enjoy when percussion is panned more to one side than the other without having something that panned the same amount to the other side, to make up the balance. For example having a clap panned slightly to the right side, and a snare panned slightly to the right. In that way I feel like they work together to create the balance that all minds actually love. Just my opinion though, I know several people who thinks stuff like that sounds great.

Overall, a very good track with pretty much no apparent flaws.

-Ecticity
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poinl responds:

I was trying to use the white noise panned to left to balance it out, but it does seem a little off. Perhaps I should have panned it by a lesser degree. On the note of the snare/clap, I've actually tried that out recently and it's really cool!

[Again]

You made a request to the Review Request Club a month ago. Sorry for the late review X3:

The main melody is amazing. I love it! I also like the lead synth you use.

There's a couple of things to pick on from the resto f your song though. First of all, the first 12 seconds of the song is very stale and boring. By adding in some reverby sound effects or just add some high notes to your piano chords. Personally, I would also add "transition notes" between the chords. Like instead of going directly from one chord to another, you add a chord in between to make the transition smoother. Also, I didn't really enjoy the sounding of the piano you use. Too much low end in the eq.

This leads into the other problem in your track, the eq. After listening through your song, I get the impression that you either have done no eq'ing at all, or have just used it to boost certain frequencies for certain instruments. I would really advice you to learn and master the art of eq'ing. It's probably the most important thing too learn if you want to increase the quality of your music.
Cut some low end from the piano, and cut some of the highest frequencies of the sine lead as a beginning. The trick is that you don't want the lead to sound worse than it did before the eq, but you want to remove the frequncies that makes the synth sound bad as a start.

The bassline and piano doesn't go well together btw. I don't know if there is some detune on the bass or not, but the bass sounds false in comparison to the piano chords at some points.
Also, a tip for the piano chords, I don't think those are the best chords to bring out the full potential of the melody. The first chord sounds right, but the other 3 are pretty off in comparison to the chords. Try experimenting with different chords.

Overall a song with some really good ideas, but I feel like it could have been done better. Hope you don't think too much of the rating. I do the RRC to help out people , and I feel like the best way to do that is by being as strict as possible.

-Ecticity
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Awe2K responds:

Thanks for the review, will do my best to make next songs a bit better :)

Edit: it is actually not my best song, one of my first

[Logical Thinking]

Very well done on this one :D. All the melodies and choirdlines were incredbly soothing and fitted perfectly together. The arrangement is well thought through, and the mixing and eq'ing is decent.

One thing I want to pick on though, is that the sounding of the track is kinda dull. No reverb, no delay, no chorus, no sound effects. Personally I would definetly have put a weak delay on the Sine lead and some reverb on the piano. Also, I don't know if you've tried messing around with stereo separation that much , but it's a great tool for opening up your tracks more.
The percussion part could also need some work, as you only use a kick for the most part of the song. Try mixing some claps and hats in there as well.

Overall, a well made song. You got all the difficult parts like the composition and the arrangement down, but you should work on those small details that take your music to the next level.

-Ectisity
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Im4Hero responds:

Thank you for the well though and helpful review! I'll make sure that your advices will be used in my next song. ^_^

[Epic Comeback]

The synths you use and the mixing is pretty poor, but I sense a lot of promise in your composing skills. Just keep it up, learn a thing or two about mixing, and you'll become really good one day. Belive me :)
3 stars and scouted.

-Ectisity
{Review Request Club}

keslarium responds:

thx so much dude I know that i dont have access to the best synths, and I'm still figuring out all of the cool stuff in the program I use, but I will get Better.

[Dead Silent Scream]

Just saw 5 stars everywhere when first came to this audio page, so I knew it had to be good.
And I must say, it was pretty good, but not totally down my allyway. I definetly understand that for people who likes the found Music genre, this would be awesome, but for me I'm only able to look at it as darkstyle R&B, and I think it's a bit too repetetive for that.

Still an interesting piece though and I understand why people can dig this :).
4 stars.

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-Ectisity

Kwing responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I do agree this is repetitive but it is a hip hop beat, and a battle beat at that. It's important that each one of the 16 bar segments were similar enough that competing MCs have a relatively equal playing field.

[Nescada's Theme]

Yet another great piece. Think you've become a Review Request club favourite at this point X3.
All I can ask myself is how in the world did you do that buildup halfway through o_O? It was just too amazing and pure genius.
You've got yourself another perfect score and another fan. Great job :D!

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-Ectisity

sleepFacingWest responds:

Thank you! That buildup was actually very difficult, but was requested by the client. The motives that were set up early on could have been extended and developed, but the piece needed to be ~3:00 (or at least that's all I was getting paid for). The project specs demanded that the piece go to a more turbulent place with "tribal" percussion and electric guitars. I sort of forced the transition, then tried to smooth things over through orchestration and arranging. I'm glad it seems to have worked out.