JRob's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Raining Cave]

Very atmospheric and very fitting - though I might suggest experimenting with the reverb, slightly adjusting the reverb size to help provide a much better cave ambiance. It would be really cool if we could get a team of Newgrounds members to make a game (most likely an RPG mixing elements from the likes of Skyrim and Final Fantasy) based off of your musical world using the songs in this series as the background music (along with others' audio submissions) - this series would really make it feel more lifelike. Wishful thinking on my part, but it would be pretty kickass though.

DanJohansen responds:

Experimenting with the reverb is a good suggestion I think. I might actually take up that advice for the album release of the tracks. But I am kind of liking the unified sound going through the entire album right now, but DEF a good idea.

If you make a serious RPG sometime, let me know when you are way into developement and ready for the music. I LOVE RPG's lol

[Awakened from Cryosleep]

Okay, first I would like to say that notewise the song is great (5/5 great that is), but what takes away from it is the mixing/mastering (if you have ever seen any of my reviews or descriptions on my songs, you would know that mixing/mastering is top priority for me - I usually get really annoyed when I'm having a hard time in that general area). Starting at 0:28, the bass isn't loud enough (not the drums, the synths); from 1:50 - 2:20, the drums are overpowering everything else; from 3:13 onwards, the bass drowns out the higher range synths - bring up the treble range synths and lower the bass just a slight bit there. Other than that, just a little bit of fine-tuning may help. I like the song, the synths have somewhat of a Megaman feel to them.

RetromanOMG responds:

Thanks for the comment, especially since you pointed out flaws in the mixing. I don't have a particularly sophisticated audio setup, so I can't always catch these things, but with your input, I can definitely go back and make changes.

[Dreams]

You seem to have been zero-bombed - I tried to help fix that. This song is very atmospheric and flows very well. My only issue is that there is a tad bit too much tension on the snare drum; dropping the volume for the snare a notch may help or try fixing the tension, but overall, I give this a 9/10.

Pivvot responds:

Yeah, I noticed. Well, thank you for your support and the favorable review!

[Demon's Rebirth]

\m/

Chanting, huh? If you would like, since I have enough knowledge of the grammar and such, I could translate something into latin so you can put actual chanting in the song. For example: "Surga Daemon! Rapta oppida et urbes adversariorum nostrorum!" (Rise Demon! Ravage the towns and cities of our foes!)

DanJohansen responds:

That would be awesome man, I'll keep that in mind in case I make other such tracks, Not sure I can pronounce it right though XD

[Toxic Land]

Your mixing/mastering is starting to come along nicely; it's not quite professisional yet, but you're getting closer and closer with the last couple uploads. On that note, also since a couple people mentioned the compression, I wanted to put an idea out there - why not keep a copy of one of the earlier versions in the mixing process - a demo version; a good number of people like the more raw, powerful sound the earlier version of the song has (kind of like Cradle of Filth's "Principle of Evil Made Flesh" original album title track version versus the Bitter Suites to Succubi remake).

"Toxic Land" is quite the fitting title for this song - I can definitely see all the metal barrels of toxic waste overturned, spilling their contents everywhere and people walking around with gas masks and the like.

Metallica1136 responds:

Thanks for commenting on the mixing! A lot of people have commented about my mixing and mastering improving. Exactly my goal.

Up until Amplified Rage, i actually did upload all my songs raw and unmastered, but i Just recently started mastering them for Newgrounds. I definitely compare them though, good idea man!

Yeah, you and I have the same imagination it seems, I named Toxic Sea that title because i imagined a bunch of toxic barrels with yellow nuke symbols floating in a sickly green sea, and a boat sailing through it. What you stated about Toxic Land, is pretty much how I think about it as well! :D

Thanks for your review man!

[ParagonX9 - Chaoz Twiligh]

Expert mastering and mixing, the section at ~1:06 is awesome and sounds like Twilight Princess twilight overworld theme, and the way the themes are presented and then come together at the end all make this song deserving of 5 stars. Don't you think you should start selling your music? You have a PayPal that some fans have been sending donations to, right? Bandcamp (my preferred choice, since there are no startup costs and no upload costs, and you keep 85% of the sales - 90% after a certain $$$ amount in sales has been made) and CDBaby are two pretty reliable and easy to use digital distribution site, and I think you would do pretty well on there.

[Glass Walls]

Amazing. You gave the song sort of an "adventurous" tone to it; it's light and flows well (whenever I do a song that portrays a snowy or icy setting, it either has a "dangerous" sound, like a blizzard, or it's very still and calm, like a wintry day. Also, I always feel the need to add bells or vibraphones - or a similar instrument - when composing that type of song, so I was kind of suprised that you did without - you used a piano instead, which also gives that "icy" touch, and I also used it in one of my winter themed songs so I can relate perfectly to that). In regards to the recent review (below mine, or on the next page, if more reviews move it down), this somewhat reminded me of an RPG, lesser-known and with a different music style (DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT) - but with the same ambiance/ambience, by the name of Okami (towards the end, when in the northern land - you have to have played it to know, woof woof - great game by the way). The instruments fit and complement each other perfectly; I don't think this could have been put together any better than you did it. You should definitely do more music like this and the other classical/theme setting pieces in your "music world" series.

DanJohansen responds:

Awesome review man, you really went into the tune's concept and saw what I was going for.
Bells are something I considered back and forth a lot here but in the past when I've made Winter tunes for personal projects, I've always used them so I thought Piano has much of the same effect just like you stated :D

And yeah, it does have the same kind of ''drive'' like Okami doesn't it? I didn't think about it but I see it now, that game is fantastic, lots of great music, and I am def getting the HD release in september, it's such an artistic game through and through I can't wait to experience it again.

I shall keep making these types of tracks to complete my world good sir! Thanks a lot!