DJSpire's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lift Off (Trance Loop)]

The production quality, mix style, and arrangement remind me of Beto Ceba's work, one of my favorite trance artists. Props, you deserve the 5 stars.

PhatBoiJ responds:

Thanks!

[[NAC] Party Tonight]

Drum roll and... Reminds me of LMFAO. That's a pretty good start. Standard electro beat: long-long-short kinda feel. I like the bongo sound. :) Also, the beginning vaguely reminds me of Sandstorm by Darude, so that's another good thing. The overall soundscape seems a bit thin at the beginning, like there could be more going on. It gets even thinner at about 1:00, where your high voices drop out. I dig the electro feel, though. I really like the background pad at the beginning and 2:07ish. The chord progression is pretty catchy, and the drums sit really well in the mix. Nice binary song structure, ABAB. Overall, though, it could have used more instrumentation throughout.
9/10 for continuity
6/10 for composition
8/10 for catchiness
All in all, I just think you need more going on through the piece, it feels like an empty room the entire time, when I think it ought to feel more like everything's right there.
-NAC Judge, [mod15]

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thanks for the review. I can see what you mean by the composition lacking. My production/mixing/mastering needs improvement. I'm probably gonna come 8th but thanks :)

[AMIOM - Hiru (Instr.)]

Nice sub bass at the beginning, the pad is pleasant. The mix is pretty good overall, you could have brought the hi-hats down a tiny bit. Maybe applied a bit less compression, it gets kinda distracting at some points. I think at 1:28ish, the piece really shines when there's quite a bit of layering of sounds. It's not boring there, there's plenty going on to keep my attention. I like the instrumentation in general, and the bass at 2:16 really caught my attention: nice raspyness. The bells really made me happy too. Ooh, and I think that was a key change at "Are you ready?" Wait, then it ended? That was kinda short lived.
7/10 for continuity
9/10 for composition
8/10 for catchiness
Overall, a great piece. I like how there's pretty much constantly something going on. However, the way that it just jumps into the gated pad thing at 1:02 is kinda distracting. Then it goes away. Pretty catchy, just some parts kinda turn me away.
-NAC Judge, [mod15]

Valtanen responds:

Actually, I wanted to do a little longer song than this, but.. Kikennaime and me then figured that we want to make a song that you want to listen again when you have listened to this.

I'm newbie in compression, but I have learned a little about it. I will compress a little less in AMIOM's and my future songs. :)

I think you're right about hihats, but my problem was first that drums were a little muffled in my old songs so I'm glad they are now a little louder.

I wanted to make that 2:16 part a little clean vs dirty thing.. :)

In 1:02 I little cutted bass to make a little weird styled part there to make you clear that this doesn't repeat itself all the time.

[Duct Tape]

The instrument at the very beginning seems a bit screechy, not really super pleasant to the ear. Sounds like either an accordion or a harmonica, I think it could use just a bit of high end reduction via EQ. Sounds like the typical I-IV-V-I chord progression at the beginning, which is pretty catchy. The vocals are a bit undersung, like more body voice than head voice. The random beatboxing in the middle could have been better done as an actual drum track. It didn't sound like it belonged.
9/10 for continuity
7/10 for composition
9/10 for vocals; lyrics made me chuckle
7/10 for catchiness
Overall it wasn't really catchy, but neither was it boring. I think that slightly different production would have upped the score a teensy bit, and it wasn't until the third time I heard it that I caught "boobies" whispered at the end.
-NAC Judge, [mod15]

SonicWombat responds:

Thanks man, I appreciate the helpful criticism.
Balls to you, good sir/madam!

[{425} Voltage]

I dig it

I really dig this song. And, also, I like the challenge you've set for yourself.
I'm doing the same thing this year, except once a week, like Hydra suggested.

Next year, I think I'll do one once a day. Maybe the year after that, once I'm out of high school and have more time to dedicate to it. Mmm...

But yeah, I like the song. I especially like the piano part... Did you use a soundfont for it, or some other source of sampling? Did you actually perform it and EQ and effect the hell out of it?

Michael425 responds:

Glad you liked it. For the piano I used a preset in Nexus and added some effects to it.

Good luck on your challenge. Hopefully we can both make it through the year.

Thanks for leaving a review.

~{425}~

[Battle Toronto]

I really like this

I think this is pretty awesome.

I've just gotta ask, what do you use to compose this? Do you write it all out in something like Finale or Sibelius first, then import it into a DAW and assign parts to samplers?

cadence1 responds:

Thanks for your comment. I really appreciate. To answer your question, I have to admit that I don't have any music-related education whatsoever, so I don't really "write" songs in the normal sense. I compose directly in my DAW of choice (Renoise), and just experiment with different instruments as I go. I compose everything "by ear" without knowing any rules, which is probably why it takes me so long to finish a tune. I'm as amateur as it gets :)

[Artificial Intelligence Evolved]

Mass Punk

It reminds me of Mass Effect's soundtrack...
And Daft Punk's soundtrack for TRON.

Both of which are EPIC!
Ergo, I enjoyed this. A lot more than I humanly should have.

EvilRaccoon responds:

Haha, nice title! :D

Glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully plenty more music on the way. Thanks for the score and comments!

[AB - Tension]

DAFT. PUNK!

Reminds me heavily of Daft Punk.

Good work.

AsteroidBlues responds:

Thanks ) Gotta check `em, never heard before :)

[One Winged Evangelion]

NICE!

I saw, "One Winged Evangelion" and I thought it was a crossover of One Winged Angel and the the theme of the anime Evangelion.

But seriously, damn good song.

pumodi responds:

Haha that's where I got the idea for the name. I've been watching a lot of Neon Genesis recently. Glad you like it!