anthonyragus's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Invasion]

Nice one! You have good taste in your sample usage. The vocal sample is repetitive but in a good dance kind of way. The saw synths at 1:17 are a bit shocking and not in the track's key, so I was wondering if you have a particular reason for putting them in the way they are. Great work overall

Pastelkid responds:

Thanks! At the time I made it I thought it the synth would fit, it's kinda strange.

[emperor]

I really enjoy this one, washed out with a hint of harmony, quite liminal. The use of male voice here is fantastic. Excellent work

[Faster]

This is pretty good! For what you wanted to convey, it's a solid track with interesting sections. I have some comments, although I'm super picky about how much variation in songs I enjoy, so you'll need to determine if my ideas make sense to you.
- I enjoyed the string pads but was left wanting a bit more movement in them.
- The descending square wave synth is a great addition, but it sounds a bit too loud in the mix to me, and its ongoing presence without variation till 1:54 felt kind of exhausting. But I super dig what you did with the square wave at 1:54; more variations will keep the listeners interest.
- That eight note hi-hat panned right feels a bit off balance, stereo-wise. I know you had another hi-hat panned left sync'd to the kick. I think what makes it feel imbalanced is the two hi-hats serve completely different functions, so they don't compliment each other.
- The 16th hi-hats seem to be battling the synths for the highest frequency space (I think 8Khz and higher). Sometimes lowpass filtering synths helps with this, but you can also use the hats signal to sidechain compress the synths' high range with a dynamic EQ or a spectral compressor. There are some amazing free plugins out there now.
- 3:46 and onward was my favorite part. Super textural! Just wish for more variation here too, because I hear the 4-bar loop.
- Small nitpick, well, more of a stylistic choice, but I think this mix, especially since it's on the faster side of tempo, would favor a shorter kick, perhaps even the same kick squeezed shorter (faster playback rate but same pitch).

JinZ responds:

Thanks for your feedback

[Escape from Yumen]

Classic Newgrounds energy. Those kotos are so textural, and those erhu (I think?) inserts compliments the female voices and contrats the kotos quite elegantly. Great work!

[Her Eyes on You]

Fantastic arrangement chord progression! Nice open feeling with the perfect fifth interval (Eb and Bb notes) carrying on throughout the chord changes. That drum kit sounds great with that short reverb, especially that (brass?) snare. Great work!

Bosa responds:

thank you sm! yeah, i love the key of Eb for acoustic guitar — it sounds very warm when playing!

[Celestial Judgement]

Nice sound and interesting arrangement, especially the stereo octaves in the arpeggiator at the end. I was hoping to hear some vibrato on the longer notes, but it's a stylistic choice. (Not sure if your plugin allows this, but you could put vibrato on the whole lead patch and delay the vibrato so it only triggers on the longest notes.) Great work

YoriYakuza responds:

Great note. Vibrato has now been added. Hopefully it's enough and able to be heard. Thank you.

[Jamuary Song 8]

Short, simple, sweet, and sentimental. I like it a lot!

[guiding star]

Such a fun tune! I look forward to hearing more of your music

[Trinite VIP]

What a fantastical and mesmerizing textural journey though all the buildups and drops. You incorporated all the parts so well: the gated pads, mallet percussion-esque synths soaring melodies, color bass elements, that spread hyper dimension effects sound, the various syncopated and subdivided rhythms, the automating of effects and aux tracks. Great work

[Perpendicular]

High tonal textural element, tight drums, intense sidechain, banger bass and melody: This sounds like quintessential Newgrounds. Fantastic work