Free2Play's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Anti Night Club]

I'm pretty much with the dude down below. It does progress really nicely but i think it needs something more added later to add some sort of umph. But like this I really like it personally. Its like a weird techno jazz band at a club, very unique.

[Ker Blam]

This is pretty sweet, but I will say something about the mixing and mastering. It feels a little hollow in the middle I think. I mean if you were high, I can't blame you too much. But just a thought lol.

Xtrullor responds:

The wonky mixing is caused by doing it with headphones from the ground up and later moving to actual speaker monitors. Goddamn Sennheisers, lying me about the mids all the time.

[.through the rabbit hole.]

As far as an ambient track goes this is pretty sweet. I like how it gives off a particular mystical but creepy feel. I especially like how you did what most ambient artists don't and actually change up the chords and stuff half way through the song. That can really make a song go from eh to sweet, because 3 minutes of the same thing gets dull.

Keep making music dude!

MeatAnalogue responds:

Thanks I'm glad you like it! Yeah, as much as the game has a prominent theme of repetition, I didn't want the repetition in the music to get to the point where the music becomes unenjoyable. All of the songs in the soundtrack follow this basic structure of one half of the song establishing one idea, and then the next half doing something else - which is meant as a call to the character's emotional transformation.

The way I see it working in-game is that as the song goes on, the player will slowly let it sit in the background of their attention, and then when the change happens it calls to them again.

And I'll definitely keep making tunes as long as people keep listening to them :)

[Ignite (VIP)]

You're one of those artists that everytime I click on one of your new songs I expect to hear something and then you completely surpass my expectations and do something totally new that I've never heard before.

I'm saying I have like a musical crush on you. You're easily one of my favorite NG artists lol.

Please keep making music forever dude!

[-+[Scarborough Fair]+-]

Curse you amazing artists that I bump into whilst trying to help some noobs learn a thing or two! This is fantastic! your voice is beautiful! I am envious of your talent!

Keep making music though, its stellar.

LadyArsenic responds:

Aww thank you! :'> I'm so glad you were able to enjoy it this much! I will continue to do my best, as it is what I live for.
Thanks again! <3

[Controll]

It's really nice hearing a song from you that shows you have a good musical ear. It's not that beaty stuff is bad, but to me most at least have some element of something like this. There's a sense that they can make melodies and tunes, but aren't focused on them in the song.

Just a thought.

Keep making music man!

[StarDrive]

I'm glad you put that part of this was based on Luigi's Ballad cause I noticed immediately lol.

But you picked like the coolest guys to base your music on they rock lol. I actually sing that part all the time.

If I were to make a complaint though, it'd be that even though the mixing is good, it feels a little bass heavy. There's not enough highs either. With more highs and a bit less bass it'd sound less cloudy and more UMPHY.

Keep making music dude!

Geoplex responds:

Thanks man! I did focus harder on the bass here, and I limited myself on the highs because I've found a lot of my previous works have been quite.. piercing. Especially Solar Rain, if you know that one.

[Initia]

Okay so I don't fully want to give this a 5, and truly I wanted to rate it a 4, but this song works well enough in your writing that I like it.

But dude your mixing is bad. To really hit top notch you've gotta fix the overly loud mixing. I think your songs may sound way better just from turning down everything A LOT.

While you get a cool ambient sound from the pad strings, the lead violin sounds like garbage. It's too loud and mixed really high to where its almost painful.

The piano is also not very convicing to me, it needs more reverb or something to make the fakeness of the samples less prevalent.

I gave this song a 5/4 soley because I like your writing, it's very good. I enjoy the chords and melodies very much.

But the mixing is really bad, very very bad. If you don't get that fixed it could really overshadow how good your writing is like it almost did here.

You should check out my friend who is also on bandcamp named Taylor Mefford. If you search him and listen to his album "An Experiment with an Air Pump", you can listen to a really well mixed classical album composed entirely of free instruments from the internet.

Keep making music dude!

Norzman5 responds:

I'll try to see what I can do about the mixing. Sometimes it's hard because I don't know what it's going to sound like on other people's speakers since not everyone has the same setup as me so I'm still trying to figure out how to get it right. I can turn down the violin easily so I'll probably change that.

Thank you for you input though, I really appreciated it.

Update: I tried tweaking it a bit and have uploaded a new version

[Musical Theater]

Dangit dude, even more stuff I can't say too much about besides compliments.

I really like your use of the lfoish bass. You also always have lots of little things going on, I think that is what stops your music from sounding too stale or boring. You fill the soundscape in a nice way.

I think I could say the beaty break that comes in right at the beginning and repeats a few times later could have more umph. The melodic parts are really good, but the first part sounds like its trying to set a powerful heavy tone before going into the melodic part. It's like something out of Skullgirls in my head.

Keep making music dude!

jawalker213 responds:

Thank u very much for your input and ideas, Inferno, I definitely agree with the break idea.. that's a great area to work on in the future! Looking forward to ur next track!

[Mobying]

This is pretty sweet dude! I really like how you used very simple synths with some effects to make a nice relaxing soundscape.

Usually I rag on the slower pace of some ambient songs, but you made the slower progression work in this case. It's like the pace and the slow changes are interesting enough to keep you listening. You add little things here and there to, like I noticed a few interesting note changes from like :45-1:15 and stuff.

The synth panned right would do some more improvised stuff which really helps it feel not stale.

If I were to make a complaint there's like 2 things. One is that the center synth that plays what I think is the melody is sort of overtaken by the two left and right synths. It would help you get that "sing-along" feeling, where you know part of the song just from one listen and you can expect it while the song progresses. It's an anchor you can know.

The 2nd is that there's something going on really deep in the basses, maybe I just noticed with my headphones, but I thought someone was knocking at my door when the song really got going. Is there like a deep sub sound down there? It's not really a kick because it doesn't match it. Maybe someone is knocking at my door?

Lol, thanks a lot for shouting me out, I'm honored. I'm glad you like my advice, admittedly though I'm not that skilled. I lack a lot of control. What really can help is going to the review for review thread and getting reviews there. Lots of them are much more detailed than random passerbys.

Thanks, please keep making music dude!

jawalker213 responds:

ok, the improvised stuff idea is excellent and I think more stuff could include improvised lines.. so much of things are loops that it's a change worth risking! This track wasn't really mixed that well, but the key things you pointed out are exactly the reason I like to post unfinished stuff, it gives me an idea of where to focus the mixing. For this track I got: improve panning to put one synth in the "limelight", focus on cleaner sub frequencies. Great advice, thanks a lot!