Free2Play's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Remix: The Mother in the Jungle (Dark Side Mix)]

I like this a lot, it's very cool.

If I were to say something that might make it a 5 for me its that maybe the song should've had a little bit more going on. I really like what you did with the high wails in the background and stuff, it had a sense of like Silent Hill type chaos but faster and more dnb. But maybe a short changeup or something or like a different breakbeat for 20 seconds could really be fresh air for the listener and make them like the rest of the song even more.

Just my two cents though lol, I really like what you have here. It's sort of cinematic, which I like.

Keep making music dude!

Anchorwind responds:

I appreciate the thoughts and your time, genuinely. || I gave this some thought, and there are 4 different beats across 2 competing textures: 3 of them flow back and forth and 1 is an obvious contrast intentionally. I apologize that wasn't enough.

[Go Go Gambino gadget]

Simple but pretty effective dude. When it comes to sampling stuff together this sounds pretty cool. I do think it could be mixed a little better (I know its hard when you've got two totally different songs), and also its cool to add your own little instrumentation or drums that can tie them both together.

Pretty sweet though dude, keep making music!

roflsandwhich responds:

Thanks for taking the time, man! I guess I'm currently lacking the technical skills to make a clean sound if i add too much to it. I did add my own drums and bass, but maybe it's too subtle and gets lost in the noise. I will keep trying this shit tho :)

[REMIX! (Need an opinion)]

The 2nd part sounds a bit awkward, but in the grand scheme of things it might make a nice swing break or something in the song if this is just the building blocks to the whole thing.

Nice little riff by the way, simple but effective. It's actually usable for flash stuff lol.

D-Chain responds:

Thanks InfernoZN!

[Encounter]

Okay so the loop is not like garbage, but man you gotta do more than what you're doing.

Having only like two synths with a few affects and one kick was driving me crazy. And the synth was mixed sort of heavy where it was actually making my ears hurt.

You did hit the right notes though and it sounds a bit like the encounter theme but I would totally not listen to it over the original. You have to add more, more instrumentation, and something more than just two synths (or maybe one, they play the same notes) and a kick.

It's not the worst thing I've heard, but there's so much more you can do with a theme like this.

Keep making music man!

AlxEllis responds:

Thanks for the review, but 2 stars?

It's also based on the original MSX games not the MGS games as those were much simpler themes, hence only 2 synths or it becomes overpowered, there were actually three synths but one was tones down as it was overpowering others. The same beat was kept since it's a loop and will only be heard for about 30 seconds at most.

Thanks for the detailed review!

[I miss you]

Man I keep bumping into those pesky tracks made by artists who are better than me and I can't offer much advice.

Your composition is fantastic, it's not unique but you obviously know how to write and all the synths and such really flow together beautifully. It ends up being a nice calm track.

Maybe if I were to offer advice I'd say the song doesn't have much risk to it (except for using the default FL snare), it's like it follows a pretty regular pattern and sounds nice, but never does any WOW type stuff. You rise and fall as expected and everyone goes home feeling great because its exactly what they wanted cause its what they've heard before.

You have a lot of skill and it'd be cool to here you add something new, add some flash, add something that's totally unique to yourself. A lot of my favorite artists take a few risks and do something out of the mold, like Madeon and his super upbeat writing and in your face mixing, and Andrew Aversa and his mixture of real and unreal instruments. You have a lot of talent and with something more you might ending being some of people's favorites.

MaSterAsSter responds:

Honestly, I didn't spend all that much time working on this track. :p I mean, I did want to add some "WOW" to it when I started, but as it went on I found myself adding less and less to the track. I probably should've waited a few days and waiting for a second burst of inspiration to hit before uploading the track. Maybe i'll work my way back to it. :p

Also, I like you. I'm going to hit you up with a message. I'm also going to be following you from here on as well as listening to your work.

[Gerudo Valley Zelda (remix)]

I don't know dude, I mean you did transpose this well but this is litterally Gerudo's Valley. Like you didn't really remix it, it's just the song. If I went and got on youtube and looked up the track from Ocarina of Time I would basically get the same thing but a little bit better.

A remix should really something new where you take a new spin on it in some way. I almost thought you stole a midi version of the song and just put it up there.

I hate using myself as an example because I suck a lot, but if you listen to my final fantasy remix it is the same notes (like yours), but I did it in a weird dance/violin type thing. It obviously wasn't the original, it was a remix in some form. I even added a 2nd melody to it for like a verse so it had something totally of my own.

Sorry dude, it's always fun getting to put together one of your favorite songs, but this litterally is the song.

It's not like terrible though, you did pick decent (although super fake, faker than the original) instruments, and its not badly mixed. Most of the parts come out pretty clean.

But keep making music dude!

masterno responds:

well i looked into the music of gerudo valley and i changed few parts that i liked better. I think the instruments are cleaner and easier on the ear, the distance on the instruments in the original, it feels like they are far away, i love gerudo valley as u can see and that is why i only changed few parts, but everyone got their own taste i suppose. But listening with my earphones i think mine is clearer. I could have changed it entirely, but i liked the original so good that i didn't want to change too much and ruin the song and also make everything on my ear, like the trumpet is orgasm to my ears. but thanks for the comment anyway :)

im probably gonna make a new one later that is more remixed, it will be more alien space like. When i get time.

[Jazz Tech]

Oh man it makes me so happy to click on a random new song and hear something super sweet! Dude great job with your composition here, I hardly ever hear any jazzy writing and rhythms anymore.

I think the only thing that is keeping this from being a 5 to me is the very little things. Like maybe tighter mastering, more instrumentation, a little bit better mixing like on that bass at :28, and in general what to bring out and what to put down.

I think you're probably better than me at many things so I can't help much in achieving that, but this is really good and you're super close to being front page material!

jawalker213 responds:

InfernoZN thanks for your input and support! Yeah I guess it's true that sometimes I post things completely unmixed.. sometimes I think that that way ppl can listen to what I was getting at originally, but maybe it throws a lot of ppl off too.. so glad to see you could look past it! Your stuff is great!

[Goodbye letter]

I'm diggin this. I like the simple beat, and your voice is nice for more relaxed hip hop. I'm not the best lyricist so I don't want to comment on your rhymes too much. I think what bothers me is that the piano should've been on beat a bit more and probably needed more high end or improv movement.

I can't remember perfectly, but I remember the bass feeling a bit random. Its okay to have a groovy bass, but it has to have a root note that it hits *most* of the time.

I think www.warbeats.com is where you should go. There are some super helpful tutorials on there that specifically talk about hip hop.

I really like your song though it reminds me of Nujabes, which is one of my favorite artists of all time. It has a relaxed, but groovy vibe, and that's not easy to pull off without being too repetitive.

Keep making music dude!

TheRef responds:

thanks man

[To The Death]

Okay let me start off with the good.

After :30 there's obviously some talent going on. That bass groove really got me going. But most of the song I wasn't digging too much.

But the beginning did not start off well to me, that first synth was very ugly especially mixed with that really mid heavy kick. It's like that melody is almost a really good dark synth melody but i don't know its too random? I think this guy might help, he made a video specifically about making melodies in a song http://warbeats.com/Tutorials/Music-Theory?topic=7008&name=Making-Musical-Phrases#view (the song itself isn't trying to be good its just an example).

The thing I think that didn't help me was that the mixing was a little muddy. If you had all of this but it was a bit more competently mixed I would've dug it more just for that production value factor, but the bass is way too muddy (although most of the bass parts were written pretty good).

But keep making music man you obviously have talent!

DaveMajor7 responds:

Thanks for the feedback!
ya it was a couple hr experiment I did yesterday mixing diminished 7th chord with an octatonic scale. I can be difficult work with that kind of harmonic language because the nature of the dissonance it to be muddy (especially when dealing with saw waves XD)

Thanks for the video, he does cover some basic music theory principles....I was just stepping outside some of the norms we hear everyday in popular music (I teach music for a living and I get bored of major and minor scales....). The melody is also mix metered, the rhythm stay in 4/4 and the melody goes in and out of 4 and 3 (nothing to crazy). Melody's that are octatonic AND mix metered tend to sound random to a lot of people (except the person who wrote it XD)
Thanks for the comment! Keep them coming
always like to hear opinions!

[-Blues Heroes 2-]

I'm down with this.

This is one of those songs that I would probably go back to because its like SO CLOSE to being really good. I like some of the instruments, but your ability to make the instruments sound convincing is not very good. I would definitely search up some youtube videos on making orchestra and wind instruments sound more real (trust me its shockingly doable with free instruments).

Also I think the actual composition was fine at the beginning (although that fake piano should be given something more than practically no effects, like reverb or delay or something). But that weird drum thing at :25 sort of distracted me. The best part is definitely at the drop at :45 or something. But that's when I was a little dissapointed that there wasn't a change in the chord progression or something. Or at least more than just more energy, it needed more energy in the composition by adding a longer more dramatic segment?

Sorry its really hard to describe how a song is close but not close enough you know?

Still keep making music!

And here I'll put these here

1. Here's a friend of mine who makes free soundfont instruments sound almost real: http://musicbytaylormefford.bandcamp.com/album/an-experiment-with-an-air-pump-original-score

2. Here's a guy who taught me almost everything about composition in songs: http://warbeats.com/Tutorials/Music-Theory

Demonicity responds:

well actually im more into dubstep and dnb :P so that might sound weird im not tryin to get realistic as possible i just like it to sound good :P but thanks anyway ! :3