Codefreq's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Darkside]

I agree this has a horror-esque feel to it in the sense that there is almost a sense of being hunted. This is especially present when the song increases in tempo in the last third of the piece.

One of the problems, as I see it, is there is an inadequate sense of tension to support that "scare" vibe. One suggestion I have is to try messing around with the buildups before the drops so the piece doesn't play like you'd expect it to. In the final third of the piece, you do this a little already, at around 2:16, and again at around 2:36.

Normally in this kind of track repetition isn't something I'd complain about; it could be used in many different ways to support the intention behind the track. However, from my experience, if the mood you are going for is "dark horror", repetition and traditionally expected cues in that piece can be especially detrimental and the intent tends to not be seen as clearly.

I'm curious about the title. Out of curiosity, what were you thinking when you named this track "Darkside"?

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty good piece, considering Dubstep isn't typically associated with horror themes. I just think it needs a bit of work so the mood you are going for is expressed in a way that is seen the way you intended.

I hope you find this review useful. :)

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806

Monoliph responds:

Oh hello! I'm happy to actually see full on feedback <3

Yeah. That is true. I see what you are talking about when trying to present a horror like feeling to the track.

I tend to have a bad habit of repetition when it comes to my tracks. I'd love to work on sort of making the beat more organic. Which I kinda tried at the end. Not quite sure where to tackle that.

I named this "Darkside" because of how I felt making this track. I wanted to capture the essence, but as a nooby I don't quite reach that level of attraction, but as of course I am still learning.

Yeah haha, that is true. I do listen to Code:Pandorum, Lord Swan3x and others who produce a sub-genre known as "Deathstep". They are who I sorta pull inspiration from. I do enjoy a lot of electronic music from ambiance, drum n bass, Future bass and so. I have a ton of unfinished "Flp" files and hopefully I can bring more to the table in future uploads.

Thank you so much for the review. It's very rare that I do get them. I appreciate it a lot dude, Also makes my day :D I wish I got more feedback like this, haha. Hopefully I can find good tutorials and lessons in the future to expand on my tracks.

Thank you again :)

[Thomas the murder engine]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying.

I see now that your intent was to make the song morph the way you did.

However, I stand by the rest of my feedback.

Original 3 star review:

"The beginning of this feels like what you'd hear if you were in the middle of a dark tunnel at night and you noticed a train heading your way. Given the train-like rhythmic percussion, the feel is pretty spooky. This lasts until around 1:12, where the buildup starts to plateau. At that point, the creepiness starts to give way to danceability.

It's hard to know what you are going for, exactly. I can guess, but I'm curious to hear what you were going for when you made this piece. It would help me be able to give better feedback and a more accurate rating, as well as judge this piece by how well your intent came through rather than merely by my own taste.

That said, my personal opinion is it gets less interesting after the buildup stops building and it becomes more like dance music. I think the song is too long to be able to effectively make use of that time and make the piece sustain a scare-factor. Also, IMO, the ending is underwhelming in the way it peters out. Personally I think having an ending that doesn't resolve and is more ambiguous in mood can be more compelling than slowly reducing the amount of instruments until there's nothing left, as what is done here. That's not to say what you did here was wrong or bad; I'm merely making suggestions.

Also, on the technical side, there are parts of the song where the sound becomes distorted, particularly when the kick drum is present. I suggest changing the volume or messing with compression settings until it doesn't distort.

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806"

TheCrazedSide responds:

thanks for the detailed feed back, most people don't go very detailed when reviewing my music, so it's pretty refreshing to see a more detailed perspective from someone.

I'm glad to know the intro worked out well. Looking back at this song, my intent was to make the song go from a creepy train-like sound to a more calm sound, like something you might hear in a show like Thomas the tank engine mixed with intense dance music, so I could see why this might make this song a bit disappointing after the intro. I've heard a lot of music that had a good mood at the beginning of it, only for the mood of the song to completely change and mess up the song. Maybe it would have been better if I split this into two different songs? I wish I could go more in-depth on my intent, but making music has become such 2nd nature that I don't really think much about what I'm creating. There's some songs I made in the past where I don't know what the hell I was thinking when I created them lol.

I'm not usually too creative when it comes to the ending, especially as this song was mainly going to be used for a parody I made. I knew I wasn't gonna use the end of the song in the parody, so I allowed myself to be a bit lazy. I'll think of making a more ambiguous ending to my songs as it is a pretty lazy way to end a song.

I'll take a look into fixing the technical side, a lot of times I don't seem to notice how distorted my songs get.

[A Joyful Snowfall ~P~]

Immediately when the piano started playing I was taken to another world, one that is freezing, during the night, and covered in snow. That visual is very strong. Think Dr. Suess' "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" meets "The Snowman" from 1982 (The song "Walking In The Air").

As far as getting that "Winter" vibe, sonically you nailed it.

The only suggestion I have to make your submission more cohesive is what your piece's thumbnail artwork is. Right now, it's difficult to tell what it is, but it looks like your avatar. I think that's a missed opportunity for such a beautifully crafted and expressed piece of work.

Apart from that, though, I think you did a very nice job. :)

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806

[Broken Out]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying. I think the artwork suits the song very well.

Very nice work! :)

Original 4 1/2 star review:

"This piece has a really strong "eerie" feel to it. Like Metroid Prime in a room where the power is out and it's difficult to see anything. Feels like paranoia.

It makes me want to run away from wherever I was headed. As a horror piece, this succeeds. Well Done! :D

The only thing is I'm not sure about what your piece's thumbnail artwork has to do with the song. It's hard to see. Can you elaborate on what that is and why its there?

Other than that, I think your vibe comes through loud and clear. Well done! :)

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806"

BlighterProductions responds:

Sorry for the late response. Thanks for your kind words first. Second, about the artwork, it’s colored monochrome because it’s part of a newspaper from the early days. It’s actually a doctor being ripped apart inside of his laboratory. It was to give the idea of a rather violent, paranoid horror scene.

In this scene, there is only suspense present.

[Desert (Jumping World Soundtrack)]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying. All of it works now. 5 Stars! :)

Original 4 1/2 Star Review:

“You bet it does! :D

It reminds me of the old N64 Paper Mario, in a way.

Nice job, really conveys "desert" to a tee.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the thumbnail artwork you chose for this piece. Out of curiosity, why did you chose that?

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806”

Trubiso responds:

wow! thank you! yeah, this song would really fit an old game :D

Edit: I chose that thumbnail because it is the game's logo (with its name on top).

[The Botanist's Guild]

Feels quite peaceful. It's the kind of music that should be played in the floral section of a grocery store, or a flower shop in an anime setting.

I'm unsure why you chose the thumbnail artwork you did for this song. Given your piece seems to be about flowers and plants, which are generally colorful, it seems to me an odd choice to make the artwork be more or less grey.

The only other issue I have is the description doesn't quite match the song. The song is laid back, yet "ruthless control" is phrasing that, to me at least, implies some resentment.

Other than that, I'd say your themes come through quite nicely. :)

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806

popolamusic responds:

it's hard to tell but the thumbnail is actually me and the boys in the sauna in ffxiv

[Merus]

I'm not sure what you are trying to do here. If you want me to be able to give you better feedback, I suggest you put in your description what your thought process was, what you were trying to do. That way, in addition to more helpful feedback, I may also be able to provide a more accurate rating, and I'll be able to judge your piece depending on how well your intent came through, rather than by my own taste.

Regarding my own taste, I find the beginning to be very interesting, but once the rest of the song kicks in, I find the limited note variations to be repetitive and, frankly, very annoying. If I knew what you were trying to do, I might be able to put that aside. Right now, though, I can't.

Out of curiosity, why did you name the title "Merus"? I find that to be an interesting title. Also, I don't understand why you chose the thumbnail artwork you did. It's these kinds of things that can help me better know where you are coming from.

Let me stress that I want your piece to succeed. You clearly have sounds and tools to create something great. It's just a shame, I feel, that this falls short of what it could be.

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806

MrEzTex responds:

Thank you for giving me your opinion!

Why the name Merus?: I was quite bored and named it Merus has a reference to my favorite synth, "Serum" (you know, spelled backwards) dunno why i did that.

I promise i will do lot better on my next song, thank you!

[Drunkula]

I have some things to note:

First, technically speaking, the loop is way too quiet. I suggest raising the volume, either with compression/limiting plugins or normalization so the person listening doesn't have to change the volume for this specific piece and back when they listen to something else.

Second, the description is vague, and as a result, I don't know what you are trying to do here. I think it would be good if you added your thought process in your description because then I can judge based on how clearly your intent came through. That, and I can potentially give better feedback and possibly a more accurate rating.

I hope this helps. :)

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806

[Crisis]

There is a degree of sadness to this dubstep piece, amplified, oddly enough, by the low-by-average-standard volume of the bass "wub" as well as the aggressive lead synths, and overall unusually warm sound (for dubstep) to the piece.

Apart from the sadness, I don't think of a crisis when I hear this piece except during the build-ups. Crisis, to me, is a word that indicates a feeling of being greatly overwhelmed and a heightened sense of urgency, and to me the song doesn't match up with the title. The thumbnail artwork for the piece, however, does match the title... sort of. From what it looks like to me, it's clouded and brown like dust that hasn't settled, so in that case I think it matches. It's just hard to tell what the thumbnail art actually is.

If I may suggest, the first thing you could mess with is the speed whether it's the overall tempo or an automated envelope that speeds up the song as it progresses. As it is, IMO the relatively slow tempo doesn't carry a lot of intensity. You may also want to consider adding instruments or changing the instrumentation in such a way that there's more going on. But these are merely suggestions.

Nevertheless, I hope you found this review helpful. :)

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806

SuperSoniker responds:

Thanks for the upgrade, I'll take this from now on :)

[Zerodecoole's Theme]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying. That said, I'm standing by my rating and review. I don't know this user, so I'm giving this piece the benefit of the doubt.

Original 4 Star Review:

"I think it would be a good thing if you put in your description what your thought process was when you made this piece. That way I can judge based on how clearly your intent came across rather than my own taste and preference. Also, I may be able to provide a more accurate rating and better feedback as a result.

I'm curious where the title came from? It's interesting. Is Zerodecoole an original character?

Also, even though I'm not sure if this is what you want, I think this piece could work as a loop if you cut off the silence at the end and changed the submission setting from "song" to "loop."

I hope this review helps. :)

More info about how I review music here: https://codefreq.newgrounds.com/news/post/1089806"

Belthagor responds:

@Codefreq Zero is a forum user and I made this as a theme song for them, like a song that plays when a person walks in the room or does things. I think it would work better as a loop as well, while continuing to be a theme.