Codefreq's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Moonlchan - Dib Dab Dub]

For a first-time entry in Dubstep, this isn't bad. The mixing is pretty good, given the genre. The noises you made are obnoxious (in a good way) but not overpowering, and I can hear everything going on. The only thing I'd recommend is making the song more melodic. The reason I say that is, although the noises can be fun to listen to, I find them easier to forget by their nature of being noises. The melodic synth leads are what I gravitate to most. They are something in the song to grab onto; they get stuck in my head and bring me back for more.

If you decide to do more Dubstep, I hope you take my feedback as constructive and helpful. :)

[Redhead beauty]

This is quite pretty. I especially like the part with the 8-bit synths. Actually, I'd like to hear the whole song like that.

Still, the low-fi quality feels intimate, like a pleasant spring morning while having coffee with your significant other.

For a first-time song, this is impressive. I'd like to hear more from you, I'm curious what direction you'd go next.

Keep it up! :)

NoviSenpai responds:

Thank you for review))
I'm very happy to read comments like that))

[greengrass fields]

This feels like the title screen to a cutesy sports game with very bright colors. It could also be a Paper Mario (for N64) level, as it has a certain whimsical quality to it. I like this a lot. I have a couple of things to note:

1: I'm not entirely sure about why the title of the song is called rainsets. To me it sounds like a sunny day in a green grass field; the title rainsets doesn't really make sense IMO.

2: More of a positive thing, I love that you said the genre of the song is Synthwave. Synthwave has been around long enough to have tropes associated with it, none of which you used. I'd argue that's a good thing, since sometimes Synthwave can have a certain stylistic repetition to it. This song seems like a breath of fresh air.

Nice work! :)

trevor8 responds:

thanks! rainsets was a placeholder, i hate coming up with titles. i agree 1000% on the synthwave matter. thanks for the title, i am taking part of it.

[EGEO 2 - 5 : The black city.]

I haven't heard the rest of the story, but the song does a pretty good job of communicating the image of a dystopian society. I can see the skyscrapers at night covered in smog with people gathering in an almost religious way.

I'd recommend boosting the volume with compression/limiting though so I don't have to adjust the volume for this one song and then adjust it back for other music.

Still, good job. I'd like to hear the rest of the story. :)

Calamaistr responds:

mastering is wonky on a laptop, i dont own a pc anylonger which makes it hard to know the volume exactly. Thanks btw. -Cal

[Hope]

This really carries the message of optimism and "hope" really well. I know it's cliche, but the phrase "It's always darkest before the dawn" comes to mind, along with a literal image of the sun rising in a grassy field near mountains, sort of in a Lord Of The Rings/The Hobbit type of way. Great job! :D

[Mario Painting]

The song is quite relaxing. There are a few criticisms I have:

1: It is unclear why the song is called Mario Painting. Am I missing something? Is this song a reference to a Mario game? If this song has no ties to Mario or Nintendo, you may want to change the name to fit the music's feel better. To me this feels like hanging out at home in the living room, like the start of a Pokemon game. Whatever it feels like to you, I'd change the name to represent that feeling.

2: This is a personal preference, but I found the synth sound that sounds kind of like a vocal to be a tad annoying, especially if I were to listen to the song multiple times in a row. I recommend changing that particular synth sound to something else, maybe something that still has the "chill" factor but has less character to it.

3: The song ends kind of abruptly. I'm unsure if that is what you are going for or not, so I'll say that I think it should be resolved in some way unless you intend to loop it.

I hope this helps.

Electrodog responds:

Thanks for the criticisms! I very much do appreciate them.

1. It's called mario painting because I used a Mario Paint (SNES) soundfont for this. While making the song it gave me kind of a drawing a picture on a rainy day sort of vibe but with Mario Paint. I thought it was a pretty fitting but it's also kind of a lazy title, and I'm pretty bad with names sooo..

2. I really like the synth sound! I might try a few things to see if I could keep the chill feel and not butcher the sound.

3. I was going for an abrupt end. I'm thinking about it now and maybe it could be resolved in a way.

[War Across The Galaxy (mastered v1)]

On a technical level, this version is much better than the previous versions. The levels are louder and certain elements became more noticeable as a result. Good job. :)

looking forward to hearing what else you can come up with.

yeajimmiboi responds:

Thank you! Your comments have helped a lot thank you very much.

[Lazer]

This song has a lot of varied instrumentation in it, which is a nice break from much of the more mainstream Dubstep I've heard. It's almost chiptune in terms of fidelity, as if it was a Dubstep song in a GBA game that unfortunately never existed. Production-wise, it's pretty well mixed, I can hear everything and pick it apart. The only knock I have against it is there could be more compression/limiting to raise the volume. I realize the plugins you used are stock plugins, but if you can, I'd either search for a compressor/limiter in the stash of plugins you currently have or save up and shell out a few for one. It'll be well worth it.

As for whether or not this is Dubstep, call it what you like. I call it awesome. Looking forward to more music from you. :D

FatdelxeGD responds:

I actually lowered the main volume control cause when I was making the song, the volume kept going to the red zone, there is a compressor and limiter stock plugin, but I never use the limiter, and I only used the compressor for side-chaining the song to the main kick. Thanks for telling me about the limiter, ill try to use it in my next song, and I'll try to figure out other things I can do w/ the compressor other than side-chaining.
Thank you for reviewing :)

[War Across The Galaxy (Finished)]

I'm comparing this to version 2, the one I previously reviewed. The changes you made are subtle, but it is an improvement. The overall sound feels larger and more aggressive. The volume levels are definitely louder in this version. The instrumentation still seems a bit up-close, but if you are going for the sound of urgent conflict, you've certainly done it.

Now, I don't know how you mixed this, but I think in your future works you may want to consider using some mastering plugins for making the song louder. From my experience, it takes a lot of practice. I'd start by comparing your song's levels to one of a similar style that you like (to use as a reference) and playing around with levels and plugins to get your song to sound the way you want it.

I hope this helps. :)

yeajimmiboi responds:

Thank you for commenting!! I'm using reason 11 so I shall mess around with compression and see what I can do. :) Thank you for taking the time to review!!