Codefreq's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Rivers]

This track is very dreamy and atmospheric. I like the vibe it creates; it makes me feel like I've strayed into a dream and my head is in the clouds. I don't quite get why it's called Rivers, but whenever I listen to it I escape the real world for three and a half minutes. The only suggestion I can make is maybe turning down the bass on the drums, especially in the last quarter of the song. It's a bit hard on my ears. Overall, it's a solid piece of ethereal music. Good job.

iElectrocat responds:

Thank you so much for your feedback! I will fix it before the album's done so when it goes on spotify hopefully it'll be better in that sense. :)

[See the fault]

I like the use of sparsity in this piece. The instrumentation conjures up imagery in my head about a hideout in a video game, which I like. There's a point at the end where the beat falls apart a little, which interrupted the piece's flow, a moment I'm personally not too crazy about. The mixing is pretty good, and the writing is pretty good too. The only other thing I could say that could be improved is that the first minute or so doesn't really draw me in as much as I would've hoped. I would suggest maybe sprinkling some extra sounds for texture and timbre throughout that first minute to give the listener more of a reason to stay tuned, to keep the listener guessing what comes next. As it stands now, it's a little slow to start before the song picks up steam.

I wouldn't describe it as "techno" myself, but it's a decent listen.

GeometryDashMau5Kids responds:

Gracias por tú opinion. Si estaba pensando agregar cositas más para tenerlo listo en diciembre, ya que ahi estara esta canción en el albúm :)

Que tengas un buen día UwU

[poppin' my collar]

This piece is unique and it has really cool experimental synthesizer sounds. It's almost as if you were recording while playing around with a modular synth and took the best parts of what you did and put them together in this Dubstep-like form factor. Like the other song of yours I reviewed, I don't have much to compare it to. In this particular piece, however, the sound design is so excellent and the rhythms are so catchy that it ends up successfully walking the ever-so-thin tightrope of being like nothing else while at the same time being very fun to listen to. Really impressive work.

Delerium responds:

a majority of the sounds were done through granular synthesis & resampling using vsts like phaseplant, serum, output portal and fruity granualizer

it is mainly recording a long bass one shot then chopping it into usable sections

[The War of the Winter Flame]

I love this piece. Not only is the instrumentation as triumphant as it is beautiful, but everything about it is cohesive and focused. The melody is distinctive, the mixing is great, and the message the title and music together presents comes across loud and clear. Excellent job! :D

dkDigital responds:

Thank you! :D You have no idea how awesome that is to hear. Each point you touch on is something I was pushing myself to improve at!

[Obsessive Bolero]

I like this piece a lot. For me it really nails the feeling of walking down a dark alleyway, like the artwork you present. It seems like it would go well if paired with an RPG, where the player is sneaking around, trying to not get caught by the guards around the area.

Technically speaking, it's really well mixed. The instrumentation has a lot of nuance and subtle touches that make it sound great. The only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is I don't quite understand the correlation between the description and title, and the music itself. Nevertheless, I like it a lot and would love to hear more of what you could do. :)

LexRodent responds:

Thanks for listening and your review. Glad you enjoyed it.
Well, the correlation it's indeed quite obscure ; The song was inspired on obsessive thoughts, which are kind of an exaggeration over control (in most cases).
The dark alley imagery would fall as some sort of metaphor for it.

[Lizdek & Scheme - Hyaline]

I appreciate the uniqueness of this piece. I don't have much to compare it to. I love the more beautiful soundscape sections at the beginning and the end. the more experimental percussion is interesting, but nothing really made me want to go back to listen to the song again. One reason, and this is simply IMO, I found the rapid ducking after each percussive hit to be a tad too obnoxious and in-your-face, sort of like the song is saying "HEY! LISTEN TO ME!" through the speaker system, to the point of distraction. Maybe adding an element that is constant through the ducking, like bass or an effect of some kind on the existing synths, and/or pulling back on exaggerated synth action, especially starting at the 02:23 mark through to 03:05, could keep my attention without necessarily grabbing me by my ears and throttling my head.

tl;dr: I think it's a unique and interesting experiment, but I also found it to be an exhausting piece to listen to, especially on repeat. That said, I'll give the artist the benefit of the doubt, as I'm curious to see where they will go next.