Codefreq's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Oleg the Formidable]

Neat piece. It almost sounds to me like a side-scrolling stealth game.

I've got suggestions for you to think about if you'd like:

The title you have is quite specific. What is the story behind that?
What kinds of things were you thinking of when you wrote this?
Why did you pick the icon artwork you did?

In my experience, questions like these can be good starting points for being deliberate and intentional in the decisions you make when creating music. I'd be able to give you feedback that is more than just "I like this" or "this isn't for me" if you put some intention behind your music.

That said, for someone who claims to not know what they're doing, I think this is a pretty good shot at a song.

I hope this helps. :)

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

dg125 responds:

alright, here we go.

"The title [...] is quite specific. What is the story behind that?" better than calling it what i named the flp: "ching cheng hanji", and i guess i just needed a title for the song
"What [...] were you thinking of when you wrote this?" i just wanted to make a lil' experimental ditty
"Why did you pick the icon artwork you did?" i needed an icon for the song and i had this on my pc so here we are

thanks for your review my man, glad you liked it

[Draten: Rayzelia]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying.

I think you really nailed the upbeat and celebratory vibe of this piece. I get a lot from this piece but none of it is sad or uncomfortable.

The only reason I don't give this 5 stars is because I can't in good conscience say you nailed the vibe of a character I've never seen in a story I haven't experienced.

Original 4 star review:

"This reminds me of old Pokemon or Retro City Rampage in terms of the way the music is written. To me the way this song is produced comes across as very dreamy as well, due in large part to the reverb.

I'd love to hear your perspective. Why did you name this piece what you did? What were you thinking as you were making this? It's a little hard to tell what the icon artwork is, but to me it looks like a fish skeleton. Why did you pick this?

I'd love to give you feedback based on how clear I thought your ideas for this piece came through but right now I can't because there isn't enough information.

Still, that being said, I think this is really cool!

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

Raiiju responds:

Hey thanks a bunch for the score and review! A lot of my inspiration is from the old Pokémon soundtracks. It has and will always be one of my favorite childhood games. The reason behind the name is quite simple. I’m currently working on an OC for a story I’m writing. She’s a princess from another dimension, and she is a very charismatic and adventurous person. So with the upbeat and adventurous vibes from the song, I decided to name it after her. “Rayzelia” that’s pretty much it. Ya know, there was a lot of things going on in my head as I was writing and composing this piece, I generally wanted a happy melodic song with a celebration feel, but I kept trying to refrain from accidentally creating something sad or dissonant. I struggled to keep a consistent tone, but in the end I think I got close enough. 😅 And the icon, he’s a little dragon I drew a while back, I’ll actually post em here in a little bit. The icon is just a placeholder for now while I finish up drawing Rayzelia.

[Floating]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying.

I can kind of see what you're getting at. There is a bit of a mysterious quality to this piece, some conflicting ideas layered in with a bit of a hopeful general vibe of the piece. The mixing unfortunately gets in the way of that for me, though, particularly the compression.

About the compression: What I was referring to was the dynamics; the difference in volume between the loud and soft sounds in a song.

In my experience, it can be tempting to boost the compression because you can hear things that maybe you didn't hear before and raise the overall volume of a piece. The downside is if you boost it too much the loud parts don't have as much impact, making the song overall sound wimpy at low volumes and uncomfortable at loud volumes.

I find a good way to tell the amount of compression a piece has is to ask yourself when you play back the song you're working on: Is the quietest part, say a whisper, as loud as the crushingly loud drums and synths? If so you may want to consider playing around with the compression so it's more balanced.

I hope this helps. :)

Original 3 1/2 star review:

"Neat instrumentation. To me it makes the piece big and dreamy, like I'm floating, if you will. ;)

I'm curious, what were you thinking when you were creating this piece? Why did you pick the title you did? Why did you choose the icon artwork you did? None of this is in your description. Without this I can't really give you feedback I want to give you. I have to give you feedback based on my own taste rather than how clear I thought your ideas came through.

I like the piece, although the compression is a little on the heavy side.

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

TheCrazedSide responds:

What I was thinking when I made the piece was mainly about a script I'm working on about a man whose has a soul disease that will inevitably destroy his soul and make him into a monster. he's a tough fighter who goes around fighting the corrupt and at the moment he has hope that he'll overcome the disease, this song represents that hope.

I was also inspired by a song by cevin key, thats, well, also called floating. it sounded nostalgic to me, so I wanted to make something that feels strangely nostalgic to me. I also wanted to make the song dreamy like floating and it looks like i succeeded on that lol.

The album cover itself is from inside another the mind of another character of mine, the eye is of his inner demons that torment him. I'm not sure if it's gonna be the permanent album cover or if i'm gonna replace it with something a bit more relevant.

btw I'm still fairly new to compression, so when you mean it's on the heavy side do you mean it sounds a bit distorted or something like that?

I'm glad you like the piece btw!

[The Faceless / Bloodborn (inst demo)]

Interesting piece. It's got a bit of classic Metallica vibe IMO, particularly the "Bloodborn" section.

I have some questions about this. What was going through your mind when you were making these pieces? What's the story behind the names? If you share this information I'd be better equipped to give you feedback based on how well I thought your ideas and intent came through rather than simply how much I like this piece.

I do like the piece, though. It's got me bobbing my head.

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

l0vemetal responds:

Thank you for the review! I will let you be the judge when I release the finished product with vocals.

I will say, though, that it involves two characters: The Faceless and The Bloodborn.

[Nostalgia]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying.

I think the happiness and nostalgia come through well. It's kind of distorted, like a memory of things you want to remember.

I'll say this: I don't think the sadness really comes through in this piece at face value. Someone somewhere might think of past happiness and nostalgia with a little bit of sadness intertwined with that but I personally do not.

Outside of that, I still think you did a good job clearly expressing what you mentioned here overall, though.

Original 4 star review:

"How hypnotic. :)

I don't take acid or smoke weed, but I imagine this is the musical equivalent of that experience.

Interesting piece. I'd like to know more about what you were thinking when you made this piece. It's help me be able to give better feedback. I like the title. Why did you pick it? Why did you pick the synthwave-y icon artwork you did for this specific piece? Things like this will help me be able to base my review on how well I thought your ideas came through rather than how much I liked it.

That said, I do like the piece.

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

SecretMusician responds:

Thank you so much!

Well, the truth is that what happened was a mixture of feelings such as: Nostalgia, Happiness, and a little sadness.
Nostalgia, for remembering me playing on my brother's N64 in my childhood, and also my grandfather listening to the radio.
Happiness, for making me feel that I am finally doing something that I like after months of busy with school.
Sadness, because I know that you cannot go back in time and re-enjoy the moments that I spent in my childhood, being with my parents, grandparents, my cat, my cat has already passed away, I became very sad for a while, my grandfather Also 3 years ago he died, I was also sad that year.

I chose that title because it reminds me of my grandfather's TV, and because I can easily listen to this for hours.

I chose that icon more because I like it than for anything else, but also in some way "it sounds like that image" if you can say that

Anyway, thanks for reviewing my piece, it was a pleasure to have shared my experiences with other artists =)

[Timeless]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying.

I can kind of see where you're coming from. I still think things like the correlation between the icon and the music could be stronger if you change the image you used to a more direct representation, but I do understand why you made the decisions you made better now that you've explained it.

Original 4 star review:

"This feels to me like it would make a good end credits to a game.

I'd love to give you good feedback on this piece but I need to know what your perspective is before I can do that. Without your perspective I can only say how much I liked it.

You can start by saying what your thought process was when you were making this piece. You can also say what the title you picked means to you and why you picked it for this song, or even things like why you chose the icon you did for this specific submission.

As for my opinion, I do like the piece. Something about the production makes it seem like there's a lot of space, like a vast landscape, or literal outer space. I will say the ending is a little premature; the fade-out isn't complete before the song ends. Unfortunately, right now that's all I can say about it.

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

WouterPiano responds:

Hi, thanks for your message. Im trying to make songs which have a mix between classical and electronic music. Thats why i use the electron image.. A simular image is allso used for my other song (classtron). I didnt know the fade out wasn't complete, it is in the original audio.. The name Timeless came in while improvising on the piano on this song. It's just what came to mind. Im glad you like the atmosphere.

[FS: Resolve]

UPDATE:

Thank you for clarifying.

I find people tend to have different approaches when writing music. IMO there's nothing wrong with the way you wrote music, as you described. The reason I ask what your approach is is that putting that information up front makes it much easier for me to give you feedback based on how well I thought your ideas were represented by the music.

My take is I don't necessarily think the title is an accurate representation of the song. But it does help to know you didn't have an idea from the start you were trying to get across.

I hope that helps.

Original 4 star review:

"Interesting piece. To me it feels devious, like a stealth game where the player is sneaking around a house trying to avoid guards; visually it reminds me of something like the classic top-down Metal Gear series for the NES.

I'd love to hear what was going on in your mind when you made this piece. I'd be more able to give you better feedback if you shared your perspective.

For example: What's the story behind the title?

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

FairSquare responds:

Hmm, i like that visualization you have :) And well.. the way i make music, it start with messing around.. a whole lot of it.. just playing with sounds, trying to make a sequence of chords, a melody, bassline.. anything that makes me able to build upon. Most attempts fail. But once i have that start, it makes things easier and then the actual fun starts. What i try to do is to keep the listener entertained.. constantly bring variation. So i can't say i really visualize anything when starting with a song, to me it's all about the sound and building the sections while still trying to make it sound as a natural flowing song.
The title.. i only thought of that after i finished making the song. And it's based on the music. After the initial build up there is a section with a melody. Then the song changes with some other melodies, some more changes, a drop and a final build up.. and then the section with the same melody as after the first build up. To me that feels like resolving the song.. because making this song felt like a puzzle to me.
Hope that gives you enough ideas about what is going on in my mind, haha. Thanks for the review!