SonicYM2612's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Marble Garden Zone (remake)]

Amazing! Just a few criticisms. The main leads could've used a louder delay like in the originals. The chorus synth for the Act 1 part was a little too loud. The bell/piano part at 0:33 could have been better executed. And there were some weird phasing effects most noted in the percussion on the second loop of each Act part. Now the good stuff, The violin was epic in the Act 1 section 0:43! I must know what you used for it. Also the percussion was fantastic. Wanna know what you made the percussion with as well, particularly the nice, realistic snare and hi hats. ;)

DigitalDuck responds:

Thanks! The reason the leads have less delay and the pad is louder is that I wanted to create more of a difference between Act 1 and Act 2; the PC version of this song had less delay and a louder pad, so I kinda copied that style and kept the original for Act 2.

I'm not entirely sure what went on with the percussion; I think I messed up the automation somewhere (see what happens when I try to improve the percussion? It all goes wrong!). I didn't notice it until you pointed it out, and now it annoys me.

The violin and percussion are actually both done with stock instruments in Acoustica Mixcraft; I was messing about with automated EQ to try to get the snares sounding right (apparently I managed that), but the violin is just straight from the standard set. I like to make my own synths, but tend to stay with whatever's there for "real" instruments (partly because I'm poor).

[Bonus Stage: Slots (S3K remake]

Excellent! Sounds very pristine and has gracefully placed reverbs. For the bass I would have preferred for it to have been more 'bouncy' sounding, like when you apply a lowpass filter with some resonanace. Very great overall! :D

DigitalDuck responds:

Thanks! I had a lot of fun making this one, for some reason the bonus stages seem to gel more with me musically so remaking them comes more naturally than the others. I'm not sure I'd actually like a bouncy bass here (it's not often I disagree with you, though!), but there's definitely something missing.

[Knuckles (SK remake)]

Pretty good, I personally would've added more synth instruments to it but it's good anyways.

DigitalDuck responds:

I was trying to keep with the "island" vibe that the original gives off for the most part, but it's definitely lacking something there.

[Knuckles (S&KC remake)]

Sounds quite alright to me, and I'm really glad you've improved on percussion! Keep it up! ;)

DigitalDuck responds:

Thanks! I'm still flirting with different ways of doing percussion, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (although not nearly enough).

[Hydrocity Zone (remake)]

Hey, I see you finally uploaded this. It's not bad, you've manage to create a more stable master than my little 'beta' edit. Still though, it feels like it's missing things. Maybe a bit heavier percussion, some better effects, stuff like that. Man, one of these days when I'm not super busy I'm gonna finish my version. Hehe, welp, I rate this 4 stars! Keep up the good work and keep trying! :D

DigitalDuck responds:

Yeah, feel free to do whatever you want with what I sent. If I could've turned your version into something complete I would've done, since that was a lot better than this. :D

[Afterimage]

Heyyyy lol. The song is epic! I have nothing of my own to say except that I agree with johnfn. I will still give it 5 stars! :D

ChronoNomad responds:

Awesome sauce! Thanks a lot for that, Sonic. Great to know you enjoy the loop, bro! :D

[Pendragon Legacy]

Hey man, this piece of music is very epic, very worthy of the description. :D
I was amazed at the percussion sounds mainly, and the other instruments that sounded very realistic. The style is impeccable. I just have a few criticisms (I can already hear you booing at me lol).

I would have loved to hear the percussion with some reverb, as it sounded pretty flat. Another thing is that most of the track was very pan-pot stereo sounding, not real spacial which takes away a lot of the realism for me. I think you should experiment more with stereo expansion and panned reverbs/delays like I have recently, it really brings out some awesome sonic qualities that makes listeners think the sounds are actually directional, as long as not over-applied.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with my comments hehe, but it's definitely worth a try. And it's not even hard to do really. If you need suggestions on plugins or methods and such, you can always ask. ;)

I will give this 4.5 my friend, great work as usual, just those little details hehehe. :)

P.S. If you don't mind me asking, where are all the instruments from? I would like to see if I could use them, especially that percussion. ;)

ChronoNomad responds:

Boooooo~! :P

Just kidding, Sonic. I definitely appreciate your feedback, and I certainly can't complain about a 4.5 stars out of 5...that would be crazy. :D

I actually used the Fruity Convolver plugin alone for the percussion, while most of the instrument tracks also have applied Stereo Enhancer. I did add some more effects here and there, including additional reverb to the perc, and it just ended up making things sound muddy unfortunately. So, ultimately, I ended up removing the reverb and some of the enhancer effects in order to preserve the crisp sound of the instruments themselves. There are still plenty of panning delays, most notably on the ocarina and harp, I believe...though on most of the other musical instruments, as well to varying degrees.

You want to know which instruments I used, eh? I can definitely help you out with that. The percussion is all SquidFont; the Orchestral Kit that comes along with all the instruments is pretty doggone fantastic, I think. Interesting fact: this is the same perc section that I used in my Anthem of the Adventurer track from the 2014 NGADM!
Ocarina and Ocarina Glissando were used to get the perfect sound there, as well as a smattering of Ocarina Staccato. No pitch bending was necessary since the gliss version has it right at the beginning.
The Celtic Harp from the "DSK World StringZ" VST was used liberally throughout the piece, the Vocal Oooh used are from the kbh-real_choir SoundFont, the violin is simply called aaviolin and I'm kind of in love with it lately (in case you didn't notice), the Fiddle and French Horns are both from SGM-V.201, and I used both the Cister (basically a renaissance era guitar) and Dudy (a type of bagpipe) instruments that made their first appearance in my other NGADM hit, Tir Na Nog. ^__^

[Exploring the Rift]

Hey man! This song is really nice, haven't heard something like it in a long time. It's very mesmerizing and atmospheric, even trance-like. I do have to agree with John on some things though. I like the kick, but if you decide to rework the song, please take a look at this:

http://wavealchemy.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ab24c8099d12434d1152a8a4a&id=6ea2c45e3e&e=6f4dc850e1

I would say to use the warm kick 13 which sounds like a better version of the kick you used, warm openhat 5 overlaid with your current hihat, and warm clap 1 with a good reverb. I think this will spice up that drum track really nicely. ;)

As for everything else, I wouldn't touch any of it. Even though it's all made with Sytrus, it all sounds good and fine to me, I feel that all the instruments went well together to create that awesome atmospheric effect. One thing I would do is try a little bit of stereo enhancement in the master channel and see how it works out. I feel it would do the whole track a favor and increase its atmospheric effect effectively, as long as it's not overdone.

Please consider this and let me know if you rework it so I can hear it! In the meantime, I will give this 4.5 stars. It's not bad though right now, but can be better really easily. Nice job on this. :D

ChronoNomad responds:

Hey, Sonic! Thanks a lot for the great suggestions and these clean samples, man. That's decidedly awesome of you, and I will definitely see about upping the percussive stakes on this track with these shortly. I'll let you know via pm when I've uploaded a revamped version. Adding a bit of stereo enhancement to the master is a totally legit idea, too. :D

Really appreciate the 4.5 stars. Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a review! Glad to hear that you dig it so much right out of the gate. ^__^

[City of Secrets]

Really awesome job! Definitely fits the description of a city's deepest darkest secluded affairs. Very 'film noir'- like

ChronoNomad responds:

Wow, thanks again! :D There are some interesting opposing elements in this one, and it was somewhat experimental, so it does my heart good to know that the experiment is a success! Film Noir is a great description and every time I go back and listen to this it conjures up a different image.

And I freaking love that bass...even though I'm totally biased! ;)

[The Flower We Saw That Day]

Simply elegant! Very emotional piano piece. Good to hear that you're still composing hehe. The piano sounds great, not too bright, just a bit mellow but fits the song well. Maybe a touch of more reverb would have sounded better on this, but anyways, that's just whatever the mastering engineer decides! ;)
5 stars my man!

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks, Sonic! The emotion inherent in this cover is definitely its most important component, and it's wonderful to know that it comes across so well. With solo instrument projects like this it can be tricky to strike the right balance, and I'm glad to hear that the piano sounds appropriately mellow and not overly bright. Much appreciation for those five stars, man! ^__^ Yep, I'm still here...lol