SonicYM2612's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Azure Lake Zone (remake)]

Nice track! I like the instrumentation and overall quality of it. I do have some critisisms though. Firstly, I would have liked to hear more percussion on the track, specifically cymbals, hihats, rides, maybe even acoustic percussion. I also feel like the mastering was pushed just a little too hard, sounding overly compressed. That said, I thought the Act 2 remix was phenominal, but again, more percussive work would have completely enhanced the track. You should work on that more hehe. Overall, nice job, 4.5 stars. ;)

DigitalDuck responds:

The lack of percussion is deliberate - the original only had simple percussion similar to this; I agree that I probably should've fixed that for the Act 2 part.

The over-compression was also deliberate, this time as part of me trying out new things; I'm still working on where to draw that line (I used to undershoot a lot, hence my beefing it up a bit here).

Thanks for the feedback!

[Angel Island Zone (remake)]

This is sweet, and from one of my favorite Sonic games! Even though the percussion is still soft, it actually goes really well with this mix. It has really luscious instrumentation which is made punchy by dynamic range compression. It sounds like of a sort of electro-acoustic soft house mix. The transition to Act 2 is perfect and so is the very ending of the song. It is very well composed and arranged and is much nicer than your last mix! 5 stars from me, great job! Keep it up! Dude also, I'd love to collab with you on some of these, just let me know. ;)

DigitalDuck responds:

Thanks! Punchy was exactly what I was going for - I'm always impressed with the music in Sonic games, and I want to emulate the feeling I get when I listen to the originals. S3K always felt to me like it was trying to go slightly "dirtier", taking itself away from the usually melodic Jpop-style music of S1/2 into something more atmospheric, so I've tried to reflect that. I'm constantly learning new techniques and styles, and I find that switching to a new game (especially when it has different composers and a different style itself) helps to do that.

The arrangements are fairly close to the originals (I've added a couple of parts in some places to fill it out a bit), with a few octave changes. The instrumentation was mostly done by playing parts of the song on a keyboard and flicking through voices to see what works, and then playing with filters to get the sound I want. Since nearly all the parts play a prominent role in S3K, I've revisited the way I pan instruments and work EQ to try to get the balance right. I might remake the Sonic CD remixes I've done in this way, to see if it improves them too.

As for collaboration, send me a message and let me know what you're thinking.

[Cosmic Eternity inst]

I'm gonna have to give this a mixed review. The intro is great, and so is the overall instumentation chosen. The percussion isn't as strong as it should be, and that is important since they provide a main driving force along with the bass in the original. There are some wrong notes, and this cover just doesnt give me the nostalgic feeling that the original does. On a positive note, the improvised ending is creative. In short, the general idea is great, but it wasn't executed as best as it could've been. Final rating from me is 4. Keep up thr good work and keep on trying! ;)

DigitalDuck responds:

Wrong notes? I'm a stickler for that sort of thing, and don't hear any. I might be missing them, but mind elaborating? (EDIT for future readers: one confirmed wrong note at 0:45! My standards are slipping.)

Everything else is fair enough. I've always been rubbish with percussion, and really need to focus on improving that. And glad you liked the improvisation, but it's more than just the ending. :D Thanks for the review.

[Applause (Instrumental Cover)]

Hey, me again. I bet you were wondering where my review was haha. Well, I've been a bit busy so now is I'm able to hear this. Unfortunately my good Skullcandy headphones broke on me for good so I'm listening through some cheap ones, until I can buy some good Bose headphones, but I'll try to listen as best I can. Anyways, I agree this song is really catchy. I like what you did with this, sounds really epic and synthy! Compared to the original, it's fairly accurate melodically , though some of the instruments don't precisely match the original, and some of the special effects are missing. Overall, very good job! I rated this mainly on accuracy. By the way, I did the same thing with the song Living On My Own (1993 Radio Mix) with Freddie Mercury, maybe I'll post it sometime. ;)

ChronoNomad responds:

I'm not surprised that you've been otherwise occupied since this is typically one of the busiest seasons! I did wonder if I would see you here, but good things come to those who wait. :)

I am really sorry to hear about your headphone woes. I know that I would be rather lost without my headphones, so I always make it a point to keep a spare around...just in case. Hope you can get the Bose soon!

As for the song, I wanted a cover, but not a cover that would be exactly like the original since...well, it's already been done. That being the case, I took some liberties with instrument selection and ultimately left out the white noise transition effects and background cheering since I wanted to just focus on using samples that I already had. I may or may not add in those white noise sweeps just because I kind of miss them.

You should definitely submit that one of these days! I'm definitely a fan of Queen and Freddie Mercury, and I'd love to hear it. Please let me know if you decide to post it here on Newgrounds or somewhere else! ^__^

[Apocalyptic]

Nice! I like your use of compression on the drums and the panning. Did you use a drum kit from the SGM soundfont? I have the same kit somewhere, I think it's from SGM, don't remember. Overall sounds like something that would be in Sonic Adventure 2 or something. ;) Rubber-ish bass is epic too.

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks, Sonic! Yep, that's the SGM drum kit you're hearing, sure enough. The bass does sound a bit 'rubberized' in some spots, but that's just plain old Harmless analog bass with no slides or anything like that. The only things I added were EQ to the individual instruments and the Soundgoodizer for a slight boost in clarity. Glad you like it, man.

[Expression of Freedom]

Wow, very nice! I hear lots of FM Synthesis going on, which is epic, just like the times of the SEGA MegaDrive! The drums are really nice too, though they could use some reverb as they are a bit dry sounding. Bass is amazing. I don't know, sounds like something out of a Sonic fan game. Great job! This really has that MegaDrive feel to it, could be the use of FM along with those square waves. ;D

ChronoNomad responds:

Glad you dig it, Sonic! It definitely has something of an old-school video game vibe at its core. It's comprised of a number of Sytrus instruments, BooBass, and Legacy drums. In the end any additional reverb effects were removed since they just ended up making things too muddy. I like the clean sound, though I do feel like the section at 1:56 could maybe use a little reverb or something, but considering how much time and effort has already been spent on this track, it's probably time to stick a pin in it and call it good. XD

[This is Not the End]

Sounds epic! I love that pad-like piano. I like your use of reverberation to elongate presence of the sounds. That's something I always like to do myself. The part at 2:20 reminded me of Metroid Prime as it's soundtrack uses a choir that sounds just like that. Most of the track reminds me of the game actually. Great job as usual! Are you still going good in the competition?

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks for another great review, Sonic! This is the best piano that I have currently, and it comes from the Pop Rock SoundFont, which also has some other very nice instruments, including a Wurlitzer piano, organ, guitars, string quartet, basses, and a drum kit. One of the more interesting fonts I've found, and I really enjoy using it. The nature of the piece itself demanded some good reverb and convolver effects, and I am thoroughly happy with the end result. I do seem to like that Boychoir, don't I? It works quite well in the background and contributed nicely to the overall feel of the music.

Yes, I am still in this contest for the nonce. Tomorrow (Friday the 13th, ominously enough) is the final submission date for most of us NGADMers, and after that there will be five days of judging before I know if my road terminates here or not. We shall see!

I'm currently working on my contribution to the Harmony of Heroes CD (a Super Smash Bros. Remix collab). #shamelessplug My part of the project is a jazzy Rock remix from EarthBound consisting of mainly piano, drums, and bass. It's pretty much finished, unless I decide to expand it with another instrument or two, but I can't let it distract me from the competition too much. I'm not sure if I'll be able to actually post the entire song here on Newgrounds or not, but I'll find out and share what I can as I am allowed. :)

[Tir Na Nog]

Very nice job! Sounds very realistic and acoustic, which is why I love soundfonts. Obviously you also have to do some work with effects and stuff to get them to sound as real as possible, and my friend, you have done that very well on this track. Keep up the good work! Good to see you're still in the competition. :D I was gonna ask what soundfonts you used but I see you've answered that to someone already lol.

ChronoNomad responds:

Many thanks for the review and stellar score! I'm feeling rather spoiled by all these five-star ratings. ^_~ Not that I want them to stop coming, mind you. I give much of the credit to the SoundFonts themselves for being so amazing to begin with. The rest was just me and my musical paintbrush, and then Jordi offering to add his phenomenal vocals to the piece. My cup runneth over.

[Anthem of the Adventurer]

Very neat! Your instrumentation reminded me of the 90s gaming era where many of the game systems used sequenced music with a specific sample set. Your song is most like a Nintendo 64 song, where the sound samples were better than SNES quality but not perfectly high quality yet.
Well, your is more like Nintendo 64 DD quality, not quite as low as normal N64 quality.
Your song is a bit reminiscent of the Zelda games. I don't know what your actual intention for the instrumentation of this song was, but all I can say is well done man! I hope you win this year's NGADM. But next year if I make it in, I'll be competing against you (if you decide to enter), muuuaahhaaahhaahhaaa!!!!! lol :D

ChronoNomad responds:

Kind of Medieval Folk/Fantasy all wrapped up in a Cinematic taco of Adventuresome goodness was the intention, I suppose....if I may make such a bizarre analogy. I can't really be unhappy when someone says that it's reminiscent of music from The Legend of Zelda since Link is most certainly one of the premiere Adventurers out there...you know...adventuring. Saving princesses, punching Ganon in the face, and all that rot. And the music from the series is pretty epic, too.

I really appreciate the review, and yeah--I think if I don't have too much going on already, I'll probably give it a go next year, too. Way to throw down that gauntlet, man! I'll take you on anytime. *evil laughter* ;)

[Video Games]

Hehehe nice stuff man! I like what you did with the 8 bit sounds, very much like the Atari 2600 or NES. The rap is cool too, lots of game nerdiness in there lol. 5 stars from me! :D

AnalogByNature responds:

I started the obsession with Coleco & Intellivision. From there, it just snowballed into a very unhealthy videogame habit. The other guys in the group enjoy gaming, but me, it's imprisoned my youth for sure.
Thanks, Sonic!