OcularNebula's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Void Waltz]

nice

I'm always a fan of unconventional meters, and electronic music definitely doesn't have enough triple meter, so points for that

I'd say, vary up the chord progression, since the bass goes up and down between those two notes for the entire song, but on the other hand, it does add to the atmosphere, along with the waltz feel. It's like a constant lull, like you're out at sea with no shore in sight.

some parts could use volume re-balancing, such as the spot at 0:49 - the main instrument seems too loud.

I liked the guitar-ish sound later on, it was pretty fitting, yet subtle. good volume on that

create new content whenever you have time, it's one of the clearest ways to improve at anything!

[Chip N' Bass!]

pretty funky what you got here, and the sounds and bits are spot on - truly characteristic of the combo of genres you've got going on

the glide on that one synth was pretty sexy

maybe too much of the stutter glitching stuff for my taste

the ending was a treat

DJ-Hectic responds:

Thanks for the great review, dude! Glad you enjoyed it, and it's a relief to hear you dug the ending as well, since I thought I overdid it initially, but stuck with it. I actually agree that the glitchy stuff was a bit much. I might tweak it later this week if I find the time, tone down some of the syncopations. Again, much appreciated!

[Sunrise City G4 Mix V1]

pretty cool

the main first lead sounds really good, but I don't think the other synths you use quite compare in intensity

at 1:09, idk how much you changed it, but it sounds a bit empty

g4ebguyGT responds:

Yea, I removed alot of the other stuff that was in your original.
Besides the actual synths, I made some just a bit louder then others in your original.
The bass kicks, hat, etc etc were all deleted and I put my own in,

I added some extra notes to the melody at the end.
Like I said, only worked on it for around a hour. There will be more versions.

[Radiance]

So, I'm not too crazy about whatever it is you decided to modulate at 1:20 and 1:27, but since you did, why don't you also do so at 1:42, just to mark some difference after the break. That section could really benefit from not being the exact same thing.

I really like how you filled out the part at 2:11 though, and it's probably the best part of the song now, imo.

lol @ description

Synthapse responds:

think i should take that effect thing out now? I can do it in like 2 seconds

[The Bionic Champion]

Pretty decent, overall. It accomplishes the feel you were going for fairly well. It's not exactly my sorta thing, but I can't take off points for that. Now, what I would normally say is that there isn't much harmonic variety or progression and the entire thing drags on in a very similar fashion throughout, but I suppose that's reasonable in this sort of style. I do like the feedback-ish sound playing throughout the first half of the song and at the end. It's pretty much the only distinctly "electronic" sound you have here. I would try to enhance it in some way, maybe accentuate the lower frequencies. The hit at 1:06 was a nice transitional tool.

It has the correct ambiance, but (personally) I felt the meat of the song was lacking interest value. I could envision it being title screen music for a variety of game genres.

[Xenocidal - Hardstyle]

at 0:35, the arp that comes in sounds a bit too much like an unedited preset. It gets better as you speed it up and increase the resonance (or cutoff?), though.

1:40 is good, sounds full. The kick is nice and prominent. Like the pause at 1:53.

2:19 - again, not a huge fan of that arp the way it sounds in this section.

The cutoff automation of the main lead at 1:32 and 2:34 sounds distorted in a bad way, but I'm not sure what you can do to fix that. Use a different filter?

I like the concept of the outro, but the piano could sound more interesting. Sounds a little bit empty, so maybe add some delay? That might create problems when automating tempo, however.

Pwnage101 responds:

The arp's that I use were actually my creation, I prefer to make my own synthesizing noises. I used Poizone 2 for it. But I could beef them up, a little more, perhaps make them seem less uniform. Make them a little more original sounding. I ended up finding a preset, just out of curiosity, and it sounds all too similar. So I will definitely look into that.

Thanks haha, I believe I messed with a limiter more for this song than my others. Gave it an easier access to make it sound full, rather than too much synthesizer and not enough kick, and made it easier on the ears.

I messed around with the cutoff ability, and I believe the issue was that the drive setting on Toxic Biohazard was set too high. Once it was lowered, the synthesizer lost a little bit of power, but the interference was removed. All I had to do to fix the power was throw in a Soundgoodizer and Balance, and it came back to it's full potential.

I honestly started messing with the outro as soon as I posted this version... I have a little trouble with waiting to perfect it, only because it is Newgrounds. Then again, it could remove from my ability to get well known for good music, especially if what I am putting out is not to par with what I am capable of. But I will try some more with the outro, and let you know how it goes!

-P101

[SuperCharged - Hardstyle]

nice arp progression, I like it (but you misplaced a note - at 0:46, 0:58, 1:10, and all the analogous places there's an Ab in the arps that's supposed to be an A)

I feel like the section from 1:30 and on could use a more dedicated bass. I can only hear the kick and the supersaw polysynth, so something a bit more in the low end would probably make it sound more full.

Pwnage101 responds:

Ah! Nailed it on the head. I had an eerie feeling that part of the arps progression was off, and have been trying to figure what note to change, and where, to make it sound as good as it could. I almost feel silly for not having found it before I placed it up.

And yes, I am still trying to get a good bass sound for this song. I honestly couldn't get one in, yet, but I am working on it more to figure it out.

-P101