OcularNebula's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Playing Rabbits]

pretty sweet! you've represented the theme quite well, it's a nice blend of playfulness and snowy mystery. I like how you have plenty of runs, but they're really light, which is nice.

SoundChris responds:

Hey there!

I am glad you liked it - hope you are comfortable with the walz-feeling, which definitely is one of your royal disciplines. OMG its just so good to have time for the pleasant things in life again. There is so much i wanna try out - maybe some kind of dubstep or just some french chansans - maybe a monumental music score... dont know, but it will be great fun for sure :D

Best wishes!!

[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

[In A Strange Rapture]

dude, this is super amazing!! you say you've never done jazz arrangements before? it's very well put together, nice variety of instruments, how they come in and back off. this has way more interest value than I could hope to match in my compositions (for this sort of ensemble, at least). the frills, the loose rhythms, the grace notes, the tasteful transitions and pauses, the jazzy harmonies, there's so much JAZZ, and the fact that there's a human element to the performance just enhances the entire effect so much. I am rarely patient enough to actually learn to play my own pieces well enough to record, but hearing this, it pays off so much to take the time to do that.

jazz is the name of the game, and you're playin' it like a korean zerg!! (sorry)

SoundChris responds:

Oh man thanks so much. I am so glad you like it. I have to admit that this piece was quite difficult to do because it was hard to arrange everything in a way which sounds authentic and natural. Finally i am really proud of this one. Its true that i never arranged jazz before but you have to know that i have allready played some jazzpiano pieces of that style and that i am spending quite much time by listening to this kind of jazz piano music (especially oscar peterson and art tatum. So if you are interested in this style of music i only can recommend those great pianists. My favourites are +Art Tatum - All the Things you are+ and almost any stuff of Oscar Peterson - ill send you a link in PM!) so this kind of music is simply running through my veins :D And like i told up in the description: The computer had to help me out with some superextreme difficult sections because it was getting to hard. I think i will do more jazz pieces like this in the future because arranging music rarely has been so much fun! Maybe we can try a coproduction sometimes :D

Thanks a lot for your super nice review !

Chris

[Cherokee - Hardstyle]

The kick doesn't hit hard enough. Idk if that's because you haven't compressed it enough, or maybe it's just a balance issue and the other synths overpower it.

I like the beginning lead way more than the lead at 1:23. That one could use some more edgyness. Something like more resonance or an enhanced high end, maybe? The melody and implied chord progression is nice, though.

Also, hardstyle is more techno than industrial, I'd say. You should consider putting these works under that category.

Pwnage101 responds:

I went into FL Studio, just now, and checked it out, and it seems that the synthesizer does over power it a bit much, so a toned it down a little, just to check it out. It didn't quite get the effect I wanted, so I ended up using the balance tool and it seems have upped the quality of the kick. I also tried bringing the Kick to a higher pitch, during the main melody, because the kick bass is hardly noticeable during the melody itself. It brought the bass and the kick out a little more, made it hit harder, which made me happier.

I definitely worked harder on the melody than I did on the actual synthesizer, which I am regretting now that I look back on it. I use a synthesizer with saw and noise wavelengths, and I use the same format for most of my synthesizers. I, unfortunately, forgot to tone the detune down on the main melody synthesizer, and I forgot to remove the reverb on it, which made it too hard on the echo effect, and removed from the kick. Thank you for the comment on the actual melody itself, I liked this one a lot, I just should have spent more time on the execution.

To be honest, I never thought of it that way. It definitely makes more sense. I was going off of the beats per minute factor for what I should list it as, rather than the actual sound, so I will begin to label them accordingly. I just hope that, one day, Newgrounds will have a section for Hardstyle.

Thanks for the help, best comment I've gotten yet! I will begin the salvage project now, haha.

-P101

[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

[RW - Rainbow Squad]

You should be very proud of this track. The quality of the synths does matter a lot, and it shows that you've spent a lot of time fine tuning them in this one. I love complextro, whether it's just the illusion of complexity or actual skill at varying themes (I think you've got the latter). How do you get your chord synth to hit so powerfully? I am amazed. There are so many impeccably refined details that I just don't think I could list right now. I can only anticipate what awesome sounds you will produce in the future, as you keep improving your craft. From what I can tell, you are on the right track!

Indigorain responds:

Wow, thanks for the amazing review, buddy!
I do sidechain my chord synths as well, it leaves a lot of room for the kick's high end.
At the drop, where the chord synths hit at the end of each phrase, it's just a matter of timing and instrumentation. I layer it down with a bassnote and a chiptune melody. The rest is just the timing of where to put it, it sounds really powerful after a short silent part.
Anyway, thanks again for the awesome review, I really appreciate the kind words man! :D

[Out of Dragons Mouth]

way too short

not enough layers for a powerful, orchestral track, if you were going for that

I still voted 5, because - by comparison to other high-rated newgrounds stuff, it's pretty good

but too short, and no development :(

WolfySnackrib responds:

Wow, thanks for your review, as you know I'm a huge fan of yours. Downloaded all your songs, I did.
Composing orchestral is really difficult for me so I'm glad if I manage to even squeeze this out, and it was mostly a test and experiment, not a polished, complete, finished song, so I see your point. I suppose my other song "Avatribalian" is a bit more wholesome.

[Galactic Escape]

Sounds powerful. Works pretty well as a dance tune. Maybe a tad too much noise (sidechain it more?). Big sounds. Like it.

TheZaaL responds:

??? More??? I thought I was already over-sidechaining! Ok, I'll check it out!

Thanks!

[Cosmic Diamonds]

Cool. Semi-jazzy plus nice ambient effects and rain. Very chill combination. I'm not sure how well it would do as "phone queue music", though. It might be considered a little too "weird", if you know what I mean. I like it, though.

SoundChris responds:

Glad you like it :>

To create a phone-queue music was some kind of different chellenge. Because my friend has a technology-enterprise, the sound should be some kind of technological (thats why i integrated the robot-voice fx), it should be close to nature (thats why i thought it could be good to bring the water sound in because people sense water as some kind of elemental force - fresh and clean).

The problem was, that its difficult to make a sound which is not importunate, because the customers shell not get angry by hearing the track several times in a roll until the phone circuit gets free. So it should become some kind of a relaxing sound.
If it gets to much relaxed it could bore the customers. Thats why i decided to make the piano a little bit crazy ... and - of course - because i am hooked on piano (just like you too :D ).

Thanks for the feedback!

Chris