larrynachos's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[BOOM]

This song would work just fine as the background track to a game or something, but as a judge actively listening I found myself bored. It's funky, yeah, but the funk wore me out before the halfway point. The sounds are all flat and kinda in the same space. I was never really caught off guard or pleasantly surprised, which bummed me out.

p.s. the bitcrushed synth that goes up and down is my favorite part, I wish you'd played with more wide elements like that.

[Zealots Inferno (Horror Pack and NGUAC 2022 Knockout Round)]

You've created a very dark and tense environment here! You definitely could put this in a boss fight and it would work. But it doesn't scare me, and I think it's because you have a very ordinary and predictable sound selection.

I appreciate that you didn't rely on cheap jumpscares via loud stings, but where are the freaky mangled sound effects? I want more than that metal thing people rub a bow on for horror noises. I want a super distorted scream in the background, scary footsteps, crying, dripping, horror_ambience_04.wav, ANYTHING. Play with the stereo field, make it sound like something's behind me. Or right next to me. Or just outside my room. Make me take my headphones off and look outside my window.

I also strongly feel that you neglected the low end. A really low rumbly bass that rises and falls in intensity is pretty good at giving me heart palpitations. Look into how composers like Hanz Zimmer incorporate bass into their sound. The TENET soundtrack is another good example of using low end bass in a cinematic setting. The low end here is just the low end from all of the instruments. I honestly can't tell if you did any EQ work or if this is all stock kontakt

A lot of people believe NG judges favor cinematic music, but imo any johnny with a cracked copy of kontakt and some libraries can make cinematic music. I went through a phase of that from like 2014-2016, and all it did was ruin my work ethic as a producer by giving me an unearned sense of accomplishment for work that I really hadn't done myself. (Heavyocity's DAMAGE, anyone?). I'm not saying it's wrong to use these tools, I just feel that when you do use them, you need to work twice as hard to make it uniquely "yours".

TLDR it's a good track, but there's no character to it; nothing to make it stand out besides being a cinematic horror song.

[NGUAC 2022 KO Round - Ikigai (生き甲斐), in Minimalism]

Ahaha, always good to see the DSK vsts getting used xD I love this chill asian atmosphere you've created! Smooth pads with plucky stringed lead, yes please.

I think the biggest issue is the contrast between the intro/build and the drop. If you look at the waveform at 1:49, the buildup is louder than the drop itself, completely removing any tension and energy you'd built without a proper release.

Same with the middle section. It builds and sounds super rad and tense but then it drops back into a very quiet and tame chill section. The kick is barely there, when it should be PUNCHING through the mix.

Also a little EQ note: you have a reese bass and 808 playing at the same time in certain sections, causing phase cancellation and kind of killing the low end of the bass. I did hear a little warbling.

Overall pretty good track! I'd say you have arrangement down just fine. Just don't bait me with an awesome buildup and then switch to a chill beat. Go crazy, go stupid! AAAA

[Summertime Memories]

Gorgeous track! The vocals are pretty, but the first vocal section kinda sounds tinny? It fixes itself at 1:37 so idk what was going on there. Also freakin BEAUTIFUL harmonies and guitar in the final section <3

Curruff responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it. The tinny vocals at the beginning are actually intentional, I liked having the softer sound at the beginning and how it transitioned into the rest of the song.

[Void]

Oooooh this is some crazy shit <3

That bass at 3:43 had me hoping you were building to a faster paced and more blown out percussive section, but then it just did an impact and cooled down ;-;

Great work! The atmosphere is incredible!

CorruptModule responds:

Thanks. I started to feel unmotivated to finish so I tried wrapping things up as best as I could. sorry if I disappointed you man but I'm glad you still like the ambiance. i might come back to it later but I don't know.

[Giggiato]

Such an interesting song! I like the drums and the synths. The quieter bit at 1:38 was so good! Honestly was so pleasantly surprised by the saxophone, brought the whole thing together. Great work!

[Moonlight | AlphaStorm]

This is a fantastic track! It sounds like the guitar strings weren't the right gauge for Drop G but I like it xD

I think the guitar was missing some high end and needed some mids cut, and was either too loud or the drums were too quiet and needed some boost to the kick.

My fav parts are the section at 2:24 and then 3:57!

Great work :D 8/10

AlphaStormMusic responds:

Yeah, a lot of those issues I’ve fixed since. I’ve changed my EQ curve on the rhythms and have been refining it a lot.

Also, the string gauge was perfectly fine for the tuning, they were just old. I’ve changed them since. Might need to re-record it for that reason lol

Anyway, thank you very much!

Best and take care!
~Zach (AlphaStorm)

[Beauty Is in the Mind]

I really like this track! Not sure I understand the lyrics, but the vocals are nice and I love the instrument choice!

The vocals are clean, but super dry. Honestly I think having a sort of messy 80s style vocals with way too much chorus and reverb would have been interesting.

Also it bums me out that the song spends most of it's time at the maximum volume/energy level. Maybe it's tricky to do mixing on fl studio mobile and all the other things you'd routed it to, but I feel like some part of the song should have been a little louder, like the bass/synth break at 1:14 or something (which is another really neat part of the song, I just wish the bass was a little more saturated).

7/10 Awesome song :D

SkankyMojo responds:

Thank you and cheers for taking the time to leave a detailed review.

[Atychiphobia]

This is a great track! I think my only critiques were that it remains the same loudness/energy level the whole time, and the vocals are a little buried. Good luck!

[SALT THRONE]

+ loud bombastic sounds, intense energy throughout that changes pace very quickly!

- could have used a few more low points in the middle section to give the intensity time to die down so it doesn't stagnate. When you keep a song at the same intensity for too long, the perceived intensity begins to wear off.

Great track overall, I really enjoyed it!