offi-DtrGuo-cial's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Domination]

I'm impressed with the depth of your distortion; as someone who likes it hard it's very admirable! Though there are some tradeoffs that come with throwing the overdrive to eleven—the melody at the beginning is far too loud compared to the rest of the mix. Later on, I hear the same sound at a much better volume. Unless your intent was to blow everyone's eardrums at the start, I'd suggest tempering the post-gain so that, while it may be louder at the start, it isn't on the verge of painful.

The mix itself is a bit muddy, as the beat sounds like it's being swallowed by the melody; perhaps more sidechaining or better EQing would help with that. The melodic riff and the rhythm I enjoy, you seem to know how to do syncopation very well.

Juicy-T1 responds:

Fixed the drums being swallowed and the start being very loud, but it's still kind of loud. I also added some more to it. Hope you like it!

[ULTRA BOING 42]

Nice kick, well distorted with a classic hardcore feel. Wish the kick was used in an actual track than what sounds right now like a WIP.

Also, the boing vocal could use some acoustics, EQ, and distortion to mix well with the kick.

mynamegarf responds:

boing boing

[GeekyGami - Forbidden Isle]

Love the melody and groove; this really gives the vibe of exclusivity and discovery that would come with such an isle! The drums are quite stellar and give off a tribal/natural vibe, and so do the harmonic layers, despite them being synthetic.

The only thing I feel could use improvement is the bell sound, it sounds like it got passed through some noisy distortion before further processing. I get that it's likely synthetic, and if synthetic is the direction you're going for then I'm all for it, but if not, there are plenty of other, smoother-sounding synth bells that also do the trick. Other than that, really nice piece! I could really find myself vibing with this tune in a video game.

Geekygami responds:

Lmao yep, the chimes were indeed synthetic, and they're made to sound exactly how I want them to. I wanted them to keep a drier mix than the rest of the track so they would stand out throughout, give it a more tracker-esque vibe. (Yes, I used distortion. I tend to use it on a lot of instruments.)

Thanks!

[If a country had gold but no food...]

I can't comment too much on the audio, but I can comment on the writing.

Nice introduction of the economic dilemma. You start with a seemingly simple question, but by introducing more concepts you build a bigger picture of its difficulty. The familial connection is touching, and illustrates the difference between a child and adult's perspective of the question.

My main criticism is that the last sentence feels out of place. It adds another detail to the original question, but after you stopped discussing said question and talking about your father—and after you talked about Europe. I'd suggest moving that point to within the argument so that it stays on topic, leaving the Europe statement as a concluding remark and connection.

Belthagor responds:

I was actually thinking I should put the last sentence somewhere in the middle of the text, because this way it feels like it trails off and then goes back on topic, instead of moving from topic to topic in a more organized way. Thanks for your review!

[r_chase - Acid 210623]

What an interesting and mysterious vibe, especially with those clicking sounds that sound off every 4 bars. The acid sound is clearly captured, perhaps accentuated by the click effects. Intriguing take on the genre!

CHEEZ2600 responds:

Thanks. <3

[GGDEDS 4]

Too much bass IMO, which seems to block out the upper elements of the track. But it does have a nice, harsh sound to it, and work well as an experimental track!

joles8 responds:

yeah lol thanks i was figuring out how to make music (i still am) and i didnt realize how loud the bass was when i played it, i just uploaded it

[Engine - Where we Belong VIP]

I love the mixture of sounds, it definitely brings me back! The basses and lead are almost perfectly encapsulated from that era, and the vocals really top it off. The mixing feels a bit dry though; some of the sounds could use a little reverb or saturation imo. Also, if you want to really nail that Spag Heddy piano you'll need something a bit more detuned with some saturation added onto it... but other than those minor details this track is a wonderful nostalgia capsule!

Engin3music responds:

thank you so much for your response!
i never really thought of that, but now that you mention it, it makes it painfully obvious, how much it could have benefit the song!
i really miss this era of music, and it makes me sad that this style was pretty much abandoned completely, so i wanted to pay homage to the genre lost in time.

again, thank you so much for the feedback!

[Turntooth Autopark]

Very deep and chill! I like this style of electronic, with its hypnotic beat and dirty bass yet it doesn't feel that aggro at all. Wish it was a bit louder so that it could be easier to pick up on some systems. Other than that, great work!

IndustryStandard responds:

That's a good note about the bass, I'll take that into consideration. The headphones I use are great for listening to music but I don't think they're very good for mixing, I'll try "overdoing" the bass a little bit on my end next time. I should also try listening on my laptop speakers too, I know, but I always forget when I'm excited to post a new track haha.

Thanks for the review, glad you liked it!

[YMPAUSHUTYR]

This fits really well with the doomcore genre, with also uses a slow-paced gabber kick. Doomcore also employs a dark and apocalyptic atmosphere, both of which are very present in this track. I like the direction you took with this piece, which focuses on a different kind of brutal than most hardcore tracks—one that relies on space and steadiness instead of sheer distortion.

Ruedefaux responds:

OH I've never heard of "doomcore" before! I like that!
I'll have to look some of that up-- would love to learn more about it. I definitely wanted to emphasize the feeling of "everything is much bigger than me and I am small and weak" in this one. Thank you~

(ps i'll reply your message soon, I promise)