Tangerine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[LokiTheCat - Dreaming of a Better Future (V2)]

Hey Grizzy! Super glad that you decided to participate in my challenge :)

I decided to look at the BandLab just to get a grasp on what it is you had to do to make this. I of course suffered from it because I don't actually play the things that are in my music (By play I mean like, physically do it. I know in band lab you don't play any instruments if you don't want to. But you still have to do it on your keyboard).

As for the song itself, it's really good. I do like the melody and the chord progression you've chosen. They compliment each other so well and it is all very sweet. The title absolutely fits the song.

I know I said you should change the violin to a solo violin, but I didn't realize you could only use a midi-sounding one. The solo violin comes off as way too strong for such a beautiful piece like this. The sample has way too strong of vibrato and it is really harsh especially since it never takes the melody. Also, I feel like a flute or other woodwind instrument would work much better since the free samples of those tend to be a lot softer. I would also recommend in the last part of the song, another instrument should take the lead. Have a little more variety in the timbre. You could give the melody to the violin or whatever you change it to. This would help separate the sections in a distinct and lovely way. The violin (despite being a polyphonic instrument) is usually the lead when playing with other polyphonic instruments. If there aren't many violins (eg orchestral style strings), it sounds a little strange to have it playing a harmony the whole time. Especially when it's as loud as it is. Of course, you can use the violin as an accompaniment, but usually, it would get a solo or have some other reason why it is in the song. I feel like the violin is sort of there just for the sake of it. Idk, I'm rambling a little so I'll wrap things up here.

It's a very good song and an amazing starting point in your music career. You have a lot of potential and I believe if you keep going you achieve great things with your music. Keep using bandlab and only move DAW once you feel that it's seriously holding you back. Using a software like that will help make you not rely on effects and stuff and teach you to let the instruments speak for themselves. Thank you for participating in this month's MTAC and I hope to see you next month :)

[Maia playing with her phone.]

What an interesting take on the geo-political climate of east berlin during the year 1973

[Your Good Intentions Count For Little Anymore (NGVirus REGENERATED Remix)]

I also agree with the person below the person below my post. It is a bop.

[lolll idk how to delete old songs]

Very nice cover

[wow]

This is really well put together. You're well on your way to becoming a fantastic orchestral composer. There is just one thing I need to point out. Orchestral musician to another, invest into a better string SoundFont. It'll save you when it comes to orchestral music since it's the foundation of it. At the moment the strings sound super artificial and almost like a solo strings instrument. But yeah, invest into better strings. Trust me it'll save ya.

ilablitz responds:

Thanks, I'll definitely get a better soundfont now after listening to this piece after not hearing it for 4-5 weeks I hear the artificiality in the strings. Thanks for your feedback!

[love]

I love this haha. I find that giant block in the wavelength so funny. The whole thing looks like a magical staff. It's so even and fun to look at. Oh, and the song is good too! That block section makes me feel like I reached the point of enlightenment in the coolest way possible. Keep it up man!

[LokiTheCat - Dreaming of a Better Future]

This is such a cute little piece! The melody is very sweet and very catchy. It's very calm and relaxing (perfect for this month's MTAC if you wanted to join. First thing you see on my page. Would love to feature you on the showcase!). Anyway, shameless advertisement over!

There is just one thing about the song which stops it from getting anything higher than a 4-star. Something which I think really damages this piece. The mixing is this is very raw and I don't think there is any. The sound is constantly peaking which is making the crackling noise. This is even worse with the music box kalimba thing. At the end of the piece, I feel like adding more strings along with the violin would have really helped it. The violin you're using is typically not meant for solos alone. It's meant to be used as part of an orchestra. When I hear it play alone over a piano sounds wrong. You certainly wrote it for a solo violin. There are soundfonts which have good solo violins like SGM.

But don't let all that get you down. The song is amazing! Mixing typically does come with experience but I think the peaking is something you should take a look at. Other than the mixing, I really liked the song. The melody is sweet and the harmony does the job.

GizzyKitty responds:

I use an app called BandLab (I forgot to add that to the description) to make music because it's free so I really only have access to the sounds they give you when it comes to using instruments I don't know how to play. I'm not really sure how to fix it because of my limitations (I will try adding more strings and I'll see if another one of their sounds works better) but I will keep the blending issue in mind in the future and I thank you for your advice. I'm fairly new to making music and I've never been formally taught what to do so any advice is appreciated.

In regards to MTAC, I don't know if I want to enter any sort of competition yet as I'm not super confident in myself and I just do this for fun. If I were to enter, would I just be able to polish this song and submit that as my entry?

[Groovin']

I could only dream of making something as groovy as this

Saturn95 responds:

the groove is eternal my friend lol

[sunburn (album ver)]

This sounds very nice for a sunburn. I'd imagine more screaming and demons.

[Montana]

Hey, sorry for taking so long to comment on this. I saw it ages ago but I wanted to wait until I got good sleep and it never came until now.

I think you nailed the length and feel of the intro. In the past, I've mentioned how your intros may be a little long and the same effect could have been made with it being shorter. You kept it short and sweet with this one which I think suites the song a lot.

As for the rest of the song, I think it's a good work of art. I can tell you worked hard on the melody because it is very catchy. The melody definitely not the reason why this isn't 5 stars.

The harmony I feel is lacking textual variety. When I am at 00:59 I can skip to 01:49 and not be able to tell a super huge difference. It's just slightly more involved than 00:59. Personally, in music, I find having each section have its own special thing to it helps keep the viewer's attention and helps with the replayability. There are parts in the song in which I believe you did this really well (01:09). This section has to be my favourite part because it's very unique and it has a nice contrast. The harmony feels more than open chords with very quiet arpeggios. This section specifically feels like it's telling more of a story than all the rest of the sections combined. 01:20 just adds a nice touch onto it as well.

Overall, I do think this is a really good piece. There are sections in it where I can feel your compositional mastery start to shine and other sections where I think more harmonic variety would have been nice.

Do I think this is your best piece so far? No, but that's only because you're an amazing composer who has made phenomenal works in the past. It's going to be difficult for you to surpass yourself but there is still room to improve and I believe you can do it. You've come so far in your composing and I am very excited to see what you produce next. Take care 50Steaks and keep on improving!

50Steaks responds:

I’m a bit surprised you had nothing to say about the key change, especially since if I’m not wrong, it’s the first time I have done that on this account. At 1:19, the overarching goal was to create a melody that could serve as a bridge for both the key change and the second drop. As you can imagine, this is what I was talking about when I said that I had to keep redoing the song over and over to get it right. Not to mention I had to upload this in a completely roundabout way that took forever, meaning that what would have been finishing touches was sort of neglected. Originally, the harmony was actually more complex (you could hear the instrument at 1:09 in the first drop much more clearly) but I changed it because I didn’t want to have too many instruments doing arpeggios at once for fear of it sounding messy. What I probably could have done is bake an actual harmony into the instrument playing the chords, sort of like how I did with Nevada in the second drop. I personally think that the key change tells the best story, which was the point of the key change.

So anyways, the “big thing” about this track to me is what I did with the lead instrument, making it the harmony in the second drop. Unfortunately the percussion did take a hit here which is probably why you think it was repetitive. Maybe I relied too much on the melody again, like in Virginia (although here the melody is actually good).

I think I’m gonna have to rethink a lot of things going into my next song. Probably the reason this one didn’t get frontpaged is because of an issue you neglected to mention: the mixing. I mean just look at the waveform; why does it only cover half the space it could? Again that’s an issue with the exporting, but I think I could have done way better with the choice of lead instrument anyway. To be honest I’ve been finding it difficult to improve on my previous song (although with this one, I definitely did). Maybe I just need to try a new genre again.

So while this might not be my best song, in my opinion, it is my best melody. That’s really what this song is, then, just wasted potential on a decent melody. I definitely will be doing the video game thing again though at some point.

Anyway, thanks for the compliments, I’ll try my best to genuinely surpass Nevada like I’ve always wanted to.
Edit: to those who read this, I don’t believe it’s wasted potential anymore now that it’s updated.