Tangerine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Ballad Of Outsiders]

Am I going crazy or can I hear the Roblox oof noise very quietly in the background?

Around 7 seconds in is where it is at its loudest

Scareev responds:

I didn't put any roblox sfx lol, but it would be a funny easter egg!

[Snowfield]

FINALLY!!! ANOTHER PERSON WHO ACTUALLY LIKES THE GAME!!!

The furthest I've ever gotten was Marleybone as a fire wizard before my wallet ran dry.

Man, I just can't get over the music in that game, Nelson Everhart is a beautiful creature and his songs perfectly fit the environments they were made for.

Latadenata responds:

YES!!!! Everything about Wizard101 is perfect and the music is just top notch! <3

[Thieves Guild Theme]

For a second I thought this was the transcription you did, haha. I can definitely hear the inspiration. Though, I think you surpassed your inspiration and made something better. Not just saying that as a friend.

Also, 00:33 is just too good. I'm always a sucker for moments like that xd. 10/10 woodwinds, I still gotta figure out how to properly use em xd

Everratic responds:

It means a lot to me that you think I surpassed the inspiration! I personally prefer Ari's version.

Thanks for the review!

[Lost in Cherry Blossoms - MsFluent]

It's so cute! Awesome track :)

I hope you don't mind a little unprompted feedback. I'm a hollow husk of a music listener. I think a slight dynamic change somewhere in the middle would add a lot to the progression. Playing around with different volumes and intensity is a lot of fun.

You absolutely nailed the atmosphere! Definitely gives that eastern Studio Ghibli vibe. 10/10 dentists would approve of this song. You won over the one that votes against xd

MissFluentOfficial responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback tangerine I really appreciate it also I'm glad you liked this one :)

I will try to add dynamic changes in future tracks if I can make something soon thanks for the tip :)

[Lost and Found]

Your track is so emotional it could even make a rock cry

CloakedSoup responds:

Thanks a ton! :D I plan on re-releasing it + my other NGADM tracks with better mixes + tighter arrangements/orchestration once the competition is over and/or I get knocked out. Glad people are enjoying the version I squeezed out of this for the deadline!

[Solenne [NGADM]]

Hey Luka, apologies for the late review. My schedule has been hell recently, so I’ll try and keep this short and concise.

Awesome submission this round! Honestly, this track was quite an experience to listen to. Whenever I thought I knew where it was going, you took a sharp turn and did something else.

Looking through the tags, I see that you classified it under Heavy Metal. Listening to the track, I feel like Experimental would fit it better. The average song is around 3 minutes long (at least on Newgrounds), and the first 2 minutes have no major resemblance to the heavy metal genre. This track breaks a lot of the genre norms of heavy metal. I think you’ll find more success with this if you recategorised it. You subvert expectations at every opportunity, which isn’t something metal is known for, but experimental music is infamous for it.

Anyway, enough about the genre and onto what you actually asked for. The variation throughout the track is phenomenal, but mainly in the second half. The second half of the song has such unique and distinct sections which helps retain the listener’s attention.

Though, throughout the piece, I personally would have liked something of a motif or a recurring theme/melody. I think this would have elevated the song a lot in terms of re-listenability and memorability. At the moment it somewhat comes across as a group of ideas put together into one track, instead of a cohesive song which tells a story. The easiest way to have progression in your song is to have a motif and slowly change it as the song goes on. I’ll share a little tip of what I usually do. You start off by introducing the theme as basic somewhat apothegmatic introduction. Then later in the piece, you reintroduce the theme but in a different context and then finally play it again at the end with all the variations you want. Of course, assuming you wanted a more experimental feel, then you don’t have to do this. But it’s my tried-and-true method of progression for a main theme/melody.

Looking back at all the tracks of yours I’ve heard from the previous rounds and even from AIM, you have outstanding skills when it comes to atmosphere. You effortlessly create worlds in your pieces and that’s such a valuable thing to have in your music. I can see this skill reflected a lot in the first half of the song. I honestly quite love the first half because it’s got a somewhat foreign/Middle Eastern flare to it which I think is quite unique. The piano along with the choir makes for something really neat. Unlike the second half which I would classify as experimental, I’d classify the first half as ambient. I could super easily hear this in a very high-budget movie or piece of media.

As its own standalone thing, I think the first half is awesome. However, a critique I’d give is that it doesn’t set the atmosphere for the second half very well. The two kind of sound like two different songs splashed together in the same body of water. They don’t sound related and that messes with pacing quite a bit. As I said earlier, you can make it work if you have a main theme or bold motif. It kind of sounds like the coffee kicked in once you got up to 2 minutes xD

I could only imagine the stress and time crunch all of you have to go through when participating in NGADM. It’s quite impressive making it this far. I’m not sure if I’d have the creative stamina to try something like NGADM. Anyway, I said I was going to try and keep this short, but I utterly failed at that, lol! If I were you, I would go and ask some more judges for their opinions. This piece is quite experimental so it may be valuable to get some other perspectives on it as well.

I wish you and your music the best. You’re gonna go far in your music, mate!

carboluka responds:

Hey thank you for reaching out so fast! I appreciate the long exhaustive review, it's what I needed to see.

Only thing I do not entirely agree on is the lack of a theme: you have to know that this whole song was inspired by the works of Tigran Hamasyan, which has a really specific oriental piano / djent duality going on in his tracks (check out his works, it's my favourite musician by far!), and he likes to hide variations of the theme in the most obscure ways possible lol. The first two lines the choir sings at the start IS the main theme, and if you listen to all sections, you will find it somewhere (especially in the climax where the choir chimes in with with what is revealed to be the main melody). I tried to recycle as much motifs as possible throughout the song, but I understand that there were a lot of them, so it is not easy to notice it in the first listens.

As for the rest, I do have to agree lol
It was a daring submission on my part given how weird the structure is, so I'm not surprised I didn't pass in the end. There's always next time though, and hopefully more than 3 days to work on it lmao

Thank you!

[Equivocal]

Oh wow, your improvement is crazy! I love your music, I know you'll go far. Great work mate :)

Solacitude responds:

The actual mix is sure better than the previous versions! :) It's a big prize in itself, getting feedbacks from people with very fine ears, other musicians and producers and people with artistic inclination, it helped a lot to improve. Thank you very much for the kind words!

[Sonic Shattercore]

Nice!

d4nkime responds:

thanks!

[Grief]

Woah very nice! I like the instrumentation a lot. The strings are a bit dry though. might be worth trying out a little bit of reverb to give it a bit more tail. It'll help 00:21 sound a lot more professional, especially considering the reverb on the piano :)

Thadd responds:

Thank you so much for your comment and constructive criticism! ^^
I really appreciate it and will try to apply your tip in the future.
Also I'm glad you're enjoying the track :)
Thank you!

[M'orrigesh]

Neat and spooky

awardwinninggardens responds:

Thank you kindly