Tangerine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hawaii]

This is such a happy song :D

It's very cute and I like it a lot. It feels short but it sure is sweet. I appreciate how you used your classic intro percussion of having a single kick at the start of each bar. It's simple but I think it's become somewhat iconic (at least to me).

There is not a lot I can say about this, to be honest, I think you aced what you set out to do with this. The only thing I can say about this is that something sounds a tad bit off at 1:25. Some notes just clash but it's a really easy fix (not that you'd really want to change it nearly a month after releasing).

Merry super late Christmas!

50Steaks responds:

You’re right about 1:25; fl mobile has a really weird snapping to sextuplets and triplets that puts them off beat slightly. Didn’t notice until you mentioned it, I will probably fix it soon.
I don’t intentionally try to do the kicks at the beginning, it’s just a good way for me to hook the listener and makes the song as a whole more memorable in my eyes.

[Utah]

Oh my word, I can't believe I didn't see this. It's July then I blink and it's already 2023. Time moves by way too quickly, haha.

This is definitely an interesting piece. It's always nice to hear something classical coming from you. I really do like the heavy bassoon influence in the song, I think it's always nice to hear a woodwind since imo they're very underrated. Personally, I love the sound of a bassoon but I usually just don't know where I would use it in most of the songs I produce. I do have to say, I think works great with the feeling of your song.

The reason why I say this is an interesting song is that there are some interesting choices made. The electric guitar sounds a little odd being paired with instruments like the bassoon and trumpet. It may be because I'm not used to hearing that instrument palette in music or there is something about the timbre of the instruments which just sounds strange together. Maybe it's just because it's an SGM sounding sample of an electric guitar. I do like how you played with the bending of the guitar though. It gave it a nice touch of colour. There are some parts in the song where I feel like toning down the presence of the bassoon would have really helped build certain sections of the song. For instance, 00:41 might have benefitted from a slightly toned-down bassoon. Maybe giving it longer notes or less discordant notes would have helped the section shine more. I understand that the bassoon in that section was likely a deliberate decision to give it a little more of that spooky feeling, but it plays an ostinato-like role throughout the entire song and I think it makes the song sound a little messy without at least one section to clear things up and reset the listener.

I do like what you've done with the trumpets in this. You nailed pretty much everything I said in the previous paragraph about the bassoon with them. They come and go at all the perfect times never overstaying or understaying their welcome. They work perfectly with everything else and further push that spooky feeling without being too obvious about it. I am also in love with the harmonies you did with the oboes. You probably don't know this, but I have a very strong love for oboes and I think you made them shine in this. 00:51 is a really good use of the oboes. You've always been good with your legato(ish) harmonies. Intertwining two melodies has been something I always struggle with but you seem to have it down to a science.

Another thing I think you did really well in this is the percussion. It plays its role in the song perfectly. It's not too overbearing to where it stands out like a sore thumb, but it's not so quiet and simple to where it doesn't add anything to the song. It's a perfect balance. With it in the song, you don't really notice it too much, but I feel like if it were gone, it would damage the song greatly. Great job with the percussion :)

Overall, I think you did a great job with this. It has its flaws (which song doesn't tho?), but I do feel that the positives outweigh the negatives and it stands as an enjoyable song to listen to. Also, I had no idea mormons founded Utah.

Extra comment:
Also, I forgot to mention something. The crackling you hear at the end of the song can usually be fixed by increasing the buffer length in fl studio. Although not always, it's usually what solves my problems. It will make fl studio run a little slow, but I would recommend increasing it before exporting it as an mp3 :)

50Steaks responds:

I’m honestly surprised you haven’t heard electric guitar used in this way before; I could have sworn I’ve heard it done elsewhere especially in older music. With regard to resetting the listener from the bassoon, that’s what I tried to do with the entire second half. Yes the bassoon still plays, but it’s not super discordant at that point. Thanks for the oboe compliments — I also really enjoyed the way I used them, perhaps even more than the guitar.
A tip I have regarding two intertwined melodies: usually you can get away with drawing great inspiration from a previous melody, then just come up with a nice sounding new harmony to use, like I did here at the end.
Percussion in this song is probably one of its best attributes. I definitely made sure to make it fit the tone and bring the story together. That’s good that you liked the trumpets, I was afraid they were too strong and overbearing.
How do I change the buffer length on fl mobile? Believe me, I’ve tried my hardest to fix any crackling, mainly by trying out the admittedly awful limiter that does worse than just turning down the volume of the whole song. I’ve also tried audacity with the same effect.

[Rising Star]

Damn Benji, you did great with this one. I wish you the best of luck with the competition :)

Benji-G responds:

Thank you Tangerine!

[bass machine <loop>]

Bass

NitroOrient responds:

Machine

[NGUAC Final Round - Hopping Over Puddles]

Woah, this is awesome! Great job Andiso :)

Good luck with the competition

LordAndiso responds:

Thank you very much!!

:))))

<333

[(DEMO) Chill beats to disguse and read books to]

Oh hey, this is the original to the song I reviewed a couple of minutes ago. I didn't know you were going for a lofi-style song. I interpreted it more as a jazzy late-night noir song. An easy way to make something sound lofi is to give the music some distortion and use jazzy chords with some muffled drum beats. There are a lot of guides and tutorials out there on youtube on how to make a good lofi song.

Like I said before, the time signature is a little off but everything else is good. Also, SGM is a good SoundFont :). I have recently stopped using it but it's a really good place to start. I think my most recent song still used SGM :>

ColonelYuri responds:

thanks for the advice.

[Waterfall [Chillstep]]

Damn, this is good Benji

Benji-G responds:

Thanks man!