Random-storykeeper's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Nurture]

Per your request, here are the rough notes I took for your AIM 2024 entry:

Nice use of chiptune and fun layering that works well

Eating sounds - a good incorporation, but may be uncomfortable to listen to if you have misophonia

It's cute, feels innocent and chill

Could play around with the texture some more as some parts feel a bit empty. I feel like the accompanying texture could have had a little more to it. Just feels a bit barebones, like there's not really a lot happening to play with that cutesy guitar line. Every layer feels a bit separate from each other, needs a bit more to hold it together.

Being more mindful of introducing melodies, to make them more captivating. A lot of melodies in this track felt like they just kind of come in and drop, and it didn't really feel like there was a lot they added to the progression of the track as a whole.

COMPOSITION: it's nice, it's cute, I enjoy the sound design

PRODUCTION: well done; the layers mix nicely with each other, great sense of stereo field. I would say just the eating at the end might not have been the best choice to leave in dry like that for reasons I stated above

EMOTION: I think the bells really helped to bring this warm and inviting track to life.

ART RELEVANCE: (I thought it captured the cuteness and innocence of the character and I liked the idea of incorporating what this girl was eating into the track - it was just the execution that I was a bit more uneasy with)

[[AIM] I Keep Daydreaming About An Island]

Per your request, here are the rough notes I took for your AIM 2024 entry:

Pleasant sections, love the island section the most with those underlying pads and the recurrence of the main melody from the beginning.

These sections could have been more developed; the track feels a bit disjointed. Maybe that's what the "dreaming" aspect is for, but it doesn't work here. I felt like one aspect of daydreaming that would have been interesting to incorporate musically is the idea of slipping in and out of a dream-like state in a seamless manner where you don't even realize you're dreaming. I think there are definitely parts here where it does kind of hit that (especially towards the end), just the "sectional" structure made this feel more episodic and I didn't really connect with this as being like a piece about dreams or daydreams.

Has a bit of a Pokemon island vibe

COMPOSITION: I like the three sections a lot; I'm just not sure they work that well in tandem to each other

PRODUCTION: Didn't really have a lot to comment on it, other than it being "fine". (sorry - listening to it now, I think the bass in the bossa nova section sounds stereo which is a little weird to me considering the other elements that are stereo. I would have liked to hear the bass be a little narrower in the stereo field personally)

EMOTION: I think this does explore a good range of emotions and has a good sense of atmosphere in the individual sections. The island feeling, the sense of dreaming towards the end with a hint of sadness.

ART RELEVANCE: The sense of the island and the rays - I think it was a good approach, though it does feel way more tropical than the art suggests. (But I guess in retrospect, the fantasy element was also up for interpretation from an otherwise relatively simple in design art inspiration)

[[AIM] The Soggiest Rat's Dance]

Per your request, here are the rough notes I took for your AIM 2024 entry:

Does a great job at focusing on this wet rat and its humiliation in the spotlight.

Great sound design, love the use of organ

Feels like a joke piece that I shouldn't take seriously.

COMPOSITION: I enjoy the track narratively. The sound design is good and so is the flow. If I had to nitpick, I appreciate what this track is trying to do with its composition more than I enjoyed it.

PRODUCTION: the cuts are a little too clean and I think the horns could use more reverb(?) (I put a question mark next to this for some reason)

EMOTION: Makes the rat sound pathetic and miserable and I almost feel sorry for my enjoyment of this track.

ART RELEVANCE: Really great job matching up the music to the art narratively. I'm not really sure why I didn't have more to say. It was literally about a wet rat, just like the art showed. I guess the biggest surprise was learning that this so-called "rat" isn't even a rat in the actual media it's from!

[AIM - Hazard Cult]

Per your request, here are the rough notes I took for your AIM 2024 entry:

THICK atmosphere

Great atmospheric sections / vibes

Could use some refined transitions leading up to melodic parts

Fits the machine-like intimidation in the art.

COMPOSITION: great atmospheric parts, just wish the transition to the melodic sections was stronger and it utilized more arps (like at the beginning around 1:15)

PRODUCTION: that's a THICK set of instruments but you handle it pretty well for the most part. Could use more clarity of arps, cleaner punches.

EMOTION: pretty good but quite overwhelming (I'm sure this was the intention haha)

ART RELEVANCE: does a good job capturing the intensity and machine-like intimidation from the art

Mechanical-Head responds:

lmaooo glad you liked the THICK atmosphere hehe. Thanks for the review!

[[AIM] Winter Wasteland]

Per your request, here are the rough notes I took for your AIM 2024 entry:

Good sound design - warm, desolate, vast

Has some good sections that come one after another, but the constant starting and stopping gets old real quick

Beautiful guitar, soft instruments with bell for the desert/former winter landscape.

COMPOSITION: I like a lot of the sections and I think the sound design is generally quite good. Not a huge fan of the transition between sections and I think there were more opportunities to play around with texture for a more effective atmosphere.

PRODUCTION: A bit on the soft side, could have used some more atmospheric timbre like pads

EMOTION: This goes through a lot of emotions, but I'm not quite sure if all of them really work for what this piece is trying to capture - particularly the "happier" parts at 4:46 came across a little too jovial

ART RELEVANCE: I like the idea of having vast, wandering melodies and using warm-sounding instruments with bells for the former winter, desert landscape. I just felt like it needed a little more atmosphere in the sound design to really get a more immersive experience that would allow the track to resonate more with its art inspiration.

bottledf0x responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I will keep all this in mind for the next time I produce a track like this.

[AIM - Eclipse]

Per your request, here are the rough notes I took for your AIM 2024 entry:

Great buildup to the super intense crazy section

Drums could have had way more punch and the intense section gets muddled.

The track in general feels thin and doesn't have a sense of lower end to convey darker undertones complementary to the art.

The final section with the piano feels like an afterthought. It feels like there were sections missing in between the intense section and the conclusion.

COMPOSITION: I like a lot of the ideas here and the buildup leading to 3:22 was great. I'm not a huge fan of how the conclusion connects to the rest of the piece, but it happens at the very end, so I kept the score higher.

PRODUCTION: a lot of the track feels very thin and the intense parts are quite muddied. This has a huge impact on the atmosphere/emotion supporting the composition.

EMOTION: The buildup is great, but the atmosphere isn't there because of the production and mixing, along with the final piano section

ART RELEVANCE: I think the narrative works for the scene in the art - that highly chaotic section I can see reflecting in those mysterious creatures. Even the ending could work as an interpretation if there was a better flow to it.

[AIM24 - Event Horizon]

AIM 2024 Judge Review

What I really love about this entry is how the composition and sound design are strongly evocative of drifting through outer space. There's a quietness and vastness to the soft, solo melody that begins the piece. I like to think some of the layers are like the radiance and light cutting through the darkness, particularly with those brassy interludes.

I would have loved to hear these ideas extended to the 6 minute length. There's a lot of great ideas that feel like they don't have time to develop in that 3 minute duration of the track, such as the arp that fades in at 2:00. It works so well with that synth playing that main continuum from the beginning and I think more layers could have been built off that counterpoint instead of speeding up and changing keys 9 seconds later. I also feel like the drums could have been varied in sound. That rhythm they take on in the faster sections seems like it would be more effective if a noisier snare-like sound were used for beats 2 and 4 instead of that kick drum sample all the way. As of now, the rhythms in the percussion feel flat.

The atmosphere you bring to this piece is superb and I was quite impressed. I feel like space themes might be your jam - though I encourage you to continue branching out in your art inspirations and bringing elements of this work into those entries should you participate next year. Great job capturing that emptiness and wonder we've come to associate with the vast expanse of outer space.

Dynamic0 responds:

Thank you for all the nice words and for hosting AIM, it is my favorite contest-like event on Newgrounds.
When I was composing, I didn't consciously focus at the outer-space feeling as much as you, yet . I'm thinking about making sountrack for my game in a similar style, although I know I have a lot to learn with FL Studio first.
There aren't actually any drums, it's just low-pitched clicky sound, its high-pitched version starts playing at :49, so maybe that evokes the flatness feeling?
Once again, thanks for all and see you next year!

[AIM - Bits of Petals]

AIM 2024 Judge Review

The melody you built this piece around is beautiful. Those higher notes have a sense of soaring, which I think does a great job at reflecting the moving petals in the art. Building the melody around the minor chord progression was also a wonderful way to add tones of melancholy - the small petals floating away from one location as they drift to who knows where.

Naturally, chiptune is an intuitive choice for portraying a pixel art piece. However, the biggest issue I had with this entry is that it feels too intense for the art inspiration. I think this mostly comes from the accompanying composition - so much of the texture and sounds are intense with the faster rhythmic bass and the percussion. For a piece inspired by a landscape, it feels like there's a lot of lower movement adding some energy that feels like a mismatch for me.

What if the bass notes were just a single set of notes (or a two-note chord) in which the dynamics start soft and then gradually build in volume, then gradually get softer again to reflect the peaks of the mountains. Maybe in the mids, there could be other, longer held notes of varying volume shapes, and then swells of arps would be added for a sense of the gentle breeze. This is just an example (and definitely not one you need to follow), but depending on how technical you get with the 8bit stuff, the idea is to lean towards a more still piece without just being one-note. The melody is lovely, but I would have liked to hear it with softer and more gradual structure.

Overall, the one part that really stood out to me was 2:06 - 2:41. I really enjoyed the call-and-response between the square and those chirpy lower notes. This section also had some nice long-held notes as accompaniment, though they are quite buried under the super loud leads. While I think your strength lies in more intensive, energetic pieces (more on that if I ever review your other entry), I believe you have the potential to make this entry truly breathtaking.

[AIM 2024 | Siberg - Umbra]

AIM 2024 Judge Review

There's a lot of nice moments in this piece, especially in the middle section. I really enjoyed the middle melody and filter sweeps and the little moments that sometimes happen at the end of measures, like the off-beat bass notes at 3:13 and the higher chords at 0:59. I also like the gradually introduction of the melody in the middle section, playing off the first few notes and waiting until the middle to fully bring the melody in.

As much as I enjoyed the melodic middle section, I have to admit I found the progression from the start leading up to the middle to drag. There were a lot of neat moments here and there, but for the most part, it's just listen to that quarter note kick drum and a bit of bass, and that feels empty to me. On replay, I feel like I'm just waiting for the piece to get to its middle section, and that might work in terms of inspiration - like this character in the art is watching the sky, waiting for the clouds to fully cover it - but I feel like there could have been something added to the texture to not make that first part seem tedious.

I really liked the last part after that melodic section at 3:07, which feels quite similar to the first section, but there's a bit more going on with the bass stabs and the bits of the melody dispersed throughout. I wonder if the final section should have been the first section, followed by the middle section (which the piece transitions to anyway before fading out) and then the final section could be more melodic with those drums and more moving rhythms - like more eighth note patterns and such. Overall, I like a lot of the parts in this entry, but I feel the structure could have been tightened up or had more momentum.

[AIM - Digital Demolition]

AIM 2024 Judge Review

That main synth that starts this entry is goofy and weird in a way that feels fitting for the character in the art. I can imagine this being a boss theme in an old Flash game; it has a very stacked sort of feeling that seems kind of random but I found it kind of pleasant. I really like the square wave melody at 0:32; it sits well against that thick bassline and I like the fast off-beat notes that accompany it as well.

The fade-in at the very start of this track makes it seem like the end of a loop leading into the start of this track. It would be nice to hear this track with an actual intro that then leads into that main silly-sounding synth where I assume this loop would normally start. I did like the slight slowdown at 0:30 before going into the first iteration of the melody, however I think an intro would have helped to add more of a hook into the main part of the piece rather than just feeling like I'm catching up to it.

The bassline is also quite intense from 0:30 onward and almost constantly hits the strong 1 & 3 beats of each measure, which feels too even and loses momentum when the square melody is not playing. Maybe every fourth measure, the bass note could play on the strong and weak beats subsequently like two quarter notes played together, walking back up to the first measure of its cycle. The off-beat notes almost help keep up the energy, but they are quite buried once the melody plays so it's hard to hear how all these sounds would come into play together.

I also think this piece could have benefitted from having a crunchier percussion. The snare is a bit on the tinny side and I wonder what it would sound like if it used more NES-styled percussion to complement the chiptune elements here. But overall, I think this entry was fun and I think the sounds were nice and nostalgic in a Flash game sort of manner.

Orenge1 responds:

I really appreciate your thoughts. This entry was kind of rough maybe since I admit it I kind of rushed it and that's also why it doesn't really have an intro or proper outro really even. I should've thought about the sound selection more. Also yeah I've realized now that being perfectly on measure all the time isn't ideal, variety is important to keep it interesting. Also about the buried melody, I'm still learning mixing and mastering songs properly.

But great detailed review I do appreciate it a lot, thanks! :)