Fanopeion's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tetris on my piano]

I like it for the following reasons:

The tetris song or "Korobeiniki" is originally intented to capture a "sad" story between a peasant girl and a travelling merchant (I think). The strings certainly add to the sad factor.

This sounds almost vinyl-ized. If you were to add some grain onto this recording then it would be much more fun to listen to in a certain way. Most people tend to think about pre-revolutionary Russia (or whatever) when they hear this song and by having it sound like a recording in an old jukebox would add much to the athmosphere.

Good work :)

xxDjShockxx responds:

Thanks! This review means so much to me honestly :)

[Krazy]

This I like!

I like this. Need I say more?

The1Benji responds:

Thanks Fanopeion! nope, thats all hahaha

check me out on youtube.com/the1benji for more tracks :)

[I think its good]

For some reason...

(Keep in mind that this is just my opinion. I do not claim to have a better opinion than anybody else. If someone disagrees with my review then of course he has every right to do so )

This sounds like something "We Came as Romans" would do if they were into hip-hop.

Anyway:...
I think this is good for what it is made for :). Sort of trippy melodic (the pizzicatto made it for me xD ) hip hop with a nice vocal middle section as I see it. I absolutely think that you should extend your loop into a song given the potential you show in a 28 second loop.

There is this one thing bugging me slightly though. If you listen closely to the "sliding/stationary background sinus" the cutoff just seems to happen too fast making these irritating noise/friction-click sounds that could be fixed by adjusting the release on the envelope (if this is a standard synth you're using). I don't know if you intended to have it that way but it serves to dampen the finger-click which causes a barely noticeable fault in the rhythm.

-Fanopeion

Hypnotik7 responds:

thanks man, yeah i need to learn a little more about all the effects and mixer stuff..

[Sweet Orchestral Cereal]

Good Effort

(This review is merely my opinion and in any case I hope not to offend. I do not claim to have a better opinion than anyone else)
There is something innocently imp-ish about the arrangement. Something that I would expect to hear in a hidden level in Heroes III or something.

There is something missing though...

I think that when you enter the spiccato part around 1:28 it distorts to much in the low frequency interplay. I'm sure that if you were to transpose the upper half of the chord (I reckon these, that I mention, are two notes played simultaneously by the cello-thingy) to about the seventh transpose. This is similar to the universally known C and G gap (I sincerely hope you're using a piano or a piano-ish midi controller to record these things in the hope you understand).

Another thing. Have you tried putting a slight, slight reverb on the drums? This might help overcome their dryness.

One thought of curiousity: What are you using to create this piece? I would like to know.

-Fanopeion :)

Lugiaa responds:

Thanks for the review! It's always good to have other's opinions.

There are two double basses playing at the same time at the part starting 1:28. I could try to move the lower part of it up (not good with technical terms :( ) and see if it sounded any better.

I usually don't think about adding any reverb or special effects, I actually take them off the instruments because when selecting them, they come default.

I use Mixcraft 4 to create all my pieces. It has a piano roll midi controller. (I also have some really old casio keyboard and a roland cakewalk usb cable, but I gave up, 'cause I found there was a slight delay.)

[Raggamuffin]

Excellent

(I apologize if my English isn't clear or if you find it hard to understand)

The theme fits well to your description though I would describe it as some sort of a Funky Slow-DnB Reggae Vintage (that's pretty long however) rather than Dubstep (I can see the similarities though).

The tempo of progression between these various instruments is wonderfully executed, especially on the reappearance of the bass tune later on whom the former part made known.

I salute you. Most Impressive :)

LuigiSounds responds:

Thanks for the awesome review mate!
Glad you like it :)

[Zelda: March to Deku Palace]

Definitely something

(This review is just my opinion and I have no intention to offend. If you disagree with me then of course you have every right to do so :D )

I can see how you're going for the orchestrated feel, that is a given, based on the melodic style and drum setting. The oriental feel from this song is nice.

However, I feel as the synths you're using (I assume those are synths) have the attack factor cracked a little far down when they're playing the softer sections. I'm not saying that it shouldn't ease in during the envelope, but it just shouldn't liquidize and slosh around so much. This kind of makes the melody loose its impact and its direction for that matter. My listening experience is also damped a little by that crash sample first heard around 1:06.

But I enjoyed this verily and the melody is great for this short loop but I feel as you could do better.
-Fanopeion.

m2tracks responds:

Thanks man, helps a lot.

[Swing that Pong]

Nicez

I wouldn't worry too much about the panning even though the gentleman below has a good point.

The problem with the panning as it is now is the song's lack of centered melody or a carrier tune to balance the difference between the sound reception. Imagine it like this. Ever notice how some people find 3-D movies uncomfortable to watch? That is because of a rapid flicker between the rendered stereoscopic imagery and an impartially flat one. This can be applied to hearing too. The brain is constantly struggling to merge the two sound inputs without a centered ground. This doesn't happen all that much in real life because of the sound not being stationed right at your ears. People who listen in speakers will probably not have the same problem.

That aside I find as the song is a bit rough. It is, in my opinion, allright to keep it that way, but when everything comes as an unfiltered saw, it becomes a bit irritating.

But I'm giving you a nine because this has a nice structure and the mix is otherwise really really, really good.

Liau responds:

aye :P It was knocked together in about an hour at the whim of another.. but I agree, the saw is either too sharp or just too loud. I put this together with headphones on mind... so perhaps my mind is too far gone to realize when the noises befuddle people :)

Thanks for the crit & review :)

[Welcome to Silent Hill]

Nicey, nice!

(The following is just my opinion and if you disagree with me, then you of course have every right to do so).

This is eerie and great in its own way. The idea of your song has clearly shone through the creation. I really like the concept.

However, I can't help but notice what I like to call a "collision of contrast".
This, of course, deals between the ambient nature of the song and the sharpness of some of the voices. What I mean is: The voices are way too noticeable among the ambiance. Some might think the delays would downplay that noticeable friction, in the mix, but let's not forget that the first fraction of the speech remains as forementioned.
Perhaps arranging the speech to let the "wet" setting of the delay settle in, but I won't go into details (if you don't quite understand what I mean by this then feel free to pm me about it).

I hope this useful :)

P.S.
Are those little cracks, like tiny noises, a part of this composition?

putzpie responds:

Thanks man, I can understand what you're saying. I could see going a little more ambient with the vocals, but it's too late now, so oh well.

Also, I didn't notice any cracks, so no, I guess it wasn't supposed to be a part of the composition lol.

Thank you though, this was a very in depth and uselful critique.

[Underground Bar]

Sounded like...

...a variant of a loop. Which is right and fair considering that it loops, therefore the namesake of this ambient 'song' becomes curious. But never mind that!

The bass in the song is really complementing it along with the fluid motion tune and fine touches such as: slight panning to single elements of the drums and the "cute" bongo drums. xD

If this was anything other than ambient I would've taken the melodic absence a step back but this, for its genre, is almost perfect!

I love it!

By the way; I am curious. If you are compressing the drums, could you please tell me the specifications? I would love to know your method.

-Cheers.

yeajimmiboi responds:

Heya bud. I am just using the default setting on the mastering suite. I wish I could of put up the Wav file, its so much more crisp. I also placed a scream 4 distortion unit on the drums to give it that kind of oldskool feel to them. Thanks for commenting. =] The name came from what I thought described it as most. Like an underground bar in the rough corners of South London or something haha.

You have many good points in this review mega respect!

[help! :) - 2]

It's ok :)

(These are merely my opinions. If you disagree with them, then of course you have every right to do so xD )

Just for fun I am going to break this review into statements and questions.

Statement 1:
I have the feeling that there is a bit too much reverb, overall. The background noise it makes I find quite disturbing.

Statement 2:
Even though this song has a good feel it jumps around quite much. At least it sounds great when statement 1 is excluded. :D

Statement 3:
When you begin to cut the song off at 1:44 it sounds strange to revert it slightly at the last second 1:50, It makes the cut-off sound ehmm..... unpleasantly unexpected I guess. The bounce just doesn't cut it (pun intended) with the drums dropped off.
In my opinion it would've been better to ease the melody from earlier to 1:44, into the melody of 1:50 and later by making a more linear cut-off, thus making a slower cut-off towards the same end but affecting the produced sound with the same weight as, say perhaps 1:47.

Question 1:
It sounds to me that you had a minor buffer overload at around 2:00 (hence strangely emphasised barely noticable short noise creaking) and at few other places. At what buffer lenght are you sampling this?

Question 2:
Are you using Gross beat? I've never used it but I've checked it out. If you're not using Fl studio then don't even mind this question :)

asddaw responds:

Thank you for the good review! :)

S1:
You may have something there, I turned the reverb and delay down and it sounded better. :)
S2:
Haha yeah, its a lot of jumping around, I'll try to make more "buildups" so you might see whats coming and what not. :)
S3:
Yeah, I know, that part isnt finished yet, the piano kicked in right after the cutoff, and I had them all routed to the same Channel, and I was too lazy to change channel on the piano, haha, so when I didnt revert back like that the reverb and efterdelay of the synths got back in and it sounded even worse than how it sounds now, :D But i'm gonna do soemthing about that.

Q1:
I have a buffer length of 20ms so that may be the case, but I think it has to do with the effect that kicks in wich makes it sound wierd.

Q2:
I know what gross beat is, but honestly I think you have too little control over the stuff thats happening, so I'm not using that for the glitches and slowdowns and that stuff in the break or the beginning with the hats (Wich I assume you got the idea from that I used gross beat), i'm using a free plugin called Glitch, or dBlue glitch, wich I think is awesome.
http://illformed.org/plugins/glitch/ ! :)

If you liked what you heard you maybe wanna check out my new track, wich isnt so serious but just for the funzor. :D

Thank you again for your time!