Sawdust's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[MoL- Stuff of Legends]

Guitar ruins it

Well, you're definitely being consistent in your work. As always, it loops perfectly well and delivers the urgent RPG vibe. As always, the strings properly line the piece with emotion and purpose. The percussions and bass are also fine and swell and usual.

The main, and only problem with this piece however, is the guitar sound. It's way too thin and fake sounding. It sounds like monotonous white noise. It needs more mids and bass. The purpose of having a guitar in here is to add a layer of sonic texture, but it gets chewed out by the string ensembles. So either remove the guitar or beef it up. Yeah.

Great piece.

MeteorManMike responds:

The guitar was indeed giving me fits. It doesn't behave like any of my other plugins, guess I just have to study up on it. At least I got the drums right for once :P
Thanks for reviewing! I'll play with the plugin some more before posting with it again.

[Against the Ultimate Evil]

Great composition, string sounds are bad

The composition of this piece is absolutely gorgeous, it really gives the vibe that you were going for. It sounds very professional in terms of composition since it has all of the elements that make orchestral video game music great, which is intricate melodies and arpeggios in the background. Just lovely.

However, what this is missing is a solid rhythm section. I think if you added a galloping drum beat to this, it'd be a much more gripping listen. Also, the string sounds are a bit off. I don't think it's that your plugin is bad, it's probably just in need of some mixing and editing. Bring out the highs and mids, perhaps?

Anyway, lovely piece. It's so great to know that there are some genuinely talented folk in the audio portal that do things other than making mediocre techno music. Well done!

[<EagleGuard> Last Stand]

Nice tone

If that is an actual guitar I'm hearing, I like the tone. What guitars and amps were used? Other than that, not much to say about this song. Probably the only thing I can criticize is the simplicity and anemia of the lead guitar. The orchestral intro gave me the impression that the next section would be charged with emotion and that the lead guitar would play an incredibly expressive passage filled with bends and harmonics and such. However, what I actually heard was something that would have been better off played by a different string instrument like a violin or something.

Other than that, good song, it's just a tad bit sterile.

EagleGuard responds:

It's not an actual guitar, sorry =p I used the VSTi realLPC combined with Guitar Rig 4 VST.

I like to keep things simple, but I guess I could try to spice up the guitar parts in the future.

Thanks for the review, glad you liked it!

[Living and Dying]

Loses beat when the drums kick in

I get the feeling that you just threw a bunch of loops together over a recording of you trodding away on the piano, but I'll try to ignore that...

Anyways, the introduction led me to believe that this was either to turn into a meaningful ballad about a man's sad life, with the piano growing more complex as the song progressed, or it'd turn into a song ridden with obnoxious drums and beats. Sadly, this turned out to be the latter.

Anyways, as I said, the piano sort of sounded lost when everything else came barging in. It's like the meter changed completely. Now, that's not a bad thing, but in the context of this song, it is. It's like when you're driving and there's a ledge on the road about a couple inches high, so when you go over it you get bumped a bit, and a bit annoyed, but no real damage is done. Try keeping the flow you established in the beginning throughout the entire piece, maybe?

And another thing, this felt pretty much like a collage of loops, blips and samples. That's not a bad thing either, but you can't go around doing this forever. Unless you're Girl Talk, or Daft Punk which you're not. You're you, and as a creator of music, you need to actually do things to what you're working with. Introduce melodies and harmonies in the piece. Diversify. Complicate. Stuff like that.

Anyway overall, the song is alright, I guess. The vocal samples were a nice touch.

[[dB] Menu Loop]

Needs to loop better

Actually, this could be pretty great as a menu loop, however, it doesn't actually loop :P. You could remedy this by removing the ascending brass instrument that ties the loop together, making the loop just 6 seconds long. Though that would also remove any resemblance this piece has to actual jazz music, but then again, isn't it funny how the one thing that ruined the piece made you decide on its genre?

Anyway, this definitely isn't jazz, and this definitely does not loop well. But if I ignored that whole kick in the balls you called a brass, this would actually be pretty great. And if you added a bass instrument, this would be even better.

Anyway yeah, just improve on those points and this'll make a fine menu loop as you intended it to be.

Decibel responds:

Leave it to me :)

[MoL- Shadow Conflict]

Great melodies

I really like the intricacy of this track. The subtle little things like the arpeggios and lower strings in tandem with the main theme the strings were playing was absolutely marvelous. You're really great at building off of such a simplistic little line to create something as complex as this. Well done. There's not much room for improvement, really, the song is great as is.

MeteorManMike responds:

Wow. I must've done something right. I'm thankful that there are still people out there that pay attention to the little things. Really glad you enjoyed it!

[Saturday Afternoon]

Great track

I really dig all the different textures and synths you put in here. It definitely served its purpose of sounding like a Saturday afternoon. It also started to sound a bit like Nintendo music towards the end, which was pretty cool too.

Keep it up.

[Electric ( First song this mon]

Instruments are incredibly chaotic

This song was pretty much all over the place. It's as if you relied completely on the tones and VSTS to carry the song. That's not good. It's like shoegaze on a computer...

Anyways, as I said, the song was all over the place. It's only really listenable because of the high end synth sounds you put into this, but the melodies and everything else didn't work at all. It's as if you just put random notes together with no thought to the rhythm or harmony. Try studying some music theory a bit, it helps a ton with producing music.

xxDjShockxx responds:

Dude, WTF is your problem...

[I Remain]

Very interesting

Massive props for being a metal band that isn't generic and reliant on double peds and drop tuning.

Overall, this is a very professional sounding song with great instrumentation, It's really dynamic, and the drums are excellent. It actually grooves! So it's pretty interesting to hear a metal song where the drums groove and give the song appropriate bounce and beat. And the vocals are cool, actually! I'm not a fan of growling, but thankfully you guys didn't overly rely on it, as the clean vocals were equally good.

Great song, great band. I hope you guys make a splash and set the metal scene back on track. Seriously, this is WAY better than most of the metal I've heard from the past decade. Good luck!!!!

Satoris responds:

Wow thank you so much for the review man. Our CD is in the final stages of mixing right now so I'll be posting some more songs within the next month or so. I would love for you to review them!

[==(Pulse of the Ocean Aby]

mesmerizing

Holy shit. When the gated pads started coming in, I knew that I was in for a treat.

This is beautiful, really. The melodies are so mesmerizing and really stir the inner depths of my consciousness. The delayed synths, gated pads, pulsing rhythms and DEEP kick all go together to form a truly ethereal experience. My God. I am in awe. Since it's from 2009... you made this when you were 14? What a fucking prodigy you are, then.

Overall, brilliant piece, brilliant music, brilliant composer.