anthonyragus's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tired, very tired]

I think this is close to perfect. I enjoy the space you create and the simplicity of the sounds paired with the "glitchiness"; adding more would take away from it's character. Sometimes music demands certain practices, due to style or intended usage, but style and usage are up to you. Perhaps you could play around with the first cycle, the delay on one or two bass notes could be a good idea, but I can imagine several "real-world" applications for this track as-is. Keep being you, dude.

[RealGares - Summertime]

Holy moly, this is incredible, especially considering how little time has been put into it so far. In terms overall sound, vibe, and intention, I'm super impressed. I hear that this sounds exactly like what you are going for, which sounds redundant, but it is a tremendous skill to have.

I can't separate myself from what I hear, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt, but I'd be interested to hear what you think.

I partially agree with the fifty pieces of cooked meat that commented below; there is some undesirable repitition in the melody. At the same time, it's super catchy, and I wouldn't want to fundamentally change it. I would try making the last three notes of each cycle different each time. I like that knock-sounding hat and how it alternates its pattern every other measure. Subtle variation keeps it fresh, which you're already doing in parts of the percussion and that piano-pad countermelody, which is great. Oh, it might be something that only bothers me, but the piano-pad's C note on the Cm chord hangs over into the Eb chord.

Your chord progression is amazing, how the melody fits into it, implying complex chords but keeping it simple at the same time. There are four chords in each cycle, and I wonder what you would think of changing the fourth bass note from Eb to Bb, either each cycle or every other cycle.

1:01 sounds a bit louder to me than 1:04, which make that drop less satisfying than it can be. I'm not sure what the waveforms looks like, but I would lower any auxillary percussion to match, or be slightly lower than the apparent volume of the kick.

Nice airy high pad in the second buildup. If you extend this into a longer mix, I would love to hear that slowy increase in presence throughout the last high-energy section. But I like progressive things, and I automate everything, hehe.

Anyway, this is my first time listening to your fantastic work, and I can't wait to hear more from you.

[Moments (OST Equilibrium)]

So much fun. As soon as I heard the triple feel, I knew it was getting real. There's an interesting sidechain compression feel that I'm not used to hearing in psy, which caught me off guard. I would like to inquire about bass release, which is long enough to where I don't quite hear the individual plucks of the bass. I'm just being picky because everything else is as close to perfect as possible. If that and the sidechain were stylistic choices, I'd be interested in hearing why that would be done. Great work.

[(Club) Axis Time (Equilibrium OST)]

based sine wave

ClubbinMusic responds:

and what's wrong with that?

[Vessel Full of Dreams]

Amazing work here, another example of foley, sound design, and that quintissential mechanical-but-soft upright sound, joining together to produce something truly special. Your transitions roll through like waves pushing to the shore.

Phonometrologist responds:

Where did you come from? Been listening to your tracks, and they are fun, interesting, and intellectually stimulating. Thank you for stopping by.

[Discordance Within]

Oh yes, this is the good stuff, somewhat evocative of Arvo Pärt's Für Alina, but even more spacious. The closed-ish pandiatonic harmony suits the pacing well, especially with how certain strings ring / sympathize. That walking bassline around 5:50 is satisfying, especially after hanging around, more or less, the middle of the keyboard. i enjoy visiting this minimalist area when noodling at the piano, letting harmony ring out, and breathing in the space, but you've inspired me to live there and see something through to "completion"; fantastic work.

Phonometrologist responds:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it. Arvo Pärt uses his own method to achieve the desired result, and I wanted to create my own technique to determine the musical dictation. I wouldn't have been disciplined enough to keep the structure's integrity if I didn't go by a certain guideline.
"The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.” - Igor Stravinsky.

[Devils Lament]

\m/ This is a fantastic use of MOR (if my ears are correct). Your mixing is getting better and better. That middle section is awesome, a great balance of repetition and variation.

Lashmush responds:

Hey, thanks for the feedback! My whole approach to mixing is new now so the results are clearly showing its a better one. c:

[Dubstep - OH NO]

This is pretty cool! I like the bassline and the high string drone that floats over everything.

The problem that stood out to me was combining the sample with the buildup and post-drop. You could have two distinctive time feels, one swung and one straight. In fact listening to the outro it kind of sounds like that's what you wanted. But if you're going to have that sampled vocoder thing in a straight-felt section, you need to quantize it to straight 8th notes so that my brain doesn't freak out hearing both straight and swung at the same time.

There are other things regarding mixing that I won't go into, but great job for trying something new! My first attempt at dubstep was a disaster. Quantum shit was flying everywhere.

Zazzy responds:

The outro was to a part I never finished and decided to drop because FOOK IT I'm a lazy bastard.

[[S,J] Derezzed]

very nice!

I love all the instruments you used. How did you achieve the bit-crushed wobble?

[Carolina Tommorow [demo]]

very nice!

I loved it! How do you create the turntable sound at 0:45?

One minor thing is bothering me. At the beginning (0:18) the piano plays a D-natural, but the melody from 1:03 and onwards has D-flat.

Nonetheless, this sounds incredible and professional!

Rawrthaas responds:

Thanks for the review

The turntable sound is the kick through Gross Beat. You can use gross beat to modulate time, volume, and other various glitchy effects on the fly