HybrisHybrid's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[Dud] Adventure Music 10]

I owe you a review, good sir.

I thought I reviewed this song already. I know I've heard it before, I must have forgotten to review it.

Well anyways, I'm going to go at this the old fashioned way... so here it goes.

For originality I have to give you 10. You're not the first to do a piano piece on Newgrounds, I know, but this one is very original. I like to think of originality to be only part "originality" and a more so "creativity." So creativity-wise you score a ten with this. Overall, this is because you tell a story with your song and keep it interesting and nice sounding. And thats what its about.

Diversity gets a 8 as well because the song flows into completely diverse sections that transition well. I didn't like one of the transitions very much, so I dropped you down 1 and the song could be just a small bit more diverse. For example, more dynamics and a less repetitive bass rhythm in the beginning and end.

Clarity wasn't the greatest and it kind of goes along with effort in this one. But I tried not to be too harsh on both aspects, so I only dropped you to 8. Theres a constant fuzz throughout the song which is, although pretty quiet, still noticeable. A solo piano part requires little post production such as (better) use of EQ's, maybe some small noise reduction and some subtle compression would have helped. Overall 8 is pretty reasonable for this one, I think.

The clarity I was going to knock you for came out on the effort side instead. A few mistakes and some background noise is what I'm talking about. You get an 9 despite these problems because the song is well written and origninal. Overall, its played better than I could do, although not perfect, so 9 seems fair.

OK, thats pretty much it for my lame old-fashioned review. Seems pretty useless to me, but I don't usually write them like this just can't think straight right now. Few too many swigs of that rum last night, eh?

Oh yeah, almost forgot, overall I liked the song and I usually don't take "clarity" into consideration for my overall score, but instead usefulness which is effected by clarity. This song doesn't seem like it would be very ideal for a flash because of the few mistakes and background noises. Hopefully I'm not being too harsh with that, you really did a good job playing, but even the smallest mistakes can ruin its flash potential. Some people don't consider this, but Newgrounds is a flash site and the AP is for flash audio so I think it makes sense. Anyways... 9/10 for this one just because I liked it so much. Next time around, play it a million times till it is 100% perfect and then go through it with some filters, compressors and effects - whatever makes it sound pretty.

Hope that helps you out and I know I still owe you but I take so damn long to write reviews its hard to do sometimes. Quality over quantity, I say. Keep up the music, its pretty damn saweeet.
-HybrizzleHybrishizzle

Dudidum responds:

Woha thanks a lot for the big review ;) I never expected something this long but it's good that you reviewed it thoroughly.

As for the originality it's more an improvisation than a written piece. I could actually make a music sheet out of it and "repair" the mistakes. After that I could record it a second time.
I always record and post it without any post production because I don't know exactly what to do ;)

Again thx for your great review!

[TAA--Piano Improv 1]

oh so very .emotionally compelling

Very beautiful piano work, especially for improv.

I don't know why you would post an improv and I can't give much for effort considering that its not only improved but its very slow and minimal. Still you pulled it together allright and improv or not it sounds really good.

Like I said minimal. Also a little repetitive I might add, but thats not to imply it's a bad piece. A little more instrumentation would have definitely made this much better.

If you're trying to show off your piano playing ability you've done a bad job. Don't get me wrong, but it isn't the most complex song I've heard. However, if you were trying to created a melancholy, dramatic song for a flash, you definitely succeeded in my opinion. Since this is newgrounds, I'm going to assume the latter is true.

The ending cuts off a little too soon. The last review said it was a bad note to end on, I disagree. It was a good way to end it, but the sound doesn't resonate for very long, and thats the only problem I see with it.

I got a shitty setup right now. My comp is plugged into an old ass, cheap ass fender Champ 15 guitar amp, so I'm going to give you a 10 for clarity and just let that be.

Taking originality, effort and diversity into consideration, the song looks bad and my review was a little harsh in some parts, but I very much liked the way the song was able to express the exact emotions I think you were going for. Overall 9/10 and a 5 bomb from me because of that. Keep up the good work.
-HybrisHybrid

TheAmateurAnimator responds:

I'm not a good piano player. I just started in the late summer of 2006. I really don't like writing sheet music at all, so this song basically had to be either improv or just a recording of me playing one of the minute-long songs in my lesson book. I could probably make a song just as complex of this in a sequencing program without a piano, but playing this live had some good points--one, versitality in the note velocity; and two, the pedal.

The more I listened to this song as I was editing out the background noise, the more I felt that it was too long and repetitive. By that time, it was a little too late to shorten things up--what's done was done.

You should have heard the quality of this before I fixed it up. It was dreadful, really. Luckily, some EQing and reeverb fixed it right up.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the longest and most technical review I've ever gotten (and the longest response I've ever gotten). Thanks!

[Quarl - Antagonist]

Drumwork is the best

Whats ups Quarl... I've seen you around and you reviewed one of my songs, but I never returned the favor. Forgive me, kind sir, but I'm working on doing that now so its all good.

Nice intro, but why must the women suffer? Perhaps they are just screaming because you entered the room with your keytar and they're that excited to hear you play this crazy beat.

I like the use of bass in this. I can't elaborate on that... sorry.

The drums are damn near perfect and I hear you've utilized a vibraslap. I like... I like a lot. Really though, the drum fills sound amazing. This is like techno metal. Well DnB isn't far off. Damn them drums are sexy.

I suggest making this into a loop if you get the time, skipping the intro of course. You might even want to considering entering the Mac7, I'm sure this could make top 10.

One last thing before I let this review go. In that little interlude you do towards the end of the song, you hit some notes that just don't work. I know how that is, I often try to hit bass notes way too low. They just sound real muddy after a certain pitch, and I don't think it works. Well, maybe it was the sound you were going for, just consider it.

Keep up the good work and feel free to stop by my page again. Otherwise I'll be seeing you around. Oh and I'll drop you a 5 and a download for this one cause I'm that cool, word.
-HybrisHybrid

Quarl responds:

Hey, thanks for the review, I really appreciate it! I'll make a short loopable version of this track for the comp. It's porbably too late for this get used in a toon for P-Day, but whatever. Really though, this is the best review I've ever recieved. I'll deffinatly considering checking out your stuff again.

[Vengeance Triumphant]

hmm... strange...

This is a strange one. I kinda like it. Gets me pumped up... I think you should work on some things and make a loop out of it.

Very interesting synth you got running the show. I have to say its just on the verge of not being annoying though. Just too many high pitch frequencies for my taste.

I like all the other synths too. If i could point them out individually and tell you what I liked about them I would, but they're all good in their uniqueness.

I'm liking the break down type of thing you did. Contrasts the song very well when the main theme comes in.

The drum work does nothing to impress or implore interest. Although it works, it could work better.

The outro you did may be a bit overdrawn. Interesting and definitely different, but it really has no point.

I think thats all I have to comment on. If the main instrument wasn't so annoying and you cranked out some more interesting drums, this might have been better. You hit a lot of good points in it though, so it kind of evens out. Keep at it, I think you got some ability that requires some more effort.
-HybrisHybrid

ShinDenjin responds:

I'll keep that in mind for the next project. ya know... out of all the reviews I've gotten, this was by far the fairest one I've gotten. thanks loads ^_^

~Shin

[Para-Noid Fastidious (WIP]

I expect more from you

I'll be honest, I didn't want to review this song. The words demo, "work in progress", and preview always prevent me from taking a look. I just don't see the point when we can't delete or edit our entries. You might as well post one version and only your final version. Well, you got lucky in two ways. First you posted above me in the Audio Advertisement and secondly I just so happen to respect the notion of reviewing two posts above on the Ad forum.

But enough of the damn jibber jabber. What you have here is a simply a work in progress, just like you labled it. It starts out pretty nice and then goes no where. Its just ends.

And typically drum N bass utilizes a drum loop with much faster tempo. Maybe my ears deceive me but it sounds like you sampled various drums and not an actual drum loop. Thus, it seems, the song ended up sounding slow, boring and truly more hip hop than DnB. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not knocking you for posting in the wrong genre or making a bad song, just kind of spelling out my thoughts as they appear from listening to this song. In my reviews, the quality of the song always stays the same despite what genre it is.

The two pads or synths you used in the intro were quite unique and interesting. The more wavy one was unfortunately quite annoying. The song could have benefited much from it's absences.

The what-I-can-only-describe-as-a-circus-song sample - worked out for you here. If you had kept it more in key somehow, it might have been better, but it was good and I liked it. I can definitely say I did not see it coming.

I'm no stranger to your music, Para-Noid, and thats why I'm being harsh on this one. With some actual effort, I think you could have made this into a decent, full length track. Maybe the full length - if you choice to do one of course - will sound much better. Keep up the good work and please spare us the demos. By the way I did not vote on this.
-HybrisHybrid

Para-Noid responds:

Yeah, For now on I will not be giving a full song on newgrounds for various reasons. So mostly the songs you see from me now are previews and demos and WIP. But don't worry I will be submitting some ful songs every once in awhile.

Para-Noid

[shores of hell revisited]

Nice dramatic piece

The melody on the guitar is awesome. There were a couple notes in there I didn't like, but nothing too bad. The effects add an even deeper impact to it that I like.

The percussion is awesome too. This is like a guitar solo with orchestration. All the effects and sounds work so well together. Some good stuff.

The only thing that hurt you is the stereo separation you have going on this one. It sounds like the timpani (or whatever that drum sound is) only comes out the left and the guitar is focused almost entirely on the right. You could say the size of this problem is proportional to the distance of one's speakers, but a lot of us listen to music through headphones and with this much stereo separation, a good song can be ruined.

The beginning and end are really good. I like the buildup of the beginning and the abrupt unpredictability of the end.

I'll drop a five - its a really awesome song but I think it could be a lot better. Still you're bound to get 0 votes so I really don't see the point of voting anywhere between 0 and 4. I see that you haven't posted for a while, so welcome back. You got some skills, I recommend checking out the MAC march/feb. You have a couple weeks to through one or two loops together, I say give it a shot! You can find it in the forums.

Keep up the good work mhb.
-HybrisHybrid

mhb responds:

thank you for the very long and insightful review. i agree the "stereo seperation" sounds a bit off, but that's because ll the tracks with sent to a virtual surround speaker so wen you listen to it on a surround sound system you get a really nice effect. especially if you're standin' at the exact focal point of all the speakers.

[<The Battle - Remastered>]

Great composition

The sound quality of the instruments is impressive. I recently acquired Garritan Personal Orchestra but I can't get anything to sound this good. The fast strings and percussion is hard to do in my opinion, so I find it very impressive.

I like the song, its very long and diverse. Almost too long in a sense but the diversity helps a lot. I still can't get over how good it the instruments sound, its really good.

It easily affords a 10 for effort and diversity. The could be better. The instruments sound good, but thats different from the clarity. I suspect a low bitrate on this one as well as imperfected mastering ability, which is excusable. Originality would be easier to judge if it weren't for the "FFIII" inspired, cause I don't know what thats supposed to mean exactly. I'll give you a 10 just because I like the song.

As easily as it would be to write a 20 paragraph essay on this song I'm just gonna download, leave my 5 vote and cut it review short (well relatively... I write pretty long reviews). Keep up the good music and look into mastering a little bit if you haven't already. I find mastering hardest for ambient and classical music, so it will take some practice. Good luck and don't be a stranger.
-HybrisHybrid

ExpectExpansion responds:

thanks for the review! If you know any sort of mastering software let me know (=

[Jazz - That's Life]

Awesome Buildup - A good intro/outro credit song.

Well it appears no one took the time out of their busy little schedules to review this song... so hear I am. Those sons of bitches.

First off, I hope by 100% original you mean you produced it all because this is a very common jazz progression.

But never mind that, the song is great. Its best quality is definitely in the piano solos. Some of the best piano work I've heard on NG in a long time, include that preprogrammed nonsense (unless you somehow slipped it by me and this wasn't performed =X).

Another think I liked about this track is the scale change to C minor. The surprise was good and you kept it flowing perfectly. I really don't know how you did it without hurting my ears, let alone whilst making it sound good.

The drums were nothing special, I'll admit, but who care in a song driven by such awesome piano work.

The strings also caught my attention towards the end of the piece. A nice little touch that definitely help build it up during and after the scale change. In addition the side-kick/clap sound was great at the end when it was getting all chaotic.

I wish you had kept it up and then just ended on a bang in all the glory of the buildup, but I can't complain about how you did end it, which was fine. Thats one thing about the chord progression you used, it just builds up constantly and you balanced and supported it well throughout. There is some undeniable musical ability expressed in this song and I would encourage you to write more like it. Haven't looked at enough of your others to say any differently.

This song aught to be used in a flash by now. The flash artists somehow skim over great songs like this and I don't know why, but hopefully someone will see it eventually. Despite being a relatively long, it would work great as an credit song - opening or ending.

One problem with this one is the sound quality. Low bit rate, too much reverb, lack of compression or poor equalization, I can't honestly tell but I'm sure you know what I mean. It generally just does not sound perfectly mastered. That can be a bitch, believe me I know, and it doesn't hurt the song too much, but keep looking into it and hopefully your songs will improve.

This is about the longest review I've ever written and I can't wait to get it over with, but I had to tell you I whipped out my guitar and played along to this song for quite a while. Well, basically what I'm saying is a song that can inspire me to do that definitely deserves a 5 and a download ;).

Keep it up and I hope this review made some sense cause I wrote a lot and I'm not about to read over it to check for typos and grammar =$ - HybrisHybrid

preffertobedead responds:

w00t!!! i read all the review was a hell of a review O_O...damned...well..yes this is my 1st Jazz attempt =D an ur ear must be awesome cuz...how tha hell did u know it i change the scale to C minor O_O...i mean ..anybody can tell that the scale changed but pretty good ear at finding the scale...xD...ur review can't be more correct..i didn't use almost anything of re-masterization cuz i was damn tired of working on the song =D..a great review from a great person thanks a lot HybrisHinrid!! ^^.

PS: don't play my songs at the guitar or u will become famous and millionaire with my stuffs!!! >:(...bleh..jk =P..

[mix of shape of my heart]

Great beat

Absolutely beautiful piece. Your music so far has not only impressed me but surprised me as it seemed to come out of no where and has very little of the attention it deserves.

I hope thats some real guitar work by you and not some sly disguise to fool my ears. Either way it sounds pretty damn amazing and gets my respect.

What killed it is your use of overuse of FL presets. Do correct me if I'm wrong but some of the sounds seem much too familiar, ie the scratch, choir, and most of the drum loops. There is nothing wrong with using these but I hear them on every ten NewGrounds submissions and they get old fast. Try searching for some new sounds and design your own beats. Splice one of the presets at least the very least, you know?

Also a little recommendation - loop it. I think I tell this to everyone, but this song seems particularly repetitive. Let me clarify, by repetitive I don't mean it gets boring, I mean the song itself is really long but for no reason. You could have easily made a small loop that goes on forever and sounds relatively the same, rather than making a short song that ends abruptly. I realize its a Hip-Hop song and perhaps the intent is to provide a beat for vocalization, but this is NewGrounds, keep in mind. People could use this in their flashes and it would sound awesome if not for the fact that they'd have to go through the trouble of looping it themselves. It's just something to keep in mind before you post your next track.

Good luck with your future tracks, I'd love to review them right now but I tend to repeat myself too much when I do that, so consider what I've said in this review. However, I am recommending you for the Underdog List on the NewGrounds forums in hopes to stir you some attention. The address is http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=668783.
Check it out, and I'll be sure to stop by again myself. -HybrisHybrid

mexicristos responds:

thank you very much for reviewing my song man, what can i say you read my mind, i made this to become a bit for one of my songs but i will keep in mind all the advises that you told me, i would be reaaly thankfull if you could review another one of my songs so i can improve and/or correct my mistakes. I'm glad you liked it man and thank you once again for reviewing one of my songs

[Ice Interlude]

Very soothing ice-world feel.

This is another one of those songs that should loop. If you're making "level music" then you should definitely loop it or make much longer. Also, fading out doesn't really work in that case either. Flash artists can't take something like this and loop it on their own because they lack the brain cells to do that and/or the necessary programs. I'm not sure which one it is, or if both, but a song that loops well has a much better chance of being used in a submission. And I base that solely off what I've seen and heard, but it makes sense if you think about it.

The only thing wrong with this otherwise is the mixing. As I left the song playing, my left ear began to hurt. Of course I have headphones, but still way too much stereo separation on the left synth. It makes the song very unbalanced.

The song is really good and your description is right - I definitely get that final fantasy ice-area vibe from it. However, the song is really simple and doesn't sound like it took much effort. If it looped I would give it a 5, instead I'm casting a humble little 4 for this one. Write some more like this and I'm sure I'll hear your music in a flash one day. -HybrisHybrid

Buzinkai responds:

Thank you for the advice. I'll probably redo most of the songs and re-enter them as loops. They're made to loop, really.