HybrisHybrid's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[==(Exit)==]

Wow I just tripped like mushrooms and shit

Wow... what an amazing introduction to this song. I took a while to start writing and its still going. Already a truely diverse use of sound within the first few minutes. And now I'm hearing chain rattling and water dropping? I think I just heard an alien. Damn man you're tripping me out with this song.

Ahh, now it picks up. Some kind of weird synth trying to be a drum. Hes doing a good job cause its keeping the rhythm. Now screams and echos making me feel alone, yet slowly undoing my solitary. I feel like I'm walking through a tunnel. No not a tunnel I'm accending to the heavens. I can see birds fly by and I look below and everyone looks like ants as they fade away.

Wow, I'm sorry thats gotta be the worst review I've ever read. I'm embarrassed to submit this haha. Naw, its ok I want you to see what was going through my head as I listened to this song, so I'm keeping it as is. I'm not even gonna proof read it...

Seriously let me outline again since the songs looping again as I listen. First I'm in some village and I heard church bells. Next, I am upducted by aliens and taken into an ancient temple, bound by chains to the wall. Using ancient Chinese water torture methods they slowly squeezed out my sanity untill finally they ended my life by sawing my limbs off to a beautiful melody and keeping tempo of course. Then I finally let out my first scream of death and I ascended to heaven.

Thanks SBB, I think I need a vacation, but this will do for now. I would vote 6 if I could.
-HybrisHybrid

[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

[Mercenary-Beast Invincible]

Needs a lot more work

I'm reluctant to review cause there so little to say about such a short loop, but at the same time I should cause I used the Ad forums.

Its a good a loop and nearly almost semi perfectly loops, well ...kind of. A few post production modifications and you would have had it. You should check out this thread:

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic.php?id=688942

Additionally, I recommend you check out the MAC March/Feb 07. You can find the topic in the Audio Forums labeled "Mac7 - March." This loop really isn't that great and you obviously half-assed it. But still even if you don't make better one for the contest you can always submit this one.

Oh yeah... the actual review. I think you could have repeated this and made at least one small variation. Theres some good sounds in here, try a little harder next time and I bet you could make something cool.

Still even a loop this simple works for flash, so good work. And sory, no vote or download for this one.
-HybrisHybrid

[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 (=

[Jeru]

above all very unique.

Immediately I was intrigued. I love Arabian/Middle Eastern and Asian music. Although, going into it I didn't hear what I expected, it ended up being really good. It sounds more like a circus or gypsy dance song, mostly because of the bass line. Although I would rather review I song I don't specifically like, I think this one deserves some feedback.

You're melodies are by far some of the best I've heard on Newgrounds. Again, it might be that part of me that seeks strange forms of music and this song definitely fits the part. Its a good piece, very emotional and overall nothing less than beautiful.

The melodies and harmonies are perfect and fitting. In fact, all of your songs show immense musical talent that, unfortunately, far exceeds your production skills. Basically, you know what notes to hit but you don't seem to pick the best instruments/sounds and mix and master them very well. If I knew a good way you could learn to improve on this I would point you in that direction, but I don't. Its just something you learn from experience - and believe me I'm not trying to say I'm the best mixing and mastering, its something I'm still trying to figure out. But I can recommend this, listen to other music and pay attention to how its compressed and equalized, mess with an EQ on your media player and pay attention to what sounds better. Then, next time you're about to post a song, stop and spend some extra time trying to get it to sound better using EQ's compressors and different effects. Mixing and Mastering is not something musicians generally know how to do, thats what studios and sound engineers are for, but some knowledge of it would only make your music even better, so why not?

Thats all I can say about this song. You got some dirt on your tracks and all you have to do is learn to dust it off without scratching them. Keep up the good work and hopefully you'll get some more attention eventually. Just keep posting the good music and people are bound to start appreciating. -HybrisHybrid

[Crossroad MAC]

Good luckf

Way beyond my interpretation of a Pico feel... but really what is it? No one will ever know.

I think the idea is to capture the NG sound which is impossible not to do because we audio artists are as much of Newgrounds as Pico himself, so no matter what we create we have to have the Pico feel. In that case you get a 10/10 for Pico feel ;)!

I like the Admiral's comment on you working the pad like a French whore. He's right and I can't say it any better. The buildup is nice and would be flawless if it looped perfectly - Damn mp3s! Oh well I can still imagine a .wav version and it sounds just fine.

I don't like to write short review, as you might already know, but this is a short and simple loop. Plus I have bias as I plan entering the contest myself. This all combined leads me with little to say, so with that I again wish you good luck. Since this was a lame little review, feel free to PM me if you want another. Just suggest a song you want some feedback on and I'll be sure to check it out.

I like writing reviews - what can I say? -HybrisHybrid

[~EnV~Chaos Sphere]

Overall good = 5 bomb

Good, but the overall sound quality ruined my first impression. It sounds low bitrate or very poorly mastered when the melody kicks in. Not sure which one it is, but the song could definitely improve if it was fixed.

The fact that you say reaching 100 cpu leads me to think you really need a better computer. This didn't sound all that complicated to me. Maybe you're talking about something else and if not I'm sure you're aware.

But thats not important and I'm not here to dis you. In fact, this is a great little song you have here. Octaves on the bass line make me bounce my feet, the melody is catchy and I like the way you organize your songs.

Its not just this one because others I've listened to a couple of your other songs and they all have the same way of slowly bringing in instruments. I mean its nothing wildly new or exciting but very much fits your style and thats good.

I very much like the low-pass effect you didd - I'm gonna say about midway through the song although I'm not sure. I'm too lazy to open it in media player, its right when the scratchy overdriven, distorted synth comes in. Very cool.

Drums = boring. Every song I listen to the same problem - little or no variation on the drums. I also alway say the same thing which is - well it works. Song sounds fine and maybe even better without a complex overdrawn beat, but a little more effort on the percussion layer wouldn't hurt you, though.

This is the part of the review where I've listened to the same song over 10 times in a row and start getting picky and critical in my review, so I think I'm gonna stop it. However, I wanna say you have some great melodies, great effects but sound quality still 7/10 and the song doesn't strike me as expressing an impressive level of creativity. Hence my review scores for this song. Typically when I vote on a song I only give 5's or I simply don't vote. This is based almost entirely off effort and also takes into consideration those nasty 0-bombs. So for this track I will vote five.

I need to mention the ending is really weak too. I suggest doing something different next time. Damn ok I'm done writing. Great track here, keep up the good work and good luck in the MAC. Not too much luck though, I wouldn't mind winning ;). Just kidding seriously good luck and thanks for the help with the vibraslap thing, I feel pretty dumb now since you knew right away. Alright! keep up the good musicanshipism - HybrisHybrid

[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..