thatbennyguy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[What in the Fuck? (Chromanut)]

Flipn good.

Hey Chromanut,

--Production--
Everything is well produced, top notch. Drums are crisp and clear, the synths are light and beautiful, the bass down and dirty. Things don't muddy up at all throughout the whole song, and the 7/4 time signature is well guised by great production.

--Experience--
Things start off very trance-like and full of harmonics and interesting effects. We are led on a journey through your synth-filled world, and then things just break down into a scream, and then the title quote. After that things obviously get dirty, but well within grasp. It's all a very transcendent experience.

--Style--
The style has a sort of "i-don't-give-a-stuff-about-what-you-
guys-think-i'm-just-going-to-make-the -music-i-wanna" vibe to it, which explains the strange time signature and the general shortness of the song. It also makes it seem like an effortless job, as if you churn off hits like this every week (you probably do).

--Wow Factor--
From the beginning it is clear that things are going fast, and then they just get more intense. The song begins quickly and ends in just the same fashion. It feels like just a glimpse of something great, yet it is satisfying in its own right.

--Personal Tilt--
I am not favourably disposed towards dubstep, but it's usually because they try too hard. Since this had that sort of happy feel-good "not caring" feel to it, I was happy to listen along without all the over-dramatics. Even though I have one of the greatest dubstep artists living in my own neighbourhood, "Mt. Eden Dubstep", I am not in the slightest interested in them. However I would like to hear you DJ one time.

--Production-- = 20/20
--Experience-- = 19/20
--Style-- = 19/20
--Wow Factor-- = 20/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 19/20

OVERALL SCORE: 97/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

Chromanut responds:

ill have to check out that dubstep artist, never heard of them

i dont know how to dj, never done it in my life and i dont own mixing hardware

the "i dont giive a fuck" tone is totally what i was going for, glad you got it xD

[[dB] Il Gatto Negro]

Mysterious, beautifully mastered

Hey Decibel,

--Production--
The sound is crisp and clean, stellar. The hi hats are highly present, yet never drowning out the entire piece. However, the intro can be seen to be empty, since the bass is so sparse. Very tender and beautiful composition.

--Experience--
The grease has been sprayed on this joint, so lubrication is no problem. This beat flows with ease, with a rockin' bassline and funky smoky vibes. Little staccato brass tip-toes in the background, lending to a theme for a spy, or espionage.

--Style--
Jazzy until the kingdom comes. I would classify it as a loop rather than a song, and a short one at that. It also loops very well and flows along without stopping. I would, however, have implemented more phases of the song than just two: one with drums and one without.

--Wow Factor--
It certainly is professional and that brings about amazement. The sounds are clear and crisp, the production showing the many signs of effort. I also didn't realise that mixing and mastering should go on for about 2 hours. I do mine in about 2 minutes, so that's probably why my songs sound very amateur.

--Personal Tilt--
I liked the professional and jazzy quality that this greasy, smoky beat conveyed. It told a tale, a tale of espionage, spying, and mystery. A beat like this needs more than just two phases, however, to keep it motivating and interesting. Good composition. Thanks for letting me listen.

--Production-- = 16/20
--Experience-- = 18/20
--Style-- = 17/20
--Wow Factor-- = 17/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 16/20

OVERALL SCORE: 84/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

Decibel responds:

I Like your reviews ^^
Thanks for the input, though I might not continue it since I'm not very expeienced in this genre. But be sure to check out my new song, I'll submit is soon, hopefully.

[Here We Go [WIP] {Dj-Abbic}]

Synth poppy, transcendent, some change required

Hey DjAbbic,

--Production--
Better than average, but slightly empty. Might need a few more pads to fill things up. The production is very crisp and poppy, though, which is a bonus. The also strings have very low attack and release, which make them seem cheap. But overall, is good for a WIP.

--Experience--
This song has various stages of melody that we are taken through. I like the way you switch from fourths to thirds in an instant. It makes for great pops. The song is long, and might suffer from drooping because of the lack of changing elements. It's mostly the bass that starts off great but then gets repetitious quickly.

--Style--
Very epic and nice to listen to, but may suffer from lack of a recurring motif that one can remember the song by. The bassline would be the closest thing to it, but it's not that catchy as some other house songs have it. I would go for a sort of high-pitched simple synth melody a la "We No Speak Americano". Either that or some vocals to spice things up :)

--Wow Factor--
You can detect the thought that went into this song, but you can also tell that this is very much unfinished. I know that you say that this is a WIP, but it just detracts from the overall involvement in the song because of its lack of elements.

--Personal Tilt--
I see this song as having great potential that is yet to be unleashed. The first point I would make is that it needs more elements such as pads to fill things up. The other thing I would recommend would be revising adding things such as a main synth or even vocals. Overall it's a great song is to be improved. Thanks for letting me listen.

--Production-- = 16/20
--Experience-- = 14/20
--Style-- = 14/20
--Wow Factor-- = 13/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 13/20

OVERALL SCORE: 70/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

DjAbbic responds:

Very nice review you have given of this. I've read all your critiques and I'd say your very right, the strings are the default FL ones because I don't have any orchestral VSTs at the moment, and there isn't really anything to spice the bassline up, it'll be a bit hard to think of a good spice-up though I imagine :).

Thanks alot for a very detailed and accurate review, appreciate it :D

[-Legend-]

Wow!

Hey Supersteph54,

--Production--
Pretty fantastic. I don't know what you meant about lack of panning because the sound fills both ears up pretty nice. Not a heck of a lot of panning is required to do it correctly, by the way, and you've got it pretty down pat. The sounds meld together beautifully in a composition that is original and nice.

--Experience--
I was led from the original epic beginning to more oriental territory (almost Arabian), and then to a more medieval (?) type sound. I guess that scale that you discovered has a certain type of Middle Eastern feel about it, because it's very captivating and nice on the ears.

--Style--
The orchestra is very full and beautiful; there is no lack of instrumentation here. It has beautiful drums too, as well as good build-up and transitions. The interesting modified D harmonic minor scale also provides a catchy motif to remember the song by. Not many songs have that same quality in it, so it is differentiated from the rest.

--Wow Factor--
I was pretty wowed by your orchestral skills. There was a large variety of sounds being employed here, to great effect. From first listen, you can discern that a lot of effort goes into this song. It's not just thrown together, but masterfully composed.

--Personal Tilt--
I was looking for things to be negative about in this song, but couldn't. This song is a very emotional and good song with a specific purpose and niche that it can fit into. Very well done, steph. Proud of you :)

--Production-- = 19/20
--Experience-- = 20/20
--Style-- = 18/20
--Wow Factor-- = 18/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 18/20

OVERALL SCORE: 93/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

Step responds:

Wow, man. Thanks for the really big review! Oh and sorry for the very late response...

"--Production--
Pretty fantastic. I don't know what you meant about lack of panning because the sound fills both ears up pretty nice. Not a heck of a lot of panning is required to do it correctly, by the way, and you've got it pretty down pat. The sounds meld together beautifully in a composition that is original and nice."

Thanks! The thing is, I didn't actually do any manual panning/stereo separation. If you look at my project file in FL Studio, you'll see that the panning knobs aren't even touched. I guess the stereo sound that this song has is because the software I used, East/West, is just so darn brilliant :D.

"--Experience--
I was led from the original epic beginning to more oriental territory (almost Arabian), and then to a more medieval (?) type sound. I guess that scale that you discovered has a certain type of Middle Eastern feel about it, because it's very captivating and nice on the ears."

Haha, the scale is actually pretty simple, it was just a mistake I did when playing D Minor, so you can't really say I 'discovered' it :P.

I was never that good at adding any foreign influences to my songs and making them sound decent, to be honest, so this might be one of my first songs which does so.

"--Style--
The orchestra is very full and beautiful; there is no lack of instrumentation here. It has beautiful drums too, as well as good build-up and transitions. The interesting modified D harmonic minor scale also provides a catchy motif to remember the song by. Not many songs have that same quality in it, so it is differentiated from the rest."

Thanks for the compliments! I'm quite proud of the melody I did here, even though I think I could've thought up some more melodies.

"--Wow Factor--
I was pretty wowed by your orchestral skills. There was a large variety of sounds being employed here, to great effect. From first listen, you can discern that a lot of effort goes into this song. It's not just thrown together, but masterfully composed."

Haha thanks! I'm actually really surprised that so many people like this song. It's one of my first orchestral songs.

"--Personal Tilt--
I was looking for things to be negative about in this song, but couldn't. This song is a very emotional and good song with a specific purpose and niche that it can fit into. Very well done, steph. Proud of you :)"

Emotional? Never actually thought of it like that. I'm more of an atmospheric type when it comes to making music, rather than emotional.

Well anyway, thanks a million for the massive review, and again, sorry for taking so long to answer!

[Stargenx - Love and Pain]

Underrated, short, needs more punch

Hey stargenx,

--Production--
The piano is nice and crisp, with the lower notes resonating quite well with me. The strings and the accompaniment are at the correct volume, and they invoke a sense of build-up skilfully.

--Experience--
It starts off tender, then gets more involved. I like the progression of the piano, it creates a very epic feel to it. The reverb you have added makes it seem almost mystical as well. I would recommend you put some other elements into the mix later on in the piece to build it up even more, because right now it seems like just a snippet.

--Style--
The unique quality of this song is that it doesn't overdo anything. It keeps things emotional while not being over-the-top and stays with the same theme congruently throught the whole duration. But it just stays on the same progression and never takes us anywhere. I would have liked to see some other chords come in after the 1:27 mark and just take the piece away somewhere else. Maybe even drums.

--Wow Factor--
The quality of the sounds used is superb, the composition supreme. A very minimalistic piece, perhaps too much so. That's why it got low-ish ratings, simply because there was no "wow" factor. Listeners await a build-up, climax, and then a resolution. This was a very good and long build-up, but no climax.

--Personal Tilt--
I was actually quite favourable to this song despite its briefness. I was searching for reasons why this would be given such a low rating and all I could find was the minimalism. Haters gonna hate, I suppose.

--Production-- = 18/20
--Experience-- = 20/20
--Style-- = 17/20
--Wow Factor-- = 13/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 15/20

OVERALL SCORE: 83/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

Stargenx responds:

This song was the result of me trying to put my emotions into song. I know it's not very long but I just couldn't extend it any further.

[Music Box Waltz]

Beautiful

Hey RampantMusik,

--Production--
First off, the music box sounds are exquisitely clear and beautiful on the ears. When the orchestra comes in, it fills up magnificently and things get Tim Burton up in here! It kind of sounds like Greensleeves to be honest, at one point, so I'm not sure whether that was purposeful or not.

--Experience--
Leads us on an emotional journey through a delicate kid's toy noises into something further. Sounds like something I heard off Coraline, actually. When she's walking around the spooky grounds, seeing all the wondrous sights and images of the past. (Very scary kids movie.)

--Style--
I can see that you are inspired by Danny Elfman in just the way that you orchestrate. This Musik isn't exactly Rampant (;)) but it's a calm sort of peaceful aura, yet an eerie one. It would be great for a sad flash that has a creepy element to it.

--Wow Factor--
The crispness of the sounds and the quality of the production lends to the overall atmosphere of the song. The orchestratic elements are well composed, too, almost professional. It's definitely got the waltz chord progression that I've heard done before.

--Personal Tilt--
Honestly, sounds like something from a movie. Not very far away from professional. Could definitely be used in many flashes with the intent of bringing emotion and an eerie quality. Thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks for letting me listen.

--Production-- = 18/20
--Experience-- = 18/20
--Style-- = 19/20
--Wow Factor-- = 17/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 17/20

OVERALL SCORE: 89/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

Rampant responds:

Hi, Ben,
First off, can I just say I love your avatar? Smiley glasses dude ftw!

Thanks for the review, and it's certainly quite apparent that you've spent a good deal of time on it.

The similarity to Greensleeves was completely unintentional (I'd never actually heard it before -- now that I've YouTube'd that song I can see the resemblance). As for the similarity to Elfman and Coraline, well, Coraline is one of my favourite movies, and Elfman's one of my favourite film composers. Certainly not my only favourites, but definitely up there!

Originally, when I chose the name RampantMusik, I had intended to write production tracks, for trailers et al, but there's just so much more to music than writing big, epic tracks -- sometimes you need to write sadder ones to balance everything out :D

Almost professional! Why, sir, I'm speechless. Thank you very much! Writing scores to films is ultimately what I want to do for a career -- it's nice to see that someone thinks I'm already heading on the right track!

Thank you very much for the review :)
- James

[.:Reach for the Moon:.(NA]

Very nice.

Hey camoshark,

--Production--
You did quite well with this one. I'd say that this definitely has some sort of video-gamey feel about it, simply because of the dryness of all the elements in the song. The melodies and composition is actually exquisite, and definitely portrays your background in musical theory.

--Experience--
The song well describes the journey that is outlined in the story, along with its ups and downs. I just wanted to know which part of the song related to which section of the story. It would be good to put this in a description so that people can follow your chain of thinking.

--Style--
The vibe of the song actually reminds me of this PS1 game I used to play called "Tombi 2". It also has some elements of the popular game Final Fantasy; I could imagine hearing something like this in one of their games without question.

--Wow Factor--
The pure composition of the song is the basis for the "Wow!" factor in this, simply because the production takes the backseat and watches the melody flow along. The chord progressions and accompaniments fit together near perfectly, and things just move along with ease.

--Personal Tilt--
I like your work, it's very creative and original. It requires a lot of theory knowledge that I can see you're learning at school. It also inspires me to take a music course (if only I wasn't already doing Engineering ;)). I thank you for sharing this to us and letting me listen. Thanks.

--Production-- = 17/20
--Experience-- = 19/20
--Style-- = 17/20
--Wow Factor-- = 19/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 17/20

OVERALL SCORE: 89/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

camoshark responds:

Hey, Benny, I'm glad to have been one of the last reviews you did with your old account, makes me feel special! ;)

Thanks for the review, I love them!

As for the theory, Even thought the song was theoretically engineered, it doesn't use any of the stuff I learn at school, for the simple reason it never actually occured to me to use cadences and that I've never sat down to think about my voicing, since I've instinctivelly written proper voicing since the first time I wrote down anything (wich is actually true, the first song I ever wrote is posted here under the name Battle of the Heroes)

The time cues for the story are actually an excellent idea, and I've been meaning to do it since the first time I read your comment (Like two weeks ago...)

And finally, I'm honnored to know I insipred you to something, and even more knowing it's along with music/theory. Theory is such an unsuspected weapon in any composer's arsenal, poeple here don't see just where it can lead your music, and often leave it behind. Glad to see I at least gave you a sufficient glimps of it for you to be interested in learning more!

Anyways, I'm really happy to know I made such an impression on you!

Cheers,
Samuel Hébert

["Ramona" (Scott Pilgrim cover)]

I LOVE SCOTT PILGRIM! :)

Hey ryanson,

--Production--
Firstly I have to say... Best. Movie. Ever. OK, now for the song. You replicate the feeling quite good. This is my favourite song from the movie, and you do it quite a bit of justice. The choice to do the 'live' thing was for me a benefit as well as a hindrance for me. It added to the authenticity, but also detracted from the experience sometimes. But I admire your bravery and experiment :)

--Experience--
This song carries much of the emotion that is held at the scene in the movie. And boy, are those chords potent. I just love the way how they meld into each other without a sense of where we're going, but we'll just get there in the end :)

--Style--
Melancholic. That's a way to describe your style of playing. Prudent, precise, yet also wholeheartedly unabashed. Reminds me of the way Jeff Buckley sung. And you've actually got quite a good voice, which I didn't really detect in your song "Scorched Hair and Burnt Guitar".

--Wow Factor--
It's a song full of different hopes and dreams, and you convey this with a surprising tenderness. Sometimes the quality of your mic causes your voice to buzz when you sing too loud, which is either good or bad.

--Personal Tilt--
I like this. It's raw, real, and live - if you can call it that. A good cover of a song that has beautiful chords and a lot of feeling. You really had some guts to cover Beck, but you pulled it off with aplomb. Thanks for letting me listen and critique.

--Production-- = 16/20
--Experience-- = 15/20
--Style-- = 15/20
--Wow Factor-- = 15/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 15/20

OVERALL SCORE: 76/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

Ryanson responds:

It's as live as recording on my computer can get. :)

The chords were what made me consider recording all my parts (all two of them) separately. Took a bit to memorize them and play them... in one day lol.

Yeah, Beck's a genius man. The songs he wrote for Sex Bob-Omb I heard he wrote in one day. i wish I could do that, man.

Thanks for the review.