Treviabot92-Virstein's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Sinking Old Sanctuary]

I'm surprised I haven't yet reviewed this.

I'm personally not enthralled with this piece, and that's mostly because the drums throw me off from the rest of the song. The quality itself is great and for that I envy you; that's just impossible for me to achieve with FL Studio alone. But because of the drums, it doesn't sound right.

Keep in mind, metal doesn't necessarily mean really fast drums like what you hear in DragonForce. You try listening to some Sabaton, say Carolus Rex, and yes, they have the pounding drums, but they aren't insane at the same time.

...well, yes, they are, but that's a different kind of insane from what I'm talking about here.

Anyway, that's my take. Obviously, if you have another cover, or are considering making another, I'll review that too. Hopefully any critiques I have help you out; that is, after all, the objective behind them.

[meedogh - Space Journey]

I gotta be honest, I couldn't listen to the song all the way through because it was pretty much the same movement over and over again. The pianos you use were literally always on the same note, and then there's that one sequence that repeats ad nauseum which, while it does lend towards variety and breaks up the monotonous dual piano, doesn't do a whole lot past that.

Now, don't be discouraged. It wasn't too long ago that I was a beginner with FL Studio in a similar position as what you find yourself in. What I would recommend, rather than making original stuff right, is to do some easy covers/remixes/whatever you wanna call them, and get your sea legs, so to speak. If you tell me what it is you're looking to do using FL Studio, I can help you in how to do it. I have been using the DAW for six years, after all, so there are benefits to experience, even if it's only self-taught.

meedogh responds:

i am creating better music

[Nerd Is the new Sexy Ep #1]

Personally, I'd classify myself as a nerd for these reasons:

1. I really like anime. I regularly go on Hulu or Netflix and take a look at what's on there, and I'll watch some of the stuff that isn't necessarily mainstream. I especially love English subbed with the original Japanese voice acting, and I make it a point to explain why I love that, but I don't force it on anyone. Admittedly, it does annoy me a small amount when people say that Goku or Luffy or Naruto or whatever male anime lead character sounds like a woman just because their voices are by women, but all I can really do there is leave it at, "They do not." There ain't a whole lot I can do beyond that.

2. I'm a huge scifi fan. Gundams, BattleMechs, starships, alien planets, doesn't matter what archetype they fall under, I love 'em, but especially mechs and space. GaijinGoombah actually had a video on mechs pertaining to east vs west, the differences between the two and the upcoming real-world robotics showdown, and just on the mere mention of that last one I blurt out, "No fucking way! That is awesome!"

3. I'm technologically and mechanically oriented as a person. I like the idea of taking apart a controller to see how it works, and I put my current computer together from old parts my brother gave me. I have a 12-gauge Winchester shotgun, and I can take that thing apart easily, and put it back together just as easily, both of which help with cleaning it after a day at the range. I regularly work on my family's cars to earn some spending money. I enjoy all of these things, even working on cars, regardless of the money involved.

4. I know for a fact that Battlefield 1942, the first in the series, was released in 2002, but while it had driveable vehicles, the first FPS game that did was actually Activision's game Battlezone, released in 1998, which was a hybrid between FPS, RTS, and tank simulation. As it happens, Battlezone also has area-specific damage, limited as it is; shoot a guy in the head or the cockpit (which glows with the pilot's sniper rifle), and that kills them instantly.

5. I have been targeted by kids in high school for my nerdiness. In my Fine Art discussion, when I mentioned my fondness for anime, one kid was all, "This class is Fine Art. Anime is not fine art. I can shove my entire finger up my nose." So yeah, there's nerds, there's jocks, there's snobs, and then there's this dork. What made it worse was that my teacher also targeted me, and right as they did that, my grandfather died. So yeah, I've quite a bit of pain associated with visual art, which is why I don't have more than two art submissions.

I was fortunate enough to be born in the 90s, and while I don't have near the knowledge you guys have, or even a nerdy collection, I still consider myself a nerd. I would hope my view towards myself is shared among others.

wyldfyre1 responds:

The love of nerdy things! Glad you listened! thanks for the review!

[Ephemeral Forever]

It ain't a bad song. I liked it enough to attempt to look it up, searching "Forever Forgotten" according to the Mecha Arena credits, then finally typing out the six-digit audio ID into the navigation bar (I was playing on Kongregate, so...). Sounds like you used FL Studio for at least one instrument on top of the other two programs that you say you use.

Now, like I said, it ain't a bad song, but I thought it was a little repetitive, though coming from me is rather hypocritical on my part. Just look up my original compositions and you'll see why.

I'm glad to see you've been active within about eight months of now, but you should definitely start putting more up this year. I would myself, except I'm in a bit of a rut.

[Into the Second Dimension]

The sounds are a little bit off, but it definitely has its own style, just like how mine does. Having another track harmonizing with the original was a good call, although I would've made the harmony track lower than the original. That way, the original track stays dominant. You can see the perfect example with my cover of King K. Rool, where I got inspiration for the harmonizing track from Moltov.

If you like, I still have the .flp I made from doing the cover by ear. I could turn that into a MIDI and send it your way.

I've also scouted you. You're welcome.

[PixEvo - Theme]

I made a cover! Check it out:

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/liste n/532957

[Sinking Old Sanctuary]

There's a few things you missed, but good job overall. Definitely experiment with other synthesizing programs on this song, and you should do much better now that synthesizing programs have advanced.

As to the song itself, I felt your main instrument was overpowering and abrasive. Note-wise, throughout the song it was an entire octave lower than it should've been. It also ended abruptly, as opposed to fluidly going to the next note. There was also supposed to be an echo in the main instrument. There wasn't much else that could be improved in another rendition.

Maybe take a look at mine to see what I'm talking about? Mine's a considerable amount more staccato than the original, but so far the ratings suggest it's the best cover on Newgrounds. I say that with as much humility as I can possibly convey; I didn't get as good as I am overnight, more like over four years of practice.

[The Sinking Old Sanctuary]

Personally, I think it's pretty good. I think more what SniperSnake was referring to was the pure saturation of sound, but of course that's simply because you seemed to be using only one instrument, and playing multiple notes with one instruments at the exact same time tends to make the overall sound overpowering when you're synthesizing music. Other than that, I see no problems.

Maybe perhaps later on you'll go over this again, mess around with more instruments? I guarantee that it'll sound much better after all this time.

Lone-X responds:

Thanks for the awesome review! I appreciate it!

Peace and love,
Lone X

[[SP] ~ Elysium Demo (Loop)]

Well, if nothing else, I'm glad to know that you saw the one note, though I wish you would've taken my review on your '09 Elysium+ submission a little better than you did. You need to finish this, man, don't just let it sit!