Kor-Rune's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Northwing Fury II]

I like the guitar that comes in around a minute! Troisnyx shares my thoughts on the drums. I think less punchy samples would work better for that glitchy sound.

Let the drums chill a little, and bring out more of that theme in the guitar, perhaps through chords or otherwise. c:

Keep it up dawg!

Blacklawn responds:

Thanks a lot for reviewing! I'll try to give more focus to the guitar when I remake it.

[DJSS - Dark Horizons]

ForeverBound is right; the high end EQ causes a bit of fatigue throughout the track. Just make sure your ears don't hurt during mixing! For the first part, I think the snare reverb is too loud, and dampens much to early for the kind of flow of the track, it just makes the drums sound abrasive combined with the originally loud snare sound, repetitive beat and lack of drum fills.

I like the the arpeggio at 1:23, but I think a cross fade would have worked better instead of just attacking with it. It makes the section before it seem like a separate track.

Your voice sounds good! However, that auto-tune speed is set really high, and it sounds so sporadic. Sure, it is in key, but it's really jumpy. Also, repeating the new/dark horizon lyric is a little cheesy, I feel like there's a lot of room for more lyrics and vocals on this track. Or, if you're going to repeat, add in some harmony layers to spice things up!

Also, the telephone/reverb effect is.. kind of dated. Disregard this, because it is just my opinion, but the telephone EQ effect should be used in moderation. It just seems a little predictable.

Anyway, cool track, could just use some touching up. Keep making music man.

steelside responds:

dat review. This is what i'm talking about. Thank you so much for the time you spent writing this.
I personally don't hear the problem with the snare. Yes the beats repetitive, but I feel as if having fills would take away somewhat from the hypnotizing effect I was going for.

I agree with you on 1:23 wholeheartedly. I heard the same comment from a friend of mine that it sounded like a different song started. It's kind of because the song until 1:23 was actually a loop itself I wrote seperately from the rest of the song, which is why the sudden change.

About being cheesy i didn't think of it that way. I guess I'm a cheesy individual. I did what I heard was natural in my head to do. The lyrics of this were extremely spontaneous. I was listening to the loop part one day and started singing and thought "hey why not" and recorded it and the rest is history.

The only part that has the telephone effect is at 1:35 TO 2:15 WHIcH is the calm before the storm type part, build up, so I wanted the vocals to have the high pass filter effect as to create contrast between the same lyrics at the drop.

And about repeating the lines... that is because I was embarressed to even sing on line, let alone more, so I just used repetition alot and played around with the effects.

PM i'd be more than happy to discuss this with you.

[I Got This!!]

This is great! I don't particularly like that atonal beep that starts three seconds in, just seems a little loud and abrasive by its nature. I love the stereo processed clap, but it gives me a bit of ear fatigue because it is loud and frequent. I suggest turning it down or something like alternating the snare and clap.

Other than that, it sounds great dude! I love the jazzy chords that come in later, with the fat bassy synth. Keep it up dude <:

eppskevin responds:

Thanks, man. Actually the beeps in the beginning were really more or so to keep the groove of the overall project going, actually. The beeps represent Pheonix Wright talking as he gets ready for the next track, which is the court theme. But yeah, I can see how by itself it can be annoying, lol. If you heard the whole project, you'd see what I mean, though. I appreciate everything you said, man. Yeah, I appreciate the words on that bass, too. I love basses, definitely, man. Thanks a lot!

[Nice to Meet You Here]

The composition is beautiful! I would love to hear this fully fleshed out <: Of course, step got most of the problems listed out. Other than the odd strings and thin piano, it is a gorgeous composition!

CheckeredZebra responds:

Haha, thanks! It's an honor to hear that from you. =)
Been tweaking with it for a while; everything up to the piano is the same, but beyond that...it's pretty much completely different now, haha. Just have to see where this takes me. =P

[Symphony (GB)]

That's awesome you sang on this! We need more vocalists on newgrounds, even if they're vocoder'd to hell and back! The voice is a useful instrument to create flavor and it's awesome you did. You've probably heard the whole limiter thing by now. No matter how low I turned it, it still seemed too loud. The effects and all that are interesting and diverse otherwise!

Great track, man <:

GrantBowtie responds:

Thanks man - Ya, I sang in "Sirens" too - you're right about it adding another instrument, and people really connect to it. thanks for the review.

[Alpine]

GORGEOUS. This is something else, I love all of your chord voicings, and how they relate in the pillowy clouds of your pads. So pretty, super jelly. The melodies throughout are beautiful. The bass that gets busier just gets me excited, and then, I'm sure you've heard it below, it ends too quick. :C However, I think I know you could've developed this more based on how much of a badass you are, so I trust it was the time limit cutting you short.

I love how the drums come in with that pan automation, super subtle but awesome production choice <: oh yeah, the mix is great of course. 5

BlazingDragon responds:

I love how you notice my favorite things. <:

I'm not a bass player and have never played a bass, so I get really excited when people like my keyboard-entered bass lines, heh heh. Actually, this whole piece is more or less an improv. I improvised all 2:00 of pad chords and then tweaked them a bit to my liking. Then I added that drum loop at the beginning and had it transition to the more aggressive EZDrummer stuff. Thought a pan automation would be cool with the pad atmosphere and threw that in...Then I improvised a piano part over those chords (several takes though until I liked the one I ended up with). Added a bass, tweaked some wrong notes, quantized the crud out of my poor playing, did some more editing, and ended up with this!

So it's certainly not a cold improv, but every aspect except the drums was improvised and overdubbed. And then I ran out of time just when things got cookin'. :'o

Thanks for the great review man! Can't wait to hear your first album (if you haven't already made one).

[Free like the birds]

This rocks! I love your voice! I'd like to hear some more exotic melodies with your voice, and certainly more of your upper octave.

I instantly recognized the AddictiveDrums! I abuse that drum machine a lot. The drums sound great, I might change the beat during the song some more, maybe a dreamier kit altogether. I hear some nice dynamics and ghosting going on, but the hard hits hit really hard and should probably be brought down to bring out your voice.

Otherwise, all the instruments sound great, and the composition is great c: I enjoyed it!

DivoFST responds:

Dude the fact that you commented on my song is amazing, you are probably my favourite artist in NG.
Im really a drum noob, Addictive Drums helps me a lot but still a noob is a noob and technical mistakes on the drums will be found xD<
Thanks a lot for the comment Kor-Rune!

[Ecosystem]

WOW, this is huge, great melodies, fantastic instruments, and breathtaking percussion. ESPECIALLY THE PERCUSSION. Triangles, windchimes, solid orchestral drums.

It's perfect. You convey exactly the message you want too; all the imagery is there. Mixing is flawless. Five out of five, ten out of ten. omg

and holy shit that's a lot of patterns dude

Step responds:

OMG a review by the one and only Kor-Rune. *melts*

Thanks a lot for the review man. You're one of the first to compliment the percussion, and I'm really glad you did. That percussion took me a considerably long time to get right. This is one of the most percussion-heavy tracks I've ever made.

Thanks again man, glad you liked it!

[Of Epic Proportions]

everyone kicked ass, WOW. We need to do this again. Awesome mix and music from Rob too!

RobSoundtrack responds:

Kor-Rune, you know I'm down
Thanks for the plug, sir!

Everyone was indeed ASS KICKING!

[Her Wish]

My goodness, what voicing. I love the sound of the strings and woodwinds, the warmth is just a great feeling but you probably already know. The harp is beautifully detailed and enough to keep everything together. It just makes me want to smile and walk through many pastures with this on repeat.

It does sound like you were crunched for time with the abrupt ending. It's a good thing I want more though~ goodluck for round 3 C: I know you'll win the whole shebang so you probably don't need it. THANKYOUBOSA

Bosa responds:

Gracias, senor "Kor-Rune"