Frictional's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[HOLKAN - Flow [DEATHSTEP]]

Meh...too much white noise, but the structure is good though. The vocals are insane btw, you did a good job on them, definitely. In the future, just try to avoid to use white noise or any sort of noise.

.:FRICTIONAL:.

Holkan responds:

White noise is very useful in Deathstep. Anyway, I'll try to make something without white noise.

[Where the Heart Is]

Very enjoyed to listen to this track! Actually, this is one of the few songs that actually impressed me here on NG. The only thing that I actually disliked is the lack of orchstral "drums", they could fit pretty well in this composition. Also, why is this so short? Like 1:33 is not that much for a composition of this level. Also the ending is very short and a bit lack of a proper outro. It seems that you just lost any possible idea to end this track.

Anyway, as I said, I very enjoyed listening to this. Keep up the good work! :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

We're glad that you enjoyed the listen :)

Really? I find that a lot of tracks on Newgrounds tend to be of rather good quality. I'd say we didn't really use too much orchestral percussion, because we wanted the track to have a very light feel, in general. That, and the light percussion we use here fits pretty well already! We do have the roll at 1:10, though :p

As for the lenght, you'd probably want to look at it within the context of the track's usefulness. It's supposed to have that "home town" feel. As a standalone track, it might be a bit short. But many tracks like this that are actually used in games tend to be of the shorter kind, and loop too. Often, it can be because tracks take some place, and the file size has to be below a certain limit. I guess that aside from that, composers that make full scores tend to have so many tracks to compose that the avarage length of every track is a bit shorter. But another reason is that we simply feeled that we were finished when we got this far XD

As for the lack of the proper outro, it is because the lack of it makes the loop sound better. But maybe you were listening on your phone? :D

Thank you!

[Overwatch Theme]

Indeed a great work. The only this I dislike is that:

1 - It's a loop;

2 - The FX are quite useless in a cinematic/orichstral/miscellaneous track, considering that those kinds of music should be made with more orchstral stuff instead of using FX;

3 - It's very repetitive, but enjoyable;

Keep up the good work!

.:FRICTIONAL:.

Lalalo14 responds:

Yeah I know it's very repetitive, most of my stuff seems to turn out that way :)
Thanks for the review!

[DJ-M - Present For Present [Inst]]

It's a good track indeed, just fix the mastering. The drums and the effects, expecially in the beginning don't let the SAW to be heard very well. Also the synth at 2:20 could be modified, it's not that good in a House track. The piano is very good tough.

.:FRICTIONAL:.

P.S.= One of the tags says "eletro" instead of "electro". Fix it too.

[Super Metroid - Brinstar Overgrowth (SEGA Genesis Remix)]

Not bad, but you definitely lacked on mixing. For example, the cords are too loud all the time and the bass can't be heard very well, but this is a subjective thing, I guess. Also the kick is almost useless, considering that its volume is WAY TOO LOW. I could barely hear it; and last but not least, the drum pattern should have included more particulars, give to the track a faster and more (I know you'll hate me for what I'm going to say) modern; we're not in the SEGA times anymore, we should look forward and, why not, we should try to mix retro electronic music with more modern elctronic music. Hope you'll like my review and don't hate me too much.

.:FRICTIONAL:.

Kherr responds:

Your response isn't straight up just saying it sucked without offering why, so I don't hate what you had to say. I'm not like some people, I can handle constructive criticism and I actually like it because it shows me where to improve. Yea, I made the mistake of mixing it on an external 150w PC soundsystem setup instead of my headset, so that's why levels are a tad messed up. I just listened to it on my headset and yea, I see what you're talking about, so thanks! Now I know not to mix down using my external audio lol

[Mechanical Flow]

This is a very good track! I played FEZ and I listened to the original soundtrack. Comparing the two ones, I consider this a REMAKE more than some sort of your own take. Nevertheless, there are some things that don't fit with the melody:

1 - The silent parts in the beginning, you could have filled them with FX or sound effects, to have a more complete track and sound design.

2 - The drums, expecially the snare, the should have been louder and more "punchy" because, in my opinion, they're useless, if you can't even notice them when they start.

3 - At 1:00 you could have stopped for like 10 seconds with the Hat, and, using an automation, they could have restarted.

As I said, this track is not a disaster nor bad, you just lacked with the structure and with immagination. As I said before, this is a REMAKE more than an own take made by you, it's lacks on originality. Hope you'll appreciate my review/feedback.

[Kirby's Amazing Boss Fight]

The drum doesn't match the melody AT ALL, and having a piano as lead instrument and other synths in the backgrounds makes the track very awful. Also I think that this kind of MIDIs are not premitted on Newgrounds, I'll ask about it.

Aisnon-A responds:

I appreciate your feedback. Though, there are some things about it that must be pointed out:

"The drum doesn't match the melody AT ALL"

Since you were providing constructive criticism, it should be stated that such statements indicate nothing about quality unless one explains or implies how. In Oni Niiro's Gourmet Race, a near identical drum rhythm is used when the lead is played. The same rhythm can be found in SSBB's remix of Gourmet Race as well. Also, before Gourmet Race kicks in my piece, the drums do match the melody, so the emphasis on "AT ALL" is excessive. Nevertheless, I will take your statement into consideration for future projects.

"Having a piano as lead instrument and other synths in the backgrounds makes the track very awful"

I don't want to assume what was meant by this, but for the sake of discussion, I'll assume , " [...] makes the track [sound] very awful." In this case, I would not know how to make use from this possible interpretation because appealing to one's tastes does not mean anything to another. To me, the piano and the synths sound well together, making the interpretation personally absurd. Similarly, if one considers a literal interpretation, then the claim is not useful to me because the lack of explanation, especially since music is equally defined by structure and sound, while the statement refers to only sound.

"Also I think that this kind of MIDIs are not premitted on Newgrounds"

I, too, was a bit concerned regarding the use of MIDIs, but then I read the policy regarding them. If I understood correctly, so long as the musician does not replace the MIDI's individual tracks with another instrument and modifies the structure/notes/etc, it is permissible. Kirby's Amazing Boss Fight's composition differs from the original mix's composition, but that's only being said within my best judgement. I do not want to misinform you on this matter. Proceed with whatever investigation you have done.

Wooo. That was a mouthful. I want this response to be consider as a helpful suggestion, or possible reminder of the basics of providing constructive criticism. When I read this, I was admittedly grateful for the low-score review since that means opportunity for improvement, but the provided feedback lacks useful constructiveness. That being said, I do appreciate your time spent on writing it (and reading this response).

Thanks.

[Bradley Spectrum - Dawn [Original Mix]]

Meh...I checked out some of your other tracks, and, I'm really sorry for what I'm going to say, but this is probably one of your worst one, if not THE worst.

1 - Some parts in the melody from 0:00 to 1:03 are compeltely wrong, because the melody that you composed with one doesn't match the one in the other synth; to be more precised, at 0:13 and at 0:28, you can CLEARLY hear that one of the melodies, possibly the background one, ruins COMPLETELY the lead one;

2 - This is probably something that you chose to do, but some synths don't match the lead melody they sound WAY to much RANDOM, if I'm explaining myself well.

As final vote I give 2 stars, because I like your other works, like your remake of "Sky" by Steerner & Martell; If it wasn't for your other works, which proove that you have really good potencial, this track wouldn't worth even not an half a star.

.:FRICTIONAL:.

Falsesouth responds:

Thanks for the review. This track was so hard to work with to be honest. At least you are explaining your rating.

[Calming wind]

Not that great work, you should have been spending way more than 4 hours of work, the piano doesn't fit the rest of the song at all.

CrisTheGamer responds:

Yes, I´m going to work harder for my next track, I also thought I had not invested enough in the project

(Sorry for bad english)