Arponax's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Anno Draconis]

really cool track, i dont listen to trance much XD so i dont have much experience with it both compositionaly or by listening. But this was fun, i tried to play on guitar while listening to it XD it has very simple melody and theres alot of place for little solos and counter melodies, so for me the best possibility :D

Even tho the melody is basically the same it doesnt really felt stale for the whole time which is really interesting, when i do stuff like this it always ends up being boring for me, maybe its because im the one who listens to it hundred of times on repeat in the end but who know.

Great song.

AED-4 responds:

Thanks for the review! Yea the melodies are super simple, really they are mostly just arpeggios with attitude ;D

To give some counterweight to that I tried to give it a feeling that it's always moving onwards, and not staying still even when playing the same melody for an extended time, so I'm happy to hear that it's working :)

[Flame of Passion]

But dayum, this is loud XDD

AHH, that transition at 1:35 should have ended with that real sick ass Dnb drop where everything goes crazy (oh i think its called neuroDnb or something :D) the basses the leads the noises the DRUMZZZ.

2:00 hmm this might be just my view, but personally i dont like to start my drops with halftime and transitioning to doubletime....uff it feels like kinda suffocation of energy, just doesnt feel right....halftime for me feels like when youre driving on a highway full speed and just go into neutral....no gas no breaks no stress, you know. Thats why i like to start more flow-ey and then turn to neutral to slow down but still remain in the same energy.

i dont know if it makes sense, its just me comparing song energy management to car driving XD, you can ask me that on discord if youre interested XDDDD

Anyway 4 hours of work, too good....great job...too loud tho XD

JinZ responds:

Appreciate the feedback

[Strawberry Bossa Jam]

Now that is some high quality stuff, very simple very nice to listen to and the guitar just a cherry on top of all that :D great job. An hour and a half well spent.

I personally would love to hear more dissonances and weird notes(but thats how i imagine jazz) :D but still a banger.

xanxoepico responds:

I'm very glad you liked this little thing of mine! And yeah, I could've played more with dissonances, I admittedly have a small knowledge of them hah

[Then The Sky Rained Fire]

Sounds dope, though i think some sounds still could use a little bit of polish to fit them a little better into the mix.

This doesnt really sound like a bossfight where you actually fight the boss, rather its that kinda experience where you run away from it trying to save your ass XD theres one really cool in Ori and the will of the wisps where you have to run away from the big sandworm.....still brings me nightmares to this day.

Anyway good job on sick orchestral and cinematic feel. The intro is especially nice.

AceMantra responds:

Eyyy thanks for dropping by! It does sound a bit like a chase, but that doesn't bother me. They can't escape! 🔥

[Lets get down]

That waveform XDD looks like lowering the volume.

Ackee39 responds:

THE LOUDNESS WAR NEVER ENDS!!!! NO LIMITS!!! ONLY ANARCHY!

[Sudatory]

Lol this just gives me sort of really hard type of synthwave :D the kick, the snare and the synth, mmhm yummy.

How you did that bass movement...is it some sort of filter? or just automating distortion strength? sounds really dope.

those little drum rolls are a cool element too, i personally would expect some larger change in the second half where it just changes in that complete banger and the bass just goes completely crazy or something XDD its a techno tho and that tends to be simple, so really nice job.

This too sounds very videogame-y tho :D all those songs i reviewed in this layer sounds like it should be in a game.....maybe its because composers tend to go for more underground and experimental genres when making music for games? who knows :D i find it interesting tho.

xZiriusX responds:

the bass indeed has a filter with sync mode in vital, which doesn't actually do that much, it mostly sounds like that because of sidechain hehe. And yeah, I agree the track could've gone a LOT crazier, but I basically made this in a rush because of time constraints :/

Glad you enjoyed it though! :D

[FD - Requiem for a Dying Universe]

I really like this......i personally have big problem to not like make something over the top hype song XDD and since i want to focus more on cinematic music its kinda problem XDD

You told really nice little scene with these sounds, really curious about the fourth layer.

I was thinking what could be added but its already done so well......maybe here and there could fit some subtle cinematic drum rolls or some little string riffs to fill the void or help with setting the mood for specific sequence....but it really hits nice. Good job.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Appreciated, thanks!

[(NGAIC Layer 2) THE PROJECT (unfinished)]

Oh boy, thats what i call technical dnb, the second half with that plucky bass feels like some cool scifi movie song.

I dunno if youre planning to look at this project sometime and finish it but it could be really cool to just add some spacey fast pluck melody in the second part of the drop.

Anyway really cool concept, has alot of potential.

lilyyan responds:

This is one of my best latest ideas so of course I'm finishing it! I could add a fast plucky melody in the second part of the drop potentially although not entirely sure whether or not I'd necessarily like it. And anyways, thx! Glad you appreciate the track as much as I do.

[FD - Finely Aged Space Cocktail]

Tbh, i never really heard of intelligent Dnb, is there like difference in how the beat changes or the bass?

on the other hand its fun to see how different people imagine basically the same style of music, i like this alot the fact that you developed the bass in the last part and went for more wobbly and distorted sound....the drums you used really reminds me of Prodigy i dunno why XD

did you made the drum break yourself? or used a sample, just curious.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Hey there, thank you! I recently grabbed a bunch of drum breaks and Massive presets from Rhythm Lab. Really neat stuff, highly recommend if you're looking for drum samples that have a dusty, organic quality and have some cash to burn.

It's funny you mention Prodigy because the style I took inspiration from used to circulate around their time (mid-to-late 90's). "Atmospheric", "Intelligent", "Ambient" is all label lingo that refers to the same laidback and more sparse kind of jazzy 90's Jungle/DnB. You can find loads of mixes on Youtube if you look it up. I just made everything sound more lo-fi because I guess that's my thing. Cheers!

[YendorNG - I Like That (NGAIC Level 2-2023 Entry)]

definitely an interesting piece, even tho liquid dnb is not my type of dnb, i think you could play more with the drum rhythms and some more percs to make the overal vibe more interesting.
maybe some more instruments too, like some lovely subtle pad...uh or maybe some synth to like layer with the vocals that could be interesting :D

afterall apart from the fact that (to me) it sounds a bit empty its not a bad concept, i like it.

YendorNG responds:

I'm used to writing Happy Hardcore tracks (which is DnB's bastard cousin), I get what you mean by the missing synths but I am not too experienced with creating gentle ones over vocals, just hard unison-y ones during the instrumental bridge. Thanks for the review. :)