Arponax's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Distorted Sands {NGMC 2025}]

Yeah that transition needed a little bit of foreshadowing XD but it is a very brave transition imma keep it at that. The guitar tone feels very out of place too (real guitar would be much better ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

Tho this song feels pretty race-y and i smell a little surf rock inspiration in there :D

ImmyShack responds:

Indeed transition bad, i couldnt make it any betta man

'twas a real guitar!! I jus threw in distortion!!!!

[Chrome Frost (ft. 3manon)]

Oh boy im gonna sound like the weirdest guy out here XD

From technical standpoint, this is perfect the mixing, mastering, sound design and faithfullness to the genre is awesome.

And for me personally thats the biggest flaw...i just am not that impressed by clean, loud mix or these kinds of bass sound designs.

It all just sounds the same to me, it feels like i just heard a song that i heard 1000 times before and the most creative and unique thing here is the part at 0:22-1:59 where the formula concept is...and even then it still feels like it was there almost from the beginning of colour bass or dubstep.

I guess the calm parts were 3manon's work. Both of you did your parts awesomely.

The sheer devastating quality of mixing and sound design magic from Quintivium and awesome atmos work from 3manon makes up for absolutely killing entry in this round.

I just hope there was more of both of your personalities in them choruses.

Please take this as purely personal preference :D

3manonMusic responds:

So we basically made the song too good lol
All jokes aside though, I get how this track can feel as just a "sound design show-off" rather than a big focus on coherency. Sometimes a track just doesn't have that raw, unrefined edge to it

[-Frostbite-]

Imma be honest i personally cant imagine this being a racing theme...maybe its a style or type of games i never really had experience with or i dunno.

For the quality of instruments as other people mentioned low quality, tho i dont think that is a problem cause you can actually make anything work...for example having some "cheaper" orchestra being completely post processed is absolutely awesome thing for making creative variations in your music. (for example, why not run them flutes through some hard distortion or why not making your brass delayed and reverb-y as hell or just having fun with random effect like choruses or flangers).

So for me its not about bad or good instruments but rather how we make them work in our music.

imo this aint a bad song, i love the chiptune part of it and im sure with more experience the overall compositional quality will only go up.

Creeperforce24 responds:

No need to lie, I know my samples suck. The quality of my instruments sucks, and I don’t how tf I got this far on Newgrounds… but perhaps it’s like what @Overscore said.

“People don’t follow you for your music, they follow you because your a good friend…”

I find that both wholesome and depressing on my end

[one80 & radon - Arctic Overdrive [NGMC 2025 Round 1]]

Im not sure i would be able to say anything that wasnt said already so ill just say that this is a very hectic and crazy journey definitely fitting into some sort of AG racing games or just something that has alot of speed to it ya know (cough...Redout2...cough).

The mixing is perfect from my point of view, sound design is sharp and precise.

Great job, i hope well will meet on 2nd round.

MU53 responds:

Hopefully so

[Arctique Fire]

I have a simple love/hate relationship with this song :D i absolutely can imagine it in something like NFS or similar game.

You have chosen incredibly unique and specific approach. The arctic theme is not in the composition itself but ofc them lyrics are there which for me personally is enough.

Mixing and the beat are simply nice.

And oh boy i love those vocals XD really cool work guys really cool.

CasualBreather responds:

Thank you a lot Arpie! :3

[Polar Drift (with X3ll3n) [NGMC 2025]]

Racing is a very wide theme and arctic feels like it can be approached from many sides. I feel like this piece is just fitting into a racing game or atleast to be listened to while playing some...arctic feel for me is in those goofy/playful melodies which are definitely there, so overall im just enjoying a great piece of electronic dance moosic.

Snikio responds:

thank you very much!!😆
for me personally, a clear reverb piano sound subtly layered in the drop was the key to the arctic feel

[Frosty Glide Ride]

I never played Mario kart so this is not about nostalgia for me :D it is very fun to listen to even tho it doesnt fit in the type of racing games im into i still had to put this in my picks cause it simply fits.

There is that kinda fun melodies i would expect from arctic or snowy theme and the overall feel is present.

Great work both of you.

Everratic responds:

Thank you!

[Mo i Rana [NGMC 2025]]

This is such an easy listen piece, ice yeah. :]

Benji-G responds:

Thanks Arpieeee!

[ADREN_x67B]

Lets begin shall we? :D

It is loud. Its incredible how you were able to push it so much while still having insanely clean mix.
This stuff far beyond my abilities so ill not talk about mixing (not that i do much tho XD) :D

The intro feels like we are present at rebellions base and just going through the briefing, really nice work with background voices and FXs.

When at 0:30 lead synth is introduced it kinda adds that sophistication to everything from how the base itself works and the strategy were being familiarized with.
Your work with growls is really nice, this kind of "dubstep" (or maybe electro house, not really sure) works very well with the nature of a very chaotic action scene 1:30 there is a short intermission that reminds us were not in a familiar nor friendly environment and i like it, 1:45 those crunchy sounds are just lovely.

2:14-2:57 I feel like some real storytelling begins right here and im not sure if you actually imagined it like that but to me it feels very mysterious as if one of the soldiers looked into a random room and found out some really weird stuff...maybe some of Bastions experiments or maybe just something dangerous that must be told to rebellions command.

After that the song gets back to its pacing and now it feels more furious and raw, stuff got serious.

3:53 We reached our destination and are preparing to plant the bomb and get outta here.

4:12 this short part here is totally my style(absolutely love it) and it feels like just run and gun action...like, we have few minutes to get out and just shoot everything that is not us.

4:50 is a very creative touch in my opinion...after the powerplant destruction we hear some of Bastions systems turning off...and simply know, we succeeded.

Wow, i basically just described whole song, thats mostly because i cant really think of any compositional thing or critique to add or change, development is really nice, mixing is hella crispy i love it...most of the song is not really my style, tho i enjoyed this interesting approach to the mission.

Thank you for choosing this story and making this sick ass banger :D keep it up.

Also congrats on FrontPage

vekoN responds:

thank you so much for the rating and review! <3 it's insane that i got 4.5 stars from you!!

and, intriguing story you have going on with my track! truth be told i didn't entirely consciously try to tell a story with this, i just kind of applied my usual rather narrowly-focused compositional methods and let the track decide where it went. once i have some instruments and sound design going it's easy for me to come up with sections; the tricky part is making them fit together coherently. i think i've gotten better at that

and yeah about the mixing, i'm glad that it sounds both clean and loud! i think i've gotten hella far with that kind of thing since i started mixing that way, although to my ears i still have some distance to cover. but yeah, i'm glad that's good!

again thank you for designing and hosting the challenge! it was super fun applying my skills to create something for it! i hope you have a lovely day :)

[Hailstorm | Turning the Tides of War]

Well VGMC is over and now its time to enjoy them bangers.

The intro 0:00-0:10 is very interesting, those subtle percussive sounds at the beginning with a bass and sudden silence, to me it feels like if i just received the message, and at 0:13 went right into the hyperspace with the escort.

Those synths at the intersection are absolutely lovely, dystopic scifi synths are always pleasure to hear in any scifi soundtrack.

The whole part before the drop works perfectly to convey a very serious situation, dense atmosphere and prepare you really well for what is to come.

the drop 1:09 sounds awesome, pure adrenaline driven action scene...i only wish that those dystopic synth lead were utilised (more? i guess they are there tho very supressed compared to before) throughout the drop, to add that dense atmosphere into the drop...after all at that point its a "now or never" situation, every move matters and failure is unacceptable.

Even without that, the drop still slaps and the second half works just fine for what i described. Hard hitting bass adds that much needed seriousness.

2:33 i am a big sudden transitions enthusiast :D so i absolutely love this...it feels like i were following the soldiers at their mission and suddenly went dark not knowing how they managed to push through, to me theres a lot of uncertainty in that and i would kinda like it to be longer before the guitar is introduced...maybe a subtle pad to fill in the void and kinda prepare my focus on that one sudden note.

Now the second half, complete turn around, that bittersweet feeling to it is absolutely gorgeous, we moved from hard hitting synth sounds to more organic instruments, adding humanity and emotion to it all...i know that the soldiers managed to complete their mission as the drums start kicking in yet theres alot of weight and pain. Even tho they won there were loses, even tho they knew its inevitable, doesnt change the fact that it hurts to lose your comrades.

The organ arp is a cherry on top of this beautiful finale and brings in freshly gained hope for the whole rebellion.

Oh boy and i love that contrast between synthesized sound and organic vibes.

I think you nailed your ideas really well...i am not sure to what degree i imagined it the same way but that is one of the beautiful aspects of music where everyone has their own imagination.

Well to stop my bragging :D

Sound wise im not sure what i could talk about since to me it feels mixed well and i consider it the same or higher level than my own.

Thank you for joining VGMC and picking my story, good job.

GasGrass responds:

Thorough analysis! I have to be honest...not ALL of this was 100% intentional, but the interpretation adds to the experience. Glad you liked the track! Your story setup was sick!