Phonometrologist's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Battle Born]

Great production work in terms of the variety and detail in the arrangement. My favorite part of this is the guitar work. That guitar solo at 2:14 is amazing-- reminiscent of the Joker's theme from TDK. And shortly after that, the vocal melody is pretty sweet. Even the timbre of his voice is reminiscent of Neil Young. I'm convinced that if Neil Young would do Heavy Metal, this would be it. Drummer went off the rails with the double bass... nice

bassfiddlejones responds:

Thanks Phono! Will drop by to leave a review on your track too. Always appreciate your feedback!

[After the Rain]

This doesn't get old-- been listening to this quite a bit while driving across states this weekend. This can almost be a crossover with it's r&b sound. Would've just like to hear some lyrics. That synth lead at 3:30 is just butter!

johnfn responds:

thanks phonom, congrats on your great score! =D

you can thank ethansight for that synth. he's such a balllerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Slowing Down]

Quite the ear worm. As I was laying down to take a quick nap, this song started playing in my head. I was playing this several times at work, and when that happened I knew it was time to leave a review. My thoughts when I hear this is that this would be a great anthem piece for today's generation just like 1979 from the Pumpkins was for the 90s. What a carefree, inspiring piece. I can just imagine joy-riding amid lights from a nearby festival. My one critique is probably something that you'll get a lot of positive feedback as well. It might end up being polarizing for you, but maybe it's just me. The chant at 2:27 is awkward for me, and I'm not sure if it's because I think it would be more natural if there was some kind of lyric going on there, or if it's just the technique you tried going for in stacking your vocals. Either way, that section really was surprising and makes me quite jealous. lol There's a lot of interesting parts here that I haven't really gotten bored at all from the past several days of listening to it.
Its such a catchy song, garlagan. I look forward to hearing some more.

garlagan responds:

Your writing skills! Thank you so much Phono!
I think the chant's polarising too --actually that entire section-- but I'm content with how it turned out. That sort of batucada rhythm with the melody sounded in my head at one point when I was making a draft for the song, and it just made sense to go with it completely.
Thanks again for the wonderful feedback. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you too!

[NGADM 2017 Round of 64 Podcast]

You make me blush

ChronoNomad responds:

Then my work here is done.

[After Humanity]

If I did end up participating in this contest, and if you didn't add the vocals, I wouldn't have guessed it was you at first. Great drive-- you really do create the best kind of works when it comes to distopia. But perhaps that is just what motivates you.

zybor responds:

Thank you very much for your review dude. Sorry I didn't reply earlier.

Yeah the vocal is kinda too much. I overused it :D.

[Deceived by Demise]

Your sound design keeps my ears perked as it sustains my interest. I like the pedal drone underneath the piano, and it fits well as a film piece since it takes its time to progress. If it wasn't for your interesting production work, I would've said that this could have been done all in three minutes as opposed to six. I appreciate the tone of the piece and your choice not to go over the top like some music on steroids. But what I really wanted to comment on was that poignant chord change at 4:32-4:33 with that arrangement. ooohhh that's butter. And that's all I needed to hear.

EvilRaccoon responds:

Thank you very much Phonometrologist, I think you're absolutely right that the piece could have been nearly halved, there's just maybe a little too much build and not enough theme.

Your feedback has definitely been noted! Thank you! :)

[AIM - Violence]

If perfection existed, I would be tempted to say that this matches perfectly with the artwork. The introducing tones and mood really fits and creates a nice build up. You've got the interpretation of the artwork in these sounds, and it's a very exciting/entertaining piece. Always loved your sound design abilities, and I'm quite impressed with this one. My one and only critique is the quarter note bass line at 1:15 especially because my ears got a taste of those frequencies from :58. I expected to hear more of it driving the piece along as opposed to being stabs. But my ears just gave in at 2:34. Great structure to this piece. Thank you
oh and this should really be a loop.

OmegaP responds:

Oh No! I've killed your ears! Although maybe its only fair after my sustained listening of Penderecki's Dream :)

Joking aside, the problem with adding to much of those huge kicks from the beginning is that it is very hard to make the short choppy beats that I like. However, I do think a bit of rhythmic variation could have gone a long ways. Maybe it does get a bit dull.

[Lost In The Hustle And Found You]

For a 10+ min piece, this actually keeps me interested throughout. Very interesting beginning, and the ascending melodic contour at 1:31 is a nice touch. I like the far mix/ subtle approach. You seem to have a better handle at adding different sections without one thing becoming too blaring. The slight breakdown at 6:15 is nice as well. Just everything is done tastefully in how you introduce different instruments and how you withhold things. This piece really does inspire me and I still wish you submitted this to the Picoday collection so the rest of Newgrounds can take notice. Great loop!

zybor responds:

It was difficult to keep the whole track going without bored out the listeners. I was wondering what should I add after the part at 6:00 cos I ran out of ideas. Then I think of something like Waterflame and Savant would do. Honestly I don't know why I could keep it over 10 minutes.

I found these free dnb samples online, free for all use too. So I plugged the samples into the DAW and make the beats. Then come the magic. I used a plugin made in Reaktor to humanize and randomize them. The strings were easy to make and so was the rest.

Thank you for your thoughtful and kind review. :) I really do hope you win Pico Day. Take care and have fun with your love one on the trip!

[Time is a Fickle Thing - Instrumental]

I like the poem from the other version but this works well without hearing the words. As a composition, I like the ideas. The only thing I think you would benefit from is having either better music libraries at your exposure or just some more practice at mixing. But you have a good sense of story telling/structure to your work, which is even harder to teach when it comes to harmony so stay encouraged :)

Grandvision responds:

Thank you friend. I appreciate the honesty, and a review that looks at the emotional aspects more so than the technical. I am still trying to learn orchestration and only recently have began doing mixing, mastering and EQ on my work, never gave it much thought beforehand. My instruments are very outdated but that's because of my OLD PC, I use what I can for that is all I can do at the time. A musician is usually poor, especially indie ones. :P

[AIM - Love In Essence]

Your vocals really creates a unique atmosphere to this that I don't know how to really describe. I get a strange/eerie, yet peaceful feeling from listening to it. Great guitar tone btw.

SoulSecure responds:

It's an electric tenor guitar with 2 mini humbuckers (some know these as 'firebird style humbuckers') going straight into my PC through my scarlet solo. I have it tuned GDAE low-to-high.

EDIT: I mean, I EQd it and did the effects, but none of it comes from a pedal or amp.