BrokenDeck's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ancient Machinations]

Your instrument usage is great as always. I like the change in feel in the song. It starts out with an attention grabbing bang, and then later presents us with a tender emotional scene in the middle, before reminding us at the end that this is indeed also an action song. The ending was a bit abrupt, but you mentioned that you had computer problems so that is understandable.

[Her Wish]

NGDAM Round 2

It's a shame that you didn't finish this piece. It's biggest strength was your usage of chords in the strings background, it reminds me the "Hollywood sound", more or less like John WIlliams. Melodically, however, I felt that this song didn't go very far.

[Dayum (NGADM)]

The choirs were an interesting addition to this mostly electronic song. Dubstep is a weak genre for me to analyze however. This song was interesting to hear, although I couldn't really pick out anything of note except the choirs. Other than the volume being a tad too loud IMO, I couldn't find anything else wrong with this track, other than maybe I didn't find it particularly outstanding.

[Chemicals [NGADM]]

Overall, I thought this was a good track, but some of the drum fills sounded odd at places, and the song tended to drift into unexpected directions. The guitar solos sounded as if they were part of an improv. Your vocals were okay, but sounded off-key in parts, not nearly as strong as in your audition piece.

[timeslip]

I loved your usage of saxophone in this piece, something I hear rarely in NG contests. This gave me a overwhelming relaxed and chill attitude, and I can see myself listening to this while sitting in the den. Don't fret too much about the drums cause they sort of have a "in the background feeling" to them. Like the night is winding down in a jazz / blues club, and you're one of only 2 or 3 patrons left, and the band is playing it's last song before the places closes up for the night.

acmeDyne responds:

Thank you for the good review!

[What's Ahead (NGADM 1)]

For some reason I scored this a 2.5 during the judging process. I thought composition was decent, but production wasn't nearly as good as your audition song. Also, the entire song doesn't seem to have much in terms of dynamic range, in that the entire song sounds like it's at the same emotional pitch.

CheckeredZebra responds:

Thank you for the review! This song actually took much more time than my audition song, even though (based on other judges' reviews) that one was more liked. (Audition song took approximately 3 days to make in total, while this one took a week + a few days of tweaking.) Interesting how it all works out.
I was worried about the song coming off as too much of the same thing. Seems I halfway messed up at that despite efforts to the contrary (without resorting to sudden calm spots, which I wanted to avoid because it went against what I was aiming for).

I definitely agree in terms of dynamic range, and I'll look into getting education in mixing/technology. The actual software is becoming pretty hard to pick up, although I'm working on picking more unique instrumentation to break up some of my weak points. Sorry this song did not impress you, but the feedback I've gotten so far will help me longer down the road. =)

[Isis]

I can see this being used in a discovery / exploration scene in a film o flash. It's lack of melody is it's shortcoming, but also leaves room for many different angles of interpretation.

BenTibbetts responds:

OK, thank you for your analysis.

[==(Whatever)==]

It's got this "Pink Floyd feel" to it. BRB chilling to this...

[King Samulis]

I love what you can do with your samples. You know how they all sound and feel together and make them sound wonderful together. However, this song sort of had a "demo feel to it", it didn't really develop any definable leitmotif to me, and the 1:00 minute part sounded like a completely different song compared to what the start presented it as. However the section immediately after that reminded me of Respighi's "Pines of Rome" in his ever rising use of horns. Great job as usual! :)

[King Bosa]

It thought this song had a sufficient melodic variance to it, like following different parts of an adventure story. I get the feeling that this was what you were going for. Samples were decent, but I feel that what you lack in sample quality, you make up for in compositional skill. Great job!

samulis responds:

Everyone always says my EWQL samples are decent. Must just be my mixing and selection. >_<

Glad you liked it, thanks man. :)