Hypervolt's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Moonlight Crisis (feat. Madison Sheen)]

I like the wibblies and the wobblies

Preds responds:

thx :)

[Flutter]

lore

[-Elemental Senses- (Neon Senses Remix)]

Kinna friggin epic ngl

Preds responds:

awwwww yeah!!

[Unknown Planet test]

For a test (and evidently unexperienced artist) this is actually pretty good! I would consider myself a mid-level writer at best so take my advice with a grain of salt, but there are definitely a few simple tricks that could help with your music in the future. Adding more punctuated melodies with shorter-note instruments adds to your highs, and adding some form of bass under your mostly mid-eq song would balance all of the current parts and blend everything together. The concept is evident, what I would focus on going forward is stretching your wavelengths as far as they can reasonably go with the kind of song you want to make. right now its very hard in those mid-tones, maybe with a few high strung instruments here and there. Don't be afraid to cut in with that bass, add a few melodies and countermelodies to the mix for some extra spice, etc. Great start, can't wait for the final piece :)

[Unfinished Stories]

First things first, I like the title of the song, it already sets this up for a nice little story by itself. I also think your choice in instruments right off the bat is very fun, its not as orchestral as the challenge would have expected but it still offers a very sci-fi and upbeat feel. The pacing gets somewhat slow after the minute and a half mark where the melodies start to repeat, I would have added a few more instruments, possibly a deep synthetic base or a grand piano somewhere. That change in tone at 3:11 is fantastic. Out of all the themes in this category I have listened to so far, yours has the most unique "feel" to it, all you gotta work on is elaborating that vibe and expressing it at a deeper level with more instruments and rhythms. Great work overall :)

GeneralBaker responds:

Thank you for your time to submit this review!

Working through your response: the song title was generated randomly, I just liked this one best. I would have loved to use more instruments, but lack experience in making them / the money to buy them. I might remix this in the future to add some of those...

Thanks again!

[Lordant - Murmansk]

Very atmospheric and fun overall. I think some grander scope could have helped a bit with the prompt, but vgm challenge aside, this reminded me a lot of strolling through a post apocalyptic city or something. Unlike a lot of the other artists you didn't put a story in the description, but I honestly think that considering I can still see one with the emotion that the music conveys by itself is always a strong suit.

[A Lone Beacon In The Rough]

I love the atmosphere in this piece throughout, and the melodic structure put on top of everything fits very well. I think a little more work could have been put into the volume control, as a lot of the strings are very loud and drown out what sounds like should be the lead. Some of the panning is also a bit odd, for example, the bells around 1:28 coming only through the left ear. I also like the variety of motifs at play, both in regards to instrumentation and melodic structure, and the flare up at the end was quite nice.

[Recolonize]

I really like your take on the challenge, making something ancient and almost precursor about the planet which gives it a unique bit of life almost. The beginning of the song is a bit repetitive for how little is going on and I think it could have been built up a little quicker or been a bit longer after reaching its climax (almost halfway through the song) but otherwise, the instrument choice and melodic combinations are beautiful. Solid job :)

Kettako responds:

Thank you for the kind words! I was pretty happy with how the orchestration turned out so I'm glad the reception has been so warm.

I know what you mean about the repetitive start. I had intended the form to reflect how civilizations growth works exponentially (Like how mankind has been around ~300k years but only developed civilization ~5k-6k years ago)

It's definitely something that maybe sits uncomfortably between the razor edge of ambience and tone poem.

[Loft Yard]

Lore? :0

[Galaxy knag]

This is totally giving me rainbow road vibes (the wii version), which is perfect for the competition's specifications! It is a little on the short end, but I wouldn't hold that to it much.