Realmguys's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Morph - Sham-rock The Pub! NAC]

NAC Judge

Morph - Sham-rock The Pub! NAC
I got the sense of a jig first off, but then it rocked into a modern sounding tune. Nice Melody! I wasn't a fan of that fakey fiddle lead. It had way too much vibrato for a lead. This has a definite Irish feel, but I just can't get past that fiddle. When the song breaks into fife/pipes, I still was left wondering why you didn't find a higher quality instrument. The drums were nice and the beat left me rocking my head around a bit.
Overall: Better fiddle and better pipes and this would be excellent in my book.
8.3 .

[I Think I Need a Drink]

NAC Judge

I Think I Need a Drink
Bonus points for using your own voices. (.2) The instruments were severely drowned out by the vocals however. I thnk more care could have been taken to make the vocals more pleasing, you obviously all can sing, and it seems a bit rushed. I can definitely see large Irish lads drinking to this jig. Good job maintaining the feel of Irish drinking songs for this contest! My foot was tappin and I had the urge to chug a pint of lager for sure.
Overall, this song met the criteria of the contest and was definitely in the spectrum of Irish folk music.
8.2 .

[A Peaceful St. Patty's Day]

NAC Judge

A Peaceful St. Patty's Day
This song sounds more like a kids show to me than an Irish melody, but it is still a catchy and easy to listen to song. The uplifting nature of the melody was refreshing, it gives a strong sense of peace and relaxation. Foot tapping and body swinging was definitely happening :)
Overall, this was a good song and met the criteria of the contest.
8.7

[- LD - Rolling House]

NAC Judge

- LD - Rolling House
I did not like the intro. After the intro the melody is fantastic however. The intro melody clashes a bit with its notation. I really felt like the success of this piece would have been so much better had there been clearer instruments. The ones chosen seem to have vibrato built into the sustaining of the notes and it tends to mud up the harmonies and melody a tad. The percussion was AMAZING.
Overall this was a good song and met the criteria of the contest for sure. I was tapping and swinging to the beat/melody.
8.7

Breed responds:

Yeah the intro melody gets off on a bad start right away. It's my biggest regret in this piece. Absolutely right about the bagpipes and fiddle clashing and muddying even more during its sustained vibrato too. Thanks for the great review!

[[Kieda] Thoughts of Hope [NAC]]

NAC Judge

[Kieda] Thoughts of Hope [NAC]
This melody is catchy enough and fits in the realm of folk songs. However the instrumentation of this songs seems as thought it is lacking some. I get the feel of General Midi instruments with very light effects added to them. This song needs better quality instruments along with some effects that create a spacial atmosphere.

Great Melody, less than appealing instrument quality.
7.2

[[Kieda] Reflection]

Nice song!

Very nice. Was movin around to this song. Very entrancing beat and I really dug your soft synths, they had a neat soft feeling to a hard edge style of music. The leads that bust out in the middle feel a bit out of place, but still maintain the cool melody. Overall, great tune here :)

Kieda responds:

Thanks :D I guess I should figure out what leads are "in the middle" now... hmm...

Thanks for the review (:

[Super Galaxy Arc]

NAC Judge

Super Galaxy Arc (mrmcduts)

Sadly, I was hoping for more entries that sounds like Nintendo 8-Bit rips. This is the only finalist entry that pulls it off with flying colors! Absolutely well done in regards to old-school feel.

The punch bass line can overpower the melody at times and can distract from the theme. I would recommend using a less pronounced bass sound.

Volume levels of tracks change drastically throughout this, and confuses me when you would want something louder than the melody, it negatively affects the presentation when things get lost due to simple volume mixing. This is something you may need to work on.

This definitely took me back to the old sound of things!

Bottom line: This entry met the criteria of the contest and deserves a score of 7.7. With an additional .3 bonus for old school arcadeness. Overall 8.0

[Game Boy Space Waltz]

NAC Judge

Game Boy Space Waltz (WerewNC)

I absolutely feel the Waltz in this piece. Haha. However I envision clowns in space doing the three-ring circus thing in Earth's orbit. I enjoyed the whimsical approach to this contest, it is definitely a fresh approach and feel for the contest.

As your title implies, this sounds as if were recorded off of a game boy, so good job with that. This song is simple yet highly effective.

I am brought back the old sound for sure, but have trouble thinking of space at all. Nice crisp, cheese, old school synth sound!

Bottom line: This entry somewhat met the criteria of the contest and deserves a score of 7.4. With an additional .3 bonus for old school arcadeness. Overall 7.7

WerewNC responds:

Whimsical is a great word to describe what I was going for with this piece! If it made you smile, and reminded you of the Game Boy sound, it achieved my goals for it.

I'll agree I missed on the space mark. I'm not quite good enough with music composition yet to embody the vastness of space in four channels. And, hey, it sounds more like the theme song of Elite than any other entry, haha.

Thanks for taking the time to judge the competition.

[Birefringence]

NAC Judge

Birefringence (Blackhole12)

I like the drum event that happens at 1:23. It comes back a few times in the song, but does not return enough in my opinion. The theme I am hearing here is a very classic and effective chord progression. However drawing away from my enjoyment was how muddy the melody and beats got from the amount of effects used.
There is clashing and crossover from echoes, reverb that is bouncing off of other sounds. Again another case of over processing when a barebones approach to effects would have worked better for the purpose of this contest.

If the effects were toned down 50% and the sounds were not running into each other in your recording space, this would have sounded a ton better. There were actual sounds cutting out because of the phasing and echoes.

I definitely can vision space travel with your song. Good Job! I don't really feel that the song brought me back to the old days though.

Bottom line: This entry somewhat met the criteria of the contest and deserves a score of 7.3.

[S.P.A.C.E EX plus Alpha]

NAC Judge

S.P.A.C.E. EX Plus Alpha (F-Meister)

I felt as though this theme could not decide on it's purpose. The pace of the tempo was good, the samples and sounds used were fine. However, the main initial theme has moments of major chord usage, then shifts abruptly into minor resolutions. I was very confused if I should have been happy or sad about this space trip.
The secondary theme is much easier to understand and I love it!

To add to the confusion, there is a phase effect and compression that is making me feel like my head is in a vice.

If the submission were without the muddy phasing effect and the theme had a decisive major or minor feel of the initial theme, it would be complete. I also didn't feel that I was brought back to the old days so much with this entry.

The sounds are crisp, the quality of your patches and samples are not in question. Lose the phasing and compression.

You have a real talent for grace notes and rolls, I really enjoyed listening to the complexity of these.

Bottom line: This entry met the criteria of the contest and deserves a score of 7.5. With an additional .2 bonus for complexity. Overall 7.7

F-Meister responds:

Thanks for the review.

Hmm, I really don't understand what you mean with the whole major/minor feel - the song as a whole is in a minor key (with 2 key changes but always in a minor key) with the chords almost strictly adhering to the progression of the key, with the bV as the exception.

As for the phasing I guess its not for everybody. I'll work on the whole compression thing that's for sure!