damifortune's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Harmonic Dispersion]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

so catchy, what an uplifting and cute vibe : ) there's so many snail's house-isms in here (particularly the melodic bits), which i guess based on the tags is extremely deliberate, haha. you did great at replicating that style, and it fits the character + style of the artwork you chose nicely.

frankly this seems spotless to me, the production is clean, the song shifts gears in the right places, and the writing is fluid. i don't have a lot to note here - maybe it would've been cool to see a more adventurous solo in the final big section in the last minute of the song instead of mostly repeating, but i don't really think the song suffers for it; it would just be an option to dial the excitement up one extra notch, maybe. it's so solid as-is; awesome job!

LordAndiso responds:

Woah!!! Thank you so much! This motivates me! I am very critical of this song to be honest.. I see soo many places to improve on.. It seems a bit shallow for my taste the more I listened to it. What makes me think that way is that the melodies repeat all the time without much tembral automation changes or something.. makes it feel a bit repetetive.. Just creators critique here. I always think I make crap, but I still like listening to what I sometimes call crap. I also try not to invest too much time on songs, so I dont overdo them (hard to finish, always want to change something).. I am very indecisive xD

[AIM // Sweeping]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

this is adorable! i can't help but smile as i listen to this. it's hopeful in a peaceful, introspective summer morning kind of way. maybe our bee friend in the artwork is feeling good while taking care of their chores and thinking about all the good stuff that lies ahead in their day/week/month/season... ah man! there's so many nice details to love in your piece, from the thoughtful ambient intro with the piano rubato to the glitchy noise percussion flittering and stuttering to the tasty bitcrushes and reverses. i'm in love. it evolves so nicely.

one small thing that comes to mind with the sixteenth note rhythmic ostinato going on in the last couple sections is that it could maybe feel a little more natural if some of the velocities of the notes were varied, especially lowering them a bit on the offbeat notes (or whatever notes you wouldn't want accented; it's worth experimenting). it doesn't stand out to me too much, honestly, because there's enough other similar/related rhythmic stuff going on in other parts. but that little bit of detail work might make this even more lovely than it already is!

littlbox responds:

Thank you so much! I appreciate your detailed review, and am really glad to hear you enjoyed it. I also appreciate the note on the sixteenths' dynamics! I didn't even consider it before, but I'm tempted to go back and see how that adjustment would affect the piece. :D

[AIM 2023 - Armageddon (Old Mix)]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

definitely feeling the sense of urgency over massive chaos from the synths and sirens! when it hits, it really hits. the processed bass is quite a bit louder than the rest of the song and before that i was honestly thinking some other parts could have a little more processing or effects work on them. though this isn't really a style that i make, my instincts would be to turn most everything down in volume collectively first and then raise up some of the things you want to showcase the most; like for example i think the drums could actually pack quite a bit more punch, especially the kick.

i loved the cinematic ambience of the intro in particular. sort of a calm before the storm... or maybe more like the patch of green grass depicted in the artwork you chose. imo the contrast between that and the hellfire of the rest of the art is really cool. but as the artwork's description reads, death is a busy man at a time like this, ha. cool interpretation, and definitely well-suited to an armageddon scenario

AceTAD responds:

true

[AIM - Pick it up - Corrupt Module]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

some of the processing here, like the buildup into the section at 2m and the glitchy faded ambience after it, feels like the musical equivalent of dithering, which is a cool textural way to reference the artwork inspiration you chose. i really enjoy that sort of digital hazy mood and you've got a lot of different stuff going on in the track to enjoy. it does kind of jump from one idea to another and never really go back to any of them, which might affect the overall cohesion of the track a bit, but i definitely enjoyed all the ideas you laid down. each of these sections could probably be its own song if fleshed out individually and developed further in those styles. stay weird! get weirder!

CorruptModule responds:

I WILL NEVER CONFORM TO mUSICAL RULLLEESSS BWAHA HA HA HA HAW!!!!



thx for the reveiw :)

[AIM - Horizon]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

ooh, a sunvox entry, that's cool to see. i really love the swelling ambient pad sounds in particular. they fill me with the sort of expansive, wide-eyed wonder that it's easy to imagine that little fellow in the art experiencing at such a vista. to be honest, i would have loved to hear like 300% more of that and save the drum beat for the climax of the song only, maybe like halfway to 2/3rds through. for sure the high energy, uplifting drum sections bring on an aura of "contemplative and hopeful", especially with the synth lead melody - this is a good interpretation of the art too, but considering how much of a focus there is on the sheer enormity of the landscape in the artwork, i would've preferred to hear more of the big cool chords, ideally with some additional progressions before returning back to your core one.

imo this would also be a good way to pace the development of the song; there's not a lot of development of the ideas within the individual sections, but the sections themselves are distinct... so rather than having two different big instances of the drum beat sections, combining them into one and shortening their lengths, using that as a climactic statement, would a) have a ton of impact after a bunch of spacey ambience and b) be a natural source of idea development, with the only other thing you'd really need to write being new ambient stuff inbetween (which could stay low energy or eventually start building towards the climax).

i hope that makes sense! this is just my opinion, and i think there's plenty of good ideas to latch onto and enjoy in this anyway. but thinking a bit more about the overall form could really take this to the next level i think!

OVERSCORE responds:

Thanks for leaving a review.
This is the second review complaining on the drums, and alerts me that I should have thought on the thematic elements and making the song a bit more cinematic. I’m also hearing again that I should have used those ambient elements more.
I’ll think about this for next AIM, maybe I’ll score a bit better :/ thanks for the advice.

[Optimus Primal [Art Inspired Music 2023]]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

hot dang, that acid bass sounds SO good! it's the real star of the show for me, but everything else feels nicely mixed too, and there's a lot of cool filter work. pretty much right when i expect something new to happen, something new *does* happen, and i like how your sounds come together for new ideas after the piano interlude; the high melody there is such a nice touch. this is excellent and assembled well! it's well worth its nearly 6 minutes of runtime!

i dig the story you've assembled from out of your chosen artwork inspiration, too - you really gave some thought to interpreting the image in your own way. your song exudes the "primal beastly energy" being written about, and even if i were to totally ignore what you wrote and just look at the image, i could easily match the music to this sorta "king kong transformer" illustration thanks to your instrumentation and stylistic choices.

Trackers responds:

Thanks! 303 my favourite synth but always risky using in a comp as its not always appreciated like I do heh. Love the feedback, thanks for stepping up to Judge!

[AIM Dance Of Seduction]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

this is super pretty and atmospheric...! i like how slowly it's paced and how the sections build and ebb and flow. the samples you chose are doing a lot of heavy lifting in this piece for sure, but everything feels well-placed and fitting with this "exotic mermaid dance in the water" theme. you've got a good sense for mood! nice work.

i think ordinarily i would declare the vocal here to have "too much reverb", it really is quite a lot, but it actually doesn't cause too much mud in this piece either because there's so much space for the few moving parts you have. it's really nice in the first, more ambient section; at the end is maybe where i'd dial it back some since it's the climax and more things are happening. incidentally, regarding the few moving parts, it's cool how everything here has its own clear purpose and then nothing more. wise choices were made regarding what to use!

DigitalProdigy responds:

Thank you so much for the review I really appreciate it. The reverb in the vocal was a bit difficult to work with once I started adding the other instruments. It was to late to cut back on the reverb once I finished the vocals, so I had no choice but to try my best and make sure the song did not sound muddy or distorted. I will definitely cut back on some of the reverb on my vocal tracks in the future.

[Chocnoon - Prototype ~AIM~ (CCLXXXIV)]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

above all, my main suggestion is that individually all your parts should be turned way down in volume because they are pushing up against your limiter/compressor and sometimes also clipping (distorting). you can tell by how immediately quiet the opening guitar riff gets when the drums start hitting that there is simply not enough room for all the sounds to coexist. turning down all their volumes will give everything room to breathe.

the other thing i think might help you a bit is adding some variation to the velocities of the notes in your guitar lines for instance - like lowering the ones that aren't on the strong beats and generally not using the same values 100% of the time for a little bit of a humanistic touch.

i def get that you chose your instrumentation to try and fit with 'japan' but beyond that i'm not picking up a lot of relevance to your chosen art inspiration; in particular the artwork depicts a major natural disaster event so i maybe expected something emotional, heavy, dark, or... fractured, maybe. there's also a ton of details in the artwork you could hone in and focus on, if trying to tackle the whole thing is too overwhelming, like the busted cars or shattered buildings.

with all that said, there's good potential here for something that really goes hard. there could be a little more development and variation, especially with the drums, and i could definitely see some distorted rock/metal guitar chugging going on, but the basis of an idea is definitely here, so expand the prototype!

name responds:

I think I've switched the secondary inspiration with the main one. Also, I have troubles with mixing, since I always mess up with the instruments' volumes and I put them to 25, and I also forget to use the Limiter feature.

Unfortunately, I can only edit recent songs and I post frequently due to the fact that I made a settlement that if I don't post for more than two weeks, I have to do a devious act.

However, I can use mp3cut.net to turn down the mastering, but it will keep its flaws whatsoever and the only way to fix all its flaws is through doing it from scratch.

[rocks and rocks and rocks [AIM 2023]]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

super cool! i dig the style, and respect the lyricism and willingness to write and rap through personal stuff. the emotional resonance comes through both in the words and in the periodic increases in intensity like near the end in "it's unbelievable..." and the last chorus. i think you matched the mood pretty well to the erupting volcano and, of course, the overarching theme of "rocks" lol. i liked the handful of little chops/stutters too, a personal favorite thing to hear in music

probably the only thing that stands out to me here is that there are a bunch of places where the accents in your flow and in the music are shifted from how they would be spoken. on one hand, i like the consistency of your rhythms, and in that respect i'm sure it's a deliberate decision on your part, but at the same time, some of those spots can feel a bit awkward and harder to parse as a listener. i wonder if there is a middle ground where you can both make 'unusual accents' part of your style while still having good diction. or maybe it's just not my preference! i dunno - just food for thought! either way i think this is great!

MasterHand4444 responds:

Thanks for the kind words and critiques!

I'm very glad you felt the emotions I felt while writing, and I'm also glad you liked my lyricism; there's some meaning in there that only I know and it's vindicating that it can be felt through the veil of song.

I also agree with you about how some words are spoken; I've talked with one of my buddies who also writes raps and he's said that's one of my weaknesses. Your suggestion of a middle ground is one I'll seriously consider!

Thanks again for the critiques; this was a very fun track to produce. :)

[AIM - Stellar Guardians]

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

a very serene, contemplative piece...! i feel a sense of divinity coming from the way you wrote this - choral pads, evolving sounds that swell and fade, and a very slow rhythm filled with open space. it's very thoughtful and fpairs wonderfully with the heavenly bodies depicted in the artwork you chose; a fitting sense of humbleness and reverence of the human in the presence of the almost inconceivably large and powerful.

i really like when the piano part quietly comes in over the top of the chords; it's just enough motion to develop the piece without feeling like too much. harmonically, i think this could develop its progressions a *little* more instead of repeating - introducing just a bit more contrast and some tensions (or dissonances) that lead into nice cathartic releases. but what you have already is quite lovely, that's just my thought for really taking it to the next level.

GlaceonDash responds:

Keeping stuff non-repetitive is 100% an issue on my end, as it's a struggle to keep it the same mood