Oakwood's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Valentine 35%]

Whew!

That shit be good man! I can't believe you made all that with 3xOsc, I normally don't get that far with it. Great lead synths, and the beat also had a great vibe to it. I recommend to use some more bass though, I kinda missed that now.
Great one, man! 9/10, 5/5

- LiquidOoze

Darkfire96 responds:

You ask and I shall deliver :3
Its only gonna get better :)
I honestly cant use complex plugins, so 3xosc is like my only choice now lol.
Thanks for the 5/5!

/-Ikarus-\

[The Struggle (NGADM)]

No words.

Despite this song being short, it's the awesomeness itself. Therefore this review is gonna be short as well.
The piano and the choirs in the background sound so peaceful, it 's a wonder they fit so well with the main lead, the bass and the kick. The cymbals, by they way, are a bit too loud IMO, if you could tone those down a little bit, that would be kewl.

Great song (or loop, whatever), I hope you'll extend it in the future. :)

5/5, 9/10, faved

- LiquidOoze

JohnnyFrizz responds:

Thank you very much man, I really appreciate the review and I'll definitely keep working on this, I promise ;)

[Cosmic Fluctuation (NGADM '11)]

Oh yeah!

This is an amazing song, man. Very relaxing and laidback, I would almost recommend it for the Ambient section, but it's probably not relaxed enough for that.
I don't have much to complain about, but I have to say that I find the kick a bit weak. Of course, this isn't the kind of track where the kick should stand out, but keeping it down too much isn't the best thing to do either. Increasing the kick's volume a little bit should do the trick already.
Also, the outro with the hats fading in is kinda weird. I suggest you leave those out and just let the pad (or whatever it is) fade out.

Short review, I know, but that's only because this is such a great song.

5/5, 9/10.

- LiquidOoze

Could you return the favor by reviewing my latest song? :)

Birdinator99 responds:

I actually used two kicks in this song, but they're both not EQ'ed too well. Needless to say, I'm working on it for future songs!

I kinda like the outro, but you still have a valid point. Maybe next time, eh?

Glad you liked it; thanks very much! I'll take a look at your song there, too.

["The Guardians"]

Braveheart

I see SolusLunes already told you this, but I'm just gonna repeat it, this sounds so much like Braveheart. That movie's score is epic, and so is this song.
One thing I love about this song is the fact that you use those deep hits every now and then to fill up the lower freq ranges (if you don't know what I mean, you can hear them at 0:17 and 0:25). Lately I've been listening to some classical music here and I've noticed that most songs are missing that bass you add here. It really fills up the whole song. :)
There's one thing this song misses: CYMBALS! Seriously, where are they? There are several places where I was expecting a splash on a crash cymbal, or a roll on a ride cymbal fading in to create a build-up, but I didn't hear any cymbals :(
Also, small detail: the part from 1:25 to 1:29 sounds like it doesn't belong to the song at all, the instruments seem to differ from the rest there.

Awesome song, dude. I was gonna ask you to review my latest song in return but since you're a classical artist and I'm an electronic producer I'm not sure if you should. ;)

5/5, 9/10

- LiquidOoze

BrokenDeck responds:

Glad you liked this better than my fake bagpipes entry lol :P

[NGADM r1: f4p;f4c]

O.o

Before I'm gonna review this I should first lay down for a few seconds and think about the facemelting ride I've just been on............. yeah, that should do the trick.

Ok, breakcore, huh? Well I don't nomrally listen to that so I can't give you much critics, but I'll try my best. In fact, I'm just gonna repeat everything IO said.
Yeah, the beat is weak. It sounds like there's no distribution in frequency and everything is in the same frequency range. The breakbeats itself were real harcore, I loved those. Also the part that starts after one minute is amazing, it really functions as a tension builder. The vocals also fitted in really well, even though I couldn't make out much more than 'Geat real, get real!'. The part after that, with the BPM that must've been 260 or something, went a little over the top.

4/5, 8/10.

- LiquidOoze

midimachine responds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITJcpa rImeQ <- has subtitles

bpm in the last part was 240 but was probably a little too much for decent listening, ah well :<

[{dj-N} TransformR]

Aww...

It's a shame how the intro sounds so melodic with the piano and stuff, and then all of a sudden you go bing-bang-boom with your wobbles. :)
So the first thing I noticed is that this song isn't the typical facemelting dubstep you get when you search for it on NG or YT. And that's a good thing, because hearing the same thing over and over again makes you tired after a while. It just sounds more laidback than the usual dubstep. I'm pretty sure the choirs and the piano give it this effect as well.
I loved the reverb you had on the snare. I've come pretty close to recreating such a high-shelfed damping reverb but never got the right sound for it. Seems I should try a little harder next time. :P
Only aspect that could be improved is the ending. At 2:18 the choir kicks in and I thought 'Okay, this is the outro, cool', and then you bring the beat back? It would've been better if you'd just repeat the choir and fade out slowly. Or do what dj-Jo said, whatever.

Great song, dude, great song. I recently submitted my first dubstep track for Madness Day as well and figured I had a chance of winning, but now I've completely lost that feeling. xD

5/5, 9/10, faved. Seems I get laid next week, don't I?

dj-Nate responds:

Thanks man, it takes me a lot of effort to make reviews as long as you do, so I gotta say that I really do appreciate it.

[Tzu - Beyond the Clouds]

Is this DnB?

I'm not sure if this is DnB. Of course, it has some breakbeats in it, but I still think it's a bit too soft to be DnB. I think it would fit better under Ambient, but that's just my opinion.
One thing this song misses is bass. The pads you use are close to the frequencies you miss, but now they function more as a sub bass. I think a sinus or maybe a filtered sawtooth should do the trick.
Some stuff considering the beat: at 0:22 the beat comes in, and it doesn't come in the way it should. The first twenty seconds are really soft and silent, and then BOOM! there's your beat. I think the beat needs more of a build-up there, like covering the whole beat with a low-pass, and then gradually removing the low-pass as you progress. Also, the snare needs to be more punchy, which means it needs some more mid-frequencies. You could easily doe this by layering it with a sub-kick, or with a deeper snare or something. I really liked the riffs on the hats, btw.

Good song, but it has room for some improvement.

4/5, 8/10

- LiquidOoze

Tzunami responds:

There are plenty of Drum & Bass songs that I could think of that cut the drums into half-time, and then pick them up into full later in the song. As well, the song is more Liquid DnB/Ambient focused, so I wanted a relaxing but strong song. If I'm correct this song is made from nothing but pads, besides the bell, the sliding synth whistle, the pluck and the bass.

As for the bass, I didn't notice at the time that the slight flanger effect I had on it took more of the volume off then I expected. It tends to fade in and out, but I didn't take too much notice to it. I thought it was a nice touch for the bass to not stand out as much as it usually should.

Other then that, the focus was to make a light song, not the woofer-shattering, hardcore Drum & Bass that people are probably used to.

[Black Widow]

Dat beat...

The breakbeat beat is SIIIIIICK, bro. I love how it sounds so fast-paced and yet the track doesn't at all; that contrast is absolutely brilliant. I also love the glitchy main part starting at 1:19, it really has this dubstep/DnB feel to it, but then again it doesn't. All in all, this song is so weird that it's amazing.
And now for something else: I noticed that in the intro, you used a lot of dissonance in the piano. I'm pretty sure this was your intention, but I have a meh-ish feeling about it, it sounds a bit too disturbing if you know what I mean. This might be because we have a different taste of course, as a house-producer I barely use dissonance, so that's why I always get the shivers when I hear it. :P
Also, the vocals fitted in greatly. I could understand them, but that was only because I read them as I heard them. The first time I listened to this track I didn't read them and I could barely make anything out. I think this is because you're talking a bit too fast and the vocals are pitcheda tad too low. If you'd change those things I think the vocals would be more clear.

This song is starnge, but also a freaking killer. Well done! :)

5/5, 9/10, faved

- LiquidOoze

Could you return the favor on my latest song? (from what I've read/heard you're a pretty good reviewer so yeah :P)

Quarl responds:

Ar, deffinatly. Thanks for taking the time to write up a nice review. I'm a big fan of nonharmonic chords so dissonance is typically key in my music.

[Rocks On The Step MD2011]

Heavy-metal-ish

The drums and rhythm and shizzle really made it look like Heavy Metal, maybe even a bit too much for this to be Dubstep. I dunno what Derpstep involves, but if you think it fits in there, the ok. :)
The beginning was a bit strange, as it sounded a bit happy in comparison to the rest of the song. Also the choir at the ending, I don't know about that either, it just doesn't go with the rest of the song.
The song is also a tad repetitive. It's good that you added some kind of bridge at 1:47 to give the song a little break, but still there's not ebough variety. Doesn't mean that it 's cool, though :)

4/5, 8/10

- LiquidOoze

Can you return the favor on my MD submission, plox? =3

Kirbyfemur responds:

As for the begining, i'm a jackass, thats the only real explaination for it. And the ending, well i have issues with finishing up songs sometimes, and felt it the best way.

I'll have to be more careful of the repetition thing. But it was structure more like a rock song, but i do see what you mean by needing more variety.

Thanks man :3

[Solus- Morning Genesis]

Beautiful

Like cyan11 below said, really uplifting and warm. I only wish it was a bit longer, but I realise that it would become repetitive when this would be like 3 minutes or something.
I personally think this song needs more deeper instruments. The only bass instrument you have used now are timpani, but they can't fully fill the emptyness. I think you should;ve implanted some deeper instruments, perhaps a bass or something.
I can't really give lots of constructive criticism because classical music isn't really my 'thing'. Doesn't mean I don't like it, I just don't let myself into it a lot. But I can say that this track is great, with a minor detail here and there.

4/5, 9/10

- LiquidOoze

SolusLunes responds:

Originally there was a tuba/bassoon section, but it brought down the airiness that I wanted this to feel. Didn't quite mesh, so I got rid of it.