TheVenturer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Xtrullor - Arcana (Tennon Remix)]

This felt like a track that has almost no connection to the original, which I suppose is your style but I kind of wanted to hear more of the Xtrullor-ness from that song. Now onto the remix itself... woah. Everything you've said about this track would've probably happened to me if I were a serious music producer. Thus, I'm glad you didn't give up because I definitely would. The beginning was promising as your orchestra is just incredibly homogenous. I didn't even notice it that much the first time, but I could only admire it over and over again. The build up, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found. One riser sound won't do when building up a hardcore bass drop, it needs to be much more dramatic if you want the drop to have an impact. The bass in the drop itself was... dry, and sharp (no pun intended). Not saying that I didn't like it, but together with the shallow build-up, it just didn't feel dramatic at all. With such high potential in the beginning of this song, I expected a dark contrast between the drop and the rest of the song, just like how it was done in the original. However - this is quite a big accolade right here - it was still better than many of Xtrullor's drops, both early in his "first era" and the newest ones. Despite the flaws with the bass and the atmosphere in general, the orchestral component of the drop was still top-notch, and actually made a contrast against the rest of the song. While Xtrullor's basses sound all watery, yours are a bit too dry - but it is not a big deal, and I have faith that you'll find a way to improve. Ok, my favorite part of this song actually comes after the drop, at around 3:18. The orchestra was simply beautiful, very ambiental and inspiring. The ending could have been a bit better as well, but that's just because I'm very nitpicky with atmospheric details as you can tell.

Overall, this review was written at 1am without double checking what I've said, so it's probably very chunky with information, so I'll pinpoint what I liked: choice of instruments in the orchestra, mixing & mastering of the orchestra, mixing in the drop (except for the dryness of the bass), the entire 3:18 section. What I didn't like: the buildup, lack of distinct melody (what makes it ring in your ears), some parts of the bass mix (the dryness, also not large enough to cover the panning spectrum), transitions, ending.

Despite giving the lowest rate here, this is for me a song worth remembering. Keep improving as an artist and please don't take anything I've said here personally - don't change your style if you like it just because someone said you should change it. I will share this song around and gather some more opinions on it though. :)

Tennon responds:

I agree with most of the stuff that you have said, like the dryness of the drop, not enough bass, build-up and the rough ending. Definitely gonna take that into account next time! However, I made this song in a very Tennon way and I didn't really want to make it sound Xtrullor, hence remix and not edit...

And no, you didn't give me the lowest rating, someone actually gave me a 2/5 lol fml

[Goukisan - Betrayal of Fear (TeslaX VIP remix)]

It's a very odd feeling when you can't find a single flaw in a song. And an amazing one.

[Punker & Xtrullor - Icarus]

It may be simple in current standards, but this song is a very underrated piece of art. Tells the epic story of Icarus in music, the medium that provokes the strongest emotions. When I listen to this track, I do feel like Icarus. Rise to the sky, touching the bottom of the ocean, but never losing faith in the journey lying ahead, that is life. And then again I might be biased since the song triggers a few extremely emotional memories of mine, but honestly, if this isn't one of the best songs in the orchestral music genre, I don't know what is.

[Xtrullor - Ichor]

So... yeah. This song has it all. Very powerful, resonate orchestra with epic vocals and incredible sound design at the drop. It sometimes does bug me though - this song turned out to be very successful. This whole 2015 orchestral dubstep thing was amazing. What bugged you so much about it that you decided to change your approach to music altogether, and create music that you make today? Like, I probably would listen to your music still if I could only listen to your second era stuff... But it is not the reason why I noticed you the very moment I first heard your music.

[-Miami Hotline- Vol.3]

That's one of the best drops I've heard.

[The Garden of Eden]

We all know where the reviews come from. Thank you, X's list of favorites.

I am giving a bit smaller rating because the culmination is underwhelming and very unfitting. The sound design was fine (especially the Razor if it's what you used in the drop), orchestra even better, but the arrangement and diversity of sounds especially in the drop just wasn't at the level I expected it to be after hearing the magnificent intro.

Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty good song, and even the drop that I didn't exactly like is not bad. I would've given this a 3 star but because of the effort that took to make this song happen 3.5 stars will be my rating.

Tennon responds:

Ima put some effort in the next drop!

[Xtrullor - Supernova (TeslaX remix)]

I've been waiting for Xtrullor to do just this. Now he has an excuse for not doing it, which is this track right here...

You've really done a superb job, very much on par with Xtrullor's production. Certain parts of the song aren't that good, but the drops were too magnificent for me to drop more than one star. I'd say this is better than the original. 8/10

Edit: Well fuck here are your 5 stars, this is not just an ordinary track.

[-Time Machine-]

To be honest the rest of the song that isn't in GD is highly underrated.

The orchestral pattern that follows the song around 2 minutes on towards the end, the energetic background arp, the quick drums, and parts like 2:29 and 3:49 really make this track stand out as my personal favorite video game track. Aside from the frustrations it had given me in tough Geometry Dash levels of course.

I could go even further and say that this is my favorite eletronic track that is not made in this decade, rivaled only by Fire Aura (which has slightly better melodic composition, but overall still behind this track).

[Radiant Morning]

I am not too familiar with how GarageBand works but the idea of a chillout track worked pretty well in my opinion (it's definitely not dubstep though >:() 2:24 is just too loud though. The velocity preview saved me this time, but some will just freak out when something like that is thrown at them.

I've actually voted a higher rating than this because it's your first song, I'm a beginner too after all. If you ever decide to produce music for real, try FL studio and get a synth to work on.

FractalWave responds:

Thanks for listening to it! I'll consider getting FL studio and I'll also see what I can do about 2:24. I'll also change the genre! Thanks for the feedback, it's hard to get when you're new and I really appreciate it! <3 Sadly my next song will have to be in GarageBand because I already started working on it in there and I don't want to abort.

[F-777 - A New Energy (Xtrullor Remix)]

I might not be the one who should be saying this, but the mixing seems to not be on point as it has been lately. The synths in the drop are way too loud compared to the wobbling bass and the liquish descending sounds aren’t executed well either. Honestly, while the current wobble bass of yours works well at 140bpm, it’s not as surprising and pure as it was in Terran Era or Universal Expression. If you have the funds, try working a track around a different synth, and if not, challenge yourself and make a new wobble bass style for these kinds of tracks. It’s a very similar situation as the one you had after the success of Supernova. The specific kind of bass that made every drop a bang was used a lot and during the following two years you would shift to a completely different and more advanced style, different from the good old Massive days. You don’t have to go through that again, but consider it. For now though your music is still my main source of inspiration.

What I like about this track is that it’s finally more action-packed. The second drop is one of the best in a while.

Oh, and finally one more thing. What I used to really like about you personally is your public interaction with your audience. You have a great personality, and I would really like to see you around in the news section or in the Youtube comments a bit more.

Cheers,
Ven