sleepFacingWest's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[A Stroll Down St Pancras]

The chord voicings in the piano are super nice! The instrumental playing is masterful, and everything is tastefully rendered.
This went in a lot of great directions I wasn't expecting! The arrangement is always moving and a lot of the instrumental choices weren't obvious. I imagined some sort of animated forest based fantasy movie.
Nit picky mixing thing, bass frequencies can be a bit hard to pop out of the mix sometimes without blowing up the meters. The bass guitar was a bit on the quiet side. If you want to give it more presence, try adding a touch of distortion to it (or, as I personally prefer, overdrive). Don't add so much that it starts to snarl and growl, but a tiny bit will help reinforce some of the upper partials in the frequency spectrum so it will give the illusion of louder bass without having to actually bump up the low end.
All in all, really great work! I wouldn't mind hearing more in this style.

[Near DEADline Main theme (DEMO)]

Nice work! Is there a way to preview the final version before purchasing?

Carmet responds:

Thanks! And well, the song plays during the story campaign, and since it's a free game the best way is to play it for a bit.

[you]

Sounds great! What are the extant lyrics?

[a plaintive cry from space]

This is really pretty. My only complaint is that I wish it was fleshed out into a full track. There are a lot of jewels to mine from those melodies you've introduced. You could do a lot with this! Nice work.

Troisnyx responds:

Thanks for the kind words. It is my hope that one day, I may extend these short fragments. 💖

21 Days of VGM emphasised writing a few bars a day based on different prompts, hence why most of my tracks during that period barely scratched a minute, often lasting under a minute. I only remember two of the tracks from that marathon that I've posted here so far that go over it: Dies Irae I and mantle of blue.

[t a c o c a t]

This is really nice. That lilting pentatonic riff floats so nicely, and and I love the bass notes that come in around around 0:25. I might try playing around with automating the high synth part above the piano a bit so the volume slowly ebbs and flows helping it to feel like it's almost breathing. If you add some reverb *after* the volume automation it will help smooth over the movement so that swelling becomes less obvious and feels more like the sound is just kind of undulating.
I'd also consider putting a limiter on your master bus, set the output level to -.6db, then push the gain just until you see the reduction kick in, then back it away a touch. This will help make the track louder without squashing the life out of it (the dynamics are good as is, but it's just a little on the quiet side for now).
Also, I didn't realize tacocat was a palindrome until just now, so that's pretty neat. Keep up the awesome work!

[Modern Interface]

great work as always! Only critique is maybe the bass could be a touch lower at 0:15, and then ease into the level it's at when everything else comes in. It feels a little out of place for the first few bars. That said, by the end it totally works. I love your sound design. I'd totally be interested in checking out a synth sound design tutorial if you ever put one together. Well done.

[Quick Playtime]

Your description was accurate and yet I was still caught off guard at 00:30. Well done!

[Cat Plays Video Game]

Great melody!

[:running low:]

Love it! This reminds me a lot of Amiina's album Kurr (specifically the Seoul track). It seems like something you can get heady about, but remains really approachable with an underlying sense of naiveté and wry knowing smile.

frootza responds:

Thanks dude! I've been digging your insta too bro! This is like, so old too. I really like your articulation (textually) youre bubbling over with the verbiage of your own verbocity sFW! hahaha

[The Simulation Failed]

Awesome! I was a little nervous when I saw that brick wall limiting, but worked well. I love the sound design in the last bit. It's like being rolled around by the ocean during a storm. Keep up the good work!

larrynachos responds:

Thank you sFW! This one is a bit more out there, I'm very glad it has some appeal lol. The little ambient section is so good, I think the one in "You Are So Beautiful" fits your ocean description so much better though :D Thanks again for the review :)