Breed's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Stride (Mans0n)]

. . ...

YOUR MOM GOES TO COLLEG

Mans0n responds:

lmao wat

[Rucklo - Endless Handbag Remix]

. . .

Gotta love that style of percussion! Not sure If I'm of fan of the timbre of that really simple sounding organ like instrument...the lower lines work, but the higher ones just sound like a little too much of a simple sound to me. The scratching and vocals are definitely legit. Also I'm hearing lots of rough gritty mushy lower end on the mix. I'm sure the vinyl sounding noise is intentional but I don't think thats the culprit. Was some of this recorded live? Were you going for a particular type of sound with the mix? Sometimes it's tough to tell if people are intentionally going for a more retro sound or not.

Anyways overall fun little piece since that percussion is so awesome.

Cheers!

- LD -

Rucklo responds:

i think i cleaned up the low-end reasonably, there should only be the sub and the bassdrum down there... thinking of it, i might have forgotten to EQ it properly... but whatever, i have no time to fix that now anyway.
as for what's recorded... the scratching is, everything else is MIDI-controlled, written by hand. of course i've edited so that it shouldnt be TOO tight, as that'd take the vintage sound out in three sec.
frankly, there's not enough vintage-sound in this tune - as the original seem to consist of whatever samples... to make it alot better i should have made loops of all instruments and handled them accordingly. but again, i've no time, so it all stays purley programmed.
as for the recorded scratching, more or less all of it is original scratching, but i have cleaned up some where i've made small misses in the cut and whatnot. it always takes forever to cut the scratching up so i can pan it around (doing that manually so i get it tight), but yeeeh...

Glad you like the tune though, in case you haven't you definitley should check out the original!

[DepecheMode-Remix]

Sorry for such a delayed review response!

Usually my reviews are pure mix criticism so I hope you don't mind.

The first thing I noticed on here was the little white noise sound then the applauding. Personally I think applause can be used well in a track like this, but not in that form. My suggestion would be to remove that to accentuate the more ambient like intro which will in turn make the more energetic/rhythmic sections seem even more so. The synth that comes in right around 17 seconds I think would also come in better slowly with a filter. I like the kick up until the full percussion comes in at 51 seconds. I think in order to really achieve that full mix feeling to a song in this genre you should get a punchier/more bass driven kick to power the song at that point since the bassline sits closer to the low mids rather then the high/mid lows. The high synth that sounds like a voice by the end at 31-35 seconds is really cool but I think you should add some reverb or a more longer decay. The vocals at 2:42 just plain don't work IMHO. Your reverse sounds don't match up that well with the downbeats(just off by a little), and I think they are a bit too loud too. Reverse sounds fit nicely when a little lower in the mix.

Anyways so my main points are a stronger kick for the main sections, less applause, double check your relative velocities, and make sure vox are in tune to song.

Thing's I liked about the tune would be the synth that sounds like a synth at first and turns into a voice at the high end of it, the melody(who wouldnt like depeche mode though), and the general structure of it.

4/5

Cheers!

DjMontana responds:

Hey logicalDefiance...

Well thnx already for a Long Review..
Im Telling you right now my Energy For posting my Tracks here is deminishing..
Im Not getting results here on NG .. there are too pfew people who really want to
exchange their traits with me.
Also people like this blizzaine type below are just not making it worth posting it here after all those hours off work.

As for people like yourself.. i always am ready to hear these kind off good critisism..
Youre right in the sound tough.. my Fruityloops is not attuned.. and the volocity is always a problem is this program.
i will check this again in time and mabey remake it with some better sounds..

Now i am Really late with reacting on your review as well.

Thnx for youre time

Greets DJMontana

[Solar Step]

. . .

A couple things I noticed about the mix...

The drums are drowned out by the lead synth, especially the low end up to the low mids. Also the scifi effects that are really high pitched are drowned out just by the power of the lead more so then interfering frequencies. At 30 when you bring in more percussion you added a kick on that downbeat, but it overloads and sounds gritty and too loud. I like the use of the extreme filtering near the end, but I feel like the automation to bring it back in would be better off as a wave instead of a simple curved shape(which is what it sounds like).

I did like the general melody and structure and all that fun stuff, but I am a big mixing nerd, and couldn't comment on that much.

Kudos mate. Cheers!

- LD -

CardboardowI responds:

First of all, glad you liked it, thx for the review and the 9.

second, the high pitches ur talking about, I wanted them to be a backround role, and occasionally drowned out unless u changed equalizers to your prefrences.

The thing at 30 seconds you're talking about simply has to do with speaker quality, im not sure how to resolve it. It sounds bad on my laptop, sounds good with my bose headphones.

I agree with you on the filter, however the way I did this was very complicated and taxing, and that was the best fade in I can get it to sound, I never liked it as much as I should, but yeah, you are correct.

Thanks again for the review, be sure to see my new stuff which i'll upload soon, and get some friends to come over, rate and review as well.

[[DJ_ITD] - Sterile]

kjsdhfkljdhflksdh

asdfjbhdfhdkjhaknsn

I would love to collab with you sir.

djInTheDark responds:

Um, ok, sure! Didn't see that coming, shoot me a PM and we'll talk.

[-PdG- Quick random shitty demo]

. . .

Good synth work and melody definitely but I think you need to work on that side chain envelope and the mixing. What program are you using? If it's FL studio I'd love to spice that thing up with some sharper more swing like percussion. Anyways the melody you end with could go for a lot longer....so that would be a good place to start. I am imagining bringing in a higher beep like synth over the top near the end...and then dropping into a bassline/perc duo with electro style basslines all over the place, then back in to what is the ending of this and then take a progressive approach from there.

The hi hat your using sounds a little bit too much like a shaker. I think a sharper hi hat, with maybe a little ghosted note just before each kick would really bring some cool motion to it. Not to mention changing up the timbre of that bassline more. Anyways that's the ideas I'm having.

Have fun, Cheers!

Prodigal responds:

Haha man. Thanks for the review, this was probably my first piece of work after my laptop broke, and I don't really have anything worth it other than 3xOsc and VEC, so i worked with that. thanks for the review, once again! I probably would take your advice but I just don't feel like working on this one anymore :)

[^^^^^^^^^^^a^^^^^^^^]

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

###############???????????

tonezter responds:

Thanks.

[I Feel -Trance-]

. . .

"MY NAME IS SAWDUST AND I TOTALLY KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT WHEN IT COMES TO MUSIC. YOUR MIXING IS SO BAD. OMG. FIX THAT NON EXISTENT PIANO AND THAT FX. OMG. IM SO IMPORTANT THAT I TALK DOWN TO PEOPLE WHEN I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IM TALKING ABOUT"

"HI SAWDUST MY NAME IS DEVN AND I AM JUST LIKE YOU ONLY I CURSE MORE AND KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT EVEN LESS THEN YOU DO"

Anywayssssssss, Getting to an actual review here:

I like how the intro sweep kinda sounds like a vowel or like someone really relieved saying "ahhhh." Did you use a formant filter for that? I also really like the timbre of the first synth that comes in. The white noise might be a bit too upfront in the mix at a couple points(thats what these lunatics are raving about below haha). The first sequence of high hats is pretty catchy, and I like the way you made them roll and increased reverb during the fade out-Although to be honest I thought that the song was going to peak and climax there but oh well(the suspense continues). Your filter sweep on ur synth at 56 seconds in is a bit too sharp I noticed, and the new melody that comes in at 58 seconds could use a little more modulation after 1:30 in. It stays fairly consistent from there.

Overall though a piece like this you dont really feel like your getting anywhere because progressive genres are slow, so it's a good idea to make these tracks 4-8 minutes long.

Anyways that was kinda a random review but im sure it beats the heck out of these losers below me lol.

Cheers!

- LD -

Mans0n responds:

:) thanks for the review bro :D
and yeaht those assholes below your are dumb when it comes to music.

[Listening to the Silence]

. . . .

Ok so I will try to approach this critically. First thing I noticed is the gate on that opening pad (thats your voice? good job on that btw!). I think the gate works well for most of the song except the intro in where I think it's too chunky. I would use a slower pattern for the first part. Try to take in mind when you are sampling and editing things to be instruments what the actual instruments fundamental is. So like a kick drums fundamental frequency is somewhere near 50 to 100 so make sure to try to sample things that might be near that(like kicking a leather couch or a mattress would bring you closer). This way you have more sound to work with near the range you want..

Some stuff I would have done thats more so taste:
I would have beefed up that pad more by doubling, fattening, and using chorus and reverb (not that you didnt do any of those, but if done properly could be much more layered.) I would have used an LP filter on one signal in the double and HP on the other cutting them off somewhere near the fundamental. I also would have mixed in a wee little bit of white noise.

As for EQing I would look for 2 sweet spots in the pad. A high and low for clarity/crispness and thickness. Then I would have counter EQd it to the interfering percs as much as I could without effecting the timbre quality.

What kind of recording set up do you have? Like are you recording at a higher sample rate and word length then Red Book audio?

pichuscute0 responds:

Thanks for reviewing. :D
I did work on the intro the most, too. At first it was too empty, so I brought in that second higher pitched pad that isn't gated. After EQing it too fit, the thing sounded much less clear, though I didn't notice it at first. It also shows much more on here than in FL Studio. I'll obviously still be working on this, so I'll probably being doing alot of changes to the pad that you talked about and see how it helps.

Now when you say doubling the pad, do you make two seperate channels?

As for the kick, as far as I can tell (I was thinking about it much while recording though, so it was just luck) it does have alot of 50-100 naturally, I just boosted some (alot) highs because I liked the sound. :P

Also as far as I can tell, I'm recording at the same rates. I'm using 512 samples and obviously 44100Hz according to ASIO4ALL. I'm just plugging a mic in the computer and recording straight into Edison.

[S&W - Fucky Clubby [DEMO]]

. . .

I SHOULD know you already but I don't. I'll definitely check this out when I get back to the studio.

RacmusDK responds:

Well, that's awesome :)