TheComet's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Drum n Bread]

This is one of those gloriously stupid things you find when you dig around enough, I'm not giving a huge in depth review because of the age of the track, but I enjoyed the splash of nostalgia :)

[can u feel]

Solid intro, clean and simple atmosphere sets the stage nicely, bass build up works with nicely towards the drop.

I'm really digging that drumline, it's got some sweet breakbeat vibes to it and doesn't clash with the bass at all. That ping hit that goes with it is a nice touch, helps break things up.

As far as your bass goes, while I can hear it no problem on my headphones, I have a feeling most sound systems will struggle with it. You may need to layer on a saw or something to pull more audible range freqs into the picture.

You might want to sneak in one more element to mix things up during the bass section, it get a little repetitive near the tail end. Maybe some high shelf element to work with the ping you use to break up the drumline

Overall, this is a pretty solid track, I'm enjoying this quite a bit!

-Sybol

hGea responds:

Ay man means a lot:) Yeah, I'm trying new things right now. The bass is hitting sub frequencies, I was thinking of putting a saw over it but then it started to sound muddy and it was starting to clash with the distorted break I put together. So I left it there:D

And you're right it is a bit repetitive, I had a few variations of basses but I felt like they didn't fit also when I mixed up the drums and it started to get really bad at the end, so I resorted with the easy way out. But thank you, it really helps when others type out what they like/dislike.

1love:)

[SINGULΔR SHΔTTERS]

That synth makes a great hook at the start, instantly caught my attention with that!

First thing I noticed when the drop hit is your kicker is really quiet. Crank that sucker up, with these trap vibes the kicker should be one of the most prominent elements of the song. Turn up the levels, and if you know how to do it with your software, sidechain it against your bass (so the bass levels duck when the kicker hits, let's you keep the power of the kicker and the bass).

Your snare levels are fine, there's just a bit too much of that snare. If you want to roll with a ton of snare hits, you might want to use a couple extra snare samples to keep it from getting grating when there's a lot of hits. Mix them up a bit to flow into the main trap style snare, can take the edge off and still rock lots of snare hits. Alternatively, you could switch out a lot of those snares in the rapid snare sections with other percussion elements.

The rest of the song's elements sound pretty good, not much I can say there other than they work well!

-Sybol

Psilenth responds:

It is side chained i just need to play with it. But i put your comment in the info text of my track so i will definatly be keeping it in mind.

[[madboss] - Rebellion Of The Soul]

That initial buildup is pretty sweet, you really carried the energy through nicely into the drop.

Main synths and chord progression are really spot on as far as score goes, I'm digging it! Only complaint I have is that I think your synths are a little overcompressed, there's some distortion when it's going full tilt that's robbing the track of some of it's clarity.
I think you might be able to swing some EQ work on those synths to clean it up if it's not compression, cut out the frequencies that overlap with other synths (keep your low midrange stuff in that range, cut out the excess, highs in the highs, etc). With everything kept in their own frequency ranges via EQ, it should keep things clean.
Not too much I can really say without seeing it there, it's really a feeling out process but it pays off to learn!

This is purely my own preference, I kinda wish the kicker had a little more click to hit to boost the attack, but that's strictly preference, not an issue with the track itself.

Mixing issues aside, this whole track is fantastic, with a really respectable length. The strings really help pull things together near the end there, and dammit this is catchy and will be stuck in my head for a bit XD

The outro is a great touch might I add, very satisfying closure to the track!

Cheers!

-Sybol

madboss responds:

Wow, well thank you sir for your detailed and very helpful comment! I think the reason why you feel the synths distorted is the Ozone mastering suite I've put to the main out channel. Back in the past I composed many tracks with having an Ozone default mastering template added to the main out channel to boost the sound, but considering the busy instrumentation that caused the frequencies to compete against each other and I think this is why the whole sound got blurry.

Nevertheless I very much appreciate your comments, and the time spent on writing this review, and I'm really happy that you enjoyed the track! Thank you!

[The Sky]

I'm not going to lie, I'm really digging the main chord progression you have going for the first half of the track. it just feels good.

I think your drumline feels very out of place though, I say you should rock the classic 404 style kicker, it would fit the chords nicely. Your drum progressions aren't bad, just doesn't quite blend in stylistically with the synths.

The second half of the track has a lot of disharmonic moments that really drag it down though, you should check out some Music Fundamentals lessons online (there's a bunch of free ones out there that are easy to read!), specifically look into the different keys and learn the pattern to them. It'll make writing up scores so much easier since you'll know what notes will naturally work together :)

If you're using FL Studio, you can go to the piano roll menu->stamp and place an entire octave of notes in Major/minor/modes starting at the note you click on in the piano roll, that'll show you which notes are in the key. Sneak that into a separate pattern for reference, and it'll help you out a ton :)

As far as your synths go, I can tell you're a bit on the new side, see if you can find knobs/sliders for "Attack" and "Release", I recommend giving your main chord's synth a little attack to it and enough release to blend together with the next note, let the synth ease into the note a little bit to give it a smoother feel.

Keep up the work, I think you could do some cool stuff with those starting chords if you happen to revisit this!
-Sybol

[Light Hearted]

You've got some interesting hooks and the foundation for something pretty good, just as it stands the elements feel a little bit disconnected from each other.

You've got a little bit of peaking going on throughout the track, but from the sound of it you can probably easily fix this. If you use a limiter on that synth you have in the intro (and one in the master effects channel if you want to go all out), you can keep it from peaking and giving off that unnerving static noise. Toning back the levels on that synth will help too, it's a bit too loud as it stands right now, really overpowers everything.

On the mixing side of things, tone back that coin pickup sound a small amount, maybe 3dB or so, then it'll fit into the mix nicely I think.

For the song itself, honestly I think you should build around that guitar you're working with in there. Build your score around that one successful element, let it carry your beat and use your other instruments to complement it. Your bass synth could be pretty good for atmosphere or to work into a break section.

There's a bit of promise in here, keep at it!
-Sybol

ORI-TAGGART responds:

Thank you very much for the feedback! It is much appreciated!

[Andromeda]

Hey this is pretty spiffy, incredibly catchy at that!

Overall vibe is just plain pleasant to listen to, and the mix is pretty solid. Not really much else I can say, it hits on all the right notes as far as what I'm enjoying :)

Couple little nitpicky things that could help the mix:
-That nasty lil pop at the start tells me you're using FL Studio :P I tend to do a quick edit in Audacity cutting out that pop after I render or ducking the master channel level and easing it in quickly to get rid of it. I still to this day don't know what plugins do that

-Your vocal snippets could be a smidge lower level, the "woo!" vocal seems like it's sitting on top of everything instead of being a part of the mix. Only really an issue once or twice in the track though!

DoctorNoSense responds:

Thx for the feedback^^ I try making it better next time:D

[=Sad Space Landscape=]

Feels like the atmosphere you would use behind a something more breakbeat-ish, or maybe with some kind of light drumline. Granted, this is outside my usual genres I listen to, it does sound pleasant, just feels like it needs some kind of beat to drive the beat along.

Astro-reality responds:

Thanks for your review, yes I agree that perhaps a kind of drumline or drumbeat in it would be nice, I tried to create a short loop which people could use.

[Saying Goodbye (Chill Trap?)]

Always a fan of a solid chill beat!

The mastering in this track needs a little work, the bass is overpowering everything else in a few places, might be fixable with a limiter on the bass's channel to hold it in place without butchering the sound.
Also, that fade out at the end is a little ungraceful, you could probably make it sound a little more satisfying with a single ending hit instead of a fade I think.

Regardless, enjoyed the listen, keep up the good work!

[LunyAlex - Hidden Daggers (Xtrullor Remix)]

Holy shit...did not expect that!

Really solid overall track, the drops were great and you held just the right balance between going nuts on the bass and staying to the main beat, loved it