DarkBlueFX's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Radiance]

Always nice to hear ya! I'm typing the first paragraph here after my first listen (usually more reflective of my subjective first impressions) and the second after I've listened to it 4 times.

You have a solid hook here which is definitely characteristic of your house music inspired style. I effing love how the style changed at 2:13 to a synthwave-ish kinda style (mostly just cause I've been listening to Carpenter Brut recently). Some synthwave music uses a rhythm which includes a bass arp like the one you have in your first drop. I think something like that would have fit there with the same kind of manual sidechaining you have on the first one maybe with some minor bitcrushing. Check out CMT bitcrusher, it's free and is just great, you can get the .zip from this page

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2012/03/09/bpb-freeware-studio-best-free-bitcrusher-vstau-plugins/

Now I've listened to this a couple times. The piano stands out to me, I think because I come from a family where everyone plays piano and so expression in velocity is something that is just kind of important to me (house doesn't typically give a fuck about the next point I'm making). When a pianist plays, every key is hit with a different velocity but also some keys (even within the same chord) are plays with different velocities intentionally as to add more expression. This is where having a velocity-sensitive keyboard really comes into play as it becomes much easier to capture the expression from your keystrokes (may require some piano experience). Just a technique I think you could incorporate for now is just playing with the velocities of all the notes until you find something which seems for expressive to you (a lot of inspiration for velocity expression in piano comes from classical music in my case, it may take some listening to get a feel for it). I do think it can be applied to house though. Maybe playing with some more reverb on the piano would be nice too (I just like reverbed pianos, I may be biased there)

Still love the synthwave-ish part, you're definitely getting better at using portamento in your hooks now, which is definitely something that can be risky if you don't know what you're doing. It works very well here. I like the tom fills you have and how you used them to transition. Maybe one thing I would say is try giving your leads some breathing room, like whether it's giving the center-stage to a percussive sound for a beat or two or maybe a riff of another instrument can come through for a moment, even making room for some silence would be good. I think the next step for you on a technical level is stereo effects and 'placing' instruments in a way that can create a space. This definitely stresses the use of reverbs as well.

Alright, there are all my jumbled thoughts on this, good work my dude! Look forward to hearing more!

[Fuckt up!]

And you said I was underrated...

I like the intro you've added and hearing that synth again was nostalgic and reminds of when I first came across this song. How long does your project say you worked on it?? Everything sounds very crisp on my setup. I like that it has a dance hook that you could play at a club but also has little background elements to make it fun for people who are just listening closely. I fucking love the lead synth that comes in at 1:15, everything is perfect about that. Are you sidechaining manually (via envelopes) or are you using the percussion peak to directly control the sidechain on the instruments? Both techniques definitely work, I'm just curious.

I would play with some heavier reverb on the violins though and maybe go in an randomize the velocities on the notes and do some subtle adjustments of the violins to make them not all start at grid points (to kind of emulate human error in playing real instruments). Obviously it's up and it's good so no need, just ideas to explore in the future.

The-Cockenator responds:

Haha thanks this song has been coming and going for the last 3 years lost the save files so i had r create the violins but 60% of the song is content here from ng or soundcloud and the sidechain is really simple :/ just cotrolled with fruity limiter so super simple and easy i have done manually but it takes to much time and fruity limiter works just fine and the synth lead i used is just WASP something i learnd from seamlessR it is just one modulator throu allot of filters and distortions :D

[BOSS TIME!]

This is really good, wow! You get the marching band style very well. I love the brass swells at 45s and how you use the higher timbre instruments in a sort of call and answer sort of fashion with the rest of the band.

What do you make this with?

EliasGamez responds:

I made it with MAGIX Music Maker :) Thanks for your message! :D

[Synthestesia Dolis - Red Mountain Shuffle]

Not bad! Pretty catchy lead, a lot of your sounds don't fit together in the drop. What might help is letting your drop sound shine through and ditching your lead temporarily. When you're using you chords in the drop, I would volume gate the release off, so that the chord stop right when another sound comes in. Some transitional elements would be nice too, whether it be noise ramps or an evolving bass.

You have a great idea here! Especially the hook you have

SVibes responds:

Ok. Thanks for your feedback :) I had a lot of fun working on this track. I'm actually not much of a house fan, but my house songs seem to get the most attention lol

[TranceStep]

For how long you've been doing this you're not too bad.

Don't be afraid to put some modulation on your instruments, it would be nice to hear some of the instruments evolve into something else as they are playing. You can do this to foreshadow drops or just make an interesting synth. Also using sidechaining (definitely a technique you should look up on yourtube or something) on your instrumental bus is usually good for letting the attack percussion through.

Everyone starts somewhere, I was soo much worse when I was your age. Keep at it!

K-oztron responds:

thanks for the feedback, Ill take into account next time :D

[Zophar - Purified Heart]

Here there isn't much communication between the instruments you have, at 37s the communication seems to get a little better. Don't be afraid to play with the velocity of the notes, especially with the piano.

Very interesting progression you have, some of these more abstract chords can work and experimenting with them is definitely key to 'finding your sound' but you have to have the other sections complement the groove. I look forward to seeing you progress!

FelixZophar responds:

okay thanks

[The Fabers - Pumpkin Boogie (Zophar Cover)]

I can appreciate the weird stuff on here. You sound like you're starting out here so I'll review in that context. You have a basic idea here, or at least a foundation you can build off of. Using dissonant notes can work, I typcially make one of the dissonant notes a bit quieter than the other, sometimes it helps.

At 35s when you sequence the boops an octave up twice, I would throw in some other elements to differentiate a lil bit. Like maybe turn on a bitcrusher a little bit each time the boop goes up an octave, idk.

I could see this as a good loop for a trancey, mystery side scroller game.

FelixZophar responds:

plz note that this isn't my song. i just changed the instruments up. the actual song is my favorite piano song.

[The Adventures Of Bafga]

That lead is very deadmau5y, I like it! I like how you use reverb for evolving the stab synth thingy, modulating the high cut of a reverb slowing can be an interesting effect for sustained instruments.

I think you would benefit from some subtle sidechain compression, nothing like house music where the sidechain is overbearing, just enough to allow the attack of your percussion through. And I wouldn't have it on all the time, because the attack of your synth is pretty vital in some areas.

The-Cockenator responds:

yea true studio headphones get allot of bass so i am not hearing the errors you are but i like howw you pointed out stuff that i could do better thanks man :D

[Lunar]

Love the variety throughout this song. Before playing I was like, omg this song is too long... but then it was over. 22 hrs for the amount of work is relatively quick, major props for that! You have found ways to be expressive with all of your sounds.

[Circuit Bored - Brain Case]

I don't give enough credit on how you're able to keep a song sounding so 'analog'. You give all of your instruments a space and it really makes each sound stand out especially on higher end speakers. You shot yourself in the foot by not taking notes? You can pick out notes from a spectrum or play by ear. Still, I really want to see a short film or something with one of your songs. I still can't get around to doing something like that myself.

I also reeaaally like the illustration. Honestly the 2D illustration style seems very fitting for your character.