DarkBlueFX's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Re:Verse]

crabcore4lyfe

One skill that you are getting from trying something like this is learning how to emulate details within established styles. You kind of emulated palm muting of a guitarist in the intro, you picked up on guitarists volume gating their sound with the drummer hitting kicks in sync with it, you picked up on some metal style percussion rhythms pretty well too which can be a bit difficult to draw in. You also used a transitional element well at 1:53 and cutting out the percussion to signal another phrase. That lead at 1:55 is probably my favorite part of the song. I think that you also did a good job picking electronic instruments to work with the piece.

I think the guitar is also a bit too overbearing, one easy trick to letting the percussion shine through is to just throw a compressor on your master with the threshold set to the peak volume of the guitar (or all instrumentals) and then adjust the ratio where it feels right. Also, most piano synths are velocity reactive, so you can get some expressiveness in the piano by playing the velocity of the notes, it's definitely worth experimenting with.

If you like metal and electronic, Drivepilot is a good source of inspiration, but if you're going to do more stuff like this you really need to use a real guitar (or reach out to some guitarists on NG! We are a community, use us). I'm curious to see how JDawg interprets your song.

Razorrekker responds:

Glad you picked up on the crabcore-y-ness :D
Yeah. The rhythm guitar in this is too loud for the other sounds in the chorus, and I plan to fix this song sooner than later, because I don't really want this song to live like this. My 'real guitar' budget, skills, and budget to gain said skills are at almost literally 0, unfortunately. So, I'm making the absolute best out of what I have. Thank you for the review! Very helpful!

[Different]

You're out of my league to actually give constructive criticism. I just appreciate your work and especially your mixing.

If money is something you're looking for with music production why not lend some of your mixing skills? I can't believe you only spent 11 hours on this, that is amazing. You clearly have an ear for mixing electronic music (and quickly). I'm curious how you would mix other types of music.

11:17 is my favorite part, when listening to the song for long enough that chord really stands out. Your mixing here really stands out a lot more to me than your arrangement in this though. In terms of the mixing though, part of me wanted to hear you play with your stereo image more, based on the mixing I'm sure you have the tools and skill to get creative in that respect. Then again, your average NGer probably isn't going to be listening for stereo image. Some people will probably say this is too long, but just playing the song without looking at the end time kept my attention throughout it.

Cursedsnake responds:

Same as for tinymanx- Best comments ever. Thank you!
I'm planning to make a live stream where I'll be making music and stuff. But I don't know yet because I'm stuttering and thus I don't really like talking, which sometimes affects my community involvement- As you might have noticed because I rarely write back :P
We'll see. Thanks again!

[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

[Riff Me]

I really like the work you put into that lead. The lick at 0:37 and pretty much everything between 0:50 - 1:00. You got effing everything you could get out of a square-saw instrument.

That's a blue waffle, isn't it...

The-Cockenator responds:

Yea dude and thanks for the feed back i will.message you my issue and why i am using a squere wave