5TanLey's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Aria - Dangeru]

hey this works pretty good, it has some catchyness

I dig that hip-hop kinda hihat rhythm, better than that classic dance "b - ts - b - ts - b - ts - b -ts"

also mix is so much better than in e.g. Noodles

that phasy/flangy thing always starts and ends out of nowhere, I would automate some cutoff or just volume and bring it in/out slowly

3:00 transition is super "dry", I would really add some whoosh

the piano sounds a bit cheap, try to get some better one, e.g most pianos for Kontakt 5 are pretty good... and maybe randomize velocity of notes and move them a tiny bit out of beat to improve "naturalness"

carry on :)

DelitescentAria responds:

alright alright!

thanks for your input. Sadly, im way too broke to afford a kontakt piano library. seeing as im finishing up a song right now, ill see what i can do about that velocity though.

I understand where youre coming through with the PHASY ;) chords cutting abruptly and beggining abruptly. I could've done some volume envelope or something.

Seeing as i think this is my best work thus far, im quite happy with the fact that you like it too :)

cheers man, thanks again

[Aria - Bonfire]

pretty good, maybe that crackling could be quiter, more in the background, so that listener can focus on the music more

I like that beat in 3-ish mins

reminds me of Mass Effect/anything in the future more than Dark Souls but whatever :) keep it up

DelitescentAria responds:

Now that you say it, I do hear the mass effect vibe. Neat.

Crackling could be quieter, but I really wanted to give the "by the fire" vibe, so I assumed the sound of being near a fire would be heard most of the time as quite present. Maybe it could've faded out during the song, kind of to give the effect of spacing out? I dunno.

I like that beat too.

It made me think of dark souls because I've been playing it a lot. Gitting gud ain't easy.

Thanks for the review :)

[Noodles]

soo

musically - I liked the intro but what happens after is mostly random mess, sorry... it really lacks some catchy moment during which you would just nod your head to the rhythm or something - that's crucial for this type of music imo.. it just keeps going and going, new sounds and stuff, but nothing catched my attention much

probably everybody would expect a drop at 0:40 but it just another buildup.. I would either delete this part completely or only use a riser before the main drop

1:20 synth sound somewhat disharmonic with that arp behind

drums should hit harder since this is dub/drumstep.. so use harder samples/sidechain or both or just mix them better

overall it's not mixed super well, at parts like 2:48 it's really hard to focus on anything since everything has kinda same loudness.. you can almost feel that the mix "can't breathe.. I'd say there's too much stuff going on at the same time - less sometimes mean more.. e.g. that arp is on almost whole song, you could leave it at some parts to help the mix

just my opinion really, hope this helps a bit :)

DelitescentAria responds:

This helps a lot! I appreciate some help anytime, as long as it's constructive.

This was mostly an attempt, which gives me more insight for the next time I want to do this kind of stuff. Regarding the drums, I totally agree. I just lack the knowledge or samples to make them hit more.

In my honest and humble opinion, I think the 0:40 mark is fine. Removing the riser would probably help but I just don't hear it personally.

Aaannnd, I know it's not mixed well. You've seen my stuff, you know I'm not super versed in music. Something I have to improve upon but I have trouble hearing it.

Anyways, thanks for the review, helps a lot.

[Over Mixed Loud Time]

hello there sire,

so first thing that hits me is that giant hole in mid frequencies... unless this is some kind of characteristic sound for this genre..it sounds super weird to me really, I mean sound quality-wise, like you just scooped 20db from 300 ish hz area on the master channel or something, otherwise the mix sounds totally OK... it feels like there's only bass and some high-freq. shimmer going on and the hole in mids.. this really prevents me from fully enjoying the track

I would always recommend comparing your track with some reference professional one, maybe try some anylizer plugins like Voxengo SPAN (free) if you don't trust your ears/sound system,

then some parts (intro/2:37 ish) are waay too quiet compared to the "drops", I guess you wanted super heavy impacts, that's fine but the db difference is just too much imo

but musically it's cool, nice and tough, enough of variations and stuff

I hope this helps a bit and good luck with future production :)

hoorayjay responds:

Thank you for listening!

[Dumplings]

I like the sounds themselves, but the arrangement feels quite repetitive.. you add new instruments over time but the flow is still the same, I mean there should be some part with a slightly different rhythm of drums or instruments.. though as a video game loop it would work ok imo

that hihat could be quiter, it overpowers the high frequencies of other stuff

overall it lacks 1.5khz frequencies, making it sound somewhat dull, like I was listening with my ears partly covered

bass feels good, though a bit unstable, try to make everything under c. 150 hz mono and cut everything under 30 hz

keep it up :)

DelitescentAria responds:

First time I've got some technical advice down to the numbers, appreciate it.

I get that it's repetitive, I had noticed. I'm having issues with matching notes for some obscure reason. I'm just an avid music listener so I guess that's where it comes from.

I should've eq'd my sounds better, couldn't hear it much I think my headphones were boosted in mid-low frequencies, should fix that. Cutting everything under 30hz, I`m guessing fixes the frequency to something stable? I'll try it next time. I'll bear in mind the mono thing, although I'm not a huge fan of doing that.

With school kinda screwing me, I reckon I won't be able to work on any music soon so we'll see about something new in a few. I appreciate your review and your consistency in reviewing my songs, R4R dying miserably lately. I'll be sure to keep what ever I'm doing up.

Cheers ^-^

P.S.: I didn't make those sounds and would appreciate some help with sound design (don't feel obligated). Serum seems to be the most intuitive vst for me at the moment.

[Coming Home]

I like that atmosphere, reminds me some space ambient music, cool pads and nice deep bass.. the song overall has enough of elements and variations to keep it interesting, so gj with that

BUT the drums could be better

kick- sounds almost like a trance kick to me, but it kinda fits to the deep feel of the song.. but it doesn't cut through the other instruments very well, sidechaining is the way to go I guess - hard on bass, softer on the other instruments

snare- is somewhat non existent.. especially in "loud" sections it gets really lost... unless you are doing some super soft liquid with tiny clap, the snare should have really clear fundamental frequency (usually around 200 hz), it helps to boost the area a bit in EQ and cut anything below it. and sidechain

you could also add more hats, shakers and stuff .. or maybe layer in some shitty break loop (and cut low-end from it) to fill the high end a bit

so good luck with future production, hope this helps :)

SierraRising responds:

I'm so glad that there were enough variations... I've had problems with that from the start and I figured that it would be no different in this project, having built it out of 16-bar loops. Nice to hear the atmosphere was convincing, I'm usually s#@t at pads and leads.
BUT the drums :D
I'll work on the kicks in the future, the snares... listening to it now, I can't believe how much I turned it down in the mix. My bad. And I will definitely add a high-passed drum loop for layering next time.
Thank you very much for the review, I appreciate getting feedback from anyone, but help from one of the greats is always very helpful.

[Resven - Struggle of the Earth]

intro piano doesn't fit that pluck riff much.. overall, the melodies feel a bit random, you should work on your them more... I mean you got some ideas about arrangement and you are making enough variations in the song, but the musical basis just isn't very good right now

it feels like every instrument is panned differently, which is normally a nice way of creating "wide" feeling but you have kinda overdone it here so there's nothing solid left in the middle.. this type of kick should be 100% in the centre (or at least its part below c. 200 Hz)

and I think there should be some solid bass instrument (offbeat bass would fit here I believe), you have only kick's sub bass here, so low end of the spectrum feels empty

hope this helps and good luck with future production :)

and when you want to make a post in the forum with that picture of song, you simply put the link of the song there

resven responds:

I do have a tendency to not follow too much a pattern, I've been told about having a strange style. I have to control that a little. The panning is something I'll work in as well, try to fill everything without crowding it.

I'll take on your bass tip and apply it on the next one.

I appreciate the review, buddy. Thanks for explaining the picture thing too.

[loved]

yes alcohol is evil

Hikari responds:

Happy new years! lmfao

[Armada]

hi there sir,

I definitely hear some potential in this song, BUT the mix is just so bad - snare is totally drowned, bass as well, and that hihat thing should be much quiter, it really hurts ears right now.. learn how to sidechain bass (with kick and snare) and try to compare loudness of certain things in your song with some professional song of this genre and make it similar.

hope this helps a bit and good luck with future production

Monoliph responds:

Thank you i am still in the learning stages, but this has surely help.

[Aria - Vector]

so it's me again, R4R is dead

I would put some filter (e.g. lowpass/highpass and automate its cutoff) on the arp during intro, it sounds super cheap when you just slap it there already in full power with sub bass and everything

the first drop at 0:40 sound quite slapdash, melody together with the beat sound really monotone, changing the length of some notes and rhythm of the beat now and then would do the trick

speaking of beat, drums should have variations every few bars, at least adding open hihats at some sections would help in a great way

the second drop at 1:30 is better, more house-ish though there are some false notes or weird intervals in the melody, which make it sound bad in certain places

ending also feels kinda cut, no filter, no fx, nothing.. maybe making that reverb tail longer and louder
would help

also more fx.. at least some tiny whooosh/sweeep/impact from time to time

good luck

DelitescentAria responds:

Thanks for the hindsight.

I am saddened by R4R's death, now not knowing how to get reviewed anymore.

I get where you're coming from with the filter, it definitely is cheap to just slap the arp on, I'll see to mess with Effector or look for other plugins to add effects (if you have any recommendations for a PC user, I'm all ears).

I definitely liked the second drop better too, sounded cleaner. I can't even touch sound design without messing up entirely, so if you have some pointers, again, all ears, maybe why my sounds are always a bit cheap. I'll look into false notes better next time, give it more of a listen. I'm still struggling with music, as it is very audible, good reviews help a lot.

Thanks for sticking through R4R, even though it's dead. I'll follow you and review your new stuff, if that means anything to you.

Thanks for the insight again and good luck right back at you.