Noisysundae's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Emphatic Outcry [Long Version]]

Followed you yesterday and saw your post in R4R thread.
I really love the deep sub-bass since I usually listen to DnBs and that makes it unique from most of other hardstyle tracks out there. I feel like this could be a bit quieter. (Or not? I've had a quick listen of this on Bandcamp but it wasn't as loud.) Excellent mixing right here! Growling synths, 0:28, being hardstyle without that much uses of distorted kick, etc. Another flawless track is on my list now. Well done, mate! :D

(heavy panning)

MegaSphere responds:

Heh, look up "Reverse Bass" if you like this kind of Hardstyle. Thanks for the review, it means a lot!

[Elegant Tentacle Cuddlefest]

What's with that title origin, you creepy perv!
Two things to mention for me.
ㅤ• The kick is barely noticeable. Perhaps lower other instruments' volume (especially brasses (or strings? or both?) and choir) will help. That's a hard work mastering a piece with a lot of instruments like orchestra, though.
ㅤ• Bass could use a light bass-only reverb or increase release time a bit on 0:49. It sounds somewhat uncomfortable for me. However, this was just a nitpick.
Anyway, like I said in the contest thread, 5aved! Overall Atmosphere is flawless. Focused on mastering since it's the only part I think I'm good enough to criticize and make advices correctly. :P

SkelaNG responds:

The title origin is just a humbling reminder of the many origins of inspiration.
-It's actually not a kick, if you isolate the sub frequency, it's a long pluck, I wanted a light heart-beat edge-of-perception thing just to keep it rolling. And yeh tell me about it lol, if you listen through Unity Suite, that's where my real mixing/mastering efforts go.
-I didn't think of putting a bass verb on that instrument, I've avoided putting verb too low on my bass instruments in the past because I like to soundscape for crystal edgings, and not the normal wood room technique. I'll give it a go on a future track.

Thanks for the feedback mate!!

[NGDIC 2 - Mayhem Trance]

Note : I almost always detect the flaws when it comes to reviewing so don't worry if my review is so negative. :P
Since this is your first time in electronic music. It's highly recommended to google for the technical words you don't know or understand and test it.

The bass at 0:26 can be done into an exact kind of bass I was expecting! (a slightly detuned sawtooth bass with a phaser or a flanger) What you forgot to do (or didn't know) is reducing the release of your synths. Release in term of synthesizer is the trail of sound after you released the key. That's why there're the ghost sounds in some part like the bass on 0:28. It's a ton of effects you can play with but for your first one, it's alright. :)

Now onto mastering. I'd say you wanted to pump up the kick. Is that true? This is a good example of what 'too in-your-face' is. You worried about the kick too much and overlooked the bass. Simply cut down the kick and increase the bass volume a bit will do.
It also lacks the mids on 0:40 where you changed my choir (which was used to fill in the mids during the bass showdown) into another bass and make that part look empty. Did you try pull the choir notes up by an octave?
The last thing is heavily clipped samples which cause unwanted distortion. It can be heard easily at 1:13 onward because you tried to play many instruments with already high volume so some the wave samples in that part went through their highest possible volume (0dB) and caused the distortion. (the same as overdrive/distortion effect in electric guitars but with an excessively loud volume) The easiest way to prevent this is lowering all instrument's volume. When you have more knowledge about mastering, compression can help you keep the loudness. (I suggest not using it too much, though.)

Anyway, I think mastering is the hardest part for the DJs to achieve and it's mainly the sound engineer's job to deal with. But it's necessary if you're a bedroom producer and want to make quality music all by yourself.
It's a long way to go in making electronic music, mate. Practice makes perfect. Keep it up. Do what Shia LaBeouf said. Don't make him disappoint! :D

Hallow responds:

I'm perfectly fine with negative reviews - I was hoping for them, in fact :P
Unfortunately, I probably won't update the piece due to me only having the demo version of FL Studio, meaning I can't re-open stuff. (I worked on it in a couple sessions only because you can save and load MIDIs.)
I did mess around with the attack/release/stuff for a bit, but I seem to remember leaving the synth around 0:30 alone a little more than some of the others, so thanks for the feedback there.
Pumping up the kick happened because I couldn't hear it at first... different speakers give different information on the mastering, I suppose.
About the choir, I changed it into a synth pad. I don't think I deleted any notes - it was probably something to do with the way I had the pad set up. Either way, I completely see what you're talking about and I'll keep an eye out for stuff like that in the future.
The issue at 1:13 was that I added a higher line in addition to yours on the channel which was originally a clavi (not entirely sure what I changed it to as I can't open the file...) while I was still having trouble with adding tracks and changing their patches. After I solved the issue I forgot to separate the two parts, which most likely would have helped with the distortion (as well as lowering the volume, of course).
Thanks for the constructive review - I'll spend some more time on mastering future pieces.

[~{ || MEGA || }~]

One word. Flawless!
You got in the OP'd state when you were making this, right? Because it looks like you spent around 50 hours into it but that was actually several hours. XD
There's really no flaw for me this time. It's just plain epic and awesome. 5aved and well done, larry. :)

larrynachos responds:

Holy crap dude yes. I went nuts on this song. I plan on extending it later though. It's too short, and the ending isn't very good. I'm really glad you found it flawless!

[Bar Music]

Saw your post on R4R thread. You got skipped so I'll do it without requesting any. :)

What TimFelt suggested is very helpful. (in case you did it with your own hands, not by DAW) I'm not a professional on music theory but I can say that the biggest problem of yours is timing. Yes, music is not all about doing things with perfect timing but these gaps between the notes are just not musical for me. I can see what the patterns you're trying to express are like but the timing made them look like just a random set of notes. Mastering is fine at this point. (It's not a serious thing when you make solo instrumental, though.)
Practice makes perfect dude. Keep trying and you'll be pro!

[Green Wave]

The pluck in the beginning and the bass pluck on 0:32 could use a soft delay or reverb on the low-cut part. It feels a bit too dry for me. Some other synths here could use reverb, phase delay, or phase inversion on them but those are just a minor problems and aren't that bad without it.
Drums will be more noticeable if you've turned other instruments down a bit. (I mean, around 1-2 dB) I can barely hear the bass on the part like 0:52. Perhaps a compression on the bass and kick can help. Anyway, that part makes me happy, really. :D

Ending your song with a low-pitched hihat doesn't make so much sense. Should just leave that last note alone and let it fade away.

No complain about melodies since I'm not much of a pro on this and it has no problem imo. Overall, I enjoyed this one. Don't worry about all things I've said above. I'm pessimistic so I point out the cons more than the pros. It's already good to a certain point by now, trust me. :P

Onefin responds:

First off, thanks for the review! I appreciate it.

Let's see. Below you Grandzam said that I need compression. I'm going to assume now that he meant compression on the bass/kick, because that's what you've mentioned. Hm. I may or may not have already compressed the kick, I'm going to check.

Now I'm going to go in order.

"The pluck in the beginning and the bass pluck on 0:32 could use a soft delay or reverb on the low-cut part." The first thing I'll tell you is that the pluck at 0:32 isn't really a bass pluck :P at least I don't think so. But that's off topic, I see what you mean. I could have done that.

"Some other synths here could use reverb, phase delay, or phase inversion" What's phase delay? What's phase inversion? XD

"Drums will be more noticeable if you've turned other instruments down a bit." Got it.

"I can barely hear the bass on the part like 0:52." That's because there isn't a bass sound there! Hm, maybe I should have used one...

"Perhaps a compression on the bass and kick can help" I checked, there's no compression on the kick. I'll keep that in mind next time.

"Anyway, that part makes me happy, really." Aw thanks

"Ending your song with a low-pitched hihat doesn't make so much sense." Hm, I see what you mean. Taking note of that.

"I'm pessimistic so I point out the cons more than the pros." That's okay, the cons are what I want to hear anyway! Thanks for the review! ;D

[.: Far Sky :.]

Wow! I must say this is far better than the very first of your metal stuff. I just feel that you can pump up the bass a bit but this was fine nonetheless, (it might be only my ears so trust others if they tell you it's good as is) as well as all other part of mastering.
You can use legato or a short release on the tails of notes like in 1:41 to make it more realistic unless you're going to do a bit of djent-ish things. But since this is my first serious review ever, (the first was on LSD's Sandstorm. :P) you can correct me wherever you think I'm wrong. :)

larrynachos responds:

I used the bass as support for the rhythm, so I didn't want to overpower it.

Thanks for the review!

[What Song is This?]

El Chombo - Macarron Chacarron

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yes! That must be it! Thank you :D