bwmusic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Back To Life]

Nice melody and dynamics within. Gives it some breathe. The reversed parts reminded me of the Braid soundtrack, actually. Personally, I think you ran with it too long though. I think it could have been an interesting/cool effect, but the whole last 2 minutes or so were reversed. Personally, I would have added some light acoustic drums right when you have the initial reverse section start, to add a bit more dynamics/variety. Then in the last several measures, have it reverse. Again, personal preference though.

I think offsetting the guitar and the recorder in panning could have made it a bit more interesting too. Both are center panned with what seems like stereo wide reverbs on (the recorder at least). Even though the recorder is a higher pitched instrument, I think it could have benefited from EQing towards a clearer definition of it; same with the plucking of the guitar, or maybe some compression to really bring it out.

A fun listen, though. I could definitely see this in a video game or some trailer maybe.

NyxTheShield responds:

The reversed drums sounds like a cool idea, i may give it a shot in the future hahaha

Btw, Guitar isn't centered, it's double tracked to the left and right, the main recorder is indeed centered to balance the guitar, there are multiple recorder in different pitches (Standard, 1 and 2 octave lower respectively) panned to left/right.

Thanks for the feedback ^^

[acceptance]

Nice reverbs, especially that they aren't FMP'd but wide stereo width.

I think the bass drum and subbass could use a bit of low EQing, especially the bass drum. Its a deep bass by what I hear, and there is a little fighting for them. (I could feel a bit of pumping, actually).

The toms and claps are nice, but really quiet/subtle. Same with hats/rides. I think the drum buss might benefit from some parallel compression to bring the percussion out while retaining the musical dynamics.

Not sure if it's sofysynth or what, but there is some clicks and pops. I'd try dithering to eliminate those, but it could be artifacts of compression as well. If there are comp'd tracks, fiddle with the attack and release of the trouble track; too quick, especially on the release, can cause low freq distortion. If they're gated, mess with the hold/release, as a quickly opening and closing gate can cause chattering too.

slowfreq responds:

thanks for the review man :)

i'm notoriously bad for my low end, just cause i've never owned a subwoofer lol, so it doesn't surprise me that there's conflict there

also, the pops and clicks are probably from the piano, cause i bounced it to wav and manipulated it in the playlist from there, but i didn't make sure to turn on zero-cross to prevent the sample from ending before it's at 0db. so that's what it is.

but yeah you reviewed this 5 years ago, hopefully i've gotten better since lol

[Welcome Home]

Reminds me a bit more of earlier Combichrist B sides (Like off Everyone Hates You) - minimal dark/atmos techno/aggrotech. Or maybe an early cut from The Joy of Gunz (more powernoise)

Personally I don't know why you killed you bass drum with that LPF (or if thats the sample). By having it so muffled, there's virtually no attack from it, just a bass wash. EQ the low end too with the kick and bass, they are competing for the same space but making it bottom heavy and muddy.

The hi hats to me are way too quiet too, also, not sure why they're panned in stereo width. Its common to have em pushed to one side or the other by about a couple hours (+/- 30-40 in the left or right), but often in techno they're pretty center (but then become over bearing and you really create an I or W mix often)

Agreed with the other poster; a little variety would be nice. Melody or even just pads that wash in. This is a very lower frequency friendly track, but there really isn't anything higher frequency, and it would benefit a lot from it.

AliceMako responds:

A bandpass filter actually, it's a note on a synth, i don't want there to be any attack cus it's not actually a bassdrum nor a sample of a bassdrum.

Why? I like how this sounds in this piece.

There are no hi hats in this track and it isn't techno, you're handing me a technical critique to another artistic/styllistic choice i happen to make, what does you not knowing why have to do with me?

Feel free to add any and all high frequencies you like yourself, thanks for listening and asking questions.

[Voices from beyond]

Reminds me of old Die Form but with a more modern sound. I can definitely see this within a horror movie. Interesting panning on various elements, although for more "lead" elements, every one seems to occupy both L/R field, to me it becomes largely a W-mix, in that theres audio image in the Center, Left and Right extremes, but between Left and Center and Right and Center is more ambient/reverb effect, but no strong audio image.

Listened via both AKG K240s and Dynaudio BM5a/9S monitors

Azhthar responds:

Thanks for the input! Maybe I overacted a bit with the panning ;) I will have a look at this.

[After Everything]

Love the dynamics overall, a lot of excellent areas. To me, the reverb seems a touch bright though. I get it for ambient effect, but it personally I would take a little of the brightness away.

Ceevro responds:

You may well be right on that one...personally, I tend to like my reverb just a little too much - this is actually toned-down from how I had it to begin with!

[Monovale]

From a mix critique perspective:
Your organ lead at 1:03 is way too loud. It drowns out the initial arp line. There are various ways to tackle this problem, which leads me to another constructive point.
Upon a quick listen, this is a very I-mix; by that, I mean most of the audio is in the center of the stereo field. You could push the organs to the L and R fields, which would increase their definition (being further away from the center stereo field increases definition of an instrument); this will help create a wider mix, and help to combat a little of the masking issues you have (masking issues are when there are two or more instruments that occupy the same frequency spectrum range and fight each other for space).
The low end of the organ (or if that is a bass patch) could use low end EQing; even a simple HPF at a -6 or -12dB slope (experiment between 30-120 Hz) would reduce a little bit of the over bass muddiness, but add definition and clarity.
The overall levels mix is rough. Elements are extremely quiet, where others are extremely loud. Instead of using buss compression, this sounds more like a levels issue to me, and just requires a remix (versus using compression and upwards compression) I kept turning up and down my monitors to hear certain elements, only to be blasted by the organs or an SFX. This should be a HUGE no no in a mix; I should be able to have my monitors set at a comfortable level and be able to hear the entirety of mix (maybe with slight volume variations)

Take these little points, and try and experiment, or rework this track. Experiment with panning, EQ and masking. A lot of times interesting pieces are run afoul by novice engineering. Keep on writing though! You only improve, both in writing and engineering, by doing. If people offer constructive criticism, take it, experiment with it, reverse engineer it and learn from it.

MikeeUSA responds:

Thankyou for your review. I have very little experience mixing, I've been using audacity mostly after recording into a Tascam. Your information on how to make a wider mix is appreciated, I didn't think of that. Now that you mention it it reminds me of one of Kansas' songs: the one about Iccarus. I rember when once my speaker on the right blew out the bass was gone: they panned it all the way to the right. When listening you didn't notice but it was interesting once it became apparent.

I'll keep recording and trying. Many of the songs might not be good, but I've found that the only way I ever make something nice is to make alot of stuff and some will be ok (same thing in 3d mapping and everything else I've ever done: I'm usually mediocre or crappy)

About synths: I've been thinking of getting the MS-20 reissue, in your opinion is it worth it, or is what I have enough?