Mmm, nice production, that's a damn sexy snare. Great use of swing, Lows to low mids could definitely use some more presence though, and as others had said, you transitioned too softly into the chorus.
Nice song though. How do you find time to produce so many songs every week?
This is actually really cool.
I'm hearing some sytrus presets (I think?), and it's more breakbeat videogamey than dnb, but newgrounds has a pretty limited selection of genres.
This song is damn creative and melodically consistent. Your composition is sound, and it's very appropriate for a boss fight. I like your use of slide notes and delay.
You're missing any power whatsoever in your mids, but honestly I'm enjoying this song regardless of that. Nice work!
That's true, not just your thought. I just tweaked those sytrus built-in presets a bit for this.
Yes, I tried to bring more mids by using those short, fast synths. But it doesn't have any pads in this (excluding the buildups) so it could be the cause of the weakness you pointed out. Perhaps I should add some more sfx too. Perfect mastering is still a long way to go for me.
I might be too pessimistic for writing about the cons rather than the pros but it can help me do better work later so it's worth a mention. Thanks for the review bro. :)
Hey man! I always review on request so don't hesitate to ask :P
Your chord progression is pretty funky! I like it, although the second last chord seems to clash with some of the melodies sometimes (in a harmony sense, not a mix sense.) I'd tell you how to fix that but I'm really not good at communicating musical concepts as I have no formal training, and it's pretty small anyway. Melodically I enjoyed this, it also helps that it's one of my favorite scales :)
Composition is pretty good, you kept it somewhat varied despite working with the same progression the whole way through. I also liked your use of risers and the way you used percussion in your build-ups.
In terms of mixing, things do get a bit dicey, though. You've avoid the classic overcompressing problem that everyone seems to have, so your mastering is probably a step ahead of your mixing (either that or you're not mastering very much, though the song is fairly loud so I don't think that's the case.)
I think your lead is probably hitting frequencies it doesn't need to, so it might be worth shaving off a bit of high end above 16khz because it does hurt the ears a little. Same with the snare, though the problem with the snare more stems from the fact that it has no low end. I'm working on a drum and bass song right now, and my snare's main frequency is 200hz (it also has a *lot* of content above that, and its second loudest frequency is about 7khz.) Designing a snare that sounds good is largely about sample choice and EQ, but honestly the former is the most important. I generally layer multiple snares together and juggle* EQ them, but you don't need to do that to get good results. I think considering the overall sound of your song though, the snare fits better than it would in most drum and bass songs because the overall tone of the track is quite light.
I think the kick also has too little frequency content, usually you want a bit of high end on your kick (when I say high end, i mean basically the entire spectrum, although sometimes mids can be sacrificed to an extent. Really, it depends on the genre.) Your kick sits around 150hz to 400-500hz if i had to guess, which is acceptable for drum and bass low-end because drum and bass (drumstep too) typically shave off the sub bass of a kick. Other electronic genres don't do this because they have a kick every beat, and can sidechain almost everything to it, but drum and bass doesn't have consistent kicks due to the unusual pattern of percussion and sidechaining doesn't sound good in the genre if it's made to be extremely noticeable. But yeah, I think you just need a bit more high end on that kick :P
That said, you do need some sidechaining :P maybe just on your bass or saws - I find that sidechaining really helps a mix "interact" with itself, because right now all the elements of your song are kind of sitting on their own, if that makes sense. I think you also have some noise in one of your saws, because it's very noticeable and covers the entire mix in some of the choruses - it's just a layer of noise haha. It's around 10-15khz i believe. It's quite quiet, but you might want to tone it down a bit.
You have some bass in your mix, in the form of a pseudo-sub bass, but it has some weird distortion that could be part of the sound or phasing issues (put retrigger on if you're using a synth.) It also doesn't go very low at all, it doesn't sound like it goes past 300hz to me (could be lower or higher, but my ability to guess frequency seems to declined over the last year lol.) I guess I would recommend putting the bass much lower (below 100hz) and giving your plucks/saws (which are both verrrry high) some low end, give them some meat :P something around 300-500hz. Just make sure it doesn't interfere with your kick (sidechain or juggle* EQ.)
I like the actual arrangement of percussion and melody, I think the chords are good and do their job well. I think your mix is a bit top-heavy and a lot of the elements need some tinkering to fit with one another well, but that as it is it's definitely a fun song :P
*Juggle EQing is removing a frequency in one sound (like 1khz to 5khz of a saw) and then EQing that specific frequency into another, similar sound (like a lead) so that they sit with one another and don't clash. Making space using EQs is arguably one of the most important aspects of mixing in general. I also recommend cutting *any* frequency you don't need. This includes high end on sounds with no harmonics and low end on things like leads, just cut all the frequencies where there appear to be no sound. A lot of VSTs and samples have a lot of hidden low end, that when mixed can really add together.
I hope I helped, be sure not to take what I say as gospel though :P I'm still learning myself. Also, if you want advice on anything, feel free to message me!
Hey, thanks for the review! :D
Generally, I'm happy with the overall structure and to some extent, the melody and chords. However, I do agree with the mixing aspect.
For the lead, I actually used three different instruments to create that particular sound (at least at the drop), but I probably should have did that Juggle EQ technique you told me to fix that higher pitched lead. Unfortunately with Garageband, I don't believe there is a way to design my own snare, so as of now, I'm using one of the program's stock sounds with a bit of EQing and stuff. When EQing it, I raised the lower end of the snare; however, the higher end kept overpowering the lower end. I tried fixing this, but the snare ended up becoming weaker, so I kept it how it was in the song.
I definitely agree with the kick since it sounds very weak to me as well. I tried sampling (I think that's the right term XD) it from one of the stock drum beats, but I don't know if that worked out too well. I'll probably stick to what I did before with maybe better EQing.
For sidechaining, that's something I REALLY wanted to do with this song, but again, I don't know how to in Garageband. I tried looking up some tutorials online but couldn't find anything that worked in my current version of the application.
I have to admit: the bass in this song was a bit weaker than what I wanted. Definitely not as low as I wanted it on the EQ though. I did notice a bit of that "wierd distortion" when mixing. I tried to fix it, but it just wouldn't go away. I'll probably use a different bass instrument next time! :D
Again, thanks for the review! Big fan of your stuff, so keep it up! :D
Your melodies are so simple, and that's why I like them. They scratch an itch of mine, strangely; I'm not sure how else to describe it.
Sorry I'm incapable of a long review right now, but I like the song. Did you layer multiple kicks? I think you need to be EQing the high end a little differently, or using a different sample.
Other than that I noticed no real flaws, I like it! ^^
Hey, thanks!
There are indeed a couple of kicks. I did an overhaul of the master channel just before releasing and it's possible I went ear-blind and messed something up without noticing, lol.
I've been listening to this on repeat for a few hours now and I barely realized, damn your talent :P
Seriously though this is awesome.
Geoplex!
Thanks for the review. Glad it didn't make you sick of it after all those hours listening to it on loop haha.
Thanks again!
Such creative chord progressions!
What the hell is up with Newgrounds scores lately? They seem to be deflating an awful lot.
your snare is really awesome. I love the low end on it. Nice work on the percussion in general, except for that open hat, which is generic as hell and I've heard it a million times please don't use that (I am guilty of using it myself though, I know how it is.) Your kick is pretty alright. Nothing special but I can hear it well and that's always +points; though I'm not a fan of the sample. It's a very rock-style kinda kick, I don't know how else to describe it. It sounds fairly good though.
This is kind of my personal opinion, but your mastering isn't awesome and this becomes especially noticeable at drops. I'm not going to tell you to compress more or sausage it because that's generally bad, especially for DnB; but I feel like the mastering is just... a little on the light/weak side. Again, that's my opinion. Don't take it as gospel because personally I think I suck, lol. It might help for you to automate you master volume for drops though (keep it down like 2dB pre-drop, add the 2dB back at the drop. Makes a big difference!)
The composition is alright, I love uplifting stuff; but there was nothing particularly memorable about this. The melodies might be a bit drawn out, I dunno. It's pretty good though. I also like the progression of the song itself; kept it interesting. Definitely doing a better job at that than I do, can tell you that much.
You don't deserve such a low score, but then, newgrounds is a big pile of fuck and all. Decent work... liked the outro.
Mmm, that snare's a lot nicer. Good work on the kick too, the whole thing sounds a lot more powerful. Highs sound good too! Good luck in NGADM!
10/10 for cowbell
That's good to hear. I didn't really change the snare though. I love how EQ magic can do wonderful things. It's also good to hear because I had to change a few things up an octave to make you happy.
And I'm glad it worked.
Thanks
dat production tho
I don't personally like the lyrics as they're a bit drawn out, but they don't occupy much of the song and I think you did a really solid job with pretty much all of it. I'm liking the kick and snare, and I find the bass quite unique. ALSO the amount of little stuff... the plucks and blips in between melodies... like that a lot, piano arps too.
This is great man
I produce music using FL 21 - you can contact me via email at:
ContactGeoplex@Gmail.com
You can use my music in anything you want. Just credit me.
Melbourne, Australia
Joined on 7/6/07
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