Raza's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Chick]

I instantly liked the mix of the instruments and the unique feel of the track. Nice Dub, I also like that you kept up the song progression, without letting it stay the same for longer than 16, which is good practice, up to about the one minute mark. Then I think you repeat. Then a different beat again around 1:30.

The trick with this kind of music is that you have to put as much work into minute two as minute one, and I like that you kept it under two minutes, because the amount of material you have here is just about that much, but I would still put as much work into the second minute as the first, if you know what I mean.

Keep making unique beats, structures, and loops with your instruments, that's the whole trick to this genre of music, and jam pack those minutes with amazing twists and turns.

Overall nice job, really well done.

RickyCroci responds:

thanks, I'll follow your advice ;)

[BJ - The Room]

I would start the song where the beat kicks in. After that it becomes a really cool ambient piece. The reverb of your clap really helps unify the track, adding some space and dimension to the stereo space. A bit more variety would be good, especially at this length.

I would listen to an ambient artist like maybe Ambeam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB0_zEBrfn4

You have a style that sort of reflects his so you'd probably like it and could study his song structure.

GhostlyDoobies responds:

ok cool, i'll check him out. i wanted to make something that someone could sing on and came up with this so it wasn't too complicated with adding sounds. thanks dude.

[Extermination]

This isn't quite dubstep, maybe 'rockstep' would be a good word for it. I feel the metal. XD Nice writing, keep practicing mixing and mastering, as well as choosing your instruments. Find some nice free ones on the net.

Thanks for uploading the track.

Dubstellation responds:

Thank you for the tips, I'm still new to this but trying my best after every song to get better at what I do. I appreciate your comment and that you cared enough to be nice about what you said, I'll be working to get better at this :)

[Pretty Things]

Despite ripping off David Bowie's song titles, this is a niiiice video game track! I love the samples, well mixed, well composed. I have almost nothing to say as a critique, which is a really good thing. (Go look at my other reviews of audio, if I have this little to say, you know you did a good job!)

The writing of this song is so good, and the instrumentation so clear, that I will basically just leave it here. One or two instruments could be polished, but nothing worth being too picky about.

Pandasticality responds:

Thank you for the review <3
- Pandasticality

[Aimless]

The sped up voice singing has a cool feel to it, how you mixed it. But the guitar is very plainly recorded, add some reverb to it, mix it in so it blends with the vocals better.

I like the experimental atmosphere, especially the vibe the vocals give to it.

Maybe mix up having the vocals being out of harmony with having them sometimes be in harmony and a legit melody, that's just a thought though.

I love the concept for this song, like, the two instrument thing, and the mood, a lot. I'm taking off a star and a half for basically the mixing of the guitar, and a tiny fraction of that is because I'd like to hear maybe a tinnny bit more of the vocal harmonizing from time to time, but honestly, that last critique is just personal opinion and you could probably leave it the way it is.

I normally don't take off so much for the mixing of just a single instrument but since you have only two instruments throughout this entire track its pretty important.

Sillytune responds:

Hey dude, thanks for the input man.

So basically the whole process was this:
1 Guitar // Doubled track, created fake stereo, by panning both left & right, which's basically still kinda "mono-ish" since there were no double takes, but hey
EQ/Compression done on both tracks
Fabfilter Q2 & MJUC
Then i've sent them to the Acoustic Aux-Buss
Same process thing, EQ & Compression
Then i've routed it to the FX track for Reverb, i've used Valhalla there, and i've lowered the volume of that track by 30-35%

As for the voice

2 Tracks // 2 Different vocals

Same process like for acoustic guitar, except that there's no panning here.

VSTI Used: Kontakt 5 // Vocalise from Heavyocity

Voices're done in A Minor, 'n they 're written by me playing them on a shitty PC Keyboard

Thus there really can't be that much of "playability", it's off, and they're really not that much synced together, all of that'll be way much better when i actually get an MIDI Controller.

It's done without a mastering to the whole track, usually i'd hit up ozone and play with stuff there
or i'd chain EQ/Compression/Color EQ, Tape // Stereo Imager // Limiter

However right now it just wasn't the case.

The room in which i'm recording is a huge problem, there's no way to make an sound-room out of it, so every time i record acoustic guitar, or vocals, i have to play around with RX5

But if you have any tips regarding mixing/mastering acoustic guitars, i'd be more than happy to hear 'n learn from ya

Either way, again thanks for the input!

[Sand and Wind]

Despite being overly dry I'm a sucker for chopping. XD I like the genre feeling of this song. Has some good unique solo aspects that are often missing from compositions on NG's I think.

I think you could benefit hugely from better samples/instruments. The technical side of making music is a huge pain in the butt, but when you compose as well as you do it's worth it for you to get your butt moving on it.

Nice track man!

Sgtcustard responds:

Thank you for your positive and helpful comments!

[B4You - Reach For The Blue Sky (2016)]

Well this song gets right into it. Consider an intro or a small build up to the loop point we begin at. But already the song has a unique feel, which I like. I feel the beat is a bit dry, but you have a good grasp on rhythm.

The ending could use a little bit something more. Even if it's just an extension of a beat for a few bars.

I like your instrument choices, they have variety and yet fit together. I can't wait to hear your stuff once you level up at mixing and mastering. Cool stuff, I see great potential.

The song writing is pretty good, you have a nice progression, and a good sense of unity in knowing what patterns go well together.

If I were you I'd start learning compression, it'll really boost your track. Start thinking about mastering.

Arrangement is good, structured.

Thanks for posting the track!

BlackVen0m4you responds:

Thank you for the feedback! :)

[{E} - LuckyVox]

Very good for a first track! I'll give you some beginner advice that's really solid: Use a touch of reverb on almost everything, study and get to know the reverb effect really well, and you'll be ahead of most people who are beginners. Get to know what settings make the reverb sound which way, whether you should cut the low, or the high, or both, how damp, how dry, how long the verb should be. etc.

Generally add a touch to most instruments, and almost never to the kick drum.

Why am I talking so much about reverb? Because it's the next step from where you are and it'll make a huge difference.

Your composition shows a lot of understanding of arrangement, your melody could use some work. Really spend some time to create something that's catchy, even throw out melodies if you have to. Do be afraid to 'kill your darlings' as Stephen King says.

Nice work and keep going!

EricTuneZ responds:

thanks didn't see this untill now but thanks forthe advice

[What's a Future Funk?]

Mm, soo much potential. The song is way to wet once it opens up, try to dry it up a bit so I can hear what's going on. Later on you have some guitar riffs and vocal cuts that are dry, adding a bit of balance to the texture.

The very opening bit could use to be even more compressed, or squeezed just so its clearer to the listener what you're doing. When I first opened up this song I thought it was a rip off something because of the effect until it opened up.

I feel the dynamic range is a bit too high for a dance type song with the kind of compression you seem to be going for on the beat. Has a bit of a Daft punk feel though so that's good.

Mixing aside, the samples you chose and the actual composition is very good and I really enjoyed listening to your song.

I like your skillful filter use too, it also sounds very Daft-Punk inspired. I'm a big fan of house music, so, thanks for the track!

LemKuuja responds:

Thank you so much!

I kinda intended it to sound a little muddy at the beginning, but not in a bad way, and it turned out to be messy and hard to make out, and I didn't know how to fix it, I tried isolating frequencies, haven't thought about compression though, I'll keep it in mind next time :D

You liked the mix? lmao I actually didn't put much effort into mixing, I guess stuff sound better if I don't overthink them lol

I am inspired by Daft Punk and various other French House artists, but not as much as I am by Future Funk and Vaporwave influences.

Thanks for the review man, really appreciate it, I wish more people gave me reviews like this, I need more criticism on my music ;n;

[Lethalix - Soaring]

Intro instrument is amazing. Piano sounds a bit plucky. Oooh slides! I love slides they are often neglected. Your compression seems extremely strong on those drums, they way they force the rest of the track into complete silenece, is a bit over-much.

This isn't a push-pull type of trance song so there is no need to compress the beat that hard.

Really cool rock/mega-man feel. Some nice stuff here, I like your use of the slide, it creates some real swirling, Chrono Trigger feeling, video game nostalgia moments for me.

I feel for the length of the song you need to write one or two more riffs though. The main riff is over-used in the first two minutes or so, but still it's a nice track.

You could maybe cure it by having the mood change come quicker. At 2:30 you start picking up the beat and it sounds pretty good. The skrillex type beats around 2:50 sound a little out of place, but still okay.

The end is a bit abrupt.

Summary:

Overall nice track, I think the main riff is overused, but it's not a deal-breaker. Be nice to hear just one more in the song. The energy when the drums pick up is nice, remember that you did that part well, on your next project in the future, and if you do something really well ask yourself why it works. If something doesn't work, ask why not. Good stuff!

KamillasRainbow responds:

Thank you so much for taking your time to review my track! this is the kind of review that i like to get :D