Score: 8

"Here we go..."

submission: A Silver Kiss

date: July 13, 2008

It's been a while, I believe I really enjoyed the preview, let's see what I think this time around... sorry I took a while to get to it, but I've been busy. ;)

First off, if you used Nexus, then you HAD to have used presets... perhaps modified presets, but presets nonetheless. :P

Second, I recognize your shaker line out of Nexus's Factory Presets, under Textures and FX I believe. Just like last time I think. :\ Its sound doesn't really fit all that well with the rest of the song, either - it just stands out and gives this kinda corny sound, and the fact that it's mostly noise (like white noise or something, not loudness :P) doesn't really help it much.

Your bass is really loud in your intro there, I can hardly at all hear the boom, or almost the punch, of the kick, while it plays. It's almost a click in comparison. I'd EQ it some, cutting the bass frequencies a fair though not extreme amount, so you have more balance between the two. The bass also makes the entire song hard to listen to - it overpowers nearly everything, I can hear the hihats ducking under it, for example. It even distorts a small amount in places... :\

I don't hear any kind of overpowering c
ompressors on the master channel, which is a good thing, considering a ton of the songs I've reviewed lately have had one. ;) Just a tip while I'm at it, you might know this already, but why not? When putting the finishing touches on the full song, aim for subtle effects when FXing the master channel, instead of dramatic ones.

Other than all of that, though, I've got nearly nothing to say. :) I'm sure most of this was obvious to you already anyway, I don't believe you needed my review. :P I'll give this an 8 (with better mixing you could have earned a 9 :( ), though I'll vote 5. Good luck this week, hopefully I'll see this song somewhere on the Weekly Top 5... ;D

Score: 8

"Not bad. :)"

submission: Playing In The Jungle

date: July 10, 2008

Just so you know, I don't typically review people who just send me a PM, or even ask in a review, simply because my reviews take so much time and effort. But I've seen you around the Trance section and the AF, and your songs aren't that bad, so I say it's about time I got around to reviewing your stuff. :P

Intro is nice, though in the very beginning, I smell a loop... :O It's no big deal really. I really get problems with loops when I recognize them, and I don't really recognize this one.

Your bass synth sounds kinda weird, like you put some Predelay on the reverb which causes it to come in and muddy up the mix at random-sounding moments in the beat. The actual synth is ok, but kinda plain sounding. I'd aim for a more creative-sounding one... try messing with EVERYTHING. Degraders are my personal favorite, though you can try distortion, filters, delay and reverb... anything, as long as it sounds awesome. ;D

The drums sound somewhat random. Maybe it's because of this "Jungle" feel you've got, and the fact that I'm much more used to the kick-clap-kick-clap feel with a hihat line behind it all. But I'd suggest saving the bongos for the transitions, where you can do an awesome freestyle thing. :D You have a ride sample that stands out to me, it doesn't sound like it fits either... I'd just pick a better sample. The kick is actually pretty good when it comes in, but as the song progresses it becomes easy to realize it doesn't really have any boom to it... which it should have. :P Last drum I've got to mention is the clap, which actually sounds pretty good to me. Nice job there. XD

I'd have progressed the song a bit more in the intro past the drums and the bass, perhaps introducing at least some kind of arp or pad, or SOMETHING, before the break, to keep the song interesting? You can't count on bongos forever. ;D

The buildup sounds really generic to me, especially with the one-two-three-four crash at the very end (2:22). There's no real tension in it either, just a kick and crash playing together a few times. There are two peaks in there, so perhaps you could save the epic buildup for the second one, but still... more energy. ;D

Break... the melody sounds simple but I won't judge right away. :P

Ok, it is pretty simple. XD The song sounds to me like some kind of mix between trance and happy hardcore, so it sounds "done before" to me... just because the happy sound is heard so often on NG. Now, if you could use the same tribal feel with melodic trance, possibly even using some kind of dissonance, I'd REALLY be impressed. :D The melody's ok overall. I was just expecting more, I guess, than something as simple as it was. :\

You add in another bass in the peaks. What's more, it's on the offbeat? :\ I'd stick to one bass synth, for consistency reasons... it's a lot easier to listen to a trance song if it has only one bass synth, which most trance songs (and Dance, and most electronic songs in general I believe) do.

Your progression is kinda weird, namely in the second half of the song. The second break isn't actually a break, it's just the intro all over again for a little while. The whole point of a high-energy song (which this one seems to be in the peaks) is to build up tension REALLY high, so when it's released, all of that energy breaks loose. ;D The best way to do that would be to, first, bring energy really low. I don't know about you, but I like my true peak towards the end, and since you have two peaks, I'd recommend the second half of the song to be more polar than the first. That is, the second break should have less energy than the first, the second buildup should have more tension, and the second peak should have more energy. ;) You do the opposite here. There's no break, almost no tension in the buildup, and the peak is exactly the same. See what I'm saying? ;) Last, the ending's lacking, I was expecting something more progressive. It's trance after all.

That's about all I've got to say for this song... overall, I'll give it an 8/10 and 4/5. You seem to know what you're doing for the most part, keep at it. :)

Score: 8

"Not bad. :)"

submission: Solid Star (Original Mix)

date: July 6, 2008

First off, if you're having a hard time mixing because of CPU usage, a slower way (but better in a few senses) is to export a full-quality (192 kbps) MP3, "blindly" change volumes or EQ based on the sound of the MP3, and export again until it sounds good. That's what I did with my PoE remix. ;D

Drums sound nice - really nice, actually, I don't recognize a thing. :O The phased-sounding effect makes the song a bit annoying to listen to, but it's no big deal at all - perhaps turning down the mix knob might have helped. :P Of course, if that whole thing's just one raw loop, I'd be pretty disappointed in you. >:( Most of my typical criticisms for drums don't apply here, they sound pretty well-chosen and well mixed.

Your bass sounds ok, but it's really quiet. I'd recommend turning it up a bit, or EQing it, so it's more present. As is I can barely hear it. D:

Your other synths play now and then (like in Midway, I believe), but for the most part aren't there, giving the song an empty feel. They sound great, but they're just not there enough. I'd recommend another consistent synth on top of the bass, while the other synths keep doing what they're doing, which is really original - you're developing your own style really quickly here. :D I can't tell if they're presets or not, but if they are... >:( If they're not, though, great job.

The transition into the breakdown sounds kinda sudden - ok, you built up, but there's the kick/crash hit and the song drops to zero volume. That pad you fade in later on? Try fading it from a bit higher than zero, just so the song isn't empty for those few seconds there. ;) Your next synth is ok, I heard some crackling as it came in (turn down resonance/Q?) but it fits well enough. Perhaps you might have wanted to EQ it some for some extra presence?

Breaks are nice, the snare sounds quiet to me and the kick sounds loud to me. :\

Your buildup seems short, with little effort. I'd have made it a bit more dramatic than that, considering it's the main buildup of the song. ;D

The peak is nice. What I'd work on at this point is an overall presence and richness of sound - filling the frequencies, basically. Right now, your song feels really thin and empty-sounding compared to the typical song you'd hear on TranceFM. Perhaps you should choose your filler synths better - they're almost all playing in the treble ranges, after all.

Outro is nice, pretty standard. No comments here, though it would have been nice for you to spice it up (and the transitions all around) perhaps with some more creative drum transitions for extra listening pleasure. ;D

You're getting there. ;) Keep it up.

Score: 8

"You know, I haven't reviewed you in a while..."

submission: What Phfor?

date: July 4, 2008

So it's about time I did anyway, right? ;D

First thing that comes to mind... I smell a VEE loop. :O You're the one who told me once that using blatant loops gets you less respect... follow your own advice. XD Though I only recognized it because GroundForce used the same loop in his song he submitted here, ExTrA... there are a few other recognizable sounds in the song as well but they're not as big a deal.

The decay on your kick seems to be a bit too long, it messes with the bassline a bit... and when you lowpass it to transition into your break, it distorts a bit, maybe turning down the resonance/Q is in order here. ;)

Synths sound good, as I'd usually expect from you... I've been hearing a certain bell-like synth of yours multiple times so it's nice to hear a song from you without it for once. XD The only times they stand out to me are the delayed lead at the end of the first buildup, which seems to play a clashing note or two, and your sidechained bass, which sounds a bit harsh too - perhaps some EQing is in order here? As a side note, the delayed lead sounds a bit plain, I'd prefer to hear something a bit more original. ;)

Your breakdown melody (I'm talking about the one at 3:45) is nice, but the second measure of it doesn't really go well with your chords, perhaps it's because one of the notes in the chord was the second note of the scale? It's almost a clashing note, but it's not quite one. Dunno, you might have wanted to rethink that. Your melody for your peaks is also nice, though rhythmically repetitive. Hmm - you said it's driving and very melodic, but it doesn't sound like either to me. It's good in its own sense but I wouldn't use those words - the energy seems to be a bit lacking to call it "driving," and I've heard plenty of songs more melodic than this one. ;)

Listening to that second peak, it sounds like you have a compressor on the master channel, as the mix seems to duck at random-sounding points, which makes it a bit annoying to listen to. :\ I'd go for more subtle changes when putting stuff on the master channel, if you're going for dramatic effects, then maybe you'd be better off raising/lowering the volume, or EQing if you have to.

I like what you've got going on around 3:26, pretty original-sounding! :D It sounds pretty good as is, but it would really be awesome if you could find something better to put in that empty space instead of a snare hit. ;)

The second buildup is a bit weird, and inconsistent with the EQ, or filters, or whatever you used - it might have been part of the idea but it didn't really work for me. And as for your ending, it sounded a bit plain to me, with just the kick. I'd have used something else along with it... dunno. :P

Other than all of that it's a decent track. I suppose we're pretty lucky to have it if you got it signed, too, so thanks. :D Looking forward to more from you...

Score: 7

"Congrats on 100 submissions! :D"

submission: +Factory+

date: July 2, 2008

Here are my thoughts on this one...

The first thing that strikes me is that the drums aren't present enough. Not loud, present - so perhaps some mixing, EQing, compressing, or even sample changing might be in order? The kick doesn't boom (and is pretty quiet in the mix too), the clap is a bit quiet, and the hihats are inconsistent with volume and possibly panning, which makes the song hard to listen to. :\

In fact, the whole song lacks a good presence, it feels like you cut the bass, and the high treble frequencies. What you really should do is fill the frequencies more - to fix it I'd start by exaggerating, though not to an unfixable extent, the mix you have in mind, keeping in mind you should have a balance of frequencies - equal presence of drums and synths in the low, mid, and upper ranges. Once you're done with the song, mix it. ;)

The song lacks structure - considering you submitted it as a trance song, you'd think it would have some kind of structure to it as nearly every trance song does. :P I don't really hear one here, though. It might be that it was originally for Envy's contest, but I can imagine plenty of ways to make a full-length trance song for Envy's contest. Maybe this would be better off in Industrial, where less trance-heads like me will complain it's got no structure, it isn't long enough, etc. XD

One of your synths sounds like a 3xOsc preset, it might just be me, though. :P

Other than all of that I think you're fine. I don't usually review this sort of song but it's not bad. :) Keep it up.

Score: 10

"The BEST trance song I've heard on Newgrounds."

submission: Airless (Original Mix)

date: July 2, 2008

You can quote me on that. ;D

This is probably going to be one of, and the first of, those rare occasions where I write a review that's under 1000 characters ("short" by my definition). Just because I have literally nothing to complain about. Knowing how nitpicky I can get, that's really something to be proud of. :D

I can tell this is going to sit on the top of my Favorite Audio Submissions list for a long time, mostly because it did everything I usually criticize on RIGHT. ;D Compared to all of your other songs I've heard up until now, this one's amazing chiefly because it's so fresh and new, and radically different - I don't recognize a single sample or synth, and it sounds completely different from your usual tracks. I say, it's an example and model for everyone on NG trying to make Trance. I mean that. ;) I'll be listening to this one for a long time myself...

Bravo. :D

Score: 7

"About time I got to this..."

submission: Midway (Original Mix)

date: June 29, 2008

I said I would review it soon enough, well, here's your review! ;D

Intro - well, it sounds really plain, and goes on for a bit too long - you introduce the clap after four measures, which helps, but I'd add a bit more thickness to it, I guess - an extra loop, perhaps, just to make it a bit fuller until everything else comes in.

When everything else DOES come in, it feels like too much at once - mostly it's because the bass is REALLY loud and could do with some mid frequency cuts (its volume hurts the song throughout). Your plucked synth plays only one "phrase" with a second one in between every other time. What would be really nice is, as an extra melodic touch, you had a second, perhaps shorter, phrase, played in between EVERY two of those phrases you already have, instead. Just a thought. :P

Then there's that supersawish synth, what I don't like about it (and the plucked synth as well) is that it plays a "phrase" and then stops, leaving the drums and bass alone, and the song empty. Doesn't really help the progression, and really only lets the song become more repetitive.

At 1:41 you turn on a Lowpass filter assigned to the kick, and automate it so it hits 0 by the transition to the breakdown. The problem with this is that you have the resonance (it might also be called Q) up, which boosts the cutoff frequency... basically, you get this annoying clicking noise every kick, and as the cutoff frequency moves into the bass ranges, the song distorts. When filtering a kick - and anything, really - you have to be very careful, as it's easy to get crackling or distorting by using the resonance or filter type wrong - apparently it's what happened with your lead around 2:43 as the cutoff frequency passed through the mids - the resonance was up, and caused crackling. When in doubt, keep resonance at 0. ;)

And, here's the peak. Where's your buildup? I just heard a short, two-measure kickroll. No snare, just ONE open hihat with a clap for a while (16 measures I believe, with just a few kick hits throughout, that's not a buildup :I). Where's your tension? One of the most enjoyable aspects of a trance song is the release as everything comes together at the peak, but you can't have any RELEASE without any TENSION. Keep that in mind...

The melody sounds... ordinary. It's not uplifting, it's not catchy, it's not dissonant, it's boring, and it lacks direction. It might just be your bassline, which is a REALLY simple 4-measure bassline playing an equally simple kick-low-high-low-kick-low-high-low rhythm. Try having an 8-measure bassline, with at most one note being used in two measures, playing a more creative rhythm, and your song will be sounding MUCH better, believe me. ;)

Random snare rhythms throughout the ending of the song, I've heard that rhythm in Daniel Kandi songs before... did you steal it? XD Either way they don't help the song all that much.

The song just cuts off. Are you just going to leave your listener like that? Even if it's meant to be DJed, you'll regardless have people listening to it for fun - odds are, one out of the 10 people who have downloaded it so far will be listening to it on their iPod sometime, and cutting off like that won't make the song any more enjoyable. If you have to, end with your crash, which would delay out - the song would end when there's no more sound. As in, the measure after the end of the song, add a crash pattern, and when rendering, choose "Leave Remainder." That's what I mean. ;)

That's about all I've got to say... this song was a so-so song, you could have done better, but hopefully you've got better stuff coming up in the future anyway. 3/5, 7/10, I won't be reviewing your stuff until you have a real groundbreaker (and by my standards, not yours), so be sure to make that your next if you want that review. ;D

Score: 9

"Awesome, like I expected. ;D"

submission: Your Eyes (Original Mix)

date: June 27, 2008

It's not quite perfect, but definitely your best so far. And my new personal favorite from your stuff, above Deep Blue. :) But it's still flawed... you might be sick of this song by now, and you've probably heard all of this already when you sent me that demo I keep forgetting about, but I'll go through all of the points anyway.

The hihat loop in the beginning is amazing, it sounds completely original, and really catchy. I still have to figure out how to do stuff like that. XD It sounds like there's a compressor (still) on the master channel, it doesn't kill the song like it does on most occasions, but it still hurts it more than it helps it, I think. The kick doesn't sound right to me, it's all boom - there's no punch to it, and only a tiny bit of click that I suspect is part of the hihat line you introduce later on? It's kinda disappointing, and it has nearly no presence, considering the bassline also plays down in the bass ranges, which makes the kick even harder to hear. :\ The clap is slightly hard to hear as well.

Then there's the detuned-sounding synth, but I think I can skip that. ;)

Other than that there's no real problems throughout the song. The melody is kinda repetitive considering the piano only plays on the first beat of each measure, and the gated synth plays that really repetitive and overused "da-da-daaa, da-da-daaa" pattern. Piano solo is amazing, my personal favorite part is 5:54-ish for some reason, as well as around 6:06. Like I said on MSN, it doesn't really resolve, though... it's just a slight buildup and then it jumps into the peak. The FX helps some but it felt lacking there. Yeah, I said it sounded ok myself the other day, I guess it was the comparison to the old version? Because this doesn't sound like enough to me. :\ Second peak doesn't sound all that different from the first, and what's more, it's nearly two and a half straight minutes of the same stuff. That sounds like a lot to me - were you just trying to get closer to a 10-minute song or something? XD

By the way, go post on Rig's Audio Artist Programs list, there's a place where he lists the artists that have made songs longer than 8 minutes. :D

But that's about all I've got to say, other than that, nothing really hurts the song at all. That makes this one of my shorter reviews, which is an accomplishment for you, usually I find more to criticize. XD

But yeah, great job F-777. :D

Score: 8

"Possibly the luckiest song I've seen on the AP."

submission: ~EnV~Heaven Rd. 3

date: June 26, 2008

As you submitted it, and within an hour and 15 minutes or so it got more than 20 votes and made Weekly 1st. Quite a fanbase you've got there. XD Tons of effort in here, I can tell that, but I'm going to go through it point by point to explain why there definitely could have been more. As I'm no doubt going to spend a long amount of time on this, I'd appreciate a good response. ;)

Intro. Feels like I've heard 0:00-0:03 somewhere before. Just to make a point, let me list every element in this song I recognize:

-Intro (up to 0:03)
-Kick
-Bass Synth
-Hihats
-Clap
-Plucked Synth coming in at 0:31 (from Nexus's Plucked section)
-Bell (same deal here, I believe?)
-Vox ("caution")
-Hit (that comes after the vox, I recognize it out of VEC)
-"HOO" voice :P
-Lead Saws
-Piano
-Mutliple FX samples (recognize them from VEC)
-Fruity Flanger

Quite a few familiar elements in here, maybe they were used to help replicate the feel of Rd. 2, but it feels like you took the easy way out and used most or all of them. :\ The plucked synth, bell, FX sounds, and intro are new (I think) but they're all really recognizable from Nexus or, in the case of some other intro, some other thing I can't seem to put my finger on... thing is, using things people recognize and associate with things they've heard in the past makes it harder for people to associate with said things with you - basically, you'll have less of your style, and your song will sound more generic. ;) It's justifiable that you used, say, the caution vox, the "HOO" voice, the hit, and possibly the lead to recreate the feel of the original, but all of the drums, AND the bass from the original is just overboard in my opinion.

Second, I see you used 208 patterns and 98 Automation Clips. I'm guessing it's waaay too much, considering I used under half that number of patterns and a quarter that number of automation clips for a ten-minute song of mine nearly a month in the making. XD Now, this might be a stylistic, personal preferences in organization sort of thing, but maybe my suggestions will help speed up your song-making progress. ;) What I would do is create separate "sections" in the playlist - one only for the patterns with the kick, one only for the hihat patterns, one only for the bass, one only for the lead, etc. Separate each of them with an empty pattern named "-". This helps keep things a whole lot more organized, so you can keep your number of patterns in check, and things don't get too out of hand. Second, I'd create long automation clips stretching from the beginning of the song to the last point where they're needed, just so you can have one for each knob, and whenever you need one, instead of scrolling vertically and horizontally, you can just head to the front, scroll vertically until you find the want, then head horizontally to the point where you need it. :P Of course, if you're counting audio clips and some patterns as automations, then it's a completely different story, but hopefully this is relevant enough. :) Of course, delete the patterns and automation clips (and Step Sequencer and FX Channels while you're at it) that you aren't using.

Next - your bass synth! Its treble area becomes quiet later on, and I can hardly hear it - maybe you just want your boom, but I bet that crispness would really add to the song. :D There are also various other synths during the peaks, but I can hardly hear them at all, the saws overpower them all. Maybe the melody's important, but if you're going to use other synths, leave room for them. ;)

Your structure. If the review hasn't been helpful to this point (though HOPEFULLY it has XD) this is where it'll help for sure. Your problem here is that you manage to fit two breakdowns, buildups, and peaks, in just three and a half minutes. XD Maybe this is because I tend to review with certain trance-based criteria often regardless of genre, but I'd space things out a bit. You'll get a longer song, but more importantly, a more enjoyable one. You'll also get room for some extra elements, but don't overcrowd the song. ;)

Continuing on my alt...

Score: 8

"I'm reviewing this song because,"

submission: North Star (Original Mix)

date: June 20, 2008

I saw your "Massive Trance Tutorial" on the Audio Forum. So I'm here to show you that regardless of how far you've come, you've still got a long way to go. So don't let your ego get ahead of you. :P

Intro is nice, thumping, though it sounds like you put a compressor on the master channel, everything ducks slightly now and then, not dramatically, but enough to hurt the flow of the track. Thankfully you didn't boost the bass on both your kick and bass synth, which is the next thing I see people doing after adding on a compressor to the master channel.

Try to stay away from blatant VEC sounds (I hear at least four), maybe if you can find good ones and disguise them well they're ok, but if you keep using them like that you'll sound more like some generic trance producer - the sounds have been used time and time again, after all. ;) That, and your VEC2 Trance Sweeps 03 sample is not only overpowered in some places when you use it (like your hit), but it isn't in the same key as the rest of the song. :P

Next problem, it sounds like some of your synths lack depth to them. It's not a mixing or EQing thing, but it's just the synths themselves. For example, your synth that comes in at 1:08 is really thin, almost tinny-sounding. It comes in later and it's got a little bit more depth to it but in the mix around 1:08 it's way too thin. Often the best trance I hear has a full sound - not cluttered, but "thick." That's because the frequencies are filled - kick and bass in the low ranges, the clap, some filler synths (arp, gated synth, pad/sidechained pad, for example) and maybe some vocals in the mid and mid-treble ranges, and in the treble ranges, the hihat line, the lead, and possibly another filler synth. Here, though, most of your synths are in the mid-treble and treble ranges, there's nothing in the mid ranges, giving the song a hollow sound in places - as it's got plenty of synths but this big gaping frequency hole in the middle.

As for your lead, either it's that synth I described as tinny earlier playing a repetitive rhythm, or some other synth I can hardly hear, lost in the mix, playing what sounds to me to be a pretty good melody. Take a guess at what I'm going to say here, you should know by now. :D

Later on in the song, you have one loud hihat on the offbeat, and the rest get drowned under the mix. The bass rhythm somehow saves the drive a flowing hihat line would have given the track, at least it does for me, but be careful next time. If you have to, use a loop or two, just make sure they're not obvious like your FX. ;D

Your snare rolls are in places really overpowered, which they shouldn't be, considering they're being used to build tension which is released at the end of the roll - they should be heard! Next time, make sure they are. ;)

Now, your progression. I'll map it out first just so we can see what we're talking about. ;)
1. 0:00 - 1:35: Intro
2. 1:36 - 2:10: Breakdown
3. 2:11 - 2:25: Buildup
4. 2:26 - 3:20: Peak
5. 3:21 - 3:34: Buildup
6. 3:35 - 4:02: Peak (though the energy goes down?)
7. 4:03 - 4:15: Buildup
8. 4:16 - 5:24: Peak
9. 5:25 - 6:31: Outro

Now what I don't get are sections four through eight. Basically, the song's the same for the half of the total time, minus some 10-second buildups and a little bit of filtering? Next time, just add in another breakdown, which is a bit different from your first one, followed by a REAL buildup. ;)

Other than all of those points this song's not bad. You remind me of Pulstate (who has an account on this site, find him :D) about a year ago, maybe a bit more, which was before he got signed. Basically, you've got potential, lots of it. And, another thing, I wouldn't call it a matter of getting the right software, you seem to have everything you need. Just learn to use it right. ;)

So I'll rate this an 8/10, though I'll vote 5. I'll be keeping an eye out for more stuff from you. ;)