Score: 7

"Nice concept, poor execution."

submission: Jessica (Original Preview Mix)

date: August 18, 2008

Now for me to explain what I mean. ;D

Your intro is nice. The kick sounds weird, it's not one uniform boom, but it wobbles - this is most obvious in the intro, later on it's not as obvious... but when the kick plays later on it's annoying to hear. Be a bit more careful next time when you pick your sounds, and show your track as a WIP to other people as you're working on it. Your crash sounds odd, I think I might just not like the sound of it, it's unusual to hear in Trance. Go for something lighter next time, and layer your crashes to make sure your samples aren't blatant if you're picking any obvious-sounding samples. Same goes for the hihat line, but to a lesser extent. It sounds pretty good, except you add to it later on during the peak - typically you don't want to be adding to your drums during the peak, do all the "putting together" of your drumbeat during the intro, or your buildup if you must. There are plenty of ways to keep the high energy level of the peak for a longer period of time, but adding drums isn't typically done.

I hear a loop played in certain sections, and it's fairly obvious to me that it's from VEC, but only because I'm very familiar with many Vengeance sounds. Had I listened to this track a few months ago, I might not have noticed it's Vengeance, though it's fairly obvious that it's a loop - for example, in the peak, where it fades in, it's basically like you're fading in another hihat line on top of the new one all at once. I do like how you use it in the buildup, though, with the EQ sweep - try sweeping upwards in frequency for a more uplifting effect if you wish.

Actually, I'm reading through your description again, you used VIP-Zone samples? o_O It sure sounded like Vengeance... in any case, blatant loops are usually a no. Keep them subtle, try not to stick them out in front like that.

Typically I'm against offbeat basses just because more often than not it's the artist taking the easy way out, but I think it works fine this time (though I still think some kind of creative rhythm or arp pattern would have done wonders for the track). Your bassline is a variation on a very unoriginal bassline, but it's catchy enough for me to let it slide. :) I especially like how your bass plays the sixth note of your minor scale in the intro, rather than the first as done in most Trance songs. I've always been planning on doing that sometime, looks like you beat me to it. >:(

The lead and your bass seem to be your only synths in the track, which makes it very flat-sounding, as opposed to the thick trancy sound you could be getting with this track. Instead of filling the frequencies, you seem to have left them empty for a more minimal Trance song! :( I would have loved to hear this same song, but well-produced - the composition is pretty moving compared to most of the Trance I hear on Newgrounds these days.

The track is fairly short and progresses much faster than a Trance song usually does, but understandably so considering your melody is only four measures long, and that it's a preview. I'd like to hear a club mix of this melody, extended to 8 measures, and filled out with some kind of arp or pad that lays out the chord progression.

I think that's about all I've got to say for this track - hope I helped, nice job! :)

Score: 10

"Nice. :D"

submission: Karco - Unleashed (xKore Rmix)

date: August 15, 2008

You really impressed me with this, and you finally submitted something, so I'm going to leave you a review. Though it's not going to be a review really, it'll be more like a long comment. :P

I just have to say I really like where you took this song - I'm not going to elaborate so we can keep it a surprise, but listeners, believe me, this one-minute clip doesn't do the full track justice at ALL.

I'm not saying that so they'll buy the CD either. Really. D:

Great job, this is one of my favorite remixes so far. :D

Score: 6

"Not bad..."

submission: =\ Silver Knight /=

date: August 15, 2008

You've made progress since your first track. :) Since you want advice mostly on mixing, I'll tell you about that - though keep in mind your mixing will be in vain if you don't have any original sounds or samples to use. Try looking into Vengeance Essential Clubsounds, those are some really good samplepacks that, though you have to buy them, can really make your tracks a lot stronger overall if you know how to use them. ReFX Nexus2 is a very useful synth to use, but be warned you can sound very generic using it unless you use it right.

As for your mix. First off I hear very little clipping, crackling, or distortion, which is good. Though it seems to be because you've placed the entire thing under a compressor - I can hear your mix duck all at once where it would normally be loudest. I'm not going to elaborate on why it's bad, you've been given a link to my article in that thread of yours. ;)

Your kick has reverb - typically putting reverb on a kick will do you mix no good. You'll get reverb in the bass frequencies, which will muddy up your mix and make it a lot harder to keep clean. As a rule, never place reverb on your kick (I've really only heard one occasion when it was done right, and it was on a short transition anyway). The sample itself sounds like it came straight out of FL - it's all punch and no boom. There's no mid/high mid to it either. Like I said, find better sounds to use. ;)

Various elements of your track are getting pushed to the bottom of the mix, partially by that Master Channel compressor of yours, and partially because of the louder sounds in there. These include some of the hihats, the clap, and in the louder sections of the track, your pad. Be careful - to make sure your sound levels are good, share your track with other people (fellow artists will help you the most) and listen to it yourself with an objective ear. Make it a habit never to take the easy way out - sometimes that extra push of effort will really help your track and your mix.

I think that's about all I've got to say for now - those are the biggest problems you've got for now. Make it a habit to avoid them in the future and you'll have a whole host of new ones to worry about, I'm sure, but you'll have taken a big step if you do. ;) Keep it up!

Score: 7

"Right..."

submission: BeeT - Hold On!

date: August 14, 2008

Well, first thing, I hear several raw Vengeance sounds. Stay away from those, you'll get a generic sound (because they've been used so many times) to your tracks and then nobody will really have a reason to listen to them over a different, more original track, or a similarly generic track that's just produced better. I'm recognizing the hit, the fill, the FX... all raw. The kick sounds like it came out of Vengeance as well, most obviously in the intro, while it's highpassed.

Synths and composition are lacking. Your lead is a supersaw, which is unoriginal as is. I can't tell if your bass on the offbeat is the same supersaw playing down a few octaves or a different synth, which is in itself a bad thing... try not to use more than one supersaw to a track for the sake of originality. As for the offbeat bass, it seems like the "easy way out" especially when you could be making a really creative synth playing a creative rhythm - great basses make tracks very memorable you know. ;D Your progression is boring and cliched as well - it's been done before in plenty of songs. Come up with something creative, that's ho songs get recognized. ;D No comment on the synth in the intro, I'm neutral about it, nothing special. Piano is nice, I don't recognize it, which rarely happens - it's usually either a Nexus piano, FL Keys, or a common soundfont these days. :( Though be careful how you use it - it sounds blatantly sequenced. Play with velocities and tweak rhythms by tiny amounts to "humanize" your notes.

Drums. Well, the kick doesn't boom at all, it's all punch, mostly because your bass synth is taking up all the bass room. I already said it's recognizable as a Vengeance sample. The snare is a bit too loud and trebley for me, and could use some minor EQing, though personally, I would have chosen a different sample altogether. I don't hear anything filling up the hihat role, there's a nearly inaudible closed hihat on the offbeat but that's it. What you should be going for is a nice, thick hihat line, even if it means using a loop or two - just make sure they're not blatantly obvious. ;)

The scratch FX at 2:55 or so sounded really unnecessary. It seems you added the clarinet in there for melodic and emotional effect, but the scratch ruins it for me.

I think that's about all I've got to say for this review. What I would recommend you do is make a song keeping all the criticisms here in mind. Once you're satisfied with it, give it a look with song structure in mind - how are your breaks? Buildups? Peaks? Intro and ending? Transitions between them all? Etc.

Hope this helps. :D

Score: 10

"Really nice stuff!"

submission: [Zell] X-files remix

date: August 13, 2008

Everything sounds great, the mix is clean, yet really thick-sounding - this really took me by surprise, amazing work here!

Better still, you're making the FLP public? I'm definitely checking out first chance I get once it comes out. :D

My only regret is that this is only a demo. You said in an earlier response you hope for the finished version to be more than 7 minutes long... if that's the case, this might end up as one of those songs I have to listen to over and over again. I've only got a few of those. :D

Really the only way you could go wrong from here is the progression, or by accidentally using a melody wrong, hopefully that won't happen. ;)

Let me know when you've finished it!

Score: 9

"Quite awesome. :D"

submission: ==(Repairing a Broken Sky)==

date: July 31, 2008

I'd have to say this is easily one of the better tracks I've heard from you in a while... mostly because you focused on atmosphere, which was definitely a good thing to do. :D I really love all the subtle elements you've got going in there - that synth playing on the third beat, that acid-like synth (which was a pleasant surprise), and the synth coming in at 11:55, for example.

The kick and squareish arp are the only things that seem to break the atmosphere in my opinion. The kick only in the beginning, when it's really loud (relatively speaking) and less consistent, though the arp throughout, it seems a bit strong and raw compared to the rest of the song, which is all-around a lot softer. It seems a bandpass filter or something would do well to give it a softer touch.

Drums are all nice (except for the kick in the beginning which I mentioned already), you used a different drumset this time? Yes or no, they sound different. :D That shaker-ish thing I hear playing on the offbeat at 6:00 sounds a bit loud and random to me though, I feel the song could have done without it altogether. Snare is ok, I'm neutral there, I think you could have found a better sample - something more subtle and less attention-grabbing, maybe? Last - is it me or do I hear a cowbell coming from my right headphone? :D The rest of the drums I'm pretty much neutral on, nothing amazing, though I do like that other drum coming from the left headphone that plays along with the cowbell sound.

I just realized I forgot to comment on that lead of yours that's in there from the beginning! :O It's nice, sounds like something I'd hear out of you, the vibrato that gradually comes in during the longer notes is a nice touch, though it kinda felt out of place in the great atmosphere you had going (like the arp).

Yeah, other than that, I really can't think of much else to say, which makes tihs one of my shorter reviews, sorry. D: Really nice song here SBB, I want to hear more like this in the future! Keep it up - 5/5, 9/10, favorited, and downloaded. :D

Score: 8

"Pretty good."

submission: Infablue--_--

date: July 25, 2008

In fact, so good, I'm down only to a few points, mostly nitpicky ones, for this review. :(

The main problem I have with this song is that it's 5 minutes of sameness. It's background stuff. The energy level really doesn't change much throughout, the biggest change is the "melody" later on in the song (though it's just a synth on the offbeat, I actually don't see any one defining melody in here) and the quieter section before it but I still don't see enough of a difference overall. There's very little structure to it that I can find, it's section after section of goa. Well-produced goa nonetheless, but it's difficult to listen to it all the way through (even for me, and as a comparision I listen to 10+ minute trance songs all the time), let alone multiple times. This is the kind of song that gives me a good impression the first time, so I download it to my computer (which I have already), listen to it a few times, but then rarely listen to it after that. And even now it repeats in the Newgrounds player, and I hardly notice. :\

I'm not necessarily asking for a break-build-peak sort of trance structure, rather, I'm asking for defining moments and sections in the song that makes it addicting to listen to - I'm not finding many of those here.

It might just be that this song's not a serious song, or just an exercise, or something you pulled together for the sake of submitting something after you came back (great that you did, by the way). But hey, a review's a review. :P

Other than that, I have very little to criticize on. There's no real melody, the kick has a little too much click for my taste, 4:06 is a little rhythmically disorienting (though that could be a good thing depending on what you were going for), the bassline later on sounds somewhat simple - it's all mostly personal taste. Other than my first point, the song's really well-done to the extent that I can hardly critique it, after all.

Last thing - if you've got the time, I'd like to ask you to review my remix of Paradise on E. Last time you reviewed one of my songs it was really helpful, so much so that you made me reconsider where I was going with my music entirely. If you don't mind, I could use that point of view again. ;)

Nice job with this, keep it up, I hope to hear more from you soon!

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.