JandreParis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Summer of '69 (Sad Cover)]

Hmm.

Ah, I remember you! I reviewed a piece of yours that I thought was pretty jolly.

Articulation in your vocals is much better (well, as it should when family isn't 'round, eh?). The reverb you used felt a tad bit too much for my tastes. Though, seeing as this is a classic rock piece, it felt more like a simulation of a stage, as if you were putting on a live show, right here, right now.

The only thing is that there's a disconnect between the guitar and the vocals. The reverb on the acoustic is much more tame and subtle as opposed to the vocals, which sound much more lush and have more warmth. They should be, in all technicality, occupying the same space, so there should be the same amount of reverb. Technically.

I think in this case, less is more - matching the verb on the guitar with the vocals since they sound a bit too spacey. Just me, of course.

Keep focusing on your voice. Belting it out is very good, just keep with trying to be consistent. I hear some extra modulation from your diaphragm when your pushing to hit the notes.

Otherwise, pretty awesome. Love me some acoustic guitar ;)

-J.P.

Ceevro responds:

Hmmm...weird that the reverb doesn't sound the same, because it's the same track. This was one-take, one mic, that's it. Yeah, I put a bit of reverb on the whole thing, and an echo at about 10%, so its just a little off the noticable-level. May have to review my use of reverb, to see if I'm overdoing it, though. I guess it still sounded pretty-good without any effects, but you're right on the sort of empty-space feeling I was going for.

Thanks for taking the time, JP!

[Restricted Area]

Interesting.

I'd actually feel more prompt to class this under Industrial/Electro. It does have some techno-ish themes, but it feels more Industrial to me. Example: Donkey Kong Country's industrial levels where the music sports some pretty heavy drums, soft basslines, classic bright snare. Some motifs like that are what I hear here.

As far as sound design is concerned, especially with the use of Nexus, it's difficult to tell what's "you" and what's Nexus, if you know what I mean. I'm more one for people creating their own sounds to give their tracks a more personal and genuine feel, but that's not to say that you didn't do that here. In fact, you do you well, hah. That certainly shines. (That's just personal opinion and preference.)

Drum kit: a bit more thump behind it with some sub. Not too much, just could be deeper. Snare could be a little brighter since it's a bit muddy and distant. Extra layer could help with that.

Do like that each section has it's own phrasing, which I rarely hear in many tracks these days. It's usually three of the same sections broken apart by the same build up. Speaking of which, that reverse crash to crash is a bit harsh and could use some toning down. Sounds much louder than everything else when it shows up. You want it to be audible but subtle.

Nit-picking and all aside, swell track methinks. Definitely could see this in a couple of games, that's for sure.

-J.P.

KwanChau responds:

just the review i needed! yeah im super sorry about the genre error. i have trouble telling the difference in that kind of subject. and i will definitely take notes in creating my own sounds with nexus. but i did use a few vsts where i made a few edits to the presets. plus with me just getting nexus, i just heard pretty sounds and wanted to put them together lol. with the drums, i'm guessing i will still need to learn eq more huh? good thing i can always go back into the project and improve on it!

all in all, im really glad you gave me a detailed review and also pleased you saw it as interesting. :)

[(F) _One Last Distinction_]

Ambient is not so much my style. I haven't done it in years and only recently have I picked it back up through some Downtempo.

Despite the sheer length, it is very, very good. For me, the intro was a bit too long, especially with the same beating hi-hat rhythms you have going on with those occasional swells of noise and squares in the background. But it was well worth the wait when it found movement at 4:00 in.

You've got some smooth square pads that aren't at all, in the least bit, intrusive. It makes for some pretty sweet and thick soundscapes. The previous reviewer said it "needs more bass". This is ambient; when you have such large soundscapes, you've got all the bass you'll ever need.

The only thing is I feel some frequencies to be a bit too piercing around the low end when you do your pseudo-bass drop (as I can only describe it as such), but that's probably due to resonance. The same could be said for the high-end when you have squares mixing in together - it's around the 1-3K area of the spectrum.

(That was just half-way into the track.)

Thirteen minutes in and I'm encapsulated in the space. It's very ethereal, and the wind-type sounds accentuate it very nicely. It reminds me a lot of artistic video games that I've played, like FEZ or Monument Valley where you have these huge stages with puzzles and the music is very slow to move, windy and graceful with accents here and there. Only until now have I noticed that the beating hi-hats have since gone, which also reminded me of music concrete - sounds used to make an aural montage.

Nearing the end, the tone changed a bit. It was very light and airy and now it seems a little more ominous. More wind is present and your pads have a darker tone to them, a sign of the night life after hitting mid-day as it would seem.

A very good track, I believe. It's a lot like those youtube videos where you see songs or other things being slowed down by 100-300 times their normal speed and you get this really cool plane of just air, at least in one sense or another.

Nonetheless, a great piece. Provokes some visual experiences as well.

Well done.

J.P.

Fubaka responds:

That was fantastic! Very good feedback indeed.

You seem to have really gotten into the track! I heartily recommend checking out the rest of the album, because you would definitely enjoy it.

[Grill-Z covers Feel Good INC]

Three hours, one guitar, a mic, and a computer?

Sounds like the tools of the trade to me!

That intro. Put a smile on my face for that little comedic piece.

I think, for the most part, vocals are pretty good. It meshes a bit too well during the verses and raps. Right at those points, they should sit a little higher up on the mix. Since your voice sounds more on the low-mid side of things, that "pseudo-bass drum" overshadows the vocals a bit. The chorus sounds fine since you don't have that beat percussion getting too much in the way.

As your singing, think about your consistency. I hear you going flat a couple times here and there. Though as devil's advocate, it gives the track it's own authenticity.

Really my only gripe with the mix. I love the acoustic quality to it. Some good nuances here and there that really separates it from the original and other acoustic covers.

Nice, nice.

-J.P.

Ceevro responds:

Yeah, I'm not as happy as I could possibly be with the chorus vocal...my family was home, and I know how weird I must sound belting random stuff into a mic repeatedly while wearing headphones...I get...uh...shy. And it's hard to really belt it out. I will likely redo that vocal. And the psuedo-kick was overwhelming? Huh...didn't hear it enough in my mix...you've likely got a much better sub-woofer than I do! Goes to show the importance of trying your mix out on several different speakers!

[Praise]

Barring the vocals (I'll get to those in a bit), the song is quite alright.

It's certainly got that 8-bit feel to it, which I like. I think some variation is what you need here so that it doesn't get too boring after a while. The same thing looping after a while makes listeners lose interest if there isn't any forward progression. Switch up the melody and harmony at some points, do some different drum beats - those kinds of things, you know?

Mix-wise... s'okay. Everything sounds a bit muddy, though there is separation of a sort. Sacrificed some clarity for that 8-bittyness, but I'm sure you could have best of both.

Now.. vocals. Those vocals. Usually vocals should be out on front, but it should be just sitting right on top of the mix. These vocals should be turned down. A lot. Not to mention that it sounds like they're clipping, which means that the vocalist might be too close to the mic or the gain should have been turned down prior to recording. Which means quality takes a huge hit here.

Not bad, just some clean-up needed.

-J.P.

NattyMeals responds:

Everything except for the mix (which is something I still struggle with) was intentional. The lack of 'progression' (because there is no real progression in life, just a substitution of one kind of work for another) and the clipping vocals are all meant to add intensity and a listening experience that doesn't go down smoothly. The repetition and the hook are meant to counterbalance the rough edges ideally, which could have been fixed with better mixing. I am not much of a gamer anymore and any 8-bit type of sound was unintentional, so maybe if you were judging this from the perspective of an indie song (as many indie songs are lower quality roughshod recordings) instead of gamelan maybe you would have been less critical.

[Grave Robbers]

Trap isn't much my style either, but certainly good for what it is.

The first verse of your track - bassline could use some more dynamic variation. Switch up the textures and the timbre. Layer it up and give it some more thickness besides just a mid and sub. As a listener, hearing it drone on like that just tires me out after a while and I lose interest before your second build up.

Kick could use a little more warmth and sub behind it. Have it release a little more as the sample is cut pretty short. Hihats could be turned down a tad as they have some pretty harsh transients.

Post build up - you decided to swap to a 707-808 kick. The driving force just kind of fell off at that point. You began with a pretty punchy kick to a flabby one with not that much hit. The swap was welcome, but the forward movement suffers for the percussion in that regard. You can certainly do that, but keep it punching and driving. A little bit of distortion and some compression would help with that. In that same vein, the clap loses strength at this point as well. I would pin that just on tweaking the mix.

Speaking of which... it's pretty good. Overall, it could use a little more warmth. When that 808 comes in is when it's lost in the mix when put up against other instruments, so definitely need to work on that.

Actually, a good song to check out some good 808-ing is Dr. Ozi's Carnivalstep VIP. Feel like that'll be a good frame of reference for what you're trying to achieve. You can keep all the of hit without sacrificing the sub of your 808. Just gotta keep workin' at it!

Keep on keepin' on!

-J.P.

SoTJake responds:

Thank you very much for your response. Yeah, the 808 was really a bit weak... I had the problem that the 808 overlayed the other frequencies before and was too dominant. Seems like I lowered it too muhc, as it had enough punch before. Maybe a little more wamrth would have helped, too.

[Changing The Present]

Ooh.

That acid bass though.

Some nice melodic themes here. I would suggest differentiating between your arps and your bassline a little more, as the textures between them are too similar which makes them a bit hard to discern as individual instrumentation, especially since you're modulating the bassline. Some added crunch would help, or spacial separation through reverb/delay/chorusing.

The kick could use a tiny bit more girth. Little bit of low end to make it pop. Snareclap is hiding in the mix, so you can definitely turn that up a little more to have it punch through.

Pretty high octane stuff! I can dig it.

-J.P.

thetastate responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely understand on that arp, i've been thinking about re-eqing it. i feel like the whole song is a bit muddy. That kick is for sure i've realized, i think i'm going to just have to find a new kick for it, because i can't get it to pop without decreasing the bass. I will check out the snare/clap for sure. Thanks again for the listen and the feedback.

[Stay]

Smooth vibes.

I'm thinking it's time that you moved on from GB and onto something like Ableton, FL, Cubase, Reason.. hell, energyXT, Reaper, whatever DAW you choose. I can hear your skills transferring over to any of those pretty well.

At this point, it's your current set of tools that is actually limiting the quality of your tracks, which should be far higher than it is at this point in time. A little disheartening, considering that this... is very, very good. A proper kit would really give this track the drive it needs. I'm aching for that bump and thump, very, very much. I kind of want to do an experiment with this... gave me a bit of an idea to show you how it would be like.

You've out grown GB and you can push it as much as you want, but it won't give you the results that you're expecting. You need a larger canvas to fit those big ideas so they can truly, truly shine.

Sweet track.

-J.P.

sYrge responds:

I was wishing to get FL, but I have a mac not a windows, but I think I just got logic pro on my moms computer so I will try to work with that. I cannot afford Abelton (I am way too young to get a job) but at least I got Logic! :)

[Lucidity]

Nice nice.

This is pretty good. But as Gween said, it's mixed fairly quiet and low. I, for one, don't mind the arpeggios lasting as long as they did. Could have done with some variation, but as a theme, it's functional and it works well.

The chord that he mentions though sounds fine to me. 9ths are always pretty weird, hah.

The kit could be slightly beefier. I'm not talking massive, but it could definitely benefit from some other samples layered that could give it the timbre and color it deserves to mesh even better.

Bassline is pretty smooth. Would suggest a bit more crunch to the top layer and a mid layer to give it some more depth. Harmonic differences in your layers could really make it shine where it needs to - some resonance filtering, a notch filter and band pass that could really make it whirl.

Nonetheless, in its current form, very chill. I can dig it. I was right when I saw potential.

-J.P.

sYrge responds:

Haha, thanks! The thing is, I use garageband, (a very old version anyway :P) so I can't really do much about the mixing (other than the volume and I will work on that) and you can't exactly do much about crunching and sampling drum sounds, but thanks for the recommendations! I appreciate it! :D