p4c's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[DM05: Hard Melody One (WIP)]

ahh, nice to be starting :)

i'll try to give you a lot of feedback so that you could improve :) sooooo where to start.

the main problem that i would have you focus on is that the track doesnt change very much and doesnt have a lot of depth. as noted earlier there is only one kick and a sawtooth melody playing, so not a lot is really happening. the melody itself, however, seems to be moving fairly interesting because it doesnt flow on a regular meter--it doesnt seem to just repeat every 16 beats, so it flows interestingly and actually is fairly listenable.

what you would want to do is a few things. first, make the drums more interesting. instead of just a bass drum, add in other forms of percussion, like high hats, snaps, chopped up sounds, sounds of metal and junk and stuff, congo drums, hell, whatever you want, so long as it stays in a coherent beat. make it move, make it interesting and make it fill the silence [unless silence is what you want].

play around with the synth sounds you are using. add in a bass synth--to do that, make a sound and play low notes. it would really fatten the song. tweak the sounds you use. throw in pads and effects to make an atmosphere. but whatever you do, keep it simple enough that your song doesnt become a sonic mess--try to limit the number of instruments playing at one time to prevent that from happening.

and the most important part--vary it. lose the bass drum at points, change up the melody and way your synths sound. make interesting transitions.

i hope im helping you out as a beginner :) good luck!

--
ps: id appreciate it if you checked out my latest. maybe itll help you out a bit ;)

[Take Me - work in progress]

sweet.

i like the melody and the style of the track a bunch. it sounds pretty fresh and new, so nice.

a few things: first, the kick is lacking low end and middle frequencies probably too, so it doesnt drive the song very much, makes it feel weak. the snare can use some beef, too.

im not that big of a fan of the lead synth, it sounds too cheesy for me--the slow lfo, the slow-ish release, and it's really smooth sound arent really jiving for me that much. id personally go for something a little rougher and sharper.

the shuffling glitch percussion sound thing that comes in at :30 isn't blending that well with the rest of the percussion IMO, but its a good idea for the track, i think.

im expecting wonderful drops :) hope that helps.

[NP - Wind Through Winter Trees]

nicely done.

i can't give you a lot of specific criticism since i am not well versed in music theory or anything, but i can tell you that you did a great job with this. the melody stays off the key the piece is played on which does a great job to make it sound a lot more dreamy and unsettling, and when the sonmg cadences to another key at 1:47, that was just jarring and beautiful. i really like this, and great job with teh composition.
--
if you wish, check out my latest; i havent been back for a while. cheers.

ProudAardvark responds:

Hey p4, thanks! I'll check out your new stuff tonight.

[<MWA> Subtle]

sweet

nice job! haven't been to ng to see the work here in a while, and im glad to come back and find quality ;) i love the melody with the drone in the back, rocking back and forth but flowing nonetheless... sounds very thoughtful and nostalgic. i like.

some constructive criticism:

the synth line is cheesy and out of place. i'd choose somethign either more subdued or organic.

the beat does a good job with the piano. you've got the feel of this contest in the bag :D though you might want to make it a bit calmer and simpler--the hats cutting in and out and it's almost tumultuous feel work initially, but get tiring after a bit.

hope i helped!
--
if you wish, check out my latest; i havent been back for a while. cheers.

mjattie responds:

hey, p4c...

About the synth: I guess you're right. I might change the freq automation in a volume automation and the synth patch in a string patch :)

(You don't wanna know how many times I've randomized the volume of the drums xD, so they're a bit tiring...)

I'll check your song out, either tonight, or tomorrow: I don't have a decent sound system here, so I'll misjudge it....

[Tussenstuk]

wow!!

i kind of love this. dammit, make it longer!! it sounds so retro and thoughtful, and the beat is great. the noise in teh background gives it a lot of character. it's pretty well mixed, though some elements like the highpassed beat at around :25 are too loud, and there are a couple awkward pauses. but otherwise this is incredible. pleaassee work on this again! this is my kind of jam!
--
if you wish, check out my latest; i havent been back for a while. cheers.

[Water Waltz]

hahahahah

i was listening to this jst kind of drifting off and not paying close attention to teh actual playing, but then i noticed those wrong notes as well after reading sipher's post. idk, i dont really care when im listening to it though. it's imperfect, but in a way, i like it better that way. i jst love the beat and how the song jst keeps drifting with slight sonic and melodic changes... it's enchanting. great job.

--
check out my latest; i havent been back for a while. cheers.

ericdrebin responds:

Thanks for the kind words, p4c. It is imperfect, maybe because when I rode on the ferries I was always subconsciously afraid that they would crash and i would drown or something... I dunno. I got rid of the augmented fourths after Sipher posted, and i didn't like the song without them...

[Journey To Paradise (EP2 Demo)]

nice concept

this was a pretty decent song. ill jst comment as i listen.

first off, the mix is getting absolutely destroyed by the bass drum. its killing off all the other instruments once it comes in, so take that down a notch. the other effect of that is that it seems pretty much like there's no bass instrument. i think you were intending for the chord stabs to do that. but its jst not there anymore. its jst the bass drum, so that makes the song come off as a little superficial.

the lead chords are really soothing. you chose an excellent sound for that, and the chimes complement them more or less perfectly. good job, its a memorable and simple chord sequence that works really well.

other pet peeves: the speeding up snare roll in the build up at the start is trite. it works, but id try something different ;) the song doesnt evolve in the 30 seconds when the beat came in. play around with your lead chords. also, try to play with more percussion to make the beat deeper. finally, as a suggestion, in the build up with the chords, maybe you can try to exaggerate the chords more than you did in terms of sustain/release to make a really full sound with a strong, soft bass pad (some derivative of sine would work probably). that would plunge the listener into warm depth right off the bat.

apart from that, i think that overall this is a decent composition. its not very interesting at this point, but thats probably because its a 1 minute sample, so keep at it. good luck!

DigitalPulse responds:

I'm a bassdrum whore xD. I love putting my bassdrum over everything else, but maybe I did overdo it, maybe not. :P

As for everything else you said (I am not going to reply on it all lol) I started this song from scratch 3 hours before the deadline, so I sort of didn't add much depths, or automate every single thing (including release!) I normally take a good 10 hours adding FXs and automating, but I just didn't have the time :( lol

Thanks for the review,

Digital Pulse

[{DjF}Hotel Room Service (WIP)]

word

hahaha nice! some mixing suggestions first--1) its good to keep the vocals a little more centered. it seemed to spaced out a lot of the time. 2) maybe raise the level on the vocals a bit more too, because it seemed to compete a little too much with the background. otherwise, good job on the mix.

i thought you did an overall good job with this remix. its a really simplistic melody, so it comes off as a good anthem, though too uninteresting to have any real lasting value. it would do well in a club setting though. as a suggestion...

1) find some more interesting transitions between sections than silences and reversed cymbals. thats fine once or twice, but it gets boring after a while.

2) try adding more auxiliary percussion like another hat line, bells, shakers, tambourines, whatever. it would add some depth to teh song, and fill out the high end of the spectrum a bit (right now it feels very bass heavy).

3) try sidechaining the bass with the pattern that you currently have against the bass drum. i know sidechaining is trite and all, but it seems like it would work well in this situation.

gj overall though, its a solid submission.

Dj-Final responds:

Oi! thanks for the response. ive been trying to figure out what this was missing and its definitely transition. along with more percussion. which will be definitely be added in the final version. Lol i had a hard time adding the MP3 to FL8 Studio for some reason. it didnt seem to work as well as FL7. But i got over it. and converted it to Wav. to get the Acapella in. i actually did it when i was drunk as hell so yea i realized that the vox were off a tad. but thats changed since this version. id upload it but fuck it. i'll upload the final version and thats that. this is a WIP.. thanks for the suggestions tho. definintely taking them into consideration when finishing this project. Cheers man.
-DjF

[Chateaubriand Demo (EP #2)]

this was good but could have been a lot better

i think you have a really good concept here. but, it's mixed oddly and so it comes off as a little bit... off.

the drums shouldnt be sidechained out on this one. have a strong beat, because the ducking on everything else is driving the personality of the song, and the beat and rhythm behind it shouldnt just be ducking out. your bass drum is completely unhearable, and it would have been so fuckin tight if your bass drum, snare, and hats/crackling were hard and punchy.

second, it needs more variety even for just a 1 min run through of the meat of the song. try modulating into different keys so the song explores more.

third, sometimes it feels like the ducking is a little bit off beat. i think it's okay, but i dont think its really necessary if that was an intentional effect.

i could probably go into more detail but since its jst a short demo, work on it more for later. oh, and as a heads up, ur jst supposed to give a 1 min or so demo for the EP, so this is a bit long. but whatever lolz.

Scribbler responds:

I see what you're saying in terms of odd mixing. There are three parts to this track and each part was recorded over the space of about two month, which I think shows. Normally, it's not a bad thing to spend so much time on a track but the fact that I was trying something new and experimental definitely shows here, and not necessarily in a good way either.

I agree with you on the part of the bass drum, snare, and hats becoming hard and punching but the whole idea of sidechaining is completely subjective, I think. While some people like it, others absolutely despise it and I believe that in this track particularly, it creates a sort of hypnotic feel that works to ameliorate the track.

The variety is a good point as well and the off-beat ducking is due to the bass drum being slightly off-beat. I linked the compressor to the kick so that every time it played, it would cancel out all other noises and incidentally, I played that by hand so that explains the human error invovled in the process.

Thanks for the review.

[100% Volume Plx]

this one is way better anyway

too short to really leave a very substantive review, but the concept is sweet. the popping sound is awesome, and makes the whole mix feel tight, though i think you can arrange their timing better than that; try accentuating offbeats more with them. perhaps you should layer the bass with a fat subbass [not listening to this on ballin headphones but the woofers are feeling that way].

i expect the first 3 seconds to go crazy as the song grows, so you better do it. rock steady