p4c's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Racing to First]

haha sounds like a commercial

this is nice and simple, but it does the job haha. it sounds like it could be the menu music on some f1 racing game.

the only thing i have against it is that it doesnt sound very immersive, while i think it should be. try panning things to different channels and using a stereo imager or something to expand higher frequencies to utilize surround sound magic awesomeness :) maybe also split the lower notes and the higher notes on the lead and apply separate effects, and continue with the pad that came in at :24 to make it a little more encompassing.

the retro sound of the drums were nice, leave them lo-fi like that :) nice job on this submission, its a very nice loop.

itsameyayo responds:

Thanks! It was a fun make. I'll have to keep those details in mind next time, this was a quick put-together, so I got it done pretty fast and didn't get nit-picky :P

-ImperfectDisciple

[-Rucklo Rave- |[Glou]|]

sorry i didnt look for a while

lol this was a very decent song! good job. i dont have a lot of constructive crit since it was made well, the only problems i really had were a matter of taste--that ostentation saw lead, along with a bunch of basic, uninteresting sounds like that twangy drone, jst sounds kinda old and somewhat annoying for me. but thats personal preference--i do tend to like really deep stuff anyway, so i wont hold that against you lol.

but the intro was well done, brought me in. and the mix is excellent. the way you used different instruments were very nice, especially in the 2:20 breakdown session, and teh countermelodies all fit in. catchy melody, and very upbeat and lighthearted. i would maybe consider tweaking velocity of notes more throughout the piece, but given the attitude of the song, it probably isnt necessary.

so gj! i liked what you did here a lot. fucklo would be proud :)

Gloudas responds:

haha thanks

[[DG] -Fallen Hero-]

epic!

the drama is overwhelming! jk, but this really puts off a pensive feel after kicking some ass. here are my beefs:

throughout the song, namely for the harp, violin, and brass, i think you should try modulating velocity/volume so its more dynamic. also, for the violins, instead of making the next note always start up anew, try just bending teh pitch to let them flow into each other. makes for a more continuous experience.

i dont think there's a whole lot you can do about this, but the synthetic sound of the brass kinda ruins it for me. but ill accept it lol.

idk, i just feel like this could have been more touching but just wasn't. i think my first point, and maybe strengthening even more the climax might improve it, but idk. maybe some woodwinds? glockenspiel? :D

thats all i got for ya. nice job :)

DzGuy responds:

Hey thanks for the tips man. I'll keep those in mind. Hell I'll probably start making more classical stuff now because this was kind of fun. :P

[Pianos Pwn!]

mmmmm

the melodies were fine, but ill break down my constructive criticism into separate parts so that you can learn from it.

MELODY: its totally fine. but, the main problem is that it repeats too much without enough variation. you need to add in touches that break the repetition. also, it seems like the melody suits itself better as a back up instrument rather than the lead of teh song--as it is now, it seems like a stale, unfinished song, no matter how beautiful you make the pianos.

if you want, you can structure it like a conventional classical song, with the lower broken chords [as the bass clef, so to speak], supporting unit, and then add a more melodic, higher notes [the treble clef?] but right now its too empty.

CYMBALS/HATS: get rid of them. alone, they don't fit. if you're going to have percussion like that, you need more than the pianos. so you can keep them if u rework the entire thing, i think, but as of now, it just seems a little strange.

PRODUCTION: here is where i can help you a lot. the huge problem here is that you are not changing the strength of any of the notes. this piano player is an extremely rigid robot who has no emotion in his playing. what you should do are make some sections softer, some louder for emphasis. then, you should make notes that lie on the beat of the song be stronger, while those on offbeats be a little weaker, ideally. you also might consider not making them all be _exactly_ on time, because no piano player would be like that.

at the bottom of it, you want it to sound realistic in this situation, and without modulating velocity [or at least volume], it just doesnt seem to work.

finally, at the end, the choir is kind of abrupt and weird, i think it doesn't make sense unless its going throughout the song. i think it could work as a supporting instrument. but even at that level the sound you chose seems too synthetic since the whole piano vibes puts off a sort of natural happiness as the mood of the piece.

hope i helped! im not trying to be harsh, i'm just trying to give you some advice. if you want some help, jst pm me or something. if u use reason, ur in bigger luck if u want anything from me lol. i think my latest song has a good example of having a realistic piano in the background of the chorus--i can send you a stripped version of it if you want.

rock on :)

Ajgajg responds:

Thanks!
That was a really helpful response and I'll make sure to take those things into account. I did think about changing the melody a bit, so expect that in a week not much longer then that.
Take a listen to some of my other songs.

[[SD] Woop Dee Doop]

this was a good song, more or less

it was definately upbeat, but not really happy if u asked me haha it seemed kind of like a robotic monotony. I jst decided to go to the WIP thread to post my own song, and I saw ur comment, so here's my constructive crit [posted on the thread]:

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/8 16732/4

my comments: the lead bloopy synth followed a good melody, the off-key notes every now and then were cool. i think it could be better if they had were shaped a little less--like just a straight wave, theres a quality to them that makes it seem not as unfeeling.

the drums could have been better - either a stronger bass drum or a more subdued one would have been better i think, the one u have now seems a little too... presetty? lol. for the hats, try varying the volume, like makign it go from soft to loud on each triplet to make it more dynamic, and the snare sample is just lame--i'd find a completely different sound for it, or just remove it alltogether if it still sounds good.

the backup lead was cliched NG style, but it fit the style of teh song well enough i guess. i think a deep pad would have worked a lot better, but thats jst my opinion. the bassline would have also been better if u can make it lower and deeper. you can try keeping the original sound by layering it with a low sine wave instead of just a sawtooth--i wanna feel my woofers shake more :)

i guess thats all my constructive crit for now, hope i helped!

SupraDarky responds:

Great review, one of the best I've received yet! Sorry about the late response, I've been away for 10 days and just came back. Very good crit, I will try to fix everything you said and make it sound better. I'll PM you when it's done and thank you. :) Sorry about the short response after such a big review, I'm actually super tired right now! ;P I'll start working on it tomorrow.

[~EnV~Demo mix!]

well made

i think you're doing a good job with these... but please... honestly, find a new lead synth, its starting to wear on me that half of your songs sound the same lol. i mean, the only real variation was melody and that the bounce one was in 3/4 time, but that's so insignificant already. i jst wanna hear something new, though that's kinda difficult here since newgounds idolizes this kind of stuff. w/evs... :P

Envy responds:

The b0unc3 song is 4/3 not 3/4... And for previews like this I use the same synth anyways because I usually don't plan on continuing with them, so I just throw the easiest one on.

[Gravel Pit (Auecs Remix)]

wow!

this is pretty damn awesome, it just sounds badass. love the bassline and beat, especially how you tweaked it into insanity a few times, and the vox definately fit.

here are some suggestions for [possible] improvement:

MIX: try to bring the bass drum forward a bit in the mix and raise its higher frequencies, and bring the bass a little bit down [yeah, i know its cool with the sidechaining and stuff, but its a bit too overpowering ;)] yeah, the brass sample gets lost a little bit there. and the vox get lost a little bit throughout and are totally obscured in sections like :31 - :45, which isn't a good thing [though the oscillation there is very nice]. try bringing up the levels a bit, and maybe subtly compressing/sidechaining the whole track along the vox & bass drum. i think that might work. in fact, i should try that lol

INTRO/OUTRO - they are a bit abrupt--they sound more like they're in a mix cd lol. are they? hehehe

VOX: apart from the mix, some sections could be incorporated better with the music - for example, when the dude says "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!" and when the women come in, i want the music to react too :)

FLOW OF THE SONG: overall, sections flowed into each other incoherently. it feels almost too wandering and unorganized, but thats just a matter of personal preference

:D hope i helped out, and nice track overall. u get a 5 and a download ^^ and thanx for checking out my song, ill try to finish that hehe [maaan its so weird, in teh course of like 2 days the score went up by like .7 and ~15 votes and 4 reviews were added after it stagnated for a week haha this is awesome]

Auecs responds:

Hey thanks for a good review. I am, However, the more i listen to this song, not fond of it. It was more of a sketch of what I could potentially do as a remix. I probably spen about 4 hours on it when i need to spend about three times as long perfecting it. The first flaw it has is a crappy acapella I downloaded. It was incomplete and sounded like shit. So thats the first thing I would do is find a quality vocal track. Also, Compositional elements need work like you said and also I need to compress more and all that crap.

Haha. I know its a mess and incomplete... I think it rocks and I am proud of my work but at the same time very critical on myself.

Somday I might pick this project up again. I have too many other things going on for me to do anything about it right now...

Thanks again for your feedback!!!

-Auecs

[Lux Aeterna (rndom breaks mix)]

nice!

thanks for checking out my song :)

btw, this isn't house, but that's irrelevant to the song. yeah, there isnt any category on NG like breakbeats that would fit, so whatevs.

haha i remember hearing this song on the trailer for sunshine a while back, such a ridiculously dramatic song lulzzzzz.

onto the reviewwww!
==
I thought that this was overall very solid. the beat is strong, the strings are set a definately pensive yet scary and anticipatory mood, and the glitchy drumwork throughout was clean, sweet, and a great ambient choice. and nice pumping bassline! that's definately a plus. here are some suggestions for improvement:

OVERALL STRUCTURE
the song stayed a bit constant throughout. i think that it could have used some more variation to spice it up--from the beginning to the end, the it seemed like the tone stayed more or less constant, the melodies the same, except for the lead melody synth changing from chimes and cellos to the dramatic strings.

while i see that you might have been going for a more subtler, pensive feel, i really thought that the repeated notes on the strings called for escalation and intensity.

a possible way to do this--ramp up in intensity as the song goes on in ways apart from adding instruments. try distorting the thick bassline and letting it rise a bit, or edit the strings samples and chord them up [yeah... that takes work to retain the sound of the strings, but i think it'd be worth it]. make the drum arrangement itself grow intense, and if you feel particularly melodramatic, maybe throw in some tempo changes. idk, these are jst a bunch of random suggestions, but i felt like there should have been a ramp up in intensity and a change in mood.
--
DRUMS/BEAT
i think you were really good on this end, though i have some suggestions. the snare every other beat got lost in the mix, its way too soft and unimposing. i think that a tight snare with some compression would sound good--because otherwise the beat seems a little unbalanced and a little less interesting than it could be.

i liked the hat rolls. those were great, but what i'd do is shorten the attack on the hats [compressor again yay!!] and their length when they roll like that because it seems muddled like a long string of shakers or something. that, or use an alternate closed hat sample. if they were more defined individual hats it would sound better, IMO.

I liked how something was playing every 16th note, pretty much, giving it a nervous and anticipatory feel. what i would do, though, is change the style of glitching as it goes through--i wish i heard some different SFX, some different kinds of glitching. try listening to some good IDM songs to get a feel of what i mean--it constantly changes, and it makes it all the more interesting.

MIX

bring up the strings a bit more at the pensive moments of the song, when the violins play lower, and the cellos and basses come into play, and bring up the chimes/synthier elements when teh strings are dramatic--they play a game where sometimes one's lost in the mix, and sometime the other is.

the bassline, maybe try boosting higher frequencies on it. that might sound interesting/crispier/texture-ier.

same goes for the bass drum, IMO, or try layering it to give it some texture

and that is all!

== /constructive crit

so, overall, gj! you really set the mood, but with some tweaking, this could be even awesomer. woooo

arandomdj responds:

Many thanx for the in-depth review, appreciate the good feedback. I myself think too there should be more genres listed here on Newgrounds, i put this on House since i felt like this particular breakbeat genre fits in the progressive-house breaks. This song had to be trimmed down to fit on a particular scene of the short movie it was intended, so that's why i had to leave some parts out of this final version ( i agree it needs a tension builder). I still have a lot to learn when it comes to the mastering and final mix. It's something i'm still understanding, discovering and learning from helpful people like you :) , i`ve always focused more on the creative part than on the tech side of my projects, but now that i'm getting better at it i realize both parts should be important.
You have great ideas, you know!, i was thinking on adding a lil bit more of cutoff on the sidechained bass or any other synths, as well as some other longer FX to achieve the tension building and come up with a more dramatic break down that way. I did have to listen to some IDM tracks and some trip hop tunes, just to get on the mood, since i generally do more punchy stuff, those gave me the idea for building my drumset, i tried a lot of snares but listening to some downtempo i thought the rimshots suited the breaks, but as you say, on the final mix this were kinda lost. I don't know what else to say except that you're an excellent reviewer. Thanks again, you make me try harder

[[DG] -In Search Of...-]

funky

this was pretty good, though it was bit too repetitive--i dont mind repetition, but i usually like some more variation in each repetition than what you have now--i.e. changes, even if subtle, in the melody, beat, the feel of the instruments--for example, although the piano was beautiful, it didn't move at all both melodically and dynamically [i.e. loud or soft notes--some variation there would make it much more emotional and interesting]

and for the strings stabs, they didn't have enough drive IMO, but they sounded good nevertheless.

finally, good job on teh bassline and the beat, overall, they fit in very well. overall this is a good track but with some extra variation and toying around with instruments would make a much more interesting, inspiring, and gangsta-chill beautiful track, if u know what i mean :)

btw, thanks for the review, i appreciated it! ill try to finish it soon enough B)

DzGuy responds:

Thanks for the advice. It's hard to break out of the repetition when you start off with hip hop but i'm still trying lol.

And you're welcome (about the review). :P