AlvoGTR's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dimensional Journey]

ok so starting this off, this is an ok track. a lot of stuff could have been done better, some things were done very well. the sub bass pluck and pitch bent pad in the intro (00:19 - 00:30) was super cool, super video game esque. the chip tune esque mid pluck that came in didn't really complement the two sounds before it very well. it sounds like the low end and high end are in two different genres - being caught between EDM and chiptune. at around 00:56 when the beat drops - the main psy lead is very weirdly in my right ear - and very loudly in my right ear. i would never hard pan a synth like that, ever unless you had one just as complementing as the other to hard pan in the left. so at 1:10 you leave the psytrance thing behind and go more into a drum and bass thing. i would say that things like this are very confusing to the average consumer who might have strict genre preferences - and things are on opposite ends of the spectrum such as DnB and psytrance may not be received well in the same track. A better solution for stuff like this is using psytrance as a predrop element/vip drop element that leads you into your main genre - whether that be dnb or dubstep, and this can also go vice versa with dnb leading you into psytrance (i think a lot of traditional hardcore stuff uses the amen break in build ups a lot before going 4 on the floor). the lead that comes in at 1:24 is cool, but nothing special. so far there hasn't been anything that has been able to sort of staple this track for me - so like for example in other songs there are interesting aspects to the leads where as in this one, every synth is sort of dry and whatever it has is very basic - for what it is it is a good stepping stone but you would greatly benefit from venturing into saturation and distortion to spice up your sounds and learn how to mix with harsher FX on the synths. 1:36 to 2:01 is super empty but i mean its alright - it shows a more coherent idea than the drop did. the "blrah" vox is super dry and out of place through the whole track, too. the dead stop at 2:07 kind of breaks this into a new song, so really this seems to have become a multi song medley of sorts - I'd never dead stop a song after a break down like that. weirdly, dead stops like that are best used out of seemingly nowhere in a transition and for very very short amounts of time, usually around a second or so. 2:25-2:50 has a super cool vibe to it - so thats a cool part. the build up into this 170 bpm bit is super cool. i dont like how it drops into nothing but a bass drum though - no energy at all. the synth arp and constant pluck sort of bring in an atmosphere but it doesnt do the drop any justice unfortunately due to how dead it previously sounded with nothing but the noise sweep and the out of place vocal sample which gets progressively more annoying through out the track. around 3:20 the song picks up pretty well actually. the break down at 3:43~ is cool, too. the lead at 3:50 is better than the drop lead used earlier - i can hear some sort of satration/distortion on it. it has a weird super high frequency ring that i'd learn how to deal with but thats neither here nor there - its an improvement. 4:23 drop has a cool psy bass in it with the synth layer - this is by far the coolest thing so far in the entire song. however after that at 4:37 it drops into a more muddy break beat thing that again breaks the cohesiveness of the track. the mix through here isnt great and there's a very muddy mid end rumble. this pretty much covers the track to the end.

Over all - the sample choice could have been better. None of the percussion samples sounded that good. namely the snares. sound design left a lot to be desired - and especially in the beginning there was a big divide in what the song wanted to be that made it sound kind of wack - the low end screamed edm but everything in the mid-high end was wanting to be chip tune esque. the mix in the more minimal parts (like at 2:25 - 3:43) sounded alright - but got very muddy is some parts, like 4:38.

Closing, it's a sort of cool proof of concept - multi genre thing to see what you can do but in the end it is best to pick your favorite genres to work with and dedicate full songs to them and not spend too many tracks doing this mumbo jumbo with 6~ different bpm's.

FlameShooterMusic responds:

Now THIS is what I call a very well done review! Makes me wonder how many times you've actually listened to it and how much time you've spent here writing, so I appreciate your effort. And yes, I've always felt like a lot of stuff could've been done better, especially the snare, the DAMN snare, and the kick is a bit shake-y as well! For the psy lead, I made it using 3xOsc with 2 oscillators working. One is playing a cube wave with panning on the right ear (that's what you've heard) and the other is playing a sine wave with panning on the left ear. You see, the whole point with this piece was to try to experiment with as many musical elements as I can and see what I can actually do, including how many styles/genres I can provide in the future, and I've ended up creating this mish-mash of styles and unusual mix of sounds, that's why I've decided to name it Dimensional Journey in the end! It's a not so nice one, and can make you feel uncertainty & confusion.
I know I could've done better with sampling as well, which is why I've been working on a track using ONLY samples, so there's that.
And honestly I couldn't agree more with everything else you've mentioned. The mix is a bit muddy at some parts because there's a lot going on and a lot of sounds were left dry, also there's no sort of sidechaining whatsoever. The flute thingy is an exception even tho you haven't really mentioned it.
For the tempo thing, I thought it was going to be cool to experiment with it as well. I tried to learn as much as I can considering this is only the 4th track I've ever made, so I definitely still have to learn a lot more.
And another thing you're right about is the fact that I should make my tracks focusing on one genre (or generally one theme). I've already made 3 of those before this one, this was mainly meant to be a huge experiment!
All in all, I'd like to thank you very much for this amazing review. It's probably one of (if not) the best ones I've ever received on one of my works!

EDIT: I forgot to say, this track is about 5 to 6 months old :D

[Panda Eyes - Demons]

oh dude what the fuck haha i love this nutty bass design and somehow the low end curb stomping the mix works out

[Panda Eyes - Master Sword]

well fuck now i know where to go to when i wanna hear a new panda eyes track second

if only i knew how to master my garbage fires, fuck

[Velocity]

haha all this neuro shit is fucking bomb 10/10 sound design and mixing, i ask of you, what do you do for mastering purposes?

[Sonic Boom]

i like everything, to an extent

sounds like the kick drum is from a really old 12" tune from way back in the day, which is cool

to an extent

really unique sound profile from the weird sounds

[when a newbie makes dubstep]

Are there drums? Please don't tell me the main bass mix is so loud the drums are packed way behind them. Sidechain and turn them up. Keep going, there's so much wrong i don't think i have the time or the character limit to explain. I will say this though - the sound design is there even for a newbie (assuming this around your first try). keep going, that's a good sign. Half a star for the effort.