GershBeats's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tale Of A Lost Land]

And love this and your style in general is terrific. I am consistently blown away by your work!

I wonder if throwing some complex tabla or jambe drumming into a piece like this would be effective? I get the idea it could really complement the snare!

Emid responds:

Well thanks so much. Glad you liked it. Tabla is a good idea to complement the snares. Agree it could be better sounding then. Thats why I call myself a layman among you guys. Thanks again for a nice idea.

[FFCC - Oh, Light...!]

You made that really cheesy string instrument work excellently! This is really impressive. I imagine the coolest things while listening to it. I think you got the volumes juuuust right, mixing everything really powerfully and it's all backed by that sick timpani at the bass? Great work mate, keep it up!

Neon-Bard responds:

Thanks for the review GershBeats! It's a relief to hear that I managed to get the volume 'just right' as I struggle with that at times. :)

[Lifted WIP]

This is great! Probably the best use of an arp I've ever heard.

My only complaint - this is too short! I want MORE :D

Lockyn responds:

Thank you so much! Appreciate your checking out my music :) and it's a work in progress! Will be longer ;)

[Mellow Marshes]

Pretty cool! The volume control (or is it banked delay?) on the lead synth is interesting!
I really like the synth, but I'm not such a fan of the bells. I think that whenever the bells are looping this would reaaally benefit from an ambient pad or FX loop in the background.

The mix isn't bad at all! I'd only suggest you consider lowering the saw-pad's volume a touch.

Overall this really is quite good, my biggest complaint is that it doesn't really go anywhere. I mean the melody switches a little, there's some neat silence-staggering, etc, but it's mostly the same thing over and over again.

Essentially, well done, needs a little more variation! I'll give ya 3.5/5 and happily rate you 4. :)

Septyrikon responds:

Thanks for the feedback :D I know what you mean about it not going anywhere, I didn't really have any ideas as to where it should go, so in the end I just tampered a bit with it and uploaded it. As I wrote in the description, it had been sitting still for some time before I got around to doing anything final about it, so yeah, my interest in it had faded a bit.

All in all, I tend to do music that is centered around a single idea, melody or some such thing. Only rarely do I branch out into other melodies or b- and/or c-parts. Mostly because I find it difficult to get a nice progression between two things like that.

The lead synth is done with a delay effect, not volume, btw :)

[Floating Down the River]

Hehe this is really nice!

The only thing its missing is a HUUUUGE DROP a MASSIVE SNARE and a HECTIC WOBBLE BASS.

Totally kidding. This is awesome. I think I smiled the whole way through. You aced the genre!

sorohanro responds:

:D Drop that glockenspiel :D

[Close Encounters otNSVK]

The HUGE fill effect at 0:20 is CRAZY, except it distorts a little.

I think you've got great melodic intuition, but the mastering needs some attention. A couple of effects are quite a bit too loud, so they distort and tend to take the listener out of the mood of the song. The fix is simple; just lower their volumes a little! :)

The only other thing is that almost everything is competing for low-mid frequency. You may want to low-pass the bass and really low effects around 60-80hz to bring out the kick, and lowpassing lead instruments around 121hz can really bring out the low frequencies without detracting very much at all from the lead!

I will rate this 5 and listen to it a LOT once it's mastered a little more cleanly!

Until then, 3.5. All melodic elements are excellent! Just gotta master a little :) I'd be excited to hear a final, touched up version!

SourJovis responds:

Thanks for the review.

The sweep effect at 0:20 is quite a find. It doesn't distort only a little, but quite a lot. I've added some white noise fading in, and added a distortion effect, that increased over time.

Also I've added distortion on the vocals, the drums and several other instruments. Either you like it or you don't. I'm pretty sure that's where the distortion comes from you talk about. None of the instruments seem to be clipping.

Other than that I think you're right about the mixing. It could be better. But this isn't one of my most recent songs, and I remade, remixed and remastered it a little too often already. In the beginning I wanted to give it a clean sound. But that got boring very quickly. With each new mix I made it trashier. This is the final version with all its quirkiness. In fact I've come to like the flaws. Like I sometimes like bad effects in old films.

Instead of mixing this song again, I'd rather put my energy into new songs. I've learned a lot about mixing. I'll keep your tips in mind, but I can't guarantee I'll want to make my new mixes to sound clean all the time.

[<Umbrage>]

As far as the song itself goes, I like everything except your choice of instruments! I feel like if you swapped out those thin-sounding synths for something a little sawwy/buzzy or a deep piano it would suit it a little better, although maybe that would give it a heavier sound then what you're going for.

Actually I think it's the flute that's throwing me off. Maybe consider swapping it for an ambient pad? It sounds a little out of place.

Also the crescendos spike a little bit!

Beyond that the melody and mix of elements is really neat! Good job with this. It's short and sweet.

[Bardock's Theme - S.S.S.]

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