S3C's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Aeronautics]

im gunna suck ur penis regardless :) (platonically

FREAKIN AWESOME SONG BRO!

man, tons of great and unusual elements in here, makes for a totally radical piece.

the IDM beat rocked, great rhythm, love the fast retrigerring of the little thin rim hits, good choice of the kick, and I like how you placed a rest on the last measure of the rhythm. Softness, nice range of dynamics fits perfectly with that atomsphere.

Choice of sounds was great, excellent nasal and delicate pad that sounds awesome throughout, the piano was beautiful and I love the usage of the synth guitar.

What I really dig about this track is that it doesnt have a distinct theme that I can pick out, but it's aesthetics lie within the melding of the complex intracies and melodic ideas that harbor beautiful and unpredictable chord progressions, where both the piano voices are sequenced together very creatively. The melodies are so serene and smooth yet at the same time it feels a bit formless, yet blends great with the consuming and airy atmosphere. Very relaxing with just a tinge of quirkiness at the same time. I think were eye to eye on the description of this track!

insta-favorited. seriously i havent a heard a gem like this on Newgrounds in a while. Kinda reminds me of Glib. my favorite Mac submission in the contest so far!

Quarl responds:

wow, I'm really glad you liked it. I don't think I ever heard glibs stuff.

[drum and blues]

great concept

great concept but you ruined it with those generic saw leads (personal qualm). Definetly feel the feel for blues in here, despite some of lead melodies were boring and predictable, though I really loved the piano parts, shaker percussion parts paired with the breakbeats, and the big sub sandwhich :D

Stan-SB responds:

mmmmmmmmmmmmm sub sandwich

[*Stranger in the Desert* [RMX]]

Yo Yo Yo

hey pretty slick track here man :)

sytrus presets or not, they really mesh together for a nice mood (except the crunchy saw synth, way overused). I really like the sounds on the leads are thick and flow well in the background. I'd say at one point youd want to look into synthesis and start tweaking around to get more personal sounds.

Breaks were pretty nice, some decent patterns, also like the hi hats in the backgrounds, good rhythms here. Also like the panning on the short chopped up parts.

The "call and response" part at 2:00 was a good move, havent seen that used a whole lot in DnB.

Melodies are really floaty, bassline moves well, I thought the lead on the flute sounding synth could have been constructed a bit better, just is asking for a bit more, and the way you rhythmically structured it feels really awkard and choppy. The synth string progression were really nice, and you bought in the main melodic theme in quite well, I liked that bit.

5:12 needs a bit more energy, start automating FX on the drums or something, bring in a killer new synth or that main melodic theme and give it some variations to really put the power into that part that it needs.

Some of the swelling FX utilized in transitions rocked though!

Overall, main criticism, look into a synthesis tutorial somewhere on the web. Otherwise this is a solid track, you put the tools you have to good use. Keep up the good work!

Jenni-Harry4eva3 responds:

Alrighty! Respond time! Here goes!~

Totally right about sytrus! It fricken rocks :3 Thank you, Cerebra!~ ;DD Yeah... sorry about that. I just like that raw and crushing bassy synth there. Sorry about that. It's just so appealing to my ears X3 Yesh, the leads do flow very well. Exactly the way I wanted it to be :D It's the main part of the entire remix that stands out for me, besides that crunchy bass. Sure! I'll looking to the synthesis someday. But I'll keep messing around for now.

Thank you for the breaks. Amen break is awesome all the way. And I got this clear cut and high quality version from a tutorial. Very good, so I thought I'd mess around with it. (The tutorial about making that kick/drum pattern was awesome. It even taught me about ghost snares! SO! I learned a lot about that.)

"Call and Response". To tell you the truth, I'm kinda relatively new at this, but I was researching drum and bass way before I started constructing songs. I'm glad this one came out successfully. But I learned that on my way into deep researching. I didn't exactly know what it was, but now I do! And I read that it was seldom used in most drum and bass tracks. I thought it'd might be nice to do that, plus that deep bass that goes along with it needed a companion XD When I test runned it, it just sounded so empty. So I added some prelim crunchy basses, and varied it up on the final production.

True. I thought when the flute and pad came together when I first started sounded completely heavenly. (Even the pad is called 'Heaven' XD) The flute is off by a beat, but it flows well later on in the song, which is weird o.O The choppy-ness and awkward-ness... well there's not much to do. I dun like follow that little patlette of dnb where you have to make intro 64 and drop down 32 and all that crap. I just like doing what I do :D

More energy at 5:12 huh? I'll try my best at that. I was even thinking about making some automations on the filters to swing some effects on there today o.O Weird. New synth... maybe. But that varying on the melody I will totally consider.

I KNOW! The fx my bro got are fricken awesome! So I modded them, and put some volume controls on them. Especially FX 3, that punch that sounds like a gunshot around 4:30 or so. I kinda imagined Zero using his gun there XD So I wanted to use that for most of my ending, and then at the outro, I modded fx 4, and made it fade out when it hit with the last crunchy bass and snare. {Even the one that sounds like an airplane sounded awesome!)

Sure! I'll look at some tutorials. I'm still researching and looking into it. Primarily basslines and reeses at the moment... Trying to construct decent or just off-the-chain kick ass. Thanks for your review! The tools on FL Studio really rock. Most are simplistic, others are just... complicated. But I'll find out sooner or later! Thanks ever so much! I look up to you as an aspiring junglist and apprentice (j/k lol) Your song is very inspriational to me. So I will try my best! XDD Thanks for the tips! I will use them in future tracks. Peace, and keep it mega-real!~

~[IZK]

[Chaoz Fantasy Remix -GSE-]

good but

you accidentally submitted it into RnB instead of DnB LMFAO!

GronmonSE responds:

Oh Christ, stupid R >:

<3

[Circuit Remade]

Solid track!

hey mitrox some awesome sounds going on through here. It's refreshing to hear an upbeat drum and bass oriented track on NG!

Great selection of synths and sounds in here man, I'm actually working on a track that sounds similar to this. The pad rocked, I love the stereo phasing effect, real soothing texture and swell progression. Some nice leads, and I like the crisp strings and bell accompaniments. Melodies were sequenced quite well, very cheerful, they go great with the lush background.

I wasnt too fond of the FPC drums, they just dont feel too suitable for DnB, maybe some layering of the samples, put it through some compressors and EQers, get a more refined texture. I do enjoy the beat though, nice variation of dynamics, especialy like the snare rim thrown in there, and the "vocal" sounding bit that plays on the 2nd and 4th beat was a good spice on top of the drum patterns. Maybe alternate between a ride cymbal and the hi hats every now and then, too.

Add a bassline in here too, I am on headphones so I cant feel much lower register pickup, but I'd add a sub in here, something simple, maybe an 808 deep kick or just open up 3xosc and turn the coarse pitch all the way down and boost the bass end accordingly.

The piano legato was great in the end, I felt it could be constructed a bit better though. Put one more note right in between the riff and ending chord, if your playing in C, i'd throw in a B to make a nice smooth ending.

Great track man! Wish it could be longer, but it feels like its done the job. Keep up the good work, I liked listening to this track man :)

Mitrox responds:

haha thanks man!

I have never had a review like this before, lol! (very constructive)
Well I probably could of used different drums, but I decided to use the FPC ones because of the side snare, but yea I could of used some samples.

It does have a sub bass but the volume was low.

Well I'm not really in depth into music like you are man.
It would take me years to learn all the things you have mastered.
I am very grateful for the review.

so thanks.

[(WF1)/F-777 Through the Mysts]

Review as promised :)

hey awesome title, great visions that I get from this song :)

I can see Bruce Lee emerging through a misty forest, as he goes through a process of training deep in the wilderness because he goes on a quest to slay dragons or some shit like that.

The pads and background strings rock, real lush and a "good" type of darkness. Piano melodies and the counters work great, add a serious flair and mesh real well as the background changes. I can even feel a touch of WF1's asian taste in here :)

The beat sounds pretty sick in the background, like the four to the floor style with extra bits incremented to the beat to give the song a nice groove. The bass arp fits in nicely. It's a good mix of trance and ambient. The snare is tight, but maybe once you get into a more epic part, replace with a more punchy, snappy hit. The phaser effects/automation in the background were sweet as hell, sounds a bit like a rainstick, really helps with the damp, misty imagery.

Now that I've given a good rundown of the components of the song I do have only one request - mainly to F-777; DO NOT BRING IN ANY GAY SAWTOOTH LEADS! instead I think you should stick with the ambient backdrop feeling, continue with the trancey bassline, drumbeat, and automation ideas, but for the leads, I definetly would put in some ethnic instruments, maybe for the verse sections, and for the chorus parts, include the more electronic sides?

so all and all, AWESOME TUNE! let me in on the collab please :O ?

wyldfyre1 responds:

hah i'll talk with Jesse and see what he thinks. If you want in on it i'm sure you can add some good stuff! Thanks for the review!

WF1

[Nav - Drifting Higher [NG Cut]]

Damnit Nav >:(

I was so prepared to come into this track and say "man HHC just isnt my style" like I told you on MSN but this track has lots of energy and I found it really enjoyable! Stop making genres that I previously dislike into appealing ones > : (

For some reason, I get a feeling like this came out a sonic game, the high energy with the nice melodic, upbeat arps really reminds me of going through loops on a special stage of some sort. This track has some sweet melodies, which I thought some of your previous tracks lacked (but not necessarily were needed)

Synths are freaking great. I freaking love the piano with the slight delay effect to give the arpeggio a lot of color and that other sound/synth that you layer it When you restart it again after the drum buildup section, the harmonies rocked as well. The pad is great, nice floaty texture that sifts in well in the background. Saws and arpsynths were quality work as well, they have a nice round sound without being to sharp or screechy like a lot of saw synths are. My favorite selection was the guitar sounding strings bit, I like that incorporation very much.

Drums were pretty damn awesome, I like the choice of breaks, kick and snare and other miscellaneous percs sounded great. I especially like the pitchbend of the kicks between transitions. One crit in this area- the 808 (?) claps and snares sounded like pretty basic samples, you know the gist better than I do, but how about some layering and compression experimentation to get a more original drum sound?

as far as the mixing aspect, I like the soft feel- nothing drowned in reverb (Although I feel the snare and claps could use just a small spruce of reverb), and you hear all the individual parts nice and clearly.

Overall, the melodic ideas make this a real enjoyable track.

5/5 and a fav. from me > : (

:)

5:00 - end. I think it would have been better if you included one of the other melodies instead of the generic bassline melody found a lot in these styles/

Nav responds:

Hey, thanks for the nice words! Now let me address the criticisms.

First of all, I agree that the samples were quite generic. I was attempting to imitate what it would be like to have a song on hardware, IE with an actual 909 (not an 808) :P Not sure if it worked, but it was worth a try! Next track will be more original. I was just trying to get down the basics :P

About the ending... it's that way to allow for mixing. Since most DJs will use the bass-cutoff to mix from one song to the next, the bass wont interfere harmonically with the other tracks. This makes it a useful tool for keeping up interest without interfering with the DJ's plans :P

Although now that I think of it, I could've done with a different instrument, since there was a lot of room for mixing near the end. Thanks for that comment! I'll take it into consideration next time :D

Thanks for the awesome review!

[Retribution (Mac8)]

haha

hehe this one's really interesting. Lots of wobble in the reeses and wacky pitch bend shit (that one at 2:50 was crazeeee), not something i'd typically desire for when listening to a DnB song...but it fits perfectly for a crazy madness style!

and its funny because I read all the reviews. This is like Chesyre's style. Except it has more coherency, organized complexity, and oh yeah, you make your synths instead of using overused sytrus presets haha. This track is like a strangely molded clay sculpture, while some of his works are just complete blobs of clay...IMO

Intro was real nice, great opening with the sad piano melodies accompanied by the strings. Your reese texture is SICK and rigid, i feel it could use a bit more compression to really crank out that punishing sound, but still the overall sound is excellent. The beeps and clicks were some nice ornamentation, really like your spacing on the drums, bassline is nothing special but fills the gaps. Spacing on the drums is great, love the panned + phased bits and the ride cymbal rhythms were excellent.

also, keep up the great work with the drums. your patterns rock, and i especially like your acoustic oriented style, its not often you hear that in DnB. I was personally making a madness submission where I went "quarl drum style" and tried to use acoustic drums moreso than eletronic samples. so definetly an inspiration there :D

it wasnt too repetitive, but could certainly use more variation IMO. For the first half of the song, I think you could automate a little more FX on the reese, keep the same pattern playing throughout, but maybe slice it up a bit, rearrange patterns and whatnot. I think when the drums enter the scene is where it creates some of these problems. I only hear two main patterns, and the way you developed your snare rhythm sounds one the 1st pattern makes it sound like it would be the transitional pattern maybe every 16 bars or so, in turn
making the drums lacking the groove like nav said below.

One last criticism- it indeed does feel lacking in depth. after the piano and strings interlude, i didnt hear a nice background layer like I was hoping for, therefore making the second half of the song sound not proportionally climatic/epic to the first half. i'd personally keep the strings flowing into that section, make them a bit wider through a stereo enhancer, a chorus effect, a build some chords to really fill out a deep lower end.

keep kicking ass and good luck to you too bro :D

Quarl responds:

You wrote this almost three years ago and I'm just now responding to it. Thanks for the crazy awesome review man <3

[Carf - Disturbed Madness]

nice one carf

Yo this one's got a great industrial evil sound.

Those sound FX in the intro were enough to grab my attention, but I kind of lost my attention once those unrhythmical sytrus bells came in...its okay theyre only ornamentation. all around, decent intro to fit with a madness theme.

Those saws and industrial sounding square synth are sickkkk. The riff kicks ass too I must say its perfect for a chaotic deal. Mmm, the drums tho :( I dont like the fact that your hats are pure FL dance samples ;_; The beat was pretty nice tho, but the bassline is lacking. This song lacks a solid groove, something which could be achieved by maybe throwing in an offbeat bass or a bass with the "galloping" rhythm.

The interlude was nice too, I really like your usage off automation and those long swells incorporated into the synths. It just feels a bit empty here, I'd recommend putting in a pad or some backround ambience to really feel that void.

The final phrase was well executed, good usage of bending on the synths and the layering to make it more dramatic than the first portion of the song.

As a whole, the mix feels to soft to really fit into a madness theme, raise the volume levels some, mess with compression, I don't really know your techniques, but IMO it needs to be louder to really crank out that madness intensity!

some awesome ideas and well crafted snippets, but IMO could use some refinements to make this a killer track.

Carf responds:

Wow! A nice defined review! Already a thank you for taking the time to write something decent, doesnt happen that often.

Well what can I say in return. I think you are right in your opinions. Its not fair to kick somebody that only tells his/her point of view.
The track itself is just a spontanious thing I came up with just when I asked a friend of my (Nemesistheory) why she does not participate in the MAC contest. At that same time I told myself *fuck it, i give it a try myself* BUT industrial is NOT a style I have tried before. I have tried to use all my experience which I have from my making *hardcore* past (dutch hardest variation of house music). And this was the final result.

That there is no decent bass is indead more then true, overall in hardcore there is no bass at all, altrough there is a subsound, but its not overall low as in D&B.
A pad would indeed bring the track to a higher *melodie* level but I tried to let my bassdrums do the talking, which has been my desicion to leave out a typical main line. Maybe this devines my ideas a bit better.

I want to ask you to check out my track *void* cause that devines my way of *playing with melodies* on a very, very abstract way ;). Think you will like it.

Thanks again for taking your time and your kind words. Keep up the creativity.

Carf!

[-=IG=- Sneak Peek -=IG=-]

real fresh

This beat has got some really interesting elements! Got my attention right from the start.

Love the eerie melodies on the whistling synth in the background, and the bells with the delay effect were pretty nice, and the countermelody that comes in on the other bell sounding instrument. I like the way the strinngs moves, but the sound is a bit too fuzzy for my liking (maybe once the groove kicks in, replace them with a more organic, smoother or lusher sound)

Percussive elements were really nice, I like the thin crispy snare sample and the use of the shaker for the high register percussion, as well as the pitched sample was real damn sick, and the subtle castanents (?) that come in every now and then were a pretty nice touch.

the buildup felt awkward, once the first pitched percussion pattern came in, I was expecting a nice powerful drop at 00:5ish with a consistent kick rhythm and snare on the 3rd beat, but it was absent. otherwise, the beat was nice to listen to, I like your usage of the four to the floor style, and how you carefully cut out the kick at places. Pretty interesting right there.

as for the bassline, its okay, nothing that really stands out. As for the sound, it might just be my end but it could use a bit more power. I'd layer it with just a pure sine sub- might destroy the sound tho. You're kick has phatness yet still is distinguishable from the bass, which can be hard to do.

Great beat man, real nice for rapping over.

InGenius responds:

Thanks for the constructive criticism. Alot of the topics you touched on I agonized over, actually. I need to go back and work on this one again now that I am mixing and mastering music differently. I have a pure sin sub in the 35-75 hz range or so that I could EQ up to the 75 flat range and boost that bass a bit, but I was afraid it would muddy the sound up. This one has not been mastered yet, just mixed and EQ'd, so it might sound a bit cleaner and better after a master for the album.

Thanks for the review.

Peace