ma-d's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[DafuQ]

Well, imo it sounds a little aqwkward at 107bpm or w/e you have it set to, quite a lot slower then the default 140 for dubstep or even the 120s that some post dubstep guys are experementing with. Yet the melodies are quite fast.

Drums - Main thing I will say here, is you have the same drum pattern throughout the whole song. Its a boring kick on 1 and 3 snare on 2 and 4. So a little varation in the drums is needed. Just reread your description and you say it sfaster then dubstep, so im not really sure what its meant to be, but il stick with 107bpm atm, seeing 217 seems a little to fast to actually do anything. I know you said its not classified as dubstep, but you could get some half time in there, (imagine dubstep as 70bpm instead of 140, or 52bpm in this case, might be a little too slow for this, but you could see how it turns out) At the least you can defenately play with the positioning of kicks a bit more and some moar hihats.

There seems to be a massive gap in frequencies between the sub bass and the higher up synth. Try filling these in a bit, lowcutting everything and highcutting the sub bass so you dont get any overlaps.

Im not really sure what effects and stuff you are using, but to me, everything sounds very 'in your face', you said your mastering wasnt very good, but the mixdown is probably the first thing to work on.

Yeh, sounds good, needs some work imo though :)

Also, what you said about genres being limited, using the tags to specify a more specific genre or subgenre, makes it easier for everyone to see where you want to head with the track. (just an idea)

Kmist responds:

Thanks, an helpful advice.

( i've already lowcutted everything and highcutted the sub bass :c )

[Valor (Dubstep)]

Some ofit sounds nice,just drowned out bythe synth

I think the synth thing, is blocking out too much of the rest of the track. You can hardly hear the hit hats and other percussive parts, and i cant really make out if there is a snare either. Really the main snyth (which i assume is meant to be a wub snyth) needs to be at a lower registry if you want that brostep wub sound. Also try layering that with some sub bass to make it feel a bit thicker (make sure you low cut the bass drum to give the sub some room), and if you dont have a snare in there, for me, the snare sound is one of (if not) the most important parts of dubstep to give it that half time feel.

It sounds like a good start. Some of the hihat patterns are starting to sound nice, its just a shame they are a little hard to hear. Soo yeh, make the synth lower, add a sub bass and a snare, and then all you have to worry about is the structure ;) nice.

DjRubix responds:

It isn't quite mastered yet. The percussion needs to be more punchy to stand out in the middle registry more. ANd yeah, the bass is far too high pitched XD Still working on it.

[Lone X - Cherry Blossom]

Hmmm

Hmm, there are nice parts of the track, but the transitions between sections seems to be very abrupt. Going from the strings into, which i like, to the first section, just sounds kind of weird, everyting drops out except for the four on the floor kick drum and then loads of other synths and sound effects just come in from nowhere. My next comment, is the fact that each section seems very short, so you are not giving each section enough time to change.
Most of the track seems to be lacking the snaredrum, but when it does come in at 42 seconds with the more half time'y drums, it does sound like a start of something.
I think the main problem for me, is that for alot of the sections you have tried to pack too much in without giving it any build up, so when huge chunks of sound come flying at the listener, it will just leave them slightly confused as to what is going on, and sound messy. The end section, some of the notes didnt even seem to sound right together.
I think the bit that stood out for me was the 8 bars starting at 42 seconds, but in my opinion the rest of the track needs to have more thought put into transitions between sections.

Lone-X responds:

Thanks for the critique, much appreciated. As for the fast transitions, lack of "actual" snare drum, and "loads of other synths/sound effects that come in from nowhere, it was just as I wanted it to be. I wanted a glitchy laser to replace the snare so the song can be different. I didn't want two minutes of the same loops because it may bore the listener, and I wanted fast transitions so I can have the listener unprepared to what may happen next.

Peace and Love,
Lone X

[Droplet - Army of One]

Seems kinda awkward.

I think its feeling awkward to me because of the tempo. Defenately needs to be faster, obviously purist dubstep is 140bpm, but then alot of post-dubstep is doing 120 stuff now.
Because its so slow, it makes the hihat stick out like a sore thumb to me. It is exactly the same the whole way through the song.. except volume changes. Alot of dubstep makes use of triplets to make the hihats sound interesting, sort of with the same effect, shakers are commonly used as well.
My last comment on it, is there seems to be a massive gap where the low end bass should be. It needs some sub-bass maann! ;) especially when the mid range synth (the 'wub') is on its higher notes it just leaves a mmasssive gap and makes the track sound empty.
So yeh, its a good basis of a track. I personally think the track would sound better at a faster tempo, also needs some sub-bass, and some more interesting parts to the drums.

mayaismybitch responds:

It has sub bass, but maybe the mid range overpowers it. And oh yea the song was at 100bpm, which may explain why it was a bit slow, I'll turn up the bpm and alternate velocitys on the hihats next time, thanks so much for the input man, you have no idea hoiw much it means to me.

[Peacocks and Waistcoats]

awesome

Wow, this is really nice, downloading the whole EP thingy now :) the link you provided wasnt letting me download, but google made it easy to find anyway ;)
Really relaxing :) I look forward to hearing anything from you in the future.

Studenets responds:

Thank you, thank you!

Yeah, the website is picky.. we chose to code in html5 which means if you have a browser that isn't fully updated it won't work.

Chrome should read it fine.

Glad you found it, ill be sure to provide an alternate link as well!

[N3rgul-USS Sulaco]

Defenately not dubstep.

Well, firstly this shouldnt be classified as dubstep, its 120bpm, which is way off. Im not really sure of what genre this should be, as i dont really listen to this kinda stuff but sounds closer to house, correct me if im wrong.
As for the song, disregarding genre, its hard to hear any of the lower end of the drums, cant hear the kick, and even the high hats and snare drums seem to be lost in the mass of other sounds and synths that i think take up the same range.
There are a couple of nice sounds and synths in the track, but i dont think they are given enough room in the mix to hear them properly, so everything just seems like a mess of noise.
I listened to a few of your other tracks labeled as dubstep and they all are at 120bpm :P so if you want to continue experementing with that, my first suggestion is to make it 140bpm. Once youve done that i reckon you could make some nice songs :)
I look forward to your future submissions ;)

N3rgul responds:

Well, its actually 140 bpm. Second, dubstep doesn't have to be 140 bpm, it can be as generally any speed between 120 to around 180. Ive seen some dubstep tracks at around 85 bpm or 90. I classified it as dubstep because of the wobble's I had in the breakdown. The other tracks I have as dubstep are actually not 120 bpm. Most are 140 bpm or above. Alice in Digiland is 180 bpm. Digital Salvation is 180 bpm. but thanks

[xKore - Need You (KrazR Remix)]

Really noiiceee.

Its really nice, my only comment on it would be that i dont think the sub bass is cutting through enough, except for the parts where most other stuff drops out, sounds a little muddy to me, for all i know you may have high passed everything else to give room for the sub and its just me :P but thats just my opinion :)
other then that, its great :) Faved ya ;)

Bones341 responds:

Thanks! :)

[CosmicX]

oooo, nice

Pretty good for a first one. I have to say i didnt like the drum sounds much especially the bass drum maybe some more bass on the eq or more reverb. Also didnt like the effect at 120ish, kinda gave me a headache.
Keep at it :)

[Halloween 2 FX]

freaking awesome

<3 the bit that starts at 45 seconds. Loving all your songs