JRTH's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dance Rave]

Your ideas are stellar. They don't need any improving or changing, your ideas are what are making me give this a four. Cinematic excellence in the intro, cinematic drums, synthetic effects and atmosphere are so well put together.

The one thing holding you back is your mixing. There's no push or pull in the dynamics and the sidechaining effect around 2:22 onwards is far too much, it makes the drop sound empty.

To improve the drop (at 2:30) - you need to work on your bass. I can hear a bass but it's far too quiet and sounds like a sine wave. Learn to layer your synths, stack another bass on top of this one but not as deep to fill out the low end. Add something to fill up the midrange - chords or a second lead but deeper than the current one. The samples you've chosen are quiet poor too, the kick and clap sound like generic FL Studio basic ones. Look towards SampleMagic packs for higher quality drums to use and that will elevate your music! Introducing some Hi-Hats in the drop will help it sound fresh and keep things interesting.

Work on your build ups too. Automate a high-Pass filter from 0% to say, 20% just before it drops. Use snare rolls and uplifters/risers to build tension (youll even find these in sample packs like Vengeance Deep House 2 for example), rather than just a repeated kick drum. These things help take your music to the next level.

For the ending, a better way to finish a song other than turn the volume down is to take a huge reverb preset and automate the wet level, starting at 0% and fading upwards so the song blurs out and drowns in reverb rather than gets a bit quieter - another way you can take your track to the next level.

Hope some of these tips have helped! Keep working at it!

[Glimmer]

Someone else knows what they're doing ;)

[Frozen Fog]

First off, from listening straight away you hear a super clear and wide stereo image with everything in its correct place. Bass centered, percussive instruments to the sides - not only makes the track manage to be louder than if everything was centered together, but fills it out too. Everything sounds EQ'd perfectly, no nasty resonances or audible artifacts. Introduction of the string instruments around 0:43 was tastefully done, they blended into view really well. The details in the high end frequencies are the unsung star of the show on this piece, adding that sense of ''magic'' and mystery that I imagine you would have been trying to capture during the creative process. They're not in your face, but you'd miss them if they weren't there. The piano trill was a beautiful way to end the piece, very well executed.

For me, the only thing missing is a drum track - although i have noted that this is labelled up as cinematic. I feel like this needs a drum track because of the constant rythm throughout making it possible to nod your head to and predict - drums, even as subtle as a shaker or tambourine, would accentuate this effect. In another aspect, deep drum rolls themselves could be effective to use for transitions to different sections.

Great work!

[MIX]

Are you using Sytrus and FL Standard plugins? Look for more VSTs to use to take your sound to the next level and sound less like other people. Look up Sample Magic for samples, and VSTs like Massive and Serum for synths!

ScaryXbeatz responds:

Thanks for your feedback.I use standart and sides plugins.

[Moonlight]

V nice!

[Gutted]

Thick, melancholic vibes... very eerie vocals but well executed so props for that. Nicely mixed!

Kalviter responds:

So glad you enjoyed it!

[Battle Against A Mobile Opponent - Mother 2 REMIX]

Needs a LOT of work! But the idea is great, in future focus on mixing! Getting the levels right, the EQing of the elements and make your drums punch more! Look at expanding your arsenal of synths and samples too and you'll be good to go!

[Fun]

5! Nice work

[chgeri - half a glove (ft. wei)]

Love <3