Review the track(s) above you

[Injustrial]

Pros:
- Crackled intro, giving it atmosphere
- Dark, rolling bassline, which carries the song well
- Variation in the kick
- Melody is composed of several instruments, giving it depth and making it interesting
- Oneshot bells. Always loved oneshot bells


Cons
- The guitar feels a bit nylon-y to me. As if you're muting the strings completely, only having the attack itself picked up. It's a matter of personal opinion, though. But it sounds like it's sorta drowning in the harmonics of the bass.
- Reminds me of Gangstas Paradise. So sick of that song. Not your fault, I just can't take that song anymore.

Your pros certainly outweigh your cons, that's for sure... And I've got nothing to post myself, so I'll just pass the floor to the next one wanting to get a track reviewed.

*skateboards off*

[itroitnyah]

As far as fixing the volume balance goes, try taking all the mixer sliders down to zero. The bring the kick up so that the volume meter peaks at about -6 dB. Next, bring up your snare to closely match that. Use your ears to find an appropriate balance (because sometimes the meter doesn't help for that). If you think you want to check your balance after this, you can both post a WIP on here, but you can PM it to me as well and I will make sure to give it another close listen. Anyway, after your snare, bring up your hats. Don't try to make them too loud.You might adjust them after you bring in the melodic stuff. Next you should bring up the bass. This is because it's harder to distinguish bass frequencies as you add more in. Next, just continue up the frequency range until you have all your instruments in the mix. As for balancing those, decide which one you want to stand out the most, and make the others a little quieter.

That is literally how I already mix. Not quite, I'm sorta bringing up sliders in different orders, seeing how I order the sliders makes a difference (it really makes a huge difference). Other than that, I'm working on practicing everything you've listed. I've only been going at this for a little under two years so far, and I still have a long ways to go, considering when I started with music production I knew diddly squat about anything and only knew a little piano.

[itroitnyah]

Oh, I suppose I should review the track you made fluffy.

Something seems off about the crackling at the start, like it's popping too much. I like the vibe of the song, it conveys the emotion very well. I love the composition on the piano, it's really neat and sounds great. Did you record the guitar yourself? Or is it a library? My biggest comment on the guitar is that the sound of the cords being plucked is a bit loud, I guess. I'm not sure that's something that you can change, so oh well. I like how you had the two violin(?) patterns going off on separate channels at the same time, it gave a nifty twist. The bell thing is good, but the composition just feels a bit off from the rest of the song, like it has a bit of a different emotion to it compared to the rest of the song, and the qualities of it's composition isn't quite as good as the rest of the song. Other than that, the kick could use some low end, imo.

I did a bit of brushing up on my mixing for my track. I'm pretty pleased for the most part, so I think I'll leave it like i have it and then master it next week: link

[ClaviSound]

CaptainFluffaton: The track jerks from the vinyl-laden intro to the beat proper a bit too suddenly; I'd recommend taking out the bells or snare from the drum pattern for the first four bars or so, lengthen the build-up out of the beginning, or possibly ease it in with just one part playing a bar or something before everything else kicks in.

Speaking of kicks, your kickdrum choice is a bit too distinctive in the mix, and it can get a bit tired as the song goes on. itroitnyah's point about adding some low end would help, but I'd also see if you can't lessen the high end a bit as well to make it less consciously noticeable, since it distracts away from the other instruments (including the voice I'm assuming is going to be put over it).

I agree with Injustrial that the guitar sounds a bit too sharp on the attack, especially with most everything else (particularly the strings) relatively soft on it in comparison. Also, it sounds a bit off-tempo as well. The array of sounds you're using is nicely varied, though, with the guitar, strings, bells, and piano making it fairly sonically complete and memorable.

itroitnyah: I'm unversed in this subgenre (so unversed in fact that I don't even know what it is), so I hope you'll excuse my heathen ignorance as I pick at it by ear.

The kicks at :51 leading to 8 bars of nothing drum-wise are good, but it goes a bit too long before they kick back in on a musical front; you only have one synth holding down the fort, so to speak, and the build to the B section is lost there. The movement to pads at 2:31 sounds really nice, but the chord changes don't fade into each other, so if you're going for a "breakdown" it's a bit too stilted.

The section right after it though, with the staccato harmonies to the main melody, is really nice, and I do loves me some o' dat non-2-and-4 snare hit placement, as it really does keep the song from plodding. I'd easily recommend this to someone looking for zone music, or do homework to it. Your synths complement each other very nicely, and I've no complaints about sound design whatsoever, for what it's worth.

Alright, here's my thing. It's a sorta-kinda collab with Rhyme Flow, and I say that because it's over "Amplifyre," which has already been rapped over, but nonetheless we each wrote new parts to it. In addition to the rap, I'd like to hear critiques on the mixing and whether it could stand improvement in one aspect or another. The instrumental itself isn't editable, so I hope it goes without saying that if you have one issue or another with that, we won't be able to act on it.

For those (like me) who prefer lyrics in front of them, here's a GDoc for you.

[Facade]

@jackson miller

pretty good not really into this style of dubstep so i cant say much

pros

nice sounds melodies and over all sound design

cons

though the sounds are good ive heard them everywhere

some of the samples are over used in this genre

and the drum patterns didnt really pop though this is minor and they work well

sorry everyone else i couldnt review you cause drop box isnt working for some reason

heres mine its still wip

https://soundcloud.com/facade-of-ages/wubadubdub-wip

just realized thats almost a week old heres a more recent wip

https://soundcloud.com/facade-of-ages/wubadubdubwip2

[Dr. Plague]

Now I have a track that I wish to have critiqued:



It's not properly mixed, because I haven't done a proper mix down yet. Other than that, critique away!

I wish I had any kind of critique other than the mixing, which obviously I won't go into 'cause you said you haven't done it yet. Very nice and soothing. Not quite my genre of choice, so I unfortunately don't have much else to say. I do have to disagree with JacksonMiller on the "too many melodies clashing" thing. I think it's just fine as it is.

And then I go down a little bit and see you posted an updated version, dammit lol. Given how wishy-washy my review was initially, though, it still fits your updated version, minus the part where I implied the mixing was off because obviously now it's not. The kick sounds a little loud in the lower range, though. My personal preference would be to make it a shorter kick.

https://soundcloud.com/jacksonmiller/hounds-of-hell-remix

I like the melody a lot, and the drop is... well, idk how else to put this, but it's a brostep drop. With how overdone brostep is becoming (and how it was never really my top pick for "hard" EDM), I guess it's just not something I can really say much about. It's just an oversaturated genre. That being said, the upside to this is that it wasn't bad. Nothing stuck out to me as "oh god why would you do that" in any way. The melody in the drop was also pretty good, as was the mixing and mastering.

If this came across as a negative review, don't take it that way. Keep up the good work.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/53819319/Beat.mp3

Very groovy and catchy! Basically the same deal as itroitnyah's track, I have nothing more to say than "very groovy and catchy" and that you picked synths that fit the melodies well. I love me some string instruments (despite ironically not caring for orchestral), and as I've mentioned in the past in this thread, I love me some guitar. Curious to see what kind of vocals and lyrics your collab partner provides to accompany this.

Alright, here's my thing. It's a sorta-kinda collab with Rhyme Flow, and I say that because it's over "Amplifyre," which has already been rapped over, but nonetheless we each wrote new parts to it. In addition to the rap, I'd like to hear critiques on the mixing and whether it could stand improvement in one aspect or another. The instrumental itself isn't editable, so I hope it goes without saying that if you have one issue or another with that, we won't be able to act on it.

As someone who's not particularly a fan of rapping, the only fair criticism I'll make toward that is that the vocals are a little high in the mix.

I know you said the instrumental isn't editable, but I just want to say that the glitchy intro was cool, but some parts felt a bit off.

At 2:07, when both vocals came in for the "amplify" part, I do like that effect, but it still seemed a bit off to me. A little dry, maybe? Not sure.

https://soundcloud.com/facade-of-ages/wubadubdubwip2

First thing I have to note (and it's ironic that I should bring this up): Work on your mixing. The drums get a little drowned out, especially by that vowel-y synth.

Also, I'd use whatever reverb plugin's high-pass filter to cut out the lower end of the reverb on your snare. It's distractingly loud.

The stabby chord things are pretty nice. Again, though, try to mix them a little lower than the drums. I also like the plucks you threw in around 1:05.

Overall, pretty catchy tune. Really dig the lead from around 1:30 and on, too. Looking forward to seeing progress on this.

---

Been having writer's block recently, so I'll just post some eurodance-y kind of thing I put together on a whim about two weeks back. Didn't put too much work into it, but I might come back to it 'cause I do have random ideas here and there about things to tweak. Nothing serious comes to mind, though, so I haven't had much motivation to go back to it.

I wish I could figure out how to make the piano a bit sharper. I tried cutting down on its reverb, but it didn't really help, and taking too much off makes it hard to stand out.

Also, I tried stacking the eurobeat-y brass synth in different octaves, and it came out sounding really dissonant, even though I used very little detune. Any tips on how to fix that? I should also maybe fix the vibrato a bit, it's a little tight maybe?

https://soundcloud.com/dr_plague/dr-plague-regare

[jokull]

Been having writer's block recently, so I'll just post some eurodance-y kind of thing I put together on a whim about two weeks back. Didn't put too much work into it, but I might come back to it 'cause I do have random ideas here and there about things to tweak. Nothing serious comes to mind, though, so I haven't had much motivation to go back to it.

I wish I could figure out how to make the piano a bit sharper. I tried cutting down on its reverb, but it didn't really help, and taking too much off makes it hard to stand out.

Also, I tried stacking the eurobeat-y brass synth in different octaves, and it came out sounding really dissonant, even though I used very little detune. Any tips on how to fix that? I should also maybe fix the vibrato a bit, it's a little tight maybe?

https://soundcloud.com/dr_plague/dr-plague-regare

Well, before I get into what you were saying, the song has a few melodies that are kinda hard to follow- they seem to lack any structure whatsoever. Just a thought. Anyway, boost some of the presence on the piano [around 5Khz] and see if that does anything. If that doesn't work, try boosting some higher frequencies than that, too, to make it... crisper, I guess. Also, in some parts of the song, I see what you mean with the brass synth; it sounds off-tune at a certain point where it's moving very quickly (2:41-2:43 or so). I'm not sure this is because of the synth itself, but more that they're actually programmed to notes that are off-key— take a look at that. Other than that, it sounds pretty interesting!

----------
Here's a song I'm hoping to polish a bit before I release it; I think it probably has some mixing issues, but I really don't know. Just want to get another opinion. EDIT: Click the link; it's private, and the forum's built-in embed can't parse the private URL. The link will work, though.

https://soundcloud.com/wilson-biggs/sugoi/s-ZBGPi

[JacksonMiller]

@eery Umm.... pretty weird, but how come it sounds so weird? It sounds like a broken VHS gone wrong! I would still consider not to over use the annoying vibrato, only like a tiny bit. the drums seem nice though. 4/10 (would've gave this like a 9 if it didn't have that weird effect all over the song).

Here's a remix I recently did for Candyland's contest. It's really good complextro at 128bpm. Hopefully somebody will give me some good tips on mastering!

https://soundcloud.com/jacksonmiller/candyland-ft-zak-waters-not

[lioul]

@JacksonMiller I can't guarantee good tips, but I'll give my tips. First off, I dig that drop with the high synth. Maybe you could teach me that wobble sometime. That being said, I feel the arpeggio at the beginning could be a little more crisp (at least on your downbeats). Other than that, sounds great. Nicely mastered, and pleasant on the ears. I'm not the best reviewer though, knowing little of either complextro or excellent mastering, so perhaps a second opinion would be a good idea. That being said.
https://soundcloud.com/l10ul/an-actual-song
It still needs quite a lot of work. My problem is I don't know how to implement the things it needs. I use Ableton 8, and any (and all) advice is welcome. I guess the genre for this would have to be way-too-fast ambient. Thanks!

[Facade]

welcome to the forum first of all!

the idea of the song is nice and the percusion is interesting at some parts

pros

sounds nice for the most part

idea is great

cons

some dissonance

part at 1:58 is too loud

edit: ill post a song in a few

here ya go

https://soundcloud.com/facade-of-ages/makinsomewub

[Stakeout Punch]

@Capt Fluff
I listened to your track and I'm with those waiting for the lyrics. It sounds great! The only thing I don't like is the snare. Not the snare itself, but its release. The release is cut short or something, so it clicks, which I don't know if you were going for, but if you weren't I'd look into that :3

[FritzyBeat]

Firstly, to CaptainFluffatun:

I think that the track has really come a loooong way since you did the first demo you've linked to at the top on this page. All the elements you've added and edited have really helped strengthen the song =) Keep up the amazing work!

I have 2 songs I'm looking to have reviewed. one is brand new and the other has been around for a little while:


Resurface is a piece of music that was made for a soundtrack i'm working on. Video game stuffs.

For a video game soundtrack, It really does get the atmosphere down nicely! Very ominous and foreboding. Definitely getting that post-apocalyptic vibe =)
However, being a big fan of ambient music, there are a few things that stick out to me, and one is the overall fuzziness of the track. It sounds kinda muffled somehow, as though there is wind blowing in the background the whole time. This is fine for background sound in a game, but Ambiance is usually at its best when it makes use of the combination of silence, and distinct but soft sounds, and what you have here just feels as though its not quite distinct enough. Especially at the guitar riffs, as it feels like they've been absorbed into the fuzziness of the background instead of jumping out at you like I feel they should =/

Keep in mind this is also coming from a guy who enjoys peaceful and relaxing ambiance as opposed to dark ambiance X3 But in any case, that's my two cents :)


So, I suppose I have to post a track now? XP
Well, I already posted this on Youtube about 2 weeks ago, but I'm still looking for a bit of feedback on it. So if you guys could let me know what I'm doing right, and what I'm doing wrong (ESPECIALLY with the mixing), then that would be awesome =)



For those of you wondering, this is a remix/cover of Replacer's wonderful song "Cerulean Blue" which you can find here :)

[itroitnyah]

@Facade's track:

The synths lack very much emotion, they sound very dry. Try adding on some reverb at least, because it doesn't really sound like there's reverb. Other than that, the mixing sounds a bit off. The bass synth overpowers the other elements. Not by a lot, but that's just what I'm hearing.

@Kyoga's Resurface track:

Very impressive. I love how well you placed emotion and feeling into the piece. It really makes you feel like you're coming out of an underground bunker after some apocalyptic scenario, I love it <3

The very rumbly bass that appears at 0:12 though, that sorta has me confused as to whether it's purposely put in there, or if it's a muddy-ness mistake that slipped by you. I'm thinking it's there on purpose, because it really adds to the feeling. Everything about your music man, I love it.

@Fritzy's track:

The vocals overpower the instruments, so that could be changed (more so in the beginning than anywhere else). If you notice in a lot of music, especially pop, the vocals are the highlight, but they always are at the same level of the instruments, since the voice itself is just an instrument. Speaking of vocals, at some parts of the song, the vocals and synths seem to clash, as if you're composing in a different scale than what the vocals are in.

Other than that, the vocals are sorta drab. Not anything you can change though.

Alright, I've been working on a remix, myself. A remix of Immersion by DelaRED. I'm pretty content with it. I may go back and redo the mixing, but I think it's decent as is.

Link to my WIP

[Mesogears]

Alright, I've been working on a remix, myself. A remix of Immersion by DelaRED. I'm pretty content with it. I may go back and redo the mixing, but I think it's decent as is.

Link to my WIP

I'm not too good at reviewing tracks, but here goes:

This has a pretty good vibe going on. However, the drums could be better. The kick and snare especially, because they sound like FL defaults. I'm not sure if they are, but some new drum sounds might be a good addition. Also, the vocals at 0:54 could use a bit more variation; the constant repetition of the word "again" gets kinda irritating.

That said, here's my track.

[DJ NTD]

That said, here's my track.

Those opening chords are pretty sweet. But some of the chords are clashing simply due to how detuned the choir synth is. If you can find a more in-tune synth that's just as effective, go for it.

I love the breakbeat. Holy crap. It's making me tingle. Out of personal preference, slap some reverb on your percussion (except for the kick unless you absolutely want to) and see how they sound. I feel like it would add some more depth, but it sounds fine either way. Also see about throwing in some distorted guitars or synths. I bring this up because I got some major Arkasia vibes from listening to this.

Good track. I'll go ahead and follow to see what the rest of the series is like.
__________

This is a garage track that I'm trying to bring back from the dead. Despite how seemingly bare-bones garage is, there is still a lot of depth missing. I can't figure out how to add more color to the track without losing style. I'm definitely thinking about adding in more sub bass hits across beats 5-7 of the main pattern to keep from having a lower-frequency dropout, but that's about all I have in mind.

I have different a progression in mind, so don't worry about that. But what you hear by the end of the project is full-depth.

Scroll to the 13-second mark of each track to begin. The vocals in the beginning are there so I have something to refer to as I'm editing. They'll be removed in the final product.

https://soundcloud.com/djntdofficial/sets/funkwormwip

[JSynth]

If you want to add some warmth, I would recommend adding some layers to your organ sound, specifically something that takes place in the lower mids. It sounds to me like there isn't too much going on in that area. Just be careful not to muddy up the mix.

The bass could probably use a little texture to it. Maybe a second oscillator or a little overdrive. Don't do anything dramatic with it, just something to give it a tiny bit more edge.

______________

Alright, time to give my track. I have been working on this for a long time. The big thing that I'm focused on right now is mixing and mastering quality.

https://soundcloud.com/jasper-synth/back-at-me/s-XaeUb

[jokull]

The vocals aren't "present" enough, I think, and everything is very center-oriented— try panning or stereo widening some of the tracks. The chippy saw wave could use some delay/reverb, as could a lot of the other tracks. It just feels a bit empty. Also, if you're going to vocode like that, at least melodyne your voice or compress it or something— it doesn't sound very good when it's so inconsistent.
-------
So here's a little thing I'm working on. I know it's a bit repetitive, so what can I add? Also, it feels a little empty; what do you think I should do? Thanks.

https://soundcloud.com/jokullmusic/andstae-a/s-9IIz9

[Facade]

it sounds like you made something then reversed it then put a beat over it

pretty neat

pros-
sounds great
gots a good beat
cons-
idk its sound like something is missing though that might just be me

hold on got to render my track

edit:
https://soundcloud.com/facade-of-ages/downthestreetwip2

[JacksonMiller]

@Façade The melody/dissonance is kinda weird and sorta off key, maybe try fixing up the lead a bit more? And If you're trying hands up, just get better drum samples. these drums sound flat and could use a bit of compression and/or fizzle.


___________________

So here's a remix I just finished for Astronaut's remix contest, tell me what you think and try giving me good tips!

https://soundcloud.com/jacksonmiller/astronaut-rain-jackson-miller

[itroitnyah]

@jokul

"Outside, outside
We can follow the road
Outside, outside"?

That is a really cool track you have there. I love how the kick and snare are set up, really giving a push to the vibe of the song. Sound design is pretty amazing as well. The whole thing is repetitive, but it fits. I love the chill feeling to the whole thing, and the reversed vocals were an exceptional addition. Overall it's a really great track.

@Facade

The composition is meh. It isn't horrible, per say, but it's not very entertaining to listen to until the hoover saw comes in at 0.30.

Speaking of that next, sound design could definitely use work. A lot of the sounds are poorly made, leaving them with static-y or grungy highs, that don't really add to the sounds. Some of them also have distortion which seems to remove from the sounds more than add to them. Except the very first sound you introduce at 0.10, which is probably your best sound in that song, imo.

Mixing sounds pretty OK, but the kick sounds either like there's a ton of compression on it or you just picked it from a sample pack and didn't touch it. I'd recommend at least doing something to liven up the sound.

Overall it needs a lot of work

@Jackson Miller

The first thing is that the whole track is like really quiet. The drop sounds sorta cliche for a (trap?) track. And the background crowd noise especially. I'm not huge into trap though, so I can't say for 100% certain. The track sounds OK overall. No real issues with mixing, sound design sounds great, composition and structure are great as well. The only issue for me is cliche. But once again, not huge into trap.

My Track

I spent some time on what started as messing around with practicing synthesis and bloomed into a track. I tried some things out with composition and sound design that I haven't really done before, and I'm fairly content with how the track has turned out. The big thing you need to know before critiquing is that I haven't done a proper mix yet. That is yet to come, and will happen around when I come to the conclusion that the track is finished.

Link to track

[JacksonMiller]

The drop sounds sorta cliche for a (trap?) track.

for a (trap?) track.

TRAP

WTF it's big room you dingus get it right LOL

[itroitnyah]

Man genres and shit are confusing. God knows there are like 200 different variations of house music and people will blow the fuck up at you if you call their house song the wrong variation. In my mind all we need are dubstep, drumstep, house, electronic, trap, trance, ambient and then maybe a few obscure hispter ones. Like acid or whatever. But god also knows that when I hit the submit button there are probably going to be floods of replies about how much of an idiot I am because there's a huge difference between regular house and progressive house and french house and stuff.

Now can we get back on topic? I really need somebody to review my track: another link so you don't have to scroll up for it

[Stuntddude]

Obviously I'm new here, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.



JacksonMiller:

That zoomy sound effect at 1:39 sounds out of place to me, though I can't say quite why.

The buildup from 1:50 to 2:00 sounds to me like it's building up to something completely different from what actually ends up happening, not sure if that's intentional. The luckspin effect at the end confused me the first few times through as well, it's difficult to keep track of what's on and off beat, if that makes any sense.

Overall the mix sounds like there may be too much high end and not enough mid, although again that may be what you're going for.

The sound design is nice, though, and I really like the section around 2:50. It just seems well placed.

Oh, and I can confirm the track isn't quiet at all for me. The volume seems fine to me.



itroitnyah:

The track seems a little schizophrenic, with it sounding like it's about to turn into Rainbow Factory for the first 16 seconds, then going into something happy. The transition at 0:44 sounds like it should be at the end of the track and not the beginning - It sounds like it's fading out, rather than decaying, and it ends too abruptly (it almost sounds like it's cut off, hence the end-of-song feel), leaving a (relatively) long period of almost complete silence before launching into something almost completely different that doesn't seem to relate to the previous bit before. Same with the transition at 2:33. The transition at 1:45 is maybe a little awkward with how quickly it goes to silence, although not altogether bad, since it's at least obvious it's not the end of the song.

Pretty much everything from 1:53 to 3:36 feels like it's just a copy-paste of the first half of the song (is it?), and then the ending sounds like it should be in the middle of the song, in place of the other transition I was complaining about.

Also, some of the wubs sound like they're not properly on beat.

The individual sections sound fine to my ears, but the large scale structure/arrangement needs a lot of work imo. Things just don't feel connected, and it's more like I'm listening to an album teaser than an individual song.

In my mind all we need are dubstep, drumstep, house, electronic, trap, trance, ambient and then maybe a few obscure hispter ones.

Where do things like chiptune, downtempo, etc. fit in there?
But yes, the specificity with which people will sometimes go with genres (especially proclaiming that a track is this one specific genre and does not fit into any other!) is a little ridiculous.

[Injustrial]

itroitnyah: There's a couple of things I would like to point out here, none of which are ultimate truths, but stuff that I feel mentioning.

Your drums are very low in the mix. I can bare make out the kick. Hats are a little better, and I really like the rhythm you've given them. Now let me hear it!

The lo-fi sounds in the intro are delicious and cool. But they seem too far removed from the rest of the song. Almost like we're dealing with two different tracks here. The complete silence at 0:48 magnifies this. When they come back towards the end, they do make a lot more sense, but I'd appreciate something more to bind the first part of the song with the rest.

The following drop is cool and has a nice groove to it. Keep that as is, imo. Might drag on for a bit long, though...

The track sounds like it's in constant movement and evolution. That's a good thing to keep me interested, yet there seems to be very little variation within the segments themselves. Perhaps try layering a bit more or changing the drum rhythm at parts?

The outro synths are very different from the rest of the instruments used, so perhaps think about changing the sound or incorporating the synth in different parts of the song as well? I would very much like to be teased with it earlier before it gets to shine on its own.



Alright, this is my latest and the one I feel most satisfied with. I'm sure you guys will be able to pick it apart with tweezers, so be brutally honest with me. Nitpicking leads to perfection!

[JacksonMiller]

@Injustrial Ovbiously this is really fantastic, nothing bad to say bout this one, apart that you should really not have such annoying robot vocals, unless of course you think it's crazy and cool, for me, they're just annoying. also is that Bon-Lyra as a robot in the video? I have no idea. I do love some good Electro Industrial Rock Hardcore type-stuff!


Anyways, here's a WIP I'm mostly proud of (because this is a song experimenting with DnB/reeces). I'm hoping to release this as a full version soon, but I might need some critiques.

Here it is:
https://soundcloud.com/jacksonmiller/iblis-wip