iamwontolla's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mana]

An interesting spin on an older type of dubstep. Really liked this.

[Random Cozy Beat]

Not a bad start! Adding some reverb and parallel compression will help make this beat feel warmer, and sort of glue it all together. I like the chord choices!

Father-of-Death responds:

thanks yea some better mastering woulda been smart but i'm lazy

the song was supposed to be just workin on chords so thanks for noticing :)

[GYZA - Cyberlight (From Ashes Remix)]

hi ash

[Childhood Universe]

Cute! Clean mix, and enough energy in the drop.

VaultKid responds:

Thanks, I am happy you like it :D

[The Rinds - Tappy's Lament (Remastered)]

I think the remastering works a lot better on this one, without the drums getting in the way. Recording live drums is still a pain, and it gets worse the fewer mics you have to work with, so I don't blame them at all.
The steps you mentioned cleaned this up a lot, without harming the sound quality much. There's a tiny amount of hiss in that back that gives it just the right amount of vintage charm. If you want to do more mastering like this, I'd look into finding an exciter plugin that can add stereo width. Obviously it won't be like starting from a full stereo mix, but even with mono, just that tiny bit of width can add a lot on headphones.

seatellite responds:

They didn't even have enough microphones to record live drums, so they had to use a drum machine and mix everything down each time they recorded something to access more tracks.
Ironically, The Beatles, which were their biggest influence, used this same method throughout their career to achieve multi-tracking & fake stereo back in the day lol
Also I did experiment with a few exciter plugins as well, but because of the audio quality of the recordings, it was really hard to use them without introducing more clipping.
In the end my objective was just to make the original tracks more listenable while leaving as much as the original as possible.
If I was able to get the original tapes in high-quality and re-record them digitally myself, I could have definitely done a lot more, but it was difficult with what was essentially a chain of tape to a digital 128kbps m4a file.

Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoyed the songwriting itself!

[What is Left in Ash]

I love the way you took that rave string sample and turned it into a whole hook by moving it around one note at a time. Try exploring stuff like that more, and see what else you can do with that pattern on other instruments.
The two biggest problems I see here are emptiness and compression. The arrangement needs some background sounds to fill out certain parts where it feels way too empty, and the right sounds can add a lot to that uneasy atmosphere. The cello melody feels random too (and not in a good way), so adding some pads or bass to anchor it would help it feel random on purpose, if that makes any sense.
Some sounds would benefit from some compression too, either to make them sound fuller, or to even out big jumps in volume. Those filter sweeps get really loud at some points, overpowering everything else to the point that you can see it in the waveform, and some compression could help even that out without needing to change any of the sound design.

SodatheJunker responds:

Thanks you so much for the response.

I really can't fill it out too much, the "emptiness" is actually to keep it open and vacant for the sake of sound design and the character voice tracks. The area is very damp and echoing.

That said, I'm 100% agree the compression and leveling of the mix has to be addressed, I don't remember if that was intentional or not at the time but there's so many ways it can be cleaned up on a second run. I may even flip that whole second part on it's head since at the time I was using a tweaked and modulated sample, while now I have plenty of instruments and ways to record my own work. This is one I'm really excited to get into when the time comes, I feel like there's tons of potential here still.

I had mentioned this in another song from this project, I forget which, but these tracks are actually all being revisited with hopes of cleaning, updating, and generally just making much better. So any and all advice and and critique is extremely appreciated ^^ If you have any opinions on other tracks from the "DiCE" project, please voice them! Everyone has been super constructive here.

[To the end of the universe]

You're off to a good start! Check your mix against other melodic dubstep tracks and make sure it's hitting hard enough. For example, try adding a heavier bass under the chords to fill out the lower mids, and scoop the mids in the chords to make room for the melody/arp. There are also some parts (ie 1:16) where it doesn't sound like the bass is playing the right note, so check those.

IndexatioN responds:

Oh yeah, thanks for your review and especially for those tips :)

[Sky Battle]

There are some good compositional ideas, but the production needs a lot of work. Try double-tracking your guitars and panning them left and right, that'll make them sound fuller. The entire song is in mono right now, and you'll need more stereo than that.

The guitar tone is really muddy; it sounds like you're recording off an amp right now (I can hear the strings being picked), but you'll probably get better results recording direct with an interface, and then reamping, even with free software. Your drums are also really flat and distant.

Finally, someone else mentioned volume; that's something you can fix without any new gear. Just master the track with a crap ton less compression than what you're using now. Hard-redlining the master won't make up for a muddy mix, in fact it'll just make it worse.

also please for the love of god add some variation in the drum patterns

[Deadline]

Good writing! Watch your stereo field when you're mixing; some of the wider sounds are distracting from the leads (which are down the middle).

FlyMaX responds:

Thank you, I will consider your advice!

[[Future Bass] Alive At Night (feat. Craig Blackmoore)]

Spend more time mixing the vocals. I say that, but really you should be mixing the rest of the song around the vocals, because vocals need a lot of room. Find the frequencies it needs (mostly the upper mids) and try to cut some of those out of other instruments that are using them.
The amount of autotune is really annoying; it's okay to ask the vocalist to do another take! And remember, a deep, evocative lyric that doesn't rhyme, is better than a forced rhyme.
This will help your drums punch better: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1421528
The drop doesn't hit hard enough, partly because the buildup doesn't add enough tension (some risers might help that), and partly because there's not enough treble. It'll also help to lower the volume at the buildup, then bring it back at the drop; if the buildup is quieter, the drop will sound louder next to it.