iamwontolla's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

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I know music is subjective and everything, but this is a mess no matter what you were going for.

If this is supposed to be chill dubstep, the annoying saw leads and loud-as-hell offbeat pianos ruin any vibe you might be setting. If it's supposed to be heavy, it needs bass support. Any bass support. There's no sub. if it's supposed to be some weird experimental lo-fi thing where the mix is ugly on purpose, then why's the arrangement/melody so conventional and repetitive?

And no matter what type of dubstep it is, the limiter ruins the mastering, and the drums (which are weak to begin with) are getting buried because there's no sidechain, so read this: http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1421528

My best advice is to just learn more. Read/watch tutorials (starting with my link) and listen critically to music you like from producers that have been learning for longer.

And I desperately want to know who thought this should be the #1 feature, and why.

[Nine Echoes - Fresh]

Off a to a decent start. Clean mix, passable structure, but this melody just doesn't work for me. If you're going to build every second of the song around the same 2-bar loop, with no variation, it has to be *really* good, and this just doesn't stick. I feel like the best way to get better at melodies is just to listen to music with good melody lines. And yeah, this needs some variation. Chord progressions, alternate repeats, anything to make it less repetitive.

NevoMusic responds:

The 2 bar loop is for the first 16 bars, it's called a DJ intro. It's only purpose is to allow a DJ to easily transition between two songs (There's also a DJ outro, the last 16 bars).After that, it evolves into a four bar melody. IDK what you mean by "passable structure", since it's usually meant that it follows the idea of transitions at 4, 8, 16, or 32 bars. Or it could mean layering the right sounds together, which obviously went well, considering that it has that 'full' sounding drop. The repetitive nature of this song is commonplace in this genre. While there would have been room for more fx, such as glitches, this isn't the issue you make it out to be. As for the melody, I'm no Madeon, but this track is not French Pop either. I think you might just be judging this as if it were something that was meant to be melodic, such as Porter Robinson.

I don't mean to be defensive, but I disagree with most of what you said. I really don't think you understand this type of genre, or know quite as much as you think you do about structure and composition to be critiquing a song like this.

Nor do I like the term "decent start," as if I hadn't been a producer for over five years. Your review comes off a bit elitist to be honest, and I don't think you have the experience or knowledge to pull it off well. I don't expect 5 star reviews, but I will disagree when the reviewer is unfair or just not knowledgeable on the topic.

[JinCree - Fancy World]

Read some tutorials about arrangement, sound design, mixing, all that good stuff, and listen to music you like to see how it's made. That's the short version.

[Sidewinder x CodeName X~ Full Flight]

Mostly, you just need to listen to more dnb/dubstep/hardcore/whatever you're going for, and see how it's composed. This is extremely basic. And have a look at this: http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1421528

CodeNameX07 responds:

Thanks man, I appreciate the review. Ill be sure to rake this advice in the future.

[Burning Hope]

Off to a good start. I'm a sucker for Asian-influenced metal like Whispered or Chthonic (check those bands out if you haven't already). Doesn't sound very Celtic, though.

Check your instrument balance. Some sounds are way too loud and the bass is inaudible. And if you don't have a guitar, try finding a better sample library (or enabling round-robin if you have it on the one you're using).

DreyLand responds:

Hi,
First I want to say you a big thanks for this review, it helps a lot!
I think you're right, I have to rebalance the instruments, indeed we can't hear the bass.
Regarding to the guitar, I have an other librairy but for this one I wanted to change everything in order to try something completly new.
Even with these negative points, you gave me 4 stars, thanks! I will improve

[Insanity]

I like the part where it goes KONG KONG KONG KONG KONG KONG KONG

MrPong responds:

:)))