trunotfals's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Wolves (Ft. Andy Chamberlain)]

Alright first off this intro is SOLID. No complaints here. Great mixing and vibe and just. WHAT IS COMING NEXT. OOF. Ive honestly listened to this intro like 5 times before the rest of the song.

Your transitions throughout the song are super solid. Introducing and taking out elements, bring back in elements from earlier in the song, and i love the very "cinematic thing" that you do with the slow bending of the pitch for discomfort. I love that sound so much.

Now for some Critique, I love your lyrics, and i love the idea of the text to speech. If i listened to the sound of the rap vocals by themselves, i love the effects you added to it so much, however, it doesnt sit IN your mix, it sits above your whole mix. Your whole mix becomes a backround to this creepy inhuman speech as if its a movie and not a song or rap. It becomes very hard to associate the rap with the song, instead, the song is a background. it can be hard to mix vocals into a mix but the biggest thing ive found through many trial and error, is just get rid of any sounds that are competing with the vocal's frequencies. That way you can bring your vocals down, not over the mix, but back INTO the mix, and maybe if you really want one of those voices to be heard that you took out, just eq out the frequencies enough to make the voice clear. Vocals can be tough.

the section at 1:27 is actually really cool, lots of good stuff going on and i love the vibing, and the really cool reggae like rhythm you added, makes it uncomfortable, but in a good way. But it REALLY needs sidechain compression on your kick. Its the bread and butter of producing, i want that kick to be heard, and you cant at all. If its not there, a kick really needs to be there. wouldve made this section TASTY AS HECK.

Now your transition are very good, however it is super clear that each section is different from the last, i know you were going for a kind of collage of styles, this can still be achieved by keeping some elements of the last idea, bleeding them into the next one, then going into your next idea (Queue ADR3-N's link he's been posting that i dont have right now once he reviews this song please oh please link it ADR lol)

The whole 2:29 section is great i dont want to focus on that. not much complaints there.

Now your jazzy section, If i take out all of the music except the solo, the solo is SO GOOD, but the solo voice is mixed way too loud above everything else. it becomes a background again. I promise we wouldve heard that voice if you turned it down like 4-10 db, let it sit IN your music. I know you want it to be heard, but it will be heard purely on the fact that its so active, expressive, and a GREAT solo. what happens when you mix it that loud and then put the compression you have on your master, is that gets brought up SO much more, while the quieter stuff only gets brought up a little bit.

Ending was hard (as in like this goes HARD),and your kick is PUNCHY here. the ending was gritty and gross and great, and it makes me sad to have not heard the kick in your section after the rap. I wanted more of that ending, it felt a bit sudden for it to end that way.

If you make it through, or even if you dont, I really would love to see what you got for us, and see you improve your mixes. Bring those main ideas that you've turned up INTO your mix, not above it, sidechain your kick and you got some spicy tasty goodies coming out of that brain of yours.

great submission to the NGUAC!!

uvimusic responds:

Dang, this is an amazing review! Yes, mixing is definitely my weakest point and I'll definitely go end up changing the things that you said could be improved. I'm glad you liked it though!

[Call for Thunder]

Good textures and ambiance at the beginning here. loves those marimba sounding tones. Getting it spiced up with some crisp high end goodies right before your first drum beat kicks. Love it.

Well hey, overall good balance and mixing here at your first drop, i feel like your snare is a little bit too punchy compared to your kick. In my opinion, the two should compliment eachother AND the song. You have a very chill yet energetic vibe, and I think simply the VOICE or sample of the snare could lose that higher pitch clap sound thats layered over the snare drum. The snare isnt too loud, i think just a little too harsh. (after hearing the whole song and proofreading this review, MAYBE, the snare in the final drop wouldve been crap,) I just dont think im a fan of your clap layer. Its like the difference between hitting a slightly open hi hat, still crispy, but harsh, and snapping your fingers super loud, not a ton of high end, but crisp and quick. I feel like the claps in between the snares on 3 are meant to be ghost notes, the claps being those ghost notes were a bit uncomfortable for me. and the kick wasnt very punchy, which mightve complimented the snare.

It is a very low heavy kick, Im always a fan of layering just the top end of another kick on top of your kick, one that doesnt ruin the feel you are trying to get with your kick, but still adds some definition to kick.

at first i didnt like the beginning of the transition at 2:58, the kick hits with the cymbal, and then sometimes the cymbal without the kick hits were a bit uncomfortable, i feel like your kick just needed to be punchier for me.

however the second half of that transition into your final DnB drop was GOOD, and then DUDE THAT SNARE IS GREAT AT THE DROP! :D The main bass voice here is a little bit too much, you have all of these wonderful little crispy bits happening in the mix and that overpowered bass voice has so much high end it just overshadows it.

One thing i really wanted with this piece was some more melodic content to latch onto.

And I really think that kick needed to be punchier.

Overall; love the vibe, little bit creepy, little bit chill, is good. and then the final drop i am a pretty big fan of.

Great submission to the NGUAC!

[Dark Rarity]

Im loving this creepy intro a lot, it IS very low heavy until the piano comes in. Good strings at :33, creating a lot of tension. All of your instruments are sitting way above your drums in the whole song. I cant hear your kick much at all except for the very low end, some sidechain compression and overall compression on the kick can help this, even turning it up.

Biggest piece of advice is to mix your whole to song to be balanced, but never hitting a threshhold above -6db, THEN, form there, you can master and add compression, multiband compression, or your choice of mastering plugin and bring the piece to life. The drums are just very quiet for me, i can only hear your snares and kick in the fills when nothing is happening at all.

I love the effects and feeling youve created at the end of your piece, and a huge part of me nerded out when i heard the picardy third at the last chord of your piece, because you talked about the characters english facade, I'm just going to assume you did that on purpose because it is SO on par for this old english facade you mentioned haha.

Over all i love the idea of this piece! It had a hard time feeling like it sat in minor major without properly transitioning from minor to major using borrowed chords or more advanced theory techniques. But i love your transitions, and i love the vibe you've created! Love the begginning of the second drop a lot!

All of your melodies dont seem to sit in a reckognizeable area for me. They dont follow a consistent rhythmic structure and i just wanted something to latch onto the whole piece, and only found myself attempting to do so on your chords.

Love your ideas and i think this piece is wonderful! thanks for the usbmission to the NGUAC(amole)

TheSentiment responds:

Thank you for this in-depth review! It's extremely helpful, I'll try my best to make some fixes, but I am new to the whole mixing and mastering thing. I did do that picardy third at the end on purpose, but for a different reason. I love it when people give super helpful reviews like this, it helps me improve. After this round of the contest is over, I'll upload some fixes if I can remember to. Thanks again!

[Every Little Issue]

First impression, LOVE your vocals, the effect could possibly bring down some of the high end in the eq, but man, your voice is very good. Very good melody writing on the vocals.

Spicy tasty chord progression throughout. Great vocal balance on the chorus, I could use a little more high end on the kick, not too much, just something to define that kick a little more, and my headphones are pretty low end clear. Good stereo spacing in the mix, this is a great mix and master overall. I love the idea of the song as a whole so muuuch.

I have a disadvantage at judging live recorded tracks and really need to get my musical hands in the realm of live audio recording and production. I dont know the struggles and challenges or any advice to give you. Is sidechain compression a thing that can even be DONE on a live audio track, or SHOULD be done? Thats about the only huge gripe I have.

Over all i like the original structure, a three part pouring of your heart out.

I especially love the RAW vocals. meaning how they are BENT with emotion and seemingly sadness. You're not trying to impress ANYONE with the tone of your voice, yet, that does all the impression it needs to. its raw, it emotional, great work. Great voice.

Love the vocal writing, love the lyrics, I'm impressed! Great ending and outro, WELL DONE!

Great submission to the NGUAC!

TheRealFool responds:

Thank you for the review! Regarding side chain compression, I don't think the musical gods will smite anyone who uses it for live recordings, but I personally prefer not to so as to not make it sound too electronic. That being said, maybe just a small bit of compression could work to make the kick pop more without making it sound overly produced, maybe I'll give that a shot next time.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

[Majesty]

Great intro to start off with. I think the lower tones on that bas voice are a little low end heavy, yet, your kick cuts through enough, but i want that kick to be louder still.

After 40 seconds, that bass voice is a little overpowering and i my ear wants to hears something different.

great change of pace at :50

The melody voice at 1:00 is super quiet.

I feel like a little more layering of your samples couldve given all of this song a bit more life. layer that bass voice with another, layer your melodies with another voice, use 2-5 snares (im not even kidding haha) and balance everything to sound how you want it. the piano lick that goes all fast sound a bit chaotic, doesnt have a lot of melodic content. I really like your vocal synth in the very beginning, and i feel like that never comes back.

Yea the kick needs to cut through, do some research on sidechain compression with your kick, sidechain compression is the bread and butter of a producer.

Overall im loving the vibe you created here and I think this song could have a lot of potential if those drums, hats, and snares, and all your voices could be brought to life with some layering!!!

Great submission to the NGUAC!

ArramEggleston responds:

Thanks for the review! I did use sidechaining, but I guess I didn't make it strong enough.

[The Torchbearer [Charity Album]]

Agreed with adr3, interesting intro, simple and additive, simple transition with a pause then impact, my ears wanted to hear a slight variation in the chord progression, adding a Dmajor chord on the beat 4 of the last measure of your progression just every once in a while would have added a welcome little spice.

THat transition into the main beat i wouldve loved a small uplifter, or at least a crash or downlifter at the beginning. Your melodies are slow, but so is the song. I really wanted to hear a bit more variation by 1:21, and especially some variation in the chord structure.

this is very pleasant to listen to, almost does seem like you just messed around on a keyboard in the key of g minor, likging the rhythmic change up at 2:20, very welcome change of pace here.

I wouldve loved to see a bit more variation and change up of the chord structure, i know you only did it in 5 days, but im judging everything the same!

Its slow, calm, simple, and pleasant and that already has a lot going for it, but for active listening, i wanted more. as a background piece, its pretty good!

well done and thanks for the submission to the NGUAC!

[Ghost Warriors - We Are Shensians! (Vocal)]

Well im not going to do my review in russian hahaha cause it would just be thrown into google translate.

Firstly, i LOVE the characters in the translation and I love the personality throughout the whole song. Really great Ideas all throughout, and after throwing ADR3's review into google translate, I fully agree with nearly everything he said.

The guitars tone just dont sound quite spot on for me, they sound like the synth guitars in the old doom soundtrack. thats not a BAD thing, but they werent overall mixed well along with the drums when everything is happeneing. I love the sound of the guitars muted however, that was cool like in the section at 1:08, i loved that whole section until the organ like synth comes in, that particular synth i just feel doesnt fit the song very well. the synth at 1:24 is GREAT. I love the dialogue in between the sections and how those are used AS transitions allmost, love the style of all of this. Albeit i cant understand russian haha. now, sometimes the vocals are hard to even hear over everything, except when i CAN hear them over everything, then i cant hear everything else very well. Utilizing some smart arrangement can help, get rid of instruments in the same register as whatever vocals are active at the moment. Many many many metal bands design their songs entirely around the vocal register of their singer.

The drums are pretty good, however the snare has a little too much reverb, sidechaining might come in handy for the kick when there is a lot going on, and maybe layer or add some more effects to your snare. i know this isnt edm, so in this case you want one drum, but i wanted that snare to punch me in the face more, ITS ROCK. Making it cut through the mix could be as simple as adding reverb delay, some slight sidechain compression, or just cleaning up the other voices that are doing things in the same register as the punch tone, around 250-350.

Other than that not much else, i love the style and the personality throughout!

GhostWarriors responds:

Thank you very much for a detailed description of my shortcomings and mistakes!
I will try to take them into account in my next compositions, but everything requires experience and practice, so I'm not sure that I can achieve an acceptable result in the shortest possible time.

[Progressing Degrees of Insanity]

After Trailing off of all your reviews in the NGUAC, I had to come check out some of your music,

I love djent, i love your djenty bits. The djenty bits sound pretty darn good. I guess I'm spoiled with djent and im obSSESSED with guitar tone, and yours leaves a bit to be desired, but this is a HUGE nitpick, because it still sounds pretty good. Plus their guitar tones takes thousands of dollars of pedals and experimentation and probably half of the bands invested time over YEARS and amps and mics and blah blah blah. I dont know what equipment you got, so I'm not too worried. The Guitar does seem a bit loud at points for my ears, however not much is going on with it, and the percussion and synths still cut through the mix so i cant complain too much.

This truly IS insanity haha.

Honestly great job, this intrigues me in a disturbing way but thats not a bad thing by any measure, and I can't imagine you wanted me to react to this with a feeling of joy haha. GOOD STUFF

ADR3-N responds:

Wow, I didn't expect this. Thank you :3

You wouldn't guess unless you were a guitarist probably, but I use guitar synths. RealEight and Shreddage II. That may be the tone issue. I'm still trying to refine that in a way that I like. Synths are very touchy. For my tone, I use GrindMachine Amp, plus or minus FabFilter Multiband Compressor and Saturn. So no need to spend thousands of dollars on a rig, and then even longer learning to use it well. Just hours programming a synth, haha.

I have some more recent pieces down my news feed that I can't post here, that might sound a little better guitar wise, like Dream Fighter/Voyn Mechty you might enjoy. It's a Russian metal cover I translated myself from Japanese Pop group Perfume.

Feel free to send me a piece any time. Music is my favorite thing :)

[Island]

Couple things to think about here.

Firstly ADR3 Said the big thing already, the kick. The kick is so heavy and distorts the whole master time every time it hits. Sidechain is key in these moments. Now, this track is very easily assumed to want to have a rap over it. maybe some lyrics and singing. Who knows, there is currently no room in the mix for a voice to be super clear. everything is mixed okay, until you get to your bass. It feels like you may have maybe mixed this on a pair of headphones or speakers that doesnt have a ton of bass, so for your mix you turned up the bass to where YOU want it to be, but then in a decent pair of headphones or a system, it just is so boosted that it peaks and clips and distorts at every kick hit. I think the master, the kick, and the sub could come down for more balance, and then you immediately have room to put vocals on top of the mix. over all, great vibe and great beat, however i have to give the structure and composition some gripes when it comes to a competition entry. Yes its a great beat, and yes this genre will have a repetitive beat with some great vocals over it, but I wanna see what you can DO with some transitions, some harmonic and melodic content, so variation and new ideas within a piece. It's GREAT as a standalone, i just want so much more out of you, and I think you can do it.

also, another thought about the kick, the kick and sub are possibly the MOST important part of this trap beat. The whole genre in general. Over mixing it to where the mix sounds like its rattling loose parts of a car with a sub turned up way too loud, just pulls so much away from this. I promise itll still sound so good with that kick turned down, some sidechain compression on your 808, and the whole master brought down just a little.

However, overall, without the mixing and repetitive issues, SUPER good beat!

Great submission to the NGUAC!!

[[Electro House] Marshmallow]

First impressions:

I love the pluck bass you have in the intro, overall pretty cool vibe going on in this funky little intro, I don't like the detunned bends on the lead near the ends, but that's about my only complaint, and an opinion at that.

Next little section is a very nice little build up, simple and effective. I LOVE that you add good dynamics and velocity automation on the directwave piano. A simple and easy recognizable piano, but can sounds SO good with good velocity automation. Big props here.

next little section gets a little muddy around 1:40 with a ton of things going on. I love the idea you carried back into here with detuning things near the end of your section, makes me think of the beginning and appreciate it a bit more.
The section at 2:00 sounds like its going into a pretty good drop, but then immediately sounds like another lead up. so you have a lead up into a drop that immediately turns into a build up, just made me a tiny bit uncomfortable. That "empty drop is FIRE." I call them fake drops, a lead in into a drop that is very empty and big and simple. Always a fun surprise for me.

Overall just a LOT of great idea in this whole song that it feels like you keep just wanting to reintroduce and add on top of other great layer. ADR3 said it really well. This is great but i also have this great thing but also this great thing i want them all to be heard. theres also in general a LOT of melodic content throughout the whole song, and i really wanted to find a singular idea or maybe two ideas to latch onto and bring me back home, but instead there are 7 or 8 really great ideas and themes and I dont know what to love so now im lost. but the journey was SO FUN.

Some overall mixing gripes i have like just alot going on around 5:38, once you pull everything away in this chaotic drops (i dont mean that in a bad way) your ideas are so cool during the quiter parts! I love the ideas in your brain and would love to see them executed more clearly. overall great! I love this submission!