DukeLukeProd's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[.HLS. Move On RMX [wip]]

Nice!

I like those percussions and the groove in general, it's classic Trance but very well done! The sound is good but lacks some low-end, the BL has the same problem as the one in the last track of yours I've reviewed. Sounds like a supersaw/square - at least there's multiple oscillators detuned against each other which doesn't make a good bassline because it's much too unsteady and doesn't supply the constant "ooomph" a club track needs. you can keep the synth (remove the low frequencies though) but add another one (single osc) for the low bass.

I love the buildup (the first 2 minutes), the piano-melody also works surprisingly well for a lead synth, great idea! Looking forward to the full version!

heartless1298 responds:

Thanks for the review and the advice! I might revert back to my original idea of a kinda quiet lowpass filtered bass with a lowpass filtered offbeat bass beneath it. I'll be sure to take up your advice. And is there an actual melody for the song? Because all you had up was a snippet and I didn't know if there were any other melodies that go with the song. If you could put up a full version of the song that would be extremely helpful on my part.

[Alone (Extended Dark Mix) [WiP]

review

Hey HLS,
It's good so far but it feels somewhat empty in the current state, I'm counting groove, bassline, synthlead and her voice. You should definitely add some more tonal instruments like an arp, an additional bass-layer (can have the same notes but make it more "crunchy") and/or the ones you've suggested. And remember that low bass shouldn't be in stereo (opinions vary but I try to keep everything below 100hz mono), "otiumFX basslane", a free plugin does that for you if you don't want to tweak your synth.
Okay that's about it then, keep on producing!

heartless1298 responds:

Thanks for the advice :). I'll be checking out that plugin you mentioned, but I don't quite understand what you mean by making a bassline more "crunchy".

[The Lightning's Funeral]

Fantastic production

This sounds gorgeous, even on my cheap headphones. The "athmospheric" instruments are used very thoughtfully and only where they are needed, which gives thing even more dimension. Totally faved!

megakyle53 responds:

yea thanks for faving

[Ambient Trance WIP]

Cool stuff

Hey Greg
The synth/sound selection comes very close to the late 90s Prog-Trance, one of the styles I absolutely, wholeheartedly love. The intro is already very good but the later progression lacks, well... progression. The piano should do a bit more than repeating the same pattern, give it some variation. Fade in another thick pad (like Chicane's) using a low pass filter over a few bars.
Some percussion samples in the main groove feel a bit delayed, take a look at all your samples and check if there's silence at the beginning. Use a clap with more punch and presence, I can barely hear it right now. I think there's too much going on in the cymbal-section, tone it down a bit. The bass sound is more on the subtle side but that's just right for prog trance, although maybe you could try turning the low-cut resonance up a notch to give it some spice?

Ok, so much for the things that could be improved imo, but I'm really looking forward to the finished version of this, keep it up :)

gregaaron89 responds:

Thanks a lot man, that was a really helpful review! Gave me an idea of what to focus on.

Progressions are kind of hard for me because I get kind of stuck on an idea I guess and don't want to risk ruining it XD (have to drop that bad habit) I do happen to have a nice thick pad that I loaded into an instrument track but I didn't get around to doing anything with it. It sounded pretty good with it but I'll have to tweak the sound first, it wasn't really right.

About the percussion delay, I didn't see any silence at the beginning of any of my samples. But there is reverb on most of them and there's predelay of about 10 ms. Maybe I should shorten that I guess.

I'm very tentative with claps, as I try to avoid getting a 'cheesy' sound that can be so easy to achieve. Plus I like the way in trance songs how the clap 'blends' with the kick and I was kind of trying to do that here, but I guess it's the wrong kind of kick anyway so it will need to stand out more. It's actually two claps, one is lowpassed with a crapload of reverb and some low freq stereo spread. It makes up most of the sound. The other part is mostly a bright clap with some high freq stereo spreading. It does have a high cut and I guess I could brighten up the sound by raising the second clap's overall volume, raising the high cut, and raising the volume of the snare sample. (claps are one of the things I ponder about XD)

I kind of got lost with the percussion and I'll have to tweak that obsessively until I'm happy with it. I've never done anything like this for percussion and I'm playing around with LFOs and white noise for the first time in a groove. I kind of have trouble deciding what volume everything should be at so layering is tricky.

I don't know about the bass it's kind of weird and when I mess with it it just seems to get worse :(

I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself here because everything on here is totally new and I'm kind of reluctant to take risks. This is totally different from anything I've done :P

I'm gonna keep working on this but it's gonna be a bit slower as I'm going back to school... thanks for the encouragement, and glad you liked it.

[Nuclear Flash (Mega Man 2)]

hmmm

To me over the top means that it's too loud or unpleasant to listen to - not the case here. It's (3:15) just the most massive sounding climax I've ever heard in a D'n'B track. I can't imagine how many synths/samples you've layered here, may I ask what base-waveform you've used for the bassline?

Can't wait for listening to it on my proper sound system :)

zirconmusic responds:

Hey, thanks for the comments!! The ending is definitely crazy, VERY hard to mix. If you want to see the chain I used for the bass patch, check out these images:

http://zirconstudios.com/pics/ultraba ss.PNG (synth is Zebra 2)
http://zirconstudios.com/pics/ultraba ssfx.PNG (effects)

[Xyirx - Tomorrow is Waiti]

Sweet

I liked it a lot, just a few thing to justify the 8/10.
0:13 I don't know about the chello, its tone is way too hard, maybe it's just too loud. I'd have expected a softer introduction of strings, maybe only violins instead of the chelli?
The melody has a few moments that sound weird to my ears. 1:16 for instance.
Otherwise this was well done and the mood really fits to the scene you've described. Keep up the good work

Xyirx responds:

I see right to the point where you say that the cello is too loud. XD Actually, I just want to emphasize the cello as main melody for the introduction, but looks like I've done too much. On the 1:16, I just add the extension of 7 (FM7), so it sounds quite distinct, compared to the smooth melody that continuously plays before that bar.

Thank you for constructive criticism. I really appreciate it. And thanks for listening.

[Infinity Ambience]

masterpiece

I've listened to this about 5 times in a row today and I'm happy for you that, in the meantime, it has reached a chart position it really deserves. I've read your journal and I honestly don't know what else a person has to do to be allowed to call himself a composer.
Your synths and the real instruments intertwine to a point where you can't tell which is which. It's expertly arranged and you did everything to keep the progression exciting. The melodies are needless to say magnifient, i love this thing.
Thank you for sharing.

KaiyotiMusic responds:

Hundred bucks says it'll be zero-bombed like always :P
Thanks for the review though. Appreciated.

[Crush Depth]

deep crush

0:00 - 0:45 A nice, eery intro complete with piano and strings, almost perfect. The introduction of the cymbals is a bit abrupt though. I think adding some kind of psychedelic delay (in the intro only) to the hi-hats while doing a volume fade would really fit to the intro style.

0:45 That bass/pad wall of sound is fairly awesome but what I like most about it is the phasing-effect, It might lack a tad of high mids though.

1:30 Cool main groove, the drums+hats work very well in the mix but when the bassline goes away, the cymbals become too shrill to my ears.

Being mostly a commercial-producer I miss some kind of main melody but of course that's not a necessary element.
Apart from that it's a kickass track, great job man!

cheers
-Luke

4AM responds:

Thanks for the awesome review!

Yes, EQ tends to be my weak point. I'm always looking for more "punch" in the mix and I let myself get carried away with dipping all the mids out.

Also, the Firefight loop I used in this is quite old (it was a 22kHz WAV!) and it was already distorted and sounded like garbage to begin with. if you listen to the track 4808, you'll see I've since upgraded to a nice clean library of Tramen loops I found somewhere, and hopefully soon I can get around to stretching this out into a nice 8 minute ordeal, and clean up the shrill hats.

[First... Attempt]

Wow

You're very good at this it's pretty amazing considering it is your first try. I like your main synth(s) (even if it's more rhythmic than melodic), it has an nice drive to it. I wouldn't mind listening to more songs of this kind.
One thing that would've probably worked very well in this track is a more breakbeat-like groove, the 2 kicks per bar are simply too little, you could also double the number of kicks and make it a techno-track although I'd prefer the former.
The break needs some improvements, most people would expect the introduction of a new (main)melody at this point but you only give us a hint. Make the break longer and bigger :)

I'm looking forward to your 2. track, keep it up man
-Luke

Dvorask responds:

Wow. thanks.

Thats a lot of good criticism and i'm glad you responded. Actually, the rating's a little better than i expected. I'll try to make the new ones a little better, and i agree about the kick. i should have put at leatst four in per bar.

thanks,

[BB - Mellowwww]

80sy

To be honest I expected this to become boring very fast because it has the typical 80ies videogame sound which I don't find too exciting.
The piano-ish sound reminded me of the Flintstones SNES game while the trumpets were more on the Turtles side which is pretty cool. There are a lot of contrasts melody,- and soundwise and it doesn't get boring at all, sorry or my initial misjudgement ;)
The melodies are catchy too, and you did an amazing job on the bassline!
I'l "only" give it a 4/5 because the style is a bit of of fashion

Bobbyballers responds:

it reminds me of jazz jackrabbit yo