Lockyn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Primal Time]

Wow. I admire your bravery - submitting TRAP to this contest!? You fool!!!

In all honesty, I liked it a lot. The intro has a really nice atmosphere to it - sets the mood for the track title. (I recognize that wind downlifter vengeance sample btw. ;D) The chord arppegiator helped fill out the space, as it felt quite roomy until the bass was introduced, which is nicely done. Hihat roll patterns very reminiscent of most recent trap releases, so nothing new there. I really like the gentle almost vocal sounding echo note every four beats, it's a nice touch. The distorted blip is a really nice synth!

Nice siren riser and saw riser into the drop at around :30! Now here, the perc is nicely varied - I like the wind chime sounds in the back and the stick clicks all really nice touches. When the hihats come back in with a octave lowered blip, that part is where I feel the energy from the words "primal time" really kick in. The rising synth after seems a bit out of place because of a certain reason I'll point out later when I explain why I rated this 3/5.

The voice cuts into the synth back-and-forth section is one of my favorites of this track. The droning bass helps to keep the energy high. Then till the end, an interesting ending - you built up towards it! Nice.

Now for the reason I didn't give this a 4 or a 5, and this is pretty much solely the reason why. It's not your arrangement or your melodies or your mixdown - you have a pretty good feel of that I think. It's the INTENSITY of your sounds and drums, ESPECIALLY for a genre like trap. I'm not sure if you were going for trap when you made this, or perhaps you haven't heard of it yet, but your drums and synths all point toward that genre. The problem is, they're just not intense enough. Trap is categorized by high energy drums with almost overly compressed hits and short tails. The hihats sound almost like knives slicing into your eardrums. The sine bass used along with the kicks are usually quite strong and help to fill out the headroom of the track, because trap uses high pitched synths and varied short melodies like you did to fill the melody part and they aren't very substantial by themselves. I'm not saying to make everything loud - you need to make everything crisper, cleaner, and more POP BOOM POW, if that makes sense. I'm not saying to throw a Maximus on everything, because that's not how it's done. Have you heard of Aero Chord? He's a great example of how to get intensity without sacrificing mixdowns/proper headroom. Listen to his track Surface. You'll understand what I mean.

You may not have been going for this kind of sound at all in the first place, in which case I apologize. But honestly, you have to consider that the reason trap stays popular despite it's relatively basic/repetitive synthing and drums, the intensity of all the sounds drives the energy behind the track. If you are going for this sound, please consider this in your future works.

All in all, I enjoyed it. Keep it up man. I hope my comments helped, and if not, I hope they gave you another perspective at least. Cheers!

6/10
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NGAUC Knock-out Round Review

JoshuaHughes responds:

Thanks for making probably the most detailed review I've gotten so far! The whole time I was making this, I was thinking of Kor-Rune's NGADM submissions, and I was like "What the fuck am I even doing." Not only did I have no experience whatsoever in the genre, but it's not even a good contest genre in the first place. I felt it was so necessary to make, though. Not because I felt like the contest needed a trap track, but because I needed to make one for myself to explore some new techniques and my current abilities. Probably won't be a regular thing, but I'm very happy that you and LSD like it!

I think you have confirmed one of my fears when mixing, which is the fear of overcompression. This is probably my loudest track I've submitted so far, but I'm always nervous of those RMS values. This one had around -6 to -8 dbs, but I'm thinking I should maybe go up to -4 to really get a more full sound. Also, I'm absolutely trash on the low ends. It's something I've been working hard on remedying, but man do I feel like I'm missing an obvious key to the puzzle. I'll get it sometime.

"I recognize that wind downlifter vengeance sample btw. ;D"

Busted!

[Across the Ocean]

Hmm...

The wind riser into the track is nice and the quiet ambient note fades were a nice gentle intro. The saw chord synth sounded a bit cliche but they worked well with the sounds you had. I like the gentle 16th note pulse you introduce in the quiet part at :51 (or is that reverb from a previous synth?). The leads you layer after (sounds like two different sounds) with a sine bass are nice sounding and go along with your synth style, but honestly I would have liked a bit more variety.

At 1:22 ish, the introduction of the drums and reintroduction of the saw chords from before gives an interesting rhythm. I like that you didn't use a four on the floor beat. And honestly, your drums were nicely picked, but I would have liked to hear them a bit louder - your hi hat was the loudest percussion sound which is a bit odd.

At 2:10 when you introduce the saw chord again under a low pass filter, it has this weird syncopation to it - was that on purpose? Because it really takes away from the general flow of the piece. It almost sounds like it's stuttering... it doesn't quite work out with this style of music because you want to keep your beat steady. Keep this kind of rhythm with swing beats or more rhythmically minded genres like glitch-hop.

There is a pulsing saw lead sound (which I think is the same lead as before) you use here that is a nice touch. The gated lead with the reintro of the drums at 2:30 is a variation at least, but I still didn't hear much of a difference from the previous drop. (Sounds like Trance Gate 1 gross beat volume automation?)

The ending was a bit of a cop-out. I suck at ending tracks so I understand that it's difficult to find a way to stop at a good note. Honestly man, I think we can all agree that what this track needs the most is more variation melodically and arrangement-wise. More synths, definitely more supporting bass sounds, and a nice supporting lead with a simple but distinct melody. Arrangement and synthing is the part that is really what sets tracks apart from each other, or else everything would sound the same. I think the problem that some people are having with this track is that it doesn't vary much arrangement wise, especially as the piece progresses, and doesn't have much variety in synthing (although this is not as important if you use your instruments well).

Keep working on it, man. I think you have a good idea here; although the chord progression is overused, I think you can do something fresh with it if you spend more time on it. I hope my comments helped. Cheers and good luck!

5/10
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NGAUC Knock-out Round Review

[Recharge {Dj-Abbic}]

Holy hot damn. We've got a kicker here.

Nice and succinct intro. Classic, good, tried-and-true layering of basses and synths, love your syncopation up till :30. The almost toybox playful high plucks at :31 contrast so nicely with the hard basses you had right before, and I love that pulsing bass you layer here. The build up here with the snare, usual fair but works out well. Simple melodies push your driving bassline on, and I really like that you kept the melody fairly simple throughout - it can be easy to get lost trying to give it too much variety.

Around 1:00, the square riser is really nicely done. I feel like I hear hihats at this part but they're not really brought out? I'm not exactly sure but if you did put hihats I feel like they should have been either EQ'd better in the mix or compressed to be brought out more, it would have been a nice variation in the kick-snare four on the floor pattern (electro/complextro can get repetitive in this manner so it's always nice to have variation when we can, it's a problem I have in my own production).

At 2:07, the quiet part starts again, and jeez, this might sound nitpicky, but I feel the drum pattern you used here with the claps and hihat just didn't fit your piece. You've got a high energy, fast moving bassline with heavy hitting drums, and that little clap rhythm killed my mood for a bit honestly. If you had a light bass drum to go along with the pattern to make a short almost dnb like pattern it would have filled out nicer with the rest of the piece but this is just my 2 cents on this.

At 2:29, when it picks up again, I really like that extra measure you left after the repeat drop for the bass to swell - that was a sick move. Then holy hot damn the bass hits. I love your bass work here. Nicely mixed, tight and controlled - I never felt overwhelmed but it was varied enough to have that complextro feel, so great work here. The little screech pitch bend in the bass was awesome.

Here's one thing I should mention: I recognize your kick and snare samples *wink wink*. You know what I'm talking about. You used them really well though, and they were nicely placed in your mixdown. I'd try finding more variety as you grow as a producer though, people out there recognize familiar samples, and many think they're "amateur" or "unprofessional" to use even though that has nothing to do with it. Just a friendly suggestion! If you need help finding samples to use or synthing your own, shoot me a PM.

All in all dude, you killed it. Love the track and I hope you continue this way. You earned yourself a follow and a favorite! Cheers.

5/5
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NGAUC Knock-out Round Review

DjAbbic responds:

I really wanted to respond to these earlier but they were so awesomely detailed I could barely find the time :p.

I'm glad you liked the intro. At the beginning I was thinking of making that syncopation a main part of the track, but I thought it wouldn't be enough to qualify as a 'drop' so I made it a part of the intro instead.

You're right about the hihats. I did try to bring them out, but I think (and this is probably due to my sample choice) that they didn't fit into the mix too well when they were brought out, so I left them as part of the background. It's great that you pointed this out though, because next time I'll know that if something doesn't fit into the mix, it's probably the sample itself that needs to be changed, not the EQ'ing.

Now that you mention it, I also feel like that drum pattern at the break doesn't fit too well, although I think that would've been impossible for me to notice by myself :P. I'm not too experienced with DnB either so I guess I'd just have to consider this a fault.

Glad you liked the complextro. It's always the hardest part to make if you want it to flow properly. The screech pitch bend bass is my favourite part of it too :D.

As for the samples, I'm quite surprised you were able to recognise them (as far as the snare goes anyway). I put some compression and distortion on the kick drum, and I put some EQ and reverb on the LAYERED snare samples so I'm quite impressed that you were able to recognise them :p. I occasionally go on free sample hunting sprees though, so hopefully this problem won't be there in the future :).

Thanks heaps for such a detailed review. Like I said earlier, I was wanting to respond to this sooner but a worthy reply would take a lot longer than the time I had previously :p.

Glad you enjoyed this!

[Slow Me]

Holy-

Dude, this is sick. The chords were what pulled me in immediately - the uniqueness compared to many of the tracks produced nowadays really sets this apart. I'm getting a big New Wave/Slow Funk revival feel to this, and hot damn I love it. The one thing that bothers me is the reverb delay is a bit much, it stretches into the other chords and gives it a little bit too much dissonance for my liking.

When the sax comes in at :26, really nice meshing of the sounds here. Honestly, I can't even tell that it's synthed, and in this case it might even be better because you want a smooth sustained alto sound to continue that chill, slow feel, and the real alto might have some unwanted blips. Great job keeping the melody simple, it's easy to overcomplicate it.

At 1:18, when the ride cymbal comes in along with the slow arppegiator, love the more energetic feel here. You've got a really really classic structure in this piece and it fits so well! Nice touch with the sidechain on the main pad, it helped to keep the mix in check. At 1:44, that transition is really nicely done - love that high pluck, keeps things interesting and it had a really nice triplet roll intro!

After that, you did a nice job calming down the track to give the listener some rest from the main section, and I'm glad you started changing up the drum patterns here because I was starting to get some fatigue. I would have liked a variation to the alto melody around 2:50 when it picks up a little, perhaps with a different instrument, but I do like the little chord instrument with the alternate melody around 3:05! Nice calm part here, but it would have helped to add a little fade tail to each lead note to help give the fading feel at this part.

From there, not many other complaints. Solid mixdown and great synths. Nice slow ending. I really enjoyed this and I hope you continue this way!

4.5/5
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NGAUC Knock-out Round Review

Birdinator99 responds:

I know what you mean about the chords, man. Once I stumbled upon them, I knew that with the right instrument, they would sound really good!

Unique is a word I've heard describing my tracks before; glad to keep that going.

In retrospect, this song is too wet for its own good, something that's more obvious when played back on larger speaker setups, something I didn't have much access to at the time, unfortunately.

Haha, that alto. I guess it helps when it's surrounded by synths and organs, but really it's not a great sound in solo.

At 1:18, that's the hi hat, bro! The sidechaining was an impulse decision, and I'm glad it payed off. That triplet roll was something I had in my head for a long time. It was exciting to finally record it.

I wanted to bring the alto back at some point, which is why it's playing the chords starting at 3:55. It fades a little on each note, but yeah it could use more.

You bet I'll continue this way! Thanks for judging!

[Flip Flop]

I honestly think this is the best track you've created out of everything you've made so far. The ideas are out of this world... I still can't get over how jarringly smooth that arpeggiator fade transition into the house beat and the syncopated piano chords. I've listened to this before but I never got around to reviewing it... but holy hot damn this is a masterpiece. Well balanced and well mixed throughout the track, although I feel like slightly compressing the right hand on your piano and adding a delayed reverb would be really nice and would fill out the piano/drums parts in the intro and the middle. Those synth rolls in the drops that fade in after 8 bars or so... so good.

Please please please revisit this sometime. PLEASE!

Voltus responds:

Thanks for the Review! I'm really jazzed you like it that much. The whole Reverb and delay thing is just something which I only recently discovered how much of an impact even just small adjustments can make. I'm not one to revisit something like this piece because I'm quite glad how it turned out even though it has some minor flaws. But maybe it'll happen.

Cheers!

[Maximum (Original Mix)]

This is killer.

[Massacre (Original Mix)]

Your intros always blow me away man. Sorry I've been hard to reach recently - I've been real busy, but I can see that you've been pretty busy yourself ;) Really nice track here, keep it up! I love your twist on this genre.

MadhouseDUDE responds:

Thanks man!!

[NeverSayGoodBye(NeaonBeatzRemi]

This one is pretty interesting! I liked the general flow, but definitely consider my advice from my last review of your previous mix, definitely can use work on how you mesh things together. Keep it up!

[Detious - Mysterial]

This track is insanely good.

[Power King]

OH YES