Dodecagon34's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Core (Full)]

Your transitions at the drops are really abrupt, it just feels kind of unnatural. There should be some kind of impact or reverb snare or something on the 4th beat to kind of give the feeling that it's "jumping" to the next part. The drops are also seriously lacking high end, I think just a little LFO'd white noise would fit in very well. Other than that, nice job.

Razorrekker responds:

Older song comes with older mistakes, unfortunately. Like I said in another comment, if I were to fix this song up, those are the kinds of things that would get the attention they actually need. Thanks!

[Interference]

Overall, the song itself is great, though there's a few minor issues within it that should be addressed.

- Random weird sounds make a great intro, but I think 14 seconds is kind of pushing it. 5-7 seconds would be more reasonable.

- At 0:44 the beat is powerful, but it's also rather empty. You've got the high and low frequencies down cold, but the mid-low levels just feel like they need something. Personally, I think a side chained 8th note pluck bass synth would be perfect for the job.

- 1:14 to 1:44 just seems to drag on tbh, cut this part in half and it'll be a-ok.

- The buildup for the first drop just feels very very empty. I can faintly hear that 16th snare, but that sucker needs to be turned WAY up if it's going to do its job. The second drop is a little better since the snares are more audible, but it's still not quite there. You should add one or two new elements to them so it really feels like a transition. A pitch rise would be a good option, or that rising white noise you used elsewhere in that song. Or you could turn up the cutoff on the lead to really lend to the effect. It's up to you really.

- During the drop, both the bass and the pad feel kind of weak, like the main lead is hogging all the glory. Try increasing the number of voices or maybe boosting certain parts of their frequency spectrums.

- Put a little more oomph into that support snare at 2:12.

- I guess you don't have to do this, but I really like it when the second drop sort of goes its own way and does something different instead of being a carbon copy of the first drop. It doesn't have to be drastically different, you could just add in some new melody to accompany the main lead, or tweak the core melody in an interesting way(listen to Firefly by Jim Yosef). But I mean, a song doesn't have to have 2 unique drops to be amazing. It's just something that I prefer to hear.

Well, that's about all I can point out. It was a very fun song, seems like you have potential. Keep at it man! :)

NovaFlash responds:

Hey there,

I know what you are putting down, and I agree with this. I had begun the transition from Live 9 to FL studio, and this was the last song i was making on it, mainly for the reason of audio quality. Live is good for free, but when you are making more professional songs, it gets hard when you are limited, and the full versions are fucking costly.

I do appreciate the feedback, too. Thank you <3

NF

[cattac - race against time]

Well, I rather like it. I sort of get more of a "Mysterious Cave" vibe from it, but race against time works too. The random melody thing has never really been my preferred style tbh, but you did a pretty good job of keeping it nice and fresh throughout. I quite like the really tingy sounding melody with the strong delay on it(I can tell you really dig the delay ;) ), but what I would've liked to hear is the reverb being switched off at some points of the song and have the synth sort of shift back and forth between its normal sound and the reverb. I actually did something like that in one of my songs with a reverbed piano, and I'm rather pleased with the result. In your song I think it would've helped the transitions feel more like transitions since it wouldn't be the same effect throughout the whole song. Just a random idea. One more thing, that clicky-ish snare at 5:31 is dope, however I think for the first part of it you should layer the kick alongside it, or some other low freq sound, because it feels a little bit weak. It sounds way better at 5:48 when the kick starts accompanying it. That's all I really have to say, good job.

CATAWAKE responds:

Yeah, ever since I switched fully over to Ableton, I've been liking the Granular Delay plugin a lot, sorta fits in with the style I was going for. As for the song title, I named it that after the song tenses up around the 3-minute mark, though 7:17 is my favourite. I'll try out the reverb switch thing, maybe it'll sound good with the other layers. As for the clicky snare, it's actually a hi-hat sample made of ice. I've tried layering the kick over it, and it sounds messy and makes some of the sidechain sound worse, ruins the whole breakbeat atmosphere. I'll try other things though.

But anyway, thanks for taking your time to listen to my song and write a review for me!

[And the house will drop]

Not bad, man. It does feel a little empty however, I think it could use an additional element, maybe some sort of strong bass on 8th notes, just as an idea. And honestly, that bass playing at A didn't really click for me. During the drop it was kinda cool, but when it took the floor at 1:10 to 1:24 it just sounded... kind of wrong. I think for that part maybe you could bump it to a C or D# just so it doesn't feel so out of place.

abrickos responds:

K, bro