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Steven-Polley

54 Audio Reviews

25 w/ Responses

Noice.

The bass seemed really dry. Perhaps through on some more reverb.
The beat was nice though.

PERVOK responds:

Never put reverb on a low frequency :O

Crunchy Mastering

Alright, the very first thing that honestly... DID ruin the WHOLE thing for me is the fact that you took the path of the loudness war further than I've ever heard in my entire life. This means that your whole mix is too loud, and WAS clipping. Then all you may have done to fix it is put a compressor/limitter of some sort on the master track.

The first thing I would do is go back and re-do your mastering. Look at your db meter on your master track. I'll bet that it's almost constantly at 0db. Sure, it may be an extremely loud track, which might get the persons attention initially. But there are no dynamics to it. It needs to be bouncing up and down. It makes the whole thing sound weak. Your kick has no punch whatsoever. You need to have those dynamics in order for your track to have life. You should be able to look at your master db meter, and be able to REALLY see your levels pumping up and down when your kick is triggered. Unfortunately, there's no space for the kick to breathe in your dynamics.

Get into the habit of mixing quietly, then in the mastering stages making everything louder. Instead of mixing loudly, and making everything queiter in the mastering stages. This will help avoid this problem.

Alright, enough about the mastering.

The mix was put well together however. Probably the best I've heard from you... ever. Everything fits, all of the sound choices you went with compliment each other perfectly. I can tell you put a lot of effort into this track and had subjectivity with you the whole way throught the mixing process. I find that when I'm working on a song for a really long time, I tend to loose the ability to answer the question "Does this actually sound good or not?" but it appears as though you know what does, and does not sound good the whole way through the mixing process.

The sequencing was also done really well. I love the melody, VERY VERY catchy. Although the main riff (which was first heard in the piano flow loop) seems to be overused a bit and does get repetive near the end of the song, like when you brought it back at 1:38.

Anyways, aside from tearing apart your mastering, I don't have too much more criticism to offer. =]

8/10, 5/5 + downloaded and listened to on loop for nearly 45 minutes before deciding to write the review tonight lol :D

btw. look up a few terms if you have free time:

- Root Mean Square (abbreviated RMS)
- Dynamics in a mix
- Hard limitting (sometimes referred to as brick-wall limitting)
- Look up a video on youtube called "Loudness Wars"

Lol,

Do you have lung cancer?

Anyways, I liked your laugh. :D

I do agree with Blue Fusion.

When I first heard your music there was no way that it made sense to me. How can someone be so amazing at flash animations, yet be so amazing at music at the same time. I would have to say that you're more famous as a music artist than a flash artist, even though you often incorporate them together, such as narwhals.

You are seriously god, I can't even put it in words, you really are unbelievable, and will honestly forever be my hero. It's crazy. You make everything seem so effortless. You submit two award winning animations in one week, while managing to finish up another song. Your website was named one of the most influencial websites on the net, along with youtube, google, and Newgrounds.

I guess this really isn't the place to tell you how much I love you, but still, this song just made me feel like saying it. Sorry, for not leaving any criticism, but I'm far too amazed to say anything negative.

Catchy melody, but a few problems

There were quite a few things that I think could be improved. The lead synth was rather dull, not to mention it needs a quicker attack, almost a little bit punchier. And the stock FPC samples really aren't doin it for me :P If all you have is stock samples... then try layering a few of them together to get a more unique sound.

Also, if you created this entirely from scratch, you have quite a bit of potential, but I would look up how to use an Equalizer, and the make effective use of the mixer in FL Studio.

A little bit random

There was hardly anything musical about this at all. It sounds like you threw something random together, recorded yourself talking and threw some effects on it.

Spend more time on your songs maybe.

afuckingname responds:

it is about the lyrics,

How Do EQ indeed.

First of all, I'd like to say that you can't place songs you submit to Newgrounds under copyright. It's already under a license. If there's one thing I hate, it's people who don't read.

And your "record label" is just you. I googled it, and it came up linking back to this song, and your myspace. So... we could've just asked you?

Alright:

The first thing I'm going to nitpick at is drum samples you used. They're the initial kick snare and hat drums when FL Studio is first initialized. That's a big no-no. The reason being... so many people have used them that I am fucking sick of hearing them... ahem.. Don't mean to come of as a jerk, but I really just am saying, get ahold of some better samples... that's probably the BEST tip I can give right now.

Same with the 3xOsc organ you used. Default patch.

The originality in the melody was great though!

As far as the track title goes about representing the mix, it sure doesn't quite do a good job. I can tell you're kind of new to making music, so what I would do is start reading about mixing, perhaps even pick up a book off the net if you can.

So here's some steps to help get you in order.

1) Get better samples
2) Learn to create you own patches using a basic synthesizer (such as 3xOsc).
3) Become familiar with common terms such as LFO, subtractive synthesis, ADSR
4) Start doing some reading about how to mix
5) Get more better samples
6) Learn to use some more advanced synthesizers that incorporate other methods of synthesis, such as FM and RM.
7) More reading.

Anyways, yeah, it all comes down to having fun. But if you want to improve, sometimes you got to do the boring part and learn.

ghook responds:

Hi.

First of all re: Copyright.
I have had too many bad experiences with rip offs to not fully cover myself, and, so what if the record label is my own? I have other artists in as well. Also, I am fully within my rights to place a copyright on any original work, so you can't say I am breaking the law.

Also, that was the first song I did in FL, so excuse me for not using to much originality in the stuff, but, I hadn't got around to installing all of my drum samples. If you listen to some stuff on my myspace, you will hear changes. Same with 3osc. I have used original synth sounds in other songs.

But,
THANKYOU for being so blunt, i will definitely think about it. The main problem with the mixing side is my speakers are crap, and my headphones have too much bass to be accurate.

Also re: making music -
My background comes from rock, and live music. I used to write a lot for live playing, and i'm still stuck in that genre.

Once again, thanks for the bluntness, it helped a lot.

Regards,

Gerard Hook

EDIT: If you listen, you can hear almost all of my other drum loops use different sounds - you can't say I don't have enough, I have superdrums 8000! As for mixing, I mix live stuff, and did well before I started using FL. Enough said.

Nice

I love how you took his song and threw in your own originality. I love that patch lol.

Anyways, why are you thanking me (zellers) ?

It is pretty cool

Very well done, but I would encourage you to not use presets. The riffs were amazing! And the drums could use a little bit more power.

The "celestial" is pretty recognizable though. :P

Zekuence responds:

This beat was a for a Sytrus only tournament in where I live. But normally I use other more potential instruments.

NATE DAWG

Why the low score :(

Anyways, lately, I've been attempting this sort of style a lot. Sidechaining a supersaw playing chords is definitely my new favorite thing ever. I just love the sound it gives.

The one negative thing I will say about this is that the mix did seem a little empty. Now don't get me wrong... the buildup gives it lots of power/energy. And the pumping action makes me want to dance. But it seems like the only thing that's happening is a kick sidechaining a supersaw/lead. There's not much beyond that... you know?

The snare was also a bit hot. Perhaps dampen it a bit, or lower the volume.

But other than that, if you made this into a full length song, it would be worthy to call it another Orchestral Angels :P

TE-LK-BD-13 ???

-ZELLLLERS (:

I used to be known as Zellers around these parts.

SuperRaWR @Steven-Polley

Age 32, Male

Infra-Anal

WDZClan.com

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Joined on 2/3/09

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