Age/Gender: 28, Male
Location: Memphis, Murder Capital
Job: Prophet of Hate
HATE. Because 2,000 years of "For God so loved the world" doesn't trump 1.2 million years of "survival of the fittest."
Newgrounds Stats
Whistle Status: Normal
Exp. Points: 1,104 / 1,110
Exp. Rank #: 32,997
Voting Pow.: 5.27 votes
BBS Posts: 17,173 (5.13 per day)
Flash Reviews: 33
Music Reviews: 109
Trophies: 0
Stickers: 0
All Audio Reviews
109 Reviews | 35 w/ Responses
It just doesn't sound like you're operating all the full spectrum of the EQ. Since I know this is punkomatic, I know where most of the drums and guitar riffs are from, which kind of sucks. I'm hoping there's at least a real guitar in that mix somewhere; that would be awesome.
I assume you recorded the punkomatic playing in the background through a second mic again?
Author's Response:
Well, let's just start from here - I am extremely ignorant when it comes to playing music. I used to play drums but I sucked. So this was made only in punk-o-matic and nothing else, I think I achieved a good effect in general. It doesn't sound like punk but more like heavy metal and it's different than 95% of the tracks I've heard created in punk-o-matic, which all sound similar.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
But the drums sound... blank. Like, either he didn't give a shit that he sounded stock, or maybe just programmed drums by a guy who didn't know much about syncopation.
Don't get me wrong; Guitars->GREAT there's nothing *wrong* with the drums, so much as they just don't seem to be balancing with the guitars as far as composition goes, which makes this song kind of lopsided in my head. The same thing could also be said of the bass in this song, namely, where is it?
Still, a great thrashy piece.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
The rain effect could have used a little more dynamic modulation, instead of just being a constant drone. When I first heard it, I thought you were using a bad cable or something. Then I realized you probably used some sort of composition program, and that it was intentional. The thunder piece then made that obvious. Real rain comes in sheets, it doesn't fall steady. Yeah, I'm being a nitpicking fag. Sue me.
Also, you spent too much time in the melody, and not nearly enough in your bass register. Bass notes aren't just there to reinforce the in-line melody, the should preferrably be doing their own piece of polyphony. Dixie-land jazz is good stuff, and I think it would fatten up your compositions if you were to study it a bit.
All in all, nice solid video game music
Author's Response:
Your comment about the rain is pretty strange, as it is an effect sampled from a real rain. Same goes for the thunder strike sound.
Also, you're not the first one to say i don't spend enough time on bass. Yet, i tried to make it a bit more present for this one, and i think it is already too much.
But anyways, thanks for the review and advices !
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
I love how you used touches of compression and subtle eq'd reverb decay on the drum samples. The vinylizer you ran on the samples also helped knock off a lot of that "OMFG PROGRAMMED" sound the various fruity loops faggots seem to have.
The track still sounds extremely keyboard driven to me, however, and the vocals sound a little over wrought (yeah, I fucking said it. OVERWROUGHT. The american idol style is NOT to be emulated; it's to be ridiculed) For example, I couldn't hear the supposed "guitar track" in the mix, either because I'm deaf, OR because the guitar sounded EXACTLY like a key board, which I consider a bad thing.
This is still a fucking excellent track though, no doubt. And that's coming from a guy who is definitely not a fan of the whole "soulful ballad" concept.
Author's Response:
Well that's awesome, because I didn't use FL, giving me an excuse not to make it sound like FL, and this is an awesome review in that it gives me a bit more time to explain the track, style, etc for the sake of people who have likely never heard this sort of music before - i.e. anyone outside the UK.
The track was written for a big college project, in which we had to closely emulate any style we wish. We got free choice over what style we could do, however, we get more points depending on how close to the style your track is when completed.
The style you're hearing here is called Trip-Hop. It's a sort of ambient acid jazz originating from south-west England, around the Bristol area, and started off with key bands such as Massive Attack and Portishead in the early 90s. It was extremely keyboard and loop driven and almost all have a breathy female vocalist.
I'm not one for using loops, so apart from the very subtle guitar which I recorded and looped myself (you can hear it most after the end of the first chorus, about four bars into the middle 8), everything here is sequenced, but written in a way that adds the essence of what sampled music is. Everything flawlessly loops, there isn't much variation in any of the individual loops and the grungalizer (which you sort of correctly recognized as a vinylizer, though I've never heard it called that before) was used to not only cover up loop imperfections but to add another little bit of depth.
I didn't have as much time to work with my Vocalist as I would have liked, but when compared to Massive Attack and Portisheads tracks, the vocals seem more or less spot on to me.
Oh and trust me, that isn't a touch of compression, the whole track is compressed to the drums - another trip-hop sound, but it creates such a subtle boost that it's perfectly enjoyable :D
Thanks for the review.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
This was awesome as a solo, but it would have been a lot better with a full band. The riffs were honest and authentic, although they didn't push the limits of the instrument too far.
Nothing says real blues like riffs that START OUT fast as fuck, then get depressed and end up long drawn out wails.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
For a blues piece. And swung rides just don't sound right in midi. My ears just don't work that way.
My snobbishness out of the way, a very nice smooth piece. There are things I would add to it, but again, taste.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
But a little muzaky. Really good lullabye type stuff for falling asleep too. Really nice use of chords and stereo effects.
It felt really 1960 early psychedelia pre LSD.
Author's Response:
Hehe... thanks.
Muzak usually doesn't have any dynamic change, though, but I see where you're coming from.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
Your use of chord theory was seriously limited. You tended to use changes in effects to get different guitar sounds than just by using really weird chords. I did like the way the ambient noise turned out, and there is some nice healthy speed.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
You used some really nice rhythms in your melodies, but the chord changes always waited for the measure break. It gave it a bit of a monotonous feeling to it. It's not enough for the individual notes ot have a beat to them; the chord changes have to dance within the track as well to get that "all encompassing" vibe that makes for impressive techno.
Author's Response:
That is by far the most intellegent advice ive recieved since I joined NG. Thanx for the advice and the good vote.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
You totally neglected to separate the elements of this piece using EQ and stereo pan. While you certainly achieve a good hardcore effect, dedicating say, the highs to the high hats, the bass to the bass, etc, the individual elements would be much more separate and recognizable. The same effect could be achieved differently by dedicating each aspect to a particular left/right ratio (Ex. the bass centered, and the high hats to the left, and the snare hits to the right)
The piece is also a little too fast to let the elements soak in. Slow it down a bit so each note has a distinct attack and decay. That way the tone of the samples would really shine through.
- Rate this review:
- Helpful!
- Useless.
- Flag as abusive.
