Sawdust's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[S] Greg]

Funny.

I'd like it better if it had instruments other than the guitar. I mean Weird Al writes funny songs but that doesn't stop him from paying attention to the music. Other than that, nice job, I like the mixing on the vocals.

Screch responds:

Thank you! I do play other instruments, however I am working with a horribly outdated recording method. I've always wanted to play trumpet on a track but idk. If I get a better mic and a mixing table or something, what i'd probably do is redo every track I have on here. I'm just starting to learn the techniques needed

[The Pleonasm]

Drums need to be improved

From the sounds of things you're using a kick sample combined with FPC assuming you're using FL, all I can say is, it'd be better if it was either a sliced drumloop or if the kick was mastered to be less bassy. I mean you have the bass synth going and it makes the kick unhearable. So probably bring the kick up, EQ it so that it doesn't get overpowered by the bass.

Also you need a different melody because I think I heard the arp for the whole song and it was playing the same melody the whole time. Probably add another melody starting 2:12 during the climax, like a synth solo. And also during like 1:45 another melody alongside the arp thing would be nice.

[I Feel -Trance-]

Terrible mixing.

The effects completely overpowered the song and the melodies weren't very clear. Actually, this song seems to be completely effects, the melodies and "leads" are in the background, inaudible and completely overshadowed by the effects, also the delay on the piano is annoying. And I don't like how it seems to start over at 1:00. I also don't like how there a lot of high frequency shit going on around the time the song starts over. I also don't like how it's so messy, unorganized and how it seems just like pads, kicks and a fuckton of effects rather than an actual song. Work on this some more.

Mans0n responds:

hmm i dont recall using a piano... but thanks for the criticism

you clearly don't know what your talking about.

[-)S(- Turn On the Spotlights]

Sounds like Daft Punk.

The vocals really remind me of Daft Punk, but I think they sound a bit too muffled, you should probably clean them up a bit, or re-record, but that seems a bit too tedious seeing how you probably did a fuckton with the vocoders. I'm sure you don't wanna do that again.

Also for some reason the song seems lacking, like a missing instrument or something. Probably because of how it lacks bass, and by bass I mean real clean bass, you should probably add another bass vst. Probably, other than that this song is really nice, good job.

Will responds:

Thanks for the review! I was trying a bit of a minimalistic style, that's why the bass isn't that filled out enough. And absolutely no vocoders were used :)

[Love that bass]

Really repetitive and undanceable.

I know how electronic music is supposed to be repetitive, but this song was repetitive in a bad way, like there was no catchy hook throughout the song, and the melodies were too sparse and identical. The sound effects also merely stopped the song's progress, and what followed the first one was an ear grinding synth. But after that there was at least a palatable melody, but it wasn't any less repetitive than the first one.

Anyway I really didn't like this song, and after listening to other jumpstyle songs to see if this was merely a bad song or a good song belonging to a bad genre, I'd say it's the latter. Sorry man, don't take this personally.

[Made To Be Broken]

Main bells sounded off

Phrase wise it was a bit off, but the melody was really really good. Aside from that there's not much to nitpick on, except for maybe more bass since this is supposedly a dance song and more power in the drums, or at least, more bass.

Actually this isn't a dance song at all, I can only imagine a tribe dancing to this, but still, good song.

AJUST responds:

Thanks, but the intro was based on my original idea for this song, in 6/8 and a little offbeat.

[=Paris in a Bottle=]

Melody gets annoying

Sorry about the harsh score, but I really didn't like this piece. Some problems:

1. The mixing of the piano, I'd suggest to tweak the VST if you were using one, and assuming you're using FL Studio I'd say you'd use the "Dance Piano" preset and add reverb to the piano. Just a suggestion.

2. The melody got REALLY annoying, and it didn't help that it repeated through the WHOLE song. More variation would be nice. No, mapping the same melody to different instruments and adding a synth accompaniment that then evolves to an equally annoying melody doesn't count.

3. Slowdown part at around 2:40 sounded wrong, like the bare low keys sounded off, I'd assume you'd need to move some notes here and there. Also it could've been nice to let the main piano melody interact with that more heavily, like alternating between chords and the melody, and assuming you're using FL Studio I'd advise you to look at the sample project in "cool stuff" called "Hanging On (Remix)" the piano style there would really fit this song, if you took the time to rework it, that is. I also don't like how it immediately segued into the main melody again, a sweep sound effect would be nice. Or a crash.

Anyway all in all I didn't like this song, and if you're using something other than FL Studio try to apply my advice to whatever sequencer you're using. hope this helps, sorry if you got offended but hey, at least my review didn't go like: HAHA LOL DAT WAZ AWESOME

Daydream-Anatomy responds:

No offense taken, thanks for taking the time to tear it apart with a wall of text:3

(no sarcasm)

I really appreciate critiques like this.
It was the dance piano, i tried reverb and chorus on fl, but it didn't make a difference really.

thanks again^^

[The Song of Awesome]

No flow, repetitive lead melody

I don't like how there was practically no real flow in the song, and how the changing pads and arps had to compensate for the static lead piano that never changed. Also this is practically a loop, there's no variation at all, only in how you remove the kicks and strings at one point. Also at 0:56 there was this nice drum track going on, then as if as an insult I was given the normal repetitive kicks again, which ruined the already terrible flow.

Work on this, add varations, add melodies, add instruments, it has promise.

[Clayface - Fluorescence]

No room for improvement.

The whole song was just great, IDM excellence and perfection, I love the mixing and everything and the kick flurries and the background accompanying the main beat, and the sound effects, those gave a great atmosphere to the song. Job well done, I hope you keep doing IDM.

mmmburgers responds:

Glad you liked the song. :D

And yeah, I definitly WILL be expirementing with more IDM in the future to come. ^.^

[Clayface - IDM]

Wonderful

Perfection, so far at least. The drums are excellent, and the piano melody is just fantastic with the drums. I suggest after the ending you add more, like a section with synth bass and arps everywhere. And pads. Pads up the ass.

This is great!

mmmburgers responds:

Thank you! And yes, I am working on a second part. Which will have more ambience that it already has. Sounding great! WOO WOO!!!!