DuttonsaysHi's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[-Haunted House-]

THIS ONE SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME

[Pentagon Thief]

haha fuck yeah dude! I can definitely hear the SOAD with the quick riffin' and sudden clean sections. This is awesome nice work!

Hyenaedon responds:

Ayy thanks dude, glad you dig.

[-Melody Salad-]

tasty salad my guy! well done!

[Infinite]

Wow this is fantastic! You NEED to adapt to this style more often, I'd love to see what else you can do with these techniques! Even for an experimental track, this sounds like it would be perfect for some dark castle boss fight. :D

My only issue would probably be repetition. It's like you've gone DeadMau5 style and used the same melodic elements throughout, but kept it alive with the shift in instruments and modulation. However, that's not really a bad thing, I like DeadMau5. I would like to see you try more stuff like this but with more melodic action :D. Maybe some violin fills here and there or perhaps a synth lead solo, anything!

Great work!

AeronMusic responds:

Thank you very much Dutton! It's quite hard for me to stay with one style. Every song I create is different.
Also, I know it's quite repetitive. As I mentioned below, I didn't want to change more.
I shall indeed try to make tracks like this with more melodic action! Hope I will have the time for it.

Thanks again for checking this out! :D

[Lythalia]

Maaaaaaan I envy that skill! I wish I could play like this. My guitar ability goes as far as 4/4 power chords. xD

The production quality is top notch as well, you really know what you're doing. Honestly, I'm a little intimidated :P. Well done!

JDawg00100 responds:

Haha thanks! I actually don't feel like I know what I'm doing half the time with my music. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing to be honest XD. Thanks for the listen and good luck in the NGADM :D

[Tap On The Window]

Dude this is really well done! Very interesting and bizarre in a sense! I really like how how you used the stereo splitting to your advantage to add a nice range of atmosphere. The whole song gives me a sense of 80's nostalgia even though I was born in the 90's xP.

I can't really give any constructive criticism on this since it's so spot on so I'm just gonna gush.

You have such a great range of different synths in this and they're all played out so nicely. Everything is so different yet complements each other making each little thing stand out on it's own.

I also love the percussion you used around 1:36. That whole section is real cool since it has such a unique beat/rythm to it.

Dat 2:12 holy crap that was cool, dat stereo split melody, dat break into the glitchy beat, dat everything.

Just well done man. This track is really well mastered and composed it shows how much control you have over everything. Something like this could easily come off messy but you hit the nail on the head with this one. Keep it up!

Wayv responds:

Thanks a bunch man for the positive feedback! It means a lot to me!

[Fluid]

Okay, this is a pretty amateur track and I try to mean that in the nicest way possible xP. I'm not trying to put it down but it is quite apparent that you haven't been making music for long.

I mean everything is done right to a degree, you have a solid classic bass line, it follows the beat as it should, stays within scale etc. It just doesn't really stand out because it's very basic.

There are plenty of things you can do to improve and change things up such as;

-Try changing the rhythm of the bass a little instead of just hitting 4/4 all the time. Maybe go offbeat with it since that's a common approach to trance and techno.

-Use some up lifters and 'boom' fx like reverse crashes and kick/crashes with heavy reverb. This will help add some build up to the track and really leave an opening for breaks and such. Like at 0:56 the song just kind of stops while the arp just lingers on to a halt. Some well place sound fx can easily fix that.

-You could do with some more control over you melodies. At 1:08 when that bassy synth comes in it just kind of goes everywhere and it's very random. It's like you've just placed random notes at every marker in the sequencer. You should elongate some notes, leave some small parts of the melody blank and try to keep the notes within scale and closer together. Change it up a little and try not to make it too random. You'll get the hang of it eventually with enough practice, it's just about understanding what makes a catchy melody.

-The drums are... blank. It's very simple what you have right now and they do their job and all, kick snare and a single hi-hat. However, this can make the track appear more repetitive than it really is. They're also easily drowned out by the other instruments in the song which is not what you want when it comes to something like this. You should try and get your hands on some more electronic percussion samples and drum loops that you can cut up to add some variation to the percussion and let you play around with the beat a little.

-Don't be afraid to add some more synths into the mix as well. Throughout the whole song it seems I'm hearing the same instruments without much change since some of them sound the same (I'm mainly referring to the stab arp synths). You could perhaps add some pads for an atmospheric breakdown section that you hear in a lot of trance tracks, or perhaps another bass to switch to in another heavier section maybe? There's tonnes of stuff you could do.

This isn't a bad track by any means, you're on the right path but it's very beginner tier as it is now. These are just points to keep in mind for future reference. You just need to up your production quality which will come with enough time an practice. I can see you making some decent stuff in the future so keep at it!

[Diskovr - UFO]

This is pretty cool!

I really like how the song variates from heavy bass segments to atmospheric pad sections. Those kind of changes really help keep the song alive and breathing throughout. I also like the use of sound effects you used with this especially at the slower eerie parts. Combined with the pads they really made for some nice atmosphere.

The mastering is done nicely as well. Everything is where it should be and there is very little clutter with nice clarity, so well done there.

My only issue is the strings man. They're too dry and weak and sound too.... MIDI which is the opposite of what you want for orchestral/classical instruments. That kind of thing would workfor a solo violin or cello maybe but not a string section. I would suggest layering them with more string sounds add a layer of double basses, cellos and violas to give them a little extra thickness. Also a little reverb wouldn't hurt, It would really widen and dampen the strings to help drown that whole MIDI sound out and giving it a much nicer flow.

Aside from that though, this is a solid nicely made dub step track. Nice work 4/5!

ksthultz15 responds:

Hmm...I thought I had more than one instrument on my string bass, but I guess did not. I updated the audio file. The new one features a more rich double bass layer (2 basses and 2 cellos) and also a more rich violin layer (viola ens, violin ens, cello ens, flute, and a trombone). Hope this clears some things up :D Thanks for your review!

[Fox-trot Fletcher]

Damn dude this is outstanding! I'm literally jealous. Melodies like this are super hard to pull off (for me anyway) and everything is strung together so perfectly and nothing feels disjointed. Well done!

steampianist responds:

hey thanks man