JinZ's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[.+ aethereum memory.]

very chill, calm atmosphere, the melodies are lively and relaxing as the volume goes up and down, unlike going straightly like a matching ;)
one thing to remember is to have some fades, at the start of the audio, I hear clicks, which means it had no fade in. Also, I hear clicks from the melody as well, maybe it was a lack of attacks.
when you have the instruments play, you should reduce the volume of the background, else it'd crash to each other

xi-eonling responds:

oh wow. this is all so useful to hear!
I tried the concept of "humanizing" a track, as in adding imperfections in timing and volume to make it seem more organic. I'm glad you liked it :D
I see what you mean about the clicks though. I did set up some volume automation and check the attack at the start, but I'll pay closer attention to it next time. (there's also that the preset on GB has some clicky noise added to the synth I did my best to tone down... some of it probably got left in.)
I'll also keep in mind to be more careful about noise volume vs. music volume.

thank you so much!

[Aster - Came Back]

although it is industrial, this track has made me questioned my existence, how tf can music like this be frontpaged
seriously mi amigo, you started off with a very bit-crushed synth/bass, but then out of a sudden, intense drums hit, many more instruments were introduced. The problem here is that there were no transitions (this implied to the track overall), no build-up, no SFXs
also, the outro was random.
this track was made by a good, yet, lazy producer

Aster responds:

It has been made very lazily. It's only intention is to be the first 2020 song to be posted on NG. I have better work.

[Being Evil Has A Price [Lucifer TV Theme]]

this mix to excellent! The drums patterns, the early dubstep vibes, the vocals, especially, I feel ascended listening to the guitar solo lmao
I really like how you guys made piano and guitar flow together so well.
Overall, the mood is absolutely intense, which is very fitting for the sexy satan >:)

Trackers responds:

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! Guessing you're a fan of the show too 😈

[Kuiper Belt]

It is hard to find a negative criticism on this cuz ITS SOOOO GOOD
overall, very chill, the mix is great, various instruments, Sytrus' weird-ass SFXs, and creative melodies
a problem that I find is that the drop comes in too suddenly, there was no obvious build-up, like 03:05
good to see someone uses stock plugins/samples effectively :)

[Operation Fleshhunter]

I fucking love this, the dark and heavy atmosphere, and the heavy metal, combined with acid bass, spooky melody, it is very fitting to the art
another point for the screaming, the art looks like some sort of experiment, and a man was used as a rat for it, he was in REAL pain to scream like that lmao
just gotta mention the cyberpunk guitar at the 2nd break, the variety of heavy drums and percussions, the cinematic outro,... THIS TRACK!

LD-W responds:

Heya, thanks for checking out the track and for the high praise!

If you're interested in knowing how I've done certain parts:

- The Acid Bass was one I designed in LuSH-101 (SH-101 emulation), there's a few acid-like timbre's which go well with the 101-modeled behavior. If you do have the synth, feel free to DM me anytime and I can send you the patch

- The Guitar Processing chain is pretty long and not everything will be listed here, but the basics of it goes like: bx_console_n (Neve VXS emulation with TMT) --> Audio Assault Hellbeast (Randall Thrasher/Satan Amphead Emulation, with Brit Cone Edge Cab IR's) --> iZotope Trash 2 (very low wet %, about 5-10% tops) --> Millenia NSEQ2 (Vacuum Tube Rack EQ emulation with JFET Signal Path) --> SPL IRON (IRON Hardware compressor emulation with TMT) --> Noveltech Character (Algorithmic Auto-Improver set to Mode 3 and set to Target Value 60) --> Waves DeEsser (to trim off gently anything above 13Khz) --> Eventide UltraReverb (for usual reverb duties). The Chorus/Solo Guitar had Trash2 removed, the gain on Hellbeast reduced and Syntorus added before the reverb in the chain on a BBQ-Deep Swirl.

- Drums were mainly done off of a mixture of Ludwig, DW and Sabian kit pieces in Superior Drummer and some of the SDX's

- Alot of the other percussion such as the Frame Drums were from 8DIO New Epic Frame Drum Ensemble. The marching band snare was from SoundIron High School Drum Corps. The much more mechanical-sounding elements were another mix-match between different SFX libraries which I've purchased over the years, mostly the kind which are designed for movies and games in mind, but work situational well for music aswell (the licensing doesn't restrict me in what I use it in of course)

- The chopped screams were a mix-match of different sources. Some of them come from prosoundeffects (I grabbed them years ago when I had some sample credits to spend) and a mixture of groans, drones and other screams from 8DIO Eternal Darkness.

[/\ Fluorescent Tunnels /\]

a common issue for the new producer (at least I consider you as a new one) is that their tracks have no sidechain. Sidechain is very important, you need to learn to do it.
Also, the higher volume doesn't mean the louder results, you need to balance the instruments, else, they would crash to each other and sound distorted
Apart from that, the 2nd drop is head-banging worth lmao
I really like the relaxing outro, it is like after a hard day at work, you finally get a chance to sleep

[Téli este]

you can already guess what I am going to talk about the melody so let's put that aside
the theme of the track isn't stable, you have this very happy arpeggio (at this point, it's an arp, it's not a melody anymore) but then you have those dark atmospheric pads, drums, and winds, and it is unnecessary. And I feel like the arp and the pads don't go well together in terms of scales, For example, the arp goes in C Maj but the pads go in C Min.
I like the intro, but I wish it was used more.
the final thing, next time, please fade out the audio, or at least have some reverb, you can't just let it be cut like that outro.

Arika2 responds:

Yah... thank you :P

[For You]

it has good mix, and instruments, I like the intense intro and the fast-paced arpeggio running from left to right.
The problem is the compression/mastering, make sure to prioritize the vocals more next time ;)
Also, the first build-up and the drop don't go well to each other, one that is intense, one that is straight-up relaxing.
One final note, don't ya think that this is too much for a liquid DnB? I mean, liquid sounds more minimal, I'd say this is normal DnB

ProjectSoary responds:

Thanks for the review! Much appreciated.