TristanGray's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Move On (How ironic....)]

I like the intro, although the strings and choir sound incredibly fake. Nothing wrong with the sample, it's just that there is no dynamic movement. Add some changes in velocity. And on choirs, slower attack and volume automation goes a long way. Same could be said for the piano.

TRWT responds:

I agree there is plenty wrong with it as it is ffaaarrrr from being complete, but yeah there's literally nothing I can do about it unless I rewrite the whole thing from scratch coz the project file no longer exists, as per the authors comments. Anyway thanks for the review :D

[The Shamaniac - Electronic Wave]

While listening to the intro, I honestly thought that you forgot to turn off high-cut filter on the master channel.
It sounds like a perfect song for some more ambient influenced style. The 'easy on the ears' drum, soft synths, leaving plenty of room in the frequencies to let the ambience shine. But... well, that's the thing. It has no ambience. Except the reverb on this unnecessarilly harsh cymbal.
Maybe it's just me, but these repetetive hats hurt my ears. Add some movement there- use velocity change, slap some chorus/flanger on it- anything to help it feel more... well, "more".

TheShamaniac responds:

i just reread this and its bloody helpful haha, thanks man! im slowly getting around it all :) very slowly but it beats standinf still hehe :)

[Back to Nowhere]

I found your post where you were asking for a critique... well, you shall have one.
WARNING: It's gonna be brutal. So if you're sensetive, don't read it and just delete this comment. But then, you were asking for a "critique" after all, so... yeah.

#1. The thing that annoys me the most within the first few seconds, is the unhumane, almost synthetic sounding piano. And it's not about the quality of piano sample.
Tip: Velocity change. It's a thing.

#2. Second, is how compressed everything sounds. Big amounts of compression are good in EDM, but not when they ruin the quality.

#3. Drum samples. I hate them. Everyone with at least a little bit of sandards will hate them. There are tons of free and really good sounding sample packs all over the web. Do a little research.

#4. Synths... they sound as amatureish and simplified as they can get. But, seems to me that you programmed them yourself, so you get a point for that. Stick with that, It's always better to make synths yourself than use presets. Even if they sound crappy. You'll get the hang of it eventually. You should check "SeamlessR" channel on youtube, this guy is a legend when it comes to making synths.

#5. Buildups are too loud and simply boring. It's ok to make loud buildups, as long as they have something to offer except white noise and one rather bad sounding synth, AND THEY'RE NOT LOUDER THAN THE ACTUAL DROP.

#6. The drop.... read #4.

#7. That piano under the drop sounds terrible. When you add something under the drop melody, make sure it follows the drop melody. There are some songs where it sounds good (even if it's not suppose to, yet somehow it does, like Varien- Lilith), but yours is not one of them.

#8. The overall mix... I'll let you make up your own mind on that one.

So there you have it. No h8 m8, keep doing what you're doing.
I'll pass on the rating.

Sci-FiWizard10 responds:

I was just looking back on some old music, and I completely forgot how awful this one was haha. I used to use the default template with FL Studio that included Fruity Limiter on the master channel, which just squashed the entire mix. But yeah, you were definitely right about sticking with custom presets, so thank you for that one!