jawalker213's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[Glitch Hop] - Nighttime]

The side compression is an amazing idea with that sound. I'd say if anything, it's the drums that need work... 2 ideas to help your mixing:

1. cut out the low frequencies of anything that's not a bass or a kick. That way the kick will have space to be heard.

2. Give your snares both low end power and definition in the very high registers. For that I suggest EQ (really on every instrument), but particularly on the two areas of the snare in this track. In addition, add some compression on the snare to pack a more focused dynamic punch.

Good job on this track, it's interesting and varied!

BlackACE321 responds:

Thanks a lot, I will definetly work on it :D

[Bobabobaboo]

Hello Stapless! I don't see why you say that you suck at arrangement. The beginning was a nice buildup moment to the more melodically charged section after 1:00. That section ended cleanly at 1:49 with enough variation to keep the interest going all the way till the break at 2:00. At 2:30 there's something new to keep driving the track, and it's unpredictability allows that to go smoothly on to another break at 3:00!

If anything your arrangement skills are what's good and makes this track interesting! With the feeling of soulless, I may suggest making more alternative drum patterns... what I mean is, taking the first section for example, and creating 3 alternative grooves that would fit with that, and then adding variety by cycling through different drum patterns within that section.

I do agree that the mix is good, and the vocals rocked! So awesome job and feel proud of your arrangement skills!

Stapless responds:

Cheers for the feedback, kinda feel proud now haha.

[Play - Hammer & Anvil]

Great work on this piece!! Super!

Free2Play responds:

Thanks! This one was a lot of fun, but I don't think I did enough with it. I feel like it needs vocals, which ironically it was made for but I accidentally broke the crappy mic I was borrowing lol.

[Dance of the Groovy Dragon]

That pad's been giving me a lot of ideas! One suggestion I have, especially with the pad sound, is to roll off some of the low frequencies, so that the kick has more room to be in the mix, as well as carve out a bit of the pad around the snare body and top registers so that the snare can punch through a bit more. Even though it's atmospheric, that drum snap is never a bad thing, especially if you have grooves like this! Very cool!!

VideoGameManiac responds:

Thanks for your review, glad you like it and I appreciate your feedback :D

[Fairy Mountain WIP - InfernoZN]

It's an interesting fusion to do a more orchestral piece with vocals! Whenever you mix, be aware of masking.. where an instrument may be burying another instrument so it's not heard as clearly.. in this case, I noticed that the strings and vocals were competing for the same space.. if you make careful dips in the strings, the vocals will have more definition. The double-tracking of the vocals was pretty apparent, and in most music, people try to make them as fluid as possible so people don't think that two vocals were recorded. In this case you could lower one of them and eq them a bit differently so that it's role is to support and thicken up an original, in addition you could record more takes to help blend them in a bit more. Keep it up!!

Free2Play responds:

Oh! That helps a lot! I haven't gotten much advice on how to mix vocals. I just knew that layering them oftentimes produced a more interesting sound.

You're right actually, I tried soloing out the instruments to figure out what was making the song sound ducked, I didn't have a good enough ear though to tell it was the strings.

I'll definitely take these into mind as I do more to the song!

[Final Fantasy Theme - InfernoZ]

great beat, nicely balanced in the mix! Very happy to hear some classic FF music again haha it's been a while! As before, high pass some of the sounds and your mixing will surely be much more focused! But great sounds and space way to go!

Free2Play responds:

Thanks man! The mixing was a heavy focus for me here since the composition wasn't really mine, but I wanted to get a nice sound out of it as much as possible.

I think this was before I was routing everything to a highpass filter that wasn't a bass instrument, and also I was an idiot and usually left in frequencies below 30hz for some reason.

But thanks I'm glad it sounds good!

[Creepy Crawly Things - Inferno]

I really like all of the sounds you have here, the space you have in this track is pretty impressive! As a suggestion for the future, one thing I tell most people is to fool around with rolling off the bass (high pass filter) off of anything that's not a kick or a sub.. that way, your mix will be less muddy and your low frequencies will have more presence! Excited to hear more of your stuff!

Free2Play responds:

Yeah I mud up the bass, its like I was a crack addict for low end for years. I go back and listen to a lot of my old tracks and get frustrated at myself for having such bad taste in low end lol.

Thanks, I'll definitely try cutting off low ends a lot more!

[a small race]

I enjoyed the flow of this track... great beat and interesting production ideas! it gets pretty crazy in the middle there and this track is almost like a glance into your mind for just a snippet of time! Interesting stuff. Also, don't pay attention to ppl that bash your stuff online, leave it up if you like it and it means something to you!

flashmakeit responds:

I am so glad you enjoyed the flow and your review was awesome!

[Flight into Fantasy]

I like this one and I definitely can picture what you said about flying through the air. Are you using logic for this? Some of the string sounds remind me of when I first started using it. Though, I have to say, I'm so glad I switched over to Ableton, even though it took me a few years to get it. As far as future work.. I suggest creating separate sections with your tracks.. like.. think.. A section, B section, A section, middle 8, A section kinda thing. It helps to consolidate your ideas and get to the point much quicker. And harmonically, you can expand on how you combine and interact with the different sections. And, consider making your own sounds! That'll give you a unique, original edge!

VideoGameManiac responds:

Thanks for the review. I am using FL Studio and I have been experimenting with strings for a little while, its fun :D. As for building a song with sections, I literally am bad at this xd I have always been doing my songs as easy as possible without thinking too much about them, if a melody gets stuck on my head I just put it there and because of that I am having a hard time finding the right genre of my tracks.