DjAbbic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Little Flame]

Wow this is actually awesome, I love the contrast between the bright and uplifting melody and the darker accompanying basses. All the transitions were spot on as well.

I think some vocals could be a pretty good addition to this, maybe if you don't like your voice you can try to get someone else to sing.

Either way, great track. Keep it up!

KamillasRainbow responds:

Thank you! Yea, i have a friend who sings so we'll maybe add vocals to this in the future :P

[- Another Life -]

You're right, your mixing sounds better than it did before, good job on that, the quality sounds pretty good (although it sounds like it needs a bit of work when the white noise high pass filter comes in).

Keep it up.

L-Mity responds:

Thx brother. :)

[Hyperdeath!]

Super cool intro. The filtered drums fit with what was going on so well, and the transition into the buildup was so smooth.

The 8bit-ish sound with the varying rhythm changes was a really cool addition to the drop. I do feel like having some rhythm to the huge saws would have made the drop sound better, either by sidechaining or some well placed pauses (and maybe some stuff to fill in the gaps).

I felt like the lead at 4:39 had a bit too much highs, and normally I'm a fan of highs, but it felt a bit excessive there.

In any case, showing some potential here so keep it up :)

Cacola responds:

Ay man where you been? Glad you enjoyed the track!

Yea there's a quite a few things that need fixing, but this track went through so many damn iterations I'm just glad to have it in a half salvageable state at this point, I actually started this thing back in 2015 lol.

[The Field w.i.p1]

Really like the intro. It might be a bit long for some but it's just right imo. Very cool transition into the drop, although if it were me I would leave a bit of silence just to create some contrast and make it hit harder.

The drop itself is pretty cool, but I feel like the plucks that come in are a bit out of place (there does need to be something to guide the drop's melodic change, but I think the plucks are not the instrument of choice here).

Also personally not much of a fan of 2:55, but I do see a need for a change at that point.

Really promising piece you have here, keep it up, hope you manage to finish this.

1zin1 responds:

Hey there, thanks for the helpful criticism.
I agree with you for the most part, but do tak into consideration i threw this together in a couple hours on a whim and will definitely be going back and changing a lot.

I like your idea of having a slightly silent bit before the drop for more of a punch.

The "intro" wasn't supposed to really be an intro, i hadn't planned on making this a dubstep track at first, just an orchestral piece lol.

And the "plucks" halfway in the track will be staying because i'm hoping to make this a more melodic dubstep track. i agree there should be something to "guide" the melody back in though. ( although the bells at the end are coming out, just wanting something to fade out with lol)

Thanks again for the constructive criticism,
cheers.

Zin-

[Scenic Ride]

This was actually awesome. Great intro, and everything else was great too, really liked the pauses at like 1:37 for example. Mix felt really full and I agree with what the previous poster said about the vocals in the background, that worked so well. Good job on this, keep it up! :D

Noisysundae responds:

I added a flanger on master channel for that pause. Otherwise, it's just only a drum solo. :P

[Karaplex - Ocean Swell]

Sick intro. Really nice vibes throughout and synths sound really crisp. Maybe a little too crisp, but I don't really mind it, I like it that way :p

The square starting at 2:22 was a bit too loud in comparison to everything else though imo, so maybe should've toned that down a little. It's a really nice sound though, so I get why you wanted it to take the spotlight.

I personally like this one a fair bit, so don't feel too bad :p Keep it up!

KORAII responds:

Thanks heaps for the feedback mate :D Yeh I couldn't mix it too well because of how bad my computer is. It was just lagging too much ;P Oh well, thanks ;)

[Panda Eyes & Teminite - Highscore (Zyzyx Remake)]

This was pretty nice, although I have to admit that I think a couple of the notes in the melody are misplaced a bit (not off scale, but still misplaced). Also, more sidechaining would've made this a lot better, it really adds a lot to how the original sounds.

Other than that, the actual sounds you used weren't bad at all. Sidechaining would've made it sound even better too. I can understand why you left out the glitch sounds, I don't really know how to make those myself :p

DJ-Zyzyx responds:

Thanks for the review. I kept some of the notes off cuz I wanted that wierd funky glitch Hop feel (obviously it didn't work lol) so yeah xD

[Winter Breeze]

As stated below, I like the instrument you used for the main melody, and it's interesting for the melody to be siting in the background. I also like the bassline you used, it was somewhat playful but still managed to fit properly with the rest of the song.

I also agree with below when he said sometimes the song feels a little empty, but I feel like that's personal preference on my part - the genres I listen to usually comprise of huge mixes that fill pretty much every frequency in the spectrum.

I think one of the main features of this track is that the choice of percussion that you used, making the track very chill (to me at least). The kick isn't a loaded dubstep kick, and the snare is quite gentle. I'm not sure if chill is what you were going for here (going off the choice of instrument for the melody, I would guess that it is), but that was a very nice way to do it.

I did feel like some of the transitions were a little odd, for example at 2:40, at the final measure of the snare roll, you cut out all melodic elements, and that sounded a little odd to me. I think it would've sounded better if you faded something out (like what you did at 1:39) rather than cutting off the sounds suddenly.

Overall, this was quite enjoyable to listen to, so good job. Keep it up :)

Hallow responds:

Having listened to some of your stuff previously, I definitely know how huge mixes work. xD
That said, this was a bit empty and I could have put more stuff in.
I was going for chill at the start, then kinda loosened up a bit because the drops weren't as chill.
The transition at 2:40 was something I was questioning a bit, but I decided to just leave it alone in favor of keeping the same melodies. I probably should have added something in there.
Glad you liked it!

[\|Δ|/ Neokronos]

Hm, from what I can hear, your composition shows some promise. The structure is pretty good, especially for your first track. What is lacking, and I think it's something that comes in time, is the sound design. I've never used beatwave before, nor do I know what it's capable of, but basically the synths you're using now sound a bit lackluster, and the mixing is pretty much non-existent.

Don't worry, these are things that nobody knows about when they first start. What I would suggest is to look up videos on how to mix a song and learn how to make your songs sound more 'full'. A few basic techniques are things like layering synths or adding delay/reverb (I can already hear some delay/reverb in here, so that's a good start).

Anyway, at this point it's a bit hard to give many more tips than that. The best way to improve is to keep making music and experiment with everything. This is a good start, I'll be watching to see how you'll develop :)

3Delta responds:

Thank you! This really are some good tips. I'll take them into account. I could comment on each of them, but I would be basically saying I'll take them into account. :)

[Lucent]

Ok I know this song is somewhat old now but for whatever strange reason I wasn't following you before. Just wanted to drop by to let you know that this one sounds great. Never too overwhelming or too much going on, really easy to listen to and easy to appreciate all the little elements like that little pitch bend thing at 1:37 (my favourite part I think).

The only part that irked me a little bit was the final piano chord, it kinda sounded like it was starting again rather than ending, but it's not really a big deal and I'm just nitpicking at this point.

Anyway, good job, keep it up!

Lockyn responds:

Thanks for the follow! I appreciate the honest feedback, I feel you about the piano but I'm glad you enjoyed regardless. Cheers mate :)