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JoshuaHughes

119 Audio Reviews

90 w/ Responses

A tasty jam. Barebones track or no? I think EQing the guitars differently would really take this one to a different level.

megajaws420 responds:

thanks man

Wow, what a piece! Liked the clean intro with what I think is a very good use of delay. Has a very western feel to it. Definitely my favorite bit. There were some parts I wouldn't necessarily remove, but rearrange, such as the clean and distortion guitar mashup. But overall this is a solid jam.

Oh, and the kit sounds great.

So the song starts off very promising. I hear a wicked bass going on, the kick is nice and clean, and the overall quality sounds great. Also, cheesy toms. That gets a nod of respect from me. But after the first 30 seconds, the song takes a bit of a dive. It sounded like you tried to put in a melody to keep it interesting, but it was buried under the beat and didn't really pull me in.

The transition from 2:18 to 2:21 was less than stellar. It reminded me of how filmmakers would put two movie reels together by pretty much just taping them, sometimes sacrificing a couple frames. From there is a nice big melody, but once again it falls victim to repetitiveness as it goes on for another whole minute before filtering out.

After listening to it for a second time, I think that the main problem this piece suffers from is that there is too much of too little. I understand this is trance, but a little variety goes a long way. If you really want to grab a labels attention, send them something that they won't forget.

Mich responds:

Thanks. People have mentioned that the cheesy toms remind them of System F (early Ferry Corsten) stuff, heh. In the full version that intro melody is part of a longer build.

You described there pretty much exactly what I did to make the NG cut; I literally just sliced up the master to remove some bits and pieces, shortening the entire track a great deal.

I'll definitely keep in mind I need more variety. With all the layers of crap going on, it's hard to focus on bringing in little tidbits of variety here and there. I mean, I tried, but clearly not in a properly distringuishable way.

I think it may help if you listen to the full version, as this cut is really hastily put together shortened version which may not really do it justice.

Thanks much for the review!

A nice little melancholy piece! I can just imagine hearing this over some rain sfx. If there was anything I would change, it would be the presence of the plucks from the guitar. They sound a little too bright for this bit.

Enjoying the portamento, hmm? 2:26 was a nice touch to the melody, but other than that, nothing really stood out to me. Guess it's okay to play it safe, though, given that it's a quick new year release. Speaking of which, here's to another year of kickass EDM. Cheers!

OcularNebula responds:

yep, sounds like you've already got most of my general conventions figured out

"playing it safe" is a really good way to describe this one; there's nothing particularly innovative here, but I hope people can still have some fun with it

Great bit, man. It has a very dark, sort of retrospective tone to it. The second half kind of reminded me of Philipp Glass, since he always does those two or three note ostinatos on the keys. Wonderful work.

Step responds:

Thanks a lot! I do those piano ostinatos quite a lot too. They sound really nice as background accompaniment.

Okay, my one problem with this piece is that highpass filter fill can get pretty annoying after a while. But damn, dude, this is tight as hell. What can I say? Everything's good. I'm a sucker for arps. And saw basses are even starting to grow on me now.

This didn't even show up in my notifications. Good thing you're number 1 on the most popular this week, right?

OcularNebula responds:

arps and saw bases are basically my specialty by this point!

idk if the ng system is messed up, but it seems like at least one of my pieces usually ends up on the "most popular" list most of the time, unless I stop posting for a couple of weeks

there are so many good artists on newgrounds who remain unnoticed just because their initial view counts are low

You nailed the 80's theme. Cheesy bass, tons of reverb. it's all there. And is that gated breathing lol? But seriously, this is every action movie before 1990.

D-Chain responds:

i put some random breathing sound in there with on top the sidechain, im just not sure if thats what you mean with the breathing thing ;)
it might also be the pad/string with a step velo and midium phaser effect lol?
anyway, THANK YOU!

It's clearly not autotuned! I can see why they would accuse you of it, though. Listening to the 4:43 mark, it certainly has that autotune "style," but before that, I can tell you flubbed some notes throughout the song, especially that first "yoooouu" high note.

Concerning the instruments, I really like them! If it were me, though, I would make them a bit wider and keep the vocals standing in the middle. Also, from what I've heard from an employee at a local music center, the mics that vocalists use are usually the best for harps. (I forget what they were called. Help me out here, someone!) But mic placement is key, he says. Keep it a good distance away with the mic pointing down. Hope he wasn't talking out of his ass!

And yeah, wtf NG. No folk option? Do we even have any country artists in this portal?

Awesome cover! Yes, Pendulum makes some great tunes. I actually found out the other day that two of the guys in that band make up Knife Party.

Anyways, I'm glad you threw in your vocals. The audio portal has way too many instrumentals for its own good. They were more laid back compared to the original, and I think at the 1:30 mark, the instruments kind of started to overpower them. And I'm usually not a fan of stuttering, but you kept it from getting too cliche for the most part. Here's to a great cover of a great song.

cartoonistmusician responds:

Ha, yea! The singer, Rob Swire, and Gareth... I think that's his name. :P I'm not 100% familiar with Pendulum, but I'm even less familiar with Knife Party, but I do like what I've heard from them! :D

Anyway, thanks for the review! I was hoping I didn't add too many instruments at once in this cover. I'm pretty bad about adding too much stuff and creating sort of a "wall of sound." :P But glad you liked the cover. :)

-Ben

Josh @JoshuaHughes

Joined on 12/5/10

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