JoshuaHughes's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Anti Resonance]

Great job with this one. Is this your third song ever on a DAW? Sounds like you already have some theory knowledge. That's good. I would look more into the drums, though. They sound very muddy and lackluster compared to the piano and oscs. Nothing much else to say. Pretty soon, people will be asking you for help with FL.

Lethal-Input responds:

I was in band for three years about 6-7 years ago if that means anything. I would always try to constantly analyze songs in my head and try to think of my own beats. I wasn't even familiar with the term "music theory" until a little bit ago lol. Still not exactly sure what that is... I did used to make a little bit of music on a game called "LittleBigPlanet" (a game where you make levels for the community to play) but the sequencer is much, MUCH more simple than FL. Thanks for the feedback. Drums are definitely what I have the most trouble with =P

[Afraid Of The Dark]

This is a very interesting track that seems to be caught in limbo between ambient, glitch, and old skool dnb. I've never recorded a track that would resemble anything close to ambient, so feel free to take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt.

If this were me working on this project, I would invest most of my time working on the drums. To me, it's what's keeping the atmosphere of the song alive. Of course, mixing the pads and fx noises to the best of your abilities should also be a priority, because they are what's setting the mood for this track, but the drums are where it's at. It sounds like you already know a thing or two about filtering and chopping, but try also experimenting with panning and phasing. Oh, and compress, compress, compress. Whenever I feel slightly off-put about the sound of the drums, 9 times out of 10, it's the way it's compressed (or not compressed), and the kick to me is ever-so-subtly off-putting. Just the way it snaps on the high ends bugs me a little.

I really like the atmosphere that the pads are providing, though. PM me a link or something to the finished product, because I'm very curious to hear how this turns out. Best of luck.

Glowtide responds:

Thank you for the review!

Yes for me as well the drums and effects are what gives this track it feel. I was thinking of adding some panning and maybe cutoff filter to them or even a phaser or flanger just to add some variation. With the compressing and EQing I tend to do that when the song structure is done so I will compress all of the drums like you said and add some effects to them. Again thank m you for the review I will send you a link to the song when it is finished!

~Glowtide

[Eclipse]

It's great! Did you record a fountain or something for the first half? Nice to hear some atmosphere along with the plucking.

etherealwinds responds:

Recording heavy rain sucks it seems xD so glad you like it!!

[Scatterbrain - Covered In Star]

Very nice! Sounds very star-like, if that makes any sense. It does trail on a bit after a minute and a half, though. Feels like it would have been better suited as a really awesome loop, instead. That's just me.

Deepshade responds:

Thank you for your input !, yeah that chorus section might have been better off just being 8 bars instead of 16 , im really happy with the middle 8 like section at 02:12 though and it is intended to loop aswell ! :) ( my song title, was too long for NG , "Covered in stardust" is the actual title xD)

[just hold on]

Wonderful tune! The two things that really made this stand out was the use of fading and delay. My only resentment for this piece is that some of the frequencies on those high notes were a little hard on the ears. It's ever-so-slight, but when I notice it, it's unpleasant. Nothing some notch EQing would have cured. And maybe it's just me. Anyway, great job on this one, man.

johnfn responds:

yeah i buy it, there are some really high frequencies in this piece. i think that different headphones/speakers have different responses blahh. kinda annoying. i can just notch them away yeah. thanks for the review!

[At The Ready]

Next time try 64th notes. Gives any piece a nice warped record sound ;).

I liked the synth at :37. Reminded me of some old JMJ. As for everything else, look into reverb and compression religiously. There's not too much going on throughout the piece, which isn't inherently a bad thing. In terms of house music, however, this can make a track go stale fast. Your piano, while sounding good, can benefit from reverb greatly, since there are places where it is the only instrument playing besides the kick or clap.

Speaking of kick, this is where compression comes in. You can keep the kick from being lost under the instruments by evening out the volume levels with compression. I noticed that when the JMJ sound comes in, the "snap" of the kick is buried under it, leaving only the bass audible.

But that's just my advice. Take what you want with. Overall, I'd say this track is untapped potential that could have used some FX for a better outcome.

R3SP4WN responds:

Thanks for the advice and the review!

[Thanksgiving]

So much degradation. I love it. There's something very entrancing about this beat, A good highpass intro. A great bass line, although maybe not tweaked enough for its full potential. Perhaps messing around with an exciter? But 1:52 is what sold me. It's clean and smooth, but you can feel the aggressive undertones behind it. And those drum fills really kept the beat from getting stale, which in my opinion, too few EDM artists pay attention to nowadays. This is great. Looking forward to hearing more.

buyj3llo responds:

Thank you Thank you.

[Head Games EP]

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

[Magnitude (NG Cut)]

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!