BlastBeats's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Green (Prod. by misterscoops)]

A deserved R4R review:
Although the lyrics have power, the song lacks power in combination with vocals. On it's own it's all right. The lyrics on their own are awesome, but the combination somehow doesn't feel as powerful as you'd think both combined. I'd have gone for more bass, agressive beats, more sidechaining.

Another thing to improve on may be how you emphasis certain syllables, in order to give the song a more dynamic and rhythmic feel.

Apart from how the song feels, I think you did a great job. The lyrics are very original and professional. It’d be a perfect poem without the music.

I hope you’ll make a similar project in the future, but then with background music that “amplifies” your message. I’m very impressed, because this is your first upload, and I hope you’ll get far in the music world.

hellomynameisjunior responds:

Thanks for he kind words. This venture was my first attempt at rapping again in about 5 years. I'm not a particularly good producer, thus why I chose to use a track produced by someone else. Anything else I upload will most likely follow suit. I get what you are saying about my flow and it is certainly something I've been working on. I'm going to record this again. I also have a couple other songs in the works at the moment. Anyway, thanks for the input. It's greatly appreciated!

[Dysto]

Structure:
In the intro it takes too long for some variation to get in the song. After 2 minutes, there still is not so much variation. At 2:18 there is some weird repetition. From 2:30 I expected a build-up, but the part after that didn't fulfil my expectations. After 4:00 things get interesting. And last but not least, you should skip that sound at 5:30.

Sounds and synths:
The sounds weren't that bad actually, although you could play a bit more with the timbre of some synths. Also there was a bit too much echo on the drums. Maybe the most important thing to improve your song writing is layering more instruments. I usually have at least 3 instruments playing at the same time. Distinguish subs, basses, pads, leads, drums, and let them play in harmony. This also helps with structuring your song. The sounds were of high quality, though.

Melodies:
The motives are awesome. It's just the rest that doesn't feel good to me.

Mood and atmosphere:
You could imagine a lot of situations by hearing this. It sounds moody enough to visualise a dystopia. I think of some creepy forest in which a demon king lives in a castle, and you, the hero has to sneak inside and kill him.

Please don't thing I'm a hater. I just want to give some helpful criticism. I hope it helps you.
Stay awesome ;)
- BlastBeats

insanedevi responds:

Thank you! Don't worry, that's good criticism. I specially like your obsevation on the number of instruments. I think I got carried away with using just one synth. Thanks for the review!

[Cold Rush]

I actually find it a bit happy, although the tags don't imply that. The song itself, its structure, melodies, bassline, drums, etc. are flawless. The only problem is that the metal VSTs are nothing compared to real instrument sounds. That's why it doesn't really sound like metal band metal. I usually make a (unfortunately almost always complex) FX chain for an electric guitar VST to make it heavier and brighter, in order to get as close to real guitar sounds as possible. In your case a bit more low shelf boosting, reverb and compression may help. But in most cases getting good quality is hard (the process of making such a chain is fun though).

Don't let my opinion ruin the track. I believe it only has one flaw, against which you couldn't really do something without having to spend years on a guitar of the same quality as the rest of the sundae :) Let that be a compliment. Stay awesome man!

Noisysundae responds:

Yup. It seems mastering is easier in electronic music for me. I afraid boosting the bass too much will make this worse especially ones with the bassy headphones. It might not have anough reverb on guitars, though.

[Partner Theme (1f1n1ty Remix)]

This is so awesome. You really did the processing extremely well. Those sounds came out just perfect. That bass in the beginning in combination with the kick is beautiful. In my opinion the song is very loudly mastered, but on the other hand... it doesn't deprive the feeling of the song...

The only thing that bothers me a bit is what you wanted to achieve while making the song. I can't really determine whether it should be used in a game, or listened to as a trance song. The drops belong in a song, the rest belongs in a game, I think.

Whatever, I just love it. I'm wondering how a non-remix trance track with clear snare drums would sound. It must be epic :D

Onefin responds:

Thanks for the review, amigo!

Loudly mastered, eh? Would it surprise you to know I did no mastering on this track? ...No? Alright. The only thing on my master is that Fruity Limiter thing which I know a lot of professional producers really, really hate. If I turned off the Fruity Limiter and actually tried to master, I'd only make the track even louder than it is now, and there would be clipping everywhere and I would be a sad bunny. :(

What did I want to achieve? I wanted to achieve a display of my emotion towards PSMD and its soundtrack! The reason I remix Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is not for appreciation as an individual track, but to show my appreciation for the game, its emotion, and its soundtrack and to attempt to inspire that appreciation in other people. Noble goal, isn't it? ...No?

Non-remix trance track with clear snare drums? Can you clarify what that means? XD

Thanks for taking the time to review! Feedback is appreciated. ;)

[Vines]

I guess you wanted to make a trap drop. In that case, I recommend you to listen to lots of other songs to get inspiration, and to get to know the genre. While doing that you should practise to listen to every single detail of a song. The main issue I heard, but this may be my own opinion, that this track can use a lot more FX, like reverb and delay.

Here are some things that help you to improve your song:
- More bass in the drop
- Variation in the melodies and such
- More layers of instruments (a song becomes more interesting when there is more going on)

Things that are already pretty good (as that is always nice to hear):
- The melody itself was pretty well found
- The intention/structure of the song was clear
- 0:42, that nosy (in a positive way) sound is great

It is interesting to hear such a high quality song made in a rush. Howevah...

Stay awesome,
BlastBeats

Drewpy responds:

Wow, this is a super helpful response. Thanks so much for all of the suggestions and such! It really helps me a lot with improving my music and whatnot.

[L-55 - The End of Show]

I hope you didn't put too much time into sound design. I really recommend you to take a closer look on how FM works. Dubstep (FM) basses need to be filling in the frequency spectrum. Bass, mid and treble frequencies should be processed differently in order to get clear sounds, which, if correctly done, could sound very interesting. In FL you might want to use the patcher environment if you didn't already. Another great trick is to play with unison voices and pitch.

I also have a complaint about the drum samples you used. The kick is not punchy, the snare neither, and I hear only one closed hat, that is in my opinion a bit too clicky.

The melodic part of this project however is pretty common, but well performed. Also I kind of hear where you want to go with the song. The only problem might be that synthesizing the exact sounds that you have in your mind is difficult.

The structure itself is not bad. The intro fits the song, but the outro is maybe too long and repetitive. Also I didn't feel the drop really.

Never mind, I've heard a lot better from you so far, and I just want to say that the more effort you put into experimenting, the better you will get. My example is my latest song Reinvented Dinosaurs in which I made some Harmor basses, which are the best I produced ever so far due to experimenting.

Still I'm pretty impressed. Your development is pretty awesome. And the fact that there is a lot of room for improvement means that you can only get a lot better than now.

Kind regards bro,
BlastBeats

L-55 responds:

Thank you for a long and detailed review. :) I know i realle suck at bass ;)

[L-55 - Titan]

14 songs in 9 days? Woah..! That's a hell lot.

L-55 responds:

Its because i made them earlier. In one day i posted 3 because i made one every second day. And when i finish these i upload them at once. The FL Studio rocks!

[-Grind District-]

This track is more than punchy! It's not metal, but it still makes me headbang. If you only could make your lead synths stand out more... And the drum patterns are as epic and creative as always. Bassline: I have no words.

Sytrus I guess?

-BlastBeats

Waterflame responds:

Thank you! I actually wanted to keep the leads a bit distorted for this one, it was a concious decision.
And the basses are not made with sytrus, I rarely use that VST for other than trance-like compositions. They are made with FM8, FMDrive and some soundfonts :)

Thanks!

[Xtrullor - Supernova]

More than epic. I really have no words for this! I thought I hated dubstep (till now...). I'd consider this nearly perfect, just because nothing is perfect (realistic, not pessimistic). Also, for those who love the heavy techno: By adjusting the samples used for the drums into sharper ones, and a bit more reverb, you'd get the music that only a few people dare to listen to, but yet is suitable for listening over and over again, for years and not starting to find it boring.

Drops: 5/5
Melody: 5/5
Creativity: 5/5
Bass: 5/5
Drums: 19/20
Choice of instruments: 5/5 (definitely)

Over all rating: 4,99999999/5

Massive, drop, epic, music that's worth to blow up your speakers. And did you suggest that you were astonished by the number of downloads?

Keep up the work, and stay awesome man!

- BlastBeats

Xtrullor responds:

Will do! It's my mission to bring epic dubstep for everyone no matter what most people listen to!

[I Can't Hear My Inner Demons]

This song + accordion = ghost pirate battle
I have no remarks, just a flawless song.

Clastodon responds:

Thanks! I think I threw every single idea I'd had at the time into this song and so I feel this one is by far the best electronic piece I made. The others don't really compare, to be honest...