BlastBeats's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Final Showdown]

The idea of this track is pretty ok, but the execution... The lead is painful to listen to. It is a simple saw/pulse combination, which I consider too sharp for this song. The piano and the drums give a soothing drum and bass feel to the track, but the lead does not make any sense. Put some effort in designing a fitting lead.
In addition, I do not hear any post processing, except for the piano, which has only a small amount of it. Some reverb and/or delay would help you improve your quality. The release of the kick sidechaining the other instruments is way too long. That, or that is a mastering issue.
Composition wise, this song is repetitive, and there are some off notes. Your variations in the melody are neat, though. The drums are the same the whole time. I would not mind some variation there.
The mix is bad. The lead overpowers every instrument, and the drums blast everything that isn't percussion away. The kick could use some more definition, the snare is dull, and there's some very repetitive percussive sound in the background shifting in the track's stereo image the whole time. Use your eq's, compressors, panning, and what not to obtain a better mix. Another thing is that I cannot hear a sub, or even a defined bass.
The mastering is not well executed either. It sounds like you squeezed your song through a single band compressor without playing with the options. The overall volume is excessively loud, and it sounds like the time variables have their default values.

Overall, I think this track is bad, but I hear potential. It gave me the impression that you spent a little time on the production. Putting more time in single tracks will improve your quality, and rating. You really need that.

I do not get the feature. You are new, and there have been tons of better releases in the past few days on newgrounds. In my opinion this track didn't deserve the feature.

Please do not consider me a hater. I know how it is to start with music production. I started a year ago. Many things I mentioned above are things I learned while doing research, or by getting reviews. I wrote this to help. This job/hobby takes a lot of time and practice, and I really hope this will help you to get on track (no pun intended) more rapidly. My first song, which is also a drum and bass track, got many helpful reviews for beginners. Be sure to check that out, if you want to learn more!

Good luck, and welcome to the community!
BlastBeats

PS: I checked out your first song, and that one is way more impressive!

GobSmacked responds:

Jeez. I amso thankfull for your review. I am glad you care that much about and thanks. I know I got really lazy on tis one and i just felt like its pretty okish. I never expected it to get attention in any way. Also its not my genre. It started as a small 8-Bit proejct and i just started liking the melody a bit. But I am still very thankfull for this amazing review.... I really do appreciate it when someone is sending me critic. OK so... I try to kind of follow your "Instructions and tipps" to improve. Thanks alot, - Gobsmacked!

[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 (Onefin 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.

[-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!