Zafrece's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[I Don't Want Love At All]

.........Why... does this have no rating or reviews....( catches breath)

Ok, for once i really have nothing to say but amazing piece of work. The song was amazing, the sound was professional and clean. The singing was perfect tone and pitch.

This is one of the better pop songs i've heard on ng. I have no idea why you have no one following you, or how this amazing piece of work slipped under the radar for so long. But some times random crimes happen , and i think this is one.

5/5 amazing work.

jakeghost responds:

Thanks again for the nice words Zafrece!!! I am super glad you liked it so much :D Catch you round!

[SaveOurKingdom (Remaster)]

I'm hearing allot of chan peaking and general conflicts of chans. It sounds like you had several of your sounds in the same channel, I keep hearing other sounds drop out as others come( volume). I find myself saying this allot but make sure everything is in separate channels and all the useless harmonics are cut off. Param eq or any other spectro form of eq your channels.
The mix is great up until the first time the lead introduces itself, then that lead dominates the entire song. Leads should never be louder than the rest of the song, make sure they are under the kick in db levels. The vocals were not my thing, but just taste at this point.

Lich responds:

I kinda screwed this track over when I first made it, it's a shame as I kind of liked it at the time.
I assure you, everything is mixed through separate channels.

Nevermind. Thank you anyway for taking the time to listen to it. I assure you that I have several tracks in the making which are much... much better quality :)

[O Canada (Trance Remix)]

Every sound is in the same channel from what i can hear, try separating them into a different channel, and assign them to a separate mixer track as well. This will stop allot of the sounds fighting for control over the same chan. If you hear a sound all the sudden get way softer than you intended it when another one is starting to play, this very well may be the answer. You can hear what im talking about in the first 10 seconds.

Try Using any type of param EQ and clean up allot of these sounds. They are all sounding on the muddy side. The kick was way too low,i say this allot, but the kick should be around -6 or -8 db pre master. The kick should also be the loudest part of the mix, followed by the bass as a close second. The bass wasn't really following the lead key changes all too well, that's a simple fix however. Nexus is a powerful tool when used right, i would suggest looking up some tutorials over how it works.

+ 12 db = 400% volume increase.
+ 6db = 200%
+ 1 dB = around 10%
0 dB - No change.
- 6 dB = 50% volume decrease (half the original level).
- 12 dB = 75% volume decrease (to 25% of the original level). ( image line db guide)

Hope that helps in some way

Zafrece

ToxInjection responds:

Thanks for the review! :D

They actually aren't in the same channels, but I think I may have virtually kept them at the same volumes anyway. I didn't do too good a job of mixing them, but I'm getting better! I'll definitely keep this info in mind if I end up delving into trance again (which I most likely will.)

[cokerun]

I'm not the best at reviewing d&b seeing as i dont listen to it often and this is a little out of my comfort zone. However i will try to do my best for you.

Things i would change- One thing i noticed was that the lead theme was almost over powering the entire song. It was louder than all the drums and pads you had put together. A general rule of thumb is to keep the kick at -8 or -6 fb pre master, and have everything else fall under it for volume. The lead was a bit repetitive, and i felt it needed to change/drop off or at least shift priorities in the song some point in it. The drums were a great line, however it also needed a little shift in my opinion. I'm not sure if this is the full song or a small piece of a larger work yet to come, but i feel as is it needs to be extended. It needs some shifts in the pace, a song just cant keep building and building with a tempo that high. At some point it needs a fall off or down period.

Things i liked- I loved the ambiance of that pad that was underlined in the song. It was rather hard to pick out in some segments, but the subtle ambiance and shift in keys it added was great.
I really liked the hits you had coming in around 50, they added power to the song. The sounds were over all very crisp, you did a good job of mastering.

Not bad over all with a few minor things aside.

Keep up the work m8

Zafrece

rrool responds:

great critique. i will have that in mind, thanks.

[The cracked spiral]

I have to agree with the comment below on some grounds. The song did seem rather "monotone", However i will shed a little more light onto the subject. The lead of a song sets the feeling and the pace of the entire song. It also grabs the most attention to your ear, not to mention saw/ distorted guitars tend to be harsh on the ears along with higher pitches. Often times if you want to avoid a uniform feeling in a song, certain hertz ranges need to fall off, and attention to others needs to be brought in. Like if you were listening to nothing but a drum kick with a bass line for a while, you would eventually want to hear some higher notes and have that bass die down or stop for a bit. Trance is a perfect example of this. Trance is rather harsh with the mass amounts of saw waves and phased pads, and that arp driving bass line. This usually gets old pretty quickly if nothing changes. So most trance songs have a down break where the leads fall off and the bass takes a break and give rise to the lesser used hertz of the song and change the wave forms to a more mellow tone for a bit. It gives those hertz a chance to shine and let your ears get used to the lack of those sounds. Then BAM, come back in with added parts for the "after the gap return" to shock your ears back into their places. This is of course doesn't directly translate into metal mind you, but the same idea applies. If you listen to sonata artica for example, they are a great example of what i'm saying.

Over all i still loved the song, i would hate you to read this and think other wise.

Love and trance mate

Zafrece

[Neoryu]

The song seems a bit delay/verb heavy with the leads at times. They are seemingly falling into the back of the song around 40 when the harmony in thirds comes in. But allot of anything at this point boils down to preference. There really isnt anything to say about this song other than i enjoyed it and the composition was great. I loved the rhythm segment from 11 on, reminded me of old school bulb. 21-25 shadow of the colossus after you kill a boss =p. Like i said before, it's finally good to see some one who can actually play guitar on ng, they are few and far apart.

Keep up the amazing work, and best of luck to all your endeavours in the future sir.

Zafrece

[Transformation]

I'm surprised to see fpc in here as a list of things used, i find it hard and bothersome to eq or add specific effects to the separate drum sounds in fpc. Like the comments below i tend to avoid it completely So major props to you for pulling this off. Did you use any external vsts for this piece?

Troisnyx responds:

Only Soundgoodizer in small amounts, for volume boosts. Otherwise, all I had were --

1) Sampler
2) Fruity Soundfont Player
3) Slayer
4) FPC
5) Autogun
6) Fruity Parametric EQ 2
7) Fruity Reeverb 2
8) Fruity Delay
9) Fruity Fast Dist (for all guitar sections)
10) Maximus in small amounts (then again, that was available with FL 10 by default)

That's the setup. (I basically can't afford anything else at the moment, and I'm trying to keep my FL running speed to a bearable level at this moment.) Glad you liked it!

[The Witch]

It sounds like the recordings were peaking, a little mixing should solve that nothing major. It's good to see some one who can finally play guitar on ng lol. When the full version comes out i had better hear altitudes in that solo haha.

Keep it up m8 amazing work.

[Founded in...]

I hear that gap in loops again, im not sure why i keep hearing that or what program you are using to compose these songs. The whole thing seemed a bit on the repetitive side. that higher few notes that kept repeating through out the song really started to grind on my ears after a while. Still that being said, i'm a fan of the chill mellow style you have. It's like swimming through a pool of ambient funk. very nice aside from a few minor things.

pawiqe responds:

I know it this beat isn't good cuz i made it ab. 5 months ago (thats when I started making beats) thx for opinion, I am to lazzy to correct it and I don't saved the project in FL.

[Silence (Mastered)]

That gated lead was drowning out the entire song. I really couldn't hear much of anything else through out it. Make sure your kick is the loused part of the mix pre master, being around -6 or -8 db. I say this allot but everyting else should fall under the kicks volume, not over it. A little bit of side chaining goes a long way in helping get that kick through other sounds. Im not a fan of the "used on 80% of electronic music generic chord progression". But i can't take rating away based on personal taste.

Over all pretty good, there is no 4.5 on the rating to i guess rounding up would be a fair assumption. Keep up the good work.

Dj-B345T responds:

Thanks for the advice. I will be sure to do that. Keep an eye out for a new version.