Warhector's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Acid DnB]

I will try to give you a good review.

First the obvious, the drum and bass
I think the snare and kick drum should be more clearer in the mix. Also add some more snap to it.
The bass sounds its to compressed and is not deep enough. Also, another trick is to add a little sidechain to the bass to bring it up in the mix. When you have a good mix, then master it.

The song is very short. It should be longer. But to do so, do not make it repetitive. But the melody works! I would choose other synths tho, but that is just taste.

You are doing great, keep it goinig.
Cheers!

lantaren responds:

"I think the snare and kick drum should be more clearer in the mix." I agree, I've been trying to figure out how to do that, and obviously haven't succeeded yet.

"The bass sounds its to compressed and is not deep enough."

First of all, distortion - not compression, ever so slightly different.. second of all, idk how much more below 20hz you want it to go, but I can take out more of the mid range, I guess, and jack up more in the bass spectrum. Or can throw in a sub bass, I didn't do that yet.

"Also, another trick is to add a little sidechain to the bass to bring it up in the mix."

I'm sidechaining everything, actually, and fairly strongly, as well. cutting the volume in half, sharply, on the bass drum hits, so I'm not sure what more there would be to do there..

"When you have a good mix, then master it."

I'm not too certain what exactly you're saying here - I do know what the distinction is between the two, but I'm not certain what you mean.. I believe that the mix is fairly good, and I'm not sure what I would do post production as this is what it sounds without anything done to it, in essence, I haven't done any mastering/limiter on the main channel or anything. This is just the raw track.

And finally - "The song is very short"; yes it is, is why I said that it was "a short snippet of something I've been working on."

Note that I'm not trying to argue anything here, just state my opinion on your views - if you could further elaborate on the things I've pointed out above, perhaps through a PM, I would be more than happy enough to try them out and see your opinion upon what improvements I could make.

[Canyon]

Hello there. Here is an review for ya
I like the melody and the composition. The arpeggios works well with the melody. Dig the guitar intro's progression. You should however have better sounding synths & samples. The mixing could have been better. Tip: you can slightly side-chain the bass and kick to bring up the kick in the mix. Try also varying the drums a bit. And crank that maximize up, cause it does not sound like you mastered this song. Keep on making music. Good luck!
Cheers

citrullus responds:

Thank you for the feedback! ^_^ It is true I did not master the song, I'm still trying to figure how to do that better. Those are fantastic tips. :D

[Silence (Sample)]

Hello there
I will be very clear on what I think of this. In case you are wondering why im giving you 3 stars.
Its very short, although its only a "sample", in another words, WIP = work in progress. This is so similar to tiesto's original, om not sure if you are doing a remix or a remake. When you are trying to remix a song, try a different chord progression that fits the melody and or the vocals.

I like the heavy Kick and the bass arpeggios. With the 0.44 melody its a clearly nice piece of Trance! What is missing is some effects and crashes that glue the parts together. Like a reversed crash leading to a crash in 00:30 for example. The overall mix sounds great. The mastering could have been better, but mastering is hard to master (wordplay, lol).

See ya
Warhector

prodrift101 responds:

Thanks for your review. Three stars is more than understandable. As far as sounding like tiesto's mix, I cannot lie, I used the first minute of his song as a good framing for the rest of the song. After the music cuts out, I add different arps playing original melodies.

When it comes to gluing the tracks together, my FX still aren't done yet. I have some more cymbals and reverse FX later on in the song but don't introduce them too early on so it doesn't seem repetitive.

I'll send you a message after I finish the darn thing.

[Enenra 1.0]

Hey Hypno :)
Here is review for you. You were kindly advising me to structure my future projects. So here is a neatly structured review for you dear:

|0.0 - 1.15|
I like the orchestra, sounds nice Flows nice, especially with the dynamic chords. Also I like the xylophone(ish) in the background in 0.45. Hmmm, WHAT? Wait a minute! This does not sound like dubstep!

|.40|
*Reads the description *facepalms

|1.15-1.45|
Nice bass! Simple, but yet effective bass. Like minded, I think it is not necessary with the skrillex sound to call a song dubstep. The percussion is fitting the bass and the ochestra nicely, not over the top.

|1.45-2.30|
Nice background melody here. Flows to a different section for both the orchestra and the dubstep bass/drums. I guess this is the chorus, since all parts are playing here. Missing a little more punch in the pronounced parts (like choruses).

|2.30-3.12|
Nice outro for what you got from the last sections. Cannot really say much here :)

|Overall|
Nice idea! It could fit perfectly in a commercial for something cool/rough , and classic/elegant at the same time. Like a car with different driving modes. The idea of blending two genre is hard to get it right. But you pulled it off. Nice job!

The mixing could be better. If you compress the kick and the bass more, you could maximize and get a more punchy sound. Be aware, when you compress bass, you lose a bit of the low end. An EQ would fix that. Compress things to glue things together basically.

Other than that is a job well done. Keep up enjoy making music!

Cheers
Warhector

HypnoSophistication responds:

Thanks you very much for the constructive criticism! Hope you make some new stuff soon, really like what you're doing.

Take care.

//HS

[Majora's Mask Swamp Theme]

Damm! You just nailed this one! Even tho it does not sound like a dirty (purple, monkey infested) poiosnes swamp, rather than the faron woods, or the lost woods. But then again, the melody goes again in all of the four worlds. Its clearly your musical skills is highly advanced. Are you educated in producing music?

How you use your sound library is awesome. Those chords combined with the sound library works really well. Keep up enjoying making music! And I would like to hear more Zelda music from you young lady!

Cheers

headphoamz responds:

Ah Warhector, I try to stay away from poisonous swamps, you know? They're just not good for ya. Thanks for the note about the chords - this one was very fun to try and rewrite just because of its weird-ass chord progression. Cheers :)

[The Tomb Shaker]

Hello step!
I do not know which of the instruments I hear is the VST you demoed for. I presume that is the ethic world instruments. How far the song goes, it is solid from the beginning to the end. The composition on the percussions sounds like each hit is carefully placed. Good Job.

The melody is brilliant and fits the theme. The breakdown at the 01: 48 is very nice touches. If there is any critique I have to give, it have to be the mix, although its very nice sounding dry from the library. You could have brought the mix a little bit up in the mastering. All in all, very good. But unfortunately I have only 5 stars, so you just have to live with that..
Keep up good work man!

Sincerely, Warhector

Step responds:

Oh hey man! Thanks for the reciprocated review :3.

"Hello step!
I do not know which of the instruments I hear is the VST you demoed for. I presume that is the ethic world instruments."

It's just the plucked instrument (called the Dan Tranh). You can hear it most clearly on its own during the solo at 1:03.

"How far the song goes, it is solid from the beginning to the end. The composition on the percussions sounds like each hit is carefully placed. Good Job."

I dedicate a lot of time to my percussion so that's nice to hear!

"The melody is brilliant and fits the theme."

The melodies are actually one of the things I dislike about this song. I just couldn't think of a melody that I was personally satisfied with. But at least you like it haha.

"The breakdown at the 01: 48 is very nice touches."

Sweet. I like adding those little breaks, they're so fun to do.

"If there is any critique I have to give, it have to be the mix, although its very nice sounding dry from the library. You could have brought the mix a little bit up in the mastering."

Oh no, you've found my secret... I have no idea what I'm doing x_x. Yeah, I know what a compressor does, what a limiter does, the concept of mastering, headroom, dynamics and all that, but damn, I have no clue how to actually implement any of that stuff. It makes me sound hypocritical, because saying that a song is too quiet and should be mastered a bit more loudly is a critique I occasionally give to other tracks, and yet I have yet to start doing it properly myself!

"All in all, very good. But unfortunately I have only 5 stars, so you just have to live with that..
Keep up good work man!
Sincerely, Warhector"

5 stars is just fine. Thank you. c:

[~SW~ City of the Clouds]

Here I need some digestion. There is a lot of genres going on for you here. I hear orchestral, Asian culture, ambient and electro rock. And you pulled it off quite well.

The length is not to long or to short. I thought that in the length of the description would correspond to a way to long song. (I've never been so wrong, *hug*).

The art fits very well, as went to follow your story while I listened to the song. I like that you out a organ in the mix. As a organ player, I prefer it to sound less robotic/quantized. But it suits the song well. Check my entries, you will hear organs in 2/3 of them.

Do not worry for the mix. It sounds about right now. At this point it is just personal preference for what you want it to sound. That means, as long levels sounds great, and no instruments shivers or is to muddy and all instruments sounds presence in the mix, you are safe.

I listened to all the entries and your song in my opinion is within the top 10 at least! Keep it up, and good luck!

SkyeWint responds:

Hey there!

Guess I can see what you mean about the digestion, I tend to put so much variation into my music that it takes people a few listens to really... "get" it. Guess you certainly noticed the variation thing, lol.

The length is always debated in almost all of my music, since I generally try to keep the music going and doing something different. A lot of people don't like that - I guess they're more used to genres such as techno, rock, or pop, so they appreciate repetition more. I've tried doing it, but it's just not my cup of tea. Glad you think the length is appropriate. ^_^ If it's going to be longer than about 3-4 minutes, I'm definitely going to have multiple shifts of the entire mood of the song or make it do something totally wacky which tells people "HEY. I'm not done being interesting yet!".

Yeah, the organ playing isn't exactly realistic, but I didn't quite intend it to be so. After all, in the picture the city is really mechanized! I guess that's personal preference though. I'll listen to some of your music and see how you play the organ though - always good to know how to make an organ more realistic. I'm actually a piano player of something like 9 years, so I can tell a robotic/quantized keyboard from a real one. :)

Mixing is something I've been working on for awhile. First it was clipping, then it was muddy, then it was muddy AND clipping, then it was clean, then muddy again, then clean but didn't let instruments breathe, and now... this. Been a crazy wacky long road, but I think I'm almost at the end of figuring out how to do it!

Glad you like the song so much! :D Here's hoping it does end up being one of the top entries!

Thanks for the review!

[Colossal Assault]

Nice song. Reminded me of warcraft type of fantasy gaming. Also it fits well to the art! Good sounding library goes to nothing if you cant use them right. This demonstrate how a good epic orchestral should sound like! I feel that you fall within top 10 at least. I have no criticism for you today, sir. Just keep enjoying making more music!

Mattashi responds:

Thanks for your kind words Warhector!

[Submerged]

Nice chill song man! You are one of the few that sings in their entries. As you do not suck at singing, so that goes as a plus in my book. And this fits very well to the art! I listened to all the entries and your song in my opinion is within the top 15 at least! good luck!

[Leaving Without]

Here we have one that not falls in the stereotypical skrillex type dubstep. "The chords of life" in the intro is a failsafe synths in electronic. Also good use of chords goes always a extra plus in my book. The main thing i notice is the syncoped main theme. As a pianist, I like that a lot! The ending falls a bit abrupt. And mix could have a small boost in the high frequencies. Add some distortion in terms of a exciter maybe.. ? Anyway, I listened to all the entries and your song in my opinion is within the top 17.5 at least! good luck!