la-yinn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[the night sky transforms]

Yeah I'd say it does what you want it to do, it's a calming ambient piece. Has some nice textures and sounds to it, there's nothing interfering with the overall vibe of the track.

I can hear some low bass and strings coming in and think they're wonderful but I just wish you'd have mixed them in to be just a tiny bit louder and/or a bigger part of the track. The main wobbly synth that starts at the intro keeps driving the piece where I feel like the other pieces together (strings / bass / melodic textures) could basically form their entire section.

I notice you moving towards that in the later half of the track but I was hoping you'd amp it up even further. That bass could have a few bars where it gets a bit louder and it would add a lot of emotion to the track, as it alternates between the different elements of the music.

Nice work though!

Rombit responds:

Not gonna lie, I got kinda lazy with this one, it was just a wildcard cuz I had to get something out today and I didn't really feel like making an actual good track like yesterday. It's just filler until I find some more inspiration. Thanks for your comment! Definetly check back tommorow for something better (hopefully)!

[Make over machine]

Pretty chill vibe, I dig it. Has a bunch of positives going for it in terms of composition.

Only thing I'd critique is that it's mixed VERY softly, making it hard to hear whats going on without cranking my volume to twice what I usually let it sit at. Go to the master channel on your mixer and just add like +10db through the use of a limiter or compressor. Otherwise tracks like this get lost in the sea of newgrounds uploads, whereas I'd say it's pretty legit as it is.

DaxCamdaxian responds:

Thanks for taking a moment to point out that the mix was too low in volume, I really appreciate it, it's fixed now 👍

[Orbiting The Sun 3 Times (Jamuary Day 15)]

3 years fly by like its nothing eh?

I quickly took a peak to the other track you linked for some reference on where you started and where you are now with this piece. You definitely have grown a lot when it comes to building a track around the ambience, instead of just having some ambience haha.

I think this track would benefit a lot from having sweeping pads to compliment the melodies. You tend to overuse the same synth and it gets repetitive for such a long track. If your computer can handle it, try to work in some other sounds to take over the melody to break the monotony.

The counter melody you bring in at 2:56 for example is really nice but it doesn't shine because its the same synth sound. If you'd replace the main melody with a different synth, you'd get a lot richer texture to your music. Or even just remove the main melody for a little bit and then bring it back in later.

Keep doing your thing! 3 years down the road you'll be young beethoven, dw

Urielthepro responds:

Thanks for the review!
I'll try to take that into account in future songs.

[A Personal Garden - Jamuary #15]

There's some heavy resonance going on due to one of your transients being too loud, it kinda hampers the nature of the piece being soothing / calming. The reverb you put on there bounces it around and is a bit ear-piercing. Try EQ'ing the peak out of the sound and lowering the 'dry' parameter on the reverb, that should help out a ton.

[Cyb3r 7r4v3l3r | Electronic | Royalty Free Instrumental |]

Elevator music in space, yeah?

Going to the mooooooon, haha.

I like the structure and overall texture of the beat but I feel like the drums are pushed too far out of the mix. I can hear you have a snare in there but only because I'm REALLY looking for it. The reverb on some of your melodic components is too wet, they're interfering with eachother and making multiple parts on the spectrum a little bit muddy.

Generally, adding reverb to multiple parts of a track isn't a bad thing but it sounds like you have long delay and high wetness on multiple things at the same time. Try letting 1 thing shine at the same time and automate some parameters on the reverbs to change em up, definitely helps drive the ambience along too!

Aalasteir responds:

Thank you for your thoughtful review.

[Dysphoria]

Really dig the vibe of this track.

I think the sub is a lil bit overwhelming compared to the background melodics though, I feel like you could've reduced the bass by like 3db and then mastered the track in general to be +3db so the rest shines a bit more but overall a pretty nice tune!

[GoofyJam]

Easy way to get around the problem is to just use sliders on melodies so they hit all the notes. If you hit all the notes, you hit all the chords, you hit all the money.

But im ngl I kinda like the texture and vibe of the track, especially the 2nd half. Some very cool melodic work going on there!

[Chocnoon - Crater (DXI)]

Man's jammin' on and on.

Reminds me of the OG newgrounds styles and tracks. I think your bass need more bass and less treble tho, to have that 4x4 kick / bass vibe going on. Intro was nice, but try working in a riser or some FX to go towards the drop. The arp and main lead get pretty muddy fighting over the same frequency range, maybe sidechain those or replace the plucks with a lower freq sound.

[FD - Finely Aged Space Cocktail]

Dude, this is such a vibe. Actually so good.

Rinsed it probably three times over the last half hour or so. I love this stuff.

I took the opportunity to check out some of your other stuff, mainly the hip-hop-esque tracks you posted 1-2 years ago. Also very good. You know your stuff.

I just really wish you did some more dnb / jungle tracks!

ForgottenDawn responds:

Cheers, thanks for listening :)

[You Make Me Feel... (DnB)]

Very mellow, for sure. I can appreciate this for what it is, the break in the 2nd half is very nice and fills up the piece well. I do think you could add more dynamics or modulations to the main driving pad though. Experiment with automating the reverb and cutoff together to drive the piece forward a bit more. You can also add another pad as a second layer and then automate that aswell to make them flow over into one another, complimenting the main melody.

Perhaps some lyrical samples at the intro and mid sections could fill up the gaps currently present in the mix. If all else fails, don't forget to master the track so that it's a tad louder overall. You have a lot of room to do this without ruining any transients.

As it stands it's pretty cool though, I enjoyed listening to it! Reminds me of a lot of mellow jungle tunes. Keep at it. :-)

Fun fact, I remember Big Bud from when I first started listening to Bassdrive.com 15 years ago. He just released his promotional mix for his album, think I still have it on my pc. White widow remains an absolute jam to this day. I tried looking up 'Alzair' to get an idea for what style you were referring to, but both youtube and google left me hanging.

xanxoepico responds:

Ay thanks for your criticism, I definitely could've worked on it more, but I kinda ran out of ideas, and I've also been on a very relaxed mind when it comes to music due to jamuary Lol

Also I messed up the track I meant was "Alzir" not Alzair XD