la-yinn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[It's Unfair (Original)]

This is pretty legit. I love the halftime, calm intro to the track but do feel like adding some background pads would've helped fill out the piece a bit more, especially if it would be layered with the low-tone bassline. The sweeps leading up to the drop was great and the drop itself is exactly what it needs to be. I particularly like the drumwork in this, it's a very solid break you've put together. The square-wave synths coming in at the drop were a very nice touch but could've used the slightest bit of volume adjustment because they're more of a filler element and don't come to their own due to the somewhat 'basic' sound design. Maybe layer that up with something else aswell.

Were you to extend the track to offer a second drop and a little bit more effectwork in line with the melodics, to fill in the end of each 8 / 16 bars, you wouldn't be far off from being on a professional liquid dnb artist's level. Very well done. Seriously.

pichuscute0 responds:

Thank you! This is fantastic feedback!

I think I spent less time working in the low end than I probably should have looking back (I kind of wanted to accent that low end just a bit already, but I like your idea better). The piano portion of the song is a sample, which is what I was attempting to layer with the bassline. This is why I saved pads for later in the song and kept them in the midrange, but it meant I didn't revisit that portion of the song like I should have. I may have been a bit scared to mess with it, if I'm honest (I'm a little tone deaf in that frequency range, which doesn't help). This is an ongoing problem I have, so I need to remember to revisit the bass range often haha.

I'm glad you enjoy my sweep/drum work. Drums in particular is what I tend to enjoy working on most and tweaking, particularly in DnB. It can be very hard to find the right sounds for the job sometimes, but after something like 10 years of attempts, I'm starting to get quite good, I hope haha. The production is probably something a bit closer to what you'd hear in Neurofunk, but I like to apply that style to Liquid. It makes a nice contrast (and rhythm), in my opinion.

I hear your criticism of the square-wave arp synth loud and clear now. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how relatively thin and quiet it was at the time. Layering it with something phasing or with chorus likely would have been the way to go, or just an entirely different type of sound. I totally agree.

As for the length, I like to keep my songs short and sweet. Part of the theme of my work is the attempt to capture a melancholy/nostalgic feeling, which I think is reinforced by songs that end just a little bit sooner than you might want. My hope is that this also makes re-listening happen more often. No clue if I'm right or if it's working, but that's my ultimate goal and why these are shorter than you might otherwise see.

I'm glad you think I'm finally honing in on that professional level of quality. I've spent a long break away from DnB to try to improve myself in other areas and types of music (two or so years now), which seems to have paid off. Coming back to DnB briefly meant I was back with a purpose resulting in much better quality than I've gotten in the past in the genre. So glad you had the time to give this a review!

[EnV - Osiris (WIP)]

Peeking behind NG's curtains, checking out some old audio forum regulars to see if they're still awesome. Everybody remembers Heaven and Come Home but this shit's so much more my jam. I hope you delve deeper into bass music genres, it fits you well. Gotta ask you, you ever decide to extend / finish this track? It's groovier than zombies on mdma.

[Boy Stuff]

I always give props to proper slicing, shit's dope. I personally don't like the trancey synths, but that's personal taste. I think it's all pretty well mixed together, don't hear many things of quality around NG. But I do feel like some more sweeping effects in the background to guide the listener along with your many transitions would help a lot. Maybe some modulated pads or something. As it stands, your transitions come very spontaniously cause everything is mixed in 'dry'. I have absolutely no idea what any of the vocals are saying and honestly in dance music that doesn't even matter most of the time.

Still a dope track though! I like the composition. Wish you'd extend the bass-heavy parts.

KawaiSprite responds:

thanks for feedback. still trying to sort out how my style kind of works and trying new things out

[war4]

Bit bland overall, because it is so simplistic in nature. Minimalistic tracks work because they let each and every sound come to their full potential through careful equalisation. Your bass wouldve sounded better by removing some of the higher frequencies and layering them together with a more 'full' sound instead of the whole fart-y thing. Look up how to make hoovers and reeces. They're iconic to DNB because they work incredibly well and once you take the time to learn how to design those kinds of sounds it will stick with you forever. Also make sure that you have a little bit of sub-bass around the 50-60hz mark to really liven up the sound. As it stands, there isn't enough bass and that's pretty important.

[Found inside the deep]

The song lacks some serious EQ and structure. The entire thing feels like there's a broken engine just humming throughout it. I can't even hear any drums except the faintest kick drums somewhere behind that humming bass sound you put in.

It's not drum and bass because it doesn't have a breakbeat, it's not the right tempo and there is no driving underlying bassline that makes you want to dance to it.

Don't feel discouraged by the way, I know I sound like a hater but I just want people to put more effort into their tracks before they release it to the public. Good music takes time, practice and learning about how to make different instruments and synths come together into a cohesive entity. All of that is hard, especially if you're just getting started.

Try looking up people like SeamlessR on youtube. There are great channels that will show you what it takes to make good music and provide instructions on how to up your sound design and how to mix those sounds together.

I'm sure you'll make a lot better things in the later half of 2019. :-)

aidannibbles responds:

Thanks. I will try improve :)

[portable beater]

I'm not a fan whatsoever of these soft drums; I don't know how extensive Beaterator is in terms of built-in effect plugins and what not, but try boosting the volume of both your kick and snare by about 4-6db and EQ the kick to stand out more around the 95hz range and the snare around the 220hz-400hz range. You'll find the kick 'kicks' more and the snare has more of a nice crispy sound to it, which is important in DNB. The melodic bits are great though.

That being said, it's definitely not a bad composition. I kind of liked it, feels like a nice liquid tune to play in the background. Especially the piano just blends in well with the feel of the track and the strings accompany that feel brilliantly. Good job.

raving2thegrave responds:

Beaterator doesn't have anything for mixing options and it only exports an MP3 directly to the memory card, so it was absolutely pointless even to load it into a traditional DAW. The compression is pretty gnarly but it's pretty impressive that the PSP can handle live sequencing with samples loaded from memory like that. What you hear is what you get, babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

also, you should probably know that it isn't live sequencing in the traditional sense, it's a little more rudimentary and gamified. you load the Kick channel up with four kick loop samples, then you can switch between any of the four or turn the channel off at any time. you have a maximum of eight channels with four samples each for a total of 32 samples on any given song. however, you can use what few built in instruments there are to also create a pattern using a piano roll type tool too

[Zeptonix - Proxima-Omega]

I feel like the mixing is alright, but the melody line on the drop is cluttered. Sometimes less is more and more is less. Everything comes to its own a bit better around the 2:30 mark, but I still feel like you should replace some of the end of the bars with something like a string assortment to better fill out the track. As it stands, it doesn't suck you in because the melodic parts want to be the dominating factor and I almost feel like when the second drop hits you should let the driving bass have more of an impact; but it can't because the frequency range is already filled up with 100's of synth hits flying around. Let synths carry the melodic tones and let the bass drive the track forward. Don't try to make both of them do both, because it detracts from the composition. The intro could do with low humming reece or something to better lead up to the drop.

Either way, it's definitely not bad and has its own character.

DjCocsOFFICAL responds:

Wow thanks for such a big review :o

Will focus on mixing more

[Neurohop]

I'd say your bass could use a sharper high end but it's pretty slick as is mate, vibing out atm!

Qshunt responds:

Thanks mate :) much appreciated :)

[remember when]

remember back when you could still remember what the fuck happened back when

ye those were the days..