XenoxX's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[End of Time [B4B]]

Hey

This song isn't bad there are just a few things I would like to point out tho

I will tell you this now Nexus will only get you so far. It is a great tool for starters and its alright to use but not for the main course of the song. This might be more of a personal opinion but when I hear a song made with mostly nexus I find it shows a slight bit of laziness or maybe that you don't know some of the great tools out there other then nexus. And maybe no so much in this song but I have heard a lot of Nexus in you songs and it might help further this music thing If you start to explore more.

Now about this song in general.

you kick is clipping not to bad tho just need to be turned down some but also turn up some on the lower frequencies. there does seem to be a slight conflict between your kick and your bass and that they are both on the same frequency and this is a common problem and can sometimes take hours or even days to perfect because generally bass and kicks in a lower frequency and It usually just takes a bit of fine tuning to help distinguish them.

the synth that comes at :44 is sorta fuzzy and kinda hurts the ears I suggest just lowering some of the higher frequencies I also think that this over powers the rest of the song. if you listen at 1:15 you can hear how the bass seems like the volume gets lower as the sythn gets louder. I would suggest focusing you synths more to the mid frequencies and you bass more low

Lastly your piano. I will tell you now that nexus pianos are the worst well not the worst but pretty bad I would suggest looking into 4Front Pianos and Truepianos maybe even look into soundfonts.

I want you to know this is not me attacking you but more a less trying to help.

If you have any question about any of the terms I used in my review or EQing Compressing just PM me on Newgrounds I will give you my email And I can answer any questions you have

I would like to point out on a good note I think you have potential and I don't think this song is bad I think its built well with good melody its more the quality I am concerned with.

Well anyways Have A Great Day :)

XenoxX!

Beats4Beets responds:

Hey man, thanks a lot! I dont take anything you say at offense, honestly. I mean, i think i'd rather see someone trying to help me out then to simply say 'I like it!' and i really do like to have help with mastering from someone that would have maybe, more experience then me.

Im actually shocked about your thoughts over Nexus.. I've tried plenty of synths, presets.. Most of the popular ones, i even torrented most of their expensions just last week and i know some what you mean, Nexus DOES pretty much do the work for you and i feel better about my music when i just make the synths on my own. But hey, im a pretty lazy person and eventually, i WILL just make everything myself.. Or for the most part.. But for now, im focusing more on just having.. A nice song ! :D

I agree 100% with the bass and kick comment you made and even the lead suggestiong... And i most likely will PM you for same help on that because i truly understand the whole 'Lead synth comes in, everything else turns down' I would LIKE to make everything balanced and im sincerely trying to do a good job on mastering but i always feel like SOMETHING'S to low or not right. So a good lesson on that would be nice! xD

As far as Nexus pianos. I played piano for 6 years and i know that my piano here sounds better then any Nexus piano.. But hell, I think they're sounding pretty realistic consider 'FL Keys' x)

So anyway.
Thanks for the helpful review! And look out for a PM sometime soon :)

Beats4Beets.

[[CG] - Uprising]

Good But.

A few Problems

1. The flanger or flangus Effect on your bass I think ruins the song to be honest. I think the choice Of bass could of been better as well. The melody Is fine just the sample / effects just don't work.

2. The bass is overpowering the kick when the bass and the kick are playing together you don't even the kick sounds like its not even a kick. You need to work on making them both be noticed not just the bass Maybe you just over compressed the bass or Have them both on close to the same frequency I am not sure but I know it needs work.

3. OK just listen at :47 you can tell the kick drum is clipping everything in the song And I am not sure what you did but You made the kick overpowering and the bass even more overpowering then that.

What I suggest is look into how to probably eQ and compress your song cause it was done very amateur here

I would like you to know I am not trying to be harmful here but more a less help you further you understanding in mastering And mixing. I would suggest you look into how a compressor works and how to probably use one

The strings at the first where good like someone below me said The need more attack so it not so sudden and It will make it sound more realistic

The build up was very nice a good use of the filter and It wasn't overused which is also good.

The drums other the the kick where good maybe a little more variation would have goon a long way.

It seems like melody and the bass are playing the exact same melody which isn't a problem but I find it lacks variation in the song make it less exciting

The piano was a nice touch but again seemed to play relatively the same melody the whole way through

I think the glitch stuff you threw in was a good idea But I found it was sudden and you didn't give us your audience a chance to see it coming. It sorta felt random to me like it wasn't suppose to be there but Only because you didn't have it anywhere else n the song

Lastly I found the outro was very generic and could of been done better just lowering the volume is a lazy was of going about it.

I don't find this to be a bad song I think it has potential I just think you need to think about and listen to how things sound more and realize when something isn't working

And again I am not trying to attack you just giving my opinion

well I hope to here more from you in the future and I will continue to listen to your stuff and see how things progress

Have A Great Day :)

XenoxX!

KroweMusic responds:

I pretty much agree with everything you said. This song kinda sucks. I thought it was outstanding when I posted it. That's usually the case with all my songs :P

But hey, I'm still learning, even after producing for 2 years.

Thanks for all of the critique and advice. I really appreciate it :)

[[e99] Euphoria]

Whoa

I think this would be like 50 times better if the kick wasn't so overpowering everything in your song clips sounds like a giant sidechange.

e991e responds:

I'll see what i can do.

Any tips?

[Barnaby Rave (WIP)]

Well

I don't think this deserves a 0 But In my oppinion this could you loads of work.

Main synth is terrible ( No Offense ) Sounds like a Nexus Preset to me but the point is this song needs more dynamics. A better kick Better choice Of drums. I didn't Hear any bass actually.

Also I suggest Looking at the layout of your song and think of how you want people to inter-put it cause for me it didnt have a underlying story just random patterns

As it is I can see your fairly amateur in the process of mixing / mastering and I would suggest looking up some tips in the areas of Compression Proper EQ'in Limiting. Maybe in future projects think of how each sounds with one an other make sure there are no conflicts.

I hope this Helps and was in no way meant to be harmful Just my opinion

Have A Great Day

XenoxX :)

Pizzaroma responds:

I could've not used a preset, but I personally did like it. In retrospect, the song really could have used a bass line.

As far as layout, it's not exactly random, but I don't agree that songs have to have "underlying stories". A lot of good songs don't.

As far as the mixing - I should've used some panning (it's all mono), and a little bit of EQ and compression. Although... what did you use to listen to the song? Listening on certain headphones or on speakers could have an effect on the sound.

Thanks for the review, was hoping on more useful suggestions though, but anything I can get is good...

[~EnV~WobbleWobble]

BOEJBEOCNECBE

DUDUEUDEUD THSI HIRS THE BEST SHIT I EVER HH EHEARD I FIVE BOMBED FOR YOU MY LOVER UBEWPJCBEF

Envy responds:

I LOVE YOU <3

WHY HAVEN'T WE HAD BABIES YET.

[[LK] Our Dream]

Yo.

So here we go kinda a long review but I think this song could use some work and heres what i think you should look into...

First off let me say that Nexus is never the way to go I mean its good for some background stuff but the leads and pianos are well over used so much its sad and again the pianos just really don't sound that good with out some serious work done to them and I know its just there to show where the singer will be at but still for the future I would suggest finding a new vst to use for Leads and the more important parts of a song, Like the piano

OK so my personal opinion is that this song doesn't really have much variation I mean you have break downs and what not but really the song follows the exact same melody and to me that kinda makes it boring like for example if you go to the end of the song and let it loop the the beginning its pretty well the same...

well anyways another thing I Noticed is around 35 seconds when the piano is hitting the chords it seems to have some clipping on the pad maybe need to work on that some and the fact that you lead and pad basically sound the same just one has a longer sustain time so the kinda sound like there onto of each other...

And the last thing it that you have so much going on how the higher frequencies that the lower ones are really week such as the bass and kick and also you Hi-Hats Also seem to be blending with your pad and lead.

So In the end I don't think the song is bad I just think you need to give it more variation and master it a lot more and maybe choose so different samples I know nexus sounds good but its over used and makes you look amerture

SO yeah don't mind my typing I am horrid at it lol

5/5
8/10

Have A Great Day!

XenoxX :)

LK412 responds:

First of all thanks for the nice review.

Ya, my mixing/eq-ing/mastering was awful when i made this. It's improved but not by a whole lot, so i need this.

As for the variation, this song was supposed to have vocals, so i made it with that in mind. It never really panned out so i was left with this.

Ya, i used nexus a crap load cuz i just got it when i made the song, so that is why there is a shit load of that in there XD.

I will DEFINITELY keep this mixing/mastering tips in mind, i really need to learn.

Again, thanks for the awesome review!

[{425} XenoxX]

Yo!

So look sorry I took so long to write this been a busy week for me lol!

But anyways Man this is aWesomeness right here I was pretty surprised to see this to be honest but yeah just never had a dedication before...

Anyways I really enjoyed the melody I like my music to have a unique melody And you seemed to have accomplished that so awesome work there

awesome work man thanks so much!

PS: My favorite instrument to use is a piano but its still amazing with out it lol.

Awesome job :)

XenoxX :)

Michael425 responds:

It's cool man. Us producers can fall behind on things easily. I thought it was fitting to make a song in attempts to match some of the feeling I hear in your songs. Especially after listening the 10-20 songs of yours I have in my iTunes. Glad you enjoyed it. And I also had a version with a piano intro, but it didn't feel as complete as this one. Thanks for the great review man.

~{425}~

[.HLS. Bittersweet Symphony]

Nice work!

I am not going to write a really long speech like I Used to but One thing is make the bass more Reese like I think the hole song is good just the bass kinda lacks a little.

Overall nice long song!

10/10
5/5

Have A Great Day!

XenoxX :)

heartless1298 responds:

Thanks!

[[LC] -Audio Meltdown]

Awesome work!

Nice job one this everything sounds awesome!!!!

5/5
10/10

Have A great Day!

XenoxX :)

ElectricalBypass responds:

Thanks!

[~EnV~Everywhere]

Awesome job

I love the vocals awesome job!!! Awesome transitions as always!

Overall amazing job ( I would write a longer review but I am watching a movie! )

10/10
5/5

Have A Great Day!

XenoxX :)

Envy responds:

Thanks for the review! Enjoy your movie!