Drewpy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Chael - Corruption]

Holy heck and a half this is huge dude

Frick me dude wow why even bother submitting now lol

Falsesouth responds:

I say still go for it. If you dominate in composition it will go in your favour a lot more. Thanks <3

[Wild Wild Night]

Here from r4r

I think you have a good sense of atmosphere, which is really important if you want to pursue making this style of music.

Pros:
Again, your sense of atmosphere is great
The main melody has a lot of power!
Harmonies usually work with your chords and melody, which is not the easiest thing to pull off
Sound design is generally pretty good, not counting some mixing stuff (I'll get back to that)
Percussion doesn't suck. This is a big problem with a ton of producers on here; one which you don't have. Nice work!

Cons:
The main thing is definitely mixing. Bass being too loud at certain points, EQ being wonky, etc. I highly recommend watching YouTube tutorials on how to achieve a good mix, there are loads of great ones. It's just a bunch of little changes that add up and make the track sound immensely better. Practice is key here! You'll naturally get better as you go.
The song is also very repetitive as well. Though this is largely a personal preference thing, it's pretty much always better to add variation in the melodies over the course of the track.

Suggestions:
Maybe at the drop, have a big release of tension, like a louder cymbal or a downsweep. Whatever you think sounds best. The cymbal you used I thought didn't have enough energy to effectively break that tension you built.
Use plucks or higher percussive noises! Remember this is just a suggestion, so it's entirely up to you, but I think this track could benefit from higher melodies with a harder attack.

Overall, not bad, but the mixing was a big crutch to the overall enjoyability of the track. You're headed in the right direction though, and you definitely are in a good place musically! PM me if you have any questions. Keep it up!

ScottJacob responds:

Hey man, this really helps me out. One issue i think is the headphones i use. I need to start using speakers again, at least for the mixdown. But yeah mixing has always been my worst, i need more practice for sure. Your response definitely shines some light on what i can work on to improve. Thank you so much for spending the time and writing feedback!

[Like An Animal]

Everyone pointing out that the lyrics match other songs by San Holo and Teminite, he's just using a sample pack (from Splice I think???) that's available to use for anyone. He's not being unoriginal at all.

DJVI responds:

Yes the lyrics are from Splice!

[Abandoned]

I'm actually here from R4R hehe

This is actually super impressive that this just flowed from your brain through your fingers into this music. I know you said it was edited, but this all came from your brain. Good stuff right here, I totally should listen to this while driving at night or something to calm my nerves. This is a super beautiful piece, and every time I hear something like this, I feel worse and worse about quitting piano (not that my teacher was actually teaching me anything anyway). It's stunning how you created this and I'm super impressed by the musicality and emotion that flows from this piece. It captures all the nostalgic and sad parts of childhood, and I couldn't be more at ease while listening to it. I only wish it were longer. Awesome work

Onefin responds:

Doesn't everything everyone make come from their brains? :/

Thanks for the review! Piano is truly the most beautiful instrument in the world and you should totally pick it back up sometimes :) Lessons can only teach you so much about how beautiful the piano really is; for me it just comes down to sitting in front of a keyboard and figuring it out yourself.

[Just in Time]

Pros:
It's a chill song and wouldn't feel out of place on a beach or something like that
The drums are pretty fantastic (besides maybe the crash, I'll get to that in a bit)
Mastering for sure was pretty good, and it isn't over compressed which is a common issue
It's not too repetitive, it stays interesting for the most part

Cons:
The crash symbol 1:05 seemed really out of place and out of time
For an experimental song, I might have wanted to be a little more on my toes about what I'm hearing.There isn't too much of a wow factor. This isn't a very big issue, it's more of a personal thing.
The guitar wasn't always quantized right, and it sounded a little imprecise at times because it wouldn't play at the same time as the drums, which stayed consistent.

Overall, not bad. It's not a song I would just want to turn on and listen to, but I certainly don't mind hearing it. It's really relaxing, it's just that there are a few issues with it that need to be addressed. Keep up the good work!

GotWeez responds:

Thank you!

I agree with the crash symbol at 1:05... though that's actually there as a que in for an accompanying video. I really should fix it though.

The reason why the guitar was off from the drums at times is actually because I added the drums as an afterthought. When I originally recorded the guitar samples, i was planning on a percussive guitar track. I didn't like how that turned out, but was so pleased with the samples I had already recorded that I created the drum track and then tried to sync the existing guitar samples to it. That, and in one of the longer "lull" moments towards the middle of the song, there was going to be a violin track; but my violinist never came through to record so I kept the lull moment in for length, and I kind of spaced out during it while I was tripping so I decided I loved it lol.

I'm really pleased with how the drums came out. I actually used Ableton's "Vintage Bright" samples for their very natural sounding acoustic decay, and imported them into Fruity Loops to sequence. For the snare, I alternated between a hard hit and a soft hit in order to emulate a left and right stick. This definitely helped make it sound more natural or recorded and not sequenced. A little reverb polished the effect. There are a few parts where I actually doubled the drum track and added a beat repeat on the the double for a more disorganized (though still in-time) and electronic sound. For the hi-hat, I did the same thing, and alternated between a closed foot, and a soft closed stick hit.

I placed it under experimental largely because of it's unconventional timing. The beat for the song actually falls on the first and third counts; similar to DnB or early Dubstep. To me, it sounds like post-rock... but would be closer to jazz as far as it's timing. That's how I felt anyhow.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for reviewing!

BTW... I love how you mentioned it sounds like it belongs at a beach; I live in Myrtle Beach XD

One more thing to note: I'm not a fan of mixing with compression. Compression is a great tool when you're backed into a corner, but if you can avoid it; you should. Mixing/Mastering, at least in my style, is 90% volume, 10% Everything else.

[The Beautiful Power]

Here from R4R thread:

As always, your melodies here are outstanding. They're super engaging and fun. This would be great as a boss fight theme. I only have 2 issues with it: the first is the overall lack of clarity, but this isn't huge because, well, the C64 doesn't have the clearest audio anyway. The second is that some of the synths don't feel like they really belong together, particularly the transition just before 1:00. I don't know if this is just me being picky, but it kind of threw me off a bit. Nitpickiness aside, this is a great track with great melodies, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

littlelamp100 responds:

thank you for the feedback! really glad you enjoyed it :D

[Mega Man Y+1: Phoenix Man]

Wow! This really sounds like it belongs in a Mega Man game for sure. It truly mimics that classic retro feel more than the vast majority of songs I find here on NG. The synths work really well together, the compression is nice, the mastering is great, the energy is high, what's not to love? The melodies are all so engaging and I really enjoyed it!

Oh, also those tom fills were savage.

Keep it up!! This is a great track, so please don't stop making them!

littlelamp100 responds:

thank you! it was made in a program that emulates the NES hardware, similar to what paragonx9 did with chaoz fantasy 8 bit. that's why it sounds so authentic. i really wish more people on NG used famitracker

[Theme of Worlds III - Carrie St. Dress-Code | 2013]

This song would honestly sound perfect in an indie game. I like the part with the music.

Seriously though, the mastering is really good, and the melodies and harmonies are stupendous. The leads are all very well engineered and well equalized. It's not in-your-face or straight ambience, so it's really pleasant to listen to. So thanks for the listen!

Bertn1991 responds:

Whoa, that... was lovely :-)

Thank you so much for your very kind a thoughtful review. That really meant a lot to me. You can check out my art submission for this song, too, if you care. Anyways, thanks again, sir. You seem like a cool person. I'mma give you a follow