tweerock's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Accidental Trauma]

Honestly

This is pretty cool, but nothing I haven't already heard before. There's the plain 4/4 snare drum found in metal all the time, simple guitar work, and some parts that sound like they're sequenced (which isn't necessarily bad, but in this case, it seriously takes from the professionalism).

Vocals are far too compressed and static. With harmonies, the most annoying thing ever is 3 people singing at the same pitch, instead of being given individual parts to play. The mixing is off, which annoyed me, but this is minor.

Now, keep in mind, although it sounds pretty negative, and it seems I'm the black sheep of the lot, this is purely constructive criticism from another musician to give you something to improve on. I still rated a 5 and favorite'd this, so you'd probably want to know what you've done right.

Firstly, high energy. Obviously, you guys put a lot of effort into this. I love that in rock songs, even if they are really simple . There is absolutely no point in making music if you don't enjoy it to the utmost.

The melody with the vocals is nice. It sounds static, yes, but I'm not saying it's bad just because of that little nitpick (still, there's no point in having 3 tenors, get some bass up in this). It flows with the string section in the background, which personally I think isn't brought out enough (I would have used SID arps and saws, but that's just me, haha), but is very, very complimentary. Sounds nice!

Lastly, you happen to share the last name of the artist Takashi Murakami, which I find interesting. This song does sound like a blend between western and eastern styles (heavy metal mixed with Japanese energy).

In Japanese music (or any popular form of Eastern music), I've found they're not afraid to move out, open up an existing genre, and really give it their own flair, which is exactly what should happen with pop music nowadays. I respect bands and artists that go out of their way to create something artistic, not just something that sounds good.

I can really feel this here. Although I don't agree with the recent Japanese, Chinese, Korean culture (subculture of 'otaku', opression and poverty, hardcore opression, respectively), I've taken a lot of inspiration from my origin's history. I guess what I'm trying to say here is, I love this song because it blends two completely different 'cultures' of music together as an expression of art.

The whole second half of this I was ranting :p. I really enjoyed this, this is excellent. Keep up the good work!

[remmixx2]

Ah, finally

Good work!

zacharycc42 responds:

indeed! thx!

[remmixx]

A major improvement

The repetition is still there. It's important in a track like this to balance dynamics, so whenever you repeat a note that many times, let the parts you want to bring out stand out above everything else. My other issue is some musical ideas can be unexpected (the hihat intro into BassTown). Balance is the main issue here, as I love the instruments and arrangements. This isn't perfect, but it's truly a huge improvement. Good work!

zacharycc42 responds:

Thanks a lot, I might try and further improve it, as I feel that I can still do a lot with this track.I consider balnce an issue too, and I am attempting to rectify that, but I'm still fully getting used to the software I'm using, so give me time!
thanks for your advice, you're really very helpful!

[Tyurru ~ Motive]

It's neat but...

My main problem with this is the arbitrary beeps that have no melody and percussive elements that stay with the whole song. Needs a lot more bass, and some clarity. For example, the kick-beep instrument that gets played first at the start is really not cutting it. The 'dip' in sound 40 seconds in is unnecessary, if not, wrongly placed, but could have been used to great effect. The shifts are not prominent enough. When I write, I make the shifts in music really obvious with short transitions, there isn't enough shift here at all.

There are a lot of positive elements about this song. It sounds really spacey, which is cool, and has a really nice feeling. This is definitely not your best work, I remember listening to another one of yours that blew me away, but this, I felt, needed some criticism :)

I'm gonna check out some of your newer/other stuff. Good work so far!

[+*. Ta Chika Cha (edit) .*+]

6 Stringed guitar

You know, just because a guitar has 6 strings doesn't mean you need to play them all at the same time :p. I don't mind, actually, it doesn't give or take away anything from the song.

Same review as before. Only thing that vexes me is the instrument you chose for sax. It just sounds a little bit uninspired to me, no matter how well it works with the rest of the song. I know a really nice bunch of soundfonts (high quality, trust me) that I use for these kinds of things:

soundfonts dot darkesword dot com

Good piece :)

Special-Ed responds:

Yeah I know about the 6 strings thing, and I just realised it after submitting it. You may not like it, but the truth is it is uninspired. I didn't make this for eveyone else, I made it for myself to enjoy, and modify the sound accordingly, and I dont have time to go back and tweak it so others can too. I'd love to, of course, but I just can't.

+*. Special Ed .*+

[Leapord Gecko]

59 seconds

I find it funny how this is one second under a minute.

Anyway, finally, I'm hearing a new piece from you, it's pretty awesome, man! I love the fast, shuffling beat, it really gives something to this piece. And those chord shifts are awesome too, you really get a nice feeling from this piece.

All in all, this is pretty supreme. I'm looking forward to more stuff from you in the future :)

[Man Up]

Is it a good thing...

...that I've been using LMMS for so long I know every single instrument, sample or preset you're using?

Anyway, my review is the same for this as it was for the others. Nice writing, but the sound needs more cleanliness.

And I mentioned this a few minutes ago, but Hytrogen drum samples are amazing. Download them with haste.

It also took me a little while to notice the melody was from that Mulan song I wanted to cover a little while ago. Haha, nice work!

[brand new day[#]]

This reminds me...

Ahh, you remind me of so long ago when I was young(er).

Anyhow, this is an excellently written song, only the instruments, let's be blunt, are pretty horrible. Not your fault actually, cos the guitar sample that comes built into LMMS is actually a chord.

Replace your guitar instrument with Presets -> TriOsc -> SEGuitar, and plug it into a channel (let's say, 1). First, however, go to the effects tab on the instrument window, and uncheck the orange lights on Plate and Phaser. Download CamelCrusher, and put it in channel 1, set it to what you want (my personal favorite is Dark Crunch). Attach Calf Reverb onto the channel, set the wet amount higher than the dry amount, and then give it a try. This is one way of making a realistic guitar sound if you don't have a mic.

So pretty much your writing is awesome, but your program is pretty bad, and also you need a little more experience in the music writing world. Solid work, though!

[Outrun]

Hey

LMMS is a pretty limited program, but it has a lot more potential than others think. Download the "hytrogen" drumset samples for LMMS, buy (or download; some of them are free) a couple of instrument samples or VSTs and that should change the sound dramatically. Personally, I use Camel Crusher distortion, Hytrogen drumkit samples and some HQ soundfonts but everything else is LMMS native instruments and effects.

Mixing:

Not done very well/at all. There are knobs on the instruments you use, adjust them. Panning is very important, so set every instrument 'idea' on a different side of head each time (bass and percussion on left side, sine and saw waves on the right, guitar in the middle etc).

There is a module in LMMS much like a mixing board, and it makes the program so much more usable. Assign samples/instruments to a channel, add instrument effects, change volume with the fader and you've got a whole new sound. The ones I'd like you to take a look at are Reverb, Compressor and amp. You can look up how to use them online, it'll take too long for me :p

Actual writing:

Melody is nice, though it repeats a fair bit. The shifts don't change enough the elements of the song, but they definitely exist and they work very nicely. I don't know if you already do this, but plan out your song before you write it for maximum results. Leave your brain to do the coming up with song ideas, and afterword you spend more time on making the song actually work.

I see you've put up a description of what you've made the song to be, and I can sort of see it, amongst other things, but really, most of the times it's better to leave out your descriptions so other people can picture their own landscape or idea in their mind's eye.

In summary, the song is pretty good, as has a massive amount of potential. The songwriting skill is there, it just needs a little bit of experience. You technical skills aren't really there, but really, it's just like learning programming. You'll get there eventually. This is really a pretty good piece of work. Well done :D

PS. People downrate on Newgrounds. They don't listen to 10 seconds of audio and downrate it, they don't listen to it at all and downrate it. Nothing much you can do about that, unfortunately :/

[~Destiny~]

Yeah, LMMS

I use LMMS for everything. For a dance track, it sounds okay. Nice instruments, but needs more rhythmic shifts.

Solid work. 4/5 9/10

Foozogz responds:

Thanks for reviewing, I'll keep that in mind ;)