Yodamanjaro's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Approaching Infinity]

I'm going to try to be nice about this.

This isn't trance, first of all. Where's the quarter note kick drums? The typical perc set for a trance track is kick drum quarter, off-beat open hi hat and a clap on beat 2 and 4. Maybe add some pads to emphasize the chord structure you're conveying on here.

To help your sound I suggest you buy (there's free samples as well) a good sample pack. One that specializes in the style of music you prefer to make. Keep making songs because it's good practice.

I love the effort here but if you really want to strive to become a big-time producer such as Ferry Corsten or Armin Van Buuren you'll have to keep at it, no matter what. Listen to what they make or listen to what other artists you love to listen to and try and mimic what they make. If you can make something close to their songs in terms of actual sound then try your hand at an original. I GUARANTEE you your sound will explode in terms of quality.

Something you won't learn by doing that, however, is actual song-writing skills. This either comes with musical experience or by listening to a TON of trance and somehow picking up what "sounds good" to your ears. Don't make something that is edgy...yet. Establish yourself as an artist before really going out there because getting your roots laid out is one of the most important things.

I hope you actually read this review instead of just seeing the 2 stars and telling me I don't know anything. Listen to some of my songs, I wouldn't be offering this advice if it didn't help me in the past.

Bacon92 responds:

Thank you for the review. I was debating with my friend whether this was trance or not (I personally thought it was not due to my exclusion of 4x4 kick). However, to humor him, I put it in this genre. I should have just ignored him. I appreciate all the advice and encouragement; I wish I could receive more reviews like these. I know that even after two years of music programming, I've got a long way to go. So thanks again.

- Professor Admiral Bacon

[Let´s Party!]

False.

This is dance. Look at your percussion, leads and synths. Maybe it's a tad slower than your average dance song but it's still dance. Sorry to break it to you kid.

Throw in a pluck SOMEWHERE, make the pads smoother so they're easier on the ears. Choose a lead sound that fits well with the rest of the song so the ears accept it easier. Learn the genre by listening to actual professional trance tracks. Do what they do. Once you do this you'll come back and tell yourself you haven't begun trance yet.

Good luck.

r4bbit responds:

meh... i have no time to make this song better.

[<MWA> Dream Trance]

Wrong Genre

This isn't dream trance. Look up Robert Miles - the unofficial creator of dream trance. His song "Children" really introduced the subgenre to a lot of listeners. What we have here is just another progressive track at a much slower pace than most.

I could see why you wanted to name it that way, but in the future please know that's not where this track belongs. On a side note, the track wasn't too bad.

BTW if you really think this is dream trance PM me.

mjattie responds:

Gui boratto (look for him on youtube) makes dreamtrance and I think some of his songs are quite similar to this one, though, this is not really similar to robert miles....

[PotencY - Enter Nirvana]

Interesting

To be honest, I'm giving you the 7/10 because I realize you've put a ton of work into this track. I've been there, I definitely know how it feels to put a lot of work into one song (look at one of my super old songs called "The Adventure" if you want to know exactly which one I'm talking about - irrelevant to this review).

I see you've put time into EQ and the like, but it seems like you didn't do it the right way. There's easily a wrong way to EQ a song, and you certainly wasn't told by anyone that "helped" you along the way of making this. 84 hours is quite a bit for one track, I really hope most of it was just you leaving the computer idle with FL open...

Ok, some of the things you can look at for your next track:

- Your percussion here is too heavy. When I say that I mean your hi hats, claps, other random percussion instruments (that you loop).

- The sound is too cluttered. I had this problem myself, it's normal. But this is something you need to really work on if you want people to really appreciate your song ideas (like melody and song progression). If there's a poor to mediocre presentation, your idea, even if it's amazing, will be shot down most likely by listeners.

- Like Tuscanic, your high-end EQ is way too high. He said "a bit", but I want to emphasize this point. It's WAY TOO HIGH. You never want to put too much into something, which leads to this pretty simple and easy phrase to remember:

"Less is more."

Apply that to your volume levels, EQing and song structure (so not as many things are playing, clears up the sound).

Last, but not least: there really isn't a clear melody in this track. It's like you're holding back on us with the main point of the song. There's buildup, foundation and progression but nothing to really make the deal with my ears. Yes, there's a melody but is being taken away by everything else you've put into the song. Bring out the melody by bringing down whatever else is getting in the way. This might be yet another EQ issue but it's already said and done.

At this point I urge you to work on a new track. Let this one be and take it as a great stepping stone in your production. From here you can only go up and learn more.

Oh, and good luck. ;)

Mea-Anima responds:

Wow..

I doubt if i've ever had a better review on one of my songs. Thank you so much !!, Everything you have told me completely makes sense to me. I really didn't hear it at all, and this might be the case because of my speakers which i had on with a big subwoofer increasing the bass like a madman. Yet, my 3th track has been made by me with an Ultrasone DJ1 Pro headset that devotes into giving sound as clear and natural as possible. So with my new song (which i also uploaded already) PotencY - Thunder Decade these high EQ and heavy percussion issues should be gone now.

For I doubt it is a matter of inexperience into EQ'ing. (since i alreaady got so much criticm for it). You urged me to make a new track, I urge you to come vote and review it haha !

You might want to give that a listen and perhaps placing one of these magnificient reviews if you wouldn't mind.

Thanks again,
Take Care,
PotencY

[TI:.Alternate Attention]

I hope you take no offense to what I'm gonna say.

I'm giving you a 10. Because this is Newgrounds, where this is actually good among the rest. I'm a *decent* trance producer, if I can say so myself, so I'm hoping you actually read this review and try to work on what I'm about to say...

Here is what I would FIRST work on:

- Gross beat. Don't use it as much. Us FL users can tell when someone uses it, and it's already a bit old to use without REALLY changing things up. If you're not using GB, sorry but it sounds like you were in parts.

- Volume levels. I'm not sure if anyone else will tell you this, but they are actually not the greatest. Not close actually, if you want to get technical, but I won't be here. The big thing for trance is that you have to have a good exchange between the kick. And that their frequencies don't clash. When they do, you've got a song like this one starting right back at you. So what should you do about this? Don't have the bass as high right now. It's too loud, actually. Your kick is drowning below the rest. Percussion is what drives trance, despite what others will tell you. Since percussion drives it, bring percussion to the front.

- Percussion. Not a lot of it here. People don't like to stand around waving their arms for 90% of a song. Your song is no exception. Please take out some of the breakdowns you have and add more percussion (meaning kick/clap/hi hat). This song is like a 4 minute breakdown.

- More percussion details. You've got uplifts. Put a down after the uplift so it completes the tension. Not having one disrupts the "flow" of a track.

- Even more percussion details. Don't have as many "hits." If you love them so much, put them in places that you SHOULD put them in (start of a phrase), not in the middle of a breakdown like you did. It's just not proper trance producing. Listen to professional tracks and you can listen for yourself to prove what I'm telling you here is right.

What you can work on after you're done with those:

- Mastering. It's a terrible thing to do on a Friday night, but it has to be done if you want your track to sound "good." A friend once told me - Producing is 10% making the song and 110% is mastering what you've just made. This is completely true. You cold have the best melody and sounds in the world, but if it's not mastered well, it will sound like crap no matter what you do. I would rather hear a non-existent melody and song structure with a super-clean master THAN hearing this (decent melody and song structure with "meh" mastering/EQ work).

- Don't know how to properly master a song? Ask around. SOMEONE should know how to do it right. Ask me if you really want to, I can give you more pointers.

- Mask your samples. This means add more FX (than you already have, which sounds like none) to your percussion samples and other effects (i.e. uplift, crashes). If you mask them well, no one will be able to recognize where you got them from (which happens a lot here, I'm sure you know that).

Lastly, if you want serious advice with producing in general and want to further yourself, NG may not always be the best place to look for that kind of help (at your level of producing at least, it's good for starters). Again, PM me on that.

If I were to go through here and tell you little things, you won't ever get what I'm trying to tell you to fix. It's not about what to fix on this track, but rather help you improve overall on your production skills so you can look back at this remake and laugh at it, telling yourself that you sucked at producing at this point in your life. I can attest that I've done that quite a bit. And I'm sure I'll be telling myself that same thing one day to the music I'm producing in the near-future. That's just how it goes.

TIMarbury responds:

i must thank you a lot for this review because i agree with you completely. I know i have a LONG way to go in production quality and if i really want to go somewhere i need to leave newgrounds at some point. Gross beat, ya i agree it isn't so great to use everyone saids that to me so i don't take that lightly anymore. Percussion has never been my strong point and i think i need to work on that the most out of anything in my song producing, because it is pretty low level. I basically mask over the fact i have no percussion with some nice melodies but it won't work forever. I think putting the hits in more progression is what you are saying instead of putting them like every half beat for like 10 seconds which i understand. oh yea volume levels are loud, using a limiter in the master is the only thing from making this track clip hard. the bass itself is mixed it a way where the low is OVERDRIVED to a point where no other low can drive though ( such as a bass drum which you mentioned ). I understand all the things you are getting at. It is just gonna take more learning and time to understand how to combat these issues and grow out of this stage as i call it. I think i get how to master a song for the most part but not 100 percent but i think i can learn from myself what works and what doesn't work, if not asking others is great. I definitely agree with you at the laughing back at old tracks as i do that now with my old stuff because i feel i grew a lot even though someone like you might not see as much of an improvement, but to me i think i did improve a lot in just understanding music production. Obviously i'm not there yet but if i really put time into it i think i'm smart enough to understand what to do. I will definitely get back to you if i need any help or any question about production. Especial with peak controllers because i don't know how to use them effectively and i think that is a big way to help the mastering become cleaner. thanks so much :)

[-ganon95- Nyan Cat]

Hmm

Your master isn't exactly clean.

Since I'm not sure how this song originated, I can't say too much else but talk about
the master you put on this song...or the lack of.

My suggestion to you is to make this into a more full-sounding song. It may not be in your intentions but it would be more-well suited.

Throw some cowbell in there too. Lots of cowbell. Might help your overall sound too.

Ya know, scratch the cowbell. Never made sense in the first place.

ganon95 responds:

by 'master' i assume you are referring to mastering.

this song has no mastering because i made sure the instruments all remained at a consistent volume.

this is not meant to be a 'full song' its just meant to be a showing of the beat and some extra stuff i added in there. if you haven't heard the original then i think you should look at it.

cowbell would be the dumbest add-on in the history of remixes.

honestly...a 0 is a bit steep considering its only about the mastering and not the song itself

[Morph - Jump Into A Puddle...]

ha.

I would hardly call this perfect, it could still use some more close mastering and EQ work. But this is NG (I just reminded myself), so here's a 10.

If you do indeed spend the extra time to master a track I would be definitely interested in checking it out!

Morphone responds:

Yeah, I REALLY didn't feel like doing mastering. It no doubt needs some mastering and I can do mastering but I do get very lazy at times. I never said it was perfect anywho. I'll master it another time. I only made it in two days.

[The Rift]

Hmm

As a trance track, this isn't that great. As an ambient track however, it's pretty decent. Please put this in ambient for the rest of us.

Thanks!

Cirrow responds:

Wasn't aware ambience had thumping drums and saw leads in it O_O

Thanks for the review!

[(AO) No Vox]

Nice samples

I can tell you don't know my friend. His name is Param EQ 2. This is under the mixer in FL, and is very handy for most instruments. It can let your lows have more low. Even more low than what your samples get naturally.

Also, masking samples is something I would try to go for at this point, it shows a higher level of professionalism.

AntiOxygen responds:

Constructive review!
I made this quite a while ago, before I met our mutual friend Mr. Param.

[[DF] Crush]

You're right.

I can't either.

To say why I can't wait?

I hardly call this music. It's poorly organized, not very wisely constructed melody, and cuts off at the end of the loop.

darphfluffy responds:

lol