This is a short review.
Remove some of the reverb on either the kick or the barely audible timpani and the mix will become cleaner. Right now something is causing the reverb to just create too much background noise taking away from the strings. Good melody overall just fix it up a bit and you'll have a nice piece.
There is a lot of reverb, I'll try toning it down a bit. thanks for the review and advice.
Awesome percussion
I don't think anything is wrong with the percussion fits just right. Sounds good and beats my percussion if you ask me by far.
The intro sounded great but maybe a tad too much reverb on the percussion. Your kick seems like you have it down.
1:00 ish you bring in a bass thing. It sounds like it has some reverb on it not a fan of low basses and reverb. Try layering in the future with high mid and low bass. Try to keep it mono in the low end too.
2:00 padbreak down. Not enough going on at this point. 20 seconds is too long for just a pad and a few synthes here and there. Try some atmospheric sounds and FX along with a more layered pad to get a good filling sound.
2:30 Nexus saw, this saw just sucks for trance. It is way to harsh in my opinion and doesn't float in the mix like a good saw lead could. Makes a good happy hardcore lead but just isn't what a trance song (in my opinion) needs.
3:00 Everything sounds good the bass still seems a little to on top of the mix with the reverb.
4:00 to outro. You've got your outro down sounds fine to me.
The overall mix was good but some synthe layering couldn't do any harm. A good airy sound makes trance a good listen. While it had a strong idea the melody was nothing to go gaga over but it was nice. Arp melodies are hit and miss for me.
Cheers.
Reverb is gods gift to men but also a curse. It either makes sound phat and in general, really nice or makes the whole song sound weird. I didn't use much reverb but it's fairly noticable on the percussions like the snare/rimshot thingy.
Your right on the kick though it sometimes has trouble holding up but i didn't want it to be too strong either. I think i balanced it enough but oh well :).
Low bass + small reverb = phatness. It certainly did help without reverb but maybe i overdid it? I dunno. but i never thought about the whole Layerinh mid high and low thing, thanks for that !.
I should have made the whole break with some more details and tension. Maybe some more FX or other synths. Or maybe the bass rolling on only 1 note. But it didn't really fit, so i couldn't be bothered anymore and moved to the chorus :). Afterwards i was like, Meh it's alright. I don't like making breaks in the first place but i'll keep that in mind in my next project.
I know :( Nexus saws are way too cheezy, i tried to EQ it a little but no hope. For now, i don't have anything else that is better. Geuss i have to go soul-searching in the forest known as the internet again.
The bass stands in the spotlight in this song. I didn't want the lead to steal the show because then it would end up being something .. else.. For now i mainly focused on the beat ( percussions etc. ) and the bass giving it a slightly housey-tribalish percussion sound to it. That's why the melody/lead is kinda left out.
What defines a good producer from a regular one, is that he carefully makes each part and never leaves one in dust. I Geuss that's what i did wrong.
I should focus more on the entire song instead of each part.
Thanks for your input, i hope you like my next song more :). I'll try to make it sound airy but i never succeed. So bleh. Geuss you will have to wait :P.
Till then Mrmilkcarton, Till then..
-firebolt-
I likes it.
I'm stingy on my pianos sadly soundfonts are not the greatest for quality. I also have a tendency to love pianos with a good strong reverb on them. The dryness of your piano takes away from the overall mix for me. Anyway I'll do this the easier way and go by times.
Intro - Offbeat bass hurray. I'm sure you could do a little better. The plucky synthe's delay could use more feedback to give a wider feeling. The reverb on it doesn't seem to be too strong either (if any).
0:28 - Piano enters and eh not a fan of it I hear some reverb but not the strong saturated sound I have in mind. Plucky synthe still kind of takes over the overall mix.
1:00 - Percussion has wowed me but overall it's fine. You keep interest with the transitional style sounds which is awesome good job on that.
1:30 You have a new lead it seems I like this one with the pad behind it. The plucky synthe comes back in still in need of better delay (in my opinion).
2:15 Not sure what this new synthe is but it widens up the mix a bit. Arp in the background is good not too loud or too quiet just the right amount. Your bass is still offbeat and the mid to high end range is losing in the fight for the mix. Your bass sounds filtered because of it's lack of higher frequencies, try layering more then one bass some at different octaves.
2:40 The piano is brought back in, this time it fits a little better since the mix has more going on then before.
3:15 Synthe breakdown/lead?
3:40 Back to where we started, not much to say an outro is an outro.
The things I liked outweighed the things I didn't which is hard now n' days to find that among newgrounds. Try to work on your bass it's interesting but it's not a "how can I achieve that" kind of bass. Try layering since and working with longer delays.
Everything is just my opinion as is everyone's review so don't take anything to heart. I tend to review songs I like anyway.
I'm glad you like it!
I personally felt that the offbeat bass fit the song quite nicely, and it's not always off beat either, I mix it up. I look into the pluck synth, I had to mess around with it because it was conflicting with the new lead at 2:15, so I had to mono-lize it a bit, I'll try and spread the reverb out more.
I didn't have alot of reverb on the piano b/c it was ringing too much in the whole mix, and then I was getting some balance issues with the reverb. Sorry you don't like the piano all that much, and I'll have to go against you on soundfont quality, I haven't found anything that sounds more realistic, feel free to check out my one song called Changes, it's under Classical. That's a soundfont :P
Glad the percussion didn't bore you :D
At 1:30, that's actually the same lead as at the beginning, just with a pad behind it. I enjoyed making that pad, it's rather full.
All my synths are 3xOsc, I really seperated the sound on it so that it covers the whole mix, as a lead should :3 The arp was a thing I decided to put in near the end, I felt that I needed to make the climax more interesting with some moving parts in the background. Concerning the bass, I didn't want too much mids and highs on it, or else it can conflict with the synths.
Thanks for the review Mrmilkcarton! It was quite the review, and I'll look into a few of the things you pointed out.
Autotune?
When listening to the song it almost seems like autotune was being used. Mostly the transition from one word to another was where it seemed to falter. I dunno if it is just me but bothers me not knowing if it is or not.
Overall the song is well produced even if I'm not a fan of Disney music. You two should certainly do more together.
Sorry, no auto-tune. That would be rude to my co-artist. Hey, Celine Dion sure sounds like she's got auto-tune going all the time. lol I guess we can take that as a compliment. :P There is compression, reverb, and a little chorus but not much. Maybe it sounds digital because of those effects. When I sing, I like to practice avoiding humanized note transitions, so that may also be why it sounds auto-tuned. Thanks for the compliments and review. :D
I like where this is going
Sounding good so far. The melody is superb and the mix sounds good too. You'll have to give me a message when the full song is out so I can properly review it.
Cheers and congrats on top 5 spot.
Thanks man :)! Miles Away was sick by the way!
Thats alot of bass
That kick has a huge tail to it lol. Sounded good till a few more elements were brought in and then the mix got a little crowded in the low end. Your kick sounds fine but I can't seem to figure out what the bass is doing.
As far as structure goes it sounds great I personally liked it but the bass end in my headphones took over and I couldn't hear as much as I could. Maybe a sidechain on the Bass could help clean up the low end. Even using an EQ to give independent frequencies to the bass and Kick could help it out some.
Anyway you has my 5s.
Always room to improve
"A raw piano love song for a girl at my school. but no-one at school knows I compose :p
meh, she'll never know"
I was exactly like that at my high school till last year. I decided to tell one of my friends. Just ONE and now half the school knows I make music. :-/ Was just at a soccer game today and a guy I know asked about my music. Was kinda funny cause I never mentioned anything to him about it.
Anyways enough ranting for the song. I'm a fan of reverb so I say give the piano more reverb to seem like it's floating. Maybe even a new piano sample could help you out :P .
As for the feeling of the song it's nice but a touch melancholy. I figure love is a mix of emotions but you stick with one which is aight. At 1:13 you switch to descending arpeggios which almost changes the mood and image of the song. It seems like it doesn't feel fit with the song, it almost reminds me of the Final fantasy series of music. Just try to stick with one idea when making a song like this and always keep dynamics in mind.
Cheers.
hmm, yes - thankyou.
a very helpful review.
1. Reverb - I'm gonna put a reverb bus in and some instruments - like strings.
2. I just thought of the descending arpeggios and thought it was kinda different,
but if there is anything anyone doesn't like - I'll cut it^^
3. I totally forgot about dynamics - so thankyou. (but this was recorded - so dynamics seem natural when I'm playing. but of course a keyboard is not the same as a nice piano)
The reason i uploaded so early is because I thought the MAC9 deadline was on that nite :-/ I was wrong lol.
thanks alot - and this has been really helpful.
>>Zero123Music
Sounds like a sytrus saw
So you have a good intro to the song but the pad sounds really dry to begin with. Some EQ could brighten it up a little. The intro is a little long and not so progressive so it kinda eats away at the users attention span. When it finally does hit you got my attention. Try to avoid 30 seconds of the same synthe even if it is a melody it just doesn't have the dynamics needed to keep people's attention.
I was a little caught off guard by the reverb clap in the beginning with the kick it didn't fit until later in the song it wasn't as over powering. Not really much to say about the drum patterns though other then that (not exactly my strong point in music).
Through out the song it's just constant energy and no melody really sticks out to me. Really feels like a synthe shredding song. For games I'm sure it really doesn't make a difference but a song with a strong melody can keep users coming back and looking for more. A break can sometimes make the main melody obvious saying "Hey right here this is what you should remember from this song". It's just my opinion though. A song can be made anyway you want it to be I know I've had my fair share of songs that didn't follow any set path.
For the mix overall try to make sure not to over crowd frequencies and cause chaos. More is not always better, sometimes less can make something more pleasing to the ear.
Best of luck with future songs even though this is an old track it's still good.
My point EXACTLY. This is an OLD SONG. Yes, it has a long intro. That's the worst thing about it, imo. Yes, it doesn't have a huge main melody. This one is meant for RAVES, not video games.
Make Moar!
Man you always do things perfectly when you try them dude. You gotta tell me more often when you add new songs.
Is there more then a club mix might I ask? Cause I wantz moar.
Cheers mate keep it up.
thanks milkimannnnnnn!11111111111111
naw the club mix is shitttttt, this is just the good bit i think, without dj intro and outro and stuff to save space so it can be higher quality.
FX on yo voice
I'm not sure what you're trying to imply about my breasts.
You could sing I'm sure but try some effects and the like on your voice to boost it's quality,
YOU COULD BE THE NEXT KANYE!
I makes music is I cool yet?
Age 32, Male
Sound Design
CA
Joined on 7/19/06
Bridging Worlds 
