Xtrullor's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Detious - Divinity (VIP)]

Pretty nice. I think the only thing lacking here is a stronger kick and snare presence. If I were you, I'd try to make the bassdrum so present you feel it in addition to hearing it. It's kind of too weak here to my tastes. Exaggerate bravely. If it sounds bad when loud, then EQ it until it does. Or change your sample.

It usually sounds quite amazing after mastering.

But the sound design, man it's fun to listen to. You're starting to get there, I don't think I have much to comment there.

The overall frequency content feels like it's leaning too much in the highs. Some low-mids seem to be missing to make it sound a little bit more meaty and powerful. Or it's just the weak bassdrum which gives the impression.

- X

DetiousMusic responds:

Thanks man, yeah its the same kick from the original, I really didn't do much to it!

I really, reeeeally tried to cut back on the highs and boost the mids, I brickwalled everything above like 18.5hz just to get rid of all that white noise plus some mad dithering. Maybe I'll remaster it.

[Respire.]

It's a solid idea. The arrangement is very nice, every part flows together nicely. I could see this style working out rather well, although it really reminds me of so many other tracks that sound almost alike.

Let's break some details down. There problems arise mainly in the mixing itself, composition is fine as is.

==

0:33 - I immediately notice the apparent overcompression.

This weird "wobbliness" in overall volume makes music kind of uncomfortable to listen to, for me at least. Either use much faster release on your master compression, or try to avoid cranking up your instruments so loud that they could go above the limiter's threshold way too hard.

For an example, at 0:58 and 1:03 I can easily hear that the sub is way too loud, overtaking everything else in the track and pressing them down in the mix.

It sounds like there's only one limiter doing compression in the master channel, so I recommend you try out multiband compression at a some point to get around this issue, apart from mixing your stuff properly first. This way you arrive at a more stable sounding master compression, as it allows you to use compression like an EQ.

1:29 - Maybe the mix is a bit too noisy here. Way too much mid-frequency action, sounds kind of washy rather than energetic. Try to have your focus a bit more on the higher frequencies, and pave your road on the mids. The shizzle is what you want here.

1:53 - Ouch, my ear! Jesus, this piano felt like it pierced straight through my eardrum as it emerged.

4:03 - Maybe the ending was a bit oddly abrupt, I would suggest smoothing these kind of cuts to make it feel like it's ending purposefully, not as if you ran out of ideas what to do next. Not saying that you did, but it has that kind of vibe to it.

==

I don't think I need to comment on much anything else, since most of this stuff really comes to you by itself via self-discovery.

Keep listening to a lot of other music and listen closely how they are mixed. This way you get a better idea what kind of sound you could try to aim for.

Also make your kick and snare stand out more. They bring depth and punch to your music.

- X

Ilrell responds:

Thanks a lot for the feedback and all of those tips, Xtrullor :D
really helps, man ;3;/

[Detious - Telluric (Original Mix)]

Solid work man.

Something inside me demanded getting more crazy with sound design, but nevertheless it's a solid track.

Let's collab.

- X

DetiousMusic responds:

I kept the sound design at a minimum for sure, focusing on harmony ;D

FUCK YEA.

[Arctic Wraiths]

Goddamn, the inspiration is HUGE with this one.

Just you wait.... I'm going to do something.

Amazing stuff mate.

- X

LunyAlex responds:

> 4 years old reply

Cheers mate!

[The Step of Death]

Freaking great. I very rarely write any comments to stuff, but I felt like doing it because this shit is dope. You've got the right idea about dubstep, man.

The only complaint I'd say is that you use reverb a bit too much. Even though it sounds pretty cool once you get used to it, the idea of a more in-your-face bass would be a very tasty idea in my mind. Just ease it off a little bit, so things aren't so washed out.

Other than that, good shizzle. Just get some compositional variation going on and you're golden.

- X

MafiaPineapple responds:

Thanks!

[AxEL - Good Ol' Days[full]]

You know, your stuff is fine, Axel. I've been following your production for a while now but there's just this one thing I'm getting bored of:

Everything you do kinda sounds the same.

Seriously man, I know you have some potential in you but daym, try making something drastically different someday. I would be interested in hearing some different kinda dubstep from you sometimes, as there's not that many good dubstep artists in Newgrounds from what I know so far.

Keep it up, but try change your style a little sometimes. I feel like I've heard it already every time you publish something new man.

AxELdub responds:

I highly appreciate the criticism man, more people need to tell me things like this.
i will definitely try to change it up to the best of my ability. Thanks man.

[Zambi - Tornadose]

Wtf dude since when have you been on Newgrounds?

Anyway, cool shizzle you've got here. I like the funky compactness, shame it didn't fully reach my musical taste which is directed towards huge soundscapes.

Congratz on frontpage btw. Just give me some space next time alright?

Zambies responds:

Lol always have been. And yea I have a lot of room to improve within the ambience of my tracks. I got front page though? :O Totally missed it.

[Citadel NG Edit]

Pretty nice. There's a common small problem in almost all of your tracks, which is the amount of reverb I hear in every one of them. It kinda washes out the clarity of your tracks, try controlling it a bit more to push the stuff more into the listener's face.

Good sounding stuff, keep on making new shiz.

Scimit responds:

thanks! i really appreciate the feedback, im always trying to improve my mixing.

[Virus Test]

I guess it was nice. Progressive house-like stuff for three and a half minutes wasn't that bad than I thought, but it was not really rich of features that would've made it exceptionally interesting. It was really mediocre to say the least.

There were two things that especially came into my mind after listening to this:

1) There's some weird clash between the synths and the beat. While synths sound really simple and kind of half-assed, the beat is surprisingly well balanced and thought of. I'm suspecting you used a premade sample out of a sample pack of some sort, and called it a day. I don't know, it kind of helps making the track sound a bit better, but the odd quality difference between your elements throws the track a bit out of the road.

2) The ending. What. The. Fudgegenerator. Just happened. It cut out awkwardly without any reminders in the end, which I suspect being lazy rendering selection at work. I mean, come on, that's really easy to fix, it just left me a bad taste in my mouth after listening to it.

Anyway, keep improving. You've done some alright work before, now that I've listened to them. I guess being simplistic is nice for making tracks for fun, but that's not really what I like most of the time personally.

2,5/5 stars, because it's in the middle of the scoring. Mediocrity gets a mediocre score.

- Xtrullor

tritonle responds:

Thankyou for taking the time to write such a detailed review. Much appreciated. You're absolutely right the beat is from a sample pack. I got a Access Virus C delivered today and chucked this together. I think I'll end up trying to finish this now, and these comments will definitely have been useful. It's nice to get some contructive criticism.

[Load]

I was expecting you to hop on to the big room house train while you could, Lock.

And so you did.

What a shame, really.

Anyway, while the genre is indeed pretty simple and somewhat fun to make, I must tell you first that I despise the genre for what it's doing to some good artists like you. I just really hope they don't latch on to this simplicity just because it attracts the most attention at this very moment. Alright, fine. I did that with dubstep, but just because of the sheer interesting complexity and difficulty that genre proposed to me. Add in some dancy elements and you've got complextro, the favorite genre of mine. Of course I shouldn't be the one telling anyone what they should do just to please me and the minority of people on top of me, but really, I dislike this genre for bogging down the production level we're used to till this point.

Anyway, while that's sitting right there, let's begin the whole autopsy of this whole thing right here.

People seem to have some issues with the excessively long intro you've got here. It spans about for two minutes before the genre's typical disappointing drop kicks in. But what the hell, I enjoyed it. It didn't feel repetitive at any point of it, so I have no complaints in the arrangement for now. The whole track is pretty solid composition wise, while still sounding a bit minimalistic mixing wise.

Now that I mentioned the mixing... where is the bass, man? I checked the frequencies of this whole thing and the bass is just nonexistent starting from 40hz or so. The low ends just aren't there.
On the other hand, you've done a very good job with the stereo image, especially in the intro. The buildup was kind of weird though, having the synths on top of each other a bit. The drop was fine, switching the atmosphere from cheery to... what, a bit eerie kind of a feeling? I don't know, but how you handled reverb in this particular synth was kinda... off. Like it tried to create some 3D space around it, but produced a wall of 2D instead. It sounds odd, but just alright to me.

All in all, it's ok.

It sounds like a track that was still made by you, so props to that.

Let's see where you're heading after this one, mate. I'm honestly getting sick of this genre already.

- Xtrullor

Lockyn responds:

Ahhh, coveted Xtrullor reviews. Much love <3

Aye. 'Tis quite the shame. Honestly, this might sound like I'm hypocritical since I've made the track already, I hate big room, and I hated the idea of making a big room track. Why did I do it? Well... I guess the bottom line is I wanted to see if it was as easy as so many producers said it was, and if I could put my own sound into it/if I could even make it in the first place. Granted, it was definitely an easier track to put together conceptually since big room is essentially the same format every single time and there's not much room for movement, but I did feel like I managed to put in some of my own flair in there. All in all though, I agree with everything you've said, but now that I'm said and done with this genre, I hope you'll excuse this lapse in judgment ;)

Don't fear Xtrullor, I'm still staying true to my beliefs. Even though it doesn't look like so at the moment. LOL. Really appreciate that you've said what you've said above though. Thanks for pointing all that out.

The thing about the bass... Man, I just think I suck with bass. I don't know when enough is enough, subbass just confuses the hell out of me, and I'm mixing and arranging my track with laptop speakers. It's probably a combination of my inability and my poor equipment that's producing the nonexistent lowends. :( I'm sorry man. I'll try harder on that next time...

I was sick of this genre before I made this, but again this probably sounds hypocritical. Oh well. Hope you got my intention anyways man :) Cheers!