Coastal It takes quite a while for the actual melody to come in, which should probably come in earlier. Having a solid melody early on really catches the attention of the listener, rather than chords which repeat for a while. There's a bit of percussion variation, but there should be a bit more melodic elements. And on the subject of percussion, one thing I recommend is sidechaining, or lowering the sound with the kick. Mostly this should be on pads and basses, with a moderate amount on the lead. Gross Beat is a good plugin to use as a free alternative to LFOTool or Kickstart. Also, some of the tropical drums could use some (more) EQing. Another thing I would have liked to hear even though it's unnecessary is a drop. Otherwise, it's a pretty good song.
80 Audio Reviews
49 w/ Responses
Reactionary First of all, the snares sound off. It's like they were recorded in a different room than everything else (the sample) or had a strange reverb added to them (either that or they have a strange filter on them). They were also way louder than the kick, which is supposed to stand out the most. Also, it took a while to start up. There was a lot of empty ambience in the beginning that could have been removed. It was also a bit distracting during the beginning, so my recommendation is to have a much shorter ambience section in the beginning, and from there on out have the ambience be barely audible. I find that this gives me the best results at adding atmosphere to my songs.
Thanks for the feedback! Now that I think about it the ambient did go on for a little too long, however I wanted it to build up somehow and I thought it might be too abrupt without it. thanks <3
Janji - Heroes Tonight (Zyzyx Remake) I would have liked to hear a bit more than piano. Also, there's a lot of clipping in this. Something you could also do is add a lot more bass during the drop. There's not really a lot of bass throughout the song, and it would make the drop feel more energetic.
Yeah ik this remix sucks xd I actually deleted it from sc so I could work on it more lol
Exile This is pretty good! It could use a bit more mixing and mastering just to bring up the volume. Remember, compression is your friend, as long as it's used sparingly. You did well making sure it didn't clip, because I didn't hear any clipping issues. Another thing that could use some work are the lows. I really don't hear very many, but that may be because my headphones aren't the strongest in the low frequencies. If your headphones boost the lows, do the opposite I do and boost a bit more than you think is necessary. Nobody's mixing is going to be perfect for everyone, as almost nobody (if anybody) has completely flat-response headphones. Another thing you could work on is adding some swells, whether that's with the instruments' volume increasing and lowering or if it's with risers. Even just some white noise will do. Some atmosphere could help, for example, in Earthsplitter by Xtrullor (inspirations make the best examples). He adds some rain ambiance throughout the piece, which is almost not audible but adds quite a bit to it. Also, one thing you could do to add more realism is to add some reverb to the instruments. I like to turn the size all of the way up, turn the wetness up about 3/4 of the way, turn the low cut up to about 55-60% and then add small amounts of decay. It really creates the feel that there's an orchestra around you. At least, that works best for me. Well, that's all the advice I can really give... Everything else was pretty good! I can't wait to see you improve when you get better libraries! You've shown that you don't need a ton of plugins to be good at making music :)
Thank you Kyron! Yeah, I'll work on the mixing more, obviously. I actually have been playing around with the reverb some (though only subtly, like the brass at 3:00) but almost nothing about electronic music is subtle, I guess, so in the future I won't be afraid to really mess with the sound quality. It's funny, I never even noticed the rain in Earthsplitter... so maybe subtlety does have it's place... anyway, I agree it could use some more atmosphere, I'll work on it. I like all this feedback I'm getting from everyone, by the way; until now it's mostly been "wow, you sure did the orchestra!" and this is way more helpful.
Anyway, thanks again for the advice and praise! ^_^
Pheidippides This piece is pretty nice. One thing that I have to criticize is the clipping. I heard a bit of it when the piano at about 0:32. Just make sure you're lowering instead of raising the volume and it will help you get a clearer mix. Another thing to do is use limiters. They should only be used when necessary as they can mess with some frequencies and make it not sound as good as it normally would (although I rarely hear a difference sound-wise, limiter or not). Another thing that you could improve on is changing the melody. I thought it was kind of hard (at least for me) to listen to the same melody for a whole 8 minutes. Maybe throw in a few harmonies and add some more variations to the melody.
Also, I don't think it's a bad thing to sound like EnV. His music has a pretty nice feel to it, which I quite like. It's not like your're copying him, so don't worry about it when your tracks sound like his :)
Much appreciated for the tips and criticisms! I've been working a lot on some of those very things, so hopefully you'll stick around to hear some technique revisions.
Cheers c:
Zyzyx - Sunset Haven (Tropical House) Not bad. The melody is pretty nice, but it gets pretty repetitive. The square lead can get a bit grating after three minutes too. Another thing you could try is adding a bit more background and some more tropical instruments. For example, maybe download some tropical drum loops and look into a guitar vst or something like Nexus. Sylenth would also help with creating leads. You're definitely improving, you just need a nudge in the right direction sometimes, and that's what I'm here to help with :)
Yeah, and thanks! I want to get some VST's and synths like Nexus and RealGuitar but I'm pretty sure that they're all super overpriced. Maybe sometime in the future I'll buy one.
TheFatRat - Never Be Alone The reason you can't download the song is because you can buy it. TheFatRat put a lot of work into this, so 1$ isn't really that much to give for it.
Great song, by the way. Definitely one of my favorites!
~Super Sandman V2~ (WIP) Here's a few tips for mixing: If you add a limiter to your sounds they won't clip. Also, if you don't raise the volume of the synths/instruments above 0db they won't clip either.
Yeah, I found out about limiters after this preview. And actually, some instruments of mine will actually clip even if they're just at 0db. Thanky anyway for the tips though! :)
Amoris Wow... I actually really like this one. Keep up the great work. I heard a few clipping issues, which are pretty easy to fix. Just make sure you're not raising the volume above 0db, and make sure everything is limited. If you lower rather than raise, your mixes will sound better. This is still great though, I can see great songs in your future!
Thank you! Yes, I was trying to make it Geometry Dash-ready, but I've sort of abandoned that at this point because my songs aren't great for Geometry Dash anyway... so yes, I'll be sure not to clip as much as possible now. Thanks for the praise! :D
