Everratic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[We Are Free [NGADM 2023]]

This is fun to listen to! I’m glad you tried vocals — you did a good job!

The tonal balance is drastically improved :D I only have one minor mixing comment: I think you can scoop out more frequencies between 200 and 600 on the instruments with a lot of low mid presence. That can increase clarity and reduce the masking of the low strings.

Benji-G responds:

Thank you Everratic!

[Eclipse [NGADM 2023]]

This is enjoyable and exciting to listen to :) There's never a dull moment.

The overall mix and use of reverb is much better this time! Mainly, I think the high end is too boosted. I analyzed the the track's frequency spectrum and noticed the high end is loudest by a noticeable margin. With EQ, I added a -4 db high cut at 9khz and another -2.3db cut at 4khz and noticed a drastic improvement in balance and clarity. I'm not suggesting this as a solution - it's better to make changes on an individual level. What I do suggest is being more selective with what instruments you boost the high end on.

Benji-G responds:

Hey thank you! Being more selective with which sounds to boost the high end on is a great advice, and not something I've really thought about. I tend to mix all instruments individually most of the times, which may not be the best way to go about.
I'll definitely think about this in the future.

[The Big Band Theory]

Every moment is a pleasure to listen to! I noticed your arrangement and orchestration skills have improved immensely. The writing sounds very clean, smooth and deliberate. The structure is full of nice surprises and never gets stale. The percussion writing, especially toward the end, is phenomenal.

Some mixing comments:
- The reverb feels too large and diffused. For this kind of song, I think a more intimate, cozy room would work better and would provide more clarity. If you want a grandiose sense of space, what you could do is use two reverb buses, one with similar settings to what you have now, and one that's more intimate, and divide the instruments into two groups, foreground and background.
- The mix feels too dark for this kind of music. You can boost the highs (10K+) on the sticks, hi hats. and snares. If you find that they poke out too much with this boost, you can try adding some saturation on top. I suggest using saturation either way on the hi hats/shakers.
- I think you can boost or saturate around 200hz on the snare.
- The piano could maybe benefit from some dynamic EQ to tame some spikes, likely between 1 and 2k.
-The toms sound a little muddy. You can probably cut between 200hz and 700hz.
- You can likely boost the highs a bit on some of the more mellow melodic instruments, like the sax on the left.

I hope this helps! Good luck in the NGADM. This is a very solid and fun submission <3

AlbeGian responds:

Thank you for the amazing feedback! I really appreciate it ^^

[Far Beyond]

I like the fusion of cinematic and electronic elements. The cinematic elements give the song a more epic and serious sound than what is typical of dubstep. The dubstep parts have interesting sound design and effects.

I think there are a few problems with the mix. There's a lot of mud everywhere, from the instruments themselves to the reverb, and many instruments are masking each other. When arranging the different lines, it's important to be mindful of where each instrument fits in the frequency spectrum. If you find yourself trying to make things fit with surgical EQ, maybe consider if there's too much going on within a certain range. The reverbs you're using don't seem to be of high quality. I suggest using EQs with reverb to lessen its affect on the lows and highs, to taste.

At times some of the sidechained percussion like the claps overpower everything else. It's better to make space for it in the arrangement than to overuse sidechain compression.

The acoustic percussion sounds weak and seems to be missing some low end. Epic music composers typically layer multiple drums with different sound signatures to get more impact across the spectrum.

I noticed your orchestral instruments are very close to the listener. I think it makes sense for the aggressive cello staccato, but for everything else, I think you can get a more epic, gargantuan sound from using more room mics, and it can nicely contrast the in-your-face electronic elements.

I hope this helps! Take all this with a grain of salt because I don't make electronic music.

[Necroswamp Abomination]

As usual, I'm impressed by the complexity of the composition and the extensive range of instruments and textures. 3:50 is my favorite moment. I love the gritty sound of the solo strings and the dynamic contrast with the neighboring sections.

LD-W responds:

Those particular solo strings are from 8DIO's Deep Solo Series, alternating between three/four different shorts-articulations (and the Slurred Legato occasionally on the Violin to layer up in other parts of the track, with the Quintet Legato and Adachi also layered behind those two!). In the much busier parts of the track, I've found Deep Solo combo's quite nicely with Angel Strings Vol1's Sautille Spiccato at varying velocity layers for a fine-balance between either 'the big wall', or a more intimate result

[Rock On Gustafa [AIM 2023]]

This is lovely! I love the sound effects and flourishes.

Quarl responds:

Honesty, I enjoy exploring this kind of stuff because of composers like you, LucidShadow, AceMantra, and many others. Newgrounds has some incredibly potent classically inspired artists, I want a fraction of your glow :)

[AIM - Elegy to a Fallen Star]

I think this captures the pensiveness and desolate feeling of the art very well! I like how you reserved a heavy bass presence for the final section. The sound design is phenomenal. I love all the synth textures.

I have some suggestions for the mix. I downloaded the song and put in my DAW to test some EQ cuts. I found a -4db cut at 4k hz to sound quite pleasing. It makes the mix feel dramatically softer and more distant.

I used Gullfoss, an intelligent dynamic EQ plugin, to see what it does and it appears to be compressing many upper register piano notes, and I found this effect to make the mix feel more open and spacious.

Finally, I think the bass pad in the final section is slightly too loud around 200hz, and it appears that it can benefit from mild low end multiband compression for greater tonal consistency.

Good luck! I think you might win :D

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thank you for the technical feedback and your kind words, it is very much appreciated 👍

[Seaside]

This is very relaxing. I can imagine it playing in a rpg resort town.

BlazingDragon responds:

Thanks, that's exactly what I was going for! :)

[To Those Who Yet Live]

This is very beautiful! It fits the description perfectly.

BlazingDragon responds:

Thanks, very kind of you!

[AIM - Sun Diver]

I love the energetic, jubilant feel!

I do, however, feel that the mix is a bit bare and some instruments are masking each other in the high-mids range. Almost every instrument feels up close - it could be nice to have more background elements. I think it will help to be more selective with the allocation of high-mid frequencies, and filtering the reverb at around 7-9k hz could also help tame excess highs. If your reverb doesn't have a built-in EQ, then you can use an EQ after the reverb to undo any changes to the tonal balance. I don't compose this type of music, so take this with a grain of salt. I hope it's helpful :)

Preds responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback! Yeah I agree with you, that’s the thing I struggled the most with, there’s a lot of layering instruments that fight each other for some room, I spent 20h+ just on mastering. But I appreciate this, thanks again!