Hippokopter's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[ALESDA! & AL3X - Xmas Step]

TEACH ME YOUR WAYS

PLEASE

I'M ACTUALLY SERIOUS

Seriously tho, the mix is crystal clear, the buildup is really sharp, and the DROP! O MY FREAKIN' GOSH THAT WAS AWESOME! What did you do to get so good at this? How?

AleXizGD responds:

uff a lot of practice, and a good equalization, and also musical theory (a lot)

[AtRysk - Impulse]

Wow. Really good! Some of the elements were a bit unclear, and the chordstacks could use some beefiness, but I think it's really cool! I think that if anything needs more work, the transitions could make the song more dramatic with the use of some silence.

About chordstacks... there's a really cool way to get awesome chordstacks with Serum, if you have it. I only have the demo, but it works really well. First, load up two instances of Serum. On one, turn on both the oscillators and just a bit of noise, then max out the unison on both of the oscillators. Then, turn the detune on oscillator A down a bit, and turn the octave up 1 on oscillator B. Then, compress it and highpass it after compression. You can do hyper if you want to. Then, go to the other instance of Serum, turn off the oscillator, and turn on the sub and a bit of noise. Finally, add full tube distortion and some multiband compression. It should sound sort of like a broken speaker. Then, using the first instance of Serum, get some chords down, and have the second instance of Serum just play the roots of the chords or whatever's convenient. I'll let you take care of the octaves.

The sound of that chordstack makes Massive, the synth, look small. No freakin' joke.

Hope that helps a bit!

AtRysk responds:

Thanks for your input. This is actually the first song I made using serum. I just got it. I am always looking for ways to improve my music so feedback like this really helps!

[Balance]

What happened to the snare in the drops...? Snares are kind of important... anyways, I like the idea of having 3 drops instead of the typical 2, reminds me of Excision and Space Lace's "Throwin' Elbows," Getter and Virtual Riot Remix ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7LZTnUhXPU ).

I think that the buildups could have been executed better. The drops sound good, except for the unmoving sub. All I have to say on those fronts is that improvement will come with time and experience.

I've had a thought about buildups and drops, and I think that as good as a drop is, without the right context and mixing, it's trash, whatever it is. Learning to mix is the easy part. I think that with any given buildup, there's an ideal "flavor" that the corresponding drop should have. If that buildup is sharp, high quality, rhythmically driven, and maybe contains a motif, then a corresponding drop might be a sharp, high quality, rhythmically driven drop that has that same motif. Might. Figuring that out is where I think much of the trouble is found.

It's just a theory. :)

CineMaticx responds:

Thanks for your feedback it means alot to. Me that somebody is really trying to help me i try my best to include all of you tips into my next project thank you very much ^^

[[Dubstep] Dreams]

Pretty cool! All I have to say is that you should put a bit of silence just before the drop somewhere, and the basses in the drop need to be more pronounced. Other than that, it's pretty good!

Casiel368 responds:

Thank you for the tips! I will keep them in mind in the future tracks :D

[M-Shroom - High Life [Melodic Dubstep]]

At 52 seconds in, the chords have kind of an "EE" vowel sound to them. Try making them go "wOO" or "wOwOw" with an LFO or something. Also, at that part in the song, maybe quiet the chords down and pump up the basses at the end of every bar!

Also, I don't know what you did in terms of mixing on this track, but it seems like some elements are kind of unclear, like the snare, the lead, the intermittent basses, etc.

Other than that, you've got top notch ideas. Keep freakin' goin'!

M-Shroom responds:

Thanks for the Tip :) yeah it does need a lot of editing , it was one of my older tracks where i wasn't as good, i will definitely take this into consideration. thanks!