Hippokopter's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[-Varsity- Iodine]

Hey, pretty cool! I like the idea, but I feel like it's lacking some high end in some parts. The odd accents on the drums at the intro and the buildup toward the end are kind of odd too, maybe make them less loud, or switch the kick with toms for those parts like in "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2S1I_ien6A ) but not swung?

Also, I've been thinking a lot about improvement, and this article ( https://www.edmprod.com/5-stages-electronic-music-producer/ ) sums it up. Definitely read it, it is probably the single best document that I've found for electronic music producers of all skills.

By the way, happy New Year! :D

Lot7even responds:

I read the thing-Thanks!
I know the song is weird; still experimenting weird sound samples and such.

2 0 1 8 O H B O Y O H B O Y

[- Varsity - Ming Court]

Huh, interesting! I'm sure that FL Studio is shaping up to be a nice program for you by the sound of it!

At 00:14, I was hoping you would repeat the melody with some kind of harmony, and at 00:29, the two basses are clashing. Other than those things, I don't have anything to say except that you should learn how to mix. There's a course out on a website called Udemy that's pretty good ( https://www.udemy.com/mixingtutorial/learn/v4/overview ). I'm not quite sure where exactly that link goes for you because I've bought the course and you haven't (presumably), but it'll get you somewhere near the mixing course. There's a new years sale going on, and Udemy's courses are dirt cheap. If you miss this sale, don't worry, they put things on sale all the time.

So yeah, good starting song in FL! Keep making music, and abuse Harmor for whack sounds! xD

Lot7even responds:

Well thanks! I know I'm not good with mixing, I'm still not used to Fl's weird console veiw and automation features. I may take that class.
I am still developing my style.
I'm not using Harmor, I'm using GMS.

[Varsity - Trajectory]

I had never listened to this before, but... stereo madness? xD

I think this song is old enough that any critiques of it would be useless... but it still sounds decent! :D

Lot7even responds:

Yeah, same chord progression as stereo madness... But I hope its better bcuz that song is SO annoying!

[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)

[WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS - QWAZDYN REMIX]

Nice desc! Lol. I like the ending part with the 3 against 4 kind of vibe. The drop starts at kind of an odd place, though... I don't know what you were aiming for though.

In the drop, the basses could use more high end, and they all need to be louder. Otherwise, it sounded good! At the beginning of the drop, maybe make the bass have more stereo width for more impact? Or, you could layer some kind of compressed supersaw above it.

As a final note, I don't know what processing you did here, but mixing and mastering are essential to dubstep. Learn to do those things, and it'll sound better. I actually contacted OfficialNovaCore about this, and he said that "you can have a drop like Zomboy, but if it's not mixed well, it'll sound like garbage." I think I'm paraphrasing a bit, but you get the idea. And just so you know, there's a guy out in the ether named SeamlessR. Go watch his videos, they're full of production knowledge about this kind of stuff.

Have fun!

QWAZDYN responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

[ParabolicX- 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

[A try of melodic dubstep]

Hmmm... needs some things worked on. First of all, song structure. The typical dubstep song has two drops, not just one. I contacted Xtrullor about this actually, and he said that the drops are like two pillars, and you can build the rest of the song around those.

Next, the style. You wanted melodic dubstep, and I don't think this really qualifies. It's in minor, which is odd but not musically illegal I suppose, but the melody isn't that strong. Also, melodic dubstep usually has some crazy basses in the drop too, just in the background... kinda. To get a better feel for the style, a guy named Chime ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuQvsnvJcFQEtX_C_X7AtOw ) makes a bunch of melodic dubstep, and you can go listen to his stuff.

So yeah. There's some stuff to do. Keep improving. :)

TibDJ responds:

Thanks for the constructive answer. I only try a melodic dubstep track. I don't worked in it a lot because i dont know xD. Thanks for the answer(second time xD). I will keep upload more in the future. Thanks

[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!