Abstrack's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[MM8 Bonus: The Joyous Flogging of Forum Spammers]

Now I realise my mistake.

I should definitely have followed the way of the Joyous Flogging of Forum Spammers. It's too late, now that doing so would come at the cost of my sole life.

Anchorwind responds:

It isn't too late to become Embraced.

[Captain's Hat]

Very funky, as always :D
0:37 to 1:11 definitely gave me Mii Channel vibes.
Keep it up body!

Michael-Flaherty responds:

I sincerely love the music on the Wii so I consider that to be a very high compliment. Thank you!

[Recalibrate]

I really like the vibe of this piece. It reminds me of some epic music I've been listening to recently.

The beginning was really impressive, and the way you progressively introduce the first chorus kept me hooked until about 2:33, where a new bass comes in with a bit too much power to my taste. I actually have a hard time understanding its tone. I feel like too many things are happening at 2:41, maybe that's the reason. In the next section, the drum takes too much space, or some parts of it. My biggest problem with it is the pad with the highest pitch. Also, I don't quite hear well the bass line and the main instrument. If reducing the presence of the drum doesn't make these two present enough, then I'd higher a bit their volume or something. The next section feels definitely emotionally deep to me. In particular, I found the electric/bit-like noise in the background to be very interesting. I can definitely hear a programmer/hacker mood in there. In the next section, the drum seems to take too much space from 4:38, and I can't quite hear the melody or some of the instruments.

Overall, you have some solid drum patterns in there and a very great melodic sense. From my personal experience of this song, I think you should work on gluing both together with a more careful mixing.

Otherwise, I think the structure and the mood is very well made. Thanks for the journey! :D

zybor responds:

Thank you so much for this comprehensive review. I have no idea why your review didn't show up on my notification list, I almost missed this one. Sorry in advance.

[Lone Space Invader - FORCE]

You definitely made me question how I perceive music in the first place (in a good way!).

However, there's some aspect of sound design that I think would require more attention:
I think that the volume of the reverb on the main melodic synth is too loud, or that some notes last too long, because at 0:33, 0:46, 5:15, 5:28, 5:40 and 5:54 the reverb tail or the notes accumulate too much. Furthermore, I was expecting some kind of variation at the end of the song, but the melody of this synth doesn't really progress ever. Also, I found the drops to be quite quiet. This kind of chorus has its own charm, but on another hand I enjoyed it less because of that (although that might be only me).

That said, I found the transitions to be actually geniune. Like, hell, from 0:51 to 1:16 was amazing. I had this feeling when, in some offline RPG, they suddenly throw you out of the routine they established from the beginning by letting you know that you're in the matrix or some other kind of surprising journey.

In my opinion, the sound design of the transitions was like 5x better than the sound design of the tail-overriding parts, and I wonder what caused such a discrepancy in (what I perceive as) quality.

Overall, pure dubstep is by far not my preferred genre, however I found this work very interesting and inspiring. Keep it up! <3

LoneSpaceInvader responds:

thanks for the feedback! i'll keep those in mind for the future and i'm glad you liked it!

[Tbh.]

Really interesting mix! The glitching/distorted sounds kept me hooked somehow...

However I found it hard to make sense of the the melody of the drop. Because of that, I also had a hard time distinguishing the new elements in the second drop. I also think that the glitching sounds may lack a pinch of reverb at times (though that's picky I guess).

Otherwise, that was cool. The mixing is great, the transitions are fluid and the melodies are enjoyable. Keep it up! <3

OrangeKeyboard responds:

The second drop actually has different chord progression, thanks dude

[[UNKNOWN]]

Woah, this dug up some really old ideas of mine!

I really am in the void, but my guess here is you're creating your own universe. It's really unclear how the twitter link relates to this, but no matter what I was kind of inspired to be honest.

Depending on what's coming next from you, this song might be either freakin' inspiring or just weird, not enjoyable (cause there's Lo-Fi everywhere (or some equivalent effect) (though I think you already know that! lmao)).

Keep it up either way!

By the way, I'm really puzzled by this. If hooking the listener's interest was your goal, then you got me at least.

[SmK - Into The Unknown]

Got chills in the beginning. Really good introduction and transitions!

However, I found the drop(s) to be different from what I expected. I think the first half of it misses a snare sample. If using a snare for the whole drop makes it too repetitive, then I'd suggest you find something different to do in the second half. Also, the first and the second drops are too similar to my taste.

Otherwise, I really liked the very skilled use of reverb. Overall it's a great piece.
Keep it up!

SKILLZmakeKILLZ responds:

I appreciate the feedback

Thanks!
-SmK

[Homework | Homework EP]

This is really well done. In particular, I love how all instruments blend really well with each other. Also, the transitions between the different sections are very smooth.

However, I felt some instruments should have been a little louder (especially the distorted instrument in the background, from 00:48 to 01:49). I couldn't focus on it because the mixing was centered too much around the other instruments (or something like that). Otherwise, I believe this is a minor issue, if not only the product of my own experience.

To me, this was a really interesting journey. Keep this kind of work up and higher!

[DansDemand - Need your love (Charliux Remix)]

This lacks attention in my opinion.

I believe you didn't use enough "silence" (no sound at all), which contributes to better mixing.

Other than that, in an overall perspective, I like the "dark tone" of the song (can't find more concrete words here, sorry about that).