beatmasterJAG's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[{BPS} Reduco Ex Nihilum]

the perfect blend...

Okay thanks for the heads up! This is most def my fav of them all. Cleaned up the drums well. Synths are on point through out. Love the synth lead at 2:40 cool sound. Some major crash points and cluttered areas seem to peak the mixer. Perhaps adjust the mix slightly or push your overall compressor a little harder in those spots. Super fun mix up on the melodies like Kweaks said the melody is catchy as all ever. I also agree with him on a need for PWM 's.

This is cool. I feel like after listening to all of these I have gone on a little journey "from nothing" to knowing a whole little story centered on this song concept.

Thanks dood.

~JAG

BudGPStudios responds:

Thanks man. I drew most of my inspiration for the dub remix from this song, as you might have noticed lol. It's too late to make any fixes to this one, I don't have the file any more, made it almost a year ago.

Out of all my remixes of this theme that came from nothing, I like this one and the dub the best, though I feel the dub has diverged from the theme a bit.

[Sim City BGM Homage <-(FTA)->]

too cool

Omg aha

Haven't played Sim City in a long while but had you told me this was actually the true original theme to the village setting in the Sims I would have believed you. It seriously sounds just like it should in my memory. Good work. I kno I cannot make classy music like this. Great mix and the sounds or patches used are great!

~JAG

FaeryTaleAdventurer responds:

Thanks for reviewing! I think you actually meant "the village setting in Sim City", but I think I get the gist. It's not a 100% mirror of the setting, but really just mimicks the style and feel of the music in that setting. Oh yes, and I credit Phyrnna/HFX with showing me the ropes on mixing/mastering audio! It more than likely wouldn't have sounded even *this* nice, without her expertise.

Again, thanx for reviewing!

-FTA

[Ex Nihilum Remix]

sweet!

Gotta admit the beginning almost half of the song feels like a giant build up. With out a doubt you improved on the original. And after hearing your dub version as well I can't decide which I like more.

When the four to the floor comes in the song gets really fun and pleasing to listen too wish theres was more of these moments in this song. Great lead works.

I like the six and ambience of the dub version and I like the drums and overall melodies.

Thanks for the fun listens and comparisons! I love personal or" self-made" remixes.

~JAG

BudGPStudios responds:

Thanks bro, and if you have the time, check out Reduco Ex Nihilum: Yet another self made remix lol.

[Dubum Ex Nihilum]

unique styles!

After this I'll have to hit up ur original track.

I've been cranking dubstep like crazy lately and am enthused to review more submissions on NG.

First of all, your drums need to be cut time. It is fun and cool to throw in full Drum N Bass loops for effect but the swing and ever plodding snare with symbols bouncing around on rhythm is most signature to dubstep.

Next is the very key baselines to accompany the swinging beat. Perfecting this is the hardest thing to do. Try to get that wobble very crisp and distinct. Find a balance of low end vs. High freq to make that" hard" sound ppl geek over. Unfortunately 8 am on head phones right now so your baseline sounds a little hollow and cluttered in the mid range (if that doesn't contradict one another).

This song is very cool in its own way tho! The mid range lead isn't for dubstep but more DnB and some electronic musicvin that sense I like it alot. I also like the orchestra bits super nice touch. The eerie ambient breakdown before the final hurrah is very sick reminds me of classic aphex twin stuff.

Sorry for the long review keep pushing dubstep styles, hopefully I will get some of mine uploaded.

Keep it wildstyle,
~JAG

BudGPStudios responds:

Hey thanks man. Yeah the original song was pretty heavy on DnB and EDM (Give it a hear, you'll see what I mean), so I just wanted to keep some of its spirit in here. I feel it was bit of a mess on the transitions and the whole "Ex Nihilum" part. I'm considering scrapping the DnB sections and just keeping it more focused on the orchestra and the ambient part. I was finding it rather tough to get the bass to sound more crisp without making it sound like sandpaper, so I shot for more of a Hip Hop bass instead. I'm also using headphones, but they have good low range so I didn't have a problem with it lol (My laptop speakers suck balls).

I'll keep trying man.

[Eagles Go Down]

love venetian snares

The pads seem too basic. The melody to repetitive. I've noticed in alot of IDM and stuff similar to this that things are often slightly detuned and out of pitch.

Otherwise good work on the drums. Try to continue to mix those up and introduce new samples to keep it interesting. Also work on filters and delay effects.

Overall transitioning would be good.

Welcome back to submissions.

~JAG

Idiosyncratic responds:

thaks i appreciate the feedback. i know everything's really basic, but this was just an experiment.

[Morphone - Blue-Horned Rhino]

beg to differ

@ Droghead: this track has some pretty sick drum sequences. Not crappy sounding at all.

A little short and sorta repititve but the drums keep it interesting.
Cool track man.

~JAG

Morphone responds:

Thanks, you seem to be loving my musical varieties 'round here. It never became a full song, but meh.

[Morphone - This Is Dubstep]

well 'ard haha

I've been playing the hell out of this genre lately. You seem to recognize the formula but i think you can hone in on your synth sounds and your drum samples. Although collectively the song sounds great small changes will make this iconic dubstep and bring it to the next level.

For example your kick could use a replacement or some eq'ing to get rid of some of those un wanted artifacts and frequencies. Altho on looping the track it sounds like you may have added a rimshot on the same hits as the kick-personally I find it an undesirable effect when the mix is primarily drums. But in the entire mix the rimshot helps draw out the kick hits. Another way to do this is to grab some high end in a narrow band where the "pedal" freq is hitting the drum head typically around 1k (hope that made sense).

One more personal opinion: the bass line sounds cool and I enjoy it, but when looking for a dubstep sound I want more distinct wobble and low end control versus your high ends. This balance is drawing the line between the pros and newbies, IMO. Try experimenting with filter types and settings, focus especially on LFO modulating the freq cut off, and also on envelope settings-mostly att and sus.

I wish I had some of my work up so we could bounce ideas off each other as I am just getting into dubstep creation myself and haven't had time to upload. Sorry for the long review as well.

Keep it wildstyle,
~JAG

Morphone responds:

Long review is fine. This is one of my older pieces, so of course, you know when you make something and you think "This is amazing!" and then you listen later and it's all "Wtf this is bad". It happens to every single song you make.

[Morphone - GJ#2 Wait You Arse]

good 4 intermissions

Bells/xylophones seemed a bit too loud in the mix. Nice laid back beat.

~JAG

Morphone responds:

Thanks.

[Morphone - GJ#2 Slap Dem Kids!]

nice :)

Quite possibly my favorite part of the walrus game is this song. So much so that I had to grab my mixing head phones and plug them into my druid. Yes I am surfing newgrounds on my druid. Life is good-gotta love technology.

So not much to critique here, more so just praise. Killer lead-classic VG sound simply love it. Cool rhythms with the drums. Short but not boring and repetitive plays over and over again.

I'll check out the rest from the collection...

~BeatmasterJAG

5/t

Morphone responds:

Thanks mate. I enjoy this song a lot too, it's just so classic feeling, and then it kicks in with the unexpected brutal drums that just give it a good kick.