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View Profile Viros
Pro Palma Deus Unus

Age 42, Male

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Respectful Request for audio reviews

Posted by Viros - April 8th, 2010

While I realize that posting this to the front page has a very good chance of getting my current audio standings to be downvoted to oblivion, I'm going to do this anyway - because I would really appreciate it if i could get some constructive criticism on my work.

So - anyone who wouldn't mind having a listen to some of my audio... actually here's a handy link to follow right here: My Audio, well, I'd really appreciate some feedback so I can improve my work. People DO tend to vote low and carry on (yes, I know, I've ranted on that subject before) without so much as a review stating "Burrr this is teh suxxors" and if it's really that bad, I'd like to know how to improve it.

Quick note on the naming convention:
Tracks that start with X~ are tracks that I particularly hate, are quite old, and honestly, reviewing them would serve little point.
Tracks that start with Viros - are newer or are better (in my ears, anyway) and are still current.
Tracks that start with /A\V/ - are the newest/best (again, IMHO) - and i would LOVE a bit of feedback.

That said - if no one wants to provide feedback, that's fine, I can appreciate that. I'm just trying to improve so that I can a) get better and b) provide more high-quality tracks for others to listen to and use in submissions to newgrounds.

Thanks for taking the time to read this - I really appreciate it.

EDIT: Thanks to those who have taken the time to give me constructive criticism. Your reviews are much appreciated. If you have music on here as well, I will be visiting your pages to listen and review as well! =D

~/A\V/

Comments

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I-smel

I'm listening to Radio Ahead and- what. The first 30 seconds is the same really fast generic drum loop replayed 7 times. Then it stops for a couple seconds, I started getting interested when the whole thing slowed down, and then that fucking drum beat came back in. At about 1 minute there was one-too-many layers of sound and it stopped sounding like music for a while. It lightened up at the end and I kind of wish the whole thing was more comprehensable like that.

I don't like this genre, but I reviewed anyway!
Sorry in advance if nobody else comments D:

Viros (Updated )

I really appreciate that, and I also appreciate you taking the time to listen to my music - I've made note of what you said - especially about the "one too many layers" and I'll see what I can do about that - it'll be interesting to remix and try to get the melodies to align - or perhaps just scrap the thing all together and start over. I'm not adverse to that - in fact - in most cases it's actually kinda fun - but then, I wouldn't be writing it in the first place if i didn't enjoy it =)

The interesting thing is that it tends to sound good in my 'phones when I'm mixing it. I suppose I should try and test it out on a wider variety of sound systems - i know my headphones aren't exactly "studio quality" the manufacturer's idea of a flat freq response is something akin to the rocky mountains - and that may be part of it - you probably have far better speakers than those that i have available to me.

I honestly appreciate you taking the time to listen to it - even though it is completely outside of your genre.

You raise a good point about the comprehensible bit - I can see what you mean.

Thanks again for your time.

~/A\V/

drackmore

i listened to all your music and im going to sum it all up. now this is my oppion but it all sucks imo

Viros (Updated )

Well, hell, that was one AMAZING response! Thanks so much for taking the HOURS AND HOURS out of your day to share that with me. I really appreciate it. You must be an amazing person - so deep, and insightful - I'm sure you blow people away when you enter a room. Simply astounding. The sheer magnitude of the improvements that your review will allow me to make are simply flooring.

Registar

if i were you id want nobody to review my shit so you can think maybe people like it and arent reviewing it, instead of getting reviews and learning the truth that your music sucks

Viros (Updated )

/Smacks forehead/ HOLYCRAPYOU'RERIGHT

Yeah, I'm an idiot. Why am I wasting my time anyway? Thanks for opening my eyes, kind sir. I will have to remember that Registard is omnipotent, and incredibly wise.

Starogre

i'd suggest looking into learning more music theory. at times in your most recent 4 songs the notes' pitches just seem kinda random and a little offbeat. like look up chord progression and scales. i think they'd help out a lot when making stuff that sounds aesthetically pleasing

Viros

Ok! Can do. You're probably right - like I said to S3C - I've had no formal training in the music department - so the concept of "Music Theory" is mostly what I have taught myself... and I'm not exactly a great teacher =)

I'll look around for that sort of help - do you have any suggestions, by chance, where I can get some insight on this (without having to pay a tutor or anything)?

Also - I recognize your name - I think I've seen some of your work in various collabs and I remember it being pretty good. Also - that FBF paper animation on your profile is pretty slick.

~/A\V/

S3C

After listening to your latest 4 tracks I would say the most negative aspects are over reliance on preset and stock sounds and track flow. For example "Licaze", could use some more interesting experimental sounds drum wise to lay on top of the big sytrus pad (sinister?) and the other lo-fi synths that you include dont work well with it all, IMO. they're also not fine tuned to match the pad. Radio Ahead was much more interesting and well-flowing in my opinion. The bassl and kick could be EQ'd to fit differently in the frequency spectrum since they kind of interfere with each other. Some of the sounds are recognizable but they mesh much better than the last track. Singularity was more bland and could use more diversity overall. I would also recommend relying less on arpeggiated and sequenced synths as some of your lead lines are a bit disjunct.. Your drums also seem to be pushed a bit back in the mix. One quick fix (though not a very professional one) is to use the FL Soundgoodizer to bring out the sounds a bit more. Dawn had some more interesting drum samples, but again, the arpeggiated synths can be out of place some times but overall the track has a smoother flow IMO than Singularity.

So basically, look into getting new sounds and VSTs to broaden your aural production spectrum and look up basic tutorials on synthesis if you havent yet, and just tweak knobs until your fingers bleed. this would also be useful in figuring out how to tailor arpeggiated synth presets to fit your songs better. Try to work out your track structures and transitions a bit more as well so your ideas can be more effectively conveyed. Good luck!

Viros

...wow - ok a bit of an overwhelming overload of information =D way more than I was expecting! Thanks.

Ha - yep, Sytrus it is - well called - though I can't remember off the top of my head if it was Sinister or not, though I'm sure you're correct. You bring up a lot of good points - and a lot of stuff I honestly don't know much about.

I've had NO formal (or informal, for that matter) training in music - it's just been something I've always enjoyed dabbling in - and I can honestly say that, while it's taken me almost 8 years to get to where I am now, I'm FAR better than I was when I first started out.

Thank you for the hints - I will see what I can do with future works by focusing on the specifics that you brought up - like the EQ and the sort. I suppose I should probably do some research into what, exactly, I should be doing with an EQ - I know that it adjusts the sounds, and I can hear that one setting is better than another - but I don't have a full grasp on each band and the way that it works.

Unfortunately - because I actually pay for FL Studio - my ability to get new plugins is rather limited - I haven't yet found a decent collection of free VST and generators that are available - or even reasonably priced, so I'm left to tweaking the built-in presets. I will say that I've improved in that respect - understanding how the generators work.

As far as the Soundgoodizer is concerned - I always kinda felt like that was cheating =D

Thank you again for your time, and your comments. You bring up a lot of good points - and I will pay attention to some of the negative aspects that you brought up - they seem pretty accurate.

~/A\V/

G-Styles

i dunno if im the best person to criticize ur shit or not, cause im a hip hop beat producer myself (the genres too diff) but at producing, you kinda still starting i can hear it cause i remember my first beats i made 4 years ago sounded the same.. basically ur melodies need to step up they arent too good and nice to listen to the ear its confusing me sometimes that where is this melody trying to go...no emotion just wilding out... get EFFECTS on ur sounds, sound like they are fake, put reverbs in right places mess with volume get ur eq right get the time to listen to the beat, i mean like u might think its awesome n shit but when u get better and better and better u start to think oh my god i dunt believe that i just did that kind of shitty musik u know.
and thats all i wanted to say
peace

Viros

Thanks for taking the time to review - I don't have time to fully respond at the moment, but will later today.

Thanks again

~/A\V/

I-smel

my headphones were 99p from tesco.
theyre not even Sony ones, they say "SOYLE" written in the Sony font :(

Viros

haha wow - ok so i take that back then.

Still - thanks for your comments from before! =)

Starogre

musictheory.net has probably all the tutorials you need, WITH ear training Flash tools on there. Just try and keep the notes of your song within the same scale when you start out, and then as you move towards more advanced music composition (the site goes into some things but not too deep), you can start to add notes that are outside the scale. and you could maybe even have some scale progression in your song to switch to another scale.

but yeah do those tutorials - they've helped me understand music much more

Starogre

also yeah, i've been in and led a few collabs back in the day. and i'm still busy at work!

obsessedgamer

wait, what? being punished for doing the right thing? i REALLY hope that's NOT how life works...

anyways all i'll let myself say is learn what you can, as much as you can, but don't rush or it might smack you upside the head later.

kuu4

Haha, i really like you!
You really try new things with music, but sadly that sometimes leads to really overdoing the track.
Try to keep it just a tad simpler, but again, that might make you into a typical techno/trance mixer.
I disagree with you on the fact that your new songs are better than old.
Though i listened to only a few of your songs, i liked the most x-TCV,
noone does that speeding tempo thing anymore.

Criticism goes mostly on the overtrying. I suggest instead of starting on 1 instrument/sound and then throwing more on it, you start out with 1 leading instrument and then when you put another instrument, you either remove or silence the original one. Because it is really annoying when theres 6 instruments playing their own riffs.
Hope that made sense.

Keep up the good work!

Oh yeah, and i agree with I-smel, the beat ruined the whole song.

drackmore

about your music .
when i start into making video/flash games i am going to recruit you to make my mennu music and maybe so credit music as well

drackmore

disregard last post was on the wrong page

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