LaserVision's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[desert breaks]

Prepare to get roasted muahahahahahha just kidding.

Starts off awesome. Love the build-up. Could have used a stronger snare however.

At 0:30 shit gets real. The voices are a great addition. It was interesting to hear them together with the beat and nothing else.

From 0:57 until 1:24 it kinda ruined it for me, doesn't seem to fit together with the rest of the song at all. The synth and the chords sound too mellow and off.

At 1:38, same as I said earlier, needs a stronger snare.

At 2:19 it's back to business, similar to 0:30. I consider these parts, and 1:52, to be the best parts of the song. They are the most catchy, there is a perfect balance between wobbly sounds and voices together with the beat.

Conclusion:
- Catchy as ¤&#()/)!#"!!!!!!
- Snare is too weak, especially at the build-up parts

So yeah you got roasted I guess :P

Sequenced responds:

Breakbeat generally doesn't have snares that loud.

The part at 0:58 was a bit experimental; just trying to fill in time I guess

[Zen.R.G - Simulation (Complextro)]

Starts off good but is quickly ruined by whatever the thing at 0:07 is supposed to be. The main melody seems to be off key at times. One minute in it gets much better though. I really liked the wobbly sounds! Great choice of instruments for the most part!

There is some room for improvement in the mastering though. One clear example is at 2:14. The drums are ear-piercing, think it would have sounded cooler if you had added some FX together with some white noise.
Or how about the transition at 1:30? The melody goes from being very separated to centered immediately. The volume throughout the song is fine however.

Conclusion:
- Catchy tune
- Needs better mastering

Basically not amazing but not terrible either. Better than average 3 stars though. Keep it up!

Zen-R-G responds:

That was a really helpful review! BTW, the thing at 0.07 was meant to be some 8-bit drums, and I was automating the high frequency band. I shouldn't have done that really. But I'll take your advice and try to improve my next songs with it. Thanks!

[.:Townsfolk Melody:.]

First of all, try to be a little more positive. If you dislike your music so much then maybe you shouldn't be a composer yet. More often than not, shown negativity tends to alienate other users. I'm not saying that you can't be pessimistic about your music because that would make me hypocritical, but try to limit it somewhat. Anyway,

I think you should have given the thunder a little more time to fade out before introducing the bell already at 0:02. Perhaps 8-10 more seconds? Also I think the pace is going forward at a velocity that is too fast.
The "xylophone sound" sounds more like a high pitched kick and there's not much melody to be heard from it. The synth that starts to fade in at 0:17 hurts my ears and is just annoying.
I like the part at 0:51-1:25 though, because it seems like you were taking the time needed to set the mood for the song. After that the song repeats it seems.

Conclusion:
- Too short, should be at least 1 minute longer, preferably even more
- Very repetitive, nothing stands out
- Tempo is too fast
- 0:51-1:25 is the best part, even though it's used earlier in the song
- Good use of audio samples

I apologise for coming off as rude, I understand that FL studio can be hard to work with since I'm new to the program myself. But I hope that I've helped in some way at least.

BlueAlpha14 responds:

Heat of the moment man :v I probably should edit the description..
And it was longer, but the rendering was screwed up lol.

-Ok let me respond in order:
I didn't want to extend the thunder. But I also did throw this together shortly.
-The repetitiveness is something I didn't want to break. There was a repetitive break but it was very glitchy. I would show you if I didn't overwrite the file.
-At 0:17 the rendering screwed up, it didn't match the X modulator automation I set up.
-The tempo is 130 BPM, that's really too fast? I didn't really notice it. I tend to find it hard to edit the tempo after I compose it a bit, there's are all things I could fix if I could save and re-open a .flp file.
-I figured the Xylophone would fit since the synth at 0:17 didn't seem right to use.

Don't worry about coming off as rude, I really appreciate criticism. Personally I haven't been able to really sit down and focus. While this was my most complicated track, I hope I progress more and more. As said, even when I fail someday I'll get featured and I will look back at stuff like this ^^. Thanks for the review and I will put this into consideration if I attempt something like this in the future.

~Alpha

[Escape Velocity (Level 1)]

Hmmm DnB? Sweet!! Anyhow, beginning starts strong. Nice how the snare starts to hit at 22 seconds in. Good use of the drums overall, could have used some stronger crash maybe. The melody has the right octave in my opinion. The synth at 0:57 is awesome Not as big of a fan of the part at 1:40-2:05, it kind of slows down the pace I think, having the hi-hat hit at 2 and 4 instead of 3 could have prevented that but that's just a small thing. But I'm excited to check out what the game is like.

cadence1 responds:

Very interesting feedback. I like how you were very precise with the timings - it helps quite a lot to understand comments better. Sometimes people say things like "I don't like that part that starts at around 2 minutes", and it's often hard to tell what part they actually comment on, especially if the music keeps changing often. Your comments were easy to understand, so thanks for spending time writing them.
I'm actually going to try to change that hi-hat timing at 1:40-2:05 to see how it sounds :)
Thanks again!

[XStep Machine]

Stolen audio from DjVi and waterflame. This should be removed.

[-Arcade Punk-]

Cool! ;)

[Lunar Transmission]

It starts off ear piercing, way too loud! The picked bass 43 seconds in sounds very neat. The synth in the background is barely noticeable, not only should it have been louder, but also more prominent. I like the xylophone melody, it has a unique style to it.
I would consider 1:47 to be the "main theme" of the entire thing, I mean that it's the part that stands out the most. When the voices at 2:18 come in it sounds very Majora's Mask-like. Reminds me of the segment in the game where aliens invade Romani Ranch.
At 2:50 it sounds like it's repeating for the most part, with a few minor changes. To me that's not a weakness, but so is the way it ends, would have preferred if the last 15 seconds or so were faded out or something. And again, the audio at 3:07, 3:38 and 4:11 are loud to the point that they distract the ears from the rest.
The mixing could use some improvements. Most instruments sound too centered. For example at 1:55, another xylophone with slightly lower volume could have been added and panned to the right. Or how about the synth from the beginning? It would have sounded much better if it had a longer reach to the sides.

Conclusion:
- Cool bassline
- The volume & panning is unbalanced between the instruments
- Has a memorable melody
- Good variation

homchom responds:

Thanks for reviewing! I know it wasn't the best, but the fact that you thought some parts of it were very neat means alot. I will take these into consideration and might make a v2 later.

[Cosmo Cosmic Dreamer]

The intro keeps improving with every iteration. I still think the 2014 and reloaded versions are the best ones though, mainly because of the epic drop. I prefer the chord progression and the sharper lead synth.

[Trash Manatee - Void]

One track a day huh? Anyhow,

Sounds alright, but a bit boring and powerless. Could have used more FX. It does seem like you have a good idea of the mastering part though. The slight echo in your arps adds some depth. I like the choice of instruments. The synth at 0:48 gives the song some variation at least. I like the change from snare to clap at 1:20, nice to hear some more patterns thrown in there also. I didnt like the claps at 1:40 - 1:51 however, they sound a bit out of place. After around 2 minutes it sounds like the whole thing just repeats and that's where the song should have ended. I'll give it an average 3.5

Overall conclusion:
Good mastering and composition but lacks variation and power.

someplatypusguy responds:

I can never finish anything because I generally hate what I make, which also applies to this track, but because I made it in one 3 hour sitting and never touched it again, at least I finished something. I ended up making 6 tracks when I was doing that. I've only finished one thing since then, so maybe I should try that again. I agree that it's uninteresting, but I generally don't know how to actually make it better. All of my songs have this problem. It might not help that I like repetitive music, but that doesn't excuse me not being good. Also I don't know how to master for shit, I keep volumes very low and then pump the shit out of it with plugins. I think I need to get better with eq as well.

[Anarchy]

What are those sounds in the beginning that sound like chainsaws? Im curious :3
Anyhow the beginning is kind of generic; what you would expect really. The last pattern before the drop stands out a lot in my ears. The drop itself sounds fucking awesome, very good balance between melody and screeching noises (Sorry Im not educated enough). The second one is even better than the first one. Props for variating and not just using the same one twice!
The orchestral instruments add very much. You dont notice them too much but they matter a lot. Good thing you didnt overuse them!
Overall good mixing! Drums just need more reverb and crashes need higher volume xd

Veikyul responds:

As far as I know, there aren't any chainsaw noises ;)

If you're talking about the voice sample in the background, that's just a bunch of zombie noises xddddddddddddddddd