BOTB 2006/IV [Vemberaudio Sponsored]: reviews by synrgy
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 00:07.
I like the initial noises, trippy.
lost me on the first pads though, but that's personal not factual. I just think they sound too 8 bit-ish, and I'm just personally REALLY not into "8-bit" sound.
This almost sounds like a nine inch nails song or something, in a good way. But then, this is just the intro. Love the 'national security' sample. Where'd you find that?
Nice drums.. Real nice drums actually. This doesn't sound like one or 2 rex files or whatever loops, it sounds like you really got in there and made your own break, and it sounds real nice bro, good work. I've always been a fan of the backwards action too, use that in a few of my tracks to date..
This is nice in it's simplicity. You just picked out a few really good sounding samples and arranged them to flow together niceley. This is what some of the other guys here need to focus on: You can make a better track with 6 really good sounding elements than 16 mediocre sounding ones. It took me a long time to learn that lesson myself. 
While it's not neccessarily my style, this track was well done. The bassline may actually be a bit too prominent (or maybe it's that the other stuff isn't loud enough, I'm not sure) but other than that I can't say much.
So far this is my favorite, and it's not even my style. I just think it's the best work so far. Good job bro. PS - feel like sending me that break? *grin*
Arrangement = 4 Mix = 4.5 Final Score = 8.5
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 00:22.
beautiful lush pad work in the intro. Like the piano too. Intro bass drum maybe too bassy, but I suppose that was intentional.
LOVE the way you brought this amen in. Also quite enjoy the chops of it.
NICE melodies in here bro, sounds like something picked from my own brain in my lighter moods.
This is nice all around bro. It's mixed well and arranged well. This would serve well for an intro to a set or a nice middle part.
I really don't have anything to complain about.. There may be a touch too much in the high end, but without running it through my frequency analyzer I couldn't tell ya. I think my ears are just tired from listening to all these other tracks.
This is another case where the track isn't really my style at all, but I still think it's very good work. I can see this being played by a bunch of the big dogs.
Maybe a LITTLE bit less reverb, but you've just about nailed it.
Arrangement = 4 (losing a point for relying too much on your filter bro! *grin*) Mix = 4.5 Total Score = 8.5
Submitted by synrgy on Mon, 2006-07-17 23:41.
This is a solid track. Doesn't sound like anything else out there either, so off the break you score points for originality.
I don't have too much criticism for you. Most of what I don't like about the track is more personal preference than reality. (I'm not such a fan of analouge-ish basses, didn't like the snare so much..)
This is mixed very well, with itself anyway. Nothing clashes, all your elements come through very well. I just don't know if it would stand up against the majority of records most of us would play at a show, but I don't know if that's so much a mix issue as it is an arrangement issue. (I.E, if there had been some more resampling and layering without adding anything really new, this would be HUGE.)
I like the arrangement for the most part, although as I said above, I'd like to have seen more variations of the main riffs to cut back on the repetition, but the breakdowns are especially nice, great job setting up those textures.
Mix = 3.5 Arrangement = 3.5 Final Score = 7
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 01:14.
OH! Hellooooooo DUBSTEP!!!
I'm still trying to proccess this whole dubstep THING. It's trippy. Kind of like drum n bass for old/middle aged people. 
See, I don't even know how to rate this, because I don't know enough about the genre you're representing.. I don't know if the snare is lighter because that's just how it is in dubstep, or because you should have picked a better snare..
Anyway, this is real trippy, and I like it.
Because of my inability to proccess this properly, I'm just gonna give it the short treatment: It sounds good, I can hear everything clearly, but felt like there could have been more low mids to the "bassline" part.
Mix = 3 Arrangement = 4 Total Score = 7
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 00:56.
this one hurts my ears too.. too much highs I think. Cut past 16k dude, always.
Uhm... This bassline (before the beat really kicks in, but even kinda so afterward..) sounds like a pretty blatant rip off of Shimon & Sparkfunks "cold killa" on Ram Raiders vol 6.. I dont' know if that was intentional or not, but if you listen to it you'll see what I'm talking about. You're gonna at least a point for lack of originality..
Other than that this track is pretty good. All your elements stand out pretty well, except for the drum rolls at the end of some of the breaks, those are pretty hidden. The toms I mean. Arrangement wise, this really is practically the same track as cold killa..
Mix = 4 Arrangement = 3 Total Score = 7
ps - don't send this to Ram. You may have been going for their sort of sound, but you borrowed TOO much.
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 01:02.
this one has some pops in it. Recurring. It's in one of your samples. Same problem another guy had, except yours are in your pads, his are in his drums. Clicks and pops are only excusable when you're intentionally trying to make something sound like it's coming from a record.
You picked snares that will go together well, but they're off somehow, and so instead of 2 snares layered to make one, it very clearly is 2 snares playing at ALMOST the same time.. Details bro, details.
Besides that, this another pretty solid tune. It builds tension for a while. My only complaint is that it never really releases said tension. If you're gonna take em to the edge dude, fuckin push em over it!! 
Your elements are all mixed together well. Almost everyone this month has done very well on that score. The overall mix does sound a little muddy.. Honestly, I think you could easily bring those high hats down maybe a decibal or two and give a pinch of extra highs to your pads/bassline.
This one cuts off abrubtly, so I don't really know how it ends, but I enjoyed it until it cut off.
Mix = 3.7 Arrangement = 3
Submitted by synrgy on Mon, 2006-07-17 23:59.
I love the techy stabs in the intro, that's my kinda shit, like 2000 tech step action.
Dude... You've got a really bad sample or chop of the amen.. There's a clip/click at the end of it, or at the end of one of the hits.. You gotta watch out for stuff like that... It sounds kinda like when I try to use too many vsts at the same time and my computer starts clipping out. It happens a LOT in this track. No good man, no good.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA DUCK AND COVER!!! LOL!!! AWESOME dude. Great sample.
Post breakdown it sounds better, but we still have the occasional clips from your amen sample(s). I can send you a clean amen dude, if you need one. 
Arrangement wise, this is great. It sounds and plays like an old BC/VIRUS/ETC record, not taking the mix into account.
The mix is where you're losing all your points. OVERALL it's muddy and quiet. With my mixer's gain and master volume all the way up I still only get to -3db. Alot of your samples just sound muddy. I think this can be fixed with some proper eq-ing, mostly subtractive.. The drums need to shine through more, they are just flat, and your bassline (all the reece action) while SICKLY arranged has no high-mid or high character too it. It's all lows and low mids in this track overall really. Do you have a frequency analyzer? They're fucking KEY dude, if you don't have one yet.
Anyway, don't shelf this, just fix it. The track EXACTLY the way it is is great arrangement wise, it just needs to be eq'd better. Try bouncing each track down to a .wav file and bringing them back in for mixing purposes, which will free up your resources for eq/compression/reverb/etc. To your credit, your parts don't clash, so at least you got that right. 
Arrangement = 4 (lost a whole point for that click dude.) Mix = 2.5 Total Score = 6.5
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 01:10.
this track sounds.. far away? I don't know how to explain it. The only element that sounds like it's sitting right up front is the bassline. Everything else is just hiding out in the distance. I don't know what caused this.. I think it's a mix issue, but it may also be bad samples. I'd lean more towards mix.
Your arrangement is good, it's like an old school arm-chair jungle tune. I like the saxy/trumpety sounding thing.. You've got a lot of good leads in here actually, and I like how you cross-fed between them. That's something I have a weakness in.
I don't really have much else to say about it. Pretty good work, great ideas, but the mixdown needs a TON of work, and I wouldn't even know where to begin.
Mix = 2 Arrangement = 4 Total Score = 6
Submitted by synrgy on Mon, 2006-07-17 23:49.
woah, ease off the reverb there buddy!
that guitar strummy thing in the intro is totally drowned out, and the stabby reece is way too loud.. Too much high end eq, hurts my ears..
I like the breaks, despite their eq issues.. During the wah wah guitar/reece parts, the guitar is too loud. Don't force everything up the center. That's why they invented stereo, so you had more room to give sounds their own space. This track overall is really too busy. Too many different elements fighting for the attention. You have like 3 totally different tracks crammed into one here.
There are lots of good ideas here, but I think it needs a lot of work still. Take some elements out, not everything has to play at once. Also, the 'percussion' behind the break is way too loud.
I like the basic arrangment in as much as intro/main part/etc, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, this track is WAY too crowded. Crowded in arrangement, EQ, and Panning.
Mix = 2 Arrangment = 3 Total Score = 5
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 00:16.
I'm not sure, but I think this sounds like it's been overmaximized or over compressed.. Very little dynamics happening, and at times the bassline just sounds like a blur of un-intelligable FUZZ....
I like the drum work, but the drums too sound pretty distorted, and not distorted in the good way..
I'm having trouble getting past this, because it makes it very difficult to isolate the various elements of the track here..
The 2nd breakdown is kinda interesting..
I almost feel like I have to hold off on properly judging this track, I wish I could hear a version that isn't peaking all over the place, cause it sounds like there might be some really cool shit in there that I can't hear the way it is...
the overall run of the track is decent, but still could have been formatted better, and I can't tell exactly if you just have severe mix issues in the track or if you tried to cram too many elements together.
Arrangement = 3 Mixdown = ....This is being friendly, believe it or not, but 1.5 Total Score = 4.5 sorry man. Most of your points are for the drum edits and the general idea of the track, but it definately got lost in execution.
Submitted by synrgy on Tue, 2006-07-18 01:06.
first problem, major issue: the track sounds "cookie cutter"
what I mean by that is, every element is very clearly a 2-4 bar loop, and you can always tell because each one just simply cuts in and out, no cross fading or mixing happening.
It's also pretty repetetive.
Your kick drum has too much bass in it. it's taking away from your bassline.
The bassline, speaking of which, REALLY needs more to it. Try using the same melody as your lead but in a lower octave.
The lead is really abrasive and pretty annoying. Is that some kind of 'trance' or 'massive' preset? It sounds like it.
I wish I had something better to say about this, but I'm really just not feeling it. Don't take it personal, you can't win all the people all the time.
Arrangement = 2 Mix = 2
Submitted by synrgy on Thu, 2006-07-20 01:12.
sorry bro, but I gotta D/Q this cause there just ain't enough track to judge here.
1, but not as a reflection on your track, only a reflection that it didn't upload properly.
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