SkelaNG's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[EnV - Ginseng]

EnV, you've been in my top list for a while, but lately, you've made the same song over and over again. You're not above review, so here's mine: Next time, make something that doesn't sound like EnV.
I don't mean abandon your throwbacks and personal touches, I mean don't use the same drop in every God damn song. You're like the Greenday of EDM. Yes it sounds good, yes it's not uncommon for people to re-use elements in their music, I don't think it's artistically healthy to do it to this degree though.
You can do a whole lot more, and please do.

[I Hate You]

I hear the rhythm to MURS - No More Control in this. I think you need to focus on mixing, that's the core of doing genres like industrial and still having it be listenable, you have to have a certain appeal, and if it isn't in the compositional content, it needs to be in the overall sound.

[~Echo~ Trust Issues]

If you want to pull out all the stops, you need to keep that kick where it is, but bring up the rest of the percussion, then make the whole track rest right under it, make like the drums are a cage for the instruments to be barely contained in. That's really my only suggestion, clean up the mix, and make the rest of the percussion fit the kick.

[Orchestral Cover - Final Fantasy IX Battle Theme]

I was sent here by the thread @davithetankman posted in the audio forums, so I figured I'd drop a review. Overall, not bad mixing, not bad orchestration, No complaints there, it's a cover so I won't comment on composition. What I -will- comment on is the disturbing lack of an original content bank for you as an artist. You -will not- survive just doing covers. I noticed a 3 song original soundtrack on your youtube page, if that was yours you have some stepping up to do. Expand, learn more, do much more original work, your derivative work should -not- overshadow your own work in such the way it does now, especially in this genre, where composition has become so incredibly important, ESPECIALLY in this time period for this genre, when the orchestra is at your fingertips, the bar is raised, chase it, catch it, raise it higher.

OC-DC responds:

(first of all my english sucks, I hope you will understand what I say below, if not don't hesitate to ask me to explain myself more :) )

First :Thank you for your feedback! I'm happy to receive this kind of comment, I need it to improve myself a lot!
I understand what you mean, but at the moment I'm actually working on original music a lot more than before. It's just that one of my project is to do an original album and to release it only when it's done. So yeah, at the moment there is only covers, but I love to do these. It's a very good exercise for me in many ways (arrangements, mixing, etc) where I don't have to think too much about composition. So don't worry, there will definitively be some original content very soon and an album in the future (can't really tell when at the moment), the covers I do aren't overshadowing my others compositions but it's understandable you felt that way since I don't really post anything original these times.
Thanks again for your feedback!

[Village in the Forest]

Percussion is poorly suited to the rest of the track, not soundwise but mixing wise, its stereo placement is so jarring to the spatial feel of the other instruments you'd have been better off just muting it or starting your mix from scratch. The percussion is also too repetitive, do some fills(not rock-type bang bang crash snap, it's ethnic) Maybe some rolls here and there, some polyrhythms. The mix is too quiet, way too quiet, I give a leeway of 15-3 RMS in my tracks, peaking at 0, this is way below that. I'm all for 'preserve the art' when it comes to keeping your sound uncrushed and maintaining some sexy dynamic range, but there's no point in just yanking down the gain if you never touch 0. All that said, it's got feeling, and you're doing good, keep it up.

[Frozen Fields]

You did an okay job with the mix, to the point I didn't have to turn it down to bear it. I'm impressed by your usage of the stereo field to make instruments audible when they share frequency ranges, that art is usually lost on soundtrack/vgame style musicians. I like your song structure, the way it's almost entirely progressive, but you need some more -breaking- parts so it's not simply progression that saves it, something fresh.

ILG924 responds:

I do try and keep a clean stereo field without having everything too wide, and I tried my best to keep it fairly level throughout, so it's good to know you didn't have to change the volume at all.

Since VG music has a variety of genres, I don't really pay attention to song structure. Progressive music is one of my favorite genres, so I'm really only focused on the melodies. My stuff probably has more of a pop structure because of how short my songs are and how I repeat melodies; I'd like to focus on a single idea to mix before I go making long progressive style songs (I've tried a few times before, it never really worked)
By "breaking parts," do you mean a change in tempo? I'll admit I have trouble thinking of different progressions without some kind of lead melody going on, but I try to keep a consistent rhythm for this style of music.

Thanks SkelaNG, I appreciate your reviews

[Ambiotica]

Very nicely done, and quite different from the harsh attacks that I would've put on it, much less "stompy" feel than I envisioned initially. The name of the track was "Room 11" in reference to the time signature, 11/4. I love what you did with it, I hope you like what I'm doing with yours.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Nice catch. The smoothness and change in attack is intentional. I wanted to go for a softer feel, as I made this into a semi-loop. That way, it can melt in to the background a bit more I feel, and can take more replays before it starts to annoy a player. I didn't view this track as a standalone piece, which is why I kinda realized it in a more bgm kinda way :)
Oh, yeah! I did read that name before, I just forgot it XD

Great to hear that you like my rendition of your track! I'm sure I'll thoroughly enjoy what you're doing to mine, no matter which direction you take it in ;)

[Famous (prod J. Ream)]

Yeh this is shit. First off, you're going for trap right here, which usually holds up through a brickwalled beat and heavy vocal processing, you have neither, you don't have rhymes either. And you really REALLY need to re-think your name, Ill Minded might have sounded good when you thought of it, but it's cliche, and you can't even back it up. So here's my advice, Rhymes: Study them. Vocal lessons: take them, you need to boost your vocal capabilities if you're going to bring something new to the table. Flow: Fix it, rap is just writing for a solo transient rhythm instrument, in this case your voice, you still have to adhere to all the guidelines thereof.

Get back to the drawing board, and do it again, and also...find something to rap about that -isn't- Fame, drugs, or crime. You aren't a fuckin gangsta, Spice it up a bit and be real.

[~Echo~ Dead (Intro)]

Ditch the Monstercat kick because it sounds like utter shit, it's overbearing as hell. Maybe add more layers to that gated pad at 0:34, some multivoice movement so it's more encompassing than wandering. Other than that it's coming along quite well, excited to hear where you go with it.

aliaspharow responds:

... :D

[Old Ship]

I could be really nice, but I'm going to give you what I really think, this -isn't chaotic or poorly done enough-. You need to throw out more rules, get deeper into the breakcore territory, but improve your mixing and sound design. You clearly have an incomplete knowledge of what makes a "listenable" dubstep song, and I think it would benefit you more going in the opposite direction.