Don't really have a lot to say about the song (but yeah it's pretty good), but if you want some feedback on the individual elements, then:
Digging the poppy drums that you panned all over the place, really gives the piece some interesting depth. They're really clear and stand out too. Perhaps you could be a bit more conservative with the kick and place that dead center all the time, because it's a bit nauseating when the kick flies all over the place.
The pad in the middle is sweet. The chorus synth sounds too tinny for me (and the melody seems almost random at times). The bass synth in the intro is really cool, wish it didn't get so drowned out later on. Other than that the tune could benefit from some pad-like background elements to make it sound fuller.
Thanks for the review.
I really dont understand what you mean by the chorus synth but i didnt have so many pads since it isnt supposed to be like that. :D
Also my next track will be ambient so there you will have plenty of pads :D
Short version: you get a 10 for the composition (well for a 1:37 long song atleast) and 7 for the mixing, but the former is more important here so you get a 9.
Long version: Well the intro is pretty sweet. Very suspenseful, very minimal, I'm thinking a scene where the first gang is lurking in the shadows, ready to surprise the others. At 0:11 the other gang becomes aware of the first and then of course the battle breaks loose 30 seconds into the song. At 0:11 the ride cymbals sounded like they were played with a shuffle rhythm, so I thought what is he going to make a battle theme with a shuffle rhythm? Which would have been WAY COOL but not really fit the theme. But you went with a straight rhythm of course, I was just deceived by those sneaky cymbals.
So when it goes into the main part the basic foundation is already there (from the piano thing in the start) and it just works very nicely. Same thing when it goes into that little string break (which, by the way, is when the other instruments get their... wait for it... spring break! Aren't I hilarious!?), the melody here is also a variation of the main theme, but it's got just the right length and adds a nice variation before leading into the main theme. No surprises really, predictable in a good way almost, since you kinda go "oh here it comes... this is gonna be awesome... bam!". Well I didn't really think that but I would have, if the song was mixes awesomely.
Other notes before I go into the cons... drum beat is very nice, fits in perfectly. The instruments all go very well together really, it works since it's basically a standard rock setup with strings and without bass (as far as I can hear). Staccato strings are very nice too.
The guitar sounds... kinda real, I guess? The divebombs and feedback obviously add a lot of realism (and epicness!). Still getting Slayer vibes though. I think it's just a limitation with sample libraries, even if you put an amp simulator on. Almost every sample library of electric guitars have that same unnatural sound unfortunately, especially when distortion is added.
Ok but as you certainly know by now I have a few problems with the mix, which makes me not want to turn the volume up. The high end is very gritty and the low end is very undefined. There are a number of causes for this I think, first thing I notice is the drums are messing things up. The snare sounds like it's got a bit too much bottom and too much reverb. The kick and toms sound like they're competing with something, so you don't get that powerful "thump", just a lot of mud (and an overcompressed low range). What I usually do for cleaning up bass, kicks and toms is boosting a quite narrow area somewhere in the 100-800hz range (a different area for each sound), then cutting everything around it and possibly boost the high mid range to make it snappier. Also put a high pass filter at 300-400hz on everything else. Just a tip, but I find this technique helps tremendously on muddy mixes.
The crash cymbal also sounds kinda ugly btw. :P
The guitars also sound a bit thin in this mix. But the mix is pretty busy so to make the guitars stand out more, something else would have to go, so that's more of a personal decision than anything really.
Uh I need to leave now so I don't have time to wrap up the review. But yeah that's pretty much it. OK KOOL LOL!
Seriously, thanks a LOT for reviewing this. It's amazing how much you could say for one minute and thirty seven seconds O.o. This review left me speechless (here we go with the speechless again) and if I wasn't so talkative I would just fill this response up with 'thanks''s, but I'm talkative, so here goes :D.
Dear God, you only had 738 characters left? That's not enough for me to copy your review and paste it in the response space so I can answer to your review piece by piece :C.
Oh well, I'll just grab bits of it and answer it...
"you get a 10 for the composition (well for a 1:37 long song atleast) and 7 for the mixing, but the former is more important here so you get a 9."
Yay :D. The mixing problems are both because I couldn't be arsed to EQ everything properly and because I suck at mixing as you know, but I'm glad you liked the composition!
"Well the intro is pretty sweet."
Thank you :3. This intro is a longer and more suspenseful than the intro of the first War Theme, probably because the first was made for a flash and had to be close to a minute long and this one had no restrictions. The gang thing certainly does fit with the music now that you mentioned it.
"But you went with a straight rhythm of course, I was just deceived by those sneaky cymbals."
Lol xD. Yeah I tend to do that in my songs :D.
"(which, by the way, is when the other instruments get their... wait for it... spring break! Aren't I hilarious!?)"
*Groan* :D. I did it that way since it was the same with the first War Theme and I wanted to add a few similarities between them.
"No surprises really, predictable in a good way almost, since you kinda go "oh here it comes... this is gonna be awesome... bam!". Well I didn't really think that but I would have, if the song was mixes awesomely."
My bad xD.
"Other notes before I go into the cons... drum beat is very nice, fits in perfectly."
Glad you like it, I tend to do somewhat well at drums, usually.
"a standard rock setup with strings and without bass (as far as I can hear)"
Yep, no bass. The old War Theme has a French Horn, but I decided to take it out for this one :3.
"The guitar sounds... kinda real, I guess? The divebombs and feedback obviously add a lot of realism (and epicness!). Still getting Slayer vibes though. I think it's just a limitation with sample libraries, even if you put an amp simulator on. Almost every sample library of electric guitars have that same unnatural sound unfortunately, especially when distortion is added."
Yep... the guitar effects are just a desperate attempt to make the guitars sound even more real. Sorohanro's guitars are basically the only somewhat real-sounding guitars I have, except Virtual Guitarist, but that plays its own preset rhythms, which I hate >:C.
As for your complaints about the mixing, yep, you're obviously right. Only problem is that me being deaf in one ear really handicaps my ability to determine how much I should boost or lower a frequency, what sounds right and what doesn't. Or maybe I'm just thinking up excuses to hide my lack of mixing skill :3.
And the over-compression with the drums is my bad. When I compressed too much I thought "Nah, nobody'll notice.". I forgot that nothing slips past you, eh? :P.
"The crash cymbal also sounds kinda ugly btw. :P"
Noted xD.
"The guitars also sound a bit thin in this mix. But the mix is pretty busy so to make the guitars stand out more, something else would have to go, so that's more of a personal decision than anything really."
Nah actually I agree with you. I'm probably going to redo the volume levels a bit. I'm thinking of making the double bass and guitar louder and the staccato strings and violins/viola at 0:50 a bit quieter. I'll see (hear) how it turns out.
"Uh I need to leave now so I don't have time to wrap up the review. But yeah that's pretty much it. OK KOOL LOL!"
Thanks again for the really long and helpful review! I owe you one more than you owe me one :D.
Nice and smooth background music with some sweet touches from the guitar. The electric piano chords are very lovely :) The hihat is very loud though, too loud and bright for the feel of the track I feel. If you put a little low pass filter on it I think it'll merge great with the other tracks.
Thanks for the feedback. Still in early stages though and haven't tested it fully on other speakers / headphones so I'll probably do that. Thanks for letting me know, and glad you like it!
Very cool, sounds a lot like the previous song with the dramatic scary chord progression. Perhaps a bit more packed and punchy this time around. Very awesome once again! Keep it up!
Hahah thanks, I will try to do something like this tonight... But I must change style a bit, last 2 songs were only in minor... Strings were only doing minor chords... I... would... see... :p
Song had the same foundational melody during more than half of the song, that melody went on for a biiiit too long. Lots of fun to be had though, with different instruments and effects and such, sounds like a big synth jam. I think you should do something with the structure though, shake things up a little. Around 1:15 or so it would be nice with a new melody. You do finally change things up though, at 2:31, with a pretty cool part. The straight melody with the plucked synth kinda sounds like Animusic.
Btw the first few bars (yeah well and the last few since you brought it back) were damn cool, I loved the bouncy distorted thingy in the background, kinda had its own unique character.
The drums are nice, the main beat sounds nice and dark, I still don't feel the kick has that "whoop-ass" punchy feel though. But it's close ;)
Summary: cool song bro
Is the title a pun btw? Since you seem to be using trance gates a bit... :P
Alrighty I know exactly what I am going to do now. Thank you. I am going to change 1 melody, I think that would do it, And I am going to lower the volume of the drums at the start a bit so they build up. That's what im gonna do,
Also I wasn't going for a heavy BOOTSS bass drum, I wanted a bit light feel with a more melody centric song.
Chill down with the crazy panning shit! Or make a version without it, it just becomes an annoying gimmick after a while. Cause the song would be so lovely as a straight jazzblues kinda song.
The forman bass thing is INSANE. How exactly are you doing it? To me it sounds like you sent a wave through a couple of bandpass filters (i.e a formant filter) and then bitcrushed it.
Anyway, the tune is sick basically. Lovin' the deep synth with the m7 chords and all. Tune's got a really diverse, clean and wide mix as well. So much to love. Excellent track. Only thing that's bugging me is that the ultra-deep sub isn't as defined as it could have been, so it sounds more like a layer of thin mud behind the track if you know what I'm saying.
Hey man, thanks for the excellent review! Yeah, the formant bass is fun, I'll let you know about it over PM (since a lotta people don't know about it and I like to keep things that sound awesome on the DL ;) ). What really makes me happy to hear is how you like the "clean and wide mix." This means I'm getting even closer to that mastering that I love! And yeah, I'd definitely agree that the sub is a little "muddy." I'm not entirely sure how to go about editing this, and I think it'll just take some experimenting (my favorite thing in the world! =D). I got a lotta inspiration for the mastering and EQing from xKore, who's an excellent producer himself. I hope to learn more from him in the future. But, to know I came close to a good sound makes me happy. Don't worry; I'll get that sub to really sound nice soon...maybe on my metalstep project! =D
Thanks for the feedback SBB. It means a lot comin from you!
P.S. Make sure to give a shout out to my dubstep homeboy, FiendO, as well. Don't forget that he had just as much a hand in producing this bad boy as I did! ;)
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