drumdude's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Under the Rain in the Smoking Glass]

I liked this song, especially the first minute or so. The melody you start off with and then the slight variation is very pleasant and enjoyable. After the first minute thought, I felt like things kind of lacked direction/structure.

The part that starts at about 1:00 works fine as a sort of "bridge", but after that I kept yearning for something resembling the opening melody to come back and it never did. Left me kind of bummed.

Overall it's still a nice, relaxing song. Definitely good for 2 1/2 hours of work. Nice job!

Ioplop responds:

Thank you very much for your reviw.
I actually found your reviw very intresting, because you pointed out at something I wouldn't even look at, and thats NICE =)
I did hear my song again to analyze it from that perspective, and I did notice the same thing. Thats somehing I'll consider next time I make a song like this one. Again, thank you for your review. It was very helpful.

[Trinity]

Disclaimer: I know very little about Trance or any EDM type music, so I'll try to avoid critiquing any genre specific parts of this.

Overall the song is solid, however, I feel like the transitions could use work.

You have the intro, which on its own is perfectly fine, however when you go into the next part at :33, it feels fractured and very sudden. This may be because you are eliminating piano-y thing, plus the percussion, as well as the bass while simultaneously changing the synth of the melody(?). That's a lot of change for a listeners ears to take in all at once. I almost feel like you could practically switch the two parts with some minor adjustment and it would help the fluidity of the song.

Everything from :33 to 2:30 is fine, although I feel like there could be variation once the piano-y thing is introduced at about 1:30. Maybe a small change to the bass or a subtle addition to keep things interesting? But overall this part is very smooth and enjoyable.

The change at 2:30 felt SO anticlimactic. You have this break at 2:01 that then builds us up for 30 seconds and then......You go the outro.........
You could have easily made this song another 30+ seconds longer by just returning back to what you had at 1:30 and maybe even keeping some of the piano work from break going to smoothen out the transition and THEN proceed to the outro. Not only would it make the song longer, but feel a lot more satisfying to the listener.

Criticism aside, this is still a good and enjoyable song. The synth choice is good, mix is decent, and it definitely has some good ideas going.

Lethal-Input responds:

Yeah the end's anticlimaticness really bothers me now listening back to this song

[Time]

I really want to say something negative about this. I hate leaving reviews without criticism, feels so useless, but honestly, it's hard to find something negative to say about this. If I had to stretch for some criticism, I found the vocal and the bass to clash a bit at the beginning. Just sounds off. And also maybe (a big maybe) the song might be a little overcompressed. All of these pretty minor.

I love music like this. Use to listen to it all the time, specifically Emancipator. Right when the strings came in, it just brought me back to those days. Drums are well done and aren't to overpowering. I found my head bobbing up and down right when they were introduced. Love the keyboard and drumwork at 1:25-1:35.

Seriously great work. 5'd, 5'd and followed.

[Kainé Absolution]

This is really well done. Not really my genre, but I enjoyed it. I've never heard the original song, but if it's anything like this, I might have to check it out. The vocals are also quite good. My only complaint is that I feel like the vocals could use a bit more reverb. The dryness seems out of place at times, especially at the "ah's". But again, I've never heard the source material, so perhaps that's an element you were trying to replicate.

Been a while since I've listened to one of your songs. Glad I stumbled across this.

NemesisTheory responds:

Thanks! It really keeps making me smile to hear from people who aren't really into the genre that they still like these mixes. The original is even better, honestly. There's two versions, Kainé Escape (the source) and Kainé Salvation which is the sad version of it. Really heartbreaking version.

I'll have to look into the reeverb! I can still go back and fix things luckily and I'll let ppl know if I updated the track accordingly. :)

Thanks for listening, the feedback & the review! <3

[The Science of Sound]

Interesting song. Great for a first track though.

I agree with the previous reviewer. The synth that comes at :44 is out of place. Not only does in not seem to fit musically, but also messes with the feeling of the rest of the song and intro. It starts off with this cool "spacey/chill feel" and then suddenly this bubbly synth appears. I'm thinknig maybe you were going for a sort of "Bill Nye" sciency sound, but I don't feel like it really worked out.

At 1:23-1:36, there is just way too much going on, all doing so mnay different things. Sounds very clustered. Afterwards, it gets a bit better other than that one synth. The key change at 2:33 was a welcome change to help add variety.

Overall, a great start. After listening to this and a few other of your songs, I can definitely see you becoming a solid electronic producer on this site. Just keep chugging away.

Four stars and scouted

Yeelp responds:

Thanks so much! I'll keep working hard. I'll implement your suggestions in my next piece.

[Relocation - J Stepp]

So I'm not an expert on hip hop or anything, although I've dabbled in it here and there. I really enjoyed this though. Sounds very professional. The flow is solid with enough variety to keep it interesting. The lyrics are good and stick to the theme. The use of the layered/echoed vocals aren't overused and fit just fine.

Did you make the beat yourself? It's simple, but well done. Good use of the vocal sample (I remember hearing it in "Everything" by Murs).

My only complaint is the sudden silence after 2:14. You go from rapping intensely to saying nothing at all for almost 2 minutes. I feel as if you could of put something in there. Maybe not actual rapping, but just speaking in the mic about struggles of trying to make it, or proving people wrong, or whatever your heart desires, just to help "fade out" a bit.

Overall, great track.

Jstep1990 responds:

Thank you for the review! As far as the ending goes i haven't added what i wanted to say on it yet it's in the works. Besides that im glad you liked it man god bless.

[Full Moon]

This was quite enjoyable. I absolutely loved the intro. Kind of reminded me of Mass Effect for some reason (probably due to the echoing bass thingy). However, after the intro, I felt like the song kind of plateaued. Sure, you changed some things up for which did help prevent repetitiveness, but the song didn't ever seem to to build or really go anywhere. I can't help but feel like there was a missed opportunity at the 3:10 area to really come in with everything you've got after the buildup/pause.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I look forward to hearing more of your work :)

jjrocks2002 responds:

Your my very first review for any of my recent tracks. I really appreciate the feedback and will use it for all my future releases :)