Holokin's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Soul Factory]

Track's good, but there's something in the low-end that seems to be muddying up the pretty low melodic line you have that keeps shifting left and right. Make sure that any reverb you have isn't unchecked in the low-mid area! The chord synth could also be a culprit.

RabidMedia responds:

It's been a few years since you've said that and I appreciate your feedback but I want you to know that what you're hearing is entirely intentional. Most of my music is made with Sound Club, a freeware program from the mid 90's which, to my surprise still works on windows 11! I use it specifically because it gives an authentic synth style sound, kind of like an SNES or a N64 that only older software can produce.
the thing is, I really love messing with stereo separation, it gives a sense of disturbance and uneasiness to my music. often times I will use two instruments, similar but just different enough, together but make them sway back and forth opposite to each other to create a specific sound and a sense that the music itself is surrounding you.
I realize that I'm not a perfect musician by any means, All of my songs are really just me experimenting with sound and my goal is not to impress anyone specifically. I am absolutely humbled by the fact that Tom Fulp himself has subscribed to me because of one of my songs but I'm not looking for fame or anything like that, I'm just dicking around with an old software and uploading it to newgrounds because I just want to.
There is a newer version of this song, more refined than this version that I'm saving in case I want to use it in a project in the future. Saved on an SD card on my phone. the source file is long gone because my old laptop died a few years ago. In fact there's a lot of songs I made that I never uploaded because I felt they were incomplete but they're all gone now because of dying hardware and It's somewhat romantic and bittersweet that they only exist in my head now. I could try and replicate them but honestly, I just don't want to.

[Chroma]

The hard-panned bass from the very beginning is an interesting decision here! It starts off confusing but makes sense almost immediately.

The intro has a sort of C418 vibe and then diverges into a whole slew of different emotions.

The whole thing is very well mixed, not many complaints on that front! The drums (particularly the kick) and sound design are a bit dry though, and could use some tweaking via reverb & pre-modulation oscillator lowpassing, something I do a lot when designing basses to make them sound a bit wetter. It doesn't always work, though, and it may not be something you're interested in doing. That's okay!

Overall, very good experimental ambient work! I could hear an entire soundtrack designed off the ideas in this track, and judging by the length of this tune you're already halfway there :p

Much love!

AlteredSignal responds:

Thank you! I tend to make my basses more or less mono at the source and expand later on with flanger (mainly Flangus) or small room reverb. Flangus actually has a pretty good use for any mono sound and it doesn't even cause ridiculous phase-cancellation either if you tweak the levels just right. Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts! Trying to improve, slowly, but steadily...

[Exotic Extinction]

very low stereo depth, kinda sounds like it's being played behind a wall. a bit too quiet as well, overall could use better mastering. mix is clean, but remember, stereo is just as important in acoustic and cinematic tunes as it is in electronic, if not moreso. get yourself a mic that can record in stereo, my friend.

[Threats]

subbass is incredibly clean, arps mix quite well with the piano although i personally would've boosted the piano's high-end a bit. breakbeats are incredibly interesting. i wish newgrounds had more genre tags, i think this is less dubstep and more trip-hop or something along those lines. good work!

wobwobrob responds:

I wish I hadn't said anything about dubstep haha.

From now on I'm uploading my music as neutrally as possible so it's judged more on the strength of the music rather than people's expectations of a genre this track doesn't fit in to necessarily.

I only put dubstep because the amount of genres on Newgrounds is quite limited. Maybe something they will change?

Thanks for the feedback x