Score: 9

"Good"

submission: Shogun Braker!!!!

date: October 26, 2009

The bass is too hot, it is causing alot of pumping in an unpleasant way. You need to limit the bass on it's own before sending the whole track into a limiter because this is where I am guessing the pumpiness is coming from. It really plays havoc with your drums. Also, like everyone else, more changes on the drums woulda been nice, like a little glitch breakdown or something coulda saved this.

Peace

Score: 9

"Dawg, serious"

submission: [C] Get On My Level

date: October 26, 2009

I gotta tell you, you improved overall since you started, but you're falling into the same cesspool that all of the people you mention, friend and foe alike, have fallen into. If you don't "see" them, don't mention them.

Improve your vocal mixing, the record quality is fine, but there's nothing to your voice to make it any different than the average radio morning show dead booth sound. Every one of the vocals I've heard from you have that EQ treble peaking and dead room sound that comes with a vocal booth being too tight and restricted or from EQ'ing out all of the warmth and low mids from a vocal. You also got a really hot vocal mix, a little too tight on the lowered instrumental sections. In the section where your double is screwed down, the vocal is way too hot, it overpowers everything and is pushing your limiter hard enough to make the whole thing sound boomy.

This instrumental sounds like you cut everything from 125 Hz-750Hz or so with a notch filter, there's no upper bass and low mid freqs in the instrumental. Altogether, this is good but mastering isn't going to fix mixing problems, it's only going to cause more problems.

As for NG not deserving your music, if you keep shouting out NG artists, this is the only place you're going to remain. What happened to spending 13K$ on a studio this year? Serious, get up on the level you claimin' before tellin' anyone to get on your level.

Score: 9

"On my list of priorities, crack is above you"

submission: Wyze - Be fucking Dead

date: October 21, 2009

You've def improved on the flow side of things and the lyrics are improving, delivery gets better all the time. Good to note you're working on it all the time, keep practicing and def keep working on the mixing side of things if you wanna produce. Some good punches, but there are some spots where you rush your syllables. If a verse isn't coming out, start cutting it down to the important stuff. Count your syllables out and work on not rushing things as much, as well as solidifying your "voice", ie. the sound you want to portray for your own vocal style, which is definitely different.

PS: I still fuckin' love that intro. It makes me laugh every time I hear it!

Score: 9

"Damn son"

submission: WS - Battle Loop

date: September 2, 2009

You inspire hatred and envy in the classical artists, don't you? That Cajete guy sure does have some hate in his lil heart.

This is simple, it could have done with a bit better drum work. The piano has verb, the drumline is so verb lite as to sound too disjointed from the source material. For a battle rap loop, this would work quite well, as it is a nice, easy flow track with what we call a "neutral" rhythm, so that almost any rap style could easily hop onto it. It's the rhythmic equivalent to neutral scales with no minor or major leaning.

Again, the mixing could've been done a bit better, but meh. It's certainly worthy of envy, though, from hatin' ass kids who never got their 13K$ studio they was claimin' to be puttin' together nearly a year ago.

Deuces

Score: 9

"Flow much improved"

submission: Wyze - Tears of a Child

date: August 24, 2009

There are still a few points where you stumble a bit in pacing, "A mother on drugs..." was one point where you rushed out some words, I'm guessing because you couldn't quite hit the speed right and used a punch-in. You've gotten your flow down mostly, now it's time to work on rewriting tough passages to make them flow better, then work on laying in your adlibs and strengthening sections with seconds and libs. remember this game is all about evolving your weaknesses over time. You never stop improving.

On the mixing, the chorus/hook needed some strength, maybe a tiny echo and a second stereo widened. One of these days I really need to get the time to get you and Druid on track with your mixing. The vocals are a bit loud and forward, a smidge more reverb and backing off .1 to .3 dB on the vocal during the verse would help. The chorus is almost perfect volume.

As for the subject matter, good job on the writing. Very well written as a story, it conveys the image of the subject.

Peace

Score: 9

"Liked this one better with the scratching"

submission: WS - One (w/o words)

date: August 24, 2009

This is a good track, mind you, but it's original intention was a far greater usage than this stripped down version. It lost a bit of the W-S flair when the scratches were taken out. As for the reverb on the bongos, it's meant to cut through the mix and spread out instead of being pan-defined, so the verb accomplishes that. I think the outro is the weakest point, though, as that sitar (which in this instance sounds more like a shamisen) needed a bit of verb as well to round it out in relation to the strings and the bongo hits.

Oh, and Cajete moving to classical seconded, motion carries.

Peace

Score: 9

"You took this round"

submission: Delinquent Correspondence

date: July 31, 2009

And I'd give you a ten for this excellent mix, but that annoying hat in the left speakers is too strong, very unnatural, and too dry to go with the main break which has just a bit of saturation. Beautiful mix of music, love the choirs, the synthline and bass undercurrent, the break, everything. My only complaint is that the synthline does get a bit grating on the ears the second listen through since it stays throughout the entire track. Really though, this was top quality but for those minor gripes. The vocal samples you chose were much better this time around. Good job and good win.

Peace

Score: 8

"I'm sorry"

submission: WS - Grudges

date: July 31, 2009

You lost this round. You had me with the excellent melody and break mix...and then that bad mix of vocals and muted background beat threw me off. I was grooving, but that section just made no sense. It was not what I'm used to with you, the doctor like precision cuts of specific vocals instead of this long play of largely uneasy silence and noises mixed with words of pain. Sorry, but his track was an excellent counter to your style. He brought a great set of choir samples, a repetitive yet catchy synthline, good break, and that ending is like a nail to the coffin. I have to give this one to Delinquent.

The good for your track, everything before the vocals. It was a good start, and with the right snippets of vocal sample and the right changeups would've been a Spawn masterpiece, but somewhere it got derailed in my opinion.

Peace

Score: 9

"I commented His, now yours"

submission: WS - Sampling 101

date: July 31, 2009

Too low volume. Not a powerful enough message is sent in this, it ends up being too weak and undynamic once the break hits. I expect more of a volumetric shift throughout from you, as you're an excellent mixer in the respect of bringing together samples and instruments. The changeup break shows just how your velocities were muted because it comes in suddenly slamming the track from -5 dB to almost 0 dB in less than a bar.

That's the bad, now for the good. Your quite varied selection of sample choices, the excellent vocal sample in the background, the Pulp Fiction vocal, and the mixing together of such various influences and samples is still very much to the par and level I expect, as well as the second transition from that mid-break back to the original break and piano section. Excellent. The strings give fullness on the mid and high end to that very strong bass piano rumble. A good track, if not an absolutely great one. I give you the win by a slim margin, mostly because your mixing and sample choices, as well as the points he lost for the lack of drum pattern changes and the annoying repetitive vocal.

Peace

Score: 8

"Vote for Spawn"

submission: Delinquent Shadow Technique

date: July 31, 2009

The vocal repetition was a bit too much, and though annoying enough, not loud enough during the repetitive section. Maybe should have been scratched up during that area and thrown through some compression, a la the (assumed) RZA influence they come from. The backing melodies, after the intro, are a bit weak in comparison to the overcompressed and slightly clipping drums, though those strings were very well matched across the three octaves. I don't mind this break so much, but the fact that there was very little changeup in the break, ie. chopping, scratching, etc. is what really puts your track behind in the score. Spawn brought a varied, in-depth style of complex drumwork and samplism. Not to say your style is inferior by any means, but in the realm of this competition, it is why this is very much a Master vs. Apprentice battle. He retains the title of Master, while you I see moving onto Journeyman in the over-all realm of Samplism. Now, as for anime samples, you are definitely king. I've heard no one compete in that respect.

And pay no attention to wars-pawn, that's one of Lejin's alts. That guy still loves to hug Spawn's nuts on anything he's doing. What a waste of oxygen.

Peace