InGenius's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[(WF1) Trippin' On Reality. 1.5]

You're venturing out...

And that's worth a 5 regardless of quality of sound issues or anything else. People aren't giving you a good score because you have a high score or voting power, that's not even an issue on NG since it only takes 2 little 0 bombing fags to counter anyone's high vote 5 and crater a track's score...and there are PLENTY of 0 bombers on the hip-hop portal waiting for that chance *coughdopecough*. Overall, what's already been said goes double...no main theme, the warmth just isn't there for parts of the song (only put verb on a couple sections?), and there are some issues with weak instruments.

But giving a track a 5/10 and a dissertation about voting power? Nah, this wasn't worth that load of BS at all. Work on cohesion of sound and a main backing theme. Think of Hip-Hop like a musical score with a main theme and recurring themes based on the main, backing pieces that come in and fade out (a la progressive tracks), and strong drums. In fact, drums are very important in the mix and should carry alot of the weight of the expression of the track. Yours are strong enough, they could just do with a bit more punch in overall sound choices...stronger bass, little more verb on the snare, different open hat/rim so it isn't so close in sonic texture to both the tinny snare and the ride you chose...and always remember a drummer only has two hands, so you'll never have a snare, ride and any other cymbal, bell, or upper drum at the same time since the snare and ride take both hands. It makes the sound so much cleaner when you treat it like acoustic even if it's digital drums.

PS: You can throw that out the window if you're Lil Jon or use alot of flams and rolls, such as in crazy beat battle tracks.

Peace

wyldfyre1 responds:

whoa so much to take in hahah thanks for the review man i'll see what ic an do with that advice if i work on another hip hop-esque track!

[Agang Hoe]

Actually, he loves MSPaint...

He doesn't have the money for Photoshop.

Good track, good mixdown...and NO treble clipping! That alone puts you light years ahead of anything that private pm bangin' wannabe can ever put out. Welcome to the Block List club...now your name will join such illustrious names as War-Spawn, Bleek989, KillBill, and the list goes on and on and on and on........Keep it pimpin'.

Peace

MC-Q responds:

Lol
but thanks 4 tha love
btw way i been on tha block list for tha longest time

[Don't Spill My Drink]

As always...

Killed anything the haters can bring against it. Please, don't spill my DRANNNKKK!

It's got that H-Town Drank Sippin' vibe and the lyrics all groove together. Ya'll keep that shit up, serious.

Peace

CaliberTheButcher responds:

haha good looks my dude. haha ima have this bangin up in the fairbanks radios. haha holla@chaboi

[amen with lyrics]

Lovin' it

You always come through on those Yun/W-S beats, Merc. Your voice matches up with those classic break grooves the best. And you've got a good grasp on mastering your voice to match the track, spot-on. Keep it pimpin'.

Peace

mseemercury responds:

thx man we gotta collab soon bro

[Yun - Closer Now (Preview)]

Is it an Acapella or original mixdown?

If it's an Acapella, try pushing it through a pitch bending VST with Automation points to specifically activate the pitch bend at the bad note and cut it off after. Or if you got a mixing board, tie the automation to a knob and do it by hand to get a better result.

If it's original mix and in a vocal breakdown section where you would normally do a highpass/reverb dropout/breakdown, you could just mask it by using automation to force the whole track to pitch bend on a 1 bar crescendo. Or, you could do some crazy automation bending a la Dub/Glitch to cover that space, like a stutter effect on the vocals, which would draw attention away from a single note or passage.

Enough of that...great remix so far. Make sure to hit me up when/if you post more trance, you've got a uniquely simple style that I like to listen to in vocal trance, even if I don't actually do alot of the simple vocal trance remixing myself.

Peace

YunVeroz responds:

I have the full aca, but I didnt think of automating the FX activation for just that note... I'm slow like that. Thanks for the tip.

[On The Run 2008]

That intro is crazy!

It's like Goa Trance mixed with Industrial Experimental or Psy...crazy shit for real. Man, this is a fuckin' killer track in a totally different genre from you, serious. Loved and downloaded this one for the mp3player. You got the instrumentation down on this style, just need to get the pacing dead-on with breaks, pauses, freeze sections, and mixing. Loved that sloping synth at 2:30 or so. Killer track.

Peace

CaliberTheButcher responds:

LOL...uhhh i dont know anything about all the industrial goa and stuff but yeah im tryin. lol i got a few other ones. holla@chaboi

[Free From Here]

HAHAHAHA

A 10 just for bein' LP at Sears. And another for the beat, but serious, I was an interim LP at K-Mart for awhile in TX. Which means I was still being paid crap wages while they replaced me with someone who made around 30K+ a year.

Love the pads on this one, very laid back like an interlude track. You just needed some kind of arpeggiated instrument or something in spots, very low-key and quiet, but enough to keep your mind flowing from bar to bar. Something like a low velocity harp or bells arp running scales, especially when you kicked that hihat up a notch. But that's not a major issue, really, it's still a great track. Keep it pimpin'.

Peace

Kannon1 responds:

Thank you for the review! I'll put a little more flare to it. Thanks for the heads up!

[Yun+WS - Call of the Siren]

I'm backin' up Phade on this one

Ya need this on something to spite the industry and it's departure from true hip-hop with this bubblegum and hip-pop fad we been in since '00 or so. Ya'll two got a crazy way of bringin' old skool and new together to make true knife-edge hip-hop, your own style(s) but harking back to those Pete Rock days, the instrumental hip-hop of the past with the intelligent cats bustin' freestyles about chucks on the telephone wire and poppin' hydrants in the summer, yaknow? But this is what I'd expect from both of you, great drums, great instrumentation, perfect mastering, a superb piece.

Peace

YunVeroz responds:

I popped a hydrant once. Then the cops came :(

[[ f ] Clash]

Now that's a banger

This one's got power, man. The chorus really adds that extra layer. The only real critique I can add is I kept hoping you'd give it some drum pattern changeup somewhere, like a drum breakdown. A drumroll or flam right after the second chorus section in the leadout, some drumsoloing or something, maybe drum and vox only right before the no-drum outro. That woulda been outstanding. As it is, it isn't a bad track, it's well put together, and it sounds great. Keep it pimpin'.

Peace

flashmac responds:

Thanks man. I understand what you man about the drum change up. That's a pretty good idea. I might re-upload later. Thanks for the review.

[~Mackity~I thought she knew]

Well worth it, yaknow?

Great track, great lyrics. Ya know it's done up good for sure.

Critiques: Lower the midtones a bit on the MPZ's verse, his vocal gets drowned out a bit since it's a synth break section on the original beat. And yah, the FX were a bit strong. Push the vocals back in a surround adjusting VST, they sound way too far forward and need to be nestled a bit farther into the track. None of that is a huge detraction from the quality, though because the track is better put together and better written than the vast majority of stuff here or anywhere else really. Ya'll ex-Reapz still have what it takes when ya just sit down and bang out the tracks, serious. Keep doin' what ya do, we need more music out of ya'll.

Peace

Mackity responds:

Thanks alot for the feedback my man. ;) Keep up ya good work as well yo, thanks again.