Ethan Rex

stream of consciousness reviews: Tuberz: Lead seems a little buried until the guitar comes in. Things are mixed a little quiet, especially the drums. Guitar work is awesome, and I certainly dig the arrangement. Guitar stuff at the end sounds skipped, not sure if it was intentional, but it was a little jarring. Nova: Soundscape is thin - get more sounds that fill out the soundscape. Things get a little arhythmic near the end as well. Gar: Love the 80s theme here. Things can get a tad bare at times, but the guitar flourishes are excellent and add a lot of subtle complexity to the piece. Transition around 2:18 is a little jarring. A change in pace or sounds would be appreciated, I was about 3 minutes into the piece and felt like it was dragging on a tad. DusK: Cool to hear a different style from you! Some of the samples sound a little stiff (especially the strings) and could use some humanization. Piano could be a tad brighter as well. Definitely dug the arrangement on this one. TheGuitahHeroe - You accomplished what I was attempting to do with my track lol. EDM sounds and arrangement are hella tight, and production is slick, if maybe a tad on the quiet side. Nice work man, I'm completely terrified of potentially facing you next round if the voting goes in both of our favors. Eino - Dug the blues feel right off the bat. Drums are pretty wimpy and there's not a lot of other sounds outside of the guitars. I like the arrangement here for the most part though, so nice work on that. BrothaDom - I agree with Digi that this has a lot of potential. Soundscape is pretty thin and there's some note clashes in spots, but the lyrics are heeeeellllla on point man. I dig it. Shaggy - I <3 jazz. A lot of the sounds are stiff, but considering these are Kontact factory samples, this is pretty nice. Things sounded a bit empty as well. Flex - I love it. Super Daft Punk feel in parts of this I adore. Arrangement is on point too. urdailywater - Soundscape is a little bare sometimes. Dug the piano. Arrangement was a bit odd in a way I can't quite articulate. BlackPanther - smoov intro. Things are a tad quiet. Some key issues near the end. Sounds pretty unfinished. Phonetic Hero - Sexy intro, and I love the lead (I even tried to steal it for my track ). I can definitely hear the Ben Briggs Briggsin' it up, and you guys compliment each other really well. Solid work. Chern - Things sound maybe a tad overcompressed, or at least the bass drum is way too overpowering. Choir was a cool effect, but pretty mechanical. Arceace - Some solid EDM stuff here, though I didn't care much for the snare sample. Glitch effect stuff was unexpected but worked well. Nice work. For my track, I used more cyber track than I probably should, but hopefully the music plant flourishes and the 1:21 breakdown were significant. I wish I had a bit more time to write a better ending and smooth out a couple wrinkles, but overall I'm happy with it, I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Submitted! Sorry for the lazy writing - I got busier than expected this week and had to bust through the last minute and a half in a day.

FUUUUUUUUUUCK sounds like Dom's got some good shit planned. I'm gonna have to really step my game up these last coupla hours

My thoughts exactly. Plus, Sonic's already been done. Why not another game series competition, like Mario levels or something?

Agreed, I shoulda picked a longer source with a better melody, but alas, now I have to deal with it. At least our arrangement skills will get better!

Hella behind :/ Luckily, I have most of the weekend free to crack down and bust my chops.

DOOOOO EEEEET. In other news, my track is probably the most EDM piece I've ever written, so be READY FOR THE UNTS

HAPPEH BIRFDAIS, may it be filled with the curse words you find so humorous

I'm a little busy to collab, but I'd be willing to listen/critique anything you'd send my way. I primarily do fakebit with FL Studio though.

So I'm getting out of my funk

REVIEWS GET wildfire - Dug some of the sound choices here. Vocals could definitely be clearer. Arrangement was nice, but a lot of the base sounds that the song started out with got stale and could use more variation. Jason Covenant - The wildfire lyric was a pretty neat shout out. Soundscape sounds bare in some spots, but the instrumentation that's there works well - I especially like the percussive stuff at 1:54. Obviously it's not finished, so the ending is sooner than it should be. halc - duuuude I didn't know you could rap. I like the rhythm in your flow, and the beat is well arranged and complements the rap beautifully. Things sounded a bit crowded around the first refrain when both voices came in, but that's a nitpick. Looking forward to Zone Runners 2014! Disambiguity - most of the soundscape here is thin. Drums are pretty wimpy as well. Try to fit more voices that fill out the sonic spectrum (no pun intended). Bring out your drums a lot - I'm not sure if there's any kick in there at all, and if there is, I need to hear it. Sir_NutS - Things sounded a bit crowded, It sounds like the distortion in the bass is muddying up things when more voices come in, but I might be wrong. Lyrics are tight though and so are all the vocals, and the arrangement is pretty solid as well. DJ Max-E - soundscape sounds pretty empty after the first swell. arrangement is a little disjointed as well - each swell seems to divide the piece into its own thing. The drums are solid, punchy, and well arranged though, so nice work on that. Xenonetix - Drums are pretty wimpy, especially the kick. While different sounds are wider than others, most of them sound pretty center heavy (and fit in a similar frequency range), so pan them wider and use EQ to clean up the mix. Leads work pretty well for the most part. Hakstok - Synth lead sounds a bit loud and forward when it first comes in. Bass is nice and wide, I like it. There are some spots where the fiddle sounds fake, but the mix covers up some of the bad spots so it's not too apparent. Wobble bass seemed a little out of place. Ending is a little cheesy, but the rest of the piece is certainly charming. Ryan Jobson - Sounds a bit empty and some of the synths are a little vanilla, but the arrangement does a nice job of switching between both sources, so nice work. I liked the bellish arp that came in at :57. Kick can come out some as well. Amph - Smoov as fuck. What kind of drums are you using? They sound real nice. Arrangement does well with both sources. I loved the acapella stuffs. Cash - Soundscape is a tad empty. Drums can be brought out. Synths are getting a bit more complex than your older stuff, so nice work on the improvement. Ending is a tad odd. SupX - Diggin the pads. Arrangement is helllllla good feels and I'm all about it. Sonic 3 voice samples were a nice touch. Your swells and transitions are always impressive and I'm jelly. Trism - Also diggin the pad work in the beginning here. Drums are interesting as well. Song is slow to get to the source though - A solid lead doesn't really come in until halfway through the piece. jnWake - Beginning atmosphere is nice - I like the tone on that flute. Whoa, interesting shift to rock guitars. Lead guitar seems too far back in the mix, especially when compared to the rhythm guitars. Nice job bringing the flute back in, it works well with everything else.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Maybe someone that was on Sonic CD?

I've been in. A musical funk lately (and not the good kind of funk), but reading all the comments on people's tracks has me itchin for some remixin. ROBUTTNIKS YOU BETTER BE READY

Bahahahahahahahha I honestly thought I was reading an onion article for a second. It was definitely vague - it seemed like the press tried to make a story out of something he didn't go into detail about. I'd wait for more info honestly

fuck yessssssss Lucario was my favorite character in Brawl, and I was scared that he would get taken out in lieu of a newer Pokemon

Exactly dude. To go a step further, I'd say that factors such as sustain level and release time also add some extra life to things. Think about how you sing a melody; is every note played with a similar velocity, decay time, sustain level, etc? Hopefully, the answer is no - it's really easy for a human voice to add subtle inflection to the melody that gives it some soul. Similarly, a melody written in a DAW should have those same inflections.

I guess I'll just formally say that, while I'm hella interested, my musical plate is full right now. I'd love to collab though!

Just fit one of in there somewhere

I think it's awesome that Cash Cash collab'd on that mix, they

<3 <3 <3 lub u bby

My answer depends on what exactly you want to use the headphones for. I use AKG K240s for all my music making stuff, and I've loved em for the whole 1 and a half years that I've had them. They won't break the bank either, which is nice. That being said, if you'r looking for something just to listen to music to, then you could probably find something a bit cheaper. I used some Sony noise-cancelling headphones for a while that did the job for recreational listening. Unfortunately, since I got them as a Christmas gift, I'm not sure how much they cost.

Who's this Pete character now?

I'm honestly losing my marbles over these jokes

I can beatbox

Nice! I knew Vig and Zedd were buddies, but I didn't know he helped out with Clarity!