Sonic the Hedgehog 'ElectroGangrene' (Scrap Brain)

[Ablationer]

Hey everybody

This is actually my first post here ever, I like OC's stuff in general, and I'm trying to make some music and remixes myself

Anyway, I sent something I made not long ago, but it got refused, and I was wondering what you guys think of it, if you could tell me what's good and what's not, I'd appreciate it, thanks

listen : ElectroGangrene

[Rozovian]

It starts off fairly promising. A bit of a newb sound, but that's just the processing. The slowly opening filter of whatever other isntrument's in the intro doesn't sound good, it's a too drastic changed between partly open and fully closed, and every time a new note starts, the filter resets.

The drums are terrible. There's not enough treble, there's more noise than percussion. The kick is distorted and way too dominant as such.

The writing overall is repetitive, and when it does changes, it changes far to abruptly to be enjoyable.

In other word, you need to work on your drums, the overall writing, and the processing. Essentially, everything. EQ everything so they don't compete over the same frequencies. Add filler in between the occupied ranges. Find new drum samples or redo the processing. Compress the drums. Cut repetition or vary it more. Add more stuff. Add new stuff.

I'm not surprised this was refused. There's a lot you should work on, but there's stuff in this that I could see almost unchanged (save for some processing) in an OCR-OK version, the intro being one of those things. You've got some work ahead of you if you're gonna fix this up, but if you're gonna do it, post updates here when you need feedback. Good luck with it.

[Ablationer]

Well... thanks I guess

For the filter, I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, there are a lot of them, but I don't really see how it resets, it's a straight line that goes from 0 to 100 gradually, nothing too brutal with it, or maybe you're talking of something else

for the drums, they were meant to be that way, I didn't want a dance feeling, I wanted a more trashy noise, heck maybe even a bit grunge, in fact i got the kick sound from some of Mr Ozio tracks

For the repetition, the track itself is relativly short, I didn't want it to be too long, yet it still needs to repeat sometimes, so you can get the beat

As for competing over the same frequencies, I'm not really sure what you mean by that, compressing the drums? ... uhm okay... and well as i said for repetition it's a short piece so

Well, I was, since I had great replies on NG and even top 5 of week, I was kinda disapointed, but it's okay I guess, not everybody shares the same point of view on off-roads music

thanks

[Rozovian]

Well, it's probably mostly a genre thing, tho I know the newgrounds audio community and OCR have very different standards. We're more nitpicky over here.

The filter opening isn't the problem, it's what happens after 100 that is. The next note starts from 0 again, making it feel like a jumpcut in the audio. The effect is great when used sparingly, but since that track is half the intro, it's a bit distracting.

If the drums are intentionally weird, see if you still can get some more energy into them. Dance might have the most boring drum writing, but the processing is the thing. Your kick is distorted beyond reasonable, and it loses energy. You have nothing in the high range where hihats usually are, so the whole mix feels like it's a bit lo-fi, muddy... or something. See if you can hear what the dance drums do to a track and try to copy that, not the writing or sounds themselves.

The kick is currently processed in a way where compression would likely just worsen the distortion, so don't do that. Instead, see what you can do to give the drums more energy, more punch - i.e. EQ down the frequencies that don't constribute to the punch, the oomph, the weight of the drum.

The source track being short isn't an excuse. I've stretched a half-minute loop to 6 minutes of never-repeating music. There's melodies that repeat, yes, but never the same backing, instrumentation, etc. Even when the melody and the backing are repeated, you can find ways to make it less repetitive. Make small changes, small deviations from the source melody, or make the backing loop twice as long and have it change harmonies when it would otherwise repeat.

EQ stuff so it's more balanced and not as cluttered and noisy (despite the nonconformism), and it should sound more professional and intentional. It should rid you of that newb sound. Making it sound intentionally distorted and off-road is gonna make it easier for people to appreciate it as something that is off the beaten path.

There's some clarifications and advice for you. Come show me the improved version some time. I don't care about the genre if it sounds intentional. Focus on that. Good luck.

[Therapsid]

Needs to be well finished and to remove some noise.