BeyondGravity's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Vocla]

Sounds ominous for some reason, as if some protagonist was working his way in the enemies base. Has a stealthy feel to it, yet has a degree of urgency. Love it!

quantumdylan responds:

Yeah, it turned out super menacing lol! Helped quite a lot by some heavy-handed compression on the drums, as well as some heavy detuning on the FM pad. Learned a lot by messing around with the tuning of the 4 operators in real-time while I played. Got some real weird and out-there soundscapes.

[System Disk]

This is... oddly enough making want to dance. (And I don't dance.) Has very Minimal vibes going on along with those keys. The melody is simple, yet pulls one along. Love the filter work over the whole track.

[How It Should Sound..]

Jazzy Fresh

[High Density]

This is very interesting. Very mellow yet kinda hectic. Again that may just be me, but this sounds like the background music for some Ghost in the Shell like hacking going on. Like the Major hacking her way to her mission objective. It also gives off a stealth vibe.

Love the arpeggio on this track quite a bit and all the filter work as well.

Quick question. I tend to deal with the issue that my reverb gets 'hissy' and 'crowded' when applied too much, but with out it my sound has no 'room' to it. (If that makes any sense) Happen to have a tip or two to combat this?

quantumdylan responds:

Thank you very much! <3

With reverb, I've been messing around a lot with stereo width, sidechained compression, and just some slight EQing.

What I do is treat the reverb as a send effect and give it its own channel, then I'll put a compressor on that and sidechain that compressor with either the drum track or with the actual channel I'm reverbing. That way if the kick or the channel gets louder, I'll duck the reverb and keep it from muddying the mix.

Then, stereo widening does a bunch. Something like a simple delay between the left and right channel can do wonders for that, pseudo-stereo stuff.

A multiband compressor might do you well as well! That way you can keep the highs but also prevent them from getting too loud. I use this dynamic EQ as well that will reduce the volume of hisses and higher-frequency noise from my tape recordings more as the volume of the track increases.

But yeah, that's maybe a few things to try out! Sorry for the dump of info lol :D

[Metastate]

Very interesting ambiance in the beginning didn't expect the song to go where it did! Love that bass. Love that dirty and gritty sound it has.

This may just be me but I get a very but the whole piece sounds like it could have been in Armored Core 4. Some sort of menu screen or a cut-scene. The track give me a feeling of urgency and importance. Especially that rising part just before the two minute mark.

I myself am working on more snythwave stuff, however this could be part of the OST for this Shoot 'em Up style game I had in mind. I had a mission report (score) screen in in my head while listening to it. Keep up the good work!

quantumdylan responds:

Thanks so much! Yeah, this whole song just kinda plodded along and totally changed as I messed around with more and more stuff :D

Glad you like it so much! <3

[Sythwer]

Love the parts when there is only the kick. Do have to admit I did expect a cluttered song, but it really wasn't. Nice and clear mix, at least in my opinion.

quantumdylan responds:

The track was way more cluttered in the original mix, but I slowly stripped things back and added more sidechaining to attempt to free up the mix just a bit. Helps cut through everything and gives it that sorta tape compression feel.

This one is probably the one I've spent the most time on in the three synthwavey tracks that share the same art, it was the first one back at the beginning of June, end of May I believe. And I just keep tweaking the damn mix constantly. It's a problem :D

Thanks so much for all your kind words, it means a lot to me!

[Integrated]

Phil Collins would be proud of the drums. (I have no clue why I am reminded of him.) Still love piece of work. (Totally not looking through you whole list of audio....)

quantumdylan responds:

Ahhhh, the wonders of gated reverby snares. Phil Collins is the real OG :D

Hahaha, and thank you so much for taking the time to go through everything! It's nice being on a site that encourages discussion and the like, never gotten so much feedback before online! <3

[Metro Air]

Again another amazing piece! Getting a nice chill vibe from this one. Love it. Do have to say at times when all the instruments kick in it sounds a bit 'crunchy'. Is that something you wanted or an issue with mixing that you had back then? (Since you did mention that song is pretty old.)

quantumdylan responds:

Yeah, it's definitely way overblown. A lot of my older mixes are just blown to shit, particularly the ones I did back in FL Studio. Relied too heavily on soundgoodizer and maximus or whatever it's called. This one comes to mind for me: https://clyp.it/ula3ri0f

Nowadays I kinda know what I'm doing, which doesn't say much :D

[Signals]

That is one amazing set of equipment. How long have you been making music? Either way amazing piece! Love it!

quantumdylan responds:

Ha, I may have a bit of a synth addiction. And as for how long, I've been playing music for quite some time, but specifically electronic music has been for maybe eight or nine years so far.

Thank you so much man!

[Neon]

Dude! I need to exchange notes with you on how you mixed this thing. My songs don't have that 80's feel when it comes to the mix. Love the sound! Keep up the good work!

quantumdylan responds:

Hey man, thanks so much! It's just the right amount of wow and flutter, particularly this one goodhertz plugin called wow control. That and their vulf comp are so incredibly good for smashing and squashing the sound.

They're really pricey without a discount, but if you get the trial and share your patch settings with goodhertz they throw you a 50% coupon which is cool. Only way I could afford them lol!

I always love talking shop, so feel free to drop me a line!