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Reviews for "Electrified Snake"

Here's a big review (I focused on helpfulness ^_^)

I want to start the review off by sayign this one might turn out very long. There's a lot of room for improvement here (which is not too bad- most aspects are pretty good.)

So first off- there seems to be a bit syncing issues- you do quantize everything right? That cheesy pluck synth does very much sound out of sync with the drum beat, at least in the start. I'm not sure if you just haven't quantized everything or it's something else, but it definatively is worth taking a look at.

Another issue is the mixing/mastering- small creaks here and there, the bass and kick are crapped out- both of these are signs of a small amount of clipping, or overcompression. I'm guessing you have compressed the master track or something of the like- you want to take down the input gain quite a lot- the track will not be as loud, but much more pleasant. If you have some visual aid that shows the levels in real time on the compressor (usually a linear meter) try finding the balance where it is as loud as possible without clipping or stuff like that. Just use your ear really, it's the most reliable tool you have. If you're still on. :P Apart from that it generally sounds good.

Drums are generally fine- except they sound way basic altogether. Kick is mostly a very weak thump- I suggest you choose another sample, a much more offensive one would fit the hard snare used better. Hats are good as is, might just want to make them a bit louder.

So for the synths- those are also very basic, and they all lose some of their tone with the lot of clipping and peaking (attempted to describe it two paragraphs up) but I can hear most of them are based on saw waves. Some are very harsh- try some low pass filter (with a cutoff around 3kHz) on the one that is introduced around 0:57 for a more pleasant tone.

For the song structure, I don't have much to add. It's all good, and should stay the way it is. One little idea though- how about a break with pads only shot into the middle of the track? It would emphasize the busiest part and make it seem more intense. See it you can work it out ;) As said already though, everything is really as it should be when it comes to song structure/composition.

Still needs a ton of polish (mostly when it comes to mastering/mixing- but trust me, you'll automatically get better at it all the time:) before it's truly great. You sure got a good first version though, good work!

Assios responds:

Thanks for a really good and informative review!

About the synth delay, I used the same pattern as the beat, and for some reason it got out of sync. I'll try to fix it (and improve on the other things you've mentioned too). As you mentioned, the kick is very weak. I looked for another one, but couldn't find one (I guess I'm just too impatient), so I just layered many different "drum beats", which makes it sound quite crappy. I am too impatient when making music in FL.

Thanks again for a really great and helpful review from a professional like you! ;D