00:00
00:00
Newgrounds Background Image Theme

MEGASHIO just joined the crew!

We need you on the team, too.

Support Newgrounds and get tons of perks for just $2.99!

Create a Free Account and then..

Become a Supporter!

Quicksand

Share Download this song

Author Comments

My little brother was an extra set of ears for this song, so thanks to him for that! Also thanks to the guys at Ocular Sounds for support and advice.

I think I'm getting a hang of this production thing!! I think I'm starting to find my style, and I like it. Please review it if you have time, I'm a criticism sponge.

Log in / sign up to vote & review!

The first part was boring. Could come in way better. The drop was a bit too weak. It sounds like a mix between trap and something steppy. Trapstep? I dunno the drop was weird.

The song had like 3 parts for me, the first one as I said, try again. It was not interesting. The first few seconds are those, where you get the listener to listen to your song. So get that better.
The second 'part' had a nice melody and the interlude was pretty good.
Only thing that could be way better is 'part 3'. An interlude is used to bring the whole composition to "the tip of the spear" how I like to say. It felt like the melody from the 2nd part mixed with another melody. Which may be sometimes pretty cool but it was way too weak for the tip of the spear.

Get yourself the song "Set the world on fire" from 'Redcoon'. Yeah, the track is old, the chicks in the music video may be not the thing you would touch today but just give yourself the way how the music kicks in after the interlude. You really FEEL the difference.

4/5 Stars
It was good. It could be better. Keep it goin'!

Before I begin with my review, I want to say that I remember reviewing another track by you called "Nebulae". Tbh I found that track to be uncreative in some ways and amazing in others. Your potential was really apparent in that track and I felt like you just needed to find your own style.
This is definetly it.

The sound design is not only good, it's innovative and really creative. The sounds really go well together and fill each other out. That part at 02:08 when the bells comes in is the definition of smexiness ;D! The progression is genious and has a lot of turning points that keeps the interest up. Youve been able to switch parts around in a very good way without affecting the general feeling of the song.
The part at 02:55 really is the essence of what you are simply great at. Not many would consider suddenly changing to a funk part at that point, but it works perfectly. That slippy-squaresaw sounds amazing :D.
There's a lot of great things I could say about this track, but I believe it all comes down to this being the essence of what your music is all about. It's a blend of dance and techno, and when you start adding funk elements as well you are heading for greatness.

Even though I think this track was really good, I'll still deduct half a point. The reason is the eq.
the giant saw that comes in at
01:27 is stealing a lot of the shine from the bass parts and the slippy square. I would recommend trying to analyze at which frequencies the different synths shine the most, and try to lower or cut that particular frequency from the other synths.
Also it sounds you are letting some unwanted frequencies pass through in your EQ. I recommend cutting some of the lowest frequencies from ALL your synths and samples. How much of the lower frequencies you want to cut depends on the synth, but a general rule is that you cut what you can't hear. As an example, high pitched synths like the one at 02:57 pretty much only shine in the low and hi middle frequencies, so there's a lot of low frequencies that you can cut. if you use fl studio, add a parametric eq on all your active mixer channels(except the master), select one of the presets that says something like "20hz - 18khz" and move the low end cut point(the place where the cutting starts. It will be at 20hz in this case), until you find the point where you start hearing that the synth noise changes. You want to cut all frequencies to the left of this point.
If you don't use fl-studio, pretty much all Daw has a simillar eq plugin that does the exact same thing. Unwanted/uneeded frequencies like this which you think you can't hear, makes the mix sound muddy when all the synths come together, so I really recommend learning and mastering this technique.

Overall a great track, and it's amazing to see someone who has requested a review has grown this much :D! Keep it up ;).

4.5/5
Thanks for requesting a review from the:
{Review Request Club}

Drewpy responds:

Wow thanks so much for the review! I'm totally going to work on getting better at eq, thanks for all the tips! It's so cool that someone would take the time to give me all the tips and information that you gave me here. Seriously, thanks a million

I feel like some of the instruments don't really blend well. They stand out a bit too much, without feeling like they are part of the sound of the song. It kinda sounds like a bunch of different instrument, rather than one coherent sound. Examples of what I mean is the instrument that comes at 0:13, and the sound that comes at 1:29.

I feel like that's a shame really, because, as people have mentioned, the instruments sound really nice, and the progression is amazing, but these things just really stands out to me, as something that could be improved

Drewpy responds:

Thanks so much! I'll try hard to focus on that in the future

It takes skill to be able to keep changing things up and having it all sound fantastic. Every time you change up the sound everything sounds good together. Very Impressive!

The only thing I'd change about this song is that high pitched sound that first appears at 1:29 and shows up in a few other parts of the song should be removed. It just sounds too different from the rest of the song.

Other than that, terrific job!

Drewpy responds:

Thanks for the review! I'm stoked that you liked it, it's really encouraging so thanks so much!

Very good! Lots of changing of instruments and synth parts to keep it fresh and novel, good song structure, nice progression. The only thing I would change are the drum samples, they sound quite soft and 8-bit but if you were going for that particular sound then I can understand. Great work!

Drewpy responds:

Thanks for the review! You mentioned the drum samples, and yes, I'm still trying to figure out how to toy with them in the right way to make them sound good. Except for the hi-hat. I just need to find some good samples to begin with in that case.

Credits & Info

Artist

Listens
1,736
Faves:
4
Downloads
33
Votes
12
Score
4.43 / 5.00

Uploaded
Apr 22, 2016
6:39 PM EDT
Genre
Dance
File Info
Song
4.6 MB
4 min 3 sec

Licensing Terms

Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.