Dude, this is seriously the best dubstep I've ever heard. I know that's not saying much, since most dubstep is complete bull, but this is an amazing accomplishment. You had a lot of variety throughout the song, it wasn't just a huge mass of crappy sounding effects, and PERFECT drops. The only thing I don't understand is why people like skrillex get famous and make shit tons of money off of the crap they make, honestly, I have NO respect for people like him. Great job, this song blew me away.
Reviews for "Insurgent [MSB] (NGADM)"
GrantBowtie responds:
Wow thats a huge compliment : ) I honestly don't think this is even close to skrillex though
This is a very good song. I'm not one of those people who 'hates dubstep' because I feel like all genres have potential for greatness. Of course, when you're writing dubstep it's incredibly tempting to just crap all over the drop...
There's a contrast in this song that's evident from the very beginning - your bass and your high synth don't go together at all. The bass is an incredibly funky tune, the synth is this more sad mournful sounding idea. You should either stay behind one or the other.
Your production is absolutely phenomenal, and I feel almost criminal docking you a few points. It's because I feel like I'm missing some sort of overall message from the track. The drops are flawless but I don't hear any kind of theme from them. There are no real gripping melodies or anything of that nature (except that funky bass which kinda gets forgotten about).
Anyway, great song.
GrantBowtie responds:
Ya some people I know object to the funky bass, but other people seem to like it, so don't know what to tell you- Thanks for the input man.
NO! I'm not supposed to like dubstep! Popular music isn't supposed to be innovative! What have you done!?
You get docked 0.3 points because your track cuts out without a reverb tail, and that makes me sad.
GrantBowtie responds:
Woah, I consider this a really great review especially if you hate dubstep! Ya I've used the reverb tail a lot and sometimes I get tired of it
This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.
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Now this here is dubstep done differently. Not only does this have brilliant production value but you've even strived for originality too, with all those crazy effects, different sounds, loads of pauses and breaks, and all sorts of interesting compositional elements.
You've got some cool composition in here. I was desperately hoping that you don't use a generic chord progression but to my relief, you didn't, using a more interesting chord progression. Other than the melody at the beginning, you don't really have many other clear foreground melodies that aren't covered up by a crap-ton of effects, so in the end that makes this track seems to lose its sense of direction at times, considering all the effects and sounds you jam-packed in there, but that isn't much of a problem for this kind of genre in my opinion, even if I would've appreciated some more foreground melodies in there. But yeah, nice composition! By the way, you may want to leave the ending note to echo a little longer. Right now its reverb is getting cut off because you didn't leave enough silence at the end of the track.
Anyway, not only do you have good composition, but the sounds and production are all superb. You're honestly nearing professional level in your tracks, I swear. Everything sounds so clear and punchy. I'd imagine this was hard to achieve considering all the crazy automation and sounds you've got going all over the place, so massive props for making the mix so clear. All of the sounds are really great. The wobble bass wasn't overbearing and the foreground synths weren't annoying (well, most weren't - more on that later). Nearly everything here is absolute ear candy.
I've got two issues with the track, one is related to the progression and another is related to your use of certain sounds. Starting with the former, I think the progression of the intro is a bit odd. You start off *relatively* softly, the song kicks in, then the drums go away and the track loses a lot of its energy, before kicking in again right after the 1-minute marker. This is a really weird way to structure your intro, I would've gone for a constant buildup to the part at 1:01 instead. Secondly, some sounds seem to stand out too much. The synth at the beginning, for example, felt too loud. Perhaps a cutoff filter automation to sort of ease it into the track instead of starting the track with it at max volume straight away might've been a better choice. Also, that 'wuh' female vocal was nice but at times it was too loud and towards the end of the track it got unbearably annoying.
So yeah, I've got a few stylistic/structural issues with this track and a few issues with your volume levels on certain sounds. Otherwise, I think that this is a really well-produced track!
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SCORE:
8/10
GrantBowtie responds:
Wow I've had some majorly differing reviews on this song but I'd have to say you pretty much summed up every problem that was bothering me with this. Thanks for such a constructive review and I will consider most of this when working on my submission for next round : )
Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.
The Good:
-Man, that's a good intro.
-You have some pretty awesome effects in there, and they sound, quite frankly, epic.
-Props for recording your own vocals.
-The dubstep part is very very good for dubstep.
The Not-So-Good:
-Unfortunately, this falls into the common failing of dubstep. It's extremely repetitive. There's the intro, the first drop and dubstep section, a short break from the dubstep wobbles, then it jumps right back into another drop and dubstep section that's pretty much the same as the first one, then an outro. The middle section isn't really a break since it's only about 15-20 seconds.
-Speaking of the outro, that was a bit disappointing. Would have been better if you just let the filter finish its slow drop rather than bringing everything back up suddenly. I give you credit for trying something new, but it didn't work.
-That "whaa" sound, while nice initially, got REALLY annoying eventually.
Overall: Honestly, compared to most dubstep, I REALLY liked this. It was very well-made, had a varied wobble section, and sounded... well, actually, a lot better than KirbyFemur or LiquidOoze's tracks with regard to harshness on the ears. I would highly suggest you make it less repetitive though, and less concentrated chaos. While that's good in small doses, having a section where people can really calm down before it comes back would be good. 15-20 seconds isn't enough. All things considered, I'll give this a 7/10.