phosphorusprocedure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Suede Seats]

I agree with Mr. Mophead. To add to that, I dig whatever you used for that bassline (the buzzy saw kinda thing? The notes you picked for it work really well, too). Vocal samples are killer.

I wasn't as much of a fan of whatever was going on around 1:40 -- that higher pitched swirly thing. I don't think it fit in with the beat as well as the other elements, and it got kinda distracting when the volume on it would drop completely, and then come back in.

Then again, if someone was rapping on top of it, I wouldn't notice it as much. Otherwise, the beat's amazing. Love the drums. Always got that sick sounding clap to it as usual.

The ending was cool, with the vinyl sounding scratchy noise. Lent to the ethereal vibe.

BOULLIE responds:

Thanks fam, still working on my sound choices, you know how it go.

Bassline's a Sine wave tho

[Cold Bruise]

Dig the synthy arp-y stuff at 1:02. The drums sound real good. The kicks are kinda in and out, depth wise, like some sound far away and others close up. The crescendo thing you had going on at the end of the beat was reeeeeal nice. Very Shadow-esque. I digs it.

BOULLIE responds:

Do you recognize where the groan from 1:08 is from?

You introduced me to the song lol

[Drunk on the Light]

The synth panned at 1:18 was a little rough on my ears -- a little loud and panned kinda hard, but once the other stuff joined in, it wasn't too bad. I really dig the sheer number of synths you got going on in this track. Mixed really well too, so nothing sticks out too much more than the others.

I personally wasn't a huge fan of the snare you used (that pouncy 80s sounding thing) -- something a little crunchier might suit the track more.

I dig this track a lot. Great work.

Slug-Salt responds:

Thanks for the well thought out review phosphorusprocedure. I think the headphones lack highs so I was over compensating; I'll work on that for the next mix.

I'm glad you thought the mix was decent, In that past that has been my weakness so I'm trying to get a handle on it.

Thanks again!

[Kez- Apollo]

How did that auto-tune sound happen? Whenever I do gsnap stuff, the voice has to be prerecorded, and I have to map the exact notes I want into a midi channel. Actually, I can just do a key, too, but it's hard to get the funky ass notes in there. I'm just wondering what your process was with recording and manipulating the vocals in there.

kenhandra responds:

well I used the phaser too with my voice

[Wayfarer]

Really like the bass. Has that nice wah wobble to it.

Synths at 0:25 have that eerie-ness to them.

I'd probably play with the reverb on the snares, to get more of a sewer feeling to it. If that's what you're going for.

I like it!

[Laughing 2 Th Bank...]

I love the thing the vocal oohs do.

Something about the snares bugs me. I don't know if it's that they're all over the beat, including where I'd normally expect the kicks to be (that's a style I think, not something I do a lot but I'm sure it exists) or if it's just an odd kinda snare. I'd maybe mess around with a click or something with a sharper envelope to make it sound a tad funkier.

The beat's cool though. I liiiiiiiiiike it. That owl hoot thing in the intro is a great sound. Very A$AP.

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thanks for your kind words, man. Yeah, those snares are a bit harsh but I have been known for having an undue propensity for liking snares. Snares are my jam, man. I'll think of toning them down tho. ;)

I didn't think about using a click. Maybe I'll use a lot lighter 808 style snare, or even a bass kick like you said you would've expected.

Much thanks, phosphorusprocedure.

[Fingerprints]

The design philosophy reminds me of Autechre's Anti EP:

Anti EP was a protest against the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which would prohibit raves (described as gatherings where music is played), with "music" being defined as a "succession of repetitive beats."[2] Sean Booth explained the band's strategy for the song "Flutter" by saying, "We made as many different bars as we could on the drum machine, then strung them all together."[2] (from Wikipedia)

Really interesting to listen to all the way through.

SineRider responds:

Interesting, I wasn't familiar with that EP! I was definitely going for an Autechre/Richard Devine style track. It was pretty freeing not thinking of melody or harmony; just completely focusing on timbre and rhythm

[Newbie at Dis 2 (Dumb Blasted)]

Man you went crazy with drum programming here. How many sounds you have going on in just the 0:45 part? Kick, snare, bongo trash can thing, click, panned clap things, hats, maaaaan. I like the jingly vibraphone thing, too. Was the vocoder saying "dance" somewhere in there?

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thanks man. At the 0:45 part, I have: slowed down simple kick-snare loop; bassy kick; a really quiet dry clap going every beat; an 808 snare on every 3; another "rawer" snare doing more complex hits; single hi-hats trilling; a sped-up little bongo loop that goes by itself every so often (0:48, 0:52, 1:02, 1:07). I wanted to pick samples that resembled real drums but still had a sense of fakeness about them. I don't think I put any vocal samples other than the "ayy" samples in there. Which part does it sound like there's a vocoder going on?

Thanks so much for the feedback, phosphorusprocedure. I really appreciate it. :)

[Hope]

Those high pitched voice synths at 0:50 are badass. Ditto the opera thing at 1:08.

The bassline sounds awesome.

I wish I could get my drum patterns to sound that funky. You punch it in with a pad/drum machine or do you use triplet kinda rhythms and play with the velocity on the drum hits? The kick pattern sounded dope as fuck.

BOULLIE responds:

All punch! The sounds wouldn't be the same if I couldn't pad em out. I'll never go back, real talk

Try a lil sidechainin + a soft (or w/e u want) hi hat on every kick and snare hit, adds a lot of emphasis so you can get that UMPH whenever they touch down, setting adsr on the snares and kicks and lettin them release helps too, and remember.

Swing will help too. Hurts the neck to nod to some stiff shit you know?

[Ghosts Passing By]

I really dig this. Kinda chiptune stuff going on, mashed up with 80s-esque percussive sounds.

I'm new to your stuff -- how does Mathematica help you make tracks? I thought it was used for things like solving equations or graphing vector spaces.

secantwave responds:

I'm glad you liked this!

Mathematica has a "Play" command, which takes a function, usually a wave, as input and plays back the sound it corresponds to--for example, if you input Sin[440 2 Pi x], it will play back a sine wave at 440 Hz. Most of the base sounds I use for my electronic pieces come out of this procedure, but I arrange them in Tracktion.

This is definitely not what Mathematica is supposed to be used for, but it's flexible and I've learned a lot about the relationship between waveforms and sounds this way.