chiptami's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Please Observe]

i certainly love the vibes in this, especially with that groovy bass. the mix itself is boomy enough from what i'm hearing, although the main elements (bass, synths and drums i mean) feel a bit too dry, i would suggest a bit more reverb (whether it's subtle or not is up to you, and don't forget to cut the low end of the reverb if you do use it on sounds occupying the bass lol), especially on those vocal samples. (paying attention they have varying amounts of reverbs... not sure if that's intentional but i do think the drier parts need a little more if this was on purpose) i also like the little details you put in this song that gives it its space, maybe make them a tiny bit louder to bring them out a bit. also with the crashes, feel like they're a bit too quiet. you could also add a little more by adding littler hi-hats to play behind your main hi-hats for added fullness. (they should play at a faster rate compared to the hi-hats, highly suggest applying glitch effects onto those) i felt like those rides at the end (3;21) should've been automated to be panned left and right, it feels weird if it's playing at the center along with your main elements.

overall, this is a nice house song. would actually play or find this in a club... good job!

Karabast responds:

thanks a lot for the review! i did go for a pretty dry mix as that was the direction i was going with it

dont really agree with panning the ride left and right but it could definitely use some stereo widening

[|14| ALKALINE!]

lol showed this to my friend. this is what they said;
"its giving me drunk bar vibes"
"now ita giving me video game vibes"
"those"
"like"
"u run from the monkey monster or sumn ID ONT KNOW"
i agree with these statements LOL it really does feel like that

i usually just cut the low end from the reverb of my kicks, lower frequencies rarely (or never) have reverb applied to them anyways. this is some nice experimental stuff tho, trying to mix house with drum n' bass (although you should use drum breaks like the amen break or apache for the drum loops instead of house ones if you want to lean in more on the dnb part)

as said before the bass is weak on the low end (specifically the sub), compression and/or distortion would help? maybe a stereorizer at the higher frequencies or unison would help thicken it up for this case. (the way i approach this is stereorize my bass, then put the stereo separation for the low end at 100% because the bass should always be mono for cohesion) snares needs to cut through the mix more so make them louder and maybe eq them at some parts to give them their space. nice variety and usage of drums tho, the drumwork in this is very crazy.

mixing is... sort of muddy? here i say sort of because i don't know if it's really muddy or it's just dull. (like it needs a boost at the high mids and treble idk) other than that feels like there's lots of room at the mid frequencies, don't know if you should add more instrumentation or pads into this, maybe something subtle would help idk...

the synths feels somewhat narrow and dry too, what stereorizer are you using? there's tons of free ones such as wider, dimension expander, or ozone imager 2 (all of which are free) which helps a lot in the process of widening and thickening a sound. i don't like the one fl gives you tho...

overall, this is a nice experimental song, love the weird blend of everything in all this...

(also is this all default fl drums? not saying "oh they are terrible don't use stock pls >:d" but i find just getting some free sample packs off the internet helpful for better sound selection, default fl drums could work with proper context and effect usage as they're eh in terms of by their own, better to just get it right in the sample selection instead of having to adjust and adjust it so much)

[|11| Surfin' the Net]

hmmm this actually feels more indie to me... first thing that comes to mind is that you should utilize effects on that lead at the beginning, yes it is dry and repetitive, (and i think you purposefully made it repetitive) but adding effect automation (like idk flanger, gross beat, panning, etc.) and messing with the sound a bit really hooks the listener in without doing much to the melody itself. they really help for that surreal and psychedelic vibe.

those drums... are those fpc drums? nevertheless the hats and rides are a bit too loud, the snare could have a cut at the low mids and a boost at the highs and maybe layered (or even replaced, tho that type of sound already fits the vibe) with one that has more punch to it. i'd also add more punch to the kick, probably with some added compression and distortion. (but not to the point where it gets fuzzy tho) your fills are okay, maybe add in some toms for variety.

the song feels slightly empty when everything comes together, some pads playing big chords or added instrumentation could help make it more fuller and immersive. (added percussion and sfx would also help too) your bass could be a bit more louder at the low end... feels pretty weak honestly

a revised version of this eh? i really like the indie vibes this gives off, almost comparable to the ones one may find out there. hope it works well fam!

PartyBalloof responds:

Thanks for the review! I'll try to incorporate everything in my revision, though the list has gotten quite big now.

I have no idea what fpc drums are. The drumset I used is a mix and match of whatever I felt sounded good. I'm only using whatever comes stock with FL Studio Mobile 3

Here's the full list if interested:
WD Hi-Hat Closed 06, FL Linn CH, FL Linn OH, FL Grv Kick Acourstic 03, Hyper GoldenDays Snare 01, WD Ride 02, FL Broken Crash, FLGrv Crash 01

[Corpse Moth]

haha could see why this got the reception it deserved, absolutely maddening...

first time listening to this and i was genuinely scared for my life goddamn. listening to this again and i could appreciate more of the finer details that went to this piece. (also wow 19 time signature changes and the change in tempo is mad) that beginning is really solid tho, and yes it's because of the crazy sax. (and those pauses!) not really much i could say here since this is solid enough except the end felt rather lackluster than the rest of the song, like less detailed i mean, that's not much of a problem considering the other parts are already wild enough as it is. i do feel like there's a minor error in the transition at 1:53 with those strings being a bit loud at the higher octaves (or higher frequencies? idk...), and 3:40's transition could be a bit longer... i wonder what those few errors are on your end tho...

overall, sheeeesh!

LD-W responds:

Ayy thanks for checking the track out!

Yeah, the ending segments are another by-product of 'I ran out of time lol' syndrome which plagues the majority of my tracks haha. The track errors I have noted down are stuff like not volume automating the Aztec Death Whistle, a few EQ adjustments I'd like to do for the strings & scrape tones, a few CASE-based articulations I would of preferred to have in etc.

[Peter]

ooo a hip-hop beat? as someone who used to make a lot of those, (and still does to this very day) your drums need a little bit more punch, add distortion to the kick and maybe layer another snare that occupies the low mid - mid areas while also lowering the treble of the original snare as there's lots of ringing there.

i find your bassline to be a bit repetitive, you should give it more movement in some parts to keep the groove going y'know? also maybe lower down the bass a bit, it's a lot louder than all the elements which takes the headroom away from them. this mix feels a bit narrow, especially the sample... checking a stereo imager and my suspicion is right. that's not a bad thing, but stereorizing and panning elements in your mix can open up more potential for a thicker and fuller mix overall. other than that i'd say that the mix is okay, a very vintage feel to it.

you could do a bit more with sample tho, like adding a b section where you flip another part of the sample and have it loop at said section for a period of time, but it's just me. overall, nice hip hop beat... :)

[Melancholy Hill- Broken Sword]

you know, even without the description i can tell the story and how it all flows, and even feel from it. (i mean REALLY feel from it) great job on that wow, even reading the description and your stylistic choices have much intent in them. i think this style of just having a few instruments play out through the entire composition really shines through in this song. the emptiness, muddiness and heavy distortion have much purpose in them.

mix is okay for the most part (an improvement compared to the other one wow), some people say that the guitar might be too heavy in this, but i think this is just the right amount of heavy. although the parts where the drums come in felt a bit overcompressed as i can hear ducking on the overall mix when the kick plays. it's not too bad though so don't worry about that. is this liveplayed by the way? really got to respect the effort and heart put into this. this was a very hard hitting listen, thank you very much. also the ending jumpscared the fuck out of me what was that LOL

[Melancholy Hill - Caravan Of Dreams (Remastered/Extended)]

ahhh remasters, oh how i love going back to an old track, and polish it up with the skills i have right now. (possibly make it worse than it already was xd)

i'd tame the trebles of your guitars a bit by cutting them with an eq... and maybe detect the ringing sounds and cut them too. comparing the remaster to the original, this really does seem a whole lot better. the first part seems to be lacking a lot in the bottom half of the frequency spectrum tho, might want to check up on that, cause idk if it's a recording problem or not. the heavy guitars seem a bit too heavy tho, they seem to be washing up most of the sounds in the first part. second part is okay. i liked the guitar playing, my favorite section is somewhere near the end part where you do those pitch bends. nice stuff.

overall, nothing much to comment on this since it is a very simple indie rock song...

[Aster - Three]

I liked the weird synth at the beginning. Is that sampled? Would like to know how did you made that, really interesting stuff right there. I would lower the frequencies of the weird synth at 300hz (low mids) and 3000hz (high mids) to tone down the resonance a bit. The arps at 1;56 and the end feels a bit too loud and ringing a bit in the higher octaves.

You should really cut off the lower frequencies from synths that don’t need it. It becomes a problem when you want to put your bass in. Your bass would be clashing a lot with those unnecessary sounds, giving a muddy sound that damages the mix, which can be felt in the drop. A little boost in the higher frequencies overall wouldn’t hurt to give that added brightness and shine. Really liked the way you sidechained the kick AND the snare to the whole song to give them the punch they needed. I would make them a bit louder and add subtle distortion them a bit to make them pop out more.

The mix also feels a bit narrow. As said before utilizing stereo wideners, reverb and panning your sounds will give it some more space. Compositionally, this is nice and simple and there’s nothing noteworthy to comment on there. Each section has enough runtime for it to develop properly along with the transitions, and that’s cool. Not much problem here besides maybe a little fill could be added at the end.

This is a really solid song nonetheless. Very dark cyberpunk-core. The growly synth (s?) at the second part of the drop was my favourite sound from all of this damn. Fix these little problems and boom! A frontpage worthy track probably…

[Slvt Wannabe]

ahhh lost the original draft of this, will just break it down into points on the spot

+ooo sewerslvt inspired. first time seeing someone being inspired by them on here, cool stuff
-ringing can be felt in the amen breaks. detecting the frequencies that are ringing and cutting them would fix ths
+i like the glitchy effects and percussions, nice touch
+also the tempo changes
*although you could also pair this up with a key change, having the sounds play in a lower key and pitch them up once you're reading to transition. this'll bound to hit harder
*you should utilize more transitions if you want to lead into a section or change sounds, the changes at 2;32 and 3;02 feels a bit disconnected. if you don't want to use transitional sfx, drum fills and tweaking the instruments to help lead into the next section will help
~it feels weird having a transition at 2;22 and not making a change to the section like changing the synth, adding a synth, or just changing the melodies a bit...
-melodic synths feels a bit too dry. add some reverb and it's all good
-and while you're at it, some stereo widening wouldn't hurt to give more depth, especially to the amen breaks and the melodic synths which feel narrow
+speaking about your synth-scape, they're pretty nice hehe

overall, a nice listen...

Aster responds:

U forgor spume

[The Shopkeeper]

the voice feels so realistic and robotic at the same time, it scares me...

also holy shit this is bomb

vermeen responds:

heh glad you like it. yeah, synthV has awesome parameter tweaking, so you could really make a voicebank sound as real as possible if you really wanted to, but the robot-y ness can add to the aesthetic