chiptami's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[HalYıl07 - Sky High]

u weren't kidding when u said this was quite different

[STARBERRIES]

very cute :0

[grotte sous-marine]

Man I remember playing the Epic Battle Fantasy series and enjoying the music a lot when I was a young lad. Those were the times… Loved the simplicity and catchiness of Phyrnna's music that made it easy to get into, and hearing this really just takes me back to those times. I can certainly say you did justice to this.

The vocal work on this is absolutely amazing. How everything is layered, the singing, and the use of autotune is a nice touch (2;40 omg :x), although I would’ve prefered a bit more autotune on the vocals and maybe bringing the formant up a bit. Mixing could probably be better, as stated before the reverb is a bit too much and a de-esser could be used to lower the s’s and t’s. The vocals could use a boost in the higher frequencies for added brightness, along with a dynamic EQ and a slight bell cut (?) at the mids and high mids to tame the resonance a bit. Maybe some added saturation and a bit more compression (?) to bring out the vocals more. I do think that some parts where the background vocals are by themselves could’ve been a bit louder, like 2;40 and the end where the choir comes together.

The instrumental is very solid and atmospheric. Really nailed those underwater vibes for me. Not much problems here besides maybe a little delay could be added to the pop effect heard in the verses and the clicking sound being a bit too loud at the final chorus, but that’s just me.

Overall, really nice atmospheric french pop song that does justice to a childhood favourite. :D

EDIT : lmaoo realised this is from bullet heaven 2, point still stands...

[Un-tilted]

Man you’re going to need a lot of work… there’s a beepbox (or did you used jummbox??? I forgor) community that could help you get better, as I don’t think I’m well versed in the program enough to review this to the fullest extent. The stuff they make with the box programs are absolutely maddening. Here you go; the discord server, they’re pretty rad from what I’ve seen https://discord.com/invite/fdZxm5SpAn

Listening to this, yeah it’s very amateur-ish, mix is empty in the higher frequencies, most of the synths are fighting for the lower frequencies, drums are very weak (the kick and the snare especially), and composition and theory could be a whole lot better. (keep learning theory while progressing with the tunes, you’ll surely get better) I don’t know if there are even effects in the box programs like eq and reverb, but if there are please do use them to shape your sound more. Also consider mastering your tracks to finalize the mix so it can be loud enough for the listeners ears. Audacity could do the trick for you. (simplest way to do this is just normalize it)

But I’m not going to dismiss this as absolutely terrible and move on, you still can make interesting ideas and concepts regardless of how good you are. This song does have its moments that are an eyebrow raiser, such as the interesting sound design present in the wub-wubs, growl synths and pitch bends being used. These sounds really compliment the ominous vibes this songs giving off, suitable for a boss fight where the boss is a whole lot stronger than you.

I find this a pretty interesting take on the dubstep genre even though this probably comes from confusion of the bitpack and how vague maxs explanation was. (dearly sorry about the state of the hum atm xp) This feels more video game-ish than dubstep imo. Making the wub-wubs play the melody even though you’re not supposed to do it like that is pretty fresh.

It still surprises me the things you can do in the box, and this track is no exception. Good day!

[I Believe in Monsters]

:0

absolutely speechless right now...

[Light, Shine Down (Troisnyx Arrangement)]

hello! imo this is more of a cover than a remix since there's not much changes in terms of arrangement and composition other than the structuring and instruments used.

your take on this song and turning it to be more intense and orchestral with a small hint of a bass synth in the middle really compliments the source material. it's as if they were part of a movie soundtrack, with trois' theme being the main opening and yours being more of a "call to arms" theme.

listening to this mix and it's nice and full. nevertheless, when it all comes together, i can feel that this is a bit overcompressed, especially with ducking being felt on the strings. also, one can hear some muddiness down at the lower frequencies. further analyzing your mix and putting it on a visual spectrum, it appears that you didn't cut off the unnecessary lower frequencies on your instruments. this could clog up said frequencies and would give no room for the bass to stand out, hindering a mix. luckily this didn't damage this song too much considering that the bass instruments used are too weak. which is another thing. i loved the bass synth being used in the buildup, and it was a shame it disappeared when everything came together. a more louder version of that bass synth would've worked very well for those intense vibes.

compositionally, this is okay, memorable melody and well-structured sections. this song will benefit a whole lot more with transitions being used, both when leading into and leaving from a section. it feels like each part is disconnected from each other. (with 1;54 being the most disconnected from them all) whether that maybe in the form of sfx, an orchestral fill or the melodic instruments leading into it, there should be something to tie it all together. i'm nitpicking at this point, but the part at the end could've used a drum roll or at least extra ghost notes being played, as i felt the percussion ended too abruptly. also the violins should've done a little fade in at the beginning instead of playing so suddenly.

this song could also utilize some more variety in its instrumentation, whether that may be in the form of layering them on top of each other, a counterpoint or just sequencing them next to each other so they could play their respective parts. highly recommend choosing some instruments that can play the higher frequencies, as there's a whole lot of room left for them.

some humanisation wouldn't hurt for the piano playing at the start and maybe for the part after that. how you want to do that is entirely up to intuition. dynamics too. feels like your instruments are all hitting at the same volume, causing the song to fall a bit flat on its face. (i know there's probably some dynamics being applied, but it's not noticeable enough) the little things like that can really bring out the emotion of a song.

overall, this was a nice listen, both from the source material and even this. i liked how they're both their own thing and comparing them isn't even a thought on my mind. it's okay for what it is, although it could be improved a whole lot more to bring out its true potential. good day!

cyan11 responds:

Wow that's a thorough review!!! I didn't know what to expect to be honest. But thanks for the tips, production is not my strong suit, people like you notice things that I don't whereas average listeners might not pick up on it. I get it with the transitions too, I tend to not ease them in properly. Usually people who are technically savvy will critique my mixing as well. I appreciate you taking the time to listen and write this, thank you. I will continue to work on my production, though it is not my joy lol. If I could just compose and let someone else mix/master that'd be PERFECT! but not reality, gotta watch some more in the mix vids on youtube. For example, I'm not even familiar with some of the vocab, like dynamics. Couldn't tell you what those are lol. Anyways thanks alot.

[A Night On Callisto]

TRACKER SUPREMACY