gregaaron89's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kazmo - Heart of Asia RMX]

Nice bass!

I thought the bass sounded a bit weird in the lowpassed intro, the low low frequencies sound a bit too overbearing through my headphones, dunno if that's because those frequencies are amplified on mine or they're not loud enough on yours so you didn't notice... but anyway when it came in fully at :29 it sounds amazing. My favorite part about it is the saw part that dives down, and how it has reverb on it! It's a big reverb too and your mix is clear enough that it shines through. I rarely get this with songs, only highly well produced ones, but I can actually "see" the bass here, it seems to be moving through space and creates a driving force for this track (lolwut)

The mix sounds amazingly thick, I'm loving the way everything comes together here. The only sound I really don't like is the high hat, not only because it's strangely tinny sounding, but also because it seems to sit on top of the mix, and is really killing some of the depth. I would prefer a shorter, slightly quieter but more punchy sound with more reverb so it would blend in more with the rest of the track.

The other thing that's bothering me is when you high pass the percussion, it gets pretty loud (I'm listening at fairly high volume) It's probably intentional, stuff like this is used to create a dizzying feeling on a club system, but I think it's taking it a little bit far.

The leads in this are very well chosen and beautiful sounding, and of course work perfectly with the melody. You really filled up the high frequencies very nicely, I love that in a trance track, it's what really gives the uplifting feeling. Great reverb on that too.

In fact you used so much reverb in this song which gives it amazing depth, yet everything is clear and your kick stands out O_o wtf teach me...

Kazmo responds:

:D

Ya the bass was experimental, but I feel it really turned out nicely. It is a tad strong in the low low end, but I don't think it's overbearing, I didn't feel that it distorted or overpowered anything. May just be your headphones, since I used my new puppies to mix this (Stanton DJ Pro 2000). :P

Ya you're right, it does tend to sit on top of the mix, it's sort of what I was going for, I didn't want it to blend toooo much, but I guess it could have been mixed in a bit better, perhaps lower the high highs a bit, and add more reverb. lol I think of this nowwww >.<

Ahh yes, the high pass....lol....I could probably lower the resonance level. I didn't feel it was loud on my headphones though, I wasn't thinking about really loud volumes xD

Heck, I may revisit this. :D

I love making synths :3

All those are 3xOsc if you didn't know already ;P

Ya, I think it may be the compressor in the master channel, yaaaaa I'm gonna revisit this hahahahah. I have new techniques!!!

Thanks for the awesome review and support! :P

[Outside (Feat. Quarl)]

I agree with Liljim

The highs are really piercing here. Plus it sounds really thin and is lacking bass. I had to turn my volume way down and then I still didn't want to listen to it because it was hurting my ears. Which is a shame because there's a lot of really interesting stuff going on here, some nice rhythms and melodies and the song progresses pretty well. My main problem is just that synth doing all the soloing and glitching, your piano and some other sounds are already taking up the highs, maybe move it down an octave or two or even change the sound itself. It has too much presence in the mix and it's very distracting from the rest of the song. I'd like to hear a remaster though.

[Auroral (Unfinished)]

Yes

I confirm this statement

[I <3 Electro House]

BAAAASSSSSSS

Such a smexy bass in this :3 Nice melody. I'd really like to hear more layering and crisp highs on top of it though, it sounds a bit empty.

[Endless Fall]

Awesome progressive!

This song hooked me right away and held my interest throughout, I think the transitions and flow are very impressive. The effects you used keep it interesting and sound very professional. It's an interesting sound mixture and I think it works really well. The only thing I don't really like is the bass that comes in at 2:16. I just think everything else in this song sounds freaking amazing and the bass is just... average. It takes a lot away from the climax. I like how it sounds at 3:15 on though, I don't know what you changed about it there but it's better and has more energy. Overall really unique and interesting though.

10/10
5/5
Fav'd

[Synthetica EP Plug]

:D yays

I'm so psyched for this, I couldn't sign up on shockhound so I'm waiting for it to come out on iTunes. You guys definitely deserve my moneys, hope you make lots :P I'm looking forward to joining in on the next one if it happens!

[[37mm] As We Watch]

Different

And I mean that in a good way. When it starts out you have the kick only on the third beat, which at first had me thinking that the song was going at half the speed, and that the kick was on the 2nd and 4th beat (which is really weird for electronica and like never happens lol) It was clear that it was twice the speed at :48 by the synth line, also you added a quieter kick on the downbeat to make a standard 4 on the floor beat.

Still, the kick on the third beat has the most energy of the beat and gives the song a really interesting feel. You can count the song in two different speeds which factoring in the ambient sounds and the dancy lead give the whole song a great hypnotic effect and a perfect balance of energy and calm. I don't know if that was intentional but it works. I also think the tempo you used is absolutely perfect.

I think this song progresses pretty well and builds nicely. I think the end is a bit sudden though and it has a few spots where it isn't as smooth as it could be. I think you could've built it up a bit more with the beat, maybe a snare roll or something.

I'm not too fond on the bass and lead, I think the bass sounds strange and not bassy enough, just some EQ problems. Don't worry too much about it right now. The lead sounds fine but it sounds like the same dance lead everyone's heard a million times and I don't know if it fits this particular song at all. Otherwise you've paired some really good sounds together in this song, which is something I personally delight in. Those pads playing throughout really make the song.

Overall I think it's pretty good, I can definitely see potential.

EricTheMan responds:

Hey man thanks so much for the review and for putting time into it.
I know what you're talking about with some awkward parts and I could see myself mixing this again sometime in the future and fixing a lot of problems. Mastering songs is not a strong point for me at this point. I just got FL probably a month ago now so I'm hoping I'll get better with that all over time. But thanks again man and I'll let you know if I mix/add to this at all!
Thanks!
~Eric

[Is This True Love? (Piano)]

Truly moving

This is amazing, it's really a haunting song. The beginning sounds a bit lonely and I love how you faded in some strings into the background. It did sound a bit slow at first but it all works together once you listen to the whole thing. I love how the song picks up and the short pause between :53 and :55 It starts to get more interesting here, the melody is just beautiful. I love at 1:23 where it picks up speed, this is where it starts to get amazing. I love chords at 1:30-1:32- pure joy. And then they move up an octave. At 1:52 this part almost makes me cry, first time I could tell what the next two chords would be, this is GREAT tension here. I saw how much time was left in the playhead and I was bracing myself for one of those HUGE piano endings where you go all over the keyboard but I have to admit the end was a bit dissapointing and sounded a bit sour. I think if you just fixed that it would be perfect. Well one thing that bothered me about it was how you played the right hand and then the left hand, which I think kind of works away from the direction you were going. If you did it the other way with the high notes last it would've been better and fit the theme more. Either way this is an amazing song, and you are a great composer.

Zero123Music responds:

Thanks alot gregaaron :)

I loved reading your review.

Thanks for the compliments - and as for the end, I myself discovered those chords and absolutely loved them. But I didn't want to overdo them - just keep it beautiful and subtle.

Tamadrum liked them - but I see exactly what you mean.

I will probably update it and change the ending for you :p

thanks again
>>Zero

[Piano Collab in A Minor =HFX=]

Very nice

It's a pretty good melody and repeats well throughout the song, especially with the chord changes at :14. I feel it could've used a bit more variation towards the end, especially from :43 onward to distinguish it from the beginning. I agree with the people that said that the low notes overpower the mix. But I think that also your high notes could use some more compression and velocity, and an EQ boost in the high end and a cut on the low end would've helped too.

[Abaddon]

Turn it down! ><

It's not bad, very repetitive though, but the volume is the main problem here. Your kick is getting very very distorted and muddy and this track is clipping all over the place. Your audio is being very badly damaged because of the volume you exported it at. If you don't know what clipping is, you should really check out this youtube video about the so called "loudness war". (and its wikipedia page as well) Since I'm not allowed to post html, just search in youtube "loudness war" and click on the first result. I don't mean to be harsh here but this is a major problem and proper mixing is essential if you ever want to progress with your music. (and this is the MOST important thing of all to know about mixing!) All you need to do is turn the volume down on the main channel to a reasonable level and re-export and it should be pretty much fixed.

C4STR0 responds:

Yeah I went back a little while ago and realized that I had the delay on the master channel, so that along with the bass boost is what is giving it that distorted sound. The volume being on max didn't help either, heh, rookie mistake(This was my first song I ever made XD)! I'm probably going to take this down, condense it to deal with some of the repetitiveness and clear up the sound before I resubmit.