Kazmo's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hey Move On Now (Radio Edit)]

Neat-o :P

Intro is really nice, very uplifting.

34 seconds in, it starts to sound really muddy, I think your sidechained pad has too much mids, and perhaps is the reason why the vocals sound overpowered. Vocals tend to fill the mids of a song, so if you have other sounds that are mids-heavy, it's not going to be balanced very well.

I also recommend limiting the vocals after a nice compressor because the vocals fluctuate almost too much in volume.

2:12 sounds sooo cool, I really like the vocal cuts. Once again though, I think your pad/bass synth is a bit heavy in the mids, and bring out the vocals a bit more would help balance the overall mix imo.

Keep up the great work man, it's been a while since I heard from you! :D

Airprogressive responds:

Thank you! I'm glad you liked the track. Your advices will be taken under consideration.

The intro, and the first seconds of the vocal part had a filter of 345 Hz. Then the filter is turned off. It sounds like a radio effect or something similar. I love that effect.

Mixing is hard!

XD

[Denn-C - WiP]

Very nice :]

I really liked the first 27 seconds. Very relaxing. That piano sounds like it could have a little more crispness to it.

when the other lead comes in at roughly 27 seconds in, it sounds a little off at some places. Note placement is everything in a song. Maybe have it mimic the piano and make it play like a delay rather than a whole other melody.

0:41, when your lead cuts in, it still sounds like it's not fully opened up, maybe have an automation so that it turns off the HP filter FX, b/c high resonance tends to change the quality of sounds that have mid tones in them.

When the kick and everything is in, sounds super solid. :D

Keep at it, you better finish this soon >:3

Denn-C responds:

Thanks for the review man!! apreciate it:D

[-'+ Hardstyle Previews +'-]

Hey Krussi!

Long time man.

I didn't know you were moving into hardstyle. I dunno if it's a good move though, and here's why:

-your previews sound too happy, since they use generic chord progressions too often. Hardstyle tends to just stick with one chord, except at the final break. 0:34 was a good example of a good sounding hardstyle idea, since it's quite repetitive (that's good).

-your synths still sounds too trancy/hands-up to be 'hard', I think another reason for this is because you're using a lot of block chords (like your 2nd and 3rd which actually sound wayyy too similar). Try making simple melodies that flow well and that are about 2-8 bars long.

-the overall mix sounds a tad light still, needs to have more power, especially on the low end. The kick and bass is what normally drives the track in hardstyle. The lead usually sits on top or blends into the rest of the track (through side-chaining) depeding on the style.

Nonetheless, I know you're new to this genre (as am I, I don't really make it either lol) but I've heard my fair share of hardstyle since my friend has a shitload of it :3

Keep at it man, I'm sure they'll go somewhere. :]

Krussi responds:

Yo Kazmo.

Yeah, I know what you mean with the generic chord progression (can't hold my damn fingers away from them >.< ). I'm actually considering either converting the melodies and chords into something dance or trance-ish or just scrap the projects for now since the only "hardstylish" about them are the 1/3 beat.
I'm still strugeling with the mixing since that's one of my major issues with my songs (in my opinion).

Thanks alot for the review man, I appreciate it alot ^^

Cheers man.

[-={DJ-PHX}=- Crystal Bubbles]

Interesting

Your other track that I finished reviewing is quite different then this one.

Funny enough, I found that this one has tooo much bass. It seems that your kick has a fair bit of subbass and that it's conflicting a bit with your bass lead at points where they overlap. A good way to prevent this is to either stick a steep low cut EQ on your kick, or side chain your bass to your kick a bit.

This track's overall EQ is a bit wack to be honest. There's a LOT of highs going on, and not much mids. I don't know what to think of it. I just know that there's a fair bit of resonance on your lead.

The FX remind me of some of the old stuff Tiesto mixed on his early Magik albums.

If you ever need some insight, feel free to PM me for my MSN.

Keep at it :]

unrealdark responds:

That might be since this is my 3rd demo I finished out of my flps in the genre progressive trance. This was the best at the time to pick.

I'll be sure to keep the mixing in mind, I guess I need some training.
But I'll have to say, that I didn't worked 100% on my mixing in this track.

Yeah thanks but I got you already on msn bro. :P
We only hardly talk, since when I am online it's working time for you I believe.

Other than that, Thanks for the informative review!
I'll work on my mixing.

[-={DJ-PHX}=- Influenced Power]

A nice track :]

No doubt my favourite part was at 1:23, the space and the change of presence of the different synths was nice to listen to.

The crowd cheering could've been done without, since it gets a bit cheesy, since we all know it wasn't played live. :P

I felt that the overall track was lacking a bit of low end, as well as 'oomph'. Yes, it had drive, which is good, but it didn't have presence when it came to a full sound. I shouldn't have to turn up my headphones further than needed to feel my ears rumble with bass. Actually, I take that back, it was all fine until the big super saw came in. It seems to overpower the mix a fair bit.

Not gonna lie, I haven't really heard your other tracks yet, so I don't know how much you've improved, but from the sounds of things, I'd say this is becoming quite pro-sounding. :D

Keep up the great work!

unrealdark responds:

Yeah I know what you mean, it gives that empty hole something powerfull to go after.

Haha yeah I get your oppinion. xD
I just wanted to create this effect, that it had slightly more energy to it. But yeah it does get cheesy. I'll might make a remake without them and make some slight diffrences.

Yep, still got to get better at mixing. :O
I'll EQ the lead more, and put a clipper on it, don't know if that'd help though.

Thanks for the review! It's deeply appreciated!

[He's a Pirate - F-777 ReMiX]

Cool.

I listened to it once through, and I couldn't help notice that you used the first 2 phrases of the original a fair bit, and only threw in the last couple phrases in once. I didn't get to hear the part that I love the most though, which is the other main phrase, which then goes into the chromatic-like build of epicness.

This was like the F-777's answer to Tiesto's Adagio for Strings, where he only uses the first portion of the original track. :P

As much as I love the motif, it got really repetitive really quickly. I think part of it was the fact that you really added a LOT to the original melody in terms of leading notes and doubling. That kind of stuff should be used seldomly and as a means to mix up the melody every once in a while, in my opinion. Then again, I don't make dance, but I have heard my fair share of dance.

About 2:56; it seemed really busy, almost too busy. May have been better to make a repetitive outro rather than make it like a summary of everything we just heard and then to have a couple of button notes.

Nonetheless, this was a good mix, and I'm glad you finally finished it :D

Keep up the good work.

[TCP - Love is Like]

Very Chill

First off I'm loving the atmosphere in this track, the airiness in the mix really works for jazz.

Everything sounds really tight, which is what you want with Jazz, this song drives itself.

Now that I listen more, perhaps the use of panning would've added a more realistic atmosphere, such as an actual lounge stage. Panning the piano to the right and such, but this is just an idea if you wanted to make it more like a live performance rather than a studio recording. This sounds perfect in terms of balance and mixing for a track for an album.

Keep up the great work man.

tijnn responds:

Thank you kaaazmo, Im glad you complimented me on the mixing, you son of a beastmastering pro. X_X

[[SP] ~ Inspiration Road]

Over-compressed.

The idea for this track is really nice, the execution, on the other hand, isn't quite up to par.

You have some really nice ideas in the song, some of them work, some of them don't.

The smooth intro would've been nicer if the track wasn't so compressed, and that you EQed the sweep down effect you have so that it didn't conflict with the mids and low end of the mix.

I don't know about you, but I've heard this clap way too much in songs. I guess people love how it clicks and sustains. I would look for more of a snare sound then a clap.

1:24 was another neat idea, I've heard it in a track that Tiesto mixed at Copenhagen, I forget the name of the song at the moment though. To be honest, the pause at 1:46 must've been an influence from the song I'm metioning as well hahaha

3 minutes shows your compression problem. To much muddiness in the mix.

When the sidechain off, the mix sounds horrible, not gonna lie.

So overall, work on your mix, not everything has to be maxed out, think of giving your mix some space; it needs to breathe!

Keep at it!

Blizzaine responds:

What you interpret as "compression" is actually everything going though 1 side chaining track. Bass, leads, sweeps, ect... And I havn't heard a Tiesto song in my life. Dunno why people compare me to him, I really couldn't give 2 shits about the guy.

[PT - Frozen Oblivion]

Over-compressed.

Right on the get-go, my ears hurt due to the resonance high-pass and the sheer volume of this track. >.<

It wouldn't have hurt so much if the track wasn't so compressed to the max. It's good to give some space in a track so that not everything is at MAX VOLUME.

The gated pad you have going on from 00:13 all the way to 1:30 gets kind of annoying really quickly. I recommend starting the track with more of a one-chord style intro, that way you can build and later add a chord progression (00:38 would've been a good time to do so).

1:32 seems really empty, and that lead is really uncomfortable to listen to, needs some colour or fluctuation to the sustained notes.

That gated pad comes back...it's no different.

I know there aren't drums, but it really needs them to drive the song. If you are to add the drums yourself, I recommend reallyyyyyy lessening the compression, or else this whole track is going to be even more of a giant muddy mess :P

All in all, this track didn't vary enough for me. It was too repetitive and quite muddy.

Hopefully your next track will shine more. :] All the best!

georgem124 responds:

Thanks for the critique, but i really cba to read that.

Trance isn't my general style and thus I didn't put alot of effort into this.

Edit 2- Okay i read it, and i already told you my guitarist is doing the drums so dont put comments about drums! ^_^

[Paparazzi - Dirty Mix]

Clunky

The first 12 seconds felt silly, sounded so empty and powerless. I know this is supposed to be a dirty mix, but there's a bit of a difference between dirty and just plain grittyyyyyyy... >.<

I'd recommend increasing the lowend of the main bass, and lessening the low mids, but not too much.

I noticed that the lyrics start to get out of sync with the rest of the track around 0:44 on.

I don't know...I feel that the overall track really "lags", and because of that, made it a little difficult to enjoy.

The lead that comes in at 0:46 could definitely be sidechained a little harder, so that it starts to fade back in on the offbeats, and not sooner so that it gives more drive and less push-pull fail :P

I don't know why Helth is being so mean, but I will say that your rhythm could use better samples, preferably a better clap. That's more of a hip-hop style clap.

2:34 is just strange lol

When doing a remix, you don't have to include every single portion of the original track into your remix. When ever there's a part that doesn't quite fit in, I just cut it out.

Anyways, I'm just a little surprised almost every one of your tracks have made it to top 5... :/

b0b3rt responds:

Only the last 3 =P

Also, I'll take everything you said into consideration. As I said, I'm still working on it.

And thanks.