Kazmo's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[-={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!

[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.

[When Im With You - F-777]

Review Tiemz :3

I must say, you're pretty good at this kind of stuff, although I wouldn't necessarily consider this Classical, since it's got some pretty unrealistic sounds/mixing. I think this is the closest genre you could get for this...although it's almost Trance, but not really (the piano and pad sounds really Trancy).

As DJOrsa said, changing the velocities make all the difference in the world when it comes to making a more realistic sound to your channels.

Some panning on the channels would've been nice as well to give some sense of space and location in the mix. I noticed that the Piano is stereolized so that as you go up on the keys, it goes towards the right, which is cool, but that makes the piano sound like it's in the very center of the mix. Things like this have to be thought out sometimes, depending on what feel you want to get across. I myself may have, for example, panned the strings to the left a bit, and the piano to the right, and then monolize the drums a bit so that they're sort of in the background/center.

Now to get specific.

Reverse crash at the beginning feels a bit unnecessary. IT does it's thing, and then there's silence again. I think the song would be a bit nicer if it just led right into the playing :3

1:01 is pretty sweet, I like that pad, very ambient. The sound on top is different, I don't even know what it is! Oh well, it fits well with the pad, although it's a tad on the "punchy" side of the mix. It's probably just compressed a bit too much.

2:14 was a bit sudden for the drums to come in in my honest opinion. And then they stop after like... 10 seconds.... *sadfaic*

Lovely strings and piano nonetheless, I did mention the velocity changing earlier for the piano, that'd make it even more lovely.

The overall flow of this tracks feels a bit redundant. It moves/flows nicely up until 2:28. I feel that the track starts to lose some momentum there in terms of themes. It keeps repeating the same general pattern for about a minute. Perhaps some more instruments in that part would help a bit. It just gets a bit boring there.

I guess you wanted to have an ending chord, which is cool, I guess I'm just not a fan of yours, I prefer it be a button or a cadence. I think I would've liked it a bit more if it was a unison tonic chord. The 3rd throws off the ending in my opinion, plus the chord comes in significantly later.

In the end, this sounds nice, but there's always things that can be improved upon. Thank you for gracing us with this piece of yours! :]

F-777 responds:

Ye its not classical but i don't think NG really
has a genre for this i think its Down-Tempo maybe?

As for changing velocities i actually did that a lot here
but i think it wasn't enough of noticable changes still.

Panning yes i agree i should have focused on that i did
aim for simple but i missed out on a lot of opportunities
for atmosphere. Ya i didn't focus much on the piano going
off to the right either =(.

I kinda failed at a good intro kept trying diff things then
got frustrated and settled with that.

Thanks about 1:01! Its a panflute i found but i edited the heck
out of it and it ended up being really cool/weird. It sounded
relaxing so i added it to the song =). No compression it just
probably needs less attack.

2:14 what i was trying to do was twist the listeners emotions
like make it uplifting back to sad memorial back to uplifting
to resolved past memories etc. so i thought added the drums
for a bit then ending right away would help screw with your
emotions more =). But i probably should have let it go one more
time. *sadfaic*

O.O HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE MY ENDING CHORD?!? Haha thats ok
but for my preference i thought it went well with where my thoughts
were going =).

Thanks so much for the review!! And ya looks like im going to have
to make a new version of this. Im not a perfectionist but now this song
is nagging at me to fix it up haha.

Thanks man!! Appreciate the awesome long review! They arnt too common
on newgrounds =).

[Aspiration Rd. 2 {NewYear Mix}]

Uhm

Your kickdrum fills remind me of hip-hop snare fills, which isn't good.

This is so bad, I don't even know where to start.

I see that all you used were presets and a generic chord progression, explains all the listens though because people on NG seem to love that kind of stuff (at least the majority of the site).

You have some major balance and mixing problems.

Now that I think about it, I swear I've heard this melody from somewhere else, but then again, it's hard to make a new melody with that chord progression, there are only so many different variations that can sound 'ok'.

This track also lacks continuity, it keeps breaking the flow as well as adding too many different random variations. Stick with one idea and build from there, don't bring in random stuff.

"I uploaded this a couple weeks ago (before the new year), and realized the mastering was awful and that were a couple of other problems.. so I took it down and fixed it." You may want to work on it yet some more... Plus there's a difference between a finished track in terms of length/structure rather than mastering/mixing. This is nowhere near finished in terms of mixing. It was agonizing listening to this, especially the end part.

b0b3rt responds:

Yes, Kazmo, but don't tell me this was worse then the original? That's were you heard the melody, because you reviewed that too.

[Monodisc&Vitalis - Soundtrack]

Yo Man!

What upppp, I just uploaded a new track too. :P

This is quite relaxing, I really like the piano riff. The chord progression is interesting too, but it works very well. :]

I want moar! lol

I love thisss, keep at it, this fits a movie so well!

tijnn responds:

I want your babies too <3

[Osher - Trantastic]

Kick = Wowzers

I think the kick's too bass-heavy, or over-compressed, b/c it's just knocking my brains out lol. I love the bass and leads though. But the kick definitely needs to be turned down in the mix.

I really dig the pace of this song, it starts off quite solid and slowly builds with pads and cut filters. It's a little mushy, but it still sounds pleasing. I would've tried stereo seperating the pads or something, to fill out the song more.

Now that the kick came back in at 2:50 ish, I think it may just have too many mid frequencies, but that may be due to too much compression as well, hard to tell really.

I really like the chord progression, very soothinggg. :3

What'd you use for the lead at 4:10? It's sooooo awesome.

5:02, I would've left out the open hat to be honest. lol

Overall, awesome track, keep up the great work man!

Osher responds:

I had very trouble with the kick. I could not find one that fit well with this song, but that kick is what I stuck with for the final export. As I've told you before, it's 96kbit. So it does get a little mushy.

Thanks mate.

[.Aspiration. [Trance]]

Seems like you don't like criticism.

Too bad.

First off, this is dance not trance, primarily due to the kick and chord progression you have.

The intro, or shall I say lack of, is quite generic. I laughed when I read "Totally original trance piece."since it doesn't sound all that original.

Not going to lie, this song is extremely repetitive, and the lead that comes in at 34 seconds is way too high pitched, and it's definitely not a pleasing sawlead either.

1:50 is pretty much the nicest part of the whole song. Good job with the piano.

You also have some over-compression issues, which I'm sure is due to the lack of effort and time put into this piece. (2 days for the framework...point proven)

Nonetheless, it sounds okay, but it's not excited or new.

"TOP 5?! WOOOAH" I'm just as shocked as you are...

b0b3rt responds:

Actually, Kazmo, I love criticism. Unfortunately, most people, unlike you, don't actually tell me what's wrong and should be fixed.
I'll keep working on this piece, and I'll take your suggestions into account in the future.