Mich's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hardball!]

Nice on the drums and effects part, but...

I must say, you've been very innovative on the drum patterns and effects in this song, good job; they kept it interesting over the 5 minutes.

I think this track has good potential to be a really bad-ass drum 'n bass song, but there's one thing that really bugged me about it.

I had the constant idea there was some annoying sound through the whole track. After listening a few times I noticed this was just a bunch of very loud, extremely low bass frequencies.
Admitted, the genre's name is drum 'n BASS, but you still need to keep your eye on some meters.

I ran your track through a spectrum analyzer and noticed that even at 20hz, it was constantly peaking around -18db. The peak through the song was -2 db (at this frequency), which is actually far too high.

I suggest cutting off the bass under 40Hz, as those are pretty low frequencies already. Such frequencies (the more at this volume) make your mix very muddy, and kind of noisy.

Perhaps it'd be a good idea to try and make an all new bass, located at slightly higher frequencies. Don't get me wrong, it's a good thing to dive to the really low (sub) frequecies regularly, but you don't want to have it as a constant bass around there.

I hope that gives you a bit of an idea what to work on; I reckon you could make a really good DnB track once this issue is adressed.

Another tip I want to give you: Keep the overal (master) volume level under -6db, to avoid clipping.

Hope I helped!

PearlDrummer516 responds:

Thanks a lot on the drum comment. Being a drummer, I often find myself really focusing on the drum sections of my songs. I'm glad you enjoyed them. As far as mixing goes, I've been seeing lately that I have a lot to learn. When you speak of running songs at certain hertz, and peaking at certain decibel levels, I have no idea what that means. Perhaps you could educate me in a private message, or link me to a site with a written explanation or video tutorial? Also, if you could explain clipping?

Anyways, I want to thank you for the great, informative, and constructive review. Those are the reviews are really enjoy, as they help me to become better. I'm also glad you think the song has potential. The fact that you were able to vote a seven on this song, even with all the faults in mixing clearly shows that you overall enjoyed the song, and that if I clean it up, it can easily be a 10. Thank you Michaël for your time!

- Arron -

[Invention No. 2]

You make fun stuff when drunk.

Pizzicato strings definitely sound nice with that little melody you have there.

Maybe you would be more statisfied with the brass if you simply lowered the volume of it a tad bit. The moment it comes in I just feel like 'that's too loud'. No shit, lol.

At first I got the idea that the panning was a bit faulty with the pizzicato strings and the brass to the right, but when you introduced the harp it made more sense. Nice play.

I've got an idea for something you could (perhaps in a sober state);
extend what you have, and add some 'heavier' strings to it, perhaps cello or contrabass.

If you really want to go with it (which I doubt you do though :p), you could merge the track with some metal recording, and make once big fusion track of it. I know you could do it.

Anyway, good work loans, keep on it.

loansindi responds:

Yeah, now that you mention it the brass is hella loud.

Extending it would be doable I think, if I just established a few variations on themes.

The thing about the metal though, I'm just not a lead player so I'd have to bring someone in for that part.

Thanks for the review

[Post Dr.Pepper]

Nice and mellow

As I just read in your response to MH16, nifty use of a guitar amp here.

It has this kind of mellow, relaxed feel to it. (If that's the proper use of 'mellow').
Nice use of those string, pretty typical in hip hop (or am I wrong there?), but they add to the nice feel of it.

To be honest, I would've like it better if you had made a more 'complex' drum pattern to it. To give a slightly more speedy feel to it than it has now.

The drum samples and/or the processing of them were pretty top-notch though. Simple and clean.

Sorry for the not-so-lengthy review, but I can't really say much about hip-hop as I barely listen to any- which makes it automatically hard to review one. Hope it was a bit helpful anyway.

Keep it up dude. :)

Syntrus responds:

Yeah analog strings like that and the Nanotron (mellotron emulator) I used were standard at one point in hip-hop. Thank you for the review!

[SR - Sleeperhold -demo-]

Very soothing

I like the combination of guitar and more 'electronic' sounding instruments.

It sounds all very simple, yet quite perfect. It got me in a really lovely mood, to be honest.

Maybe you could add a bit of stereo width to the guitar track you can still hear out the end. (I don't know how else I'd tell you which one I mean).

Your bass is very simple, just ongoing tones, which fit the style well. I'd turn down the volume on it just a bit though, I'm listening on my headphones (which have a better bass response than AV40's (which I have too).

Your drums are nice breakbeatish, a nice soft layer over the rest, which makes it a calming song. Keep this up!

SineRider responds:

Thanks for the review Mich. I'm thinking of doing a little more with this one, I just haven't had the inspiration yet. I did notice the bass is a bit loud. I'll make sure to fix it up a bit when I finish up the next version.

a helpful review? well what do you know

[xKore - Cosmos (Hard Mix)]

May I ask....

how much time you spend mixing?

The mix in your latest tracks is just so perfect it goes beyond most tracks. Nice and crisp drums. No element in your mix sounds too loud or too quiet, Equalization is perfect. Where's your label?

The track is about the opposite of repetitive.
The pitchup you threw in there felt a bit awkward on the first listen, but then turns out to give it another nice touch.

The synth you introduce at 1:19 sounds more trance-y than house-y, which adds another unique touch. The filtering effects you used could be called generic, yet you used them in a way they were unique.

Would you mind writing something about the production of the song in you author comments next time? It's more interesting than 'ehcoooool' or 'Pro.' and such.

I feel a bit bad because I don't have anything constructive to offer, only praise. But yeah, please answer the questions I included ;)

["Positive Vibe"]

mixing/mastering, creativity... This is lacking.

First of all, excuse me for not just giving a 10 like everyone else here does, simply because it's on #1.

You start of with the typical Nexus simple saw, unedited, solely a slight low pass filter effect. The pattern your bass follow isn't all too original either.

Try using a different preset and tweak all the knobs until is sounds different. Prefferably use a different synth (like 3xOsc). Also try playing with different bass patterns.

The Lead synth sounded incredibly preset-y too, it's probably a nexus lead too. Same goes, try making your own synth instead of going for the lazy way and just picking one from a preset list. Try layering multiple synths that play the same notes, to get a more original feel to it.

Your drums sound like You just picked them from Vengeance. Which you probably did. Don't worry, a lot of (professional) producers use them. Just use them right. Don't just use a sample as it is, it gets very recognizeable. Try layering them, try playing with the various knobs in the sampler, add effect in the mixer... Make those drums your own. I shouldn't be able to tell which file(s) you used.

Then.. at some points (mostly at transitions and the chorus) your mastering... incredibly sucks. Everything crackles and sounds pretty unenjoyable. You need to at least tweak the volume levels of your different channels. Automate them so the whole thing doesn't get all mixed up in a bunch of loudness. When multiple things play at once, make sure they all have their little place in the mix, so they don't create a bunch of distortion.

A good way of checking this is to see if the volume meter in the mixer doesn't go up to the red area. You should never pass 0db.

Also try giving every element its place on the frequence spectrum using the Parametric EQ. You don't want the low frequencies of your leads to mess up your bass, so you just EQ down those low frequencies on your lead (for example).

An other thing that bothered me was the fact you used that overused chord progression. It's like cheating to make an instant catchy song. I know, it's very easy to make something catchy with that progression, but it seriously lacks creativity.

An other tip I want to give is: try playing with some slight reverb and delay, it always gives sounds some more space. The biggest problem here is the mixing and mastering though.

Good luck on future productions, I hope this review helped you develop your producing skill.

Also; I hope you're not offended by criticism, I didn't give you a 4 and then didn't bother to explain why. I wrote this to help you out. So I hope you can see the good side of the low score. It comes with a bunch of tips.

I'm just saying this because I tried to be helpful to someone else once, but he just got angry at me. So I hope you take it well.

Anyway, I've typed for long enough.

[Blow Out (Quarl)]

Very interesting sound about this one

I should review more. I think this is the first time I review you, right?

I'm amazed about what you managed to do with recorded sounds from things you'd never think of to record. And you made a pretty idm track with that.

May I ask how much your microphone costs? (I only have a crappy webcam mic)

Anyway, the piano brought in a nice atmosphere, long sustained notes give a really nice touch.

Not much else I can say, pro mastering, everything sounded very clear and bright.
You have a lot of talent and are VERY creative.
Keep up the good work.

Quarl responds:

lol. The microphone came free with my mac book. It's built into the computer. It actually does a really good job at recording simple sounds. Also, I don't think i've ever seen a review from you, but thanks for it. You really know how to make a girl feel good about herself.

[Network (Original Mix)]

Non-generic, original, interesting.

I must say you must've had quite a bit of inspiration to pull this one of, mister Greg.

The song keeps on changing, stays interesting.
It starts off with some low passed drums, breakbeat-ish, and you keep on adding more and more to the mix. The more or less raw bass is slightly annoying at first, but when there's some more around it, it fits in nicely. Maybe you could've put a minor Low pass filter on there (cutoff just around 75% or so).

The break comes in smoothly, some 'basic', rather... 'simple' sounding synths play, and a nice bassy pad comes in. Really nice atmosphere.

Even though there's no real climax like stated yourself, it stays interesting.
I'm trying to figure out which genre would fit best for this song, though you made it so original that I fail. Nav would definitely find a genre though (lol).

Anyway, what else can I say... aha. At 4:34 a supersaw reaches its full cutoff. I think you could've added a very light flanger or perhaps ah chorus effect on there, right now it sounds a little bit raw. Or nevermind that, I was just looking for something to critise =P.

Mastering and mixing is overall great. So yeah, top class song for me.

10/5/download

Hope to hear more soon!
-MICH

gregaaron89 responds:

Thanks for teh quality review ;D

I did have a lot of inspiration from loads of stuff lol, a lot of stuff here is directly inspired by certain songs (spanning different genres, I guess that's why it sounds pretty original)

I kind of thought the same thing about the bass, but since there's lots of low end in it it's actually a lot better on speakers, sounds damn nice :o I have a lot of trouble with basses sometimes but I surprised myself with this one :)

I think with the supersaw the problem is it doesn't sound stereo or full enough. So yeah chorus might help, thanks for the suggestion.

And yeah overall I was going for a more minimal feel so I kept the synths pretty simple and stuff, glad you liked it!

[Wasted Souls - Mjattie]

Very nice atmposphere here.

You are really good with piano. I like the little envelope spikes in your piano btw (was that intended?)

ANYWAY

It starts of quite dark. Some glitched drums come in, very neatly done.
You really made it progress in a beautiful way.
When the track gets over the half, it has quite some energy, and it doesn't seem all too relaxing. But it certainly gives off a soothing feeling... if that makes sense.
Not much else I can say... You have found your style in my opinion.
Keep up the good work :)
(Also, I made a little electroacoustic piece today, it's more or less fucked up and weird, I'd appreciate it if you could give it a listen :))

mjattie responds:

hey man, I don't know what envelope spikes are, but I think they were intended...

Thanks. I personally think this song is relaxing though... And I'll give you a listen ;)

[NP - Ressurection]

Nice 'n catchy

Very catchy take on this classic by PPK :)
It kinda has a bit of a handsup feel to it, which is nice

The bass was good, a nice handsupish bass ofcourse, though it sounded a bit raw.

Watch out with that vocal clip, it's been used quite a lot, but as long as you integrate it nicely that's a good thing :)

anyway, keep it up!
(and hopefully we'll see you with DJ status soon on RG :p)

NeonProject responds:

Yeeeeey!
Yeah, I kinda felt weary with that vocal, but it just rocks too much!
I should seriously EQ that bass or something. ><

Thanks for stopping by to review. :3