Decibel's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Decibel (Chimera)]

Fived and Faved!

Dude, Love this - thanks so much ;; I got everything I was gong for and I appreciate it a lot :D

ChimeraNoise responds:

There's more coming as I have free time ;)

[HT || Not So Suspenseful WIP]

Hm, Not Half Bad! :D

The intro was approriate, it was pretty good to start off the track with - You chose a good kick and synth, but It lead to a slight disappointment, because the song itself seems hollow, I'd add a sub-bass to fill-in.

Other than that, I'd work on the synths a little too, it seems that the stereo image of it all was pretty hollow too, especially that saw synth. I'd suggest slightly chaning the EQ shape.

So Yeah, good start, work on it! :)

HyperTrough responds:

It's been finished for over a month now...

[-A New World-]

Pretty damn sexy, to say the least.

Ok, the intro started off okay, but despite having a good structure and all that, it could have used some really low bass notes, just to compliment it all.

Also, I hate that snare :P

Other than that it's beautiful :3 Good Job!

Fav'd.

Step responds:

Thanks Dan!

Weird that you don't like the snare because quite a few people seem to like it. But hey, you're quite picky about your snares huh? :3

Thanks for the review, it's also pretty damn sexy. Hope school's going alright with you!

[Masq - Flimsy]

Brilliant!

This is quite a funky piece you got here, quite a head-bobber.

I just stopped by to congratulate you on your synth work, flawless!

Good job.

jpbear responds:

The whole bassline is one synth actually, with a ton of automation :)

Glad you enjoyed broo.

[KKS - Contact]

The Effects, just wow.

The intro is very nice, it builds a spectacular ambience and prepares me for what is to come. My favourite thing could possibly be that phasing low-pass sounding stab being automated, it just sounds wonderful. The rest of the intro was very well layed out, good job on that. What could be a slight problem is leveling. As I mentioned earlier I love the phasing synth but I feel it could be slightly lower, volume-wise, other than that it's just wonderful.

With this track being ambient and all, I didn't expect much of a climax myself, but I was expecting something, and when the bit-crushed drums kicked in, I was not disappointed. they added a whole new level to the track, and they themselves weren't bad, although they could just be compressed slightly.

I'm up to 1:36 and the proper drums finally kicked in, they are spectacular, I love both the rythm and the samples themselves, and I have totally nothing to comlain about, this part is just spectacular, the tambourines sound very nice too by the way!

The strings on top of the drums sound so good, they give me the feeling of innocence - I don't know why but that is just what they seem to portray in my opinion. The mixing of it all was quite good but I felt the strings could use slightly less reverb and just a notch more of high-band to give them a bit more presence.

I know it's ambient and all, but at 3:40 or so, despite the choir being added, it started to get repetetive. A nice vibrato saw lead would be nice right now, just automate its volume and let it in slowly, it wouldn't be much but a lead melody is everything in music nowadays.

Ah, strings again. As I said before they sound quite good despite having slightly too much reverb and no enough high-band on them.

Also, just as a side-note, that crash cymbal was way too loud, decrease the volume a bit.

Ah, finally, a melody! This sounds like a Pan Flute being played really high, I truly fell in love with this, it not only is a good and sustainable melody, but the instrument itself shines a light on the song and gives it an overall spectacular feel.

The final bit was extremely calm and soothing but that sweep/white noise thing was too long to handle, I had to move further in the song myself just to avoid it. It's not that it sounds all bad, but it could use some filtering and maybe phaser or reverb to even it out.

All in all, this is nothing like I've ever heard before, I quite like it. It sounds as if it should be in the Shadow the Hedgehog game or a Video Game demo.

Wonderful Job!

9/10
5/5

KKSlider60 responds:

Thank you, Decibel! I'm glad you enjoyed it :D
Yeah I'm still a bit of a noob when faced to production and proper equalization, something I would train in the days ahead. These reviews are a good reminder for me to not spam too much certain things over some other ones, and try focusing on the technical aspect of a track. Right now it's more of a emotion vs technique kind of thing, y'know... If I have to judge by the reviews alone, I'd say it's a generally well done track, despite the cons which I can now consider as minor. And I totally agree with that, thanks to all the feedback I got so far. =)
Thanks again, you too keep up making some awesomeness :D
KKS

[Under the Surface (FINAL)[?]]

Finnally!

I've never thought I'd see the day :3 The first time I heard this was about 1 and a half years ago - And it was my first Newgrounds Audio Portal Submission over here, and when I saw 70% I kept waiting for it to finish - and here it is ;D

Simply Perfect! :D

10/10
5/5
Fave
Download!

Shoephly responds:

Finally I can rest knowing I've done all i could for this piece!

I've had so many people telling me to finish it, and that's why I had so many versions of it, even had a piece with electro house in the middle (definitely didn't serve it right)

Just goes to show that I can't really make music while forcing myself to do it.
if it takes 2 years to make a decent song, so be it. xD

Yet again thanks alot for the help, and for this review!

-shoephly

[~Beta~ FlyNaut]

Funky.

Your songs never cease to amaze me, you have built a way of making certain atmospheres and subscapes no one on NG can match up to, I have to congratulate you for that. This song got me in a trance but still got my head and legging bobbing along to the beat. It creates an ambience but still proves to be a witty song on the dancefloor, and unlike many deadmau5 songs, despite the resemblance, is quite full and well built.

The synths were beyond awesome, I loved every part of them, especially the plucks, the pahser on them was a nice touch, and I loved it when the cutoff start increasing and turning into a saw wave, well done dude!

There are some mixing issues on my part though, despite it being terribly clear and wreaking on awesomeness, the mix is a bit muddy, I suggest maybe adding a compressor to the saws in the background a 2:47 and maybe increasing the high-band on them by just a bit.

The drums were classic aliaspharow, properly sequenced, tightly compressed and nonetheless funky above eveyrthing else :p One problem I encountered though is with the shakers, I'd add a barely noticable delay to them and then add a compress with the gain at about -1.5 or so, They seem to 'in the way' for my tastes. But that reverse hat, that was awesome.

Quite a good structure in general, it didn't get very repetetive although it could have used a 16-32 bar breakdown of some sorts, but that's just personal preference. I love the way everything else gradually changed, the transitions were quite cool too.

You have this arp-ish sort of thing at 2:21 with the square plucks, it's 3 notes, but oh so much reverb. i'd rather have it dry and with some ping-pong delay instead of reverb, It just ruins the mix IMO

The rest of the song was quite good, your usual If I do say so myself, I'd be quite proud of it If I were you, you rarely find songs of this caliber on NG, especially in the house section.

Going into my 7th hearing of this hehe :P

Anyway, good job, take care of that mixing problem and you're good to go.

10/10
5/5
Fave'd

aliaspharow responds:

damn man.... Epic review! I really appreciate it.

Most of the time i spent working on this song were adjusting all the little details on thoes synths :3 I'm glad someone noticed! The mix was very muddy when you heard it but i changed things around so it should sound a bit clearer now... It's still not perfect but i guess i'm no expert. I tried what you said and it helped a bit :D. I'm glad you noticed the percs also! A delay you say? Now i havnt tried that... I wanted to make a breakdown but I'm really trying to make my mixes more Club Friendly and a breakdown doesnt help much in that situation. Lol and I am addicted to reverb :3 I actually have it set at No Decay at 2:21 thats why it sounds like that! That's how i do my drops these days.

Anyhow thanks again for the review of awesomeness! Great advice.

[Phlegmatic Undergroan]

Umm, don't really know what to say :S

I don't know whether to call it a wonderfully made, suspensful ambient track or a discordant mess. Nah, It's wonderful don't worry :P

It starts off well, with an instant build-up to something. I can imagine this in some sort of Criminal Minds episode where the killer is entering the house and moving closer and closer to the victim, when at last he kills the victim.

Something which it also portrays is endlessness, like a sort of abyss, especially that growling sound at 01:22, that was quite a nice touch I must say :)

I really like the chords that hit at abou 01:59, They really sound cool.

For an ambient track, it gradually seems to get 'busier'. I know layering is essential in a genre like this but you can't overdo it.

Technical-wise, it's a pretty well mixed track - It's in that limbo between clean and atmospheric, above average mix over here, nice job.
What could use a little work though is the volume levels, some of them are out of whack, I'm listening to this on a modified system so I have problems on my end but I think it's the track itself that has a problem, certain sounds need leveling, rather than being layered on top of eachother.

I have to stop now because this soung is scaring the shit out of me :P

Nice job, 9/10 and 5/5

-decibel

WizMystery responds:

Yeah I was really happy when I worked out the sound at 1:22, reminded me of the Inception bwong (I love that soundtrack so much).

What I have in the project is an accumulation of 5 tracks that were several other things mixed together, meaning there's not much I can do about the volume levels. But I'll experiment with what I can do to see if I can get something better.

Thanks for the review!

[Ignite This!]

A little too loud :/

Before I say anything else, Turn down the master volume of the track, it's slightly too loud and I can hear faint instances of clipping on the piano, which is never a good sign in any genre, so first task - lower master volume,

The track itself is quite suspenseful in itself, it's probably the piano's melody though. Just out of curiosity, what key did you use?
Anyway, nope no problems with the theme or atmosphere or anything like that.

Another problem I encountered was the drums, It's probably just my opinion or maybe I'm slightly biased but I disliked them, both the rythm and the drum samples themselves weren't to my taste. Especially that hi-hat :P I'd suggest decreasing the high-band of it's mixer track just slightly so it doesn't stay 'on top' of the mix, metaphorically speaking.

The last beef I had with this is that little plucky sound every hear and there, it wasn't too my liking, it's over-compressed, if not compressed at all.

It's actually a very nice track overall, It just had those tidbits in the mix that need working on. I know I might have come out as arrogant or anything, But I'm just trying to help :)

Nice Job nonetheless ;)

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thank you for your review! Thanks for taking out the time!

Ah yes. I googled "clipping" and it's basically distortion right? Thanks for the very good insight. I will try to turn the master volume down and see if the clipping stops. I like that you liked the suspense. The piano's melody was very central to the piece.

To be honest, I used FL Keys for this :P. I just put a bunch of effects on it to my liking, to make it sound that much more epic. Almost everybody has said that my drum samples were weak. I'll try to improve on that :)

And the plucking sound. Yes, I agree, it can be jarring. Thanks for pointing out those parts of the mix that are slightly weak, but complementing the whole.

Thanks for your positive and honest criticism. I will take it to heart and come back next time with more knowledge.

Benjamin "Silly Boy"

[EF - WIP (GS vs TI remix)]

Can't say I'm impressed, at all.

It actually is a good song, but the majority of it is sampled from the original, and to tell you the truth, I'm not sure If I can hear anything original in this track, since it's sampled, from the plucks to the basses.

I wouldn't classify this as a remake either, it just needs that little original touch that would make it sound that much better.

The only thing I can't recognize from the original is the 4-step beat, it gave it that little Skrillex feel, which every producer wants to make nowadays :P

Every now and then you introduced a new set of bars with a set of layered crashes, those were probably the worst thing I ever had to endure in my life, It's like you layered the entire Vengeance Crash folder, lower the volume and maybe add some reverb and delay.

What I'd also do to fix this is maybe add a break to it, it would sound really cool if it built up to something and then stop all of a sudden, leaving the listener hearing the bare minimum, and everything slowly starts filtering from a lowpass, kinda like the break in deadmau5 - Hey Baby [Instrumental]. Then add a breakbeat and bob's your uncle, Techno! :P

Anyway, I understand that you're a newcomer here but sampling from the entire song is frowned upon, and you'd get banned if this was your first submission.

It's good, it's just missing that original flare.

5/10
4/5
-decibel

GirlStep responds:

Oddly enough I had the original FLP file and edited the wubs, added the breakdown, and TIMarbury added the glitch effects, etc. The only thing I didn't touch was the main synth.

And the 4-on-the-floor beat was in the original...