Karco's Reviews

[==(Absentminded)==]

Good stuff! :)

Long time no see SBB, how goes it?

I've been quite into catchy music lately, so this was a pleasant surprise to find. I'm especially loving the general rhythm and the various fills in here, which make the track for me. The chromatic lead is great as well.

The track feels a bit repetitive now and then, and I feel you could have added in some extra variation somewhere. The clap sounded long to me as well. Now that the track's been on loop for a while, though, it doesn't sound so bad. The kick sounds a bit hollow, but it may just be that I'm unused to hearing that kind of kick. I will say it fits the track fine. Otherwise, this is overall very fun to listen to.

One more thing: I'm thinking this would make a great house track - do you mind if I give a remix a shot? Because I'm so tied up with school I can't guarantee a finished track, but because I like this original so much, I can say it's very likely. Also, a few stems (bass, eighth-note bell, lead, mouth samples, etc.) would make my life easier, but I completely understand if it can't be done for whatever reason. Thanks, and good work!

[xKore - Magenta Mist (NG Edit)]

Great concepts, some areas need more work.

And I'm fine thanks! :D I'll get right to things...

Your mix sounds great, but the frequencies overall are strange and unbalanced - were you by mistake compensating for something? Your kick needs more punch to it, and your bass is lacking in the same frequency area and could use a touch more mids. There's something wrong with your mids too, I want to say your mix sounds of smiley-EQing, even if that's not what you did. I would even say the frequency balance is uncomfortable to listen to, I feel unusually fatigued listening to the track for this long (though others apparently aren't - this is still an issue though). It's certainly not my new headphones, my reference mixes confirm that for me. Depending on how you mixed the track this could be an easy or difficult fix, but since the track is great in so many other ways, I would at least try. :)

No matter how complex your other synths are, your bass still always defines your progression, which is sadly i-i-VI-VI. I thought you knew better - and this surprises me more than usual since everything else about this track is so original, what with the IDM-like drums and all. With this progression it's impossible to build tension past a certain degree, and the track becomes more suited to backgrounds than for active listening. Whether that's what you were going for or not I can't say, though with all the creativity shown in other ways, the track definitely has big potential for the latter.

Otherwise, you manage energy well throughout the track, your numerous synths keep things alive and moving. You enter a buildup stage at 3:04 though, what I don't understand is why. Imagine this track playing at some kind of club - to me this buildup is anticlimactic here, and for a moment the energy falls flat. The noise build just before that could have been the buildup instead, and you could have kept the bass fade-in, moving it back accordingly.

That's all the criticism I have for you though! The track has lots of character, and your synths and drums are all amazing, you seem to have developed a sound of your own. I second Sungazer's suggestion, you should make more like this. :)

[Sungazer (OM)]

Sadly, generic.

Having read Fierra's review and your response, I felt it would be appropriate to clear up some confusion and then leave a review myself. ;D

About the kick - first of all I don't remember ever offering advice for this track, much less this specific version. Though I like the sound itself, I'm going to have to agree with Fierra here that it's loud, overpowers many other sounds (listen to the sub bass at 2:29 vs. 3:12), and even distorts. That being said, I get the feeling that in this case you believed my advice just because you wanted to believe it - whether that was true or not, though, everyone's opinion counts. I can't be right on everything, nor can anyone else.

I think everything could afford to come down in volume a fair amount, the track peaks almost everywhere except for the break in Audacity. For someone your level this is literally a crying shame - shouldn't you know better by now never to go over the 0 dB limit? I don't hear any distortion either so the track might be squashed as well, it certainly seems so. While mixing, leave yourself several dB of headroom (space between peak levels and 0 dB) and NEVER put anything on the Master Channel until the mix is 100% finished - if something sounds bad, don't blame the overall sound, it'll always originate from your individual sounds after all. Master Channel effects are to be saved for "master"ing, logically enough, and even then should be used subtly without squashing the track too much.

I recognize the following from VEC: the loop in the opening, and clap, crash, FX, and hit (kudos for almost separating it from the second half with the LFO though, I did that once in my PoE remix :D). I also hear many Nexus presets - all of these kill the character of your track. People won't remember this as Kr1z's track - I and many others will hear Manuel Schleis' sounds instead. For this reason I can guarantee this sort of music will never get signed and really could only be "successful" on Newgrounds and similar sites. If that's what you want, fine, but if you want to take your work any farther there's work to be done.

Supersaws are by nature unoriginal - if I were you I would have no more than one supersaw to a track to leave room for more original sounds.

I don't like the idea of your two synths playing the bass role, one as an almost offbeat sub (it sounds like one when the kick's playing) and one as a lighter arp. Why not give the track more character: take out the sub bass synth, then move the arp farther in front and add a new sub underneath. This way you're killing two birds with one stone by cleaning up your mix and making the track more memorable. Of course this is all only advice as you're probably not going to rework the track - right? But apply it to future productions.

I don't like the anticlimax - it's unfulfilling for the listener who has to keep waiting for the peak and it breaks the flow of the track. Buildups lose their effect when you use three (2:40/2:54/3:00 - the last is short but still a build in energy) to reach the same peak after all. I would have managed the energy differently by building constantly in that time, moving onto the peak by 2:58 at latest, adding in the drums right away.

There's a second break that's not really a break at 3:40, all it does for me is kill the energy. It's fine to want variation, but don't try to go for a long track because most Trance is like that - I'm sure the track could have been much more concise and enjoyable to listen to had it been a 4-minute radio edit instead. If you want to go longer, repeat the break-build-peak pattern, instead of just having a breather from what otherwise would be a 2-minute peak.

The composition here doesn't interest me. It's not i-VI-III-VII generic, but it's generic for a Trance track. Aim for something exciting to hear, that doesn't have to strictly stick to a major/minor key, that resolves into itself well. Having only 3 bassline notes also adds to the generic feeling.

Keep at it, Kr1z, and don't let me discourage you TOO much. :) I'd close the review normally but I'm out of spa

Kr1z responds:

First of all, thanks for ur time and advice!
It's only my 4th trance track yet so I'm learning :)

I don't have audacity or something :( I also didn't master the track.
My speakers are 30EU stuff so I wouldnt know about the peaking.

I'll remember the dB space advice.

Concerning the vecs yarr:
Loop is sliced :) Clap is a layer. Nexus presets are layerd, mod'ed, sequenced. It's still nexus, I can't use anything else becuz I dont know how :$

I'll remember the supersaw thing.

The subbass is slightly sidechained to prevent interference with the kick. That's why it sounds off beat =P

Second break was a lazy way to variate the song.

I agree on the radio edit. Would be more enjoyable indeed! I'm considering making one.

About the composition, I've never been good at being really original. I've never had any lessons in musical theory and I lack experience.

Quite discouraging. But thanks for the review, somebody had to say the truth.

Thanks for ur time, and u keep going :)