Karco's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Binary Rain]

So I was browsing the BBS...

...and I found this song. :P I normally don't go around reviewing just any song (usually because of the time it takes, look at my other reviews XD) but since you don't mind a two-line review, what the heck, I'll write a short one by my standards. :P

I like the style in this one, what would have been nice is if you had used a more trebley snare, to add to the rhythmic feeling. :P But even without a trebley snare, the drums and bassline are great and give the song a nice, different "chilled-out" feel from what it would have been without them. ;)

I think I hear a little bit of distortion with the kick? But it's no big deal.

The rain and thunder FX muddy up the mix a bit, too, cutting the low frequencies a bit would have done them some good.

Definitely an enjoyable listen. Keep it up. :D

Anima-Theory responds:

The snare and kick...in fact all the percussion are passed through a DIST. That's te distortion you hear. It's not clipping :D

Thanks for the review man :D

[Miles away from the sun]

Well, it's going to be a big one...

As my reviews for songs like this are always big. Goodbye, up to half an hour of my time... D:

Your intro is pretty good, though it lasts for too long. Progress things faster, instead of adding one synth or changing the drums a little bit once per 8 measures or so. :P If you want a longer song, though, find better ways to stretch out that progression - keep the bass on one note until you introduce the actual bassline along with some other melodic/harmonic part. Good idea, having the hihats play, but not consistently, for the sake of progression... it keeps the song interesting while leaving yourself somewhere to go. ;D

Your bass synth is on the offbeat, which has been done waaaay too often and shouldn't happen in trance songs like these. There are tons of great ways to use a bass synth to make an awesome trance song, and this isn't one of them. It's an icing-on-the-cake thing - you can have a good song with a bass on the offbeat, but a good arped, sidechained, or even gated bass would make the song that much better. ;D Your bassline pattern isn't original at all, I've heard it one time too many - it's the 1-1-6-7 bassline pattern and I've fallen prey to it myself, in my song Rush. XD The synth itself is pretty good, no complaints...

I hear a pad in the intro, and it appears to be playing the bassline. Thing is, half the time, the bass keeps its note, and the other half, it changes with the pad. When the bass keeps its note, the pad plays the bassline and it results in clashing notes... here's a good rule of thumb: don't let two low-range synths or instruments play different notes. It results in clashing notes, even if they wouldn't normally clash in the higher ranges, and possibly distortion.

Drums are pretty nice, with a house influence to them and a pretty original sound, though I think I recognize those open hihats from VEC. :P The kick isn't one that's supposed to have a big boom, which isn't quite my taste in kicks, though it works just fine and is pulled off well, save the little bass that it does have, which is drowned out... see the paragraph on EQing. When it's not playing on the beat - transitions, etc. - it's used well, too, and the rhythms are good. The only exception is where it hits at 2:16 or so - it sounds a bit random, as there's nothing after it until the buildup less than a measure before the next section. It sounds kinda like a mistake to me, actually. :P The clap is well-chosen and not overpowered or overpowering... and the crash is just a little bit quiet, but it's no big deal. Hihats, open and closed, are also good choices, and not too quiet or loud. The snare is good too, though it doesn't never becomes loud enough to make a good buildup. It's always a little bit overpowered... this sort of thing could just be fixed by raising the final volume it goes up to in the snare rolls. Your bongo-ish drums in the beginning are great... kinda disappointing you don't use them later on. :(

Your synths are all great, I don't recognize a single one, so at least to me, you have your own, original sound. :D Composition is nice, too - trancy, and not overly powerful nor calm to the point of being boring. It's consistent, which is good, but not repetitive, either. Rhythms are unique, and not repetitive, too, which is great. I like your choice in piano, too! :D Way to use a filter with it, too... I really ought to try that sometime. :P

As for the overall structure, progression, and pacing of the song, you do a good job fitting a peak, breakdown, and a second peak into four minutes. :P I would have liked to see a good buildup between the breakdown and the second peak - oh well, the song worked fine without it. ;)

The mixing/EQing sounds fine in the upper ranges... sadly, down in the lower ranges, I hear ridiculous amounts of bass! D: It's probably the low pad (which, now that I think about it, you didn't really need, and if you HAD to have it, could have EQed better) and the bass. Careful there - nearly always, you should need only one low-range synth or instrument at a time.

Great job overall, I'm out of spa

whirlpool responds:

Sence i pretty much responded to you on aim, theres nothing for me to talk about here x_x

I AM NOT OUT OF TEH SPACE!!!!!

[CTSG: Shapeshifter]

Finally finished, eh?

Even though I've listened to most of it plenty of times while making my own section, it still sounds awesome every time. :D Download, 10, and 5, just because I can. ;D

Great job to everyone, we had some truly impressive artists working on this! Though the fade-out was a bit of a disappointment... ah well. :P I'll be sure to add something to the next one... >:)

SolidElectro responds:

That would be great Karco!

[[GF]Beginning[GF]]

Sounds good! :D

Finally, you submit something new! Here's a review, as always:

First off, the intro isn't so good. You have a moment of silence between the reverse cymbal and the rest of the song... it doesn't sound too good to me. :\

Kick and the other drums are all sounding good, as is your bass synth - no complaints, nice job here. :D They're all very unique-sounding.

The vocals are weak in my opinion - you have only one sentence, repeated over, and over... you could do with at least one other sentence throughout the song. That one sentence gets overused throughout the song, and begins to sound old quite quickly. So, careful there. ;)

Melodywork is great, I found it interesting that you did it with the bass. It made the song a bit more boring than it could have been, but you did a great job pulling off the whole song with just one synth! :D

Nice going with the part in the beginning of the second half, the claps are a nice touch. By the way, what is VEE? Some sort of samplings off of a German playground? (They shout "Vee!" as they go down the slides! XD Kidding.)

The biggest problem would have had to have been diversity... it's also a big problem of mine, so now I can see where all my reviewers are coming from! :P Having the entire song only use one synth was a very original touch but also hurt diversity tremendously - you might want to make it more interesting somehow, instead of just one melodyline, one synth, one sentence, etc... see what I mean? ;) I feel this song could be shortened to something around half the length, and that alone would help the diversity quite a bit. ;)

I enjoyed it a lot, one of the more original songs I've heard in a while. Nice job, and keep up the great work! :D

GroundForce responds:

wow you lil reviewmaniac you!!! lol

wow very helpful review!

thank you very much for your GREAT effort!!!

VEE is a sample CD from Vengeance (Vengeance Essential Electro)

THX³ mate

[GF]

[{SD} - Tempest]

I already reviewed this song in chat...

...but, you know, I thought I'd comment on that commentary of yours: Kinda flattering you called my thoughts a "seal of approval." :P It's actually a good thing to do, regardless of skill, but you don't need to get it from me every time. Otherwise we'll eventually be making the exact same stuff with a slight difference that would be whatever's left of your style. XD

The kick distorts a bit compared to the version you sent me, too, so I thought I'd give that a mention. Be careful there. Try lowering the volume or messing with the lower side of the EQ. :P

But overall, though, great job! :D

ShirkDeio responds:

Thanks again, man! Yeah, I think I'll tweak the EQ a bit :D

[Rave Gift]

At last, I get to this one! :D

I was shown this song, and I was REALLY impressed by what you have here - you really know what you're doing! So I'm here to give you the feedback you'll need to hopefully make songs like this, that are significantly improved. >:)

Amazing intro, the song comes at you full-on right away - I hardly ever hear that pulled off that well! The combination of synths is amazing - everything fits perfectly. There are only a few downsides, but otherwise, this song is PERFECT. I'll skip all the praise (for the sake of my fingers, ok? XD) and move straight on to the criticism I've got...

The one killer downside to this song is the quality - you've killed the bass here! D: What I would have liked to see was a mix for headphones, since not everyone busts out their giant speaker system for every song they listen to - I hardly ever listen to my music on speakers, usually I use headphones, and I'm sure a lot of other people do, to. What I'd suggest doing here is going a bit easier on the bass and giving it some room, while cutting the middle frequencies - or whatever you need to - to keep control of the amount of distortion, clipping, etc. that the song has. If I could hear the boom of the kick in this song, ah... I'd be listening to this for weeks, no joke! :D

The section from 1:00 to around 1:22 could have used some general improving, in my opinion... the piano was a bit strong and would have been better played on a MIDI keyboard - that is, if you didn't use one. If you did, then don't hit the keys so hard! XD The drums could have used some general improving as well, compared to your other drums in the good parts, they're... well, so-so. :\ If you could maintain a section like you started with throughout those two minutes, without losing the listener's interest, this would really be something amazing.

Definitely worth finishing - and work on the quality, too! If you have to, make two different mixes, because this stuff is gold. :D You would get an 10/10, but you get a 9/10 because of the quality. D: I wish this were perfect, because then I'd download it... but you'll have to settle for my continued checking on your page instead, for something better. XD I really enjoyed this, and hope my advice helps! :D One last thing - care to stop by my page? I have a brand new submission that could use reviewing. :P Thanks a lot, and keep up the great work!

Davirus responds:

yay! what an amazing review here! xD
wow, thanks.
Oh yes, Im still working on bass mastering over this one, maybe the saturation made the "low quality" feeling.. grrr ><

Im gonna try to finish this as complete song and try to make the bass to fit perfecly!

Once again, thanks! =3

glad you liked n_n

[[TMM43]Digital Girl [?]]

Looks like I'm a bit too late...

Seeing as you've got another submission up and all. D: But I promised a big review, and you're going to get one! >:)

Great synth you started with there, though I recognize it - Nexus, right? I might be wrong, though I know for sure I've heard that synth SOMEWHERE before... hmm. Either way, try to keep your synths disguised - like this, it works for the casual listener (though in some cases even they might recognize an overused sound), but all of your fellow artists will notice. ;) If you disguise the things you use, it'll have a new sound to everyone. :D

On that note, I'll bring up your vocal FX, and your hits - Vengeance Essential Clubsounds, right? I don't have any real comments about their use, but rather that you used them at all. Once again, try to make it difficult to recognize what sounds you're using, so you've got a unique sound that you can call your own. ;D I'm recognizing your hit, "Are you ready?", "Freeze!", and the transition at 0:20. Also, another thing - I see you're using multiple vocal FX samples, some of them only once or twice throughout the song. I understand the concern for diversity, but try to keep the number of samples you use like that to a minimum - it gives the listener something to come back to. ;)

Next, your synths and composition. Composition is great in this song, though I would have liked to hear a bit more rhythmic diversity - the melody had some, but just a little bit more and it would have been perfect in my opinion. Synths are all well-chosen - once again, try not to use them raw, but give them some additional FX so they sound different. (This applies to the last paragraph too, by the way. :P) Synths are all good - nice sidechained bass, by the way! :D It could have been a bit more bassier in my opinion, but it did the job. Your lead is a bit thin in my opinion, and too quiet in places. Miscellaneous other synths/instruments are all fine. I don't recognize that piano, which is great - I vaguely remember hearing it somewhere, but otherwise it's completely new to me. Way not to use FL Keys! XD

Now for your drums - your snare is the first one I'm hearing, and I've heard tons of snares just like it before. FX might be in order here. ;) Thankfully, its volume is fine. Kick is new, I haven't heard one like it before, which is good - though it could be EQed better. Or, maybe just the rest of the song around it - my guess is the boom of the kick is getting lost in the clutter (see next paragraph) of the rest of the song. The clap and hihats also get drowned out by the rest of the song, I can hardly hear them - they need to be louder! ;D Try EQing them as well, (raise the higher frequencies) for a slightly different sound, and then choose between the sound of a different EQ and a higher volume. Sometimes one is better, sometimes it's the other. The crash is good, but could be a little bit louder. Your reverse crash is also good, no complaints.

Lastly, mixing/EQing. It's decent, but it could use some improving. The song overall has a cluttered sound, possibly by having too many instruments playing at the same time, with too much reeverb. It might be that your bass is a sidechained pad... maybe a sharper sidechain and better individual EQing would give you a cleaner sound? I think that the overall mixing/EQing could do with a bit more work as well - I don't know specifically what's wrong but I can tell this song could sound better as a whole. ;) Stick a Fruity Parametric EQ (or Fruity Parametric EQ 2, or whatever equalizer you use if you don't use FL Studio) on the master channel and play around, you might get something you like. ;D

Overall, it's definitely a decent song - you definitely know what you're doing! ;D However, you've also got a long way to go. So hope this review helps, and sorry again for being late! :) I'll give this an 8/10, and I'll vote 5. :D One other thing - my latest song hasn't gotten a review in a while, any chance you could stop by and tell me what you think? I'd definitely appreciate it. ;D Thanks a lot and keep up the great work! :D

TMM43 responds:

Karco what a long review! Possibly the longest I've received to date! Thank you very much for this. (No sarcasm) I try to keep my responses to my reviews the same length as the review its self... so here it goes!

The synths are indeed from Nexus. You've caught me. :( I've grown accustom to using many of the same synths and saws in my songs only because I'm comfortable with them. I suppose I should start breaking out of my norm and using other things I'm not so comfortable with. I guess I needed someone to give me a wake up call. :D

Again, you've caught me red handed! My what an ear you have. Again my usage of the unoriginal vocals is due to the fact that it's my norm. I probably should break out of it... haha
The FX..wow..now there's a challenge. I have so many FX that it's kinda hard for me to go through them all. I try to mix things up with FX because I have a tendency to have a minor problem with repetition. Minor is used lightly here. I will, however take your advice into consideration when creating my next piece!

My synths! Ugh.. Every song I try to get some new ones. Some that are new to me, but not new to the listener. I like to make things that everyone has heard of, but at the same time, I try to make things that everyone hasn't quite heard. Again, this goes back to my comfort zone. I really need to break out of that, don't ya think? haha
The piano on the other hand is something that I personally think I've perfected. I try not to use the same one in every song, unless I really have to. :D I'm going to keep what I use a secret! haha

I'm not one to use snares. I know they really make songs, but they also break them. I've had a few songs where the Snare was too loud and unique sounding, or in this case, a snare that isn't loud enough and generic. It's a win lose situation. haha
The kick on the other hand was created by mistake. I had a generic kick with a sample thrown on top of it, and I guess it came out really nice. :P
Believe it or not, but this song barley has any high hats! I decided to try something new. I put a clap in where the high hat should have been, and then added a louder clap every other beat. ha, strange, but it works!
The crash...OH the crash. What a struggle for me... I'm not sure if it's my speakers or what, but everything sounds different through the speakers I use. Not like distorted, but somethings sound louder than others. But only by a little...So the crashes sound louder than they really are through my speakers. I think it's about time to get some new ones huh? :D

Mixing/EQing is one of my biggest problems. I'm a self taught Fruity Loops user, and every song is a learning experience for me. I do something different each song and I learn something new. I just recently learned how to mix/EQ, so you'll have to pardon me on that for now. haha
I'll defiantly take your advice on EQing on my next song. Any advice right now can only help me.

I'm glad you liked the song. I aim to please. I know...The road to success is a long and hard one, and I'm only just starting.
This review helped me SO much, you have no idea. I'm just honored that someone took the time to make a review this thoughtful and helpful. For that I can not thank you enough.
Again, thanks for the vote and the AMAZING review.
-TMM43 (DJ-Pinke)

I WILL indeed review your song! It's the least I can do!

[Bring The Night Preview]

Next review! :D

First few seconds, and I'm impressed - nice melodic sound! :) I don't like the clipping once the hit comes in, though - you've still got some mixing/EQing left to do for this one. ;)

Bass is on the offbeat, but it's not going to kill this song. In fact, it sounds pretty good. :D Now, that clap... maybe it's because I use them all the time, but it sounds extremely old and overused to me. :\ Maybe you'll want to FX it a bit? At this stage, it might be hard to choose a new sample altogether - though if you can, then do it! ;D

Unique-sounding hihat/ride you have there in the second half, I like it. :P Don't change it at all. :D

Once again, if you would submit longer clips, I'd leave longer reviews... but so far, so good - keep it up. ;D

A-New-Decade responds:

Appreciate the review! I can tell you really like this one. I saved it on fl as "2008epic" lol.

[-Emotion Burst locomotion]

I think I like this. :D

Nice feeling here - funny that sinspike says it should be slower, I think it's pretty slow in the beginning, compared to your other stuff. :P

I hear FL Keys - or possibly some other widely available free piano thing - throughout the song, I'm not so sure about it... :\ It's really recognizable to those of us who use FL Studio and even some people who don't, but have heard it enough times to know it. You left it really recognizable, too... come on, you can do better than that. ;D

I really like that distorted synth that plays on the first beat and the second offbeat of the first measure of every four measures in some parts! :D A bit of a long, specific sentence, but you get the idea. :P Point is, I ALWAYS like to hear synths like that in a song - it's a personal taste thing and I think it's awesome. :P The bass synth is also awesome, I just noticed it, and no complaints - really good and original-sounding. ;)

Vocals at 1:04 sounded a bit random, to me... :\ The song didn't really need them, in my opinion.

Composition is great, instruments are great - together, they make a slightly video-gamish feel. :P Drums are, as always, first-rate... do I hear some panning in them? o_O Because my right headphone is making just a little bit more noise drumwise than my left now and then... ah, well, it's all great. The ride (or is that some kind of an open hihat? It's on the offbeat) introduced midway through the song is good, though you did some weird gating stuff... you should have just let it play! ;D

That's about all I've got to say, great job with this one. :D 9/10, 5/5, and a download - keep it up. And congrats on weekly 1st with Control: Crowd! :D

Waterflame responds:

Haha yeah i guess youre right about the FLkeys, but tbh ive never found any piano like thats better. i have only ONE vst and thats the magical 8bit :(
thanks for the long and awesome review :D i found this review verry helpfull aswell! (lol *clicks the yes down below*) again, thanks! :)

[{A10} Experiment]

Not bad... :)

The melody and harmony parts are all great - your drums are great too, though I'd have to agree with Rig - you're a bit lacking in the bass area. I think your bass synth is a good one, though a little bit distorted - it just needs some good EQing. What would really help that bassy feeling is if you found a better kick sample - this one is centered around frequencies too high for a good "boom." ;)

Lead/guitar are both great, but could use some more EQing so they stand out. Is that some sort of phased arp I hear around 0:10? Waaaaaaaaaay too quiet, make it louder! ;D

I'm not sure if mastering is really what you want - quality is definitely what you're looking for but you're using the wrong term. At this stage, you'd want proper mixing (adjusting the volumes of the individual drums/synths) and EQing (cutting and boosting certain frequencies of individual drums/synths, and the song as a whole). Mastering is for once you've got those two perfected. ;D Still... check your inbox. ;)

Well, this was a bit too short for me to write a good review (by my standards :P) but it's a loop after all. 7/10, 4/5, nice work.

aurora10 responds:

thanks man. im not very good in termnology in those kind of stuff. Still...check your indox ;) I mean it, i replied ;)
--
aurora10