Kalviter's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mkallux - RainDrops]

That lead needs to come down a lot in terms of volume. You can hear it clipping badly. The bells have a similar problem. The mixing on the piece makes it really difficult to listen to. This is contrasted by a really drowned snare and a kick that doesn't like it was EQ'd or compressed. I think your lead instruments take up way too much of the mix and need to be turned down a lot and EQ'd moderately, while the drums need heavy equalizing and a good compression on them to make them pop. Also think about sidechaining, which you can google if you're unfamiliar with.

Regarding structure and performance, the piece gets boring quickly. You do have quite a few instruments, but they all play the same melody. The bassline is based on two notes, and is also remarkably similar to the leads. Though you build up to drops fairly well, the lack of dynamic change leading up to them takes away from their impact. These elements add up to form a piece that feels incredibly repetitive. In the future, vary your instruments throughout the song rather than throwing them all out at once, and employ a more interesting chord progression. Also, widen your range of percussion if you can, using stuff like interesting hi-hats and hits really helps bring a piece alive.

Don't be discouraged by the low rating, we all started somewhere. Music is a lot harder than anyone thinks it's going to be, and I encourage you to step up to the challenge and practice enough to make some really good stuff. I noticed you said you tried mastering without presets, which is good, and you should use the mistakes here to improve your mastering for the next song. Good luck!

MkalluxMusic responds:

Thanks for your review :).

I actually tried mixing all this myself to see if it was better...

I put a side Channing VST on them... Guess it didn't have an effect...

I even tried keeping the levels balanced...

Maybe next time ill reduce everything that isn't a drum...

[Mio/Homura (澪/炎) EXTEND Ver.]

Please bear in mind, at time of writing I have a cold and the pressure in my ears is uneven, so I'm really bad at registering panning. I don't think there are any big panning issues, but I'm registering a lot of the main instruments and vocals a bit to the left. I'm chalking that up to my ears tho, so I wouldn't worry.

I really like the structure of this piece. It evolves really well, stays interesting for it's runtime, without changing drastically or straying from its central motif. The good mixing helps that our as well, as each instrument is given adequate space to do what it needs to do. I do kinda wish the outro returned to the beginning "style" for a brief bit to give the piece that nice circular feel, as if it's arriving at a similar place to where it began.

The only real criticism I have is the lone vocals at the beginning sound the smallest bit muffled? I don't know if that's the ears thing again, but on the lower end of your range it appears to sound the smallest bit covered. Not a big deal, especially since later in the piece that problem isn't even there.

Really nice job, I love the almost narrative quality it has and your choice of instruments was impeccable. I hope I get to hear more of this stuff from you.

[Midsummer requiem]

I get the sense this was inspired by that one Resident Evil song. While atonality and very very heavy rubato in and of themselves are fine, and can contribute nicely to an experimental piece, attempting both in one shot is questionable. A lot of what I have to say is heavily contingent upon "I don't know whether this is intentional or not" so next time try to describe what it is you wanted to do with the piece.

It sounds like you're going for a really strange and unhinged atmosphere, which this piece accomplishes with aplomb. I would say however, that at 1:29, after a long and subtle decrease in volume, the sudden jump in volume could be controlled a bit better. Maybe build to it as opposed to immediately reaching it. Several of your instruments appear to clip as well in this area, so ensure you take a look at mixing at some point in the future. You could also benefit from panning your instruments, as having them all centered really detracts from the pieces atmosphere. The outro as well is a bit sudden in volume and rhythm, it might have made more sense to end at 2:49 or 2:52.

It's not my thing but it's definitely interesting. Just remember that even experimental music doesn't escape the obligation of good mixing. Also, explaining your experiment might give it a bit more meaning to others. Keep going though.

GXFICH responds:

Thank you that was a very helpful reveiw

[Mkallux - Chain Reaction]

The mix needs a lot of work. Your drums, kick and snare in particular, are much louder than your synths, and they completely take over the piece. I think you can easily afford to bring them down and still have them carry decent punch. You also need to EQ all of your instruments, this will help avoid crowding the mix as well. You pan your synths very wide, which gives the piece a bit more of a spacious and nicer feel, but your drums could stand to benefit from a similar treatment, as well as variety in rhythm. The two build ups to each drop are exactly the same and it gets a bit repetitive.

Your choice in synths is pretty nice and varied, nearly all of them contribute to that industrial grinding atmosphere you seem to be going for (except the piano of course). There are two synths I don't really like, that being the chorus lead and the beginning chordal synth, because they don't fit the overall tone as well and the lead in particular sounds very boring and undeveloped.

Not a bad effort overall, though, it's got coherent structure and doesn't stray from it's theme too much. The ending crescendo is questionable but I'll leave that up to you. Keep it up, look up EQ, compression, and sidechaining.

MkalluxMusic responds:

Allright, Thank you, the drums were made louder on perpose, but ill see if lowering them makes better.

And yes I do feel the pad at the begging is eh?

[The One]

Writing this as I listen so I'll give an overall conclusion at the end.

From 00:29 to 00:57 I think the piano melody gets a bit too repetitive. It's a shame given how the melody before (and after) that is so much more interesting rhythmically.

The synths that come in around 02:20 are really nice at broad, out of all the instruments you use here they're probably my favourite.

I like the progression of the drums a lot as the piece builds to 03:07, but again you've got the problem of that repetitive rhythm in the strings and piano until about 03:35. I think that varying the rhythm, even just a little bit, would seriously improve the piece.

Overall though, nice job! It has a nice structure and overall mood. Honestly I wish you used something other than Garageband because I feel like you're at the level where it would benefit you, but that's not an objective fault so I won't criticise it. Maybe in your next work try playing around with drawing out the strings as opposed to using them for stabs.

MysteriousPresence responds:

Hey thanks for the review Kalv' ! =D
Thank you for the kind words ! I really see what you mean by the repetitiveness of the song, I totally see it now with hindsight. I won't do the same mistake again ! ^^
Yes I think I might buy a Windows one day in order to use FL Studio.
Thanks again ! =3

[UltraMX - Fuzz(WIP)]

The synth playing the melody at the beginning sounds like it has way too much filter and reverb on it, which washes it out completely. In general the piece is overly bass heavy, so considering mixing it properly by eq-ing all your instruments so they clash less. There are many tutorials on how to do this online.

Also consider restructuring the piece. The drop in particular is glaring and gappy, due to the lack of any delay on the snare, although a snare is an odd choice of instrument to bring in a drop. The melody is aimless after the bass comes in and doesn't mesh with the rest of the piece. It's also a very bare piece, with few distinct instruments, and your bass synths all clash together and don't give each other room to breath.

It needs a lot of work, but don't be discouraged! The more you practice and act on the feedback you receive, the better you'll get. Also, listening to all different kinds of music helps a lot as well, it really rounds you out and improves your ear.

[-=Didd=- DJ MoSlo]

You mentioned using Garageband in the comments. Personally I'd think about transitioning to another DAW but that's not really the main issue at all. If you're interested I'm sure people in the Audio Forum will help you out.

I think you'd benefit from looking up some mixing tutorials. You actually have a pretty good selection of instruments here, it doesn't feel too crowded (though maybe two bass synths is pushing it a little) but they'd sound much better if they were EQ'd and panned properly. I don't know how much power you have to edit this stuff though, because you might be using the loop library that comes with GB.

Also consider a bit more variation throughout the piece. You don't have to come up with a new chord progression or whatever, but maybe subtract instruments from the mix for a phrase before bringing them back in (Taking the bass out for a bit for example).

You do, however, have a good grasp of rhythm, I like how the beginning samples end up fitting into the whole piece. There don't appear to be any issues with dodgy looping or noticeably out of time instruments. I like that sample that comes in every two bars, the weird-sounding thing that I can't seem to describe, but it would be more effective if it wasn't used for the whole piece. It's still good though.

For someone on Garageband this isn't too bad, and you've clearly got some interesting ideas you could put in your future music. Keep going, don't let a seemingly low rating discourage you!

DididdProducions responds:

Thanks! I'm slowly trying to work my way into Logic now. I think I used two or three loops for this, and the rest are edited loops and MIDI. the sound every two bars was part of the beat that I found, so I would have to do some finnicking to edit that. If I need more mixing power, I can actually move this to Logic and mix it in there. I'm going to try and find a way to include my background in classical Violin sometime, maybe for orchestral dubstep? I would like your opinion on that. Also I'm thinking of making an extended mix or VIP where I can implement these changes. Any other suggestions welcome!

I'm most just excited that the review board finally found this song .3.

[UltraMX - Supercar]

The major problem here is that your samples and synths don't sound like they fit together. Your melody (the section that plays on it's own at the beginning) doesn't match the tempo of the drums, so I'd try a simpler melody next time that fits well with the drums and matches the tempo.

You've also boosted your bass way too high, which is why you're getting that low end distortion in the kick drums and the bass synth. This could be attributed to your monitor setup, but in future consider turning down the bass and equalizing your instruments so they don't interfere with each other when it comes to the final mix. Also consider using a limiter to avoid clipping. There are some great tutorials on equalisation on the internet that are very easily found.

Finally, you don't necessarily need that many different synths in one song. Too many sounds might overcomplicate it, and make the mixing process more difficult. Rather than trying to induce a sense of speed by making as much noise as possible, think about taking a more selective approach and making each note or hit have it's maximum impact. You don't have to completely gut your pieces, but you don't have to cram them full of bells and whistles.

Keep practicing. Listen to people who you like and try hard to emulate them by figuring our how they do things. You might find yourself making music that sounds different and is made differently, but learning how successful people make their music is a good starting point.