Smitsy's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tamara171]

Nice track! Love the intro and the reverse pads (?) stuff you have going on. Drums are great too. Heres some constructive cristism!

+As I said, intro is great. Simplistic but sounds sweet.
+Track develops well throughout! I find a lot of songs in this genre are very repetitve and I get bored quite often (admittedly DnB isnt really my favourite type of music) but this is good. New sound effects and instruments introduced throughout really helped this song!
+The filter sweep FX works really well. I dunno if its a sample or you did it yourself but it fits perfectly. I mean the sounds at 1:38 and 0:00.

I dont really know what to say to improve on since Im not really an avid DnB listener, but I'll try anyway all down to my personal preference:
-The wub effect sounds cool, but maybe it would be worth automating the timbre somewhere throughout the track, just so it sounds like its evolving more. Gets a bit tiring.
-Ending seemed a bit forced? Maybe too sudden. Personally I think it could have done with the song slowly building down before it ended. Again, just my preference
-Add a few more drum loops, perhaps. I think theres some subtle changes but nothing too drastic. The drums sounded good but they could have evolved more.
-I would say its a bit too short. I think you could have added another final part and an outro section.

I hope this helped. This is really nice stuff, it's not really my style of music but I can tell a lot of effort was put into this and it worked out well, nothing too much to worry about. Keep it up!

PrognoiseBIG responds:

Thanks for your real Review Smitsy- I appreciate that in the first place.

Simplistic does the trick in my opinion.
You know when producers want to put in to much for a to short amount of time.
Fun to see that you are not a DnB listener in te first place but you took time for the track.
I know its on request but still cool to see you didn't skip it =).

About the FX. I can make alot of different Sweeps & Fx pri* in Massive but that didn't fit the job in here and used a SweepdownFX with some adjustments to the way i like it the most.

Anyways .

Bass is made myself ( Cause i like that the most ). Sound Design is fun to do =)

You feedback for improvements make alot of sense to me.

The WUB - I Agree with you, it gets a bit tiring when i listen to other tracks the wub evolves more and has more variety needed.

About the ending - Sometimes i dont know what kind of structure i want/need to use.
Normally i did hip hop and then i build the song with the following structure -

4 Barz intro - 16 Barz - 8 Barz (ref ) 16 Barz -8 Barz (ref ) - 16 Barz - 4 Out.

I dont really know if it works the same way with other genres of music.
To keep it short is also the way for me to express myself at very best cause now the listener is not really forced to stay 3-4 minutes.

But what you say makes alot of sense - Build down the track and then rebuild it with alot of creativity =) .

Yes! You helped me alot. Smitsy i want to say Thanks again.
I Will use your feedback to my future tracks - so i expect you back somewere in the future days =) !

Thanks again & Thanks alot.

PGNB.

[Nirvana - School (cover)]

This is a nice cover! As someone else said, at some parts you do sound like Kurt and it works really well in this song. The singing is very good! The guitar playing is alright too. Admittedly I havent really heard the original song so bare that in mind when reading this. Heres some positives and negatives!
+I love the tone of the guitar
+As said above, the singing is great for this cover.
-The vocals could have done with been quieter in the mix, however. Whenever the vocalist is singing the guitar gets completely overpowered in the mix.
-The guitar playing is good, but the solo at 1:25 sounds like it has a few open strings ringing and sounds unclean (However, if that is what the original song is like, ignore this point)
-Drums and bass would have been nice!

So yeah, all in all a good cover, just watch your levels! -Smitsy

Stereocrisis responds:

Thanks Smitsy. I will say this though. I don't ever intend on bringing cover songs into the studio. LOL I know the audio quality isn't what it could be, but it's grunge, so I kind of like how raw it sounds. Just my personal preference. I like that punk/garage rock sound.

[Feels Like Water (Original Mix]

This is awesome! Great mastering job. I love the parts like at 5:42, sounds really good! Good choice in drums and bass, and the section at the start ~0:45 is really good too. The only reason I didnt give 5* was because I felt it could have more automation/changes in the bass through the song because it did get a bit tiring on my ears, the breakdown in the middle helped but I guess its down to personal preference. Keep up the good work!

Sequenced responds:

I feel like if I added anymore changes to to the bassline, it will sound like too much is going on.

[Kart Racing]

Love the composition and the chords you got going! Drums are really cool too! Only thing I would say is to changeThe chords every once and a while. What you have is great but imo you could have expanded on it a bit more ;)

Cacola responds:

Hm, I've never tried doing chord changes before, I'll try that in the future. Thanks!

[Hill Act 1 (Remix)]

I really like the introduction! Maybe a tiny bit long but still pretty good. This is just me, but to me the bassline is a bit meh and kind of gets drowned out, but at the same time it does have an interesting effect so if thats what you were going for then nice work :) Anyway, the review:

+The intro is nice
+The general backing rhythm is pretty strong
+Mastering is pretty good!
+Pretty good drum samples! Maybe a bit quiet in places. I do like it though.
-Im not so sure about the lead synth at the start, to me it doesnt quite fit. Though the one at 2:05 works a lot better in my opinion. Perhaps make it softer and change the saw type. Again, just opinion.
-Some changes or development in the backing rhythm could have been interesting, but it comes down to how closely you want to follow the original so again, just nitpicking.

But anyway, pretty strong track! I like it alot, just personally I would have done some things slightly differently. Keep up the good work though!

TheNegativeIon responds:

Thanks for the review! This really means a lot to me. I never would've gotten something like this on LBP2. But I guess that comes mostly from the limited review space allotted. Nonetheless, thanks again.

[[C] - Yōma no Umi]

Pretty repetetive but it suits the song! Could definitely see this in a video game or something.

+good composition and instruments
+like the drums
+loops well
-melody could be more interesting

TheyCallMeCaudex responds:

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback! Actually, I think the the thing it's missing is chord progression... or at least that's something that the melody would benefit from.

[Everything Must Go]

This is really nice! Its mastered well and the instruments go well together. The ending was a bit sudden, and the drums sound slightly too loud/out of place (especially the snare/clap at 0:54), but other than that a really strong track. Im assuming its a backing track intended for lyrics, but otherwise, consider adding a melody to really tie the song together ;) Nice work!

ForeverJustTonight responds:

yupyup I have full lyrics and guitar and whatnot to it as well. Thanks for the feedback, its still a work in progress. but with Vocals and guitar it sounds pretty awesome. Ill send ya a message once we get it recorded and up on youtube :)

[[SQ] Fighting Spirit]

This is really nice!

+fits great for its purpose (rpg battle)
+good variety and progression getting tenser and tenser
-drums could do with lower frequencies (in my opinion)

If you do add an introduction, IMO it would sound best kept short, ~10 seconds long, so it gets into the action quickly. Nice work!

Squale responds:

Thanks for the review and your short analysis. :)
Actually I made an introduction, but the transition to the first part is bad - so I decided so delete the introduction. unfortunately my other attempts failed, too. Maybe I will change some thing in the future.
However, thanks angain. :D

[Broken Framework Complete]

Thanks for remixing one of my tracks! As I said, I dont listen to much chipstep so this review might be inaccurate, so keeping that on mind here it is:

+Variety in sounds, well balanced and lots of interesting different sounds which fit pretty well
+I like the intro a lot
+The second part is a good progression from the first, changes the mood well (something I didnt do in the original)
-Ending is very sudden, not sure if its meant to be that way :3
-Personally the third part in the original where the leads cross over was my favourite bit, so Id have kept it in instead of repeating the first, but thats a matter of opinion

But yeah, I like it a lot! Nice work!

br00d1e responds:

Why thank you man! :) and I know, it's because I relapsed the end to re-introduce the beginning, and I know, I just sorta forgot about it :o I may go back into it, in later days when I have more samples too, and beef it up a bit :P but thank you man! :D

[Battle for the House]

This is really nice! Reminds me of the music chipzel did for Super Hexagon :)

+catchy melody/bass
+good progression and transistions
+well suited for VGM

The only thing Id suggest is adding some more background parts to give it more depth, but otherwise, very nice!

DFerociousbeast responds:

Comments like this make it all worth it :) thanks friend! :D and I was going back over the song to add some more impact on the chorus but i'm prone to procrastinate :( sorry, but I know what to do next time I make a song like this :P but seriously, thanks again! :D