pitbulljones's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Earth Vault (rough sketch)]

Seriously stop it lol.

You make music that literally tingles my cerebellum. Seriously, if I were to pray to a god this would be my worship music.

Mate, there's so much good going on. The timbre, sympathetic beats, huge swells. DROWNING reverb. It's pure bliss.

This also seems brighter and wider, judicious EQ application to. It benefits immensely and doesn't suffer from low end muddiness.

5 all day

pbj

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Your reviews make my day every time. Yes thank you! I have been trying to remember to go wide and bright on the front end for the tape recordings. Eventually I'll learn a good sweet spot for using this machine. I hope to turn this particular idea into a real tune sometime. So much stuff to do though. Glad you are enjoying my sketches ^_^. Very happy to hear you don't think the low end is muddy. Means I am improving in my tape recording techniques. I purposely turned the repeats on the delay way onto the dry side, so the bass would hopefully not muddy up.

[Save a Slice for Me]

Ooooooo just open with the beat. That's nasty grime. This is a revision of one of your earlier tracks? I'm 99% sure it is. The one I wanna throw guitar on.

The sparseness helps immensely. Imagine a fucking rapper on this. Yeah boy, I'm on this like stink.

A tiiiiiny critique, your compression/limiter is 'pumping' the mix, have a look at the knee.

5

pbj

Syntrus responds:

changes were made

[Swallow Silver]

Well this is interesting. It's not my style as you know. But damn man, your tone is miles better, there is so much good here. I think you are going to go far.

I think it's just too loud overall. The end at 2:30 on is the perfect level and balance. That is where the rest of the track should be volume wise. Because you open so hard you leave nothing to go higher. Drag them drums 10db down, your guitar 8db, then use the headroom for key points. There's a part that sounds like a horn at 0:39 ish but it's lost in the mix due to the high level. 0:48 to 1:05, it's ALMOST perfect that riff is perfect but you're rhythm overpowers it.

Structurally it's really good, there's ebb and flow. There's contrast and all the parts are technically sound. Every aspect of the mix is clear and expressive and the distinctions between your heavy and soft parts create dynamism. I really enjoyed those segments from a personal level.

Redo this track, just roll the levels down and allow it to breathe. Pump the backing, reap the benefits.

Maybe find a slightly more natural kit or reverb them.

It's a 5 all day.

pbj

hoorayjay responds:

Goddamn thank you man

[Old School Mellow (rough mix)]

Oooooooo you have some 90's house synths. Korg Wavestation/legacy cell?

Ok, it's a bit washy, low mid dominant. Some of your kicks are off beat. There's some signature tones in use. There's potential for a track here, thinking breaks. But it would require significant work to get your synth choice to engage due to their cliche'd tone.

Tape is lovely, drive it bro. Pay attention to the upper end though.

5

pbj

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Hey thanks the feedback.

Only synth I used for this is the roland fantom x6. It's a smattering of all kinds of stuff. Some of it crap some of it very nice. The kicks only appear off beat when the hats are muted, so I'm thinking I'll make a more straight forward kick beat for the muted parts. That or just add something else to keep the time while I have the hats muted.

Not sure what I could do about the synth. That's just the nature of the patch, those cliche house chords. I personally like them but I'm sure people are sick to death of them. gota remember, the x6 is from like 2004. a LOT of the patches are really cliche lol. If I could find a NEW synth that actually had on board micro tuning, I'd consider swapping. This caught my eye: http://www.ashunsoundmachines.com but I don't see anywhere about it having micro-tuning. It's really not a thing designers seem to care about. where as, ironically, most digital synths from the 90s have on board micro tuning.

Yeah I'm so used to digital's tendency to be too bright. I gota remember tape is the total opposite. Gota really fill the treble bands up. Get a nice balance.


I think I will add more to my sequences and re-record the entire thing when I can. : )

[Little Foot]

Fuck me. I can feel the perm from here. Brilliant 80's rock.

Faultless

KrinnValKhristi responds:

*fluffs bangs*

[The Ballad of Joey Domino]

Hell yes!

Jesus, what a beautiful track. I mean I've heard the pattern millions of times, but them vocals. Well in. Could i suggest a drowned reverb on the harmony? The clean double track is a bit too well done, a 50ms of drift will fix that.

Two tiny faults, can't hear the bass and the mix is a bit too loud.

I love it though. It's a professional release. Right up my street too.

5 as always

pbj.

Going through your other stuff now.

MistyE responds:

Thank you so much! Yeah the mix is definitely a bit brickwalled lol, I should re-master it for good one of these days.

[The Infinite Cosmos]

Well yea.

Damn better player than me. Well mixed. if a bit middley. I try to explain this in a way peeps understand. Your levels are too high. Drag that volume back.

5 though, it's brilliant

pbj

MetalRenard responds:

Agreed, I used to mix things too hot. Since then I've looked into mastering some more and now I obey more recent standards and keep things to acceptable standards for digital distribution platforms. Well spotted!

Thanks for taking the time to comment! I appreciate it.

[Stones]

ok.

As a piece of music it's good. Bags of potential. Well recorded vocals. Guitars are good. Not my genre. But I think your draw is in your vocals, they have potential over a range of genres.

Drums.....god damn awful. Fruity Loops? Get XLN addictive drums. These drums don't cut it.

Your volume....loud does not equate to good. Tame it back about 6db, thin the parts. Let it breathe. Your mix is seriously lacking high end. Brighten it, be expressive. The riffs are good, the playing is good, your vocal is too.

Vocal wise, I can tell you didn't sing this at full volume. Probably due to home environment. If you get an opportunity to hit a studio you will shine.

Again not my genre but I can hear the potential.

5 as always

pbj

frank-n-furter666 responds:

That's what I call a review.
The two songs are currently only demos, so hopefully the final mixes improve drastically on these points.

You fucking rule for this post.
Thank you!

[Tethered to the Past]

A wonderfully played piece. I cannot fault the playing.

I will suggest that you apply some reverb, maybe a stereo exciter.

I don't know what VST you're using, it's a good one. If you need an alternative try Piano One.

5

pbj

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you!

I have some reverb on the piece, but I kept in minimal, since I wanted a fairly realistic performance sound for this composition.

I have plenty of piano VSTs :)
This one is Embertones 'Walker 1955 Concert D'. I used to use the free Piano One in the past, and it's quite nice for what it is! But it has some problems, and doesn't have the same depth as some of the really carefully sampled (or otherwise created) piano VSTs that are out there on the market. Thanks for the tips though!

[XenoXenon - Floating Nightmares]

Tonnes of atmosphere. Though a bit heavy in background noise. I'd probably make the track cleaner and get rid of the static and its reverb. All that dissonance is lost in the wash. It's definitely unnerving and well suited to the genre. But a cleaner, louder more contrasting mix would elevate this.

5 as always

pbj

XenoXenon responds:

thanks for feedback