Shamukh's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mining Melancholy [Psyko Mix]]

Very nice.

Very industrial. I like it. The drum sequencing is well-made too; I like the subtle glitching that happens every once in a while, nice touch. IMO they're put way too far back in the mix. seem that industrial seems to be the main influence in this track, I feel they should be a bit more dominant. The main melody sounds very familiar to me, what game is this from?

Overall well-made. Keep up the good work man. :)

Godknown responds:

Thanks for the tips on making this sound better. I'll be sure to make the drums louder! Also, the melody is from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest. I'm glad it sounds familiar to you. A videogame player, perhaps? Heheh. Thanks for the review, friend. Very helpful!

[Reasoner- Ticking Away]

Awesome. :D

I agree with you about the compression. It's just the kick, it seems, and it only happens during the 2:25 transition and throughout the track afterwards. On the first half the song, the kick sounded way drowned out (and it sounded good), but on the second half it was overbearing and definitely overcompressed (I could just be hearing things though...).

The distorted hats that happen on the breakdown of the end of the song are a bit grinding; turning those down a tad would probably help (although they're the only thing filling up the high end at that point of the song, so maybe add a really bright pad as well? Not sure).

Great stuff though man! Keep it up. :D

Reasoner responds:

Yes I agree about the compression, it needs work. Thanks for the suggestions and I'll continue to work on it for future tracks. :-D

[(NUB)First FruityLoops Song ?!]

Hey. ;D

You should ttly send me the FLP of this haha.
And yeah, that tweaked guitar is a bit too loud, and that is my only complaint.

Amazing sequencing as always, man! :D

nubbinownz responds:

wouldn't work :( unless you have easwest symphonic orchestra

[Bitter Dawn]

r0fl sppooky

Needs more a buildup imo. It kinda hits you like a brick at like :12.

I think if you just scrapped the piano altogether (or added more effect and made it more subtle) this sound would feel cleaner or something. Dunno, I don't like the piano at all, but I like everything else rofl. The strings could possibly be layered and EQed less on the high end so they sound fuller too.

That's all, sick tune bye.

[{WF1/Tell}Wonderful Millennium]

Blargh.

Don't respond to people like "do better and we'll talk" or whatever. People don't need to know how to make music to know that something seems wrong to them, and honestly, Mahzkrieg hit it spot on I think.

The drums are definitely dull. They have no humanization (that hat is REALLY annoying haha), and they sound way too powerful for the environmental feel the background gives off. What I'm trying to say is that the drums give off a false feeling of power, and the pads don't justify that power so it sounds unbalanced (that's why people think it's 'boring' I believe).

Besides that, there's too many synths trying to act as the main melody as well... stick with one or two; don't convolve your mix or people will lose interest.

tl;dr: Don't blow off reviews just because they sound hostile or say that they don't like the tune; listen to them and don't be too much of an asshole about it. Humanize the drums, or perhaps make them less powerful. Add more tension as Mahzkrieg said, this song definitely lacks it. Also, it needs an ending. xD

It's really not bad though, keep it up.

Telliath responds:

We're never looking back on this song. I just think that people don't need to review lowly because it's "boring" it's about the creation of the music the quality, the total aspect behind this piece and what's put into it. You don't give a 0 saying "It's boring kthx bye."

[FL45HFL45HR3V0LU710N15C00L]

My God

Keep this song off of FFR.

No offense, but there should be a line of how 'professional' songs should sound to be on FFR. This song crosses that line.

Lacks texture. It's out of harmony, it clips amazingly bad, and has more presets than a Dimrain song (which isn't TOO big of a deal I guess, but still). It's overall unattractive in terms of what should be on FFR.

If that sounds mean, sorry. I'm not saying the song completely 'sucks', I'm just saying it doesn't meet standards of what should be on FFR imo. With that said, if given the proper tweaks, this song good be pretty interesting. Perhaps give it some harmony, a melody possibly. More texture, effects, normal things all normal songs have. It just sounds so empty and dry. Also, the kick is really muffled; it sounds like you cut off all frequencies above like 500hz on it, it needs less bass and more punch. The hit in the back is distracting, overbearing and out of tune with the song. Your 'moog' melody doesn't follow suit with your bassline, which doesn't even follow suit with itself... :| (I suggest lo
oking up some theory lessons online or something?) Also, use a compressor to make your mix stay below 0dB so that the bass doesn't clip like hell. Add some equalization on things and etc.

That's all I can think of. I'm tired rofl. Keep practicing and you'll get better. :D

customstuff responds:

I never said it should be on FFR, I simply said that FFR is cool!

Thanks for the review anyway, I see you spent time on it!

[Samurai Swing]

Of all the FoD submissions

This is the first one where the drums really 'really' seem to belong. the trumpet adds a lot more to the song despite of how minimal a part it plays, and do I hear a really low sawtooth with LFO modulation at the beginning? D:

cornandbeans responds:

the thing at the beginning was actually a section of the pads in the original song that I layered and put a lfo to a bandpass filter. Thanks for the review : )

[DJS - Reach the Sky]

Pretty good dude!

The low-freq sawtooth really gets on my nerves. Personally I think it should follow the Kick. The snare seems a bit loud also, but I love the stereo effect you gave it. :)

The piano is awesome but seems kinda dry. Try adding more reverb on it to make it seem a bit more natural, and maybe a LITTLE bit of attack.

The progression, chord progression and melody are very professional-sounding though! Great track dude! Keep up the great work. :)

[(NUB)Daryl's Memory]

Don't let ocr stop you from remixing D:

OCR declines a LOT of great game remixes (and lets in alot of mediocre ones) dj pretzel's a good musician, but he's not a very good judge. :|

The piano in this is amazing. It's so chill (my favorite genre), and the breaks are amazing as always; I wish I could sequence percussion like you. :(

This also sounds familiar'ish, though I haven't really gotten a chance to play FFVI all the way through. :( Anyway, great job man! I'm glad I spotted your (nub) mark in the latest added songs--had to click it. ;)

nubbinownz responds:

hey man, long time no see. Yeah they hit me pretty hard on the resposne email. Basically shot down every aspect of my corneria remix. I'm going to send this one in and hopefully it'll make it. I don't see many epitaph remixes floating around though most people have played ff6. We'll see how it goes :) i'm just looking for critiques and suggestions to make this song as good as possible, and as much quality as I can.

thanks for the awesome review man :) Haven't seen you on my last couple of songs, was wondering if ya disappeared.