StereoTactik's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fusion Preview]

Drum n bass!

Finally I see some more real drum n bass on Newgrounds!

I like that intro synth sweep thing. Nice work on that. The vocal sample is cool too.
I think that overall the intro was too short and not diverse enough. Make it 4 or 8 bars or even more if you want, and add in some cool samples or pads. Try to get the feeling of building up to the main part.

Drums:
Kick: Needs more punch! It sounds like you low passed it at 100 Hz, destroying its attack. Either find another sample with more 1kHz, or distort the one you have until it sounds right. Make it louder too.

Snare: Really distorted sounding! If you're using a distortion module, you may want to decrease the damage level a little bit so the sample isn't completely distroyed.

Perc: Nice. Lol. You should throw in some high-passed crashes every so often to add high end to the mix.

Bass: Awesome sound! Reminds me of Concussion so much I'm wondering if you ripped it... lol.
The bassline was pretty neat. It sounds a little random and boring after a while. Try automating some filters to give the line a whole different attitude.

Synth pads: Bleargh!
It's good to use them in break points for added atmosphere, but playing them throughout the song at high volume just gets in the way and muddies up the mix. at 1:15, the pads get out of control. They're way too loud, and too many at the same time. They also don't support the bassline enough. If you're going to use pads, be sure to make the melodies with the bassline in mind.
Using lots of synth melodies is where most "DnB" artists on Newgrounds go wrong. No, you won't be cool like Pendulum if you use 5 different synth leads that dominate the mix and block out the stuff that you actually put effort into like the drums or bass.
A good technique for pads is to keep them out of other instruments' frequency ranges, and keep the volume as low as possible so you can still hear it.

Overall Mix:
Drums good.
Bass louder.
Pads much quieter.
Less compression.

The bass, not the pads, should always be one of the dominant instruments in the mix. Get the drums and bass to cooperate and blend well together, then add quiter background effects that add diversity to the song.

Song structure:
Longer intro.
Make a middle part with a different bassline. It sounds really cool and keeps the song interesting.

4/5 Good job on weekly first! I'm looking forward to the final mix.
ST

[{Timebomb} Preview]

meh.

after listening to this song the first thing that jumped out at me was "wow, i dont hear much like this on ng" and of course i found it as amazing. however, after listening to it for about another 5 min (which i should add made me listen to it about 6 times through because its so damn short) i realised that for your obvious intelligence of music, it wasnt that great. i mean dont get me wrong tho, this song pretty much owns anything i could ever make, but some components of it really angered me >:(

this first thing that pissed me off was the violin. i was just getting into the bassline and was like "nice". when i heard the violin though, it all went downhill.

o yeah, before i criticize the song more just lemme say that the "5,4,3,2,1" vox were prolly the coolest things i have ever heard.=]

last thing i have to say about the song that isnt praise is about the mastering. i know i cant say much cause im a noob, but i though this song could use some more bass cause its called "drum and bass" not "drum and treble" lolololololololololXDXDXD

^^^^^^funny^^^^^^^^

so beside those two things this song was pretty amazing. i only took off two points because not only my complaints, but it was so short.

im not worth ^^^('o''0')^^^ <----thats a guy bowing in your presence

[Drakanious - Decision]

Needs improvement

I'll start off with the good stuff:
-The bass sound is pretty nice sounding. It sounds like either you spent a lot of time tweaking the instrument to perfection, or you have a good taste in presets.
-The drums were pretty good. They actually sounded familiar, like some .rex file form the Reason soundbank.
-There were actually a couple of nice variations and progressions in the drums, but not enough.

BAD STUF LOL BOO
-Right away the bass hits me with... A RANDOM MELODY! Try to spend more time on the main melody before you think "ok this sounds good enough".
-The harmonies sounded horrible. It's probably just the synth, but those higher octaves didn't go well together with the lower bass part. It would have been much better to put those higher notes on another synth.
-The panning bass is distracting and unnecessary.
-The drums are okay for an intro or something, but they get boring after a while and begin to sound like a cranky, poorly-mixed muddy old breakbeat.
-It was drums and bass. No atmosphere, no background, no pads, no fx samples. Thats pretty damn boring.
-The overall progressions sounded awkward and random. Each part didn't flow into the next, it just stopped and started randomly.

1/5 I don't mean to sound like an ass, I'm just trying to help.
ST

Drakanious responds:

Your review inspired me to create a new track which I have uploaded here entitlted "Irresponsible."

[{Hollow Man} Preview]

All I have to say is

I'm on the verge of tears right now.

[Rucklo - Drive (Loop)]

Very nice.

That bass reminds of Noisia a lot. Amazing job with that! I've been trying so hard to get that sound, but I just can't.

The bassline was simple. Maybe a little to simple, but I suppose it would be good for a flash movie or something.

The drums are weak. Weak as a crippled little orphan running from a savage dog. Put some punch into it! Especially the snare drum. A good technique is to find a really good sounding snare (yours sounds weak in the middle and low frequencies, where the bad-ass of the snare drum lives) and split it with a Spider Audio. Just drag one dry channel to the merge part of the Splitter, to keep the original sound. Put a compressor on a different channel, which merges back with the dry signal and then goes to the mixer. Turn the Ratio to infinite and Threshold all the way down, and bring the attack all the way down. Raise the output gain a little so you can hear it better, then adjust the attack so just enough snare is coming through. This technique adds a lot of punch to your snare and sounds awesome.

Maybe trying adding some HPed crashes in the background for a nice atmospheric effect.

4/5 Killer bass, not so great drums.
ST

LOL this is the first review on this account. You lucky little chipmunk, you.

Rucklo responds:

The bass is quite a fun thing, the basics is actually a preset ( i normally don't use presets on synths), messed around with it a little, then fucked it up good along the way. The bass is "one" instrument in a combinator, split the frequency around 250Hz to get one pure subbass and one for the rest. Alot of things can be done with it, though I have to automate shit. Haven't bothered to program the combinator itself, I most often do all automation in the sequencer in the synth's own track.

The snare have been handled, actually. I didn't want it to be that punchy, so what i've done with it is that to begin with I found a rather "smashy" half way clap-sounding snare. Split it out and let one part through some serious compression. This was to get the second part of the sample louder (the "tail"), 0 attack on thatone. Then the other one is compressed to maintain a small amount of punsh. It's not much, but it's there.

You know that if you put infinite ratio, that basicly equals limiter? If you put the attack all the way down like you suggest 8to zero) the very impact will be taken away, depending on what settings you have othervice, it'll ruin the punsh.
I always put extreme ratio and threshold first, so i more easily can hear the attack and release. Then I set the ratio + threshold to a more reasonable level.

I have been thinking about running out sampling some cars or whatever, to put in the song. I did name it "driver", so why the hell not. I'll have more difficult trying to record an actual car-crash, but hey, there are other ways of doing shit (and not "finding" them somewhere). :)

Thanx alot for the review, spoonie. Drive safe. When u get the license... ^^