Darren-M's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[COS] Dust Man]

breath of life

first off the synth here was kinda cool, sounded like a square with a noise osc. it was kinda breathy, good work here. your high end drums sounded high passed, and really weak, but this piece did not call for it to be so strong, i think the main synth filled up that space in the spectrum well. i wasnt a fan of those tom like drums you had. but good work on getting them to cut through the mix. cool harmony at 1:31.

at 1:55 i felt your effect was a little sloppy, i think it should be gated so that the sound cuts out on the tempo at like 16beats for the gate. and it would be a cool effect to make those pan left and right upon each gated section

this was well mixed and a hella great song for 90 minutes

good ending

DjUntold responds:

Thank you very much :). You're one of the few people who actually reads the Author Comments before leaving a review on a song haha. Yeah it was tough to get the mixing to be top notch without the time to do it. Usually I spend 20+ hours on each song, but 90 minutes is basically a mad rush to get anything done. Though it really teaches you a lot about music production, and teaches you to not throw out your ideas once you've got them down. I used to just throw away melodies if they weren't perfect. Editing is a wonderful thing...

Anyways, thank you for taking your time to review the track,
I quite enjoy constructive criticism, it really helps.
- Aaron

[Lamp Concerto]

awesome

awesome creativity awesome effort you get a 5 which i never give and i know i must have rated like 200 audio submissions

sorohanro responds:

Thanx man, thanx.

[Euphorism prev]

making them work

well since your higher percussions are pretty wide i would suggest maybe making the bass more mono?

i dont know how much work you did on this but it sounds great. i mean really clean mizing and mastering but anyway i also wanted to say hi, havent heard from you in a while.

[Candy Zoo]

great!

ok i am impressed by the creativity in this, and it completely sounds great, ... i am a really goofy person though.

i was not aware there was a pizzicato strings vst lol!

ok i think my favorite part was about the jelly bean giraffe i think the song needs a video though

curriemaster responds:

Aye the song definitely needs a video I think, unfortunately I am no animator so if anyone wants to have a go feel free! Glad you liked the track and thanks for the review :).

[DKC3- SwimUp]

patting yourself on the back

well im goin gto tell you not to pat yourself on the back just yet lol! because once you know you did well remember there is room to improve, but im going to tell you that it isnt time for you to do that yet because im going to do it for you.

ok well went i first heard the song at the beginning i felt good. i really liked the instruemnt orbanjo that you love so much, it actually fit in pretty well. at :37 i disagreed with the side chained part some, it sounded great but musicly i wasnt sure.

the drums on this track were all very great, i loved your patterns i know you made those just right.

at 1:40 if you made that synth i am proud of you.

you really took time on the intro to this song holy crap, it sounds great, and i am really impressed that you introduced the themes in a smart way by having little fragments of the musical elements kkinda faded andwaving in and out so as to accent the atmosphere! GREAT ideas. the delay on that banjo was really cool! good work there. i really felt and heard water in this.

the side chained pads were great. it made the atmosphere really enjoyable, you really had alot of pads in here that made the song incredible at 3:51 that synth you chose for the little melodical part was a good choice

at 3:32 i liked the drums you had snapping in with the delay, good distraction. sory but at by 3:05 i expected a buildto the next part i felt that dragged out a little.

there was an acid synth towards the end that was really cool.

good idea to have those panning variantions of the main bas at the end but it was a little too crazy for me, and this looped really well.

i am giving you a solid 4 on this because i rarely give solid 5's and a solid four is sayign alot from me, and there were some musical elements i wasnt sure aount so that was my doubt.

im giving you an 8/10 because you have improved much on this piece. and also its an awesome song.

something in this feels like your mastering was completely different this time around because things sound more clear.

cRAVE01 responds:

>:D you are going to make me WORK for that 5 and 10, arent you!!! XD Every time you say I've improved is pressure to work equally/harder on the next one X )

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Really on the mastering? I was kinda thinking that I'd done a bum job on it cuz it goes in the red PLENTY! That main bass was really frustrating, but fun. o___o; lol But I am glad the EQing fooled you ^o^ and thanks for the compliment. And I was back and forth on that saw. Couldn't settle on anything that sounded better . . . Technically by defenition I guess that is a sign I should take it out all together - but you know how I am with side-chaining : 3 I had to go back to some of your PMs to make sure I was using smart inputs for the right type of instruments . . . so yeah. This was fun and rewarding.

The pad work in the original is my favorite part of the song, so I knew I'd have lots of fun with this one! And I loved how the tar (my banjo) turned out with the panning on that part!

I am very glad to know that you enjoyed this one! Here's hoping I can keep up this momentum '_' ;

[WorshipOfTomorrow-Trance]

not bad

this is one of your better songs actually

i am finally starting to pick up on your style of things.

the choirs sound cool but just before that kick started in i would have like the choir to drop and then come back in side chained.

this song was actually pretty good. at 1:05 i really liked what happened here. i like the clap it was a good addition, and the mid synth was cool. you did a good job putting in the dobro and then removing the emphasis from the mid synth .

i wasnt sure how i felt about that phaser type squeemy synth towards the end. i would have liked the notes in it to have been more similar to the rest of the song i think.

i am judging your song based on if i think A. you are improving, which you are. and B. if i believe this song is well done. so i think a 7 is appropriet, and believe me i would give alot of people a 3 for much more an effort .

good work on this one

cRAVE01 responds:

YEY! thank you much! THis one is still in the works. Doesn't have enough of a melody in my opinion. I will play with this when I am done with the project that is currently eclipsing my focus ^____^ one that you inspired, fyi ^_' (and you'll be happy to hear I've been trying to work the synths for it, so they're almost all completely original synths).

so yeah. thanks mucho for the encouragement that I am improoving! Glad you liked this one, I am pleased with how it has/is turned(ing) out as well.

I'm gonna take a gander at any new songs you might have up, try and make a review before I pop off to bed. So take a look.

[My Bass Growls--_--]

orkester and hi pass

ahh yes the orkster sound bank.... man these instruments never get old, the nnxt is so brilliant.

first off the bad stuff
somewhere between 78 and 312hz that kick has got to give. the amplitudes were just a little to high for my taste. i kept thinking. my monitors are ok with this but car default car speakers or lap top speakers will shred when exposed to these frequencies. as far as mixing goes i just didnt think it was appropriate, the grainy bass was just enough bass. but the kick was a little too much.

at 3:38ish i just wasnt feeling that type of build in this song however it was effective, you filtered that well.

the most unique part in this song for me and something that i almost took the wrong way started at :20 ish.... that high pass was awesome and when you side chained it or gated it at :30 my mouth fell open because that was a really cool stereo effect i have never heard utilized. i would like to use this in future productions actually.

[DKC2-ThisWoodBeTrance]

ya know

donkey kong 3 had the best music to me. that game was full of trance especially that one waterfall level with the shot barrels. at 1:06 there was discordancy...fix that didnt i give you a whole long ass explanation of how to keep that from happening lol?

anywho i was excited when this song started the bass was working for me but it was fat for sure. this piece sounds kinda quiet. try compressing some stuff and boosting the master. idk

this was decent
you are improving

[{Dj-L} The Evil Project]

detuning and bass issues

i am goign to tell you what i think is wrong with this because you allready know what all is awesome.

first off your bass is so wide and for being detuned you are draining the song of the sparkly stereo high's and mids' so there was some interference issues.

at :41 i loved that siren but it was way too short so if the sample or synth you made didnt let it sustain long enough clip a part of the siren and make it a sample that you can copy and paste continuously it might sound clipped but if you do it right you can give it a side chained effect.

this song could have used some more sub bass and a litttle less resonance heavy mid bass mix.

around 1:23 those claps and percussions could have had more presence. not a higher amplitude or volume but rather they are being eaten up.

eq and mono that bass a bit more and drop the res or lessen the detune and you should have a really KILLER song.

great work on this...i want to destroy a village after listen to this

[Snapdragon]

Bass too wide

the bass on this was way too wide for me and ate up some frequencies on the stereo field that i think would have really made the piece sparkle. the plucked instrument was well placed and fit in very well.

your filtering was great, and you did good at picking the reversal samples for this they were actually just the right ones insted of a random reversed crash or something.

around 4:08 i would have liked to hea that pad more and the piano wasnt "there enough" good amplitude but bad mix on that. i think it came from the bass issue again. idk.

at 3:48 smooth move on that build dropping the pad at the end was a good idea.

anyway good work on this but since this is a great work and you know what all is good about it work on making that bass more mono or something, rhythmic parts may not need to be so bold when the emphasis here is the atmosphere created by the pads and plucked instrument. also i listened to this with a sub which i put centered with my monitors and it naturally put alot of the bass in the center and the higher parts of it were on my hi/mid monitors, so perhaps try to keep the bass lower in the freqs, but not too low since trance bass is higher, and consider the common persons listening format, with ear buds or computer speakers. you probably know all this crap.

any way, great work. im proud lol

NemesisTheory responds:

i really have to brush up on my technical definitions on some of the things you mentioned, I dont know what half of this means. XD but I think i can paint a pretty good picture of what you mean, so I'll keep it in mind as best as I can.

Anyway, I'm happy you liked it ;oo, and I'll try to see what I can do next time about some things. :P