Darren-M's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Epic Organs]

organs!

the part where the bass came in around 20 was a really great transitions.

i felt that the kick in this song was a little too hard and that the bongos/wood drum thingy could have been turned down a little as more of a part of the groove than the front face of the song.

this song was really funky and had me dancing in my chair, i also enjoyed the slower attack on the synths

lucifer333 responds:

thanks for the revue, now that i think about it that would make the song a little better. dont forget to listen to my other songs!

[-Carry On-]

stuff i was thinking while listening

the part around :50 was a nice break, i thought the drums should have been brought forth a little more. i heard from a D&B group that they actually have two of the same drum tracks under their song, one as the main and the other has a band pass on it with alot of reverb to fill in the gaps, it actually makes it really full sounding

the part around 2:40 was a nice change, kinda sound like a break beat. the string has a nice atmosphere. nice pads too.

the transition from soft to hard style was a little too drastic for me, and i felt it could have been introduced a little more slowly back into the harder style.

good work.

ELBrain responds:

Thanks man! That double tracking is a good idea; I'm familiar with it from recording live instruments (guitar, drums, etc...), but I didn't think I would need to do it with electronic stuff. Maybe that's not the case. -_-;;

As for the transition, I'm thinking of something to make it better atm, but at the time I was happy with it. I only started getting a lot of feed back from friends like 2 days ago, but I wanted to put something out on newgrounds before then. (I want more feedback!)

[Sarah (S. C.)]

haha that was well done

this was a well done song, the vocals were just at the right level. the part about her being a horse was funny.

she is a funny woman

BreakingFaces responds:

thanks

[General guy]

interesting

this song was actually, pardon the cheesy word, cute!

i liked the atmosphere in this song, it was making me think of childhood adventure....thats just me.

one thing i would have done different was tone the phone beeps down, they are just a tiny but too loud

stroshi responds:

I actually have a second version, but the main instrument in that one is way too loud. i'm gonna work on a third version, and i think it will be the best.

[By Your Side Instrumental]

cool visions

this was a pretty graphic song, i pictured a movie starting in the streets of some town and its summer time and the camera is swooping down from the sky and zooming in towards the main character as it flys past bill boards and peoples windows

as for the song itself, its cool, definetly has atmosphere, but i would have liked to hear the drums change up a little, but not too much

mobius121 responds:

Thanks very much for your comment. I will have to remember to change it up a bit next time ;) Very interesting vision too! Maybe someone could use it like that for their animation?

[Phaetus]

pitch shifts! yay!

when i irst heard this it sounded like a group named genetic

honestly these kind of drum patterns i always love because of the pitch shifts and varried reverb amounts. did you put distortion on the drums? it all sounds great,my biggest complaint is the mixing, some parts are way too forward in volume and presence, but the drum patterns really rok my sox

good work

ELBrain responds:

Thank you! As far as the drums go, here's what I did:

First I came up with the original beat (the normal sounding one). It has some compression on it, as well as a bit of distortion and lo-fi sound fx thingy. Then, what I did, was I took the 2 bar beat out as a sample (from Reason) and loaded it into Fruity Loops. I then proceeded to take that original beat, and come up with 3 really messed up beats using the VST Glitch. I put all sorts of effects on the screwed up beats, i.e. speeding up and pitch shifting, filters, etc... Glitch has a lot of nifty little tricks. It took me awhile to learn how to use it effectively. =D Getting it to sound good instead of just being noise takes some work, and a lot of playing with it. Glitch is hard to explain, you just gotta mess with it.

Another thing I did with was the drums, was: when the really weird beats were playing, there were 2 parts were I played the weird beats and then also a copy of it but with a phaser on it. I sequenced the frequency and rate knobs on the phaser to a trippy pattern.

The only other thing I did to the drums, is during the beginning and fade out of the song, I took the weird, glitchy beats and added a ton of distortion to them to make them sound like dampened explosions.

If you use Reason I'd be happy to send you a combinator patch and the appropriate samples!

[Silver (NES Verison)]

bit by bit

i liked the hh, it sounds like it is really low bit but also distorted, i personally love that sound. the bass could have been a little wider and the treble a little less wide. the melody was interesting and kept me guessing but a little confusing. the root chords were actually pretty original. there was a great part in the middle around 1:00.

good work

Kilopop responds:

ah.. thank you so much, my melodies do need some work .. they don't really 'go' anywhere

I'll keep what you said in mind and try better on my next songs

[X.-Distort-.]

hit hit hit it

bass was a little too wide for my tastes, the songs feels really fat when the treble synth comes in. great drum build around :42, i really liked the piano like stabs, they brought an important finished feeling to the song. i liked the "hit it" samples, very cool. there was one high end percussion i didnt like that was panned to the left, it sounded like it had distortion on it a little, sounded like a hh but it was in timing with the kicks. the kicks i loved, very nice groove, the bongos type drums could have used a little more reverb, but none the less they really add to the character of the song and sound awesome.

good work

XenoxX responds:

Well for being my first real attempt At hip-hop I think It turned out pretty good And you do point out A few good points!... So I thanks you!

Thanks for the review! I will be sure to keep in mind you advice for future projects!!!

[Dialing the Stars V2.4]

delay dealy dealy delay

great delay in this song, nice atmosphere great synths, could have used a few pads in my opinion, but your drum samples were really cool, had a nice hollow sound i do enjoy.

i think the sub bass was a nice touch to this song, i think a heavy bass line would have ruined the atmosphere

Miir responds:

Thanks for the review. I agree that it needs some pads thats probably the next step and I am going to work a little on the break in the middle, also Im not sure Im going to keep the extra synth at the end(at least not in its current form), if I ever have time :P Thanks for listning.

[Bumblecricket]

worried

you had me worried i thought i was goin gto hear some massive feedback in here as a joke but no, this track wasnt annoying i dont know what you are talking about, sure it was simple but nothing in it was bad, all quality sound. i liked you pads, and the reverb on the kick was sufficient.

good work

ThumperHill responds:

thanks man. made this a lil while ago and posted it today. it's really repetative, which is why i say it's annoying. lol. a lot of people on newgrounds hate repetition, but i seem to like it in my music. anywho, thanks for the good rating!