Qshunt's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Grinder]

the 909 /808 drums spoil it

Its not bad mate, some of the samples sound like they're not quantised properly.

There needs to be more variation. the bassline doesnt do very much. add some slides / porta and make it more distorted. it sounds like a detuned saw, which is fine, but some imaginitive fx would liven it up somewhat.

but my major gripe is the use of the roland tr909 / 808 samples. thats what drags it right down for me!

peace bro.

[Drifter < Duba >]

This is much better than the last one i reviewed!

Much better!Tthe melodic elements fit together nicely on this track. I noticed this on one of your other tracks too, you seem to have a reverb on the bassline, and the drums..try changing the reverb so its set to low cut, so the kick doesnt reverb too!

As i mentioned in my last review, the drums aren;t pronounced enough! They should be IN YOUR FACE!!!! sharp, slightly saturated and a light reverb only on the high frequency stuff.

Plate reverbs are good for drums, as they have a longish predelay, and a short tail!

Make those drums/bass way more punchy and this track will be fucking sick! nice work man!
Whats your myspace man? PM me and i'll add you.

darthduba responds:

Thanks for the review man. I'll send you a link trough PM :)

[-Ricochet Love-]

excellent stuff!

Excellent work mate!

Mastering is nice! maybe a touch too much compression / ducking for my liking, but all the instruments / samples fill out nicely. Very epic track! nice use of Fx too! definitely one of the best tracks I've heard on Newgrounds thus far!

Well deserving of the 10 i gave you.

I don't very often give out 10's as i'm extremely fussy about production quality / techniques. But this track hits the mark. Its interesting and holds my interest, I didnt find myself skipping through it at all (which i tend to do when I start losing interest)

What is your weapon of choice as far as DAW's go? sounds like FL Studio to me. Correct me If I'm wrong!

Again, nice work my friend, and Epic it most certainly is :)

Check out my shiz if you get a spare few mins
10/10
5/5

[Ghostbustin' @ 140 bpm]

excellent track. Great Interpretation :P

Nicely done mate :P eq is nice, its a touch on the slow side to be classed as DnB though..more like Breaks...but firmly and squarely great sounding breaks.

Drums sit nicely in the mix. I'm not sure about the choice of 909 style kick / hats / snares though. Thats just a taste thing.

I dont like the little pause / dropout at the end of each 16 bar set. It sounds like a rendering fault...although it obviously isn't. Maybe carry some reverb off a snare through the "dead" space, so It sounds less sharp.

But my gripes aside, nicely done mate :) keep it up.

Check my stuff, leave me some comments :P
8/10
4/5

Skela responds:

Thanks for review, I'll check your stuff out.

[ellipse]

Nicely done!

Quite impressive stuff! There are a few technical aspects which makes it fall a touch short of a "10" but thats a matter of personal taste more than anything else!

For me, I wasn't very keen on the bassline reece, sounded like there was a touch too much white noise and/or resonance on the sound (as you were sweeping the cutoff up mainly). Bring the sub bass out a bit more too! As I said, minor nitpicking for me..I'm a dnb purist ;-)

Omni Trio are a drum and bass crew on moving shadow records who have some really nice piano concerto type drum and bass, they've been around for years now. If you like this sort of stuff, you'd probably like them. Fire Island is one of my personal favourites, from the Skeleton Keys album.

4/5
9/10

broove responds:

Thanks for a great review. I'm always looking forward to technical criticism. This version isn't mastered properly (mastered version will come soon).

I'm familiar with Omni Trio (Higher Ground is very good). There are some things which I can learn from them, but they're not quite an inspiration to me.

[Sashuna - Crank That Drumnbass]

bad song choice..reasonable remix though.

Its not too bad mate :)

The drums sound a bit mashed together, and the ghost hits are a bit too loud for my liking. Snare pitch should be a bit higher too, try eq'ing more high end into the beats (specifically the snare..I dont know if its a bad sample, or you have lots of lowpass on it. A touch of plate reverb on the snare won't hurt either). Bassline and lead sit quite well though.

I really want to hear this with more snappy drums. In my opinion the drums let it down! but the concept is pretty good, and everything else is great (aside from remix song choice, but i'll let that slide, as yours sounds better than the original in its current state) :) Keep it up buddy :P

I agree with Pandakore too..it would have been a good track in its own right, without polluting it with soljatool...he's a chump ;-)

Rave4Yourself responds:

Thanks dude for the very detailed review, i've gotten better now - or at least dont stink as much - and i can definitely make stronger drums now, so thanks for the ideas and review and helpful tips :)

Glad you liked it man haha ;D

[Kenagi - Violet Moon]

Not bad at all!

Nicely done dude, I like the theme, synths are pretty nice, melodies fit well. If the drums were phatter I'd have given this a 9 :P the drums are what lets it down imho. The sequencing and the loops you've used are fine, but for a large proportion of the song there was far too much low pass on the drums, or rather a low cutoff on the lpf on the drums.

Then when the drums come in fully, they're not "Punchy" enough. Remember, the emphasized parts in drum and bass should be...well the drums and the bassline. The square lead sound is too loud for the rest of the track, it doesnt sit in the mix properly.

Try lengthening it somewhat too :) most dnb is from 4 to 7 minutes.

But its a very admirable first attempt at drum and bass! Keep it up mate :P

4/7

[Necromancy (drum n' bass)]

Nicely done :)

Production quality is great. I like the vibe too, nice and dark.

its well thought out too! i'm quite a fussy person when it comes to Dnb...and so I don't give out kudos unless I feel it meets certain criteria.

The transitions are really good too.

Nice work matey,
Check out my shiz, would love some comments from a fellow (whom i consider a pretty good) Dnb producer :P

[Going To Hell (Mash-Up)]

Bassline is cool.

I'm kind of in agreement with whomever commented about the amen based loop. The track isn't bad but I've heard that break waaaaay too many times. The bassline is pretty meaty. I think it needs a lot more work on the mastering front. you should try layering lots of different "bread and butter" dnb breaks. using different EQ's on each loop to bring out / subdue certain parts so that all the loops come together into a new break.

And for a hint on how to get some nice dnb drum kits going...load some "real" sampled hits in, snares / hats / kicks etc. add some saturation to each, more on the snares than anywhere else though. and don't settle for one snare hit. layer 3 or 4 snares...and watch your transients!!

not a bad effort :)

Check my stuff.
peace

[After Tidewaiter Village]

Pretty decent!

Gotta love rewire eh :P

I quite like the vibe of this. Reminds me of oldschool Omni Trio, or Goldie. It Clips a little bit though. The mastering needs some work.

Also, in each set of 8 bars, the last 4 in each set, I dont like the chord that the "strings" settle to. it doesnt fit with that plinky bell sound and sounds off key. Are you using a sampled Chord? or a softsynth?

Either way, It definitely deserves some kudos! Nice work mate :)

Have a listen to mine, let me know what you think :)