Qshunt's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Let's Run]

This is great!!! very matrix and futurebound flavoured, crossed with some danny byrd (minus the vocal chops). Sequencing and structure are great! I think some more pan delays, and a long tailed 'verb" on the pianos would sound even better. The drums are a touch low for my tastes too. i think they need more presence, more punch. Still gets a 5, this is good! :)

[House of Party]

This is called "happy hardcore". Not bad, and if you were aiming for maximum cheese, congratulations! the kick drum is far too tame. needs to be a bit deeper. Overall production quality is quite good, if not a bit flat. It doesn't sound like you have used any EQ at all, and all levels are dead flat. You could maybe use a limiter on your master, and force everything to bounce of it slightly? That would give the track a bit more movement! but considering you threw it together in thirty minutes, decent effort! please check out my tunes!

Sequenced responds:

i used flanger on a lot of things to make it sound like a new guy making techno, haha. because that is what I use to do three years ago.

thanks for the review!

[Kaleidoscope]

This has great potential. The drums bother me though. This would sound much better with more of a futurefunk styled drum sequence. Danny byrd styled glitched vox are nicely done. I'll download your track, and show you what i think the drums should sound like! 4/5 I've followed you on soundcloud. check my stuff and review, please. could do some collab. You have some nice tracks!

Morphixx responds:

Its ok not to like the drums :D None of my songs are perfect. I just liked them because they have an old school jungle feel to them. However, I could see it being done differently. I'll check out more of your tracks too later today. Ty for the honest review!

[A New Beginning]

this is quite good, but the label "drum and bass" is not really accurate. this would be breaks, technically. it sounds like a breakdown in a trance track, that has been extended into a full track.
Melodically is nice! nice atmospheres too. drums seem too quiet though, and lack punch!
4/5

[RW - Garden of Seborhin]

This is quite interesting. overall production quality is pretty good. levels are nice, melodies are great. Nice arps too.
Drum and Bass music is my forte, so I might be being overly critical on certain aspects. Please feel free to contact me for a more detailed explanation of any concepts that you may not understand, or any of my descriptions that aren't clear enough.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, the overall production quality is quite good. I'm finding it a bit flat though. It doesn't sound like you use much in the way of compression or limiting? These are STAPLE devices in a drum and bass track. Usually I sidechain the kick track to the percussive elements, in varying degrees....the overall amount that i use compression in a track depends on the style of DnB i'm producing. eg. Liquid, i'd be using a light-ish overall track compression, plus the aforementioned Sidechained compressors.
If i were producing some neurofunk, i'd be using much heavier overall compression, and more "ducking" on the percussion.
Try just lowering the threshold on your master limiter to start with...you should get a noticeably better "sound" overall from that minor adjustment.

next, I was missing a sub. I couldn't hear a nice driving sub-bass holding it all together. again, that should be an easy change for you to make too. A simple sine, with a longish decay/sustain will do.

The eq on the kick (if you are using one) should be adjusted so that the kick has a touch more punch, at slightly lower frequencies (around 75-100hz..this is dependant on the sample you are using too)

Same for the snare. Give it a bit of a peak around 170-210 hz. adjust to taste.

Please check out my stuff, in case you don't feel me to be qualified to pass judgment on your music!
I hope I have been of assistance. Any questions, just inbox me, i'll reply pretty promptly

Keep it up, bro...you have some nice tunes..that with some minor tweaks, could be fucking awesome tunes! Would love to collab some time. Peace!

Indigorain responds:

Haha, of course I feel you to be qualified for this kind of judgement, I was really missing some good criticism like this, it's extremely helpful!
You're absolutely right on the compression, I do use limiters, and some simple forms of compression, but the main reason I don't really compress that much is because I suck at it.
About the sub, I actually did that intentionally, I wanted to make a really light track with not much subbass. Next time I get to a project like this, I'll be sure to give it a firm sub!
And thanks for the EQ tips of course, I'll boost that up next time, now you mention it, the kick could indeed use a bit more punch.
And I'll send you an inbox with some questions, if you wouldn't mind, I'd love to learn more! :D
And thanks a lot, of course, this has been extremely helpful! :D

[The Falling Mysts]

Melodically, this track is excellent! keeps things interesting with all of the change-ups.

From a purely technical/production standpoint, you've got it bouncing off the limiter far too much. When there is lots going on the hihats just kind of squish out of the audible range. When they're not squishing they warble a bit. instead of using the limiter for compression / sidechained sort of effects, use a sidechained compressor on each of the seperate tracks, using the Kick as your duck source. Lower the master volume, so that its just touching the limiter, rather than the levels being hard up against the limit.
Great work though! with some minor touch-ups this could be quite professional sounding.
Check out some of my tunes! I'm quite alright at this music thing ;) 4.5/5

Dimrain47 responds:

Mixing/mastering is what I struggle with the most. Thanks for the tips, much appreciated!!!! I'll try that out next track.

[C23 - Avination II]

drums are nice, but the melodies and bassline / pads DO NOT FIT. There is what sounds like random notes being played, and it doesn't fit at all. pads and bassline are ok.

if you want tips, hit me up in a pm.

check my tunes if you don't think i'm qualified enough! 3.5/5.

[Its Beyond It]

Nice work. Are all of the Amen chops manual? or did you use a plugin like sugarbytes or glitch? nicely done! reminds me of oldskool omni trio or something.

I'd probably lessen the white noise / distortion thats saturating the drums though. or layer another track with the drums on, as a "dry" track! either way. Decent effort!

SonicKDT responds:

The Amen Chops are Manual...and thnx 4 da feed

[JMchhh-Silent Connection]

decent effort man, I like how the drums sound (like youve got some sort of reverb on the kit) guitar parts work nicely too!! I'd eq a bit more top end into the snare, give it more presence.

Also, I cant hear much in the way of a sub bass. Maybe layer a sine onto another track and have it follow the same note progression as your distorted bass sound. Melodically excellent, and overall the sound is good. A bit more work on the mixdown will turn this from a good track into a great track! keep it up bro 4.5/5

[Yargle [Box-killa]]

Nice work, Sounds like something that should be on Warp Records, or Rephlex! very aphex twin inspired tune!