Daru925's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Constellations]

Pretty cool track, i like it, especially the drums and evolving pad at the begining, and all the details that kept the song interesting.
-Just my opinion- I would have liked a little more contrast at ~2:20, maybe make the guitar or drums more explosive or crazier for a short period of time.
Then, the overdriven rhode piano? (what's the name, i'm fond of this sound) closed the track very nicely.

[Noicion]

Good track,
I like this bass sound (makes me think of simsynth instruments in good old FruityLoops II days)
The overdiven part has too much low freq for my taste, and conflicts with the drums.

I'm going to listen to some Ed Starink now.

[Tsukikanade (月奏)]

Very nice sounding and inspiring voice and melodies, but the track suffers from overcompression/pumping effects on the technical side.

I'd try to keep the mix maximum volume peaks at at least -6dB or something (it's headroom, and it's different from dynamic range) without using a limiter (yet), or adjusting the master fader, only using individual channel volume adjustments, panning, non destructive EQ moves( cut rumbles/ useless frequencies, enhance details with care, cut instead of boosting) and only use gentle compression as last resort.
The built-in presets often kill the sound when applied to anything else than a kick/bass.

From time to time, listen to your track at very low volumes, like very low (less than 10/100), if you can still hear pretty much every detail, then you're good, and you can immediately notice when one instrument is too loud or bass heavy because they will jump at you screaming^^

After that, tasks like maximizing overall volume become very easy.
So easythat if you work with FL's limiter, you could just turn the gain knob, make sure the waveforms peaks do not go over the green line, put the limit to -0.3 dB and call it a day^^
You maximized volume and kept dynamic range, GG!
Of course, it's not THAT simple, sorry, but a good mix will obviously be easier to master.
I'm still learning all of this as well, but those guidelines helped me.
Have fun!

Troisnyx responds:

Thanks a lot for the pointers! I'll do a bit of experimentation with it -- perchance I could share the FLP with you, if you use FL, and see what you'd recommend?

[Fluid]

I like the straightforward intro, classic but effective.
Pretty cool ambience, i liked those kind of lead with reverbs that became like pads, how they fade away and came back at 1:18. Good job there.
Overall the song is interesting, every element is there, but I think the track could benefit of more work on the volume of the different instruments, to give the whole tune more cohesion. Also watch out for clipping.

The kick gets weakened by the synths, those hihats are a bit too loud and become distractive overtime, and some rythm variations for the drums would be appreciated.
At 59 sec, it's like you just drop a dry sample and voilà.
It didn't blend well with the overall ambiance of space (aka reverb, delays everywhere)

While the reverb were good throughout the track, watch out for those early reverbs at 1:50, they could use some filtering, to avoid the machinegun effects (pleasing to some i guess, distractive to me).
Overall a pretty good track that requires a few tweaks here and there.
Keep at it :)

mikethete responds:

This review shows me a few things, some of which I'm working at and some that I never knew about.

[8Bit Slow Level]

It's the boss speech before the final battle, when he feel so confident that he tells the hero his entire plan. (BIG MISTAKE)
"Now die! MUAHAHAHAHAH!"

[Forbidden Place]

Hello,
The song is pretty interesting, it has a mysterious ambience, like danger is near or something.
I felt like playing in a dungeon in a zelda game, especially with the repeating sound starting at 0:15.

I suggest you use EQ, to cut or attenuate lower frequency and watch out for not peaking.
Below 40 hz, there is a strong pulsating subbass that you should remove.
While it can't be heard very much, it's energy affects the whole song, and after listening my ears had to rest a little.

Also the flute at the begining clicks, and could be a little softer in my opinion.

bashfrog responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

[chiptune - Regen]

Good title, the slowing-accelerating pace suggest an energy bar being restaured then depleted :)
This tracks has good story telling.
The pause at 1:19 is clever, it suggested me a game character/hero returning back to his duties for a while after 3/4 regen, but soon, he has to come back and regen again.

Nice variety of waveforms and melodies, crisp sounds, the drums are very well designed. The slides and snare rolls make a good job at transitionning from the intro to the different sections.
It's balanced volume wise and stereo wise, every instrument can be heard clearly, no apparent compression...

Maybe the slowdown time at the end is a little too long, or it would benefit some FX, bitcrushing, reverbs... (but i'm no chiptune expert, so i don't know if complex effects like that are "allowed")

Overall a simple but well crafted track that fit the genre well. I'm gonna go play some old games now :)

lantaren responds:

Thank you for the review - I personally like the outro as it is, and wanted to avoid using, as you said, complex effects (the only effect I'm using is a lowpass filter, and of course there's a small amount of EQing to mix everything together well)

[EoS - Offence Failure]

Hi, seen the forum, my honest review:

You don't have to peak to create clean distortion (yes clean distortion seems strange).

I downloaded the mp3, waveform is a white rectangle, which means it's peaking all the time.

Distortion created from peaking in order to sound louder should be avoided.
It's a makeup effect, damage control if you prefer.

http://www.d16.pl/index.php?menu=183
Some of these tracks have heavier distortion than yours, yet they don't peak, and don't destroy my ears on the long run.

BUT! Overall the track is VERY good!
Should the clipping be gone, i'd vote 4/5 no hesitation.
It's more of a technical matter than the artistic quality of your song really!
The style reminds me of Mortal Kombat theme.
So, you can achieve the exact same distortion without peaking and it would be much more pleasurable for everyone.
Please consider fine tuning it, you don't have to change a lot of things in fact, just adjust the volume so it does not peak on the master track. Your song has great potential, let me know if you make another version.
Bye, have fun!

EssenceOfScience responds:

Thanks a lot, Daru925! It's good to know exactly where I went wrong. I'll keep this as a learning point for future projects.

[Video-Game Guitar Thing]

Is "Super Ultra Motorway Roadrage Rampage Stage 1 : Biker's Barfight " a good name?

Fizzento responds:

sure

[zitheral]

Wohooooo wow wow!
Ahah, cracked me up!
Nice little track and a good ambience overall.

snoballandthmonyshot responds:

nice1
Px