Score: 6

"Drums need major work."

submission: [LY] WIP DnB

date: March 13, 2009

The drums need major work so far. One of the most important things that you need to get in there is a good snare drum. It sounds really empty without one. And the drums that you do have in there sound really drowned out by the reese. The hi-hat line thing you have is alright, but to me it just kinda sounds out of place or something. Overall the drums just sound way to weak to me. Because of the drums, the build up sounds really disappointing, I would expect some massive sounds after that. One technique that sometimes works after a build is a short, but not distraction, silence right after the build.

The synth work in this isn't too bad, compared to what I can usually do. But the reese just sounds kinda simple, but not too bad. Maybe a little plain sounding, but if you could something else to fill up some space with, it would seem better. Right now it just sounds plain and empty to me.

Hopefully this helps.

Score: 3

"Some quick tips about DnB."

submission: <nife> Dnb Loop Wip

date: September 30, 2008

Here's some quick and very brief things about drum 'n bass:

Do not use that bass that you have in there. All it is is a saw wave. You have to add on many more effects to make it sound really good. If you want a deep and subtle bass, try putting a lowpass filter on something that you have messed around with a bit, and if you don't get as an audible bass you want, you can add a really low sine wave (and only a sine wave, no effects needed) to get the sub-bass sound you might need. If you want to get some crazy reece's going, you can try looking around for tutorials and getting new VST's (like Hotelsinus Reese Bassline), but all you really need to do is practice putting something like two detuned saw waves and adding a bunch of effects over it.

As for the drums, you can probably get really good with putting drum loops together. It isn't the greatest here, but it's a really good start. Try throwing in some more variety; more patterns, drills, rolls, ect, just to throw together a more interesting song.

That's about all I can think of, keep practicing.

Score: 5

"Quiet and distored bass isn't good."

submission: Revving DnB (preiew)

date: September 16, 2008

I don't like how the bass is super distorted, and quiet too. I think you should bring up the bass volume just a bit, and maybe use less distortion or maybe bring down some of the higher sounds in it a bit quieter.

I think you also need to throw in another synth in there or something (which I'm assuming you're going to do, because it's a preview). If you were to leave the song how it is now, I think it just sound way too empty to me.

The drums have a pretty good rhythm, but there's just something about them that just doesn't seem right to me. I can't put my finger on it, so maybe it's just me...

Other than all that I think you have a decent song in the works here.

Score: 7

"Bland at first, then gets awesome"

submission: Pass Us By

date: September 9, 2008

At first I thought I was going to be a bit disappointed, but then the synth at the very end came in, I thought that it was going to be awesome. But there was only 20 seconds of the song left, and then I was disappointed. You should really think of expanding this song you have here to a full song, because of that synth, as well as the drums. I don't know what about them, but I just like the sound of the drums with this song.

I guess the only thing I'd want you to change up a bit is the bass. It sounds like it's just playing one note the entire time, it would be nice if you changed it up a bit. Not too much, but just enough so that I don't hear the same bass the entire song.

Score: 3

"Very distored; boring."

submission: TF - Madness Day '08

date: August 23, 2008

This really isn't all that great, all it is is one synth and some not very special drums for most of the song, and that one synth sounds very distorted to me. You need to really cut down on the distortion, and try and produce "cleaner" sounds. And as an idea for the drums, you should throw a loud, powerful snare in there or something, because the set of 2 different drums is just not enough for most music out there. The bass synth at the end sounds pretty distorted too, and I didn't like the sound of it or the melody it was playing at all.

The song itself was pretty boring too, just the synth playing some notes for a while, it seems. Throw some variation in the melody played, instruments used, stuff like that. It is absolutely important that you find and use new instruments / sounds, so you can make more interesting music.

Score: 7

"Static intro;"

submission: nF-ParagonX9 Chaos Impact rm[x

date: August 23, 2008

That intro has was too much static, I don't know if that's on purpose or not (I hope not), but you should get on fixing that. Other than that though, the intro is great!

I don't know what it will take, but I really think that you should take the time to finish this. The only other advice I could give so far is to maybe bring down some of the higher frequencies of the reese, but that's just my personal opinion on that.

Score: 5

"Don't like the synth; good kick."

submission: BASS X

date: May 21, 2008

That distorted synth thing seemed sort of annoying than it was making the song very good. And to be, it seemed really repetitive, and this seemed like it could have been cut down to a minute or less. And that ping-ing thing you used is pretty cool, but maybe a little overused (or maybe it seemed like it because of the repetitiveness of the song). The kick drum you used was pretty decent, but I think you could have worked on a better drum beat complete with snares, hi-hats and everything.

Not much else to say, you need to practice adding more to the song without using the same thing over and over again. Try some more melodies, breakdowns, buildups, that kind of thing. And work on your synths, I wasn't a fan of the one you used here.

Score: 7

"Drums are a little off."

submission: X DRUM MIX X

date: May 18, 2008

The drums sounded mostly nice, but after about 30 seconds they got a little annoying, because I was waiting for a new instrument or something to come in. And for the style of music I think you were trying to do, I think that you used the wrong kind of kick drum. Sounded too electronic too me, or at least through my earphones anyway. And sometimes, the snare just seemed to be misplaced or something, it just didn't sound like it was 100% in sync with the guitar or something. The rest of the drums had a nice rhythm going though, and the guitar itself was enjoyable to listen to though.

So I think with a few fixes to the drums mentioned, and a shorter drum intro, you could have a really good song here.

Score: 9

"Almost perfect."

submission: Dj-GloStix - System Crash

date: March 23, 2008

It was all pretty awesome, but that choir stuff seemed kinda random. And I wish you would have used a more powerful snare or something, it sounded a little too weak compared to the rest of the stuff. Other than that, I don't think there's anything else wrong with this song, awesome work! The synths were cool, and I really like those glitchy effects you used on the voices. The orchestral stuff was really well done too.

Score: 5

"Off key, too busy"

submission: A Reason to Change [Tryp Mix]

date: February 16, 2008

Firstly, the piano NEEDS reverb. Without reverb, it just sounds very fake, and somewhat annoying. And, the piano also sounded pretty off key. And after a minute, there just seemed to be way too much going on in the song, like a bunch of random effects going on at the same time. I think you maybe had something with the old-school synth thing you had going for most of the song though, it sounded like a pretty cool 8-bit thing.

You also seem to be missing an outro. It sort of just ends, in my opinion, and you could have maybe lenghted it out with something, and end with minimal instruments. Maybe something with the synth that's in the beggining, because that's pretty cool.