New-Milkman's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Like a boat]

Like the flow, not production.

I like the glitch effects and stuff you've used here, but I'm really not feeling that bass. I think you could process it a little more (or better), it has too much mid / high frequencies in it I think. That's the best way I can explain it, it just doesn't sound great to me. And maybe I'm being picky here, but I'm not a huge fan of the snare... it sounds kind of distorted to me (I'm listening on crappy laptop speakers though, so it's hard for me to give any solid opinion on anything).

But I really like the flow of it, I think you just have to work on producing your sounds more.

jocki responds:

Thank you, I really appreciate your criticism.
And I agree, the sound production is my weakest link.

[[LY] WIP DnB]

Drums need major work.

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.

la-yinn responds:

Ah, a criticizing mind. I like that. :)

Simply put, I agree. Everything about the drums is bad. The volume, the mastering, the actual samples themselves.. looking for some new samples and I'll make a new drum pattern then. I only uploaded this really to access it on another pc, so forgive the flawed quality. :p

Thanks for the review, I appreciate the tips!

[<nife> Dnb Loop Wip]

Some quick tips about DnB.

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.

Nurren responds:

Finally someone actually reviews... I've got that reese VST but I can't get it to work in FL. I knew I hadn't any variations in the drums, I was thinking of that before I posted it, put then again I can always fix it because I save two separate files, flp and mp3, so I'm safe and I will continue to screw around.

[Revving DnB (preiew)]

Quiet and distored bass isn't good.

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.

explode-a-tom responds:

well this isnt the finished version so ill take ur advice
THX DUDE.

[Pass Us By]

Bland at first, then gets awesome

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.

Daniel-M responds:

yeah the kind of telephone bit at the start really has no relation to the rest of the song lol

but i agree with your comments, i think it's a little too short as well , you know once everything kicks in, but that was in fear of it being too repetetive, but as you have pointed out i will experiment with the bass and maybe even expand the song.

thanks you kindly :)

[TF - Madness Day '08]

Very distored; boring.

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.

thefev responds:

Yes, yes, quite true indeed... If you read what I wrote, you might've gathered that this is probably going to suck and you would've clicked the red X on the top right immediately.
Yet, here you are, patiently listening to this ... not-really-music. I thank you for the review and advice. It's good to hear honest feedback that actually makes sense.
I've been trying to figure out a way to fix the distortion for ages - 2 minutes :p - and came up with nothing. If you are a musician, which you probably are, you'd find that it's really really REALLY hard to find good quality drum samples, made harder yet the fact that I've just started. Same goes for the instruments, I have no idea on how to make the sound I want and the presets just aren't close enough to what I'm imagining. I end up making something that is absolutely the opposite of what I've planned out to make, kinda depressing.
Anyway, it's not your job to listen to my boring, depressing stories and all that crap.
Thanks for the review, probably one of the best I've received so far!

[nF-ParagonX9 Chaos Impact rm[x]

Static intro;

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.

[BASS X]

Don't like the synth; good kick.

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.

masterofdragons responds:

yeah i think your right. this is only my second song, and there are a lot of things an amateur like me needs to work on. thanks for the review, like i said, even bad reviews help me improve =)

[X DRUM MIX X]

Drums are a little off.

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.

[Dj-GloStix - System Crash]

Almost perfect.

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.

Dj-GloStix responds:

The choir part is just from another song. My friends wanted it like another song and that other song had that type of stuff.. Meh
Yea you're right about the snare, good point :)
I'm just too lazy to fix the mistakes... maybe if theres a whole bunch