MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mayday]

Your orchestra sounds great, which patches did you use for the strings? (I own the same library)
Great track, clean mix, nice percussion. I liked how it progressed.

[Open Your Heart To Me]

Awesome! I agree with the below comment - vocals should have been louder. Despite that, the song is great, I enjoyed it from start to end. The guitar sounds good for a VST, quite convincing.

ADR3-N responds:

Yeah, I'm really glad you liked! I remember when Ahead By A Century came along and you mentioned how rigid the E-bass sounded to you, so glad to hear my writing with an instrument I barely understand wasn't offensive to your ears haha.

[Bunn & Skoda - Ice Water]

I hear the sonic sounds. I like how you used the sounds in a new way. Good stuff. I feel the bass gets a little repetitive by the end due to the rhythm but other than that, I enjoyed it. Nostalgia ftw.

[Sky Castle]

I love your melodies (in general, and once again here). The rhythm guitar is so cool too, the whole track has an amazing feeling too it. This is what I come here to listen to.
I feel the drums are a bit too crushed here, maybe giving them more room would give the mix more life. Maybe turn the volume down a little? It might help.

Downloaded. Faved. <3

DanJohansen responds:

Thanks a ton bro! Will check up on that, maybe my tracks have been getting a bit too loud lately. Rock on!

[The Rocks]

groovie
...
Heh

As always, great stuff. Sounds great, feels great. The composition and instrument choice work perfectly together. I feel it could have been mixed w i d e r in general, for example the lead instrument. In the end section there's suddenly a wide instrument and the inconsistency stands out to me quite a bit. Good work!

LunacyEcho responds:

thank you for the words! the mix has been w i d e n e d as per request

[Collapse - Full Instrumental]

Hey, it's me again. :)

So here goes:
Still loving the intro riff and guitar tone. You've tightened it up a little.

Right now the guitar sounds very central/mono. Try double tracking the guitar - play the same part twice then, pan far left and far right, mix the left and right slightly differently (EQ, subtle FX changes) then you'll have a nice, wider guitar. This will leave space for the drums (which have been squeezed here).

Next, cut some of the low mids out from the guitar where the kick and toms hit so it allows the drums to come through. Once you've given the drums some room I can give you pointers on mixing those too.

http://metalworkshop.boards.net/
I run a metal forum for people to share ideas and feedback, you're welcome to join. It's super new so not much yet but come along and let's learn together. ^_^

FarFromSundown responds:

Thanks for taking the time to review man! I appreciate the advice and will definitely give that forum a shot when I get a minute 👊🏻👊🏻

[Tormented]

Since the below reviewer hasn't replied, I'll do the leg work for them. :)
Compositionally it's definitely metal. There's the staccated rhythm guitar, "heavy" sound, fast playing in the lead and heavy sounding (although more electronic) drums.

What makes it sound more video-game-y is that sound. The instruments are all virtual, none are recorded. It's so difficult to make virtual guitar sound realistic, even more so without the best tools.
For a start, the tone of the instruments you're using don't sound realistic and secondly the way they are played sounds fake. For example, in the lead, several notes in a row are the same and sound exactly the same. In a real recording, no 2 notes sound the same. The beauty is in the imperfection.

Having said that, Its a good song and I enjoyed listening. Where are you planning on going from here?

Jaybraham responds:

Omg this is my dream review 😍
Ok first off I just want to thank you and tell you that you have no idea how much it means that you'd write me a review like this!!! THANK YOUUU!!
And next I'd say that, with a budget of 0$, it is hard to make something better than complete trash metal.
Oh goodness I worked so hard to get a sound that is similar to guitar, so much EQ, so many effects, distortion, you name it. Im still not happy with it but it's as good as it's gonna get till I can find a way to record decently from my guitar.
Being someone who can play a little, I would have to agree, the beauty is in the imperfections. As I like to say "perfectly imperfect".
With the software I have, it would be exponentially hard to try to make it any more realistic then it is already, and to edit notes individually, I don't know if it would be possible.
I think I know where your talking about "all the notes sounded exactly the same" and if I am right, yeah I don't like that part either XD
the goal for the future is to keep trying, and then once I'm able to afford some sort of recording thing one way or another, to just record songs. Keep trying till I get it right!
:DD
Thanks once again for the review! I agree with all of it, and maybe the future will hold a better mixdown!

[Descend Into Madness]

Huge wall of sound, wow. Awesome sound and incredible playing. Do you edit much? What's your guitar editing and mixing process?

Could you turn it down a bit though? The distortion is omnipresent. Just look at that waveform and you can even see it. :P

Metaljonus responds:

Thanks bro and of course I edit lol all the time! My mixing and guitar process would be too long to go through maybe I'll make a video one day. And I'll never turn it down, you got Metal in your name don't be a puss and let them ears bleed!!! LOL

[Collapse (Preview)]

The track opens with a good riff. You have a good heavy sound, it's clear and heavy, I like it! Your drums have a good sound too but there's a little too much compression going on, I can hear the compressor clamp down every kick and snare.

On a songwriting perspective, have you considered moving the drums to a more standard rhythm at 16 seconds in? The guitar riff has a ton of momentum to it and the drums work well at first but eventually they start breaking the momentum. Let me know if you update this, I'd love to update my review with more thoughts!

FarFromSundown responds:

Hey, thanks for the review! Definitely see what you’re saying about the drum beat. I like the way you think! I’ll definitely PM you when I get a more complete version up. Plan on doing one with vocals, too. Thanks again for listening and reviewing!

[The Final Sunrise]

Your drums sound good for the rock genre. I like your ideas such as the melody and harmonies. You play fast at times and slow at others, offers some variety. The part at 4:30 is a lovely change too, bringing in some other instruments keeps it fresh, reinvigorating interest.

5:30 you added reverb/delay to the guitar which again kept it fresh. Your track shows you're full of ideas but simply lack the tools to express them to the best of your ability.

1st thing you can do is double track your rhythm guitar then hard pan them left and right. Cut the mids a bit on the rhythm and boost them a little on the lead to give everything some breathing room. Are you recording by plugging your amp directly into the mic slot of your computer? It sounds like a Direct Input to me. Either way, it sounds like your lacking some cabinet simulation in there which I think would go a long way to making your guitar sound more natural.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZn1RSbssRg This video has a few ideas about that. He shows before and after using an Impulse Response (IR) cabinet, listen at 3:31 onwards.

If you're up for it, I'd be happy to pass your clean guitar recording through a guitar amp simulator (I have Guitar Rig 5 Pro) then I can send it back to you to mix.

The drums sounds good, probably the best sounding part of the track in terms of mix.

So yeah... work on the guitars first and lets get you sounding more pro by using more suitable tools!

Catpocalypse responds:

Thanks for the review! I did double track all of my tracks though. I'm not sure how you hear it differently.

Also, I'm using a guitar interface (iRig 2) into my phone with Garageband. I have better gear now, but I'm only using my old stuff to keep my album sounding cohesive.

I'll definitely work on my production some more in the future. I'm glad you like the composition though!