MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Explore]

While this piece is less well produced than your more recent work, it has a lot going for it. You made a good choice for the synths here, they gel together well and give the piece a certain warmth, forming a wall alongside the bass synth. This caries the song.
At times there is a lead melody and I've always had a thing for wide, wide arps. I always associate them with sci-fi and I'm obssessed with that type of atmosphere.

I think you could have made this song more catchy at times, maybe by bringing in a strong lead melody to give the song more direction or a stronger sense of structure with a more obvious chorus section.

TimerClock14 responds:

Hey thanks for the comments! This song definitely gave me a lot of trouble in the mix department as you can hear. I'm also right there with you on your criticism of lacking a catchy lead. While I dont think that all songs need a catchy lead I think this is definitely a song that could have benefited greatly from one and a bit more traditional composition overall to accommodate.

Really appreciate these comments and I'll put the feedback towards making my next song even better!

[The Monolith]

The simplicity of this piece works in its favour when you consider its purpose. I enjoyed the lack of instruments at times. It's well produced and the atmosphere comes across well. The sound design was definitely a highlight of this track.

However you must be wary - this type of music can often come across as "background" music and in a competition people are looking for the "full package", a piece of music you can listen to on its own. This might not have been a suitable submission and may explain why you didn't do as well as you might have hoped. Food for thought?

TimerClock14 responds:

You make a good point here. I need to consider the setting and demographic of competitions when I enter and the fact that this is a darker more minimalist work most likely did work against me. In hindsight I realize that the target demographic for this style of song is too narrow for the scope of this competition and would have likely been better off submitting something more traditional, especially for the auditions.

[[EXTENDED] Mountains of Ethnia and Rebuilded Auroras]

This is a really cool track you have here.
I can hear your southern american influences (which I'm familiar with thanks to an awesome band called Angra). In terms of composition this is a cool piece with a lot of cool elements working well together (except for the strings at 2:24, that would have worked better if it was an instrument with a faster attack such as the piano but mixed really quietly just to provide atmosphere).

In terms of production there's a lot of work to do still, I feel like most instruments are set in different rooms/spaces. Your guitar and percussion is mixed as if it's in a studio, the orchestral stuff sounds like it's in a muted hall. This creates a certain amount of cognitive dissonance for the listener as the human brain is built to understand sound placement as a survival response so you need to get better that this.

4:57 - note clashes here. This broke my immersion suddenly and needs to be fixed! The brass is playing in the wrong key.

Over all a lovely piece of music which aims high and nearly reaches it. Good job!

[endK - Space Lasagna]

Oooh yeah so tasty.
Super interesting throughout, well produced, you really knocked this one out of the park. Congrats!

endKmusic responds:

Yay!
Thanks man, really glad you dig it.
:)

[Do You Just Space]

Right from the get-go I noticed clipping caused by how loud your piece is. Please, if you don't know how, do not mix your track this loudly. The loudness war is over, you don't (and can't) compete with million dollar studios on that level so don't bother, be BETTER than them, give your song more dynamic range!

I really liked the synths in this, how they ebbed and flowed round the chords in the background. The drums are mixed well to fit the rest and nothing sounds out of place.
This track has a great "vibe" to it which is never lost but evolves in a satisfying way throughout. At times, when you drop an instrument out I immediately miss that instrument and the piece makes me yearn for it (which is good) and then when it returns I feel happy.
However, by the 2 minute mark I'm starting to get a little stir crazy and looking for something new to add. You would have scored higher if you'd added a little something that reinvigorated my attention.

Honestly, the composition and sound design is good but you need to sort out that loudness.

BeeFef responds:

First of all, there shouldn't be any clipping because it peaks at 0db. I think you're hearing the saturation I put on the chords at the beginning, which I think I overdid.

I'm glad you liked the the sound design and the composition. After a certain amount of time I kinda get stuck on composition because it gets harder for me to add new stuff, so there's something I could work on.

But yeah, hope I make it in next time, thanks

[Universal Macrocosm]

I enjoyed the introduction, your choice of chords is warm and welcoming, introducing the feel of the rest of the piece well. The harp is a bit shocking and breaks my immersion a bit.

Something with a slower attack might have worked better, such as another violin or something.

I enjoy the energy of the next section. The momentum pulls you along. The bass works well to anchor the realistic instruments to the more electronic ones.

Around 1:38 it gets a bit busy and the piece loses focus. It's also quite muddy here. Whenever something is muddy I always suggest the person switch their master bus to mono and adjust the EQ as it makes mud much more apparent.

The composition kept me interested throughout and reminds me of some classic NG tracks (in a good way). The song ends in a satisfactory manner but could have maybe sign-posted it was about to end more.

I noticed your song isn't making use of the stereo spectrum very much. Try panning more L/R and using mid/side mixing to widen it.

death2go responds:

so sorry for the late response! i dont know how i missed this!
thanks for the suggestions! ive been unsure how to go with being expansive with the stereo spectrum, ill try to aim on using that more! the harp now that im rehearing it does seem out of place compared to other things in the beginning. and ill try to fix the mess in 1:38 as well, sounds a bit muddy i believe.

suprised that you didnt point out the single instrument that held out at 2:15, which TBF i never could find the cause of it

thanks again for the review! i appreciate the time you took for this!

[BrightSide]

Seriously, I was blown away by this.
Yes, some of the sounds are maybe a little... lo-fi?... But it's beautifully put together. It flows so well, it's so upbeat and happy and it imparts that feeling so quickly on the listener. On top of that, all the sounds are super well balanced and everything has its place.

Thanks for the 3:35 of happiness!

[The Scholar]

Tasty percussion which matches very well with the bass. I feel like nothing is over-stated in this which lends to the atmosphere really well. 1:09 I liked the drop into just a couple of bass notes here. 1:21 this builds really nicely. I think I can see where you wanted to take it but maybe the lack of high frequencies in the over all mix is getting in the way here. It doesn't expand upwards mix-wise whereas it does in terms of composition. This means it doesn't quite reach the next level up. Nice work, I enjoyed listening.

[ACID GAEMZ LOOP]

Some interesting ideas. I feel like the last 5 seconds could lead onto the next part of the track but instead it just loops. It was going somewhere, why did you stop? :)
A lot of bass in the mix, it felt very heavy to my ears in my headphones which tired me out very quickly.

[Sky Channel (LP)]

This is a good sounding track with plenty of warmth.
Intro: I would say that the synth that comes in around the 1 minute mark (the lead one) is somewhat harsh and stands out of the mix quite a lot. Despite that, as a whole the piece works well.
2nd section: The lead and backing synths play of each other really well and the lead no longer sounds so harsh with the extra backing.
3rd section: Nice drop from the high energy section. I like the tasty echo used here on the backing keys and lead. The 2nd part of the drop has some excellent bass depth. I love the deep warble you have on this part.
4th section (rebuild): The kick really leaves its mark here, carrying the whole.
5th section: I would have appreciated something slightly new to add to this rather than repetition. Maybe a new lead melody or rhythm.
Outro: Again, nice use of delay/echo. I also liked how the filter worked on the keys here. Tasty!

Over all I feel the piece has a beginning, middle and an end, it could be its own self-contained story. Well produced and interesting almost throughout.