MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[No Restrictions Need Apply]

So after listening to the 10 most recent tracks on your profile I can see a pattern. You write really emotional music, very heartfelt and you're an excellent guitarist.
I think the biggest thing holding you back is how you're mixing your drums. I recommend learning about parallel compression for drums to give them more power. They don't fit your mixes at all, in any song. If you can fix that you'll level up your music for sure. Let me know if you have questions.

KrinnValKhristi responds:

Thank you for your honest and helpful feedback sir. ^_^

[My Twisted Life]

Very pretty. I liked how all the parts danced together. You play too damn well.

KrinnValKhristi responds:

Thank you for checking it out!

[Lone Wolf]

Loved it, especially the haunting outro. Could do with a good mix but your intentions came across.

KrinnValKhristi responds:

I do struggle with mixing still after so many years..... unfortunately.

[Something I Can Never Have (NIN Cover)]

Killer vocals on this, raw and dynamic. Loved your performance.

Ceevro responds:

I've struggled with this performance. I hated it for a while, which is common for me. However...I think I'm starting to warm up to it. Yes, it does feel very raw...clearly, I'm not your standard American Idol performer. Raw is the dynamic I should be exploiting in my recordings.

[Necropolis Earth (Old)]

Your spooky effects are great. Percussion sounds warm/lush when it hits although a little washed out with reverb at times. The track kept me engaged all the way through, didn't feel time pass.
In terms of mastering you may want to consider leaving 1db headroom on the export to avoid distortion in the digital - analog conversion process.

LD-W responds:

Ayyy thanks for listening. Came out alright for two evenings of "aaaaa I need to get something up for Halloween"

Streaming versions I usually prep will have the usual -1dbTP (I have a Youtube version of it up with that done ;) ), Newgrounds is a tad more forgiving with it's playback, so I can get away with -0.5 or even -0.3 without that much issue (as long as it isn't 0 haha)

I think if I ever revisit the track, I'll probably replace the percussion lib I used around the 1:40 and 2:30 section (8D Hybrid Drums) with maybe some large War Toms or something with better presence

[A Thousand More To Slaughter (Old)]

Doooom Slaayyeerrr!
Awesome. Super high quality work. Great sound, maybe some unwanted distortion at times but it's hard to tell with this kind of thing.
Considering the quality of your stuff I'm going to be picky. I feel like it could have been punchier in the lows especially with some palm muting to give it some pumping low end notes.
You nailed the atmosphere, wouldn't be out of place in doom!

LD-W responds:

I do have a fair amount of Palm Muting in, it's just abit difficult to hear since I don't have the ability to independently increase the volume of different articulations in Uproar RAW. If I had S3 Hydra, then that would be something I can do haha

[Metal Dragonz]

The wide rhythm guitar, drums and bass sound good, nice driving tone, clear and precise while remaining heavy. I enjoyed the track over all, interesting choice of key/scale that worked well here.
The lead guitar needs some work, at the moment it doesn't separate enough from the rhythm so I had trouble working out what was going on. I made a video on lead guitar tone/mixing, maybe check it out for ideas. https://youtu.be/ZDG2MVU5rrg

Possibly responds:

Thanks for the review, I wasn't necessarily thinking of it as a traditional division between lead and rhythm, more of two intertwining ideas for the guitar, if I'd added a lead it would have been another layer on top of this but I take your point on board. Thanks again.

[Paradigm Grifters (Pussy, Blood & Money) [NGUAC2020]]

+ Guitar tone was tasty! During more mellow parts and during the heavy parts, too.
+ Composition was awesome, varied and kept moving. Rhythm, groove etc was great.
+ Clear vocal performance and mixing was awesome.

- Vocal editing was a little off at times (some clicks or unecessary sounds)
- Mix was a little unclear at times, especially during the chorus. You should try mixing in mono to solve this kind of mixing issue. It brings out EQ issues. Drums need to come out more, too.
- Personally not keen on such heavy use of swears in music, I feel that after a point it doesn't add anything. Didn't take this into account in the score, just wanted to share.

SkankyMojo responds:

Wow thank you so much for such a thoughtful and well written review. 🙏 I'm really glad you like the guitars, means a lot coming from yourself. As for your areas of critique, I'm very much with you. Rather than the vocal editing though (it's all just full takes) I'm pretty sure the pops and sounds are because of a mistake signal chain wise, I should of done a better job of de-essing and gating at the start of the chain. I like to squash the heck out of my vocals and I didn't get them controlled enough before I slammed them. So that's the cause of the artifacting I think, or I'm hoping. 😅 I also agree with you on the chorus getting a bit messy mix wise, I tend to mix in mono so I think it's more just bad mix choices on my part. I do the thing where I want the choruses to be real big compared to the rest of the song, so I add more layers and and loose sight of what the focal elements should be. Oh and seriously thank you for being so understanding with my use of swear words, I fully appreciate that being off-putting and you not penalising me for it score wise is really wonderful of you. Again thank you so much for the review. ♥️

[À cause de l'ombre ~ version définitive]

Love it. ^_^
A couple of tricks for vocals: You could try adding some tape distortion to add warmth in the lows and clarity in the highs. Also the lead alone is a little cold sounding, could do with some more depth. I like the cold sound at times but not throughout. Once you have the chorus going it's better, but before that it doesn't sit well with the other instruments.
You've made tons of progress, now it's a case of taking it up to the next level and approaching more professional standards.
Don't be afraid to compress more, too. I use a ratio of 7:1 or more for lead vocals although I do metal so that may vary for you.

Ignoring a few production tweaks, it's a lovely track. Really connects emotionally, as does most of your work.

Troisnyx responds:

I would be most grateful to go over the warmth / compression how-to with you later, if you're able and willing. 💖 I think I can kinda understand what it is you're telling me.

[Racer]

Big improvement, good job. The guitar tones are much better, the track is warm and full sounding, the drums sound decent. I liked the variety of sounds from lead to synths. You've made tons of progress in the production side!
In terms of composition, I think the drums could do with a lot more variety since they play basically the same thing throughout. You could add a few kick drums here and there, breaks from time to time and sprinkle in some cymbals to keep things interesting. Other than that, nice track!
(Replied on our forum to your question about the rhythm guitar, too)
https://metalworkshop.boards.net/thread/43/mixing-help?page=1&scrollTo=204

Catpocalypse responds:

Thank you! I'm happy with my improvements. I'm glad you like them also!

I know I still need to work on writing those drums though. Compositionally, it's not a track I often pay too much attention to, and changing that could make it a lot better.