MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Perfumer's Perfect Fumes]

Sounds awesome! I wish I could understand the lyrics, I don't think I got a single word in the whole thing. :(
Well mixed, great melodies and over all just a good song.

steampianist responds:

haha yeah i guess i shouldve provided the lyrics

[The Great Loss]

A really nice piece, it has definite emotional depth thanks to the different layers - sometimes just high notes, sometimes all the part together etc. The piano is lovely too.
Though... it doesn't need to be so drowned in reverb to achieve this, that just makes it harder to understand.

DanJohansen responds:

Glad you enjoyed it, the reverb was a self-preference kind of choice I will admit, and also the want of doing something different as a composer, I've used Piano in a lot of my classical pieces and never had this much reverb, I thought it was both interesting and sounded sweet, I can understand if someone doesn't prefer it though.

Thanks for the review!

[Odin and the Runes]

Where have you been, buddy? I miss hearing your awesome voice and great story-telling.

Big-Cronk responds:

Took a job on the north slope for a few more months so Im nowhere near my equipment haha its driving me crazy and the internet sucks here

[The Garden - Teaser]

Love it! Did you mix this? The piano is wide and lush. The synth bouncing around fits perfectly melodically speaking and in the mix. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the song with all the vocals!

Troisnyx responds:

I did, thus far. The fine-tuning and noise removal haven't been done yet, and neither is this piece done. But I'm really looking forward to finishing it. ^_^ Glad you like it!

[Downloading Snowflakes]

The melody around 0:40 made it for me, love that. I also love the snare sound, that more drawn out splash sound. I think the mix needed to be punchier/have more impact at times but it's a great track and I really enjoyed it.

Neon-Bard responds:

Thanks man! I love the snare, too! I was careful when adding flavour to it, just a dash of reverb here and some minor delay there. As for the mix, I agree 110% - good catch. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed it though, thanks so much for listening. :)

[Naturewalk]

Listening to stuff like this makes me want to invest in tons of instruments just to play them live and record them. I love how it sounds and the atmosphere the piece creates. I'm trying to think what it makes me feel - Normally in my mind wind instruments say freedom and the dulcimer usually says civilisation or city. Whimsical life in the city?

samulis responds:

Haha... it's your guess. I had a lot of trouble naming this piece, actually, and I'm still not quite satisfied.

[Skyless]

This is a NGADM Review!
Well Garlagan... You sneaky beggar. Look at what you've been hiding all this time - I knew you did vocals some times but this is the first example of you bringing them out of the mix to the forefront and dude, you nailed it.
Great melodic and rhythm work again, if a tad more repetitive than your previous submission.
I loved the way the song ended, immediately, no BS. Endings like that are always so impactful, you can't help but notice that the song has ended, it leaves a statement and makes you want to listen again in to spot the build-up to the end more precisely.

Honestly you've gone from strength to strength throughout the NGADM and it's a well deserved win. Congratulations buddy!

garlagan responds:

haha I'm really glad you liked it. Thanks a lot for the review Sam!

[Impulse]

NGADM Round 4 review!
--
Sorry it took me a while to get round to this, I'm a busy person. hehe
Well you know from the score I gave you that I love the track, the sound especially the lead synth which blew my mind, the vibe or atmosphere of the whole piece which went even further thanks to the slower section, the variation of style/theme at different parts of the song, the motif or main melody, the way the whole thing comes together...
*takes a breath*

Why did you not get 10/10? Because I think the percussion in general was a little lacking, for example the toms needed more power to really fit the style and could have added an extra edge (and layer of awesome). Also I find the main snare is a little awkward sounding, a little outside the mix.

Did that stop me listening to the song 5 times on here then 10 times on my trips to work and up to London plus 5 more when walking my dogs? Nope.

Killer track, more please. Deliver. Now.

garlagan responds:

haha thank you Sam! Glad you liked it!

[Forever 2]

Your thread on the forum was locked because of advertising, but I'll give you feedback here anyway.

1) You'd get much better feedback if you included information about the song in the descripion - what did you use to record? What do you want people to focus on when reviewing? Is there something you DON'T want them to focus on?

2) I've recently started recording my vocals seriously (can't believe jaysummers didn't mention me, I'm heartbroken! :P) but I have a ton of experience working with vocals and mixing real recordings, acoustic instruments and rock/electronic/symphonic blends. I would absolutely recomment the Rode NT1 microphone bundle - I use one now and I think we have somewhat similar voices. It's £150 and has the depth and clarity to record high quality vocals and guitar (if you want proof, my song Ego Betrayed shows acoustic guitar, low and high pitched vocals recorded with this mic).

3) Recording technique is also important. Your voice is inconsistent throughout. Did you move away/move your head at times? This changes the loudness and tonal quality of the sound and when you have a cheap mic these differences are not very pleasent - your voice sounds thin/weak at times when I'm sure it isn't really.

4) If you give me details about the EQ you put on both the guitar and the voice I can give you a few pointers on how to fix it. Also, did you use a compressor on them? I hope so...

Luciaea responds:

Hey, thanks for the review. I will update the description.

I can't afford a mic at this point (200$ is way off the chart for me). I'm using what I have (a Yeti speaker a friend let me borrow for this recording), and hoping to pull it off with just that.

I am a terrible singing, hence the singing inconsistencies. That just needs work. It probably is weak at some points, and then I remember to sing it out and yeah. Hopefully I will get better as I go.

I ran the EQ separately for voice and guitar as well as different comps for both. Compressed the guitar tracks at about 35 db with a floor of 10-20, decay of 1 and equalized with focus on the 100 Hz-440 Hz range and downed the rest of the base and treble. Ran voice on 5-6 db compression with decay of 1, equalized around the 800 Hz range up and cut base twice as much as treble (max 15 db?). Speaking of compressors... I used a virtual one, not a real one... eh...

Thank you again for the review. I'm honestly more of a fine artist, just giving the recording world a try. So any advice is appreciated.

[Into The Unknown]

This is a NGADM Quarter Final Review!
--
Just all my yes. Seriously.
One criticism of this only - I wanted more guitar. It felt a little out of place to suddenly have guitar after listening to the rest that was purely symphonic. You could maybe have thrown in some rhythm guitar at times just to introduce the theme/sound a bit. Hence the -0.1 in my score.
Hence the 9.9 score overall.
Hence *mind blown*.

I guess the mix is a little muddy at times but to me that just made it feel more retro and didn't bother me at all (which is rare).

Just amazing work guys. I need more like this. I don't know what else I can say. *dies happy*

SoundChris responds:

Thanks a lot MetalRenard. WOW 9.9 - what a great score. You are too kind :D Really - we are totally happy you liked the piece that much. We decided to bring in the guitar and going into another - more modern cinematic dicertion to show a little bit more versatility and to entertain the audience. Since most pieces - even strong ones - mostly have one big problem: A weak / boring ending we wanted to focus on this aspect and bring in a fresh and vivid feel in the end. Pedros guitar skills are awesome and for me as a pianist its really impressive and interesting to see a composition from the view of a guitarist. In general i have to say that we both hat a lot of fin during the whole contest and that we were able to learn a lot from each other. Great times. We just hope it will last still a little bit. There are stil a few things we wanted to try out :D

Thanks for your kind review sir and all the best from both of us!