MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Dream]

Good energy in the piece and a good performance from all parties (albeit a little inaccurate on the drums). You might want to look into recording in a less echo-y space for the vocals, or in a vocal booth to attenuate the room-verb. It would really make the vocals shine! Put that Focusrite to work for you. :P

l0vemetal responds:

The vocals come out flat courtesy of a diffuser; reverb is added to the recording.

Thanks for the advice, I'll play around with it a bit more next time we record. :)

[I've No Idea What I'm Doin']

Game Grumps fan spotted.
Mix/mastering is something I think I can comment on, beg your pardon if I appear to be blowing my own trumpet.

The mix is clear, more so than your most recent equivalent work, "C.U.R.E." which definitely points out the fact that your new headphones are representing the frequencies more accurately and you're therefore able to EQ more accurately. I also noticed you use the stereo space and "depth" in a more interesting way in this track, mixing some sounds to be wide and some to be "far" in a non-detrimental way to the whole.

Looking forward to where you take this later.
-0.5 because I'll be honest, I wasn't to keen on the melodies or lead sections, but the backing was cool and the energy of the piece came through really well.

Noisysundae responds:

Nah, I've subscribed them but didn't watch their video much lately. Pretty sure sonic stuff was a coincidence. :P

Good to see that it's better than last sundae in term of mastering. I started to use phase inversion on the bass and the detuned saw here but I don't recognize the change on the saw that much.

Agree on your point of melodies. I feel like the leads aren't quite the leads somehow. They still don't stand out enough for me too. Anyway, this was great to read. Really thanks!

[Sanctuary of the Fallen Empire]

I'll have 3 scoops of this please. Seriously it reminds me of my favourite piece from Clannad, "The Girl's Fantasy". GJ!

Noisysundae responds:

I'm spending lunch time for answering this in the computer lab. XD
I'll take a listen to that when I'm home. Thanks very much.

[The Assassination]

What a pro. No wonder you got the job.
I'm not really into the "epic" percussion that seems to have taken over in cinema lately, but I can appreciate what you've done here for what it is. Plus the mix is super clear, very pro.

Mattashi responds:

I hear ya, it does seem to have taken over in cinemas lately, including those "Braaams" (I try to stay away from those though xD) but it's something I love to use every now and then for chasing/action scenes.
I'm far from pro though most of the time I don't even know what I'm doing when mixing and just hope it comes out ok in the end.
Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it!

[Nothing But Sand & Water]

I remember this competition. You totally nailed it. This is fantastic, awe-inspiring work.
I feel completely transported to another world, it's so evocative.

Mind = blown.

Mattashi responds:

Wow thanks a lot man! :)

[C.U.R.E. (Concentrated Unmaking Robotic Entity)]

Quite a few giggles were had about this track among the NGADM judges - we loved the music, of course, but the NG glitch in there just...
Genius stuff mate. I laugh every time.

I'll grab a few other flavours while I'm here. :)

Noisysundae responds:

It's okay since many around here said that I shouldn't add it. :P
I'll make sure the next year's audition will be more serious than this. You all judges are awesome for spending time and efforts in the contest and I'm glad you like it. :)

[Stompstump Peak (Onefin Remix)]

As it's not a composition I can only really comment on mixing.

- The first thing I noticed is that the kick drum eats away at the rest and is over powering. You might want to turn it down a notch! It's actually causing the other instruments to get quieter at times (due to a compressor I expect).

- Next, some instruments are super wide - normally I have to tell people to make stuff wider but in your case I think the synth is so wide it suffers from a few phase issues (some gets lost when listening on speakers) and it's fighting with a few other things going on in there.

The outro sounds awesome. :)

Onefin responds:

First off, thanks for taking the time to review my track! Constructive criticism is hard to come by these days, so I'm always excited to get some!

- "it's not a composition" Actually, if you listen to the original you'll see that my remix takes a very large twist on the track... Sure, the main melodic ideas are there but a lot of background crud like arps, chords, and pads are my own thing. The wacky rhythms, time changes, and signature changes are also all mine, and the terrible transitions were all made by me. Not sure if that counts as "composition", though.

- "the kick drum eats away at the rest and is overpowering" Well, that's definitely not what ElysianSky said to me XD Now I'm a bit confused. It might be that you two are listening on different speakers or something, but seriously what do I do? XD I think what might have happened is that I took away too much mid/high to where ElysianSky couldn't hear it but you could still hear it really well. As for the compressor, I have no idea how a compressor would cause other instruments to get quieter unless I'm sidechaining, which is totally intentional. But what do I know, I can't mix :P

- What does that mean? Super wide? Phase issues? XD Sorry, I'm a freaking noob.

Glad you like it! :3

Overall thanks for the review! When it comes to the technical side of making music I'm really clueless, but I'll try and sort things out!

[Free like the birds]

This has a good, balanced mix that uses up the full spectrum. You have a good voice too, full and deep - I'm sure the ladies like it. ;)

As for mixing vocals, what you got right is that they sound "close" and "present", aka they cut through and sit on top of the rest which is ideal for this kind of music. I think you didn't need to accentuate the bass so much as at times it sounds muffled and eats away at the backing.

Also the S, F, etc sounds (sibilance) is pretty harsh, you need to use a deesser to fix that.

Don't be afraid to edit your performance or redo sections to get a more accurate version (I do hundreds of takes for each song I make, famously Michael Jackson would do thousands, never satisfied until it was the perfect take!), although you said the vocals in this are temporary, at this later stage I doubt that's the case. :P

To help the vocals sit in the mix better you should also consider reverbs/delays to even it out a bit. Reverb is great at blending sounds!

Anyway, that's the "constructive" stuff, I love the song anyway and look forward to what you do in the contest.
Last question - have you considered getting Ozone's Nectar 2? I use it a ton and it's amazeballs.

[Deus Vult]

Outstanding guys, really. Excellent flow and movement in the piece, diversity in complexity, dynamics and instruments, I can hear the time you put into this piece.

Congratulations. :)

bassfiddlejones responds:

A compliment coming from you! Thanks man, we worked hard on this one.

[[IV]Sunlight]

Excellent feel for this one, it transports you through its sounds to the world you want us to exist in for a while.
If I had one criticism it's that it doesn't flow as a whole. everything is basically always following the same rhythm or the lead melody. For full impact you need to separate foreground and background, not necessarily always, but for example around 1:05ish it's pretty evident what I'm saying and I think you missed an opportunity to develop the piece further.

Good luck in NGADM!