MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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. :)

[A Whole New Year]

You never cease to blow me away with your music, especially when you sing, too. Such meaningful lyrics and fantastic composition to back it all up.

[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.

[Green Flamingo]

This is a NGADM review!

Well... The mix is pretty muddy over all and I think I heard a little distortion even... Plus once again your instruments sound completely wrong in terms of the room they're all set in. The piano is really wide but the brass instruments are in the middle. The bass is pretty wide too but still feels like it's in a different room to the piano and the brass.
The composition feels quite messy at times, just way too much going on but I think there were some interesting melodies and I enjoyed the mood of the piece. The instrumentation is good and the instruments sound realistic (to my untrained ear) which speaks a lot for your skills in midi editing.

Really for a final piece of music I'm a little disappointed. You've had a lot of advice on mixing this contest and I don't think you've taken it on board (I know I've gone on about reverbs and rooms etc a lot). It's a shame, you could have taken this further...
But congrats to both of you on an excellent run.

[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!

[Right or Wrong]

NGADM Round 4 Review!
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Well that was a shock, you guys went full metal this round. ^_^
Heavy guitars with a cool tone: Check
Lead guitar with a sweet tone and crazy playing: Check
Mostly competent vocalist with vocal harmonies: Check
Interesting composition, structure and consisten style: Check
Honestly you guys have a great song here with tons of potential to make it even better just waiting for the right elements to fall into place to make it complete.

First of all the mixing is really muddy with all the instruments fighting with each other to be heard and the master jumping up and down because the compressor/maximiser was too sensitive or the track was too loud over all. The guitars are the drive in this and yet I can hardly ever understand what is being played.
The vocals are good but fall flat at times and I can tell the singer was struggling. Your best bet would have been to use the advantages you have - you're "in the studio" so you can redo until it's perfect and cut parts from different takes to get the best of everything you do. Also, don't be afraid to use tuning software on vocals, it's not a crime and can significantly improve the listener's experience.

Yes, I sound too critical but I did give you 9/10 and I think you guys did a fantastic job on this, I just want you to do even better. Steal that 10 away from me! You've seriously impressed me with this track and I want more from you, I WANT to give you a 10/10, there's certainly the potential for it.

[No Joy Here]

NGADM Round 4 Review!
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Congrats on making it this far Mr Crabby Pirate! Honestly this is a commendable effort and I tried not to be biased based on my expectations of your usual style (i.e. it not being here at all hehe).
It has a pretty intro which sets the tone well. The piano section after it is also lovely and I got a real boost when you introduced the percussion. This means I definitely connected with the composition - a good sign you're doing something right.
I feel you could have taken this further and mixed it more competently, plus I feel you ended it right at the moment it should have picked up even further. You could have added brass in harmony with the strings, some rhythmic section where all the instruments stop and then go again creating a sense of momentum to build up to a final emotional peak...

As I said, it's better than a lot of things you hear and you were unlucky towards the end of the contest with life events and technical issues so all I can say to you is congratulations, you did a great job.

[Impulse]

NGADM Round 4 review!
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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!