MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Concert]

This is a NGADM "Round of 16" Review!
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Awesome work, so realistic but with a retro feel to the sound.
The reason it got 9.5 instead of 10 is because you made the same mistake in this as you did in the previous round's submission. You don't have a good grasp of perspective in audio/mixing. The piano sounds like it's in a completely different room to the rest of the orchestra and to someone like myself it sounds so out of place that it's jarring. There are ways to make it work, but instead we have the piano sounding as if we're sitting close to the pianist in a small room and then everything else is being played on a stage somewhere else. For a start, when you're further away from the piano it wouldn't sound this wide. Also its sound would be projected into the same space as the strings and claps. Try listening with headphones if you can't tell what I mean. (Also the audience members are a bit rude to clap over the music, aren't they?)

Now that I've explored that fully I can move on to the good stuff. ^_^
Like I said, it's really realistic sounding, almost like an old film-score feel to it at the beginning. The instruments weave in and out of each other very well and the piece flows too.
The piano part is expertly crafted and I enjoyed the piece overall a lot. The mixing is good, the piece has a lot of depth and warmth.

Congrats on making it to the quarter finals! 9.5/10

SoundChris responds:

Thanks a lot MetalRenard for your kindness. I was trying to combine a lateromantic wagneresque orchestration style with a chopinesque / sometimes rachmaninov style piano. Yeah the thing with the room accoustics is true. I also knew that when i heared it. Unfortunately i had a lot of trouble in the 2 weeks where i wrote this and in the end i was not able to listen to the track on monitors anymore before the deadline since it was already very late here. Also the orchestration - which had been written completely could not be uploaded anymore. I had to write half of the track on the deadline day and then had to face some extremely annoying DAW problems ... i could not use the playback function anymore but had to freeze, export, listen, unfreeze and so on ... In the end also the last part of the piece had an already composed and finished instrumentation and orchestration (the french horns were not alone - i composed the orchestra like it was in the beginning of the piece) but could not upload it anymore. It was 7 minutes before the deadline. Exporting: 4 minutes, upload 5-7 minutes --> disqualified. So i decided to upload the "unfinished" version. I am very glad you enjoyed the piano and especially that you found the orchestra had a warm sound because thats always what i want to create. Thanks a lot for your detailed review!

[On The Glass Edge]

This is a NGADM "Round of 16" Review!
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This is on a whole new level from your other pieces, and those were already fantastic. This just blew me away. Your guitar playing is outstanding, honestly I could never play this. You know how much I like this already but I have to say it again. Bloody hell. Brilliant. Haha
I was torn between giving you 10/10 and 9.5/10 and gave you 9.5/10 because I pussied out and didn't want people to think I'm super biased about metal... Sorry. They wouldn't be wrong. ^_^"

Seriously though, nothing I can see wrong with this. Marvellous. You fixed any mixing issues I picked up on in previous pieces too, including making the lead sound fit so well in the mix.

What more can I say? Sold!

PirateCrab responds:

Dammit I was hoping for a 10 ;)

But honestly thanks bro! Your constructive criticism last round helped immensely, took it all on board and completely upped my game! Now my production is down, I guess that leaves it all to composition! Here goes!

Again, thanks dude! Means a lot :)

[A Girl's Champion]

This is a NGADM "Round of 16" Review!
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I can see the difference between this and something you'd usually make. It doesn't have lots of the subtle details you usually throw in that make it polished and realistic. It's a shame because I think it's a good piece. I had to remove half a point because it's short - also a consequence of not having time to finish. To add to that, the fade-out ending is disappointing too.
I was sorry to hear you weren't able to finish, Bosa, I know you're a very capable composer and orchestrator.

What you did do well, though, is making lush, beautiful melodies right from the start. The whole thing flows overwhelmingly well, weaving a heart-warming image of peace at the beginning to something more powerful as the music progresses. I love how you weave the different instruments together at the start, you're such a pro. I'm envious of people who can do that, I'm a much more straight-forward kind of composer and those details and techniques elude me.

Please send me a PM when this is done (I mean it), I want to hear the final version (and to download a copy!). If you upload it as a separate piece I'll review that one too.

Bosa responds:

I will do it.

[Can Your Cow Do This?]

This is a NGADM "Round of 16" Review!
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It looks like I scored you the lowest out of all the judges. That's always a bit awkward when you have to leave a detailed review too. Well, here goes.
I guess some of it is personal bias, I find lots of the sounds in dubstep quite jarring and unless you mix it really well they come off quite harsh. Your mix is good, indeed. The drums are full, the backing synths are awesome and I love the lead sound, so awesome.

Sadly during the signature dubby bits (if that's a thing) I feel like you underestimated the power of a pure synth to blow out ear drums since their perceived volume is so much higher than a complex sound. What I mean by this is that an electric guitar won't sound as loud as a sine wave because its sound is full of harmonics and the distortioin throws those all over the place too whereas a pure sine wave or something similar seems so much louder.

tldr: What I'm trying to say is that I had to turn your song right down to listen to it, not because it was loud but because the differences from moment to moment in perceived volume made my ears hurt.

What I did like is the variation from section to section. I also think you're really good at making melodies and backings that fit really well together. That backing wouldn't have been complete without that melodie and vice versa. Complete synergie between the two.

Congrats on making it this far in the competition, it's been really tough and you did admirably. Keep it up!

introstalge responds:

Not awkward at all. I was actually hoping you'd be allocated to Group D so I could see in which areas I need to improve! Thanks for picking apart the positives and negatives, it has been very encouraging to read as well as informative. I will try to work my mixing even more for my future tracks. Thank you for the detailed review and also for being a judge for this year's NGADM :)

[The Mouse Went Up The Clock]

This is a NGADM "Round of 16" Review!
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After your previous tracks, this was a change in style. Mid-competition that's quite a risk to take.
I think you managed to pull of your "signature" atmosphere with this really well, the theme and title fit perfectly into your world. It's "circus creepy" in all the right ways with a dash of innocence thrown in to make you think you're safe when in fact the mice are all ravenous for human flesh. Zombie mouse movie fo'shure.

You guys work really well together and I admit I'm biased because I was hoping for more vocals - I've come to love what you guys can do together and I've listened to your previous two songs a lot. Having said that, there's not really much I can say about this that's negative. Perhaps the instruments sound a bit too mechanical plus I didn't like the drum sound (sounds quite fake) and I wanted a bigger build up at some point. Having said that the piece works brilliantly and you've both done an amazing job with it.

Do you watch films about (evil) puppets, killer toys and insane clowns every time you write a song? :P

Congrats on making it this far and I hope the next round goes well too!

[Adel's Theme (Menu)]

The issue with the looping is because of the large amount of reverb in this. Otherwise I think you did a marvellous job buddy.
The simple solution for the reverb is to reduce the decay a bit, it will tidy it up but still sound roomy.

Step responds:

I thought it'd be the reverb on the piano... I tried wrapping the remainder of the track during export so that the reverb tail at the end continues at the start, but that ended up still leaving a click at the start of the track, for some reason. Maybe it's because the waveform of the reverb tail didn't start at 0 amplitude so it produced a clicking sound? Like, instead of the reverb tail in the intro starting like this: http://puu.sh/bnUDi.png it started like this: http://puu.sh/bnUEB.png producing the clicking sound... I'm a dumbass when it comes to this stuff so I wouldn't know for sure.

Super glad you like it though, I really value your feedback! Thanks man.

[Glitchy Grindy Stuff]

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review!
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...
Please wait.
Rebooting.
Bleep bleep!
Sorry that was necessary to fully comprehend this piece, it's most definitely unique and I love that you experiment like this. The problem is that it's really hard to judge a submission like this one...
Mix: 8/10
I think you did a good job with this. I mean, the recording sounds quite decent and you went all out with your editing and FX to create a very interesting auditory experience unlike anything I've ever heard before. This also means that I can't really say what I think you could improve or what I think you did wrong because of how unusual it is. I hope you're happy to settle for an 8, all that considered.
Composition: 8/10
Same thing here...! How do I judge this? At the very least I think this track is extremely cool. I don't say that often or lightly. In my notes I actually gave you a bonus point because of the risks you took presenting something like this in a composition filled to the brim with EDM and cinematic styles which rely on much more conventional interpretations of the word "music".
Despite this you managed to include melodic elements in there too and they worked well together.

8/10 total and a piece I think deserves a spot on the front page of NG because it shows just how creative you are. Great work.

CaperCube responds:

Thank you! As I said before, after listening to the submissions I was up against, I wasn't expecting to get more than a 4/10. But after seeing these reviews, I for sure will be trying to post more of my music here for feedback, and I'm sure I'll also join NGADM next year.

Thank you again, this greatly encouraged me!

[Into the War]

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review!
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If you take away the intro and outro sections where you speak, this is actually a really short piece of music and nowhere near long enough for the competition. With that in mind I felt obliged to take away 0.5 from the total.
Mix: 7/10
It's relatively well mixed overall. The voice is the part that suffers the most, it's very obviously distorted and not very cleanly mixed. Also the piano is very mechanical sounding and not particularly well mixed either. The rest I have no complaints about, it's punchy, full sounding and you did a good job. I think the two other parts where simply not in your area of expertise. It's good to experiment, you shoudl continue to do so, it's how we learn and progress as musicians, composers and music producers.
Composition: 7/10
This song displays a good blend of styles and it's cool that you went back and forth but the dubstep is bland, already done and offered little in way of variation, I feel. In fact, I'd say it's quite hard to judge a piece of music in terms of composition when it's this short and it needs to be compared with other pieces that are 3:00 + long. A longer piece of music would have shown off your skills a lot more in terms of transitions, song development etc.

Overall not bad but I think I wanted more from this. :)
7/10 total.

[Smorgardsbord]

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review!
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I'll be straight with you and say that usually chiptune gets on my nerves and makes my ears bleed unless it's treated properly but... You did treat it well so you can let out that breath you were holding in now. ;P
Mix: 8/10
I'm glad you didn't use super harsh sounding saw waves etc that so many people tend to use in chiptune. People don't realise how pure tones like those work psychoacoustically. Be cause they're so pure they tend to be that much louder (compared to, say, an acoustic instrument which has an extremenly complex sound full of harmonics etc which phase in and out as the string etc vibrates).
I think the percussion could have maybe been a little more interesting, maybe had a bit more bite (my favourite retro drum sound is the kit used in Sonic on the Megadrive, man I love that OST).
Composition: 8/10
Quite a few good ideas throughout which flow well together and there's a fair amount of variation/variety. It doesn't feel boring or repetitive. At the same time I don't think it's "amazing", it didn't have a killer moment for me, a high point or something. That would have got you the higher score.

Well you convinced me to like your piece despite it being chiptune so that's a good sign! 8/10 score, congrats!

[Infinite]

This is a NGADM Round 1 Review!
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I think you displayed a certain aptitude for mixing/production in this but you were perhaps (in my opinion) let down by the composition.
Mix: 8/10
It's a deep and yet punchy mix (in fact very punchy, good job on that). It perhaps some cohesion because of the sidechained compression being so dominant throughout but overall I think you have a really great, full sound in this. Good work!
Composition: 6/10
Honestly, I found the piece somewhat repetitive, you could have brought in something new at times, modulated or added some variation, used a few different chords, I don't know. Just something to break the monotony. Having said that, I think the ideas in there are excellent, the theme is very interesting and I definitely enjoyed it a lot. Kuddos to you for taking a risk and experimenting, I think you shouldn't stop here because you have a lot of potential.

I enjoyed the piece but it didn't quite meet what I was looking for, which is a shame because you're good at what you do. 7/10 total, but that is a respectable score too so don't let it get you down.
Cheers!

AeronMusic responds:

Thanks MetalRenard!