MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Normal Mapping]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
____
Production: 9/10
Very good mix. Everything has its place and all that good stuff. On the other hand I found the voice too shrill.
Composition: 7/10
Well it fits the genre, that's for sure. I feel you could have done more with it though, for example around the middle I feel like it's just dragging on and on. Something in the background to add more depth at that point would have been great, just some wishy-washy synth or anything to create a change from always hearing the same sounds in the same places. Diversity is a great tool.

8/10, good work garlagan, you know what you're doing.

garlagan responds:

thanks for the feedback MetalRenard!

[Brolo]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
____
Production: 9
It's a good mix, the sounds meld well despite the difference in textures. I admit I may be biased because usually I hate retro sounds as they assault my ears and since yours didn't I added a point... Hey, sue me.
Composition/arrangement: 8
I'm a sucker for when good rhythm meets good melody. Some of your melody work is lacking that... spark, but the two married so well I really enjoyed listening to this.
Also it's a little unusual and I like unusual things.

That's 8.5/10 for you my friend.

Mawnz responds:

Thank you for the review MetalRenard, you along with the other judges are doing an awesome job that is very much appreciated!
I think i agree with your opinions there. There is something missing and I couldn't find just that, unfortunately...
Glad to hear your thoughts on the retro sounds! Thanks again for the judging, keep it up!

[Rosso]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
____
I gave you 8/10 in "production".
You mixed the track well, vocals are clear and full, the sound is bass-y and everything fits. Nothing to say really, you did a good job. :)
Composition/arrangement (where valid): 6
The first minute of the track seems to be where everyone in this genre experiments. The sad thing is that this experimentation always ends with the same result - 4/4 kick on every beat and sidechain synths. I like what you did with the intro but the rest feels like "more of the same" to me. I'm not being genre biased either, I've said the same to people in other reviews of other genres (including my main genre heavy metal. In fact I've been harsher with people in that genre).
When I listen to music I do enjoy cliches but I also look for something to spark my interest intellectually. Generic ideas don't do that for me. Admittedly your chorus breaks away from that nicely which is why I didn't hit you with a lower score than I did, so nice work on that.
I know it's "music you can dance to" but why not make it exciting too?

Over all that gives you 7/10. A good job, you can be proud of your work.

TEIONmusic responds:

Thank you for the review, I will take everything you said into consideration for the next production.
I think the production was a bit messy to be honest, everything sounded clustered to me, but overall, i guess it worked out.
The part where I experimented the most was combining glitch elements with dance. For this song in particular, I don't think I did a grand job of doing that, and it ended up sounding extremely cheesy and generalized (unoriginal). I think next time, glitch sounds good with dance only if I try out different tempos and rhythm, because 128bpm is like...the epitome of dance, and its too "edm" for me.
I don't like generic ideas as well, I guess I was just going for too much for this track, and what came out was dull.
But next time through, I'll be sure to change everything up, and re-think about new ideas.
Thanks

[Automation]

I know! I've found your future job for you. When Joe Hisaishi retires you should take over from him and score Studio Ghibli's stuff. You'd absolutely get my vote. :)

Step responds:

Oh you. Thanks a lot - you've reviewed the whole soundtrack! I'm really glad you enjoyed this, and thanks for the support!

[Sky's the Limit]

Awesome work Step. Great feel and atmosphere, quite uplifting and the intro is so peaceful.
Plus I've always wanted to fly... :P
What always impresses me with your work is your attention to detail, plus I really like the sounds you used in this one.

Step responds:

Aw thanks man :3. Yeah I've always wanted to fly too, WE HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON.

I'm really glad you like it though - attention to detail is what I always aim for!

[Fading Dystopia]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
____
Production 9/10
While I agree with Step that this track definitely IS too loud at times, I also think you did a good job mixing it over all. It suffers from that loudness in more than one way, being over-bearing, but also some sections become so crowded it's hard to really appreciate what's going on.
Having said that the track sounds good, it has good dynamic variation (loud/quiet parts) and the piano is rich and deep.
You also avoided the aspects of this genre I tend to find annoying so I guess I may be going a little easy on you in the light...
Composition 10/10
You could have gone down the generic root with a typical "bass drum of every beat for the entire track", a monotonous structure and over-used sounds... But you didn't. You changed it up regularly, you introduced new themes, you changed stuff around all over the place, you wrote an interesting intro and relied on melodies rather than production tricks.
Fine work, good sir!

9.5./10 In league with the greats.

[The Path Not Taken- Ngadm13]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
____
Production 7/10
Well the vocal mixing is pleasant to listen to but there are several occasions when the volume jumps about because of over-crowding (too loud for the mp3 or maybe a compressor is set too low...). Your voice also sounds a little thin at times because of this too. For a live performance these things don't come into consideration since each person's voice is different and therefore fills a different space in the mix or has a unique texture. Since all the voices here are your own you need to create these differences with EQ and reverb. An example would be to make the backing (far left and far right) sound further away by turning the reverb up a touch on them while keeping the lead vocals a little dryer. That's just one approach of course.
Composition 7/10
As much as I'd love to give you extra points just because this is A Cappella... I can't. That wouldn't be fair! So objectively speaking I think you have a really good, versatile voice but the song itself isn't anything "new". Sure, it's interesting, but it's doesn't do anything with the genre that I haven't heard before.

Over all that gives you a respectable 7/10. Congrats on this first round!

[Setting Out]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
____
Production (including MIDI programming) 9/10
You did a great job using your VSTs. The piece is lively and rich with a full spectrum of sound. It could have used a little more impact at times to stress the dynamic range more since it feels a little monotonous. This is because the calm parts are almost as loud as the fast paced sections. Despite that you made the most of your tools and I commend your efforts in that regard.
Composition/Arrangement 7/10
Although this piece made me smile I didn't feel it went far enough to get the higher score in this area. The atmosphere or theme is fantastic, the structure worked well and the instruments played off each other perfectly. On the other hand I feel like I've heard this before in games and the like. I also feel you could have worked on giving the piece a little more variation (Krichotomy hit the nail on the head about the structure feeling a little redundant).

8/10, great job!

BlazingDragon responds:

This piece very intentionally emulates the feel of video game and anime music, so I can understand how this would sound familiar. There is a whole lot of personal nostalgia imbued in this along with my own personality. Looking back, I think that if I cut out 45 seconds from this piece it would get rid of the redundancy and help keep things fresh.

Thanks for the helpful review. You made good points, especially about dynamics. :)

[Electroboy]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
____
Production (mix/master) 9/10
You have a good guitar sound, it's powerful, full and it rocks my windows in all the right ways. There are a few inconsistencies in the mix, some parts were less clear than others and maybe a little muddy so despite the solid guitar tone you didn't score a 10 here. No biggie, still some impressive work on the sound side of things!
Composition/arrangement 7/10
I found the piece a little repetitive at times, the riffs felt just a touch over used (in the same vein as Rammstein, which I would compare this piece to at a push). You did a good job mixing the genres, the electronica sections complimented the music well and I was nodding my head to the main riff.

8/10, so once again, good sound and pretty good mixing, a little less repetition and you'd be on the way to stardom!

Lashmush responds:

Thanks a lot, I'll be sure to invest more time in variance and additional movements.

[FD - Plaenitude]

Hi! I was a replacement judge for NGADM round 1 and this is my review of your track!
I scored mixing and composition/arrangement separately so I'll explain here what score I gave you and why. 8/10 in my scoring scheme is "Great", 10/10 is exceptional. To get 10 the piece needed to go beyond expectations, to have a unique sonic quality and present an original aspect (or several) in terms of composition.
_____
What an intro...! Distinctly atmospheric in style yet memorable all the same. I enjoyed the choice of sounds you used in the intro a lot, in fact in my notes when giving this piece of music a score I wrote "Flawless intro". The second part of the piece which introduces the electric guitar didn't live up to my expectations after hearing that great start so you lost a point there. It was somewhat repetitive. 9/10 in composition.
On the production side of things I gave you 7/10. There are a few issues with the mix, for example around 5:00 there are dips in volume because things got too loud or you misused a compressor. To fix this you may need to rework the EQ a little to make sure the guitar isn't competing with the other instruments too much, or maybe increase the threshold on a compressor somewhere. Also I found your distorted electric guitar tone a little lacking, it didn't have much character or punch.
You gained points thanks to the creative use of sounds in the intro and the fabulous clean guitar tone.

8/10, great work, very enjoyable!

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thanks for your review, I'm quite surprised to receive this now that we're halfway of round 2, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. I agree in that whereas the technical department needed some more work, the atmosphere and the composition value compensated the somewhat uncertain parts of the piece.