MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Open Your Heart To Me]

Awesome! I agree with the below comment - vocals should have been louder. Despite that, the song is great, I enjoyed it from start to end. The guitar sounds good for a VST, quite convincing.

ADR3-N responds:

Yeah, I'm really glad you liked! I remember when Ahead By A Century came along and you mentioned how rigid the E-bass sounded to you, so glad to hear my writing with an instrument I barely understand wasn't offensive to your ears haha.

[Sky Castle]

I love your melodies (in general, and once again here). The rhythm guitar is so cool too, the whole track has an amazing feeling too it. This is what I come here to listen to.
I feel the drums are a bit too crushed here, maybe giving them more room would give the mix more life. Maybe turn the volume down a little? It might help.

Downloaded. Faved. <3

DanJohansen responds:

Thanks a ton bro! Will check up on that, maybe my tracks have been getting a bit too loud lately. Rock on!

[The Rocks]

groovie
...
Heh

As always, great stuff. Sounds great, feels great. The composition and instrument choice work perfectly together. I feel it could have been mixed w i d e r in general, for example the lead instrument. In the end section there's suddenly a wide instrument and the inconsistency stands out to me quite a bit. Good work!

LunacyEcho responds:

thank you for the words! the mix has been w i d e n e d as per request

[Tormented]

Since the below reviewer hasn't replied, I'll do the leg work for them. :)
Compositionally it's definitely metal. There's the staccated rhythm guitar, "heavy" sound, fast playing in the lead and heavy sounding (although more electronic) drums.

What makes it sound more video-game-y is that sound. The instruments are all virtual, none are recorded. It's so difficult to make virtual guitar sound realistic, even more so without the best tools.
For a start, the tone of the instruments you're using don't sound realistic and secondly the way they are played sounds fake. For example, in the lead, several notes in a row are the same and sound exactly the same. In a real recording, no 2 notes sound the same. The beauty is in the imperfection.

Having said that, Its a good song and I enjoyed listening. Where are you planning on going from here?

Jaybraham responds:

Omg this is my dream review 😍
Ok first off I just want to thank you and tell you that you have no idea how much it means that you'd write me a review like this!!! THANK YOUUU!!
And next I'd say that, with a budget of 0$, it is hard to make something better than complete trash metal.
Oh goodness I worked so hard to get a sound that is similar to guitar, so much EQ, so many effects, distortion, you name it. Im still not happy with it but it's as good as it's gonna get till I can find a way to record decently from my guitar.
Being someone who can play a little, I would have to agree, the beauty is in the imperfections. As I like to say "perfectly imperfect".
With the software I have, it would be exponentially hard to try to make it any more realistic then it is already, and to edit notes individually, I don't know if it would be possible.
I think I know where your talking about "all the notes sounded exactly the same" and if I am right, yeah I don't like that part either XD
the goal for the future is to keep trying, and then once I'm able to afford some sort of recording thing one way or another, to just record songs. Keep trying till I get it right!
:DD
Thanks once again for the review! I agree with all of it, and maybe the future will hold a better mixdown!

[Descend Into Madness]

Huge wall of sound, wow. Awesome sound and incredible playing. Do you edit much? What's your guitar editing and mixing process?

Could you turn it down a bit though? The distortion is omnipresent. Just look at that waveform and you can even see it. :P

Metaljonus responds:

Thanks bro and of course I edit lol all the time! My mixing and guitar process would be too long to go through maybe I'll make a video one day. And I'll never turn it down, you got Metal in your name don't be a puss and let them ears bleed!!! LOL

[The Final Sunrise]

Your drums sound good for the rock genre. I like your ideas such as the melody and harmonies. You play fast at times and slow at others, offers some variety. The part at 4:30 is a lovely change too, bringing in some other instruments keeps it fresh, reinvigorating interest.

5:30 you added reverb/delay to the guitar which again kept it fresh. Your track shows you're full of ideas but simply lack the tools to express them to the best of your ability.

1st thing you can do is double track your rhythm guitar then hard pan them left and right. Cut the mids a bit on the rhythm and boost them a little on the lead to give everything some breathing room. Are you recording by plugging your amp directly into the mic slot of your computer? It sounds like a Direct Input to me. Either way, it sounds like your lacking some cabinet simulation in there which I think would go a long way to making your guitar sound more natural.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZn1RSbssRg This video has a few ideas about that. He shows before and after using an Impulse Response (IR) cabinet, listen at 3:31 onwards.

If you're up for it, I'd be happy to pass your clean guitar recording through a guitar amp simulator (I have Guitar Rig 5 Pro) then I can send it back to you to mix.

The drums sounds good, probably the best sounding part of the track in terms of mix.

So yeah... work on the guitars first and lets get you sounding more pro by using more suitable tools!

Catpocalypse responds:

Thanks for the review! I did double track all of my tracks though. I'm not sure how you hear it differently.

Also, I'm using a guitar interface (iRig 2) into my phone with Garageband. I have better gear now, but I'm only using my old stuff to keep my album sounding cohesive.

I'll definitely work on my production some more in the future. I'm glad you like the composition though!

[Legacy of Wizards]

I was just passing by but I feel compelled to leave a comment here. The melodies in this are fantastic. Also since I last listened to your work you've stepped up your game in terms of mixing, this sounds really good. Awesome, I love this track.

DanJohansen responds:

Thanks a lot man, means a lot \m/ Long time no see!!!

[Pleasant Palpitations]

NGADM Review time!

Composition 4.5/5
Ridiculous. How dare you make something so charming and adorable? I've never sought out music like this so I've never heard anything like it before. Thanks for the new experience. In the history of NGADM I think it's quite unique too. My only gripe is that you could have taken it one step further with appropirate percussion. A heart beat during the biggest section or some like chimes, cymbals... I don't know. I wanted a touch more!

Production 5/5
Very minimalist tracks aren't hard to mix so I haven't got much to say on this matter. What is here is well done. The voice sits very snuggly into the mix and didn't sound out of place at all. Great work.

Sound Design and/or Instrumentation 5/5
Yes. The choice of instruments spoke to me as much as the poem. The gentle tones from the voice and instruments fit so perfectly.

Performance or Programming 5/5
Kudos for the poem reading. It's delightful; the performance was perfect. I could only give 5/5 here.

"Je Ne Sais Quoi" (Genre/case specific extras) 5/5
You took me on a journey and from the first seconds to the last I was fully taken in. You brought up old feelings and gave me new ones. Made me relive sad memories but realise I am happy now I, too, have someone special in my life. We've almost all experienced that "crazy, irrational" love.

My highest rated song of the competition so far... Wooo!

vocaloutburst responds:

Oh thanks a bunch for the kind words in this review!!! I really enjoyed making this piece, I love trying to tell stories in my pieces and this one, in particular, felt really personal to me and I wanted to try to convey that same feeling to others. Makes me really happy to hear you connected with the piece so much :')