MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Speak Easy]

NGADM Review

I wasn’t sure where the track was going to go at first then it came together when the drums started. The build up introduced the piece well and worked perfectly.

I enjoyed the composition a lot, from the meandering bass line to the brass instrument accents and breaks in the percussion. The textures tickled me in the right way from the smooth bass to the grittier brass and the in-the-middle guitar which glued it all together. Good work on that aspect, it’s commendable. Also, the slightly out-of-tune guitar was a surprise at first but when it all came together it paid off immensely and was very satisfying.

Having said that, I felt the production quality/expertise was lacking considerably in the drums and bass. Compared to the guitar and other instruments they are all over the place with a weird reverb that doesn’t work. Try to mix it dryer and it will come out much cleaner. Having said that, the guitar sounds awesome, especially the lead part with has a lovely warm, slightly gritty tone which shiiines. You used distortion wisely in the tone and in the mix. Could you maybe mix the rest in the same way as the guitar?

Full marks for performance and instrumentation from me, you played well and on time and I feel there was a true synergy between all the instruments.

Scores:
Composition: 4
Production: 3
Sound Design: 4
Instrumentation and Performance: 5
JeNeSaisQuoi - genre and case specific, also synergy: 4

Jumbs responds:

Thank you for the advice. I just realized how balanced the guitars are in comparison to everything else in this piece. The mix was something I should’ve paid attention to more for sure. I’ll use these and Logic’s notes when I go back and remix it 😃

[Stand up and Fight]

Hey don't be too hard on yourself, this sounds pretty good and so do the vox. Halfway between Metallica and Iron Maiden. Keep it up!

MercyfulDeath responds:

I appreciate the review, and I'm grateful for the compliments. Guess I'm hard on myself because I want to at least sound professional musically and I can really hear every single mistake on the vox. But at the end of the day no one knows exactly how much you suck except yourself.

Once again, thanks for the comment and review.

[My Broken Heart]

You mentioned in a thread about wanting more presence in your mix, maybe your issue is two fold:
Too much bass in your distorted guitar is over-loading the audio spectrum. Try cutting out a small part in the lower end and record a bass-line to fill it in again. Distorted guitar is really not good at lower frequencies, it gets messy, fast.
Too much reverb is also compounding the issue, not necessarily a big reverb either, it's just causing it to lose presence.
Check out Steve Vai - Building The Church. It has a similar sound to your work. Notice how most of the low end is handled by a bass guitar that's not distorted?

I'm sure with some work, your tracks could sound like that.

KrinnValKhristi responds:

Thank you Mr. Renard. This is very helpful.

[The Heart of a Tree]

This really sounds awesome, good job. I enjoyed the progression and things are mostly well mixed (the drums however are -super- loud compared to the rest). My favourite part was the palm muted guitars, that sounded awesome.

KrinnValKhristi responds:

me go make boom boom less ouch ouch. tytytytyty <3


P.S. Pssssst! The mut3d guitar part is my faves 2 lol

[Cutting Corners]

--- === NGADM Round 1 Review === ---
I found the intro had a lot of impact! Sadly the rest, in comparison, doesn't quite reach the same height. The intro reminds me a little of the intro to Mass Effect 3 when all the ships are blowing up around you as the Reapers kill everyone. The instruments sound good and are well mixed so it's warm and coherent.

The composition is interesting even if it relies on the very "trailer" typical sound, you've used it to make something different. I found myself getting a little... bored?... in the middle, leading up to the final buildup.

Tells a story of struggle, coherent atmosphere but sadly I wasn't drawn in. Maybe it's a bit long for something so consistently high energy. It could have benefited from a leading melody at times too. To me, it was more background music.

Scores are weighted so that comp and prod are 75% of the score:
Composition: 8
Production: 8
Enjoyment, atmosphere, replay and all the other odd stuff: 6

AceMantra responds:

Hey! Thank you for your time!

I know what you mean about it not having much impact. The intro is definitely where I put most of my creative juices into, and if time was no obstacle, I would have done the rest very differently.

[You're the Same]

--- === NGADM Round 1 Review === ---
Breath of fresh air! Brooding, contemplative and warm, I can listen to this over and over.

Wow this is lovely. Subtle and melancholic, the intro which chills you followed by the warmer piano and deeper violin. That was a stunning transition and you prepped the listener well. A very well written piece that had enough variation, rhythms, melodies and masterful playing to keep the listener engaged throughout. I really got into this one. Occasionally the violin is drowned out, especially in the louder sections where it plays lower notes but this is so minor I won't drop a point for it.

I can't fault this piece anywhere really. Congratulations!

Comp/Prod/Enjoyment 10/10.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you for the review, as well as for the high score! It's nice to see that you along with others enjoyed my piece. I was a bit worried that the style wouldn't be fully appreciated.

I admit to having some difficulties balancing the piano and the violin, especially since both are so dynamic (and play across many registers). At the same time, I don't think perfecting that is the most important part of the piece, since the melody, progression and emotions are in focus. I definitely want to get better at these kinds of things in the future though!

Good luck judging the next round, and thanks for keeping the competition alive ^___^

[endK - Sphere Assault]

--- === NGADM Round 1 Review === ---
It seems I enjoyed this a lot more than some of the others so here I am to share my thoughts on why I believe this was the stronger track in this group.

From the start you've caught my attention with cool sounding synths and percussion which opens up perfectly. You've fully prepared the listener for the next section which delievers. After that, you continue to change it up but at no time does the piece lose its flow which I find super impressive. This is a great example of transitions done right.
You've included so many different themes and ideas in this that there's always something new to hear, a new texture to discover, a new bass and rythme line to tap my foot to.
Furthermore you've peppered this with the occasional slower section to allow the listener to rest. The only repetition I heard was useful to help build the theme.

In terms of production you've mananged to marry so many different types of sounds from synths to brass among others and it sounds super coherent. Nothing takes over the rest. A very balanced mix which isn't too loud or harsh in any way.

On so many levels this was a really impressive track that I genuinely enjoyed. I'm impressed at the attention to detail and amount of work that went into this.

Scores are weighted so that comp and prod are 75% of the score:
Composition: 9
Production: 10
Enjoyment, atmosphere, replay and all the other odd stuff: 8

endKmusic responds:

I'm glad that you did. :D
This one sarted as a sound design experiment actually, wanted to focus on things like that, but couldn't resist some of the orchestral sounds + fast beat. That's pretty much it.
Thanks for the review and compliments, this one really did took a while to finish. :)

[Could've]

---=== NGADM Round 1 Review ===---
Admitedly this is not a genre I'm familiar with but I think I can offer a few words of advice, hence why I am reviewing your submission.

This is a lovely piece of music with a cool blend of lo-fi and more modern sounding percussion. The sounds all fit together well thanks to a clear and mostly balanced mix. I can hear the percussion fighting with the piano at times causing ducking or over pumping of the compressor. This is a common mistake with compression and can be fixed by simply turning things down or changing how you deal with it. For a start, it's definitely the kick drum that's causing the battle. I think in this case turning it down is the best option as it is notably louder than the rest. However, since this is hip hop according to your genre classification, you may prefer to reduce the low end pre-compression OR switch to multi-band compression. Increase the attack of the compressor on the low end and voilà. It will sound louder and not jump. I suggest adding a little more attack to the sound in the highs, also, as this will allow you to turn it down a little more, too.

I enjoyed the lovely transition with the lo-fi sfx to clearer mix later. The buildup to the chorus was logical and the chorus worked well to hold the piece together and the theme. I did find it repetitive by the end, however this is most likely to do with the genre and my own tastes clashing therefore I made sure to allow for this in my score.

Scores are weighted so that comp and prod are 75% of the score:
Composition: 8
Production: 6
Enjoyment, atmosphere, replay and all the other odd stuff: 7

Over all, good job on this track. I think it worked well as a whole and had a consistent theme.

acxle responds:

thank you so much for the advice! I am definitely a beginner when it comes to mastering, so thank you for the guidance!

[On Go]

--- === NGADM Round 1 Review! === ---
I was super impressed with your track. As usual, you delivered on many fronts from fantastic production (including respecting them good ol' dynamics), awesome instrumentation with a blend of synthetic and orchestral and you kept me interested throughout thanks to a variety of themes.

Scores are weighted so that comp and prod are 75% of the score:
Composition: 10
Production: 10
Enjoyment, atmosphere, replay and all the other odd stuff: 9

I found your composition really impressive from a variety of themes with little obvious repetition to your tempo change; from the ebb and flow of the slower sections to the extremely catchy high points. This really showed off your attention to detail.

As I said, the production here is perhaps flawless. Everything has its space and the track is very well balanced. I think on repeated listens I will have to turn it down slightly as the sudden jumps from quiet to loud (because of the aggressive percussion and synths) becomes tiring quite quickly. I might have reduced the difference in levels slightly or found a way to prepare the listener's ear for the perpetual up and down. Mercedes (yes the car company) have done a thing around this in their new cars - the speakers play a really loud noise if you're in a crash but it's not as loud as a crash would be, therefore your ears are ready for the louder sound and are protected.

This was a genuinely interesting track which I will definitely come back to in the future. It has a great atmospere and consistent theme which you have developed nicely throughout.

If this wasn't NGADM I would just give you 10/10 but because I have to be a pain, it rounded up to 9.8.

Fantastic work!

Onefin responds:

hey thanks metal!

lol the "too much dynamics" complaint, i've received it once or twice but this is probably the first time where imo i think it's really justified and i could have toned it down :P spade said he got really tired of the volume after a while so i wonder if that was part of it

interesting fact about mercedes, didn't know that :) one more piece of trivia to add to my collection

[Leer of Doom]

Sick synths. I've tried to do that myself once a few years ago and failed so I've never returned to it. What did you use for the low, deep, rhythmic sounding synth?
I liked the build up in this one, from something a bit menacing to FRANTIC at the end. It produced well and sounds coherent. I was impressed with the change of rhythm at the end too.

Finally... THANK YOU for using dynamics effectively.

Spadezer responds:

Wow such a rave review! Thanks. All synths used were utilized using Massive except for one sine wave sub bass.