GlueR's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cry by Novenda]

Superb!

I have to say, in terms of composition, this is great! The instrumentation is also just right! The vocals are spot on! Your vocal skill is indeed rare!

On a more constructive note, I do have a couple of suggestions:
-The bass kick sounds a bit unnatural. You might want to change to a less metallic kick, even though this might sound strange for what sounds like a metal ballad. It still is a ballad. "Day Dreamer"'s kick sounds a lot more natural, for example.
-Electric guitars, especially the ones that are heavily distorted, have to be on or around the same level as vocals, otherwise they easily tend to sound flat and lo-fi. You might be discouraged to do this as the guitars might sound too high pitched and overshadowing the vocals, the piano and the hi hats (in this case), but you shouldn't be afraid (as I have advised in other submissions as well) to use a low pass setting on a Eq filter about and around 8-10kHz and a plateau for dropping frequencies from 6-7kHz and upwards and don't be shy about it. You can give more body to their sound by raising frequencies that sound good to you in the range of 600Hz and 1kHz, while you can bring the cabinet up by scanning frequencies between 60 and 100Hz (In rare cases up to 120Hz). Scan the frequencies and stop when you find the sweet spot. Then just bring it forward in the mix! It won't cover up the rest of the instruments and at the same time sound more powerful, without sounding too heavy.
-In some places the double tracked electric guitars sound out of sync. You don't always have to rerecord the track in question, but you can warp the original clean samples (if you still have them, otherwise just leave it) into position. You can use various programs for that, including Cubase (versions from sx2 and later) or Alberton Live. The second one has an easier interface and some helpful tools if you want to sync more channels at the same time (I use it for syncing recorded multiple drum tracks to beat. These 10 to 14 tracks have to warped the exact same amount for various reasons). Just slide the notes that are out of sync towards their correct position and pass the channels back to your preferred amplification and you're done...

I really like this song and I'd love to listen to other ones in this style with your voice enriching them!

[Jericho's Demise]

I always loved this style!!!!

As a Muse fan, I have to say "I LOVE THIS!!!", especially for the first part. What can I say, I'm a sucker for high pitched pedal points! Nice guitars, mostly solid production, might need a few more instruments and some more compression/distortion (nothing much) on the bass, in order to bring it forward in the mix.
I'd love to hear a complete song in this style from you! I think it'll be great! And if you're shy about your vocal parts, I would be glad to help you in any way you'd like. I know it when I see potential, cause I'm an Electrical Engineer. =)
If you need me, just PM me...

Firebalt responds:

Haha thanks. Yeah i'm still fairly newby at mixing, but practice makes perfect. Yeah I really love the whole disco/rock sort of thing, guitars over arpegiators and what not. So i'll definately be writing more of that stuff and i'll definately keep you in mind. Probably wont be soon as i'm going to enter the MAC this month.

[MH16: The Battle]

It's a buildup to a battle.

Nicely done indeed! I liked this more composition-wise than production-wise. It's not really that complex but it's catchy and it runs smoothly.
The production part needs a few changes. The orchestra sounds great, but lifeless. You could try tweaking your dynamics. I also thought that your choir samples weren't up to their task. You could either find more convincing samples, or use ones that are more complex (e.g. an instrument which has both a choir and an ambient sound with more reverb). The guitar sound was good enough and trust me, I know how hard it's to find one that doesn't sound like midi...
Overall, this is a quite decent track!

-+-Review Request Club -+-

FairSquare responds:

Thanks for this review! :-)

[Hell Hath Thy Fury]

Pretty good!

I actually liked the fact that you've got a atonal/random value in this. It's not always successful, but most of the time it works. Production-wise, I think it was pretty good, apart from the final compression, which I found a bit too much. You should either drop your Maximizer a bit or the bass drum in the mix. The instrumentation could have been a bit richer, but it's enough to go by...
Overall, I think this is good enough, but there is more hidden potential in your atonal-like parts!

-+- Review Request Club -+-

Blackdoom13 responds:

Thanks alot! I appeciate all opinions!
Thanks for the review!

[from the begining to the]

Loved it!

I really liked this! Apart from the distortion, I would also recommend you at least brought the piano in the middle. For a moment there, I thought my left speaker was dead. It sounds a bit unbalanced. Maybe that's the reason for the distortion as well (don't ask, too long an explanation). Overall, I really liked the composition and that is what is most important here. Touching in a Yanni like way, strong, convincing and overall highly emotional! Nice job!

garyevor responds:

I appreciate your thoughts and vote. Most of the (in fact all) music I write comes from the heart, and i love to share it with others. I've still got some work to do in the recording department to make the finished product more polished. I'm working on that. Thanks again.
garyevor

[frenzy]

I have to review...

Seems you too got zero-bombed... I gave you a five to compensate this as much as I can. This is actually a nice tune. It sorta reminded me of the Dr.Who theme song... Nicely done!

[i mecht aussteign]

Good enough!

Why didn't you produce it? It would have been great! The guitars are nice, the keyboards are fitting, the vocals are spot on etc... This is an overall great song! If you added, apart from compression, the full potential of production (depending on whether the original recordings are clear enough), you would have had a gem here. Not just a raw diamond...

[Clockwork - N.O.A.C.]

Loved it!

Solid production, variety in riffs, I loved your guitar sound (I'd like to know what it is), vocals are fitting (but a bit too low in the mix) and they sound as tuned as Metallica's. To be exact they sound exactly the same as Metallica's. Was that Autotuning set to max? But I can say something that can easily come back to hit me... The hihat was flat, too much in front all of he time and in many cases simultaneous to crashes (octopus drummer effect) . Now, these are only small details. The overall sound is GREAT!!! Nicely Eq'd, good mixing and clear recordings!
Oh, I also love the solo! Solid and fitting! Get a keyboard player! Then you'll make me happy enough to give you an 11... ;-)

FoX66 responds:

(This is straight from our Guitarist. So know it is without fault.)
Guitar:
Peavey Wolfgang, Orange Rocker 30, DigiTech Whammy, MXR EVH Phase 90.

With Metallica-like vocals, what was used was a compressor, not an Auto-Tune. I do not know what Bobby's set up at Paper Tiger Studios for the Auto-Tune was. I think the drum track was kind of static too, but Jacob (the guy who wrote the song) wanted something simple. The solo most most likely him improvising. He is insanely talented in that aspect, or any that deal with a guitar. Our Bassist is a keyboard player, so no worry there.

[In Saturn's Ring]

Weird! But in a good way!

Originality! That's the key! Hopping it doesn't sound like an insult, this sort of reminds me of what any musician can learn from Bjork... What impresses me most is that you've even managed to use some rather mediocre samples to your benefit! There are no bad sounds if you know how to use them to create the feel you want!

What you do need, though, is some post production. At least some amount of mastering. I felt it needed just some more radio friendliness...

Overall, great job! I agree with ChampIDC. This one's your best yet!

DonaldFletcher responds:

Thanks for the review. No insult taken!

Yeah, I started noticing some minor issues with the samples after I got a better set of headphones- about a week after I uploaded it. The vocals and the percussion were taken from a handful of Sony sample libraries. I'm particular about my drums so I might have pushed the samples a little too far here and there, and thinking back I'd have ordered the processes on the opening snare differently.

All the VSTi's are highly customized. I think the main problem with them was that the original was done in Acid Music Studio and I finished it in off Acid Pro, so some of the VST's needed readjusting due to my higher available sample rate.

I'm still working on my mastering skill. I picked up Sound Forge and that did a much better job downsampling than Acid itself. Also as of now I'm controlling the master volume with a handmade volume envelop;. I can't seem to find a compressor or other process that really seems to do the job for me by itself. And I'm still trying to train my ear to get the equalization correct for broadcast quality- glad someone actually commented on that! At least I can say this was way better than my previous work in those regards. And depending on what speakers/headphones I'm using (my new set particularly), I hear clicks and light static here and there, especially around the bass. I'm not sure what's causing that, but one of these days I'll have to find a way to fix it.

I'm just glad I stayed away from loops on this one. The originality factor would largely have been lost if I fell back on that.

Thanks for the killer review. I hope this response was appropriately long enough, haha

[All Aboard the Psytrain!]

Well, I for one liked it!

Not that I'm a trance fan, but this brings me back memories when as radio DJ for a trance show, I used to find every conceivable excuse to play rock and metal trance covers... And this is decent enough for me!
I particularly liked the phasing of the main riff. I would suggest you used a deeper bass drum though, as this one sounds a bit thin. If you like it as it is, you can add a second one (with a deeper sample though) on a duplicate of the bass drum line on a separate channel and apply a high-cut filter to lets say, about 200Hz...
Keep up the good work! This one 's promising!

theta4 responds:

I actually had a nice powerful psy kick before, but I decided to go with this one.

imo, one of the defining features of psytrance is the kick, but I believe in a more subdued kick, a kick you can feel rather than hear. However, I think I'm gonna make a trance song some day with a kick like Astral Projection.

and skazi has some really good heavy metal goa, like total anarchy 1.