PirateCrab's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Half Of Me]

Yo dude, this is killer! You've dropped enough love on my tracks so here's me returning the favour!

Awesome tone, brutal riffs and the melodies are hella catchy. Those time sig switches are so on point and that synth at 3:37 gave me hella goosebumps. Love it!

Also parts of this is very monuments-esque and then suddenly Sithu Aye! Some of your inspirations perhaps?

Kick is phat, Snare is on point, though might benefit from a slightly longer tail (Reverb or natural! I like to add longer tails during parts where the snare work is sparse and shorten it where it's used in quick succession) and a small push between 500 and 1k for some extra snap and to pull it through the mix. I reckon the toms could benefit from a bit of extra body. Possibly a push around 300/500 to add a bit of box and phatness to the slam.

Great track, killer work. Keep it up boi! <3

Xenogenocide responds:

Ahh man, thanks for the review! It means a lot, honestly. :)

Monuments are one of my inspirations, but I haven't really listened to Sithu Aye - I've heard good things but never taken the time to listen to them.

There's a bit of everything in this; Monuments, Animals as Leaders, Tesseract, Bulb, Scar Symmetry, 80s montage music, etc.

Love that sorta stuff.

You might also notice that I put it in the "Experimental" category because I find most metal heads hate this sorta stuff too. Only nerds like proggy djenty time-sig changing shit. :'D

Thanks man, I'll have a gander at those toms. I've got a gated reverb sound on the kick and snare boosting the mids which I like, so I may just put the toms through and see what happens. Might give them that extra oomph.

[Vanquish the Night]

This is bladdy awesome! I'm such a sucker for non 4/4 time sigs :D

If you ever want me to record some guitar for one of your tracks in the future, I'd be more than happy to!

bassfiddlejones responds:

Crab battle! Hey man, your track rocked. It was an honor to be up against you in this. It would be sick to collab sometime, I will have to hit you up man! I think we could make some pretty awesome stuff happen :O

[Son of Beach (NGADM '15)]

Thanks for the big up bro!

Personally I think this track is filthy as fook and I'll be happy to go out of the competition against this and not vs some whimsical orchestral piece ;)

As bitter said, your writing creates a form of atmosphere that is individualistic to yourself. it's so dark and dungeonesque, almost mystical if you would and it creates some wonderful melodies!

Also, absolutely beautiful guitar playing, if that means anything coming from another guitarist :)

JDawg00100 responds:

That definitely means a lot coming from you, thanks!

[Bloody Tears (Robsoundtrack)]

Robs back! Killer cover, your sound is getting so much better!

RobSoundtrack responds:

Latest of late replies; thanks dude!
It's slow going for music here though unfortunately.
Tell me whats new with you? It's been forev

[Deep Dish]

Well shit. What a fucking brutally clean tone? Have you got passive pickups in you guitar? Honestly it sounds like that gain is on like 10% haha, keep it up man this is some goooooooood shit! :)

Kor-Rune responds:

They're active EMGs but I should really replace the battery haha. And WOW you have good ears. I just check my gain and it's at 15% for both amps, with the tube drive pedal at 30%. Thank you so much piratecrab <3

[A Girl's Champion]

This is killer! The mixing levels are actually really good considering you had a short time to finish this and the theme works wonderfully!

Can't believe you almost didn't submit this. You cheeky thing! :)

Bosa responds:

Yes sometimes I can make mistakes lol, but thank you for the kind words! I really did the best I could do, so I am glad that there is at least some fruit from my labor.

[Automation]

Dunno why your score is so fucking low because this quality work. I love all the harmonies throughout, I see what you mean by countering each other haha. Dunno why but it sounds really sinister hahaha. Nice work dude!

Step responds:

Sweet, thanks man! At 4.43/5.00, the score isn't THAT low haha. This track was doing really well earlier, with something like a 4.80/5.00, but 0-bombers will be 0-bombers in the end.

Great to hear from you. Thanks for reviewing :3.

[GM - Dragon Of The South]

Hey dude!

I ain't a judge for round 2, but I figured I'd stop by and say this track is fucking awesome. You've really outdone it with the melodies here and I can see you've took my advice with switching things up! Production is sweet, melodies rock, guitar playing is killer.

NICE ONE MUDDAFUCKA!

(Ps Thanks for being a fan of my music haha)

InYourDreams responds:

OH NOOO PIRATES!

:D... thanx dood!! I'm glad u like it. Of course I took your advise man... u r fucking awesome! Everybody here in this contest is so freaking talented... This is making my life harder than it should, man... lol
Naah, I'm actually loving it. It's making me try harder and learn a lot of stuff and a lot of new people aswell. I'll try to keep it this way... my next submission is gonna be really interesting :P... I hope it works out the way I'm planing it.

Ps: don't mention it, bro... u r a great guitarrist. I envy you... that's why I'm gonna find you and eat you to get your powers ... Kirby style!!... MUAHAHAHA... beware O_O

[Fisherman's Fantasy]

Your NGADM Round 1 review
--
Well you had an easy run through to the next round didn't you ya lucky guy ;) Regardless, this piece from the beginning is beautiful! That piano intro and the harmonies and melodies are GORGEOUS. You have beautiful control over the velocity of your notes and apply power where it is required, yet keep it calm where necessary! The key change you placed at 1:37 hit hard on the shiver scale! It went from being a fairly sad and lonely piece to a sudden change in mood, like a complete shock. Your piano sound is absolutely beautiful as well and it's either well recorded or you've got one hell of a VST. BLADDY EXCELLENT!

However, I will whole heartedly say that the moment came in, I feel like it personally took away the power the first part of the song contained. Being a metal head myself I was instantly picking up nuances in the production which really put me back on the score.

The drums I feel don't sit forward enough in the mix, the guitars sound like a VST and I find this kind of sound really fake and lowers the quality of a metal song. This is kind of a personal'ish opinion due to the fact I've produced Metal for roughly 4 years but it had to be mentioned sadly. The bass however sits well in the mix, VST or real regardless and you should keep this tone where possible.

However, your lyrics are BEAUTIFUL and definitely deep. Reading through them (even as little as there are) gives you much understanding even though everybody interprets them in their own way so I LOVE 'em. The composition itself is awesome as well and there's great potential for a wicked sounding Metal track here and your arpeggios with the guitar sit puuuuurfectly.

Now I honestly think (Even though as you said yin/yang) the 2 songs should either be separated into separate songs, or there should've been a subtle build between the two tracks because the abrupt change shocks you from the emotions you feel from the first half. For example, drums fading in to give a sense of change or an ever increasing velocity on a violin.

Apart from that for what they are, great work (Especially that first piece omfg jizz) and I can't wait to hear more work!

SourJovis responds:

Thanks for the review. Very kind and helpful. Unfortunately I don't own an actual piano. The piano is the default piano of the nnxt sampler in Reason. So not a real piano, but technically not a VST. The samples aren't bad, but I did a lot of processing and tweaking on it though to get this sound. The way you play it also makes a difference, and it helps I used a sustain pedal. That makes a huge difference.
The guitars are the weakest link I agree. Especially when you know how a good guitar can sound. Someone offered to play live guitars, but in the end he didn't have enough time. These are samples from a clean telecaster, that I put a lot of effects on. It took forever to get this sound, but it's far from perfect. I don't know if it's me, the samples, the effects or if it's just impossible to make samples sound as good as a real guitar.
What do you mean by the drums don't sit forward enough in the mix? Someone else thought they were too pounding. Too much reverb? Other effects? The panning? Did other instruments drown the rums out?
The bass is also a sample pack from a clean bass, that I added effects to. I think a good bass sound from samples is easier to get than a guitar sound.
I'm glad you took time to read the lyrics and that you liked them. I was very unsure about them.
The two parts do sound very different in terms of style. Maybe the best thing to do is make them separate tracks but have them in one project. I had a game in mind that I'm currently working on with other people. I thought the beginning could be for the title screen, the second halve for a boss battle of action cinematic.