PirateCrab's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Utopia - NGADM '13 Entry]

Your NGADM round 1 review
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As I don't generally work with Cinematic work, yours and TheBenjerman's tracks were difficult to judge. However I'll try and review this as best as possible.

First and foremost, you have a such a soft and soothing melody from the start, that brings a feeling of something coming to and end or a feeling of great acomplishment. However, at 1:03, this suddenly changes to something a little more dramatic. I must say it was a totally unexpected change but it defnitely brought a great variation to the track. Your usage of notes throughout the strong resolve lovely amongst the chord choices and I can see exactly what kind of piece you were working with here. I especially picked up on that cheeky glissando at 2:12, HOW CUTE IS THAT. Lovely little bit of work!

Now the majority of the problems I picked up have already been mentioned by the guys who have already reviewed this track so there's no need to go over them again! At 2:08 when you bring the piano in, the speed of the notes wasn't necessarily the porlbme for me but the choice of instrument. I don't feel a piano fitted in well at this part where I feel a lone string instrument would have held a much more subtle tone and personality against the piano. Again it feels a little repetitive and I will quite happily repeat that an extra layer of something new would have gave your track much more power where you intended it to be. Possibly an atmospheric fill in the background or a choir as jones said at 2:53, it just felt a tad lacking in that aspect.

Overall though, this was a great piece of work and I hope to see more from you soon!

[Saharan Sunrise]

Your NGADM Round 1 Review
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Now, as I don't really work with cinematic music much, yours and papkee's tracks were very difficult to judge. However, I'll review this as best as possible for you :)

As soon as the first few notes came in, BAM SMILE ON MY FACE. It just sounds so soft, it's a perfect little background piece (Actually reminds me of elevator music and when you're on hold on a phone haha) and it just works. The melodies are lovely and choice of instruments to sit amongst the mix like the guitar sliding away in the background just adds to simple and beautiful texture you've created here. Your dynamical range is perfect as well. Everything has power exactly where it needs power and sits just right. Beautiful work.

However, holding on to Steps' comment, IT'S SO SHORT. I tried to avoid judging based on length where possible but this track stands out as one of the shortest and it's really disappointing. You really should have pushed this to be much longer, it holds great potential and an abrupt ending really knocked back everything I'd smiled for!

Apart from that, I love the mood, the texture, the melodies, the simple beat. It's just beautiful. Awesome work!

[Sonik - Batrachotoxin]

Your NGADM Round 1 review
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Let's start with the good shall we!

The instant that beat kicks in, PHWOAR. I knew I was in for a good track, and a quality track it is. Nothing like a bit of progressive house to swing the competition around! Just like step, you perfectly filtered out that bass synth at the start and brought it in with full force. Beauts. I love the bassline melody and it's rhythm pattern. Simplicity in some of its finest I must say.

Then at 2:01, you switch it up, you bring in a new melody and IT'S ANOTHER GREAT HOOK. Your piano sound beautiful and your low-filtered background synth just adds to the atmosphere of a finely tuned track already. Then your bassline comes back to add a lovely build up and then, you hit us with a brand new synth and melody filling out the rest of the track with beatiful music.

Your production is lovely as well, your kick is perfectly balanced and pumps right through, your snare I feel could probably have a little low end punch but I like how it sounds as it is anyway, the bit crushed cymbals add a lovely touch and everything is mixed at a fine level. Great job.

Now onto the things which niggle at my brain.

There's not really much I'd say that niggles me on this track. I usually pick out a lot of flaws in the production but there's very little here to take out on. The cymbal that comes in at 1:30 I feel is fairly out of place. It's either the sound of the cymbal or how you only play it for 2 bars but I feel like it really throws you off from the track. I can't really put my finger on it haha.

Now the main reason I dropped to an 8 was how repetitive the song became after your drop at 4:02. For the next 2 minutes there is very little variety as Step has mentioned and again, the whole progressive house thing etc. I still feel like the bassline would have changed the whole song if you'd added a different melody for the bass to follow. It would've led to a new direction yet still kept it with a similar feel.

I'm also not a keen fan of how the melodies seem to stop at 6:03 either, it's really abrupt. Not only that, the final note of the piano wasn't resolved to the tonic AND IT REALLY BUGS ME. It's like you expect it and then it's not there, it's not resolved :(

Overall however. I love the production, I love the melodies you have and I love your style. You had some tough competition this year but that's just how it goes. Hope to see you next year buddy and can't wait to hear more.

[Fall From Grace (Part 1)]

Your NGADM round 1 review
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The moment that your track kicked in I was instantly intrigued! The sounds that you use, the placement of said sounds, the orchestral movement, it was brilliant! Its rare to hear an artist that can mix and master a track to this level on new grounds. Your opening note and descending tonality sent shivers down my spine. Kudos sir, that's a rarity.

The bit crushed drums were a nice refresher, this was what set your track out from the rest and I hope to hear more of this.Your melodies are very refreshing to hear too, your build ups lead to some really catchy sounds you've made and melodies that stick in your mind.

Now where I said I love the buildups, one of the problems I have with the track is that there isn't enough of them! You created this amazing atmosphere at the beginning which led to an incredibly punchy cinematic track, but throughout the track I was hoping you'd venture back to the original starting riff to rebuild that atmosphere. There were times that you did but it wasn't the same feeling.

Now where step said he didn't like the transition at 1:27, I personally think it opened the track to a whole new feeling and perspective, each to their own. However in regards to the ending, I partially stand by what step has to say in that it feels like a slightly abrupt ending and I personally think you should have allowed the choirs to span out longer to give the ending more personality.

Apart from the minor flaws, this track is one of my favourites from round one and I can't wait to hear more from you!

[GM - I'm coming 4 u (NGADM13)]

Your NGADM review for Round 1
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Both you and Realfaction had some quality work going here. However as I've stated on Realfaction's piece, I feel like you held better production quality yet he had more interesting melodies. As your production quality seems to be at a great standard anyway, I'll focus more on the melodic content for this song.

We'll start with the first 30 seconds. Step has already mentioned this, but parts of the track feel fairly bland. I like to be captured instantly by a song and I struggled to listen slighty at the start. This is because where the guitars are playing chords, I feel you could've thrown in a few interesting variations, change the chord structure around! The piano as well (Production tip here) seems fairly subtle as it is but I really didn't like it. The velocity on the piano sounds fairly soft when I feel you should play the keys a lot harder (Even if it's a VST) and lower the overall volume. With a metal track where you're playing distorted guitars over a heavy drum beat, soft piano chords arn't going to fit. MAKE IT POWERFUL :)

The melodies from 0:33 to 1:55 are cool however, I like the ideas that you have. My only grief is that you recycle your same guitar parts over and over! When I listen to a track, it's nice to go back to a riff you've already heard, but to hear it multiple times throughout a song with no subtle changes to build it into something new leaves me being bored. What I like to see is progression and variety so maybe It's worth looking into taking one of your riffs in a song that you're going to repeat and change the note order so it runs backwards? Things like that!

3:20 - 3:35 caught me as well. With breaks like this I feel it would've been MUCH more useful halfway through your song to break the tension, and be made about an extra 20 or so seconds longer. This can give the ears a rest with repetitive riffs and hold interest to the listener.

Overall dude the production is sound (Albeit slightly lackluster in power which you should have a look at brickwalling to make that wall of sound) and the melodies have great potential. Just work on changing them up, make something a variety!

I look forward to seeing what you have for Round 2 and good luck! :)

InYourDreams responds:

Wow... another long review! ^_^ ... thanks!

Yeah, I think this song is not one of my best ones... I promise my next submission will be a lot better in every way possible than this one... :)

And I'm a big fan of your music, btw! (no ass-kissing intended)

[Come to Reality]

Here's your NGADM Round 1 Review

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Quality song straight off the bat. Love the length, love the riffs, love the changes. I can definitely see how you're influenced by Metallica in this song considering you follow very similar chordal patterns as to what they do. No on to more critical parts.

Drums: To be totally honest they sound fairly bland. The kick has no punch and the snare has no snap. Bring up the kick volume by a good few db (Maybe about 3) and pull up the snare too, and add some high end EQ to the snare to give it more presence. Cymbals sound alright but your choice of cymbals are very repetitive, mix it up a little.

Guitars: Chunky and thick, the stereo sound you have is awesome but it's a little muddy in the low end. EQ a bit out at around 500hz so the guitars work more in the midrange. Solo guitars are awesome though, however slightly out of time which comes down to production and playing.

Bass: Same as above, it sounds fairly "Honky". I'd take out around 200-500hz so it doesn't have the horrible horn sounding pop to it.

Your playing could use a bit of practice to be perfectly honest. You're a sound player but a lot of your recording is out of time, so I'd work on either playing to a metronome to build up a steady rhythm or splice the hell out of your guitars so they become quantized with the rest of the track.

Your song seems to be mastered fairly low as well? It's only reaching half volume of what is capable. That's LOADS of wasted head room. I'm not gonna slant you on this much because I'm focusing more on the compositional side, but that's a lot of headroom out the window just as Step said. Either Brickwall it so it's useable with MP3 players or use the dynamic potential for drums, maybe some orchestration etc.

However, congratulations for getting through to Round 2. Can't wait to see what else you come up with and I hope you put this critique to good measure :)

Metallica1136 responds:

Thanks man, really happy that you think the length is a good thing. Yeah Metallica is a huge influence for me. Along with other bands like Pantera and Testament. Yeah I agree about the kick. Kick needs a lot more BOOM to it, rather than just sounding like a click. Snare needs to be louder for sure. I always record with a metronome btw. Though I do agree some parts are a little off time.

Yeah splicing is a good idea, but it would take up a lot of time, and overall, be more trouble than it's worth. It'd be easier to just get it right the first time. Yeah, the song being mastered too quietly is definitely a big flaw. I should definitely maximize my songs, after I'm done to use all the headroom on the waveform that is usable. But thanks man, I hope whatever I submit for Round 2 gets me to Round 3. :)

Oh yeah, about the instrument's EQ, I agree about that as well. Guitars need more mids/highs, and bass needs those frequencies removed like you said, to get rid of that annoying popping sound.

[Lunar Mind (Instrumental)]

Everything sounds quality here dude!

However, the kick and snare drum sound a tad buried. The sound of them is fine but I definitely think you can bring up the kick and snare a few notches to give them more punch for the track.

The bass is a little muddy too, I'd personally filter out a little bit between 100-300 to give some more clarity to the rest of the track.

Cracking composition though and the rest of the production is awesome. \\m//

Lashmush responds:

I'll give it a whirl and see how it turns out. My monitors left me pretty satisfied but I gotta account for a bit of "studiohead" too I guess.

[Dark Mist]

Yeahhhh buddy this is badass! Straight up raw metal, FUCK SHIT UP!

Keep it up \m/

DanJohansen responds:

FUCK YEAH!!! That I shall :D