PirateCrab's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[Vapor Lock]

Ace as fuck, get back in the game!

Also that tone. Oh man it makes me kill babies MMMMMMMM.

RobSoundtrack responds:

Hahahaha! Tryin new stuff is scary!! Very fun tho
Thanks so much man!!! We should work together again soon

[Hope]

So catchy and groovy, yet so heavy and melodical! I've missed you bud, welcome back :)

RobSoundtrack responds:

Thanks so much bruddah!
Thanks a ton!
Have missed you as well friend; lets make dat music soon!

[Of Epic Proportions]

All I can say is everyone, YOU FUCKING ROCK. I had wicked fun writing the solo for this and I'm pretty sure everyone else did. Thankyou Rob for a wicked backing track and letting me be a part of this! <3

RobSoundtrack responds:

PirateCrab, you kick ass

I had fun too man; what an honor to work with everyone.

Let's go for round 2