siteml's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Shooting Stars [Happy Hardcore]]

Great job! I can see the lead easily being replaced by a singing voice, and that usually is a sign of a solid melody. After checking the original, I see how that came about ;D You lost a star for two reasons, though:

1) 0:55 out of nowhere you introduce fast paced/heavy drums that seem off beat to the rest of what is going on, and that made me cock my head and go "wtf?". It's easy to have that happen if you leave the melody to also serve as a rhythm keeper and do some irregularities with it - and then try to introduce drums, especially mid-phrase. Two ways to deal with such cases is either ease into it with a more sparse beat and build up to the part after the pause, or you could just use a beat that matches what's currently going on, even if it changes in the next section - the latter could amplify the epic feeling of going into the next section as a bonus! Either way, the sudden appearance of those drums was a bit of a no-no. This was my biggest issue.

2) Possible mastering issues and transitions: Pauses can be effective, but if overused it can kill the magic of the piece, too. Not a big gripe here, but I'm thinking the 2:00-2:32 part could have used either more sparse (or lighter) drums or even dropping them altogether, and rather than a lead-in pause have a descending filler melody to retain the intensity coming off the chorus (ascending could work, too). The mastering issues I'm seeing is perhaps just too much crowding, especially with the chorus - it gets overwhelming to my ear when for the duration the volume meter stays put near 0db. Crowding can be solved in multiple ways - putting parts into different registers and timbres and/or EQ-cutting them are two major ones if you do not want to simply take out parts or play with their volumes (some sidechaining is nice too, though I generally can't be arsed to do it and stick with other methods xD).

Like I said, #2 is not major and fairly subjective - but since it may help you to consider those things I thought I'd elaborate :) #1 however does break the magic of this piece for me somewhat. My best tip there is to think of the drums not as the time keeper but as the spice to the piece, if you were to think of the music piece as a dish :) The right spices in the right amounts make a dish delicious! ;P

Hope this helps, and keep up the great work!

PancakePocket responds:

This is probs the best review I have ever gotten, thanks! Yeah, I agree with you on the drums and the pauses!

[Siege]

Really nice if you want to sit back, relax, tilt back a glass of [liquor of choice here] and enjoy a moment of time just like so :D

RaceTTar responds:

thank you siteml

[The Forgotten Plains]

Quality stuff! One note, however:
I can hear background noise in the recording - a fan or something of the sort. It becomes an audible difference especially when you go from your recorded audio to what I assume are sampled/synthesized sounds from a sound library of some kind. I recommend running your recorded audio through noise removal. For that purpose, I use Audacity - which is an excellent free sound editor. To do that in Audacity, just select a moment of silence in the recording, go to Effect>Noise Reduction and click Get Noise Profile. Then select the entire thing (CTRL+A works here) and go back to the same dialog and hit ok to do the noise reduction. It will remove any jarring persistent noise in the recording and make it sound a bit more like it was done in a studio.
Other than that, I love the atmosphere this piece provides! Kudos!

kcpm responds:

Thanks, that's very helpful advice! Damn, it must be my computer fan. I know you can also hear my arm rubbing across the face of the guitar and my chair creaking. I think I might just start recording in the bathroom or closet and padding the walls.

[FFVIII: Force Your Way Metal Cover]

I feel like the guitar is overpowering everything else. The bass and snare drums are strong, but the cymbals are maybe slightly too weak - maybe make some cymbal hits more pronounced? Some of the synths you use barely have any "say" - I'd advise going back to mastering and playing with the levels, maybe adjusting the timbre of the synths, because at times they feel more like an afterthought than an integral part of the piece. Perhaps the solution would be to notch the guitar down a little (and at the same time the drums so that they don't become too loud as a result) - again, I'd play with the levels and see where it goes. Thus why you lost half a star there. Otherwise some pretty sick stuff you got there - I'm a fan of FF music, so this was a treatsie. :) Hope this helps!

JDawg00100 responds:

Thanks! It's not very easy for me to manage 3 or 4 different synth/key parts with two guitar leads, rhythm guitar and drums all going at once, might just take a few more hours of tweaking to get it there. :P

[Drums Of Mordor]

This would have gotten full marks, but the drums.... as Shurrikane already mentioned, the transition at 1:10 could be better - but the drums don't get better, either. The drums are playing off rhythm for a good amount of time since they get introduced at that transition point, which is sadly distracting. To sum up: excellent build up, then awkward transition, and fumbled drums distracting from something that could have grown truly epic. Drums are ever meant as flavoring to spice up a piece, contrary to popular belief, and if not done right they WILL break it. (there are exceptions, but there's a reason they're exceptions!) Nail them, and they augment your creation; add them and fumble, and they will be noticed immediately for the wrong reasons. Do experiment with what drums can do for you in this and other pieces, and best of luck in your musical journey :) (it's my way of saying, keep up the good work - you're not *there* yet, but you've got things going for you. Don't EVER let the negative bits get you!)

BMBRJCK responds:

Thank you for the review! It is very hard to notice such things if you are hearing the track hundred times.
Thanks a lot!

[Lessie]

This is really nice, though I found the slow-attack effect on the guitar starting at about 1:15 in somewhat distracting/overbearing especially at times. Otherwise hats off, a great chilling out piece!

RaceTTar responds:

Thanks man. There goes my "remastering" lol! I think I fixed it now. Thanks again for the note :D

[ManMade Catastrophe]

While the snares are something to learn from, as they are really nice, even the rhythmic setup, I really felt there ought to be some kind of chord or key change several times in the piece to keep the tension in some sort of progression. The low strings merely reach for something then go back down to the baseline of key/chord. You do try to do something at the end of the loop, but it's a bit late imho. For the most part it feels like the wheels are spinning but not getting anywhere :( I understand there has to be an element of tension, but you can do that while having a subtle chord progression going. Since otherwise in my mind you've nailed it, 4/5

MindlessVandalism responds:

THIS is the comment structure I was looking for!! I need people to tell me what I'm doing wrong, there's always some room to improve.
Thank you!