LionzNTiggerz's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Arctic Avenger]

Lots of stuff that appeals to my appreciation of symbolism. The howl at the end was like a signature.

[Twilight Ronin]

I like the flute & guitar combo. I'm really enjoying relating it to the story, and elements that you wrote about.

[Heavy Goofy - Metal Loop]

Dude this is amazing!

staticnoise responds:

Thanks!

[Fuck With Me]

It's good, but maybe if you let go of the bad-ass you could start putting some real power into it.

[a loop for you]

Not bad, nice bass, nice happy melody. Nice little bits of distorted shrapnel flying around my ears. The rhythmic filter giving the rhythm is cool, nice and squelchy. The drums at the beginning are cool, I mean the high hat and stuff. It all kind of bounces along nicely. It isn't just: DRUM HIT - DRUM HIT - DRUM HIT - DRUM HIT, but it has some flow to it, the drums kind of breathe, with nice little gaps of silence in between. And the 16th high hats on the next bit give a bit of relief from that.

When the kick and snare are played in fast succession, they might sound a bit too sampled? I don't know what you could do about that. Maybe something about putting them at different volumes, or messing around with the attack envelope?

Yeah, it's well nice. And happy :)

DESHIEL responds:

oh i can shape the drums along with hats however I want, but I didn't want to go way too crazy with them here so I got kinda blocked. Ended up composing only two sets for the beat, the ongoing and the one that you described as relief ;D

[Clashing Fists]

I thought the song was cool. Good melodies, a good sense of progression and flow.

However, I have a criticism. The problem is the mixing. The drums are cool, they sound good, but they don't blend with the rest of the song. The only serious source of bass in the whole track is coming from the kick drum. And the electric guitar has a big mid section scooped out of it.

So the song is cool, but it's just a bit difficult to listen to because of the quality of the mix. It's as if it were a sketch: I can hear what you're getting at, but it isn't the same as the song itself should be.

Here's my advice:
Short term solution: Turn the drums down, so they fit better into the mix. Especially cut the bass of the kick. It won't have as much punch, but it will bring the amount of the punch coming from the kick down to the level of the rest of the track, so the rest of the track won't sound wimpy by comparison.

Long term solution:
1. Choose a similar, good heavy metal song to compare to and listen back and forth, and just try different techniques to beef up the sound so it's closer to the comparison track. In particular, equalization, messing around with volume levels.

2. Perhaps try a different guitar sound, because the guitar sounds really sampled. The sample you have chosen is really 'beefy', but it loses it's impact through so much use. Or you could even convince a real guitar player to play/record it for you.

(3) If you're going for a video gamey semi-sampled sort of sound, what I said still stands, but you will just have to incorporate that, too. If you want a sampled sound, make it deliberate, not accidental. You might have to take the time to play with the sampled sound artifacts vs real sounds, and strike a balance.

Anyway, this is a cool song and it's something that i would like to listen to properly. Those little melodies at 1:14 are really passionate and striving but sweet and innocent at the same time, which kind of tug at my heart. The ambientish drop at 0:19 is really colourful and interesting and sort of haunting in a heavy way.

But you need to take care of the mix before I can listen to it like a real piece of music. It doesn't have to be perfect, but, you know the 80/20 rule? 80% of the gain is made by 20% of the effort.

I hope this helps and isn't discouraging. I wouldn't take all the time to write this if I didn't think you already had something good to start with, and the potential to make it even better.

Here is a mystical quote to ponder over:
âEUoeThe seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece.âEU ~David Bayles

ChroniusNightmare responds:

Well. It's gunna take a while to match your expectations.
I've been playing guitar for over 8 years, but idk how to add the stuff to the music program I use.
I listen to a lot of heavy stuff all the time like Mudvayne, Tourniquet, Dethklok, Dream Theater, Mastodon, Cradle of Filth, etc. Quite a bit of it I get from them or some supernatural gut feeling that I get from time to time.

[Zelda Theme - Jazz + more]

This is great. It's giving me a better understanding of what jazz is about because I know the zelda theme so well.

At first when it went into the improvisation I thought ("Oh god, here comes the wanky jazz noodling"), but then I realized it was actually connected to the melody, it wasn't totally non-sequitur, and it was kind of, well the first part was like it was adorning the melody.

Also I like all of the jazz sounds in the 'head', in a context that I understand. Like the drum roll, and the fading horns.

SMES responds:

Thank you so much! Funny enough, our saxophone player is a massive fan of Zelda so it lays no surprise that zelda is hinted in the melody. Thank you so much again for your really amazing comment! =)

[Ecosystem]

The beginning makes me think of a disney film or something, where all the animals are starting to come out of hiding, and they are all displaying their colours, like peacocks, etc.

At first it's all fun and easy and inviting, and then it's a bit mystical, like "there might be more to this than you think."

It's kind of making fun of them too, like pointing out how silly some of them look, but beautiful at the same time.

Then at about 1:39 it gets mystical and trippy. It's like the mystical stuff really comes out and it's completely unfathomable to the human mind. Like some backwards dance or like 50% of it is in a non-visible spectrum or a different dimension.

The guitar after the heavy strings is kind of like a gentle, wise, compassionate overview on the whole thing. Then when the drum starts again, it is like you're trying to start the heart beat again by pounding on the chest, and then it starts.

Some of it is cheeky, too, lol. Like the little melodies that come in 3:30.

It's amazing because it all sort of works together, and the way it is right now all works and you can see how everything fits together. But there are loads of little things that are blatantly trying to change the order of things, too (sometimes despite seemingly overwhelming odds). So it isn't static, it's dynamic.

And there are some parts that are just enjoying the beauty of the thing, like the chimes at 3:39. They don't really have an agenda.

Step responds:

Wow, great review! Thanks for going in so much detail!

"The beginning makes me think of a disney film or something, where all the animals are starting to come out of hiding, and they are all displaying their colours, like peacocks, etc."

That's a really cool comparison. I can definitely see where you're getting at. It's the kind of intro I always strive to perfect, where I build everything up, develop rhythms, introduce motifs and then let the song progress from there. It certainly helps to 'open up' the track.

"At first it's all fun and easy and inviting, and then it's a bit mystical, like "there might be more to this than you think.""

Haha yeah. That's good because there's always more than we think in an ecosystem :3.

"It's kind of making fun of them too, like pointing out how silly some of them look, but beautiful at the same time."

Yeah a kind of playful mood right? I definitely tried to go for that. Some parts around the track are intentionally playful and 'cute'. Other parts are exciting and intense. Others are just plain happy. And others like the climax at the end is where everything really gets together :P.

"Then at about 1:39 it gets mystical and trippy. It's like the mystical stuff really comes out and it's completely unfathomable to the human mind. Like some backwards dance or like 50% of it is in a non-visible spectrum or a different dimension."

Wow, I basically added that part to showcase what I can do in orchestral since that's the genre I'm strongest at. Never had any of that in mind; but hey, every piece of music communicates uniquely to different people :P. I see it more of an intense and almost dangerous part (like a predator going after its prey or something) rather than a mystical part, but I do see where you're coming from.

"The guitar after the heavy strings is kind of like a gentle, wise, compassionate overview on the whole thing. Then when the drum starts again, it is like you're trying to start the heart beat again by pounding on the chest, and then it starts."

Yeah I can't really make a climax without throwing in a soft part right after haha.

"Some of it is cheeky, too, lol. Like the little melodies that come in 3:30."

Yeah that's some of the 'playful' composition I was referring to!

"It's amazing because it all sort of works together, and the way it is right now all works and you can see how everything fits together. But there are loads of little things that are blatantly trying to change the order of things, too (sometimes despite seemingly overwhelming odds). So it isn't static, it's dynamic."

That's a wonderful compliment, I'm really glad you think so. Diversity is something I consider very important, but the flow and having everything work together is also vital, so learning that I've achieved a great balance between the two makes me get a "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" feeling inside :3.

"And there are some parts that are just enjoying the beauty of the thing, like the chimes at 3:39. They don't really have an agenda."

Mhmm, some of the stuff in there isn't entirely unique. The hints of brass around the song, the chimes, and the strings are probably pretty generic. Although I tried to make most of the sounds have their own personality, if you get what I mean.

Anyway, hope some of that mumbo jumbo I wrote made an inkling of sense, heh. Thanks a million for reviewing, I'm very grateful for it!