DonaldFletcher's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Trauma (Demo)]

Now that's some Industrial.

1st impression I got within 15 seconds of listening is that your sound quality is off the charts. The strongest element this track's got to throw at the listener is sound and your manipulation of it. I'm listening with several hundred dollars worth of headphone right now, and it's safe to say this is almost completely error free, especially compared to the other stuff around here that operates on similar frequencies. Based on your style, I'd say there's a good chance that everything I'm hearing that could be construed as a fault (i.e. crackling, clicking, etc) is likely there on purpose because it fits the tempo. So I gotta hand it to you on that one.

Since this is a demo, I'm hoping that when you throw the finished product out there that your intent is to add more sounds to it, not make it longer. I like the length of this piece because I see that there's a lot you can do in there, though as it stands now I find myself getting lost before 3:46 when you go back to the spoken vocals. Before that it's about a minute and fifteen seconds of audio that has little to distinguish itself between repetitions. This is a sad betrayal of the phenomenal intro you started with, which gave me the impression I was gonna get a six minute rocket ride through an industrial bloodbath. So currently this track runs a minute or two too long for all that's in it.

Normally, I despise spoken vocal samples in music, but you're one of the few people on here who can actually do it RIGHT - give a good quality voice its moment, then build back into the meat of your track inside of a beat or two.

When you finish this thing it's gonna be 10 star material. Killer start.

Siborg responds:

Those clicking sounds you speak of were half purpose half accident, they came from the bassline. It a patch i made in Vangaurd and the initial start of the sound had this pop sound...i could get rid of it so i decided " ok it wont go and i liek the sound...let's incorporate this into the song!" And so i did. As for the samples they are part of the story im telling in this piece so i had to compromise a few areas to get them to fit in, but yes its still in the works and im going to add more elements to it once i get this demo album finished. Once the track is 100% ill let you know thanks for the review and im going to check out some of those areas and tweek a bit :)

[Red Ocean (Old)]

Sweet, smooth Industrial track

You're doing pretty much everything right from the start here. I like how you allow this track to introduce itself so smoothly, and you're using some very full-bodied effects here. Your string melody gets a little repetitive before the end, but I gotta give the credit for writing a really good one to stick with.

It's cool that you left the whole center of the stereo plane largely empty of your major percussion. This has a very immersive, encompassing effect on the listener and seems to work well with the wide stereo presence of a lot of the non-percussive sounds you've got going here. Perhaps it might be judged to be a bit extreme (since it is constant), but I think you did a great job with it. Keeping the industrialized snare in the same place on the right and the BDs (which are very well composed for this piece by the way) in the same general location stage left gives this track a steady quality that really works for the mood you're conveying, while the hats floating around the center still leave a nice subtle treat for those of us with headphones.

I also like the stereo sensitive LFO in the soundscape effect in the background. That's working extraordinarily well here. I'm trying to do something similar on my current project actually, and so far I haven't had the success you've got here. That effect is also really helping your conclusion, alongside instrumental subtleties included mostly on the right channel. Very classy.

I would have drawn out that final note for another beat or two at the end. A track like this seems to demand a slightly (though very slight) longer outtro.

That just about covers it. Nice to find you in Industrial!

Aeris responds:

I love your reviews, they're so intuitive, :D not just a simple "it sounds awesome" or a "it sounds like shit" and moves on. Thanks again, I'll look it over, sleep on it, and relook into the conclusion. If something awesome comes up, i'll be sure to reupload it.

My genre kinda varies x3 I can't really "classify" something, like analytically. But I can hear something, take the subtle differences between the other genres, and decide "so that's industrial, i'ma try" sometimes it comes out awesome x3 sometimes it doesn't.

[F**k Off- Instrumental]

F**K!

I'm liking the "I don't give a rotten fuck" kind of melody here. It really does seem to be saying "fuck off," and "I'm gonna say it over and over again until you get tired of the song."
Truth is though, I never did get tired of this thing. As indicated by so much of your other work, you have absolute mastery over your instruments and can get them to sound any damn way you like at any time. Not only that, but you precisely know how and when to change them at those crucial transitional moments. This keeps it intensely interesting through the whole damn track. And with that, there aren't two sections of this track that sound exactly alike, and your build at the climax is simply awesome, yet it remains clean all the while (while as you know a lot of other artists here might let the volume clip all the way to hell and back in proportion to the intensity).
I think by now you already know most of my other praise for your style and technique, so I'm just gonna close this one off with one of those cliche "keep up the good work" deals, except it's envisioned with the appropriate amount of expletives ;-]

DomesticTerrorist responds:

Haha thanks mate, I definitely will keep it up :P

[Dr. Ishii's Experiment]

Another really cool track.

This might be short, but I really dig it. This is a really cool, imaginative piece of material. Not much I can say bad about it, other than that the transition at 1:27 seemed forced. I'd have built that thing back up with some percussion. That'd've kept the intensity of the flow back into that sweet melody while smoothly leading the listener back at the same time.
This combines a cool classic feel with the intensity of the synths, which conflicts here and there (like when you have the electric piano [I think that's the midi instrument you've got there anyway] running beneath your synthesizer after the aforementioned transition) but is overall very well done. It does add a lot to the classy scientific sort of mystery atmosphere of the piece though. It'd be a bit difficult to change it without losing that quality.
This could've been drawn out further past the conclusion though. If you ever find the time I'd love to hear a fuller version of this piece. Nice work man.

Surdu responds:

Thanks for the review! I would love to make it longer but i felt like I already had reached a climax and didnt want to ruin it. Some day I'll wake up and know what to do to lengthen it.

And yeah, the electric piano does conflict harmonically with the synth stuff. I suppose i was kind of lazy and made the excuse that the dissonance added effect but i'll play with it.

[Clairvoyance]

This ain't bomb material. What's wrong with people

Nice job writing your own tunes man. You did a hell of a job with that - your piano melody is just great. Your percussion's good, too, though I'd definitely do something about that clap that becomes so audible at 1:54. Add some reverb to that thing- it just sounds like it exists somewhere outside reality at the moment.
I'm getting a lot of clipping though, especially right at the start, and it shows up to a lesser degree through the rest of the track as well, most prominently toward the bass end. Try to watch that volume level, and/or tweak an equalizer til things get cleaned up!
But from one person who composes every beat to another, this is a great original work. Nicely done. Just fix up those couple technical aspects, and maybe think about separating your instruments within the stereo as well, and this'll go from being an 8 star track right to a 9 or ten!

Aeris responds:

awesome, perfect response, thanks C: I'll get those editted as soon as possible :D

[[V] - Furial]

No ideas for a title, but here's a long review!

I definitely feel the 30 Seconds influence on the lead. Attack's a great track to be inspired by. Love it.
What I really like is your percussion. You did a great job of keeping that interesting and intense through the length of the song.
Also, pretty good job on composing this thing. Most of the instruments fit well, and your transitions are well above par. It loops a bit repetitively at times, but really it's still good. Your panning on the non-percussive instruments was smooth, and truly well done. Though the percussion was monophonic in comparison, which made the track a little less interesting overall. It would have been nice to hear those sick drums rolling around between my stereo channels.

I think I know what you mean about the compressor taking something away from the song. I've personally never had luck with them so I just use a volume envelope to regulate my overall levels. I might also be detecting some compressor-induced clicks through the track. Might possibly be the instrument though. If you have any doubts though go ahead and adjust it. I like it when music feels more natural than what comes out the back end of most compressors I've used, which often leave things sounding forced and lacking in their original character. I'd love to hear what it sounds like after you fix that up!
Despite those couple setbacks, this is still getting a 5 from me - other people ought to be able to hear what you did with this thing. Nice work.

Marks-a-lot responds:

aww man really... I didn't hear any clicks. I normally don't use compressors that much but since I decided to do everything in fruity I didn't really have a choice. Glad you liked it.

[Drifting Along...]

Pretty damn good guitar work to say the least

As far as a straight guitar solo, this is a damn nice recording, though I think (if you have some samples or synths available) some accompaniment would have made this a lot more interesting. The pauses created a lot of emotion, though something else would have been nice to occasionally fill the space. Or to have at least created a stronger sustained chord at a few of those points would have made this much more interesting.

And even though it's actually sort of cool by itself, everything from 1:51 to 2:26 seemed flat and stereotypical compared to the rest of the track. Really it just didn't even seem to fit the theme I was getting from the rest. But as with the rest of the track, the guitar work is still solid so it's got nothing to do with your skill.

Overall I like this though. Job well done.

MonkeyV responds:

Thanks for the review, and glad you liked it.
...
I actually like the ending, it has a kind of different feel than the rest, but I think it goes in nicely.

[I was made for lovin' you]

Excellent cover.

This is exactly what I'd expect out of a great cover. Definitely good enough quality for Guitar Hero license to say the least ;-]

I can tell you put the straight week into processing. That's why this is going to stand out so much from most of the rest of the NG tracks, the authors of which don't normally put in the time nor have the equipment to really fine tune a sound like this.

It's been awhile since I heard the original (at least a few years, unfortunately) but this is one of my favorite Kiss tracks. I always like seeing how cover artists apply their own available equipment and talent to the task of recording famous material like this, and when done right that should result in a subtly new take on the original. This definitely showed that to me.

But what I really liked more than anything was the way your band really pushed things in the at the opening and the conclusion. The acoustic opening was phenomenal and perfectly fitting, and the transition to the concluding acoustic part at 4:37 really made this exceptional. I wasn't able to find any version by Kiss that did this, so I'm assuming that was entirely your creation. Great job on that.

Normally I have trouble giving too high of a score on a cover, a cover being what it is, but in this case your band truly deserves the 10 for all the work, creative and technical, that went into this. Fabulous.

GlueR responds:

Thanks for the good review! We tried to create a completely new take on the song, trying to bring it in the '00s. We completely changed the instrumentation, apart from a few things that sound characteristic to the song, like the rhythm guitar (now played by a synth), the main guitar riff (now left channel guitar, right channel analog synth) and the whips (then it was some synth sound, now it's actual whip sounds). The rest are completely new, including the electric and acoustic rhythm guitars, the hammond, the electric piano, apparently, the intro and the ending, the final electric part, the power chords, the second part of the solo etc...
We actually just took the original as if one of us came to the band with an idea for a song, the rest of us built on it and then left to me for a couple of weeks to do the rest of the instrumentation, editing and production... That's exactly how we do original songs as well.

[Teleru]

For once I agree with all previous reviews

Certainly there are better gun effects available to you than that. I'll reinforce that because it would be such an easy fix. That being said, your use of the other environmental sound elements was spectacular though. The voice acting was obviously not professional- I'm thinking high school drama club. Gotta make the best of the materials at hand, though, so with that in mind I really can't take too much off for that.
All instruments seemed to be very well driven to convey the mood here. They even flowed smoothly with the environmentals, which is something that's really hard to score on. There were two times when things got out of hand though:
The transition at 0:59 seemed way out of tune.
And the rapidly repeated percussive sound that was used at 1:43 and elsewhere seemed too monotone for this work. Though the stereo panning with the effect kept it relatively interesting.
Very fine work overall, despite the couple shortcomings. This one really stands out for me.

Surdu responds:

Thanks, It's comments like these that really make posting on newgrounds worthwhile

[Lonely and Cold]

Damn, man.

Too bad you can't go back and touch this thing up. I can really tell this project has so much bloody potential. Like I"m salivating thinking about it.
Unfortunately, I can give points just on potential.... that would be too generous, so this is just an 8 instead of a 9 or ten.
Your problem seems to be that the volume is going way beyond the limitations of digital audio. Something as simple as a volume envelope dynamically adjusted for each part on your master bus would have made this truly epic, I'm sure. But as it stands, it's just hard to listen to because that clipping occurs pretty much from the sixth second on. With as good as this could have been in mind though, man, I can't justify scoring it any lower than this.

Tx-Maniac-xT responds:

Heck yeah, thanks. I have a big problem with going past the volume limit. I just want to push the goodness too far. I've been workin' on that problem though. I want to remake this song but it's hard for me to make the same song because I can't remember how I did it, lol. Thanks again man.