DonaldFletcher's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[Rueckkehr eines Engels]

Who knows where the hell that guy gets his balls

For someone who's average score between ALL his songs is 2.61 (which I just calculated)... I don't think the previous reviewer's got any goddamn business telling anyone who can make what music with whatever freakin software.
Not to mention his grammar is so bloody poor I think you'd have to be a moron to understand his review on the first readthrough.

That behind us, I definitely sympathize with you on the lack of specific genres. I wish there was an Industrial Rock section here as much as you wish there was Noise for this piece. ACIDplanet has both, but it's absolutely dead compared to this place. But at least it doesn't seem have immature little turds like that guy. I keep thinking one of these days I'm gonna change my focus to AP... but yeah, I'm ending my rant now.

As far as noise goes, I can't fault you for anything you did in this piece, the genre being what it is. And as far as Noise goes, this is definitely right on. In fact, it's almost too well orchestrated. Really, I'd be hard pressed to pin this down between Industrial and Industrial Noise. I might be a little drunk now, but I can definitely say that this kept me involved through 5 minutes of material. As always, great work.

Teddybeere responds:

Funny: Only the pad you hear in the beginning is made with FL. Hm, I'll check AP out and maybe upload some songs... It won't do any harm if I spread my music over several portals. Maybe I'll get some inspiration from other noisemakers there...
Thank you for the review, especially because you took the time though you were partying (I guess). I like "In Saturn's ring", didn't find the time to find the right words for it but I'm looking forward to new songs from your side.

[3AO]

Nice attempt at live synthesis

FIrst thing to think about with replicating live work-
Try to define the world you're creating with your reverb. That's what tells the human ear where everything is. It's really a long process that actually involves a lot of math, but it can be done, but it involves a lot of math to get everything precisely right. This'll involve particularly the speed of sound and how that creates a natural delay between reverb and the first reflections the ear hears, and also, to a lesser degree, the way decibels relate to distance from the original source of the sound.
Also, try to keep the crowd samples a little more consistent. I liked the attempt, but some of the crowd's vocalizations were so obviously out of place. Also, much of it was just too obviously repeated. Unfortunately you'll have to find a very specific and comprehensive sample library to solve these problems. And I haven't seen one like that yet, but if you're looking at doing this again I'd suggest looking into it.
Other than that, this really, really kept reminding me of some of the live Emerson Lake and Palmer stuff. Which is definitely really cool.
For the attempt, this really was damn good. Nice work. If I wasn't paying this much attention I'd have sworn this was just a great 70s era band doing some improv live in the middle of a show.

DeweyGland responds:

Wow, thanks for the review. I had no idea live sampling could be so complicated. Yeah, it was my first attempt and everything you said is correct, and I certainly didn't consider regulating the samples for consistency- that never crossed my mind. Next time! I've got a raft of ideas to pursue and I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind.

[The Gotterdammerung]

Loki would be pleased.

Nice work here.
First thing I noticed though was that there's some noticeable clipping occurring due to the overall volume of each instrument combined. It doesn't seem to be any one instrument in particular, but it's definitely all at the bass level. Or so my ears tell me. Just try to keep that volume level in check with an envelope. And equalizer over your whole project could also help you to keep your full volume level while avoiding that unnecessary clipping as well. Just a thought.
Other than that, I like what you did here. It's got almost enough variety here to keep it 100% listenable through the three and a half minutes. Your instruments seem to compliment one another pretty damn well through the most of track and your transitions are decent too.
But ugh, just watch that volume here. Really I think that's the only thing holding you back from a much higher score.
Regardless, very good work.

Tx-Maniac-xT responds:

Thanks bro. Very infomative. All my songs coming out in this time period had clipping ploblems because I wanted alot of bass, but couldn't keep it under control. Thanks for the great review!

[-| Welcome to Cyberdrome |-]

Definitely great.

Yeah, I haven't heard anything this utterly cool in Industrial in a long time. Heavy yet classy. This could definitely be made a little longer. Adding an extra verse to give this a little more of a lifespan definitely wouldn't hurt. It sounds that good.
Your mixing talents are truly exceptional. Too bad I'm still too drunk to really comment on EVERYTHING here (I"ve been drinking for twelve hours now, honestly) but suffice to say this is truly bloody awesome.
One more thing- I wish your ending here was thought out a little better- it just stops. This track definitely could have used a more fitting conclusion.
Seriously, great work. It's refreshing to see something new that's this cool on the front page again.

MashedByMachines responds:

Wow, thanks for your great review!

Yeah i´m not too satisfied with the ending either, i´ll look into that later. :)
Thanks again for your input! it means alot :)