DonaldFletcher's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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 :)

[In the news]

There's no excuse for this getting any score < 4

Exceptionally polished sound on the first listen, especially compared to most of the other material I hear in this place.
Main problem I'm getting is that it seems like your percussion lacks slightly in creativity and inventiveness behind the rest of the song's character, especially from the 2 minute mark on. But your instruments are very well managed and arranged. Sometimes it's a little bit flat, though, like an unprocessed oldschool midi keyboard. If that's the sound you're going for, great. If not, think about tossing in a little more reverb just to bring it into the listener's reality a bit, with a decent equalizer to keep things from getting out of hand if necessary.
I don't normally find songs that use spoken vocal samples that I actually like, but you did a killer job immersing them into this piece to really drive home your theme. The singing vocals were spot on for this kind of tune.
Overall a very fluid and enjoyable track that I'm sure I"m gonna remember. Cheers.

GlueR responds:

Thanks for the review! I just got 0 bombed in my latest submission, which frustrates me even more! I was never all that good with writing drums mainly due to boredom, so in most cases I give it to the band's drummer to play them on a midi drumset and send me the file. When I did this, he didn't have midi drumset... So you 've got a point there. As for the old-skool thing, I was actually going for it. It's a hammond, but I made it clean and crisp, so that it resembles a video game sound, to create a greater contradiction between a happy tune and the actual message. Later I was told that the idea was something like REM's "It's the end of the world". A happy melody on a sad subject.

[Industrial Techno shit.]

Another good one

Sorry, I'm dead tired but I saw this on the later submissions in Industrial and wanted to give you a review before I forgot.
I dig your beat as always, and your composition is pretty solid. I'm just detecting here that you didn't put as much into this as you did with your other material that I've heard. The synthetic bass instrument in particular was notably, if not distractingly repetitive. But I really liked those distant synth chords, the ones that had their 'solo' if I can call it that around 2:38. They really helped make this track as great as it is.

So I'm giving you an 8 here just cause of a few small shortcomings, but I'm voting 5 especially because there's no reason in the world why this should score under 4.

DomesticTerrorist responds:

Thanks dude :D

[Embrace me]

Another great one dude

Yeah, this is really working for me. You've got that industrial style that you're great at here, plus you've got this almost ambient thing going on here at the base of it all, making for a truly unique piece of music here. It's really such a slick idea that the somewhat repetitive nature of the whole thing really didn't bother me.

Plus I like the fact that you let this one end itself a lot more smoothly. That really completes the piece.

Overall quite well done, and again, what a cool concept.

Teddybeere responds:

Thank you for listening regularly to my new works. I don't think that the combination of distorted beats and calm pads is really this unique, Johan van Roy for example was very successful with this experiment far before me ;)
This track was a bit different from the others in its birth... first, it used to be hardcore powernoise consisting of nothing but distorted drums. But something wasn't right about that... so I'm glad I found its true soul in the version that you can hear now and I'm even more glad that you like it ;]
By the way, is there anything new to be expected from your side?

[Nadir]

You never let me down man. Glad I found this!

Another fantastic track on par with Dark Conviction, if not a step or two above in some regards. You have a way of really bringing the listener into a whole other world, and I can tell that you're like me in that you don't publish a track until you're sure it's as polished as you're gonna get it. On top of that, you took this to another level by finding way to make a melody new every time the listener hears it. I added this track to my favorites right away because I'm sure that every time I hear it I'm going to find something new to appreciate. There's so much depth in your music that it blows me away.

By the way, sorry for the disorganized review - I took way too much caffeine and my hands are shaking. But I'll tell you what, this track deserves straight 5's like everything else I've ever heard from you. It's always great to hear your material - I've been waiting almost a month for this!

cycerin responds:

Thanks, man! Good to hear from you again.

[Ich brenne]

Another solid track

Don't worry, this is way too hard for techno. Ha ha, was that a joke?
I love how you process your bass drums. It's definitely the percussion that makes this piece. Really overloads the ears with this huge volume of sound.
Other than that, I think there was a lot more you could have done with this- just seems like you didn't give this great track the ending it really deserved in the last 20 seconds. I think that if you'd just carried it out for another fifteen or so seconds, and bring it to some climax then let it naturally fade, it would have made it a lot more fulfilling.
I definitely dig your hard, dark style though. Really brings me into the track. Nice work once again!

Teddybeere responds:

Hmkay, thank you, maybe I'll overwork the ending... you're right when you say it does not really fit to the song. I don't know if I'll upload the final version here but I'll pm you when the album is ready where you can find it.

[Blinder [PDM]]

Definitely.

I hope this stays right up top where it belongs. Most certainly one of the most original pieces of work up here at the moment, and I think that's a recurring theme with everything you do- very innovative.

It was hard for me to find a single word to describe the overall mood for this piece. Not that I'm seeing gnomes or anything (inside joke of course) but it seems like you're artfully flirting with the boundary between establishment and a limitless array of synths, which is what you're good at and, when you're famous, will be known for I'm sure! On one octave I'm getting a driving hail of sound, and on top of that it's your beautiful mastery of synthetic noises that really makes this a pleasing listen, with the mandatory flanger (which I know all too well your love for, lol) keeping things soft enough and providing enough variety in the sound to make it just as interesting each time it rolls around.

Were you thinking about adding vocals to this? It sounds to me like you left room open for that. If so I look forward to hearing it.

Elfire responds:

i <3 reading your reviews! ^^ they make me sound better than i am! haha. jurys still out on vocals. i may start getting someone to do vocals instead, if i can find the right voice.

again thanks for the review!