ErikMcClure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[SN | No Purpose Flour | SN]

This is Genius

This song has left me stunned and in awe. You're talent in crafting soundscapes and melodies is beyond almost the entirety of newgrounds. This is a drum and bass song that sounds beautiful, which in of itself is a feat I previously thought impossible. I would strongly encourage you to look into alternate genres that would benefit from your amazing melodies.

The glitching and effects in here, while consistent with the genre of Drum'n'Bass, serve only to distract the listener from the pristine brilliance of the actual song. The drum lines themselves are extremely well crafted and fit into the song nicely, its the effects themselves, bizzare noises and glitching that take away from the song.

1:07 is simply divine. It is just fucking DIVINE. I would have taken more points off here because of the distracting effects, but I can't give you anything lower then a 9/10 if listening to your song made my jaw drop.

9/10
5/5
Added to favorite artists

SessileNomad responds:

horray

the effects, i admit could have been tailored a little better to compliment the track

glad you liked it man, i remembe rthe last track i did for the contest you were like "wtf does no one var their drums anymore!" lol

peace out, thanks for the review

_edit_

oh yeah about the exploring genres thing, ive done a lot of exploring, ill probably explore out of IDM sooner or later

[-Orr- Colony]

Superb

The piano notes seem to go a bit too high - pianos almost never sound good played that high. Maybe bring it down an octave? The piano sample in general doesn't sound particularly impressive, actually.

Of course, that's nothing compared to the awesomeness of the rest of the track. I can't even keep track of the plethora of chords you throw the melody around in. The song is extremely varied and yet is able to sustain a theme throughout the entire piece, and does a superb job blending rock and orchestral genres, although I didn't hear much electronica in there (but then almost everything these days has elements of that).

The piece seems a bit quiet, but the volume is good considering its background music for a game. I still think some of the instruments could use a bit better EQ work for that professional feel. The instruments just don't sound crisp enough, and some more powerful higher frequencies would help out there a lot. I keep thinking the guitar should be a little stronger too, but I'm not sure about that.

The guitar solo near the beginning bothers me because its very empty sounding. There's just the guitar and some drums and a few quiet strings. The soundscape is really lost there and it feels unfinished.

Everything else, of course, is crazy good.

8/10
5/5

DavidOrr responds:

Awesome review! Lots of great ideas in there, I'm going to go work on some of those things and probably re-upload. Unfortunately the piano sounds I have aren't great, but I have some awesome ones in the mail as I type this, so I'll redo that once those get here, which should make a big difference. EQing has always been something I'm trying to improve, since that can really make or break a piece.

Thanks for the review, I'll be returning the favor soon!

[-:YRX:- Deuz-armaggedon Demo]

Melody == Good

However, as the reviewer below pointed out, it seems pasted on, the drum loops are uninspired, and if it weren't for the gratuitous use of that horrid amenbreak this wouldn't even qualify as a DnB song. The melody does have some interesting chord progressions that I like, but never actually takes advantage of them. It never really takes advantage of anything at all, its just one random melody after another with some boring drum loops going on.

As the reviewer mentioned below, if I were to pay attention to genre here, you'd be losing major points for the fact that it's called drum'n'BASS, which implies the use of some sort of bass, which is completely absent in this song. Contrary to your expectations, there is a way to incorporate a subtle bass into this song without ruining the mood - it has to do with using reverb and carefully weaving it in and out of the main beat.

The drums in this need help. They barely change at all and they aren't even interesting to listen to in the first place. There are 3 drum samples used. Three. A kick, a snare, and a hat. That is just not going to cut it. This is DnB for crying out loud, you need varied, interesting drums with a significant presence, which should enhance the soundscape instead of intruding on it.

6/10
4/5

YouriX responds:

sorry i changed the submission. So your review is irrelavent now :P

[_I Promise_]

LIMITER ABUSE

Even with the seriously massive production problems in this song (as a suggestion, next time you don't have time to mix a song, just lower the volume), I like many of the melodies that are going through here. The melody really makes you feel like things will get better, and it's got an amazing soundscape behind it. I can feel that there's a story behind this song, and it's done in a very creative manner.

The intro synth could use a bit of release, and i think the intro in general could use a bit more buildup via filters or something else. The flute in the intro is absolutely brilliant though. The outro, on the other hand, starts getting the right idea but ends far too abruptly and leaves the listener a bit confused. Some of this might be influenced by the serious equalization problems, of course.

So, even though the execution of this idea was absolutely terrible, it was such a beautiful idea that you still get an 8/10 and a 5/5.

vanguard182 responds:

yeah, i've always had trouble getting the mix right and then mastering afterwards, i'm still working on it. points well taken though, thank you for taking the time

[MH16: Nowhere To Hide -NGAD-]

Needs a little work

The underlying melodic ideas in this song are very impressive, however. I think that the song would be better if it had higher production, but high quality orchestra songs are bitchingly hard to make, so I'm going to leave that out of the equation for right now.

The intro is very good, the middle is a bit questionable, and the end is wonderful, bringing the song in a complete circle. The hit at the end could be a bit stronger, though.

I think the instruments in this could use a few more dynamics, since the volumes seem a bit stiff, especially on the flute, which would have sounded far more authentic with volume changes in accordance to how it would be preformed. Overall, this is an impressive song.

8/10
5/5

FairSquare responds:

Thanks for the review!

[Primordial]

A MELODY!

....that is then ruined by the fact that for 90% of the song, it is simply a giant droning guitar riff that dissolves into noise. The production values in this song are at least decent by heavy metal standards, and there seems to be a hint of some rather epic guitar riffs in here, but they are painfully destroyed by the noise factor, until the song TOTALLY RANDOMLY turns into acoustic at about 3:00.... and 20 seconds later goes back into guitar riff madness.

The drums in this song are absolutely nonexistent, which I do not understand. The guitar is overpowering everything in the entire song. The drums should at least be side-chained with the guitar or _something_ to make them more then background noise.

I'd try to criticize the failed execution of what sounded like an attempt at a melody at 1:00, but at this point I'm not sure it would really matter. I do note that there are actual chord progressions in this song, which is impressive. The ideas near the 2 minute mark are at least promising but sadly are ruined because the guitar is completely out of whack with everything else. There seems ot be a song stuck somewhere under that endless guitar riff, but its been crushed by the endless noise and its impossible to make out.

5/10
3/5

[xKore - Moments]

Oddly addicting

At the start of this song, I was certain I wasn't going to like it very much, but it is very strangely addicting despite the harsh drums. The melody gets into my head really fast, and the rhythm does a superb job of augmenting the effects of that melody. I'm not a fan of the synth breakdown in the middle, but its still effectively done.

The song is strange in that it seems to be suffering from reverse stereo discrepancy - the drums are stereo, but the actual melody isn't, aside from reverb on the bell synth. This may have been stylistic, but its still rather off balance.

The production in this is absolutely superb, although the side chaining seems to be a bit ridiculous and while it's a common stylistic technique, I really think the song would have benefited from a more constant background with less obvious side chaining.

9/10
5/5

[Fingers Crossed]

Finally!

A DnB track with ACTUAL VARIATION IN THE DRUMS! Some of that variation, however, isn't really desirable and sounds kind of silly. At many points in the song there is nothing except the drums, and they don't have a strong enough presence to really pull that off. A lot of the accompaniment seems random and without any real attention to keys or tune.

The ending of the song really starts getting fairly good with some creative use of a sax, but then it randomly cuts off into a drum solo and... the song ends. Unfortunately this is not particularly impressive, and the drums really need to have a stronger presence to pull off such pervasive solos, either that or just add in some ambient background, which would work nicely as well.

7/10
4/5

[Astral Travel]

Creative, but lacking

This is an interesting ambient song with a fairly good landscape, but it's hurt by its dissonant notes that are thrown all over the place. The instrument choice is actually very well done, as is the basic idea, and the pitch bending is very creative. Unfortunately the piano notes are in a completely different key, which is just random, and there isn't enough stuff in the song to really keep it going for 3 whole minutes.

The production could use a bit of improvement, as well as the reverb, which is important in ambient songs like this. The drums are all mono except for a single isolated hat and a ride sample, which is really really weird. They also do not change for the entire duration of the song, and considering the significant part they play in the overall song, this is unacceptable. The vocals are slightly annoying because they're completely incomprehensible and seem random.

6/10
3/5

eatmeatleet responds:

Ok, I think the score is pretty fair. I used reverb on most of the instruments but didn't abuse because it would sound too obvious

About dissonance. I am stick to using scales only, the piano seemed to fit in there, but I guess I will not do it anymore since you say it was just random. I don't see why vocals are incomprehensible. Maybe they just don't fit to the song name or something

[Madness_Ultimacy [Box-Killa]]

No effort

This entire song is made of two elements. Drums and a cliche'd synth. That's it. That's the ENTIRE FREAKING SONG. What is this, a joke? Not only do you only have a single synth going on with a very random melody, you completely destroy it in random, unnecessary pitch bendings that ruin the entire creepy atmosphere that you were going for in the first place!

Good points: The intro in general, especially 0:20, which is superbly done and really does sound like a stealth track.

Bad points: Everything else. The magical moment at 0:20 is overridden by the fact that its the only redeeming quality of the entire song, which is otherwise just a glorified drum loop with a synth that's been pitch bended and screwed around with to the point of insanity. There is nothing here.

5/10
3/5