ErikMcClure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hyper-Adrenaline Loop]

Very loud

The melody in here is fairly good, although in terms of what the song's trying to achieve you might want to put in a few lower notes instead of just having rests in a couple of places. The song seems excessively loud though. This is made really obvious at 0:27 when the song drops off a cliff. This would have worked if you stuck a crash in there (and if your crash wasn't drowned out by the synth), and then slowly faded in the main synth back in. Other then that its fairly good for a loop.

7/10
4/5

SpliceMan responds:

Thanks for the review!
I admit, it is a LITTLE loud :P
It's still my first loop, so I thank you for the advice.
~Splice

[Katlean prime]

Very well done, however...

The main motif in this song is superb and very catchy. Unfortunately you have significant quality problems (most of which have nothing to do with FL studio, trust me), and because this song is designed for a somewhat boring situation, you shouldn't expect a particularly high score on newgrounds. That doesn't necessarily mean its bad though.

I would recommend learning how to EQ your instruments, as it will greatly improve your sound quality. I would also try to put in must more panning usage and stereo seperation.

On the song, I think that you have a very catchy idea here but you keep raping it with that horrible dissonance. Sure its a funeral home, we get that, the main idea conveys that instantly, you don't have to ruin it with dissonance just to try and get the point across! It doesn't sound creepy, it sounds _bad_.

Other then that though, the actual idea you came up with here is really awesome.

7/10
5/5 cuz the songs rated so ridiculously low

P.S. Your topic on the BBS is probably going to get locked,

Calamaistr responds:

Yea its locked now but i dont mind that much about it, you people have swayed my opinion in a heartbeat by your well thought reviews, i understand everything you people are saying but i dont hink i need a EQ since i just learned that its possible to load multiple instruments into the same pattern of FL, ill be working in fl again i guess, not because i cant get anywhere without its modern quality or anything but because i want to see what i can do with it. I always got something to fall back to anyway.

:)

[Kw- Dark Caves (FB)]

I love Descent :)

I think this would fit in very nicely in a descent style atmosphere, but IMO if you brought in some slow drums a lot earlier in the track it'd fit a little better. Most of the game is spent blowing things up, not wandering around a wasteland, so if I were trying to do a descent song i'd keep much more focus on the percussion in general (which was one of the main things that made descent 3's music so unique). Also I've noticed that descent music used a significant amount of pitch bending and resonance, even in the percussion, which was largely absent here. Still, a very nice work.

8/10
4/5

nightsurfermusic responds:

Cool, thanks! :) I largely based this off of Descent 3 Level 4 and level 14, that real ambient music. I figured this would be good for exploring a cave or a destroyed military base or something. :P

Thanks for the review!

[Blackhole FX]

Interesting

HEY LOOK IT'S MY NAME xP

This has a couple of interesting melodies, but I'm not much a fan of the insane FX going on. The production though, as usual, is ridiculously good; since that's the overall aim of this song, I'll give you a 5 anyway since it succeeded at what it was trying to do.

8/10
5/5

axeFX responds:

hey man, thx for the review. I'll try and build off of this, see where it goes. Blackhole ! your the man!

[Os Vs Mjattie -of Softest Rain]

Inspiring

My only gripe about this song is its excessive volume and harsh choice of synth. However, the melody is truly amazing and its one of those songs that can conjure an emotion out of thin air.

9/10
5/5

ObsidianSnow responds:

Well, despite your "gripe", I'm glad you found it inspiring.

Thanks for the review, Blackhole!

[When the Wind Blows]

Unbelievable

I would say "get signed" but you seem to have already managed that, so I'll just attempt to express how unbelievably good this song is. Great production, beautiful melody, and lyrics that actually get me to listen to them.

10/10
5/5

AlexSandford responds:

Haha, I'm not signed. I'm just your everyday joe with an Alesis.

[Adamant FX]

So close

The reason this song hasn't done as well as it should have is because you had a seriously awesome idea at 0:27 and then threw it away, never to use it again. Had you gone into the break and then returned to that idea plus an upper melodic embellishment, the song would be absolutely godly. As it stands, the song starts with pure awesomeness and then just... dies.

Either way, very good job 8D

8/10
5/5

axeFX responds:

I'm pretty sure I know wat you mean, ill have to try that. thx for the review man.

[Battle of the Aeons]

No.

I'm sorry, but no. This song has a few isolated good parts, but its ridiculously repetitive and the percussion is horrific. Without a steady rhythm to normalize against, the beat becomes blurred. That said, 1:19 is REALLY cool, but it only lasts for like, 2 measures! The rest of the song is just blurred beyond recognition and has far too much crap going on.

There is no outro and the intro is extremely lacking. The song jumps into the main melody and then stays there the entire song. This never works. The mastering is impressive given simply the fact that you can hear the bass over all the other crap you've managed to fill the song with, but other then that the frequencies levels are completely unbalanced and skewed to the upper and lower ends. The song _feels_ heavily compressed, which is never good.

All you did the entire song was take the melody and go through a bunch of synths. While its a fun exercise, this is anything but ear candy and almost sounds worse then some of your earlier songs simply because its so freaking repetitive. One can argue that stylistically but when your main melody has barely any variation in it in the first place, repeating it over and over for 2 minutes straight is not enjoyable in the least. You've got to have an obvious countermelody or SOMETHING.

3/5
6/10

:(

N3ChronoK0 responds:

NO U

[Through the Myst (WF1/F77/S3C)]

Superb

The intro here is simply pure awesomeness, although it is a common motif for epic scenes. The only real problems I have with this is the mono drums - they would sound so very much better with panning and a touch of reverb. Other then that, it's got delicious amounts of variation, a crazy good beat, unique instrument choice, and some really nice melodies. A couple of the synths sounded a bit cheesy, but I generally don't rate down for that.

At 4:25 you have an explosion of stereo-ness, the song would be so much better if that was extended to the entire song.

5/5
9/10

S3C responds:

Thanks for the good review man! I'm glad you like the ideas in this. Yeah I agree with you, a couple of the synths could have been a bit more innovative :) I was thinking of including a couple of synths that I had previously made in sytrus, thanks to the help from your guide!

Yeah, some of the percussion sounds could have been panned a bit better indeed, I know I did some panning on the second tabla and shakers in the interlude, but twas should be brought out more. As for reverb, I wanted some the drums to sound close in comparison with the distant, reverbed strings, piano, and a few of the synths. ^^

I might recreate the stereo atmosphere more throughout, it was mainly that thickly chorused string pad in the end.

anyways, thanks a lot for the review man!

[It'll Be All Right]

Superb

Seriously, go get hired to do music for a game company or something. This is awesome stuff, although I think the song is maybe a tad slow in some parts. A couple of extra sounds during the guitar solo in the middle might have helped a bit, or you could have gone a little farther with the intensity of the 1:10-2:10 part. You needn't make it louder - this is ambiance, but just bumped up the complexity of the atmosphere a little more. The trick is to keep new tidbits of sound going in to stimulate your listener without going overboard (something I'm not particularly good at :P).

Other then that, great song.

10/10
5/5

Mrmilkcarton responds:

Thanks man. I dunno about a job yet but someday hopefully.