loansindi's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[WIP -- Perfume Dance]

What you're missing is a lead. Something to carry over and throughout your various staccato elements. Something to really fill the middle range of the track. You've got a rhythm section set up, now build your lead.

kaffekane responds:

I just can't find what I want to lead it with. That's the problem that I'm having with it most.

[/M: Moon]

neat atmosphere

there's a little bit of discordance ringing throughout, which complements the overall texture very well.

any given part of the song is only superficially distinguishable from any other part, which I think is a good goal for this style. the progression seems logical, while the constant rhythmic accompaniment (minimalistic in nature as it may be) is a common thread ensuring consistency.

I don't know that I have any complaints or criticisms that could be directed at this song, rather than the style. Very nice.

Mich responds:

The discordance wasn't actually intended; I just played with what felt right, without rewriting the chord progression a dozen times like I usually do when writing trance. I'm glad you think it works though.

Again, I just went and made music, and let it come as it did. I heard these little repeating melodies in Siney's music, and I knew that worked, so I decided to try and incorporate something similar. I'm happy that that worked.

Yeah it isn't quite metal, ska, or industrial, but I'm glad you enjoyed it either way.
Thanks a lot for the review loans. :)

[Wild and Aggressive 2]

eh.

This really isn't a song so much as a random collection of riffs.

8 measures of the same boring snare/hihat action... twice? I think there's a kick in there but the drums are so poorly recorded I can't hear it. There needs to be some serious variation in the drums. Have him add some fills or something for the love of god.

A bunch of random riffs with no connection thrown together does not make a song, as I said. You need to do something so we're not listening to what are really a few different 4 measure riffs over and over again. It's boring. Add some lead guitar or some vocals or something.

Make sure your shit transitions well instead of just brickwalling into a new part of the song.

Aggressiveness responds:

Yeah, our recording equipment is total crap and there is a kick, but as mentioned, they're poorly recorded due to the crappy equipment. The next time we rerecord this song, we will add fills and a brand new guitar track. So try and look forward to that.

[Wild and Aggressive]

Not a lot going on, is there

Well, your recording definitely isn't top-notch, right off the bat. The guitar, especially needs some help. It sounds terrible. The drums... were they single-mic? They're very 'roomy' and not mixed well.

Aesthetically your song is pretty far from the heavy metal vibe you seem to be so attached to. The loud, punchy bass intro screams punk to me. The guitar line isn't really very heavy, that said.

The song is -boring-

Nothing happens for so long. You've got a few parts that repeat far too many times to maintain my interest. No lead guitar, no vocals. The track is missing something in a big way.

I seriously think you should tighten this down. This song should be maybe three minutes long with what's going on. That's the biggest thing I can tell you right now.

Aggressiveness responds:

Yeah, we have some pretty crappy recording equipment. We originally intended to be a heavy metal band, but it seems like we're more in the punk territory. So from now on, we're a punk band. We're gonna improve on this and shorten our songs from now on, also. We might re-record this song in a different way, but the production will still be crap. Thanks for the constructive criticism.

[Voice Demo [2009]]

Technical issues

When I stumble across a voice demo I try to review it because nearly all of them share a number of issues, mostly technical in nature.

In yours we run into the classic problems with breath/mouth noise, volume level, and tonal quality.

When it comes to breath/mouth noise it's generally best to move off the mic, or move the mic off-axis from your mouth. Anything that will keep you from breathing into it.

Volume is easy. Just speak louder. This will help with the tonality and lend something to getting rid of the feeling that there's no 'support' to your voice. Just speak up. A lot of voice submissions feel odd because the submitter isn't even speaking at a normal level, much less an elevated level that lends itself to clear recording with a minimum of background noise. The louder you are in relation to your background noise the better.

bigjonny13 responds:

Alright mate, thanks for the advice. I really appreciate the feedback and I'll take that into consideration for the future.

[Don't Change]

Pretty good.

You've got a pretty specific style of voice that can work well in a pretty wide variety of musical settings.

Even if it's not the strongest singing, I think it's pretty effective.

I'm not much of a vocalist so I can't be terribly specific in my critique. There's a variation or two in volume/tonality that almost sounds like you're changing position in relation to the mic.

Other than that I think you can definitely pursue vocal efforts with confidence that you won't make anyone's ears bleed.

Dimoria responds:

Thank you very much :) I'll try to think of that the next time I record anything. :)

[(E-E)The Steel Maw]

Feels very dry

Something about this track just seems very dry.

I think it can be attributed to the very stripped-down instrumentation (don't get me wrong, I love minimalism in music). But that overdriven synth could have a little more presence in the mid-range. I think that'd definitely help the texture.

Aside from that it's a nice little tune. Pretty straightforward and it gets its point across.

Everlasting-Elements responds:

What do you mean by mid-range?

[TTC 2010 (casual version)]

Why two versions.

I guess my first question is why you would release two versions of ostensibly the same work.

Bass drum feels very overpowering in this one. It literally buries your other percussion.

I like the piano lead a lot. I wish it had some more time to speak. The little glitches in the arps near the end don't translate as well with this instrumentation, I think.

Again though, it feels like the length is fighting you here. It's like you've just started touching on some tension and then the song's over and it resolves. I want to hear you push forward with those ideas for a while.

I also think this work could benefit a little from some study into silence. It's a solid minute of those arps running, with no rests or breaks.

So I guess what I'd like to see with this is:

- Extend it. Push into some tension and dissonance for a while
- Revisit your percussion/mixing. Four on the floor gets old quick
- Play with silence, or at least relative silence. Maybe give that piano lead some time to speak by itself, let those arps fade away. Some kind of variation. It just feels like you've crammed all of this into a very short period of time and it'd be more comfortable with some breathing space.

There's a lot of good stuff here, so don't take this as overly negative.

Calamaistr responds:

i have no idea how to fade, tbh this was the original version.
When it was rendered i chose to play around with certain other sounds untill i was content with it so thats why there are two versions, a casual and a VG like version instrumentwise.

I played with the hi hats and snares alone because i wanted to keep it a 80's beat, i didnt want it to turn into some rock percussion.

I have plenty of tracks with silence, this track is moreof based on the minimalistic rain i also used in butterfly.

Hmm, the reason its short is because 1: i cannot work on a track from another day and it was already really late in the morning when i finished (still had to sleep)
2: its just a intro theme really.

There are tracks on my repertoire that i would like to redo in fl8 sometime, this is is practically just warming up. :)

Thanks for your elaborate review.

[TTC 2010 (hypernet versio]

Seems a bit short.

I think some of your lead instruments could definitely come forward in the mix. They seem pretty well buried under that arppegiated synth, and it makes it pretty tough to really hear what's going on overall.

Aside from that it just seems so short that there's no time for a whole lot to be happening.

I'd like to hear a differently mixed render of this to see if the feel changes a little. I feel like I have to strain to make out what the melody is doing as it is.

Calamaistr responds:

all you need is to be familiar with the TTC CHGENERO theme and butterfly to understand whats happening, nothing is really buried either as far as i can hear.
The background synths are supposed to be quite distanced.

[[S] Metal Digga]

Needs quite a bit.

I think first and foremost you need to address your recording technique. You don't describe your setup so I can't be more specific, but it's got a lot of room for improvement.

Secondly, you need to find a way to fake up some drums, and bass if possible. The guitar work doesn't really stand on its own.

The guitars could have more interesting rhythms. Your initial guitar is panned way too far right. Solo is too far left.

The guitar tone overall, and especially the solo tone, is incredibly weak. Where's the gain man?

Your solo is BEGGING for some reverb or something so it doesn't feel so flat. Be very attentive to string muting, a lot of your phrases end with string noise. I know that I tend to do nine million takes before I'm satisfied with a track. The solo would benefit from some legato techniques, I think. Overall it feels very uncertain. You've gotta be comfortable with your solo forward and backwards before you commit to it.

Don't take this review in a negative light. There's just a long way to go before I would call this a complete song.

Screch responds:

This is probably the best review I've ever gotten. You give a lot of tips and I'm very thankful for that.

With recording I just plug my guitar directly in my comp and use software amp simulators.

I have done drums and bass with songs in the past. I just didn't view this as a song, more like an idea or something, so I didn't use those instruments. However, I recorded this so when I'm in the mood again I can build upon this work and hopefully have a completed work.

I'll try and work on tone, I'm not really sure how to improve that. Adding reverb onto the solo sounds like an easy fix, so thanks for that tip. And actually I improvise my solo's so I can't really know them backwards and forwards lol =D.

Again, thank you for this review. I really appreciate it man!