ErikMcClure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fertile Grounds and Open Skies]

Judge Review: Too Damn Short

I never thought I'd say this but you actually do have bass problems in this song. The only bass hit is a single bass drum that lacks a steady beat and is off-putting. You don't need to increase the bass, simply put in an additional bass hit to stabilize the beat, otherwise it's just awkward. Doesn't really need to be that significant either, just a little low-frequency-only hit.

I'm going to ignore the genre here because in terms of a DnB song, this is extremely lacking. If its DnB, where is the drum variation? You have basically 3 drum patterns playing over and over in various layers, which is downright ridiculous for a DnB track. Ironically, the melodic structure here is superb. The chords are wonderful, and the strings beautifully executed. If this was simply an AMBIENT song, it'd be freaking amazing. You have some interesting synth use here and the instruments accompany each other very well.

The song is also, at its core, too damn short. At the time it cuts off, you should have put in a piano melody or something similar and taken advantage of the ambient nature of the track to provide a middle. Then you would have gone back to the starting idea and brought it to a proper climax. You still get a 7/10 though because I adore that melody. I like the vocals too.

7/10
5/5

SessileNomad responds:

thanks for the review, honestly though, i do have a hard time deciding where to put alot of my ambient/dnb tracks, in ambient or in dnb

also, drum variation isnt really somthing i hear alot of in dnb on NG, its mostly about the bass, most ppl just just like a constant running loop for their drums

agreed, its too short

glad you liked the vocals though xD

thanks for the review

peace out

[Speeding Through Infinity]

Sooooooooo cheeeeeeesyyyyyy

The synths in here are, unfortunately, painfully cheezy and overly phased. Ignoring that, the basic idea and melody here is actually fairly good, if a bit random. The drum sidechaining is also totally absurd, as is much of the FX, which doesn't usually help. Try to avoid such an extended outro where everything is so filtered out you can't even make it out anyway. The percussion samples all suck but that doesn't really matter at this point since the drum lines are horrible anyway. You've got the right idea on some of the addin percussion, but without a real drumline they do nothing to help the song.

Seriously though, the volume is just going crazy with all that sidechaining (although you likely don't know what that is, so its limiter abuse). Go read that EQing tutorial again. The piano solo is commendable, but it swaps into major key in an offsetting manner, so you still need to work on the melodies.

Also this entire song never actually uses a pad. Ever.

6/10
5/5 cuz 0 bombers suck.

Step responds:

Thanks for the review! I'm new to the Fruity Love Philter so I just grabbed a preset phaser from it and used it; maybe I could turn it down a little... Yeah, the drums... I have them fixed - maybe not the best samples, but now they're in the background where they're supposed to be. As for the outro, maybe two repetitions is a little much, I think one'd do the trick. Yeah, I do know what sidechaining is xP. It's when one sound covers up the other whenever it plays, and it's usually used in hardstyle where the kick sidechains the saw. I think that's what it is anyway O.o. Yeah, I'll be adding a pad probably after the intro, and maybe in the ambient part too. I'll try and work on the piano solo too. Anyway, thanks again for the review and all of the constructive criticism - I'll be adding a V2 with more melodies, more fullness, some pads, a better piano solo, a better ambient part and calming down that phaser a little XD.

[Sterio_Sun [Box-Killa]]

Potential

Isolated portions of this song are very, very good, but the other parts completely ruin the experience. The beginning drumloop is really awesome sounding, but its completely mono, which sounds very weird. You stick a sort-of-ok sounding melody on top of this and then proceed to throw around totally unnecessary FX that becomes very distracting.

Then at 1:36 you bump everything up one or two semitones for absolutely no reason at all. There is no transition, no warning, nothing. Its just OH HEY WE'RE IN A DIFFERENT KEY NOW WTF?! This is a baaaaad idea. People don't want songs changing keys randomly (I know this from experience). The melody at this point is still only so-so.

1:51 adds in a really nice additional percussive layer, and then at 2:17 the song becomes totally awesome for exactly 20 seconds and then you destroy it again with an ending that came way too soon.

Execution, poor. Production, superb. Melody, awesome for exactly 20 seconds and otherwise not particularly interesting. You seem to have this unending obsession with excessive random sounds that take away from the song because they fail to enhance the soundscape.

6/10
3/5

[Cave Story War (Cave Story Remix)]

I love you.

I actually keep trying to remix this song myself but I can never seem to do it justice. Clearly, I needed guitars. xD The most amazing part of this song is definitely the background piano near the last section leading up to the climax.

I can't really comment on whats "wrong" here because I don't listen to heavy metal... at all, really. I can say, however, that I would like to hear the melody take a stronger place in the mix, and maybe to lay off some of the power chords in favor of actually getting the chord progression itself to be heard, since its half the reason why the song is so amazing. Other then that, GO CAVE STORY.

9/10
5/5

rtnario responds:

Well, an epic boss theme like this would obviously sound incredible with fitting instruments. The .ORG format did sound great, but I think it needed something more =)

You're actually right about that; it's a complaint I've had from lots of other people who've listened to Cave Story War XD The main melody is pretty weak compared to the overwhelming powerchords...too late to fix that now, but still a lot of people liked it so ^^ The last part is also intentional and it's a thing of mine to (almost) always make songs end with an (awesome) bang.

Thanks for the review...again! Now you know that 8-bit isn't exactly my forte, but...=)

[8-Bit Fireflies (Owl City Remix)]

Brilliant

What the FUCK is this doing with a score lower then 4.5? This song is absolutely brilliant. It's beautiful beyond words. It's done with 8-bit instruments, and yet it evokes such an incredible scene, and the audioscape is just masterful. There is no possible way that someone could do any better with 8-bit instruments on this.

10/10
5/5

brb submitting to newgrounds underdog list.

rtnario responds:

ikr. You should've seen the entry score before the bombs fell XD Thanks so much for the review, and about the UnderdogList...I dunno, I'm probably a bit above an underdog, but way below being popular in NG (I think) ^^; Have you heard YuYu Metal? It's probably my most popular song as of now...

Thanks again!

[~-Chrono Trigger-~]

Missing atmosphere

I like the melodic interpretations on this theme, and the actual song itself is done very well, but for most of the song its missing the atmosphere and it feels very empty. In particular, there need to be more tonic notes to establish the chords your using. The beats seem a little random too, plus there's little bits of clipping all over the place. Your stereo balance seems a bit off to the left, mostly because of the strings, and the instruments really never break out of the middle. The most glaring omission here is the fact that there is no reverb, and the lack of proper delay techniques. Without reverb, your songs sound flat.

8/10
5/5

Cosmos8942 responds:

Mmm, yes, I can see exactly what you mean. But though I would prefer to fix this I no longer have the original file and am unable to easily copy what I have here as most of my pieces are done as spot of the moment deals. Meaning that if I tried to redo this one with everything you said it just wouldn't feel right. So I will have to leave it as is. But I do appreciate the feedback and will make sure to pay attention to everything you said should I go about making another remix of any sort.

-Tony-

[Flying High - Epilogue]

EQ!

Look at this: http://www.blackspherestudios.com/sub mission.php5?ID=359

That'll help you out on fixing the massive clipping issues on the drums. The piano sample sounds pretty bad too, so I'd suggest either 1. getting a new sample or 2. EQing and putting reverb on the existing one. The strings in this song actually sound very good. It's weird hearing a cringe-worthy piano sample playing along with those wonderful strings in the background.

Outside of the technical details, I love the actual motif playing in this song. It really feels like an ending theme. Unfortunately, the variations you put in (such as 3:20) feel random and out of place. The one at 3:20 actually sounds off key. The melody in general in many places could use a little work, since it sounds kind of like a really good idea that you didn't quite know how to expand on. I'm sorely tempted to do a re-interpretation of this myself.

5:25 was a very nice key change, but the ending would be vastly improved not by a better sample, but simply by echoes and reverb (and of course, some EQ, but the whole song needs that). Either way, very good idea, fair execution, needs some work, so a 7/10

7/10
5/5

Cosmos8942 responds:

The EQing I completely agree on actually. I realized that there was some horrible clipping going on and I still submitted it originally just to see what people thought. Alas though I've never finished it and likely never will to tell the truth (maybe I'll make up with that by making something that sounds just as epic XD). Oh shutup about the piano sample rofl. I actually have much better now and I'd hit you with that if I thought you weren't right about it :3. Yes the piano sample isn't the greatest and yes I could've done better but I had no choice with this one and my sample I had used originally kept fking with the program I was using. So then I had to downgrade and this is what I got. Its one of the biggest reasons I decided to post this, mostly because I was trying to figure out wtf to do lol. Ah well, whats done is done in this case.

Ugh now I'm just not in the mood to be replying to all of these. Um...hum...yes the song itself is a very good one overall. I simply made it more dramatic with the added percussion and background instruments. It wasn't a easy one to bring about but I think I did a fairly good job overall. Minus, like you said, EQing/mastering/all that other stuff.

Speaking of places that "you couldn't expand on" you should really get all those ideas agoing. Many of them sound like they could be wonderful little shots in the dark. ENOUGH ABOUT YOU XD.

Overall I understand what you are saying and I have already begun to be much more careful with the pieces that I work on now (this was actually done before my Dr. Mario piece). So I guess I'll just have to work a little harder next time and not give in to the constant threat of boredom.

-Tony-

Either way thanks for the review. I find this one fairly insightful overall and I'll be sure to attempt some of the things that you have stated here in the future. Thanks again.

[Hypno_Shooter [Box-killa]]

Empty

This song is nothing more then an effect orgy with a repetitive melody and a single chord change. Nothing is going on to carry the song, so it sounds like its in a perpetual intro. Far from being ParagonX9 inspired, it has lackluster synths and cheezy effects and the most ridiculous drumline ever. It's just a snare and a kick.

For this to be anywhere near a PX9 song, you first have to give it some decent drums, and then you need a melody that's actually good. Once you have those two ingrediants, you have to actually CHANGE the song around instead of repeating the same motif for 3 minutes until your listener falls into a coma.

Having more then a piano playing a lot of rapid random notes and a single synth playing a melody that doesn't change throughout the entire 3 minute song would help a lot here. I mean, this is borderline crap. Your only real embellishments are the generic techno sounding synth in the background and random interjections by other instruments, along with some fairly ridiculous effects.

All in all, there are 2 primary issues with this song - it has no harmony, and the drums suck. I would recommend paying attention to the actual song more next time instead of spending your time making effects.

6/10
3/5

Box-Killa responds:

ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR

Guess ya cant please everyone. :D

[Touching Time - F-777 (Prev)]

Oh god we're all screwed

...for the EP #2 :P

The atmosphere created by this song is uncanny, and the execution is (of course) pristine. And this isn't even the main song chorus, for crying out loud. Personally I dislike the superbass synths used in the later part of the song, but if they work, they work. Maybe some supersaws? I have no idea if you bring those in later in the song so I'm just guessing here. Either way, superb song.

9/10
5/5

[Solus- Nameless (Cut)]

Very well made

I especially like the end, it makes me want to hear the rest of the song :C I am not a fan of the vocal samples though. I feel vocal samples in a track with this much instrumental awesomeness takes away from the track. I would suggest dropping the vocals entirely and focusing on utilizing the melodies you have going here, since they are superb.

SolusLunes responds:

Hmm. To be honest, I think the vocal samples add to it, you'd have to hear what I've got planned for the rest of the track (lulz, but you couldn't, because you can't hear what's inside my head lolololololol)