ErikMcClure's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Crimson Night]

The guitar seems a bit naked. Because it carries such a large portion of the intro and end, you should really bump up the reverb during that section, then take it back down as you enter the main theme to keep it from muddying everything up. Some additional *very subtle* atmosphere in terms of sound effects or other embellishments would have helped too.

I noticed one of the beginning melodies on the guitar sounds very similar to one of my ideas ;) The overall composition and structure of the song is excellent, but I feel that everything in this song would have benefited from additional reverb due to the sparse nature of the mix.

Step responds:

Heeyyyy, thanks for reviewing :3.

"The guitar seems a bit naked. Because it carries such a large portion of the intro and end, you should really bump up the reverb during that section, then take it back down as you enter the main theme to keep it from muddying everything up."

Now that's a good idea. It does sound pretty naked, yeah. I'm not used to writing pretty much anything with minimal instrumentation around it.

"Some additional *very subtle* atmosphere in terms of sound effects or other embellishments would have helped too."

If I had time I would've done this, but I wanted to submit before the competition deadline. But I can totally do that. Might help fill in the gaps in the intro/outro too!

"I noticed one of the beginning melodies on the guitar sounds very similar to one of my ideas ;)"

Hey you have like one million or something, one of my songs is bound to resemble one eventually haha.

"The overall composition and structure of the song is excellent, but I feel that everything in this song would have benefited from additional reverb due to the sparse nature of the mix."

Roger that. Glad you liked the composition!

Thanks a lot for the review man, if I find time I'll definitely work on what you mentioned! And hope that Bosa doesn't hear this before I'm done editing it.

[Calm Alien]

An excellent start for an ambient song, but unfortunately it ends up getting a bit repetative because a few of the effects, like that metallic echoey sound, end up being used too constantly and never change to an alternative soundscape. I highly recommend listening to the masterful works of Solar Fields to get a feel for how he very slowly transitions the ambiance through multiple phases in order to provide an entertaining, yet subtle listening experience: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNiD9M 59FQE

PythonBlue responds:

Constructive criticism accepted. I guess I was just trying to get myself to write longer pieces than I usually do, and got too caught up with elaboration to throw in some variety.

[-A New World-]

Excellent

I swear one of the drums is clipping on a high frequency on my speakers, but then my speakers are crap anyway.

The song has an incredibly varied feel to it, yet succeeds in maintaining a distinct atmosphere through clever combinations of harmonic and rhythmic motifs. The production quality is incredible. It sounds like something out of a movie and far surpasses my own attempts at a similar atmosphere. I think there are places where the song could be refined, possibly with a few melodic embellishments and mixing tweaks, but its still absolutely incredible.

9/10
5/5

Step responds:

Wow, never thought I'd get a 9 from you, haha. Thanks a lot, and thanks for voting 5 too - it might just be the reason that this song got a Top 5, I owe you one.

"I swear one of the drums is clipping on a high frequency on my speakers, but then my speakers are crap anyway."

I was kinda lazy with the EQing this time, it's true :3.

"The song has an incredibly varied feel to it, yet succeeds in maintaining a distinct atmosphere through clever combinations of harmonic and rhythmic motifs."

It's something I worked particularly on. I'm pretty crappy at making long songs so I figured the only way to keep the song sounding like one song and not random, but at the same time satisfying my obsession of variety, was to grab some short drum rhythms and melodies, and repeat them in certain parts of the song. So I'm really glad you think it worked!

"The production quality is incredible. It sounds like something out of a movie and far surpasses my own attempts at a similar atmosphere."

That's thanks to East/West. And the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra soundfonts that you shared, which are GREAT by the way.

"I think there are places where the song could be refined, possibly with a few melodic embellishments and mixing tweaks,"

Agreed on both cases. Listening to it again, I definitely think I could've added a few more melodic embellishments, especially in that part after the second chorus, and I didn't work as much on the mixing as I usually do... I get lazy sometimes :3.

"but its still absolutely incredible."

Thanks for the feedback!

[Artificial Intelligence Evolved]

Pure Awesome

I don't care what anyone says about this, by the time the song hits 3:57, it contains such unbelievable amounts of win I fear the internet may implode around it. I could nitpick a couple parts of the song (especially the beginning) but the end just blows everything else out of the water.

9/10
5/5

EvilRaccoon responds:

Thanks very much Blackhole. I really appreciate that. Glad you enjoyed it!

[[HP] Artificial Nature]

rawr

it is t3h awesomez :D

ZaronX responds:

no u r :D

[::Out Of Mind::]

Soothing

This is a really incredible song, something ethereal that floats out of reality and takes the listener with it. This is what real music is. I hope you've found somewhere else to post your music, because you should never, ever, ever stop.

gOrc responds:

Thanks for your kindness. I actually will never ever stop to make music, it is my passion since I was 15.

[xKore - Interstate (FULL)]

This is a work of art

Anyone who says you should stick to dubstep is incapable of comprehending how incredible this track is.

xKore responds:

i appreciate it duuude :)

[+- Solemn's Reach -+]

Progression

This track has an impressive chord progression, and I can tell you were really trying to pull as much as you could out of it, but I don't think you went far enough. There is so much more you could do with a progression like this. The track also had no lead-in whatsoever, which would have helped build the song a little more. The main problem is that you let the chord progression be the melody, when you should have had a melody on top of it. Then, you fail to include any real outro at all, the song just stops.

The synths and effects are all very intriguing, but the mix doesn't seem to be particularly well balanced. The hihats and drums in general are terrible. I would recommend finding better samples and bringing drums into the foreground with more mix work on them. You also sound like you just stuck a limiter on the master channel, which suffocates the mix.

In general, this is a great idea, but the execution just isn't there.

8/10
4/5

AikaMusic responds:

Thanks for the help :)

[Guitar Vs. Piano [ver. XCEED] (Goukisan Remix)]

Louder Piano

Other then that, this is a dream come true. Expressive drums, chords, dynamic instruments, everything this song should be. You are amazing and probably the only artist on this planet capable of consistently coming out with metal songs that I actually like.

9/10
5/5

rtnario responds:

Wow, really? A review coming from someone like you, an already established artist means a lot to me. Thanks so much for the detailed review, and I hope that my future works reach expectation! =)

[SN | Obscene Amounts of Steam]

Astounding

The melody and atmosphere created by the pads is just beautiful beyond words. The drum glitching is superb, even if it got a little excessive at times. By far your best track ever, I don't know if I could give any real criticism for this that's not stupendously nitpicky, so I won't bother.

10/10
5/5

SessileNomad responds:

why thank you, i agree this is def. one of my better ones