cloudnone's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[His Honor]

Same issue I've had with other pieces of yours: the drums are just not cutting it!

The lead guitar parts (for example, 1:47 onwards) are way too loud too, at some parts.

Meanwhile (even being soundfonted guitars which sometimes sound awful), you make some parts sound AMAZING. The little rhythm part just before 1:47 comes to mind really strongly. Also the build-up before the 5 minute mark is great! You got some solid drum fills in there (shame the drums are barely there, I'd love to hear them more clearly!).

Even as much as I liked the original, their mix is completely lacking in mids and it's way too gainy. You dialed it down and managed to get the really nice melodies that are hidden in there, so big props on that!

So, all in all: another stellar job, hampered by you not having some good, natural sounding headphones to mix with...

ADR3-N responds:

Your critique is 100% apt. I think I'm gonna go over this in the next couple days, drop the leads down a couple dB, and see what I can torture those drums into.

The guitar VST I'm using is Kontakt Shreddage II, if you're interested. IBZ has a way better interface but it always crashes my machine or lags. The drums are Metal Foundry Bundle, and the bass is Ample Metal Ray 5. Keys are Nexus and Massive with some twisted presets I made.

[I Need A Hero]

Both guitar and bass are pretty on point. Bass seems a bit too loud at times, and guitar gets a bit tinny in some spots.

Drums are the only lack in here, not sure if it's the mixing or just the samples/VST's used but it doesn't really cut through the mix. I've seen it in previous songs of yours too.

Composition/arragement wise, top notch as always!

So I'll take a sec and drop you a recommendation: https://theproaudiofiles.com/free-mastering-plugins/

You've got some pretty nifty mastering plugins you could give a look at there. I'm a fan of the Voxengo SPAN (but all Voxengo tools are awesome). Give them a look!

ADR3-N responds:

Yo, thanks for the link. Always appreciate free stuff. :P

And yeah, you're spot on. Part of the issue is adjusting to totally new software. The other half was that I mixed this on a trash set of 10 dollar headphones after my other better 10 dollar headphones broke. Now I have studio monitors, and the difference is, well, a whole other world, haha. Thanks for the review! I'll get hit ya with that R4R real quick. :)

[-Orr- Dark Horizon]

Wow... I didn't expect this when I saw it was a loop. Reminds me of some of the music in Mass Effect, or some piece from a Warhammer 40K exploration scenario...

Nevertheless, a great submission.

DavidOrr responds:

Thanks for the review!

[Solar Overdrive!]

Wow, amazingly technical!

It's really nice to see some MAB-like shredding here on NG!

You are an amazingly talented guitarist, that's for sure!

What rig do you have, and what did you use to synthetize the background elements of the song? It's sounds impressive!

DanJohansen responds:

Glad you dig it man! I use various synths etc in the background, the main ones come from Z3ta.. amazing synthesizer VST, I heard of it from a vid of Jordan Rudess where he recommended it and it's sure worth checking out! I've barely scratched the surface of the VST myself.

ROCK ON!

[Hellbreaker]

Impressive!

Wow, I really like the voice! Only concern is that is not clear enough in some places, but overall is one of the coolest song in the Audio Portal!

Keep it on!

[Silent Night Bodom Night (Rmx)]

Just copied from a MIDI file

As the title said. Not having bends notes it, or at least you could have had corrected the bends