Burn7's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[ToxoNoxia]

This pretty damn good. I really like the vibe you're aiming for with this.

I have a couple notes if you're open to that:

The reverse hits that start at like 0:45-ish, would recommend cutting the initial few milliseconds off those. Reversing a kick or snare without cutting off that first initial hit ends up creating this weird click noise you probably don't want. So if you cut that off you'll still get the swelling vacuum-y effect you're looking for, just a little cleaner.

At 1:17 when that melodic synth stops there are just a few delay/verb artifacts that remain. If you straight up drop the volume to -inf at that moment it'll cut your artifacts out. Unless you want to keep those artifacts, in which case I'd recommend maybe even increasing the feedback on the delay effects to keep them ringing out a bit further. Better yet, play with the "release" knob on that synth and automate it to release slower as it goes out.

Also: EQ more of the low end out of your synths. They're very bassy when they don't have to be and I feel like it's detracting from the hits of your kicks.

Speaking of EQ, I feel like your snare and kick are competing a little more than they have to be. Try aiming to make them more complimentary, not in competition (if that makes sense).

I'd also recommend looking into parallel compression/ducking specifically for your kicks/snares. If your kick triggers an EQ to drop all the low-end out of your synths when it hits, it'll hit that much harder. You can do something similar with the snare to duck some low end from the kick when it hits, which would give it room to breathe as well.

But overall this is really solid, quality stuff and I adore where it's going. Keep it up! You can only get better :]

ps3udo23 responds:

Thanks for the advice!

I indeed wanted to keep the delay/verb artifacts, I'll play a little with the feedback next time since it sounds good. And yea, I agree with the EQ, synths, kicks and snares.
I did use 2 different drumloops on top of eachother (might be a reason to why the kicks and snares sound like they're competing), didn't really think about it but I'll make sure to fix that next time lol.
The track was overall a bit harder to work with since it's not what I usually make, but hey, I can take this as practice!

Thanks again, it was really helpful! :)

[Lair of the Damned (Instrumental - feat. Metaljonus)]

Damn dude. This is incredible. I really, really like your snare bombs. Dunno if you made them yourself or used a plugin/sample but they're VERY strong. Same with your drop sub tones, those are great.

I also love the tones you're getting out of Nolly, that's what I use too and it's a goddamn beast. So much range for a sim, it's incredible. You're really pushing it hard in this track too.

The orchestral elements meld well and are never overpowering, just additive. It's great.

Can't forget to mention my boi @metaljonus who just absolutely murders those solos. If there's a guy on NG whom everyone should aspire to solo like, it's him.

This song could easily be dropped by Chelsea Grin or someone equivalent and it would 100% fit. Fast, aggressive and snarly with solid production.

BeyondOurEyes responds:

Aye thank you so much for the love and feedback! So the snare bomb started w/ a regular snare sample that I just threw some reverb, comp, and EQ on to get it to sound huge without clashing with the snare from the drum tracks. Sub drops I pulled from a Panda Sound sub drop pack I believe.

The Neural DSP plugins are sooooo so good! Just started recording DI recently and been using Nolly / Gojira. Hard to beat those amp sims!

That's actually the 2nd Chelsea Grin comparison I've gotten on this lol but was about my vocals, tall praise to be considered on their level - thank you!

[Celestial Rescue]

Damn, this has that feel. You know the one.

The thiccness.

Between the harmonies and the solid rhythm distortion, bass and drums mix it's really smooth. Feels just right.

Awesome song, dude :]

[Sky Soarin' (Gappy's Playground OST)]

Hey this is pretty fun, I really like the harmony bits going on with the lead. The nice noise channel bitcrushed stuff in the background is great texture too! Quite a bop.

[A Thousand Years Waiting For a Moment in Your Prestige]

Fuck this is lush. Lush like a field full of swaying flowers beneath a cherry blossom gently dusting the air with it's petals.

I think what's most incredible about this is the absolute lack of heavy percussion until the end portion, yet it still has so much weight throughout the entire thing. It's just so absolutely colorful and emotional it's just... Well, it's art.

You made pure sonic art.

Again.

Cacola responds:

Thnk you so much!~ :D

[Newgrass]

Oh dang, this is SUPER nice. Normally I think this kind of track is fluff or filler but yours here stands on it's own with it's own soul and vibe. "Sparkle" is a great tag for this. Also, the changeup at 1:52 is real solid and kicks the groove up while maintaining that soul. Overall it reminds me of the Rimworld soundtrack with much, much more life and vibrancy.

Drums are well thought out and bassline is DAMN groovin'. Well deserved frontpage, m8!

Percentblue responds:

Your comments always make my day, I cannot thank you enough! I appreciate the 5 star and thank you for listening!

[Construction of Torment & Struggle]

This track is soooooo interesting. It reminds me of some early NG Indie Industrial tracks with MUCH better risers. The rhythms are immaculate and some of those HITS, just... Wow. The only thing you're missing are those harder, grittier Cheshyre synth bits and some trickier melodies and these could easily be Madness tracks.

Someone better hit you up to write for them. Because this is an absurd specific kind of talent. The kind that goes perfect with Indie games.

awardwinninggardens responds:

Thank you kindly. I'm really glad that you're having such an awesome associations, I feel incredibly honored by your words.

If you liked this track, I can also suggest you these two from my YT channel:
https://youtu.be/rq5PxgmB2ms
https://youtu.be/QZTrl4mm5aY

[Chance]

This is really damn good overall. If someone was to ask me "What is power metal" I'd show them this and I think they'd pretty much get it. Main difference between this and most power metal is your vocals aren't multitracked whatsoever which... Well, I'll get to that because I have a couple of suggestions for the future.

First is the vocal mixing. The center lead guitar frequencies clash really heavily with your vocals (specifically during the chorus) and it really drowns them out. I'm not sure how this happened as I listened to the Youtube version and it doesn't seem like that's happening as much in that one. But in this NG version it's right around like the ~4khz range (I'm sick rn so I could be wrong about that my ears aren't playing nice with covid) they really just sit on one another. Would recommend Izotope Nectar to sculpt out some space for those clean vocals, you could even automate the effect to go off/on when necessary. Alternatively you could apply a bit more grit to your vocals with a touch of tube or tape distortion and that would help push them further out over that guitar in the mix.

I would also highly recommend multi-tracking your vocal lines, especially specifically for this kind of track. While your voice very clear and well intonated, especially during the chorus parts it could bring a well-rounded thickness to what is arguably the most "catchy" hook portion of the track.

Also, going to recommend something that people have differing opinions on: Over The Top compression on your synth parts. Especially at 0:19-0:21 if that little "bwaah" synth was heavily compressed it would really add some crunch and grit where it's needed. Go download Xfer's OTT plugin and play with it on your synth tracks. It's... A ton of fun, especially the Upward compression.

Other than those things, your beat 1 "slam" fx are super good. The little transitions and builds are very well done. The rhythm/bass/drum balance is incredibly good though. Your harsh vocals are... Well normally I very much dislike that kind of harsh vocal. The "black metal" kind. But... Yours may be some of the best I've ever heard for my taste. It's like an even more refined Scar Symmetry.

Anyway congrats on the frontpage! Got some damn good shit there m8!

RaneMusic responds:

Now THAT is in-depth :0
Thank you so much for the highly-detailed feedback.
I've heard from multiple sources that they find my vocals in the chorus to be a lil drowned out, so, it's not just your ears ;D
I'm still fairly new to more advanced mixing techniques like masking using EQ or using compressors with sidechains to make room for instruments, but I will definitely experiment some more with it and hopefully I'll figure it out.
The reason the NG and YT version might sound a lil different is because the YT version uses the WAV file, while NG uses the mp3 file. So, sound differences are probably caused by the compression.
I tried multi-tracking a while ago and wasn't happy with how they overlapped, but I am a lil more experienced now, so it might be worth giving it another go :)
So far I can only do false-chord screams which just naturally sound very Black-Metal-ish. However, I'm trying to learn fry-screaming and hybrid-screaming as well, because I somewhat recently got into bands like Tallah, Lorna Shore, Shadow of intent and I think it could open up so many possibilities for me and my music.

Again, thx for the super-detailed feedback :D
I'll definitely keep it in mind and try some of your suggestions!

[Fire!]

Holy fucking shit, 5 stars for that insane ass bassline alone. Seriously that woke me up more this morning than coffee ever will.

Percentblue responds:

Thank you so much, this has already made my day!

[Have I Done Enough]

This track is weird and does weird things to my brain. "Existential terror" and "void" are pretty good tags, I think. The intro rhythm/bass licks are throwing me off, I can't tell if that's 2 or 3 note tapping. It almost sounds like the rhythm are 2-note while the bass is 3-note and it just comes across as... Welp, 'existential terror' again is solid. Really the whole track is almost trancelike, dreamlike and nearly experimental (which I personally really dig).

I dig the FX stack on the lead guitar but I feel like your lead line is the perfect candidate for multi-tracking some harmonies/melodies overtop of one another. Almost every line already uses it's melodic equivalent the following measure so you're already doing it, just layer it atop itself! Tuck both lines at that 33% left/right panned pocket for fullness and I think it'd pop a bit more.

I also think you could stand to punch up the drums a bit with some OTT compression, I heard there was a new free plugin released for it called "Cramit" you might want to check out. Literally google 'cramit ott compressor' and learn to beef that kit, I promise it'll feel worth it.

Idk how into suggestions like this you are but here's what I'd say: Beef the drums, multitrack your lead and maybe focus on EQ-ing out some of that 6khz in the rhythm zone and I think this would be one of my favorite grooving metal tracks I've heard this year :D

Percentblue responds:

I love and appreciate any and all feedback!

The drums are done through toontrack so I should be able to change them up pretty easy. I’ll see how the carmit ott compressor works with it.

Multitracking harmonies isn’t something I’m super familiar with, I will have to do a little research. I did dual track the bass and rhythm and pan those, just not the lead. You caught me being lazy Lol! do you normally pan 33, I don’t have any reasoning for my pans, sometimes they are extreme but usually in the 35ish range.

I tried doing 3/4 and 4/4 rhythms at the same time and just having the riffs finish together. The riffs that sound like tapping are just hammer ons. But it starts on the high d and ends on the low d sting, gives it a weird vibe.

More than happy to share the tabs, notes, or really anything you would like!