Burn7's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Full Force!!]

Oh shit mate, this absolutely rocks. The synth lead is really, REALLY well placed. The whole thing is just so... well supported and composed. I especially like your 2:40 transition, that added quite a bit to the continuation of the vibe. I also always love your use of accidentals, it's always additive and never distracting.

Solid work, dude!

DanJohansen responds:

Appreciate the awesome review man! Went a lot back and forth with the EQ to get the synth to pop just I wanted it to. Rock on!

[The Dead Brown Fox]

Hey, this is pretty sweet! I really dig the high-toned lead overtop the driving rhythm bits.

Here's a cool little trick you can try if you're using that Odin II thing: Normally with rhythm guitars in metal tracks, standard mixing practice is to double-track it and hard pan it to either side (So you have one recording playing in only the left channel and another in only the right one).

That's hard to pull off with a VST plugin for a couple reasons. Mostly because every note will typically play one of a few different samples. If the Left channel and Right channel ended up playing the same sample note at the same time, it ruins the stereo image and becomes mono.

To circumvent this with a guitar plugin, simply increase one side's midi notation by +1 semitone, then in your chain (before the amp FX), add in a pitch shifter (Preferrably something with both pitch and tamber/formant adjustment) and decrease the pitch back where it's supposed to be. So it'd look like:

[Midi Note (+1)] -> [Guitar VST] -> [Pitchshift (-1)] -> [Amp FX] -> [EQ/Comp/etc]

The logic behind this is, because it's just a series of samples being played, if the guitar VST is playing the samples from one note higher, they will never intertwine/overlap and drop things to mono when you're panning.

Also, go check out some free OTT plugins for your drums. OTT compression is just nuckin' futs and I guarantee you'll enjoy using it on your drums if you play with the settings a little bit. Xfer Records has one that's free, just search for Xfer OTT Plugin.

joe-4-kerr responds:

Thanks for the tip, but in fact Odin 2 uses panned guitars, and I shift panning myself a bit as I like a less linear sound, so instruments don't intersect in space (at least that's how I feel it should be played). When asked Maxeme directly, he said that there's no need in second track if you just select panned playing - should do all for yourself (but again maybe I didn't figure how it works, or my panning shift makes it less apparent - you tell me in DM when you try the plugin :-) )

I'll check OTT when I'll get back to writing my next track (decided to make a cover this time to experiment with genres - will be black metal).

[Drumstep Experiment]

This is pretty goddamn good, my dude. Next time you're putting together a drop, try playing with having an 808 or triangle-wavey synth play a single deep note and manually automate a detune on the fucker. If it needs some fattening up to get that really crunchy deep drop, throw on some mid-freq distortion pre-pitch shift/detuner.

And maybe some speedy hi-hat things? That might just be me though, I love a good rhythmic background hat piece behind that beat.

Otherwise this all sounds real good. Reeeeeal gooooood.

X3LL3N responds:

Thank you, I'll think about it when finishing this if I ever do x)

[It Was Sunny]

This is rather chill, I quite dig it. It's very minimalist and works quite well as a single cohesive piece. Love that use of space and panning. Hot melody around 2:00, although I think I hear your piano clipping O.o

Additional EQ would do this well, I promise :) Give your kickdrum an 80hz bump and remove lows from your piano for audio fidelity improvements. Unless you already did these things and my old ears can't tell anymore :P

Although it's not typically what I'd choose to listen to, I'm glad I did. Good work on this!

rsonbie456 responds:

Thanks for this awesome review! Yeah, I agree that additional EQ needs to be done. I have since improved piano recordings, so hopefully my future songs will have less clippings and distortions in piano sounds!

I'll take your advice on the kickdrum and lows! I definitely can do some more practice with EQing.

Thanks for listening! :D

[NuSexy-Metaljonus]

Holy christ, I forgot how much I love your riffs and tunage man.

Your drums are beautiful, your guitar tones are epic as balls, your tags are excellent, your solos make me weep tears of blood, your rhythms are like miniature masterpieces of timing and execution.

If you ever stop writing music, I will seriously come find where you live and gorrilla glue a guitar and pick to your body so you have no choice. Because there is NO reason on this planet for someone such as you to ever stop being so fucking excellent.

Professor Chaos Reigns.

Metaljonus responds:

LOL! You're funny dude! I'm not going anywhere. I can promise you that! I've been wanting to redo PC for a while. Maybe i'll get around to it. Thanks for listening dude!

[FS: Hegira]

Holy fucking fuck, it's so harmonious.

I don't know what "BreatheLeoda" is talking about, KEEP the drums. Fuck, make them MORE real-sounding, they're excellent. Samples are entirely personal preference. You can't please everyone with your drums no matter what you do... But they fit right in with the synth composition which is, while not "traditional", varied and functional. I agree that a bit of 'verb and maybe a light (or heavy) chorus-effect on a few of the instruments could go a long way.

I feel like the thing I like most about this is the actual composition of the piece. The note selection in relation to melodies and rhythmic moving dynamics... I don't know if that makes sense but it's staggeringly shmexy. I'm sure this took quite a bit to put together, so I downloaded it as a token of appreciation for this being a freakishly cool work.

FairSquare responds:

Thanks man! And yeah.. i like composing more than all that mixing and mastering stuff :p
I'm glad you like the drums. I do too.
But really, thanks for the feedback, i appreciate it!

[Minding your P's and Q's]

Well, it's official.

You're a piratey, guitar-toting badass. If I ever have the chance to fill a solo with a guest spot, you're number 1 on my list. I know you've probably heard this before, but this song made my penis cry tears of milky ecstasy. Then those tears became a river, then an ocean, and the only thing left afloat over the entirety of this world was a single man, a man with a mean face and a sick rhythm hand.

That man, was you.

RobSoundtrack responds:

Wow man wow
Thanks so much for the really nice words!!
Call upon me any time! You might get a phone call as well.

[Metal Force]

Niiice :)

This definitely makes me think of Metallica when I'm listening to it. Maybe that's also just your name >.>

Second half really is pretty bomb, but the entire song as a whole is really badass. I really enjoyed your rhythm riffage, your solos (while definitely not perfect) aren't afraid to take center stage and your drums drive the power of this Metal Force.

Good luck in the MAC, dude! Hope you keep on tearing it up! :D

Metallica1136 responds:

Haha, to be honest, the chorus was inspired by The Four Horsemen. Yeah, the second half I put a lot of effort into writing. Thanks for your kind review! I usually just freestyle some hammett style solos on most of my songs haha. And yeah, the Steven Slate drums are amazing. I highly recommend them for both metal and rock.

Thanks man! I appreciate your good luck wish. i hope I make it in the contest :D