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ClockworkNick

26 Audio Reviews

17 w/ Responses

Great effort man! Yeah this kit does sound a lot better, it sure is an improvement heh. Keep practicing and composing mate!

Metallica1136 responds:

Awesome man, glad to hear that! Thanks for checking it out!

Good. You did good. You know you did. here's a cookie.

DanJohansen responds:

Appreciate it good sir!

haahahahha this is fab mate...i don't even like 80's stuff but this is cool heh. keep it up

SYSTEM OF A DOWN REVAMP?? heh, really cool stuff went down mate. keep it up. For a demo you're doing a good job, it's a demo of course which means it could be better in the future with proper equipment but you know that.

Cheers.

FarCryDX responds:

Right?! I most def had just listened to Systems cover of Snowblind before this, if you couldn't tell by the beginning riff haha. Yeah the only parts that need big change are the bass and drums, being as the bass is really just the guitar pitched down an octave and the drums are well, programmed. I try to go for as realistic sound as I can with them though, which tends to help blend it all in together. Thanks for the dope review!

Nice riffs mate! Interesting composition overall. However if you plan on a solo musician thing you should check out how to properly mix/master your tracks, you went too heavy on the compressor for the drums and it shows because it affects the whole track's volume at some parts. While your guitars sound top notch, when double bass or heavy floor tom fills kick in your compressor just loses it. Also, you need bass, whatever the number of strings. Your guitar naturally has low end cause 8string, but it doesn't compensate for the lack of bass.

Chthonic-Waves responds:

I agree. I didn't originally want to upload this song because of some issues with the song I had. And I didn't want to sink any time into it to fix stuff lol. So this is what you get I guess. I do have bass usually. But this wasn't an actual song that I wrote out to put on here in the first place so I didn't see the need. Especially since.. I hate playing bass!

Hey man, really good tune mate! Guitars sound top notch. What i think your tune lacks is proper mixing, your finger went a tad too heavy on the compressor for your drums, for example a big wuuuut spot was at 2.17-2.18 and from then on every time your drums do a floor tom fill your compressor goes nuts and cuts the volume on the whole track. (if you use comp on the master track i'd suggest you avoid it, use it only on the instrument tracks when mixing, if this was done on mastering then it should be done way more lightly). Composition wise it's got cool riffage overall but it does get a bit repetitive, since it's for a game however i don't think this is a problem.
Keep it up lad! cheers!

Hey mate, really cool stuff! It's got a really dream theater-y vibe to it. My observations would have to do with your drum and orchestra vst's and your mixing. Your drums lack dynamics, when it comes to high hat/ride 16th notes it shows very much it's a vst. I'd suggest trying out ezdrummer or superior drummer 2 they kick ass. Your choir vst well it just shows that it's fake, and since you are composing this good i would very highly suggest you invested in a proper libraly as EWQL, you need it man..seriously.

As far as your mixing goes, well, it's kind of a mess because you have sooooooooo many things going on. some are cleverly put to place and i can hear them through panning left and right, but mixing isn't all about panning, you should check out what's going on frequency wise. In order to be able to hear clearly what's going on you need to not occupy the same frequency with too many instruments. Because there are parts where everything is on top of each other and just adding reverb or makin it louder doesn't solve the problem that you got a bunch of organs screaming to be heard.
Sorry if i sounded harsh but i believe that since you put actual effort and thinking into your music you should hear these things and get even better, you care and it shows.
Keep it up lad, cheers!

Crueldeity responds:

Thank you Nick for the incredibly thoughtful review! I agree 100% about mixing, In fact I may decide to get someone else or other service to master my finals. Mastering songs is something I, (still after years), struggle to get quite right and yes, I am undecided when I go about placement within the track. It also doesn't help that I am( was) currently using terrible headphones to mix everything. Perhaps this is where I take a miss-step, but I do love East West products and as soon as I can comfortably afford so I would definitely like to invest in some more serious VST's from them.
I do appreciate your analysis and do intend to make an effort on instrument placement/leveling in my future musical endeavors heh. Cheers indeed! \m/

Interesting composition, i can hear the metallica influence heh..but you need to practice a bit more with the metronome mate, especially in this genre it's all about keeping things tight. When you have all those 16th note chugs and whatnot you need to be on point cause it just doesn't groove otherwise. Your mix is also good. My other observation is to change your drum vst, it lacks dynamics and the cymbals are kinda painful to hear, i'd suggest ezdrummer or superior drummer, check em out. Overall pretty neat effort mate. Keep it up, cheers!

Metallica1136 responds:

Thanks man, yeah, I know a few parts are a bit off beat, I've been working on tighter riffing, it's coming along gradually, and the drums are pretty bad I know, that's actually why I finally switched to a new VST called MT Power. Check out the song Thin Wire, it uses those drums instead of Steven Slate (the drums on this song) Some day, I will buy Superior Drummer when I have more money. Thanks for the review!

Your authors comments is kinda like "here, i don't give a shit"..i'd suggest you'd tone it down a bit..it's good composition wise but you actually know that mastering is your problem here.. velocity in general is good but you need to go back to mixing, not mastering. Don't just slap a couple of compressors on your drums and think it's ready. You got potential there, you'd yourself a favor if you actually put time into what goes after composing cause you got a kickass tune there. So yeah..don't know if you are like what i described above but that's the vibe i got from you.

Lublub194 responds:

I put this song out over 4 months ago, and you're the first person to comment on it. I really see no reason to try winning favor of an under-appreciating crowd such as newgrounds. I usually just post things as a record for myself to come back to listen to in time.

I do spend time on mastering and mixing when it comes to serious projects (such as my band, or other bands that I record) however, when it's just something that I have thrown together in such a short time, that will inevitably go unnoticed by most, I'm not too worried about whether or not it came out perfectly mixed.

I'm sure I come off overly cocky, or arrogant, and I apologize for that, it's nothing against you. I've just got better things to put time into. I seriously mean none of this to come off offensive, but I'd like to state why it is I do what I do (that was a weird sentence).

However, THANK YOU for being part of the solution to the dying scene in newgrounds. Finding something that is old and yet still reviewing it is what we need, and what I should do more often. I'll make sure to return the favor!

hey mate, really nice composition i gotta say, fokin heavy as they come. My observations regard your mix and vsts.

Starting with the mix, the drums are kinda lost in the mix in terms of just volume, the guitars are all up in your face and the drums should be right next to them not so far behind them and because you have very much going on drum wise (very cool drum parts) i struggled a bit to hear what's going on there clearly. Your bass well, i can hear it, but it lacks, well..bass. You should amp up a bit your bass' low end so that it's really doing it's job, which is to glue the whole track together.

VST wise now..i'm very against using vst's when it comes to guitar. Yours however it's decent, i guess you're a keyboard player? If not i'd highly hiiiighly suggest you record actual guitars because the double tracking technique doesn't work when the waveforms are the exact same thing, in other words when you copy and paste the track. It works best when you record the same part again, meaning actually playing it again. I used to copy paste my guitars and when i did it this way i noticed that it was a whole other beast and you can go nuts with it. But only if you actually play it again. You drum vst sounds cool from what i could hear, the cymbals lacked dynamics though, i'd suggest you try out ezdrummer or superior drummer 2, they have astounding libraries that sound pretty close to the real thing.

Keep it up mate!

PENTAhazardous responds:

That's the kind of reviews I'm looking forward to read man, thank you so much for taking time to write it. I really, really, REALLY appreciate this!

Now... Maybe it's an audio system problem, maybe the problem is my hearing... I dunno... For sure what I wanted is to have the guitar work in the front...

I think because of the reveerb the drumkit sounds kinda drowned in the mix but I can hear them quite clear. Didn't wanted to bring them more in the front because of the way I'm processing the sound on drums and on guitars (the final stage in my mixing process regards all the instruments playing together, after I'm processing them one by one). If I bring them more in the front with the presets I got for limiting and compression, they'll probably cover the guitars.

Same goes with the bass guitar. I wanted to hear it, to know what it's doing... but if I make it louder or bring just the lower frequencies more in the front I won't hear the drums and the guitars so well anymore... (I'll hear them like overcompressed ...mostly on hihats, crashes, etc...)

I'm not a keyboard player... I actually ain't playin' any instruments right now... (drums in the past for a short period).

As guitars I'm using Kontakt with Shreddage X... and on 1 instrument I got 2 different guitars not the same preset exactly because I wanted to help a bit more with the double tracking ...to be sure that there aren't any chances for superposed identical notes (in which case the guitar plays either as a mono instrument or kinda phased - a problem that I'm struggling with for some years now... ) ...so it's 2 different presets for a guitar (4 presets for Rhythm and Solo guitars)... no copy paste.

The DrumKit it's EZ Drummer Metal Machine. Struggled a bit with this one too... have a lot of vsts on it's channel to make it sound this way... for it is waaaay to quite played just as it is. I know about that lack of dynamic when it comes to the cymbals... it actually should be the same problem with the entire DrumKit, but it's interesting that everyone else picked up on this this problem just on cymbals. Will try to vary them some how... but I think it should be more then just varying the volume.

My main issue nowadays is with the guitars tone. I'm not quite satisfied with the one on the solo guitar. Anyways, I'll update this in a few days, and will try to take in account all the issues you brought forth.

Thank you very much again bro, and hope to hear from you also on other songs of mine, new or old. Me hails you!!!

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