Maltloaf's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cataclysm [RD2010]]

Awesome

Very well done. Reminds me a lot of the soundtrack for 'Rollcage' - this would have been right at home there.

Wouldn't surprise me if this creeps up in a game at some point.

AlexCo responds:

Ahh yeah, I used to love rollcage. :D

[RD2010 - Robotic Feudal System]

Not Bad at all...

The second touch of the snare needs to have its velocity reduced slightly - the drum loop feels a bit flat at the moment. Otherwise, nothing's really jumping out at me as a problem.

Cheers,
-M

trancedatlantic responds:

thanks for the advice, the drums are something im working with right now.

[The Beauty of Simplicity]

I'd be curious...

I'd be curious as to how this would sound with the brass as more of a background instrument than a lead. Seems this would work a little better if it was a lot quieter and maybe panned a little right...

Yeah, Ok, so I'm an oddball like that. Just thought I'd share. :P

Kuma-AKA responds:

Thanks for sharing. Its good to hear peoples opinions. See ya, :)

[STB: Project 37]

Vote fairly? :S

Seems to me someone just goes around slapping a 1 on everyone for kicks. Or to keep the competition out?

Eh, anyway. Voted 5 (instead of 4) to try and bring this one up a bit. It *is* catchy, even if it's not really my style. Can't hear any jarring problems in the mix either, so bonus points for that. :)

SergeantBash responds:

Thanks for the rating, I really needed it. The 0 bombing is pretty annoying, I wish there was some way of logging who votes. I think I was a bit too much of an "outspoken opinionist" on a couple of bad songs, and someone is out to get me. :P

[E10-TechShock]

You probably already know this...

The melody/writing's fine, but the samples consistency kills it - the pizz @ ~1 minute in and the drums most notably.

On the headphones comment - if it doesn't sound right on both headphones and speakers then somethings wrong. Most of my work's midi, but even so the rule is to listen to your tracks on at least a couple of sets of gear - you'll notice issues on one that another masks - and keep tweaking it 'til it's right on everything you've got to hand. :)

<-- Is an arse, but means well. :)

E10 responds:

Thanks for all the feedback it helps me get better!

[-Surge Of Power-]

Nice sound...

Nice guitar sound that's for sure. Gah, I really need a more powerful rig... Midi just isn't cutting it anymore. :S

Anyway, personal whining aside, I'm guessing this was just and experiment with the sound rather than a real piece? You're doing some stuff right - having a guitar on both the right and left channels always works pretty well, but the trick is in getting them to play different lines so they play off each other. If you've got a keyboard, record the first track as normal, pan it to one side and just jam along for a few loops... you'll figure out what works and what doesn't fairly quickly. :)

The drums aren't consistent with themselves either, and lack punch, which is something you'd want to watch in a full track as well.

Sorry if that sounds like I'm being hard on you - It's not intended. There's real potential there, you just need to learn how to exploit it. :)

Chaserthewolf responds:

lol Don't worry about it. This is pretty helpful advice!

And yeah, this was basically an experiment with the instrument, rather than just making a full song.
As for the drums playing, I can't do much with them. The kick drums are unusually low for some reason even when I had it on the highest volume setting. :/ And when it comes to making drum solos/beats I'm not very good. ^^;
I'm just more focused on the guitar for some reason. lol

And thanks for your critique. I really appreciate it.

[Halindir - Stream I]

Good feel...

It's got a good feel to it, nice atmosphere. The pizz/guitar probably needs to be toned down a little though - with the amount of reverb it has it could do with being a bit quieter to let the other sounds breathe some. :)

Note that I'm a nub : feel free to disagree or burn the note. :3

Halindir responds:

Thank you Maltloaf :D
I shall try out your advice

[.:Bored at 2AM:.]

Neato.

Given the quality of your other stuff, I'm guessing you didn't finish this one. :]

I'm liking it - it's got the feel of a good boss fight to it, complete with the cinematic intro. The drums could do with a bit more oomph, and it's on the short side (experiments normally are. :]), but there's a lot of potential here if you ever chose to come back to it.

I know I haven't commented on your stuff in a while, but keep up the good work. :]

GronmonSE responds:

I'm very lazy when it comes to writing music to be honest. Didn't finish it indeed, and I probably never will.

I didn't master the track, so yeah, the drums lack power because of that.

Thanks for the kind comments :D

[{SoulX} FF7 Jenova theme 2]

Starts well...

Most of the problems are volume related. The synth lead you have and the (synth) brass section just overpower everything else - if you start by bringing up the volume on the background sequence, piano, and drums, it'll sound a lot better right away. As it stands, you can barely hear any of them once the lead comes in.

It's difficult to say much more than that - I'm not sure on the lead synths, but they might sound better with the volume balanced. Tough to say at this point.

Keep at it! :]

DragonsoulX responds:

kewl, thanks for the adice, is nice. i will look at this when i'm not drunk, so then i know what to do...thanks for the review and tips.

[Carrington Institute (PD)]

Not bad at all...

only thing I can pick out is a problem with the bass line - it's trying to go too low and as a result sounds wrong.

This is a midi technique - I don't know if it will work for you, but it never hurts to try. What I tend to do is to have the bottomed notes play on a quieter sine wave at the same time as the instrument itself. The sine carries through below the original instrument and the note sounds right - provided you don't go too far below the range.

That said, this track will probably work if you just move the bassline up an octave. The body's pretty high, so it shouldn't clash.

Sorrow-316 responds:

daw, its just my Memory Banks of BASS instruments is Garbage, i cant get the right bass even if i was slapped with it. i tried what i could tho. Thanks for the Review!