UglyDucklin's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Unlucky]

I'll keep this short, cut the distortion on the vocals, you don't need to hide behind it. This definitely has potential.

StormyHeallven responds:

Hey dude! Thnx for your comment. You know my mic is very cheap, and when I scream the sound is completely "horrible" too dry I mean. I often use distortion to turn it more heavier and more dirty. By the way Thank you ;)

[March Of Dead]

Badass.

Reminds me of the old school thrash scene, which I love. The riffs are b a, and the rhythm section is tight as hell. The only thing I don't care much more are the lyrics, but that's fine. I can still headbang to it, and that's what matters in the end. Kickin ass, and you're a pretty solid drummer. Can't wait to hear more.

fabricius89 responds:

Thanks for the kind words.
Stay metal!!

[Clayface - Metal riffs >=)]

A good start.

A solid riff my brother, has some great potential. I don't know where you plan to go with it, but may I suggest you play that same riff a a faster tempo? I think that would be badass. Keep it up.

mmmburgers responds:

Thanks! Yeah, I'm definitly going to be adding better drums. And adding more to the song itself. Thanks again for the review!

[Cast to the Sky [V.1]]

Cool.

That opening riff is immense. I wouldn't mind learning how to play it (pm me how to if you will lol). I love the progressiveness of this song, it fits the melodic mood well. The acoustic break in the middle splits the piece into two distinct parts, both of which deserve the distinction apart from the other. The first is the melodic setup, the second the thrash outro. Very well composed. I don't give out tens often, but this deserves it. GREAT work.

On a side note, I like this without vox.

Deathcalypse responds:

Thanks for the kind words. \m/

[The Iron Curtain]

Kickass

Let me begin by saying, that lead tone is amazing. The intro sets up the song well, and it keeps a constant movement to it as not to drag. Epic is the best way to describe it. I have nothing bad to say, good work.

[.....Smokescreen.....]

Not bad for what it is.

Not bad for a drunken romp. The one thing I don't like though, is the vocals. Did you record the vocals while playing the guitar? The vocals are sparatic tonally, and they sound as if you aren't paying attetion as you sing them. The instrumentation is not bad at all, and is the best part of the piece. I particularly like the guitar bit in the chorus, but I would try putting a chordal backing behind to fill out the sound. Alone it sounds a little sparse.

myxibrium responds:

I've been working on my tone with my vocal instructor. I have a very whiney tone sometimes, and we're working on getting rid of it. I'm surprised you noticed! Good ear.

And yes, the chorus is sparse. I kept trying to add stuff to it, but the guitarist said it sounded ok, so we just kept it like that.

Thanks for the review! It's always good to have these points reiterated by an unbiased individual for future reference.

[The Maniacal Swarm]

Seems to go too many places at once.

The majority of parts are well written single pieces, but on the whole I find this piece a bit jumbled. Given the song is called "Maniacal Swarm" that may have been the intention, but it loses me in the end. I think that if you had less going on at one time this piece would be much stronger. Take all the riffs.lead lines etc and instead of presenting them at once take a more progressive approach, with maybe a max of three guitars (I think two is best) at a time.

Hope I could help, have a good one man!

Throughdarkness responds:

First off, thanks for the review. I know what you are saying. This song seems messy and the reason I believe it sounds this way is because when I made this, I was an epic fail at mastering. At max there are 3 guitars playing at once in this piece. One Rhythm and two leads harmonizing. I think what makes sound so noisy is the reverb. I did not like how it sounded so I added a bunch of reverb to make it smoother, which I now know is a no no. I have developed a MUCH better mastering technique and I hope to get a song uploaded in the near future demonstrating it. Thanks for taking the time to listen once again.

p.s. - and about the prog suggestion, Im totally with you bro. I would not dream of releasing a song this simple ever again :)

[~`Gourmet Race`~]

Nice Execution of a Classic Nintendo Theme

I love the kirby games, and if I had all the time back I spent on them as a kid I'd have a lot of time on my hands. This remix retains the quirkiness of the original, whilst giving it a new age, almost spacey feel to the tune. I can see this being used in a Kirby game set in space. No mistakes, good tonality on the instruments, and a nice take of the original that adds something new but doesn't take away.

Rhyhart responds:

Yea I love older games on so much, they just have that feel to them. Thanks for teh review!!!

[Gas Giant [Outro]]

Odd rhythms=win

As an outro, this is great. Very suspenseful, and the suspense never slacks throughout the piece. It has that odd feel that really shines as a metal outro. In fact, this reminds me quite a bit of Opeth, and that's a very good thing. I want to hear the rest of the song now. Good work.

Jakisdead responds:

Thank-you very much! I'm glad that you liked it. That's pretty cool that I reminds you of Opeth!

I shall make sure to post the rest of the song when it is done!

[FarAway-vocals]

Great, some issues.

First, let me say your falsetto is great. It was the most impressive part of the song in my opinion, and has some great potential. The song writing is alright, but I think the drums cut out a bit early in the end. I suggest keeping the drums going a bit longer, maybe an outro with the guitars and drums on their own. Another point I believe needs work is the guitar tone (both acoustic and electric) How are you recording them? I suggest that for the acoustic you take the treble and mids down a bit (especially the treble) and add a bit more bass to round out the tone, make it a bit fuller sounding. For the electric I suggest a similar mod to the tone. For what you're doing here, I think a good starting point eq wise is this (on a scale of one to ten); Bass:7 Mid:7 Treble:4.5. This should smooth out the tone and make it fit the emotional value of the song better. I also suggest that you rock it on the neck pickup, as this will also round out the tone. Tons of potential here, and with some tinkering on the instruments tone and the ending arrangement you have a solid song.

Hope I helped, keep cranking out the tunes!

tootsie10 responds:

thanks yeah i have lots of troble commpressing vocals , but ill try mixing how you said! thanks again :)