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under siege (ngadm)

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Author Comments

its best to listen in some headphones.....or some really huge speakers

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I scored your song a 7 for the NGADM because while I thought the song was good, the mixing was not as great.

\m/ (>.<) \m/

Metal! Fuck yes!
There's a lot I liked about this song, first and foremost you didn't opt to stick with safe patterns and cliche riffs or overly repetitive passages to make a good song, and that earned you an extra few points. And I loved how you utilized multiple guitars to complement each other instead of always opting to have the 2 guitars just running side by side playing the same tune... It really added quite a bit more dynamic to the song.
I was also pleased to hear a synth or two in there, which I always think is a great addition to metal.
The solo... well, I'm impressed, it's not the most technical solo in the world, but it really did sound perfect for the song.

As for things I wasn't too fond of... First would be the mixing... gonna be honest, the mixing here was pretty bad. The drums were too loud, the rhythm guitars were too quiet, and the entire mix to me felt kind of like I was listening to it through a pillow.
I also noticed that the guitars weren't always really on time, it wasn't constant, but it was very noticeable when it did happen thanks to the obnoxiously loud drums. I also noticed a missed not going into the "second solo"... which I didn't really dock you points for, but figured it should be mentioned all the same.

Overall, I really liked the variety of this song, and if it had been mixed a bit better and the guitars adjusted or re-recorded on those off time moments, this could have gotten a much higher score. Regardless, as it is, this earned a 6.5/10 from me.

Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.

The Good:
-You used some synths, so your instrumentation is more diverse than most metal. Nice!
-The guitar playing is pretty good.
-I liked how your song wasn't REALLY REALLY LOUD like most heavy metal songs are.

The Not-So-Good:
-Your snare is WAY too loud, particularly in comparison to the kick. The kick is a bit too soft, put a tiny bit more punch in it and bring the snare down.
-Also concerning mixing, try amping things up a little bit. Remember to use equalizers to lower frequencies that overlap between instruments and compressors to bring down the obnoxious loud frequencies. If you want to keep dynamic range, don't do makeup gain on the whole thing, but rather put gain on everything overall if you really need it.
-You need an actual outro... just letting it end isn't all that good.

Overall: The mixing on this is pretty crap, but if you could get the mixing to be better, I think you would definitely have a good song, and would be able to do more. As it is, I'll give you a 6.7/10 and say that I'm doing this because I think you have more potential than Demon-Slayer... IF you improve your mixing. Look up some tutorials if need be.

This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.

--

It's funny because while Demon-Slayer12's track has great mixing and bad composition, you've presented us with a track that has creative composition but awful mixing. You two should seriously collab sometime.

Right then, starting with the composition, you've done a lot more than Demon-Slayer12 did. All of the melodies are great. The lead guitar playing all those descending phrases actually made sense compositionally and fit quite well. You also had a healthy dosage of rhythm-guitar thrashing too, so you got the best of both worlds. A heavy track that still has great melodies. You even added some sort of synth at 1:29, which fit better than I expected. All of the transitions from one section to another were nailed, and you've got a pretty good structure too. Compositionally, this is creative and enjoyable.

However, the reason why I gave Demon-Slayer12 a higher score is because his mix is excellent while yours is - sorry to be blunt - terrible. I suppose this can be credited to not enough experience mixing, since practice makes perfect after all (excuse the clichÃffffffÃffff'Ãfff'Ãff'Ãf'Ã'©) but whatever the case, the mix isn't that good at all. The drums stand out far too much (at times that snare was way too loud). They're also dry, and lack the low-end power that they desperately need, making them more of a nuisance than actually a useful element of the track.

The guitar sounds really distant and hard to make out, particularly the rhythm guitar strumming. I'm hearing some great guitar-playing, but if you don't bring out your guitar to the front of the mix to let it shine, your track will sound very disappointing. On a slightly unrelated and smaller note, the ending of your track suffers the same problem as the ending of Demon-Slayer12's track. It stops out of nowhere. You had a great approach to an outro though, so having the track stop so suddenly is incredibly disappointing.

You've got fantastic composition, and your track is very creatively-made, but your mixing needs a lot of heavy tweaking. Great effort though, good luck getting better with that mixing!

--

SCORE:
6.5/10

First off (I'm posting this to everyone): Note that the scores might be a bit lower than what's typical for NG reviews - no one should expect a 10/10 unless their entry was absolutely incredible.

--

Because I'm a goddamn psychopath who enjoys it when the authors of songs I review get that awful sinking feeling, le's get straight to the big problems first. I have all the songs from round 1 in a playlist, and every time I get to yours it immediately sounds like a thin mushy soup compared to the last one due to bad mixing and probably bad recording too. The overall loudness is very low, and yet the drums sound like they've been over-compressed and almost distorted. The guitars are weak and lack punch at lower volumes, which can be remedied by turning up the volume - but if I do that I'm assaulted by the snare drum (and occasionally a ride cymbal too). I can't win.

Which is unfortunate, because I'm hearing good ideas and great intentions beneath. The guitar riffs sound like they COULD kick brutal ass. The harmonized guitars sound like they could sound sublimely beautiful - the melodies are all there. The synth sounds sound like they could add a great Dream Theater vibe to the track at times. But they don't. Relatively sloppy playing is also a part of this - I'm hearing audible slip-ups, off timing and notes out of tune (sometimes even off key) in almost every riff and solo.

Amusingly enough, your and Demon-Slayer12's entries are lacking in completely opposite, complementary ways. Your entry is a varied song with good length and many varied ideas, but is cursed with awful mixing and sloppy playing. His entry has great mixing and tight playing, but is far too long and cursed with a stale structure and ideas. Like the Yin and the Yang, or a clouded day and a moonlit night, the two of you complete each other. You should kiss!

4 points for sounds and instrumentation.
8 points for composition and melody/harmony.
6 points for theme/originality/other things that might impress.

Overall impression: 6.0

Credits & Info

Artist

Listens
1,452
Faves:
1
Downloads
32
Votes
8
Score
2.12 / 5.00

Uploaded
Aug 14, 2012
11:18 PM EDT
Genre
Heavy Metal
File Info
Song
4.4 MB
2 min 24 sec

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