EctiBot's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Jesterous]

Before I start reviewing this, I want to say that I HATE 75% of all metal tracks. I just feel like alot of them sound really muddy and are annoying to listen to. There are some exceptions like MetalJonus, but normally I hate them.
That said, I loved this... O_O. How come that I hate metal off newgrounds, but I seem to like quite a bit of the metal tracks on newgrounds.

This just totally blew my mind the moment it started. I just instantly knew that something awesome was coming. The intro riff was stunning. The guitar sounds really professional throughout the trAck, and the intro is no exception.
There are too many riffs in this for me to say what I think about every single one, but Let me just say that I don't think I heard a single bad riff :D.
The song is also really well aranged with a lot of hills and valleys that keeps the interest and makese wanna keep listening.
The deeper parts of the guitar sounded very good. Totally rocked my earbuds :D.

Halfway to this track it had me standing up on my chair and shaking my head. That means this was awesome. And it certainly is, was, and will always be awesome.
Great work :D.
5 stars
-Ectisity

PirateCrab responds:

What a review to be proud of <3 I suppose my riffing style is fairly unique in that I generally avoid following song patterns so it doesn't get repetitive. Clearly, it worked. I might have to re-use that again ;)

Thanks a lot matey! Hope to see you next year in the NGADM! :)

[Current Project]

I can always appreciate a good guitar riff, and I love this one . I especially how you arranged the different riffs. Everythings sounds like one, long riff which is what you want to accomplish when writing rock :). You seem to have all the basics down for the guitar. The quality is a bit poor, but the poor quality actually make this track more personal. I think it has it's own charm because you can clearly hear that this was recorded live. While listening to it I actually felt like I could imagine you sitting on your bed with your guitar and your amp, playing this XD.

So basically, I loved the guitar, but the problem is that there is only a guitar. I really missed a bass and some drums in this. It would have been so unbelieveably epic with at least drums. I really hope you will make this into a full metal track in the future. Are you a part of a band?

Anyways, overall I really liked the riff, but it was lacking bass and drums. I felt like I only listened to the guitar part of a full rock song.
If you ever make this a full song, make sure to let me know ;).
-Ectisity

Insomnimatic responds:

First off I would like to thank you very much for the review.

As a matter of fact, I was sitting on my bed recording this haha. The quality is an issue I need to somehow get around. I currently use my Rocksmith Guitar Cable and Mixcraft with some different VST's to achieve the sound.

I actually am at the moment learning bass but I just can not figure out a good bass line to go with this track. I also play drums but I don't have any drum microphones at the moment or a place to play (They are acoustic drums not electronic) so the drums I will have an issue with, saddly. I would love to add some really good drum tracks to this but at the moment I can not.

I am not currently part of a band but I have been in one band before. We disbanded for lack of others showing up for practice and we decided it would be for the best.

I plan on making this a full song and maybe even sing / scream for it but I'm not a very vocalized person haha. Very hard for me to hit notes but I can low and mid scream decently.

[F(x)]

Really nice and atmospheric track this :D. I loved how you made intro really calm and atmospheric and just broke it down around 0:16 :D. Sounded awesome. The bass part sounded good for a while, but then it got a bit too repetetive. Listening further into the track, I noticed that the track just stayed on the buildup. There was never any drop. Sure, not every dance track needs a powerful drop, but they should at least have some sort of breaks. I felt like this track lacked that. I really liked the feel of it, but it sounded like a never ending buildup to me. Try studying some other dance tracks and see how they do their breaks. I'm not saying that you should copy them, but there is always something you can learn from listening to others.

Still liked the funky feel of it though and the ambient sounding of it.
Keep it up :).
3 stars.

Crimsonskies455 responds:

Thank you sooooooooo much for your review. I freaking love the feedback.! Do you know any songs that I can canalize for drops that would sort of accompany my style, or any songs that have good breaks?

[Breaking]

Great stuff this :D. Loved the funky feeling it gives :). It's been a while sincd I've hear some proper retrofunk. I loved how you arranged the different parts of the song, and managed to keep it interesting without changing the melody too much. I also liked the melody btw XD.
One thing that i think could use some work is the mixing. Especially the mixing of the subbassy synth.
It really clashes with the lead. You might also need to level it a bit differently as the sub is a bit too loud for my liking.
Around 2:50 you use kind of a distorted guitar-ish synth. This could also use some work, as it really hurt my ears listening to it. I think the main problem with it is that it's too loud, but it could also use some mixing work as well.

Other than that I really liked it :). It had a really nice feel and I really liked how you varied the drums as well :D. I'm by no means a good mixer, but fix the mixing and I think this will be great :D.
Keep it up ;).
-enochcity

Voltus responds:

Hey thank you very much for your Review, glad you liked it.

Whats up with the mixing complaints? You're not the only one who noticed this. I referenced the track in the studio with everything sounding fine, what monitoring system do you have? The synth around 2:50 is just a sudo randomly resonating filter with a lot of reso. What I didn't mix in the studio was the sub, I don't have a lot of tools for referencing that at home so that might be a little too much. IDK I try my best but am always kind of bummed when people point out my mixing is too loud, mushed or whatever. Anyways thanks for your review and as I said I'd like to know your monitoring setup.

Cheers!

[Classical Gas (Tommy Style)]

I'm always surprised over what a single guitar can do by itself :D. It's one of tye reasons why it's my favourite instrument even though I play the piano as well :D. This is a great example of the superiority of guitars X3. I loved how you used dynamics and take the listener to another world while listening to your track :). Imagined myself being in the wild west while listening to this XD.
I'm not giving a full score because even though I liked it with the guitar alone I think it could have been more amazing with some western soundeffects and some piano notes.
Great work anyways :D
4.5 stars.
-Ectisity

Ceevro responds:

Thanks for the review! I gotta say that this is about the most difficult thing I've ever learned to play. I had to buy a new mic to do it, because every attempt at getting the dynamics with my old mic was just...well...the mic couldn't keep up with the range in the song.

Perhaps I'll do a version with some orchestration later, but that's a really tough order, because there are multiple key/time/tempo changes, which means I can't just patch in some loops - I gotta play the orchestral parts live! I'm a good guitarist, but not so good with a piano, ya know?

[Game Addict]

The instrumental sounds kewl, but the vocals weren't that good tbh. I barerly even heard them over the guitar. I'll asume that you just record your vocals raw through a mix or something? If I were you I would have got a DAW or something to mi. The vocals with the instruments.
I also often heard that the vocals were both offbeat and offtone at times which became kinda annoying :/.
Digged the guitar though :).
3 stars.
-enochcity

johnnyq1233 responds:

Thanks for the review! I kinda wanted it there as a punkish addition to an alternative metal rhythm. It was done in about 8 hours and being mixed under headphones is a bit of a challenge at best!
But, that's apartment life!
Under the cans and at volume it comes off alright on my end!
Will look at the tracks again and see what I can do!
Thanks...JQ
Edit: I listened to this a few times at different volumes and I could hear the words quite well. I did pick up a few chords that were not as I would want, but, I still like what I did!!!!
I didn't use a DAW because I wanted something more live than clinical!
Too many bands use the software environment to fix songs and make them a Sterile piece.
I like REAL music that has flaws and still has a rawness to it...
JQ

[Murasaki Sky]

Awesome track this :D! Loved the synths, the mixing is very good and it has a very nice general feel to it.
I felt like the drum samples, especially the hat, didn't properly fit into the track at times.
The drum pattern could use a bit more variation as well.
Other than that I love it :D. Great work.
Keep it up ;).
4.5 stars
-enochcity

Chemiqals responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it! ^_^

[Losing A Draw]

Knew it would be worth it checking out my fans tracks :D.
This is amazing! It perfectly sets the mood and almost makes yo travel to a fantasy world just by listening to it. The instruments and drums are really well used, as well as the ambience :D. Only negative thing was that the ending was a bit abrupt, and that I wished you had made it so that it loops. Other than that, it's a perfect ambient piece for a game :). If you uploaded music more often you wuld have had loads of fans by now ;).
5 stars.
-enochcity

FinaLee responds:

Thanks for the kind words, good sir! I will definitely be uploading more tracks when I have the time.