McGorilla42's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[NGADM 2019 Finale Show]

So great to hear everyone's voices!

Congrats to all the contestants and especially to the top four, and thanks to the judges :)

Jordi <3

[PUMP (OST)]

This is so great! It's totally original but it reminds me a bit of Danny Baranowski (Super Meat Boy), who I absolutely love. Amazing work :)

ConnorGrail responds:

Thanks! Absolutely love his work :)

[National Coming Out Day 2019]

majestic

[sad person anthem]

This is really good, Johnfn (if that is your real name)! Nice to hear some singing and guitars and pianos and things from you! That backwards guitar thing at 0:43 sounds super nice. Oh and that I III IV V (I think) progression toward the end feels really uplifting and good. :D

There's a couple things I'd like to suggest to make this even more amazing - if you want to hear it, I can do it in private, or I can edit this comment so that everyone can see. Or I can keep it to myself entirely :3

Nice work. I <3 u

[Some Birds Are Not Meant To Be Caged]

This is pretty rad in a lot of ways! But there's some stuff I'd adjust slightly. Prepare for a super uncalled for critique from someone who is probably worse at music than you:

1. The drums are WAY too compressed and busy to the point that they're actually clipping. They're also pumping in a kinda weird way? I'd check that compression release value. It seriously feels like there's probs like 10db of gain reduction on that drum bus compression (assuming you did it like that).

2. This track feels like it wants to be EPIC, but it's being held back by how busy it is! It starts off so rich and dense that it doesn't have space to grow. There's just too much...pick the best stuff and start chiselling away at the unnecessary stuff! As far as I can tell there's like vocals, guitar, bass, snare, 2 hi-hats, kick, strings, a choir, 3 different arpeggio synths, horns...

3. The drop at 0:44 is cool but barely impactful because of how much crazy stuff happened before it. Also the compression kinda kills that attempt at an explosive dynamic growth. Creating a bit of space in your mix before that "drop" would work wonders!

4. Those synth chord swells, dooty arpeggios (x3) and vocal melody are 100% in different keys right? Not sure if intentional or not or just getting jazzy and spicy up in here but it pokes out a little.

I'll stop. I'm sorry I just couldn't resist because this is so close to being ludicrously epic but needs some tweaks! I can't wait to hear more of your stuff :)

zybor responds:

Thank you for your constructive review. However, A) the intention of this track is to show off sound design, and B) I never gave a rat ass about being epic nor melodic. I hate to see you missed the points so profoundly, particularly when you merely tried to be helpful, which I'm very grateful for your comment.

Literally the title hinted the fact that this track gonna be very different from bazillions of generic shit released. I don't conform to theory nor boring production. Every track I made is a brand new experience for me and especially the listeners, and I'm sure you were confused the fuck out when listened to this one. It's difficult for conformists to think outside the box. I hope you aren't one.

Once again thank you for your review. At least you put some effort to it. Also I don't get long review very often.

Cheers!

[Quality Entry To The NGADM That I Spent 60 Hours On I Hope I Do Well]

I feel as though you've done a great job here. I can tell that you've put a lot of hard work into this and it shows. Although this is a near-perfect submission, there is always room for criticism and improvement so I'll do my best to nit-pick. Either way, this is a 5-star submission and I expect to see you making it deep into the competition.

Mix: 4.875/5: Great work. Your use of EQ and compression is impressive but I feel like you could make use of some filter automation, especially in the bridge and pre-chorus to build into the drop. Also just check your levels because I can tell just from experience that this is sitting at around -15LUFS instead of -16LUFS.

Composition 4.9/5: Flawless in every respect. You're making use of a classic form, used by everyone from Mozart to The Beatles, and while it may come across as cliche to some, it is used because IT JUST WORKS. Great job here.

Timbre/Synths/Sound Design 5/5. The bass is epic. I'm guessing that you probably spent 50 out of the 60 hours chiseling that tone to perfection and your hard work shows. It is so fat and punchy and really drives the mix. The use of some "real" instruments also gives this a change from the usual "all-done-in-the-box" music you hear nowadays. The drums are compressed perfectly to tempo and get my head bobbing without even thinking about it.

Vocal performance 420/69: Do I really need to say anything? You're the next Shawn Mendez, kid. Don't forget us when you're performing at the Superbowl in 2023.

Keep it up. You're an inspiration to many of us here and it's a wonder you haven't broken into the main stream yet

9.975/10

[Don't Mean a Thing]

Luny! This is so great! Very cute song and your voice sounds amazing and the lyrics are wonderful. Amazing :)

PS. The bridge is absolutely hilarious. I love everything about this.

LunacyEcho responds:

WHOA where the hell did you come from!!!! we should really catch up sometime yeyeyey

ty for listen bb :))

[-Energy-]

Ahh! Predator, I forgot how good you are and now you're even better than when I listened to you a year or so ago :) I'm glad you're still making such good music and getting better all the time. Everything is sounding so solid, tight, full and clear. You always use a lot of subtle details in your music that takes it from being good to amazing!

This is crazy good and as I always have to say - holy crap you're only 18!

PS. I'm listening to this on my crappy headphones that make everything sound bad unless it's mixed really well and this sounds amazing, so great job on that front too!

Preds responds:

Yoooo glad to hear from you again!!!

I'm very grateful to hear that I've improved. And yeaaah, detail is what really matters haha, they make things more unique!

I'm 18 indeed haha idk if that's a good thing haha (at least in this type of music industry)

You can blame your headphones but do not discard that my mix might be horrible too haha, still need to learn!

Thanks for the review man, I appreciate it.

[kdapq]

I feel like this song is giving my computer a virus by just listening to it.

GeometryDashMau5Kids responds:

Buen punto :)/

[Pulse of the Mind's Eye]

Oh man, this is amazing! I'm really flattered that you mentioned me and I inspired you take make something like this :) Your mix is so clean and tight and all of your sound design is impeccable, and as usual, your piece tells a story without having any words. Each tempo change is like a new chapter. It's great! :D And now I want to know how you made all those juicy synths sound so damn good...

I'm actually writing this on my phone at 5:40am (I listened on headphones, I promise!), so hopefully this review is adequate. I'm actually in the middle of re-mixing and reworking those other songs and trying to learn Ableton so hopefully I can put up another before long.

Thanks again and I can't wait to hear more from you!

ChronoNomad responds:

Many thanks, McG! The review is much appreciated. Of course I gave you a shout out, man. Been loving your recent musical activity, after all.

Really glad to hear that the mix is clean and the sound design is solid, especially since - as always happens with a new genre - one can never quite tell how well something will be received. Tempo changes are just plain fun, and they really seem to enhance the telling of the story. I was sorely tempted to add a key change or two, but ultimately the reprise in the second half ended up being in a slightly different key anyway. Funny how that worked out.

Whew, that's an early morning review! And I'm glad to hear that you were listening on headphones. Always the way to go, unless you've got a really nice speaker setup. Hard to pick out all those subtle nuances on smaller speakers, let alone the laptop or mobile device variety. Especially the bass, and missing out on that would be a shame.

Looking forward to your spruced up tracks! Not to mention your up and coming offerings. I use FL12 for all my stuff, so I don't really know anything about Ableton. Best of luck with the software and stay frosty.