RiotFlash's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Chickenshit [Demo]]

really really catchy

id say this is one of your best songs, its really well written. my only suggestion would be to turn up the music and turn down the vocals. maybe add another guitar part. its a really good song, but i feel like it needs a little more music behind it to really push it into professional grade. the song itself is definitely there. i mean, im no producer or professional, but my ear feels like some ambiance is missing, almost like a backdrop pad in electronic music. once again, this is only my attempt at "constructive critiscm" well i guess its more like suggestions...whatever.
the vocal melody is so catchy and the guitar parts are creative. drums sound perfect as always haha.
keep up the good work, the new batch of songs you've been putting out are scary good. like buy-it-on-vinyl good.

Gunshy responds:

you're right. your ears serve you well! the rest of the new batch so far has had synthesizers in the background or some vocal effect with echo or chorus also in the background. this one i didn't do shit to it just to see how it sounded "naked" so to speak. i guess "DEMO" should be added at the end of the title. i'll be rerecording the vocals at some point anyway. they're missing harmonies. i don't think i'll add another guitar, but you're right the distorted parts especially are too soft. and the vocals are just a few hairs too loud.

[Supposed To Know]

solid

im not sure what that guy down there is saying about the drums? the samples and the patterns sound almost perfect...

theres not a whole lot to say about this song. its sounds horrible in a perfect grungy way and the production on it is well done and thats all i really have to say, i commented mostly to call out "natalo77" on being a dumbass. haha keep it up :P

[Decals (I Don't Know) [De]

tasty!

what a good song :D those drums are incredible, im head over heels in love with how furious they sound. id like to start off by saying that probably 6 out of your 10 points belong to the drumming. the bass department sounds very unique, almost worth listening to this in pairs just to pick out all the cool stuff its doing. the guitars sound great; unique but professional. lyrics are good, i like some of the tongue-in-cheek stuff "not that I would mind, a-ridin' that ass all day long" etc. i know i said something against these 10 minute songs, but this is an exception :P good work haha

Gunshy responds:

:) ! thanks for the words "incredible" and "furious" about the drums! i agree! lol - the bass (see above also) was an enormous undertaking. bringing the bass from the synthesizers i usually use into the real world with a gigantic ibanez roadstar was ridiculous. i ended up using different samples of me playing variations on the notes and beat structure to create the right changes at the right times, where needed.

[+ROSS - Fantastic Prison]

one of my favorites from the album

i think ive made this comment before, but i just love the drums on this. they just sound fierce. this song is one of my favorites from the album. for a lot of reasons. i like how catchy it is for what it is. the singing is just contagious, your voice sounds good on this, and it the way its sung gets it stuck in my head. its weird having a song like this stuck in your head because its not like there's like a main melody or anything. its not like a The Strokes song or something with really loud, front and center melodies. its just some scattered noise, some really good scattered noise.
and, as a bassist, its nice to hear a lot of emphasis on bass guitar. :D
YEAAAAAAAAH OH WELCOME TO REAL LIFEEE. < best part, haha.

Gunshy responds:

:))))

this same drumset is the one i'm using on all the new songs. keeping it consistent throughout. guitar sound as well. single guitar recordings, dual a little bit. i'm getting a more faux live set sound... a big, bold, grinding grunge sound my word, it'll be beautiful

[Playback. Pause. Repeat.]

meh

this song just just sounds like heavy drum and improv keyboard, albeit subpar improv keyboard. the drums are tacky but good, or maybe its the keyboard thats tacky. the keyboard melody isn't catchy, and barely audible. the two parts are at least on tempo with each other. this isnt a song id listen to more than once.

this song is also way too long for how repetitive it is.

[How Do I Continue This!!!!????]

dfgs

sounds good.
in the beginning. the drum loops like idk 4 times before the bass comes in. do some trickery with that. for instance.
go to your mixer. on the master track, add a Parametric EQ 2. Right-click the arrow at the top-right to look through the presets. I don't have FL open right now but I think there's a preset called "Old Radio." Use that. It won't sound good. thats what youre going for. trust me. okay. so right beside where it says Parametric EQ 2 there's a level knob. right-click it and click "set automation." so the first idk, 3 1/2 mesaures have the EQ on the whole way. then, have the automation slope downward to zero. its cool to have a snare roll going on that fourth measure and then a crash on the forth beat and some silence. its dramatic. i hope im making sense. maybe you'd like to put a simple little arp melody in there at the beginning. some echo, who knows..just add stuff, make it sound busy but good.
alright that was a mouthful.
thats jsut a little trick. electronic music always has some sort of beginning like that.
just listen to the songs you like. make note of the structure. the little tricks they do, and the way they do their songs. i hope. i helped with my example.

[Something For Nothing]

dafsfdsagas

Part 3 gives me goosebumps.
parts 1 & 2 are good, but part 3 its just so epic and pretty, and it closes the album so well.
one of my favorites by one of my favorites.

Gunshy responds:

thank you, continually, thank you! 10000 thank yous
i feel like part 1 [0:00-6:00] is like the come on for the rest
part 2 has the teeth and is the real meat of the song, the jam [6:00-16:26]
but thank you, so much... part 3 is what made this song all really click, made the album itself click together, with this as the finale.

[The ALARM Song]

not britpop in the slightest

but really good beat. i like the idea of an alarm clock metronome.
about halfway through is just kinda random and doesn't fit, but the first half is ace, I love the lo-fi synths.

[>Something 4 Nothing (6 Mix)<]

liuyoyfouy

this is so radically different i think my brain spun a full 360.
sounds really good, but every once in a while i swear im hearing auto-tuned vocals, or maybe its just a digital effect. which is just trippy.

this sounds really good, especially for dividing it into a fourth of what it is. the bass and drums are spot-on perfect, but feel a little overpowering over the vocals. this might be compression or who knows. i could use a little more guitar, but once again, this is a six minute cut, im not going to blame that on you.

but for what it is, a six minute cut, and with newgrounds' limits on audio and etc its good. my only complaint is the vocals are a little bit too faint, and im not loving that digital/autotune effect. just my honest opinion, i dont mean to bitch. because other than that it sounds really good and im eager to hear the actual thing.

Gunshy responds:

very different, indeed!

you ARE hearing autotune. only used in this, the 1st section of the full song, for a more futuristic sound (or modern, i guess). i'm not a fan, either, but it is used pretty sparingly since the program itself doesn't seem to know what to do with double-tracked (etc) vocals... but that may factor into the compression or faintness... i learned a few things about how to use it during this process, so believe me any use in the future will be sparing and better-done.

i think it's the compression with the drums, really, but it also might be the speakers. when i'm counting down until a release of even just one song here on NG i try to listen to that song on as many stereos as i can, because invariably it sounds different on every single one. what i record/engineer/mix on here at home is by various accounts "an insane amount of sound" so i try and experiment with hearing the songs on average desktop speakers or laptop speakers, car stereos, etc., with mixed success. with that said, i made this whole thing a little bit louder than i usually go, again for a more modern sound, so hmmm and eh... idk.

8/10 ain't bad to me, considering this song is/was outside of my usually range, musically, vocally, technically, everything... the fact that start-to-finish it's 24 minutes (and btw it never really returns to any of these beat or rhythm structures, this section is designed to be stand-alone) and has (in full) i think 9 separate guitar solo sections, is ridiculous even to me, epic and just fun to play. the fact that i'm rapping in this part of the song is wwwwaaaaayyyy outside of my usual range, although i've talked on the records before...

i'm rambling...
thanks
and thanks in advance!

[+R]
PLAY IT LOUD ANYWAY
lol

[Alright Now]

like it

This reminds me a little bit of candlebox, and take that in a good way.
haha.
good guitars, good singing.
turn up the drums and post the lyrics!