Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[~SW~ Dreamland Chronicles]

Great ambience.

Wow, I love the way that this piece grows and gives fruit to the imagery of my imagination. The bassline, that has little branches of melody growing off it, in the form of percussion and woodwind melody in the early going. Then you move on and get into a faster paced part, as a horse gallops past the tree, suddenly quickening the pace and taking us elsewhere - some sort of Indian Jungle, or perhaps an Arabian Bazaar, for example. Then we are off again, galloping across the landscape, with a sense of renewed urgency. Suddenly, we find ourselves back at the tree of the intro, continuing that journey, through day and night. From this one tree, others grow around it, making an oasis, perhaps even a forest, all from that one source.

I think that the piece should be classified under Ambient, as opposed to Miscellaneous. That's just how it sounds to me. The other change I would have made is not to use the dubstep "stutter" sound in the piece, as that just doesn't seem right in such a piece as this. Almost as if it is too big for my computer to cope with and the track has not downloaded enough, so it stumbles.

[Review Request Club]

SkyeWint responds:

Hey, Coop!

I am glad you like the song! :D That imagery you described... that was really what you thought of? Coooooool, man. Sounds like it was fun to be you while you were listening.
As you probably noticed in the description, I spent an entire month working on this, polishing and fiddling with everything to make sure it's just right. It was a pain, believe me.

Now, the stutter you're talking about - I know about it. It's not the actual song, but an issue with the NG audio player. Several possibilities about why this is happening. 1. It actually hasn't loaded enough (unlikely). 2. You're opening/closing new tabs and/or windows in the same web browser you're using to listen. Not sure if it also happens from external applications.

If you download and listen to it, or aren't surfing the 'net while listening from here, you should be fine! :D

...And the main reason I didn't submit this under ambient was the big orchestral section in the middle. It's also slightly less ambient afterwards, so...

Thanks for the review!

[Glitch practice]

Not bad.

I like the way that this sounds, with a few of the sounds, though some of them could be seen to be just a little too much (28 seconds in, that one seemed a little long, for effect). Overall, the master volume could use another shot in the arm, to bring that up a little more - it's too quiet.

You progressed with a nice form and while this gets repetitive after a few play-throughs, it could stand to take a bit more variation from you over all of this. Perhaps come up with some sort of solo for the melody, to give it more of a differential influence over the track, rather than sounding like a train runs (on the tracks, between pre-defined points)

[Review Request Club]

Yoshiii343 responds:

Hmm...I see. Mixing is still a bit of a problem for me. Maybe I should try to remake this into a full song with more instruments added, some time or another.

[C23~Blue 15]

Interesting sounding.

I like the imagery that I get for this. Very sci-fi, with notes of either WipEout racing, or some sort of large, lumbering spacecraft being prepared for launch into the cosmos (Starcraft?) It's certainly something that makes me want to see it presented as a part of either a game, or a movie sequence, to really see the interpretation of an artist or two, to see if their ideas match my own.

From the classical sound of the piano, to start, this piece blends nicely into the futuristic sounds, slowly overwhelming the piano and practically drowning it out. I think that you could stand to tone down the drum & bass a little, to give the piano more of a role in the piece, all told.

A nice use of sound effects through the piece gives a few more avenues potentially worth exploration, for expansion purposes. Certainly something that I have come to enjoy, despite not being all that overawed the first time I listened to it.

[Review Request Club]

KrisKrosNL responds:

Thanks for the review. I can imagine the piano being used more, and that would be a better thing.

[Steampunk004]

Tim Burton meets Discworld.

Hmm, this piece starts and ends with a lot of Hallowe'en influence, sounding quite macabre, with the winding of gears and the unmistakeable sound of a theremin mixing in there. It sounds pensive and very horror, but in a child's sort of way, paving the way for a 12A certificate, as opposed to gunning for the 18, that most horrors go for.

Then the tempo picks up and in the middle, it sounds very much like some of the music used in the live action versions of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. Industrial, clockwork, steam, yet heavily influenced by comedy and a dash of slapstick thrown in for good measure (along with a custard pie)

A strange blend, one that works, yet for some reason, one that I'm not that big a fan of. Oh well, can't win them all.

[Review Request Club]

steampianist responds:

thank you for your review

[Enigmatic Beast - Endless]

Good, but some lingering issues.

When you have the five "clicks" in a repeating loop "tap-tap tap-tap-tap", it seems like they are slightly out of time. There should be a longer natural pause between the end of loop one and the start of loop 2.

As for the rest of the song, it does give a dark, chilling ambience, that really does set a nice stage for something like a deep space shooter, almost Alien-esque, with a hint of unknown, with impending doom potentially lurking around every corner. I like it.

While this track is more of a buildup track, than something that's going to be played in the middle of a shoot-out, for example, so perhaps the next project would be making something that can blend easily into this track, that is faster paced, heart racing, adrenaline pumping fight-for-your-life combat soundtrack. Either base it for a game, or perhaps someone can use it for a game on here, who knows?

[Review Request Club]

Insanctuary responds:

Agreed, once again, except for...

The tappy tap tappy tap tap isn't meant to appease the normal 1-2-3-4 beat. I like to throw in a very psychedelic, abstract and space like atmosphere to really give it a swirly dimensional plane of consciousness where pieces of information just flows through and interacts with the instruments and SFX I've used.

It seems that you didn't have a good taste for it because of your expectations for a 'real' song rather than an experimental atmosphere that wasn't meant to fit the natural code of music, but I do respect your opinions anyways.

Thank you for the review.

[The Dying]

Getting there, but it needs a little something else.

Right from the get-go, this piece needs a little something else. The bass lacks in depth and power, which would see an easy fix, for the duration of the piece. If you do that, the track would have more body to it, with immediate affect. The second major point that grabs your attention is the repetitive nature of the track - there can be a lot done to the piece, by adding a solo or a modulation, but this has the markings of being quite similar the whole way through. Either the changes are too subtle, or it hasn't been changed enough.

You've produced a good sound, with a decent variety of instruments, so keep that part up, perhaps even venturing to add more. As the piece is house, it can always stand to be a little longer, perhaps even knocking on the door of six minutes, without really seeming too long, so have a go with that, this sort of thing leads to an increased need for variation, so be wary of that, though.

[Review Request Club]

[Locked Up]

The quality really brings this down. From the engineered backing beat that's available on most keyboards to the low bass sound of the track generally that indicated you either need better recording hardware and software, or somewhere with better acoustics to perform, there's something not quite right.

I'm not sure what a wooden door opening and shutting has to do with one being imprisoned - I'd personally have gone online and found a more convincing prison door shutting or slamming, to give more realism in the piece.

The track really needs a bassline, as well as something with more body on the drums. From the sound that you currently have, the bass isn't present at all, which takes all of the life out of the piece. Giving it at least some would give you a well rounded piece and allow people to focus on the guitar, instead of what the piece is missing in the background.

[Review Request Club]

[Fragility]

Short, repetitive and ends abruptly - what more can I say?

Well, fortunately for you, I can say a lot more than just that - the piece needs a lot of work to make it better, but you owe it to yourself to improve upon your work here. Now, it's not impossible, or too much of a stretch to get there, either. Simply aim to make the piece longer and add more variation, reaping more rewards along the way.

Now, the standard 8 beats on a Glockenspiel is nice, but it does not make a melody, neither does the beat that you've added in the background. Do something different in the style of verse - chorus - verse and work from that. Throw in a solo, where the glockenspiel tries something different and breaks the shackles, for instance.

When it comes to the end, perhaps consider ending the piece with the backing rhythm a beat early and having the ring of note one of your loop end into silence - that would be much better and certainly give a great ring to the ending of the track, underlining it

A lot of potential here, but it needs to be used. You can become a great artist, you just need to believe it yourself.

[Review Request Club]

[~SW~ No Regret]

Very moving.

I think that this piece is great, in spite of the change of pace in the middle - for a piece this short, I'm not sure that you can justify a change of pace as drastic as you put in there after a mere minute. Yes, some of the greats of the classical genre get away with that in pieces which are three or four times as long as this piece, so you need to consider perhaps adding more to the piece, to give a more balanced piece.

I love the emotions that the piece evokes - you really have given me a nice uplifting piece, that evokes positive emotion and when the true pace of the piece hits, you get lifted and practically thrown aloft by the sheer force of the feeling. Perhaps forced is too strong a word, because it encouraged me very willingly upwards. I love the whole sound and if it could give us some more, in terms of length, that would really give me a great boost.

[Review Request Club]

SkyeWint responds:

Hi, Coop!

"for a piece this short, I'm not sure that you can justify a change of pace as drastic as you put in there after a mere minute."
I'm not sure whether to laugh at the fact that you said this or not - Winrar1337 said pretty much the exact opposite of it.

All I can say is good, you noticed the change. :) The entire piece is intended to flow along smoothly - that change there is essentially the end of the slow 'intro' to the piece, going to the main part of it.

"I love the emotions that the piece evokes"
:D

"I love the whole sound and if it could give us some more, in terms of length, that would really give me a great boost."
Haha, I'd have loved to make it longer, but sometimes you have to know when to stop, neh? There wasn't much more I could have done with this song, and it actually is a decent length for what is /basically/ a solo piano piece in Renaissance style.

Don't worry though, I'm working on a piece that's MUCH longer, it's 4 minutes long already and only about 2/3 done theme and length-wise, probably even a bit less. Plus, it has full-on orchestral sections and a nice calm section with ambient percussion for those that like more laid-back music.

In any case, I'm glad you liked the music! :D

Thanks for the great review, as always! Hope to see more of 'em!

-Swint-

[Norato - Rise of Nou-Rau]

Good balance, impressive work.

I liked the way that this finished piece sounded. I'm not used to a House track that doesn't knock my lungs back into my ribs by the sound of the bass beat, it's a refreshing change, I must say. The beat is good and still a noticeable presence, while on top of that, the melody slowly builds up to sing alongside the beat, which then steps back from the mic, giving spotlight to the main attraction, before resorting to backing. Like a duet, these two aspects of the track trade off time at the top with one another in a well choreographed design - something that I was highly impressed with.

I feel that there is more that this track can come up with - perhaps a third sound in the form of a counter melody at some stage - when the bass is faded out in the latter part of the track, have you considered having the melody and counter duel with one another? It might work well. Had I been in control, I would not have faded the outro so soon, or for so long, it did drag the track on for an inconsequential 20 seconds, which didn't do you any favours.

[Review Request Club]