Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lost Entity (Dance Remix)]

An interesting combination

I'm not sure about classical crossovers - I've seen them butchered too many times before to be a massive fan of this sort of music, but this one seems to be one of the better ones.

I think where it falls down is that you start off with the piano - one of the most dominant instruments ever created, then you head to keyboards and from there, the piano is drowned out in a sea of artificial sounds, beats, rhythms and synths. What you need is something that the piano can shine through with, while not taking out the synths themselves. Let the piano come through and it will pay its way, giving you a much better sounding track.

The pace is good and the beat is powerful, so these are positive points for your piece. Slightly more work is required on the rest, but you've getting there.

[Review Request Club]

DJ-Chilvan responds:

Thanks for the review =). I was wondering where you've been, since usually you review right before or after Haggard =P. Well, this song was meant to be more synth-like than classical, but I can see exactly where you're coming from. I actually got a very great idea from your review; in a future synth project, I will have a very nice piano harmony running through the whole track, and it will never get repetitive. Wow. That would be soo dank =D. Thanks!

[Messy robot Repair]

Wall-E remixed :P

Hmm, it's not bad - there's a few components to this track that don't seem to bear much relevance to the rest of the piece, but other than that, it's a good sounding piece.

The introduction seems to get forgotten, as the second sound that you come along with (synths) doesn't sound anything like them, so kind of falls off the end, without anything to tie it in.

From then, the track seems to gather itself and some momentum, which you use to good effect, making a recovery. It could be a little longer - try something with that intro, then add something else to the end and you'll make some good progress.

[Review Request Club]

Sawdust responds:

Thanks man, and I find it peculiar how you tied this with Wall-E, I mean, seriously, Wall-E's score is WAAAAY better than this and has a completely different feel, but I'm flattered that you think that way. Thanks.

[Broken out of a Window]

Surprisingly creepy

I've never known suspense and industrial go together well - then again, I think you're the first person I've ever seen try it :P

The first half of the track does indeed deal with the suspense and then there seems to come a sort of release, as whoever was caught up in this old factory (some sort of industrial / horror metaphor here, I think) comes out the morning after and sees the sun rise in a fully working industrial district of town.

I think that it's a good track, but I wasn't sure about the ending - it stuttered too much on the slow down, so that method doesn't really work. An abrupt stop would be a better way to deal with this, I think.

[Review Request Club]

PizzaBox responds:

Yeah, you're probably right about the abrupt stop. I'm not very good at them. Especially since All the instruments I was using had really high release and delay on them. Not my doing, that's just how the patches be, so it would've been really hard to make an abrupt stop without it sounding totally unnatural. It's definitely something I'll try practicing more though. (EDIT: totally realized I just mis-read what you said... uhh... Yeah. the ending was sarcastic on my end. Haha. Totally stupid.)

I like the way you analyzed the track, man. It's good to see people looking at my music from a metaphoric perspective. Most of my songs do have something behind them, but unfortunately this one of me very few weeks that's totally meaningless ;D Still, I really liked your interpretation of it! Very creative.

[-)S(- Live Out Loud!]

Nice work

I think that this is a pretty good piece, that's got all of the elements of a good song, though I would appreciate hearing a little more bass to carry the track forward. It's a good start with the drums, but it sounds too far away, almost as if they are being played within a cave. A little additional bass is added when the melody cuts in, but it's not enough. Just the occasional pumping beat would have given this track a perfect 10 from me, but it wasn't to be.

Good length, good variation. It was almost a shame that the same equalisation issue happened with the counter melody that you put in at about the 1m 30 marker. still, these two parts should go head to head and see what makes for a better part of the track. Having them face off in the middle is a sneaky way of doing more work, without doing all that much else ;)

[Review Request Club]

Will responds:

Thanks for the critiques, they really do help me...You pointed out the lack of low-end, which I greatly appreciate. Thank you for reviewing!

[The Deep Blue]

An interestingly calm piece

I'm not sure if I like this or not - it's intriguing with the amount of calm that you put out for the piece, but then there are issues when you give us perhaps a little much of this and not enough "wet sound effects" for a piece that's meant to be for games situated underwater.

I'd suggest that this is designed for children's games, as opposed to any game that has an underwater stage. Still, that's not a bad thing and it can still be improved upon and you've identified the market you're aiming for.

Perhaps the tempo could be increased, as I don't think that an underwater climate would sound this sleepy and relaxed.

[Review Request Club]

PuffballsUnited responds:

Maybe I did 'over-relaxify' (Yes I just made up a word to fit what I meant) the song a bit too much. Thanks for the feedback!

[AF - Inner Space]

Chasing the sunset.

That's the main image I get from this piece - some sort of small spacecraft that is flying across open countryside with a goal of chasing the sun around the planet. The last red rays of sunlight just bidding farewell for another few hours, as this craft plunges onward, kind of in the style of a craft from WipEout.

The track is a little repetitive for my liking and I can see where you could add something else to your almost basic repertoire of instruments. The pause was a great feature in the middle, but consider something like a bass solo, just giving the track something different from the melody, which has the power to overwhelm the track, which is a shame.

[Review Request Club]

aliaspharow responds:

Yeah i see what you mean. I'm not that experienced at the moment, and ive tryed adding a bass solo... In time i will come back to this song and remake it what it should of been.

[Something's Missing]

A little too basic

Sorry to say this, but it just seemed like there was something missing. The piano loop is simple and effective, but there was something else I was expecting here, that didn't really get to hear. The vocals were unexpected, but all too brief.

With the addition of the strings, I thought that something else was going to bloom forth from the track, but I was sadly denied. A flute solo would have made this track, but alas, it was not to be. Perhaps something else could have been done to vary it, but I think that it just didn't quite reach where it started out pointing towards.

Good use of soft drum beats to keep the track going and as I said before, the backing strings are nice. The solo for the strings was the best part of the piece, but it lacked the killer touch of other parts of the orchestra. This is clearly not a piece for brass, so it leaves us with woodwind or percussion. I couldn't see this accomplished by xylophones or glockenspiel, so give the woodwind section some consideration and see what you make of it.

[Review Request Club]

GronmonSE responds:

i c wut u did thar wit teh pun

Ahem...

Something's missing for a reason :P Emptiness, repetition, tension. That's what I based this track on.

Not a fan of wood instruments, but I'll consider them next time.

Thanks for the review!

[Brittle Nature (WIP)]

Borderline Industrial

I really could think of this piece as Industrial, if the beat was anything to go by. Perhaps some sort of amalgamation of Legend of Zelda and Metal Slug, where the industrial sounds just seem so mixed with a video game that it can't be the medieval setting of Zelda any more.

I think that you've certainly got a lot going for this track - it loops pretty well and has a nice perpetuation, so it continues to roll along nicely, though I couldn't listen to it all day, which is a shame. Perhaps more variation would combat that. Something like a darker, more menacing sound than the 8-bit keyboards, perhaps? At least in a solo or somewhere, so that you can break it up and get the flavour of the piece across.

[Review Request Club]

Kirbyfemur responds:

At the moment for what this song is going for i'm sadly not planning to change the 8-bit sound. It's just been implanted in my brain that that is the sound i wanted for the particular instrument. The newer version has some slight changes that might have added a bit more variation to this. I may post it into the review request club for the next batch.

Anywho thanks for the review! =3

[The Ancient Ones]

Good ambience

A very nice, calm, soothing piece, that gets the listener into a nice tranquil environment, presenting images that remind me of tranquil lagoons and a nice smooth flowing river basin that has small animals residing on the bank, without a care in the world.

I think that this is the sort of piece that games developers might use as the end credits roll. Not that it would be solely reserved for this sort of use, as there are bound to be scenes in movies, possibly as people get transported by river or by air to one destination or another. Of course, I'm only being speculative.

As I said in my review for your darker, flip-side piece, you could do with making this shorter and looping it, as this will give people that use it a much better chance to make it usable for their own requirements.

[Review Request Club]

Monkeydelic responds:

Thanks, nice picture you painted there :)

Once again, i'm aware that my songs are long, but it's a result of a natural desire to keep going, it's also a long time since I made this song, so NG wasn't exactly on my mind when I made it, also i'm not good at looping, as you call it, I don't really know what it is, my experience with recording is audacity and my instruments, have never felt the need to loop, but i'm sort of interested in how i might incorporate it into my music.

Thanks for the review :)

Namaste.

[Demon Voices]

Dark and mysterious

It's a nice sounding ambient track that gives us an impression of dread and perhaps a little foreboding. I can certainly see this piece having an effect if it were being used in games or movie pieces that had the requirement for larger than life fear.

The main issue with this is the length - you need to cut it down to size if you're hoping to get a more effective piece here. At 7.1 meg, it's going to put off prospective users who may have considered that for their pieces. If you made a slightly more condensed version, say to about half the length and made it loop better, you'd certainly be onto a winner.

[Review Request Club]

Monkeydelic responds:

Thanks :)

I understand what you're saying about the lenght, and i'll make a note of it, but i'm not sure if i'm willing to change it simply to make it more appealing to people who might consider using it, that's not my main motivation, and in my eyes takes the focus of the song itself, but i appreciate the input, and I can agree that the song is very long.

Thanks for the review :)

Namaste.