Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Azure Eyes]

Good Length & Variation

This song sounds nice for some sort of futuristic bar tune in certain game situations. It's worth throwing in, maybe slightly quieter, just to give that certain feel or a few 'more plesant' aliens occupying the place.

I like the fact that you've given some good thought to this song - it really helps to broaden the scope of the song out and actually make it into a nicely sized tune.

[Review Request Club]

S3C responds:

thank you!

[FFX2 - Eternity Extended]

Nice Harps

This piece is nicely played - a new version of an instant classic, which I have played the original game for. It sounds so quiet and peaceful at the start, only to experience the epic undertones, showing how dark and perilous the journey ahead will probably become.

This is a wonderful piece, complete with nice variations between instruments - the tubular bells were a wonderful addition around the 2 minute mark. Subtle additions played their parts as well nicely.

[Review Request Club]

S3C responds:

Thanks man. Glad you enjoyed.

[Galloping Through the Night]

Really needs to be longer

It doesn't loop, so there is a really fall down in the way this tune works. 14 Seconds doesn't make a good tune, so concentrate on maybe expanding with a broader sense of what these barbarians have done to warrant such a theme.

Warriors don't plunder evil kingdoms, they may sack the place and reduce it to a pile of smoking rubble, or add it to their growing empire, but they don't plunder - it's a nasty word to use :P

[Review Request Club]

S3C responds:

I promise you it loops perfectly! I'm listening to it over and over again and can't figure out what's wrong with it, so if you or an another reviewer listens to it and can tell me more specifically whats wrong it looping wise, that'd be great. Unless you want all the instruments to keep on playing I guess I see what you mean, but i didn't find that necessary, as the brass ends on a resolving chord, and the violins have a subtonic note leading back into the tonic. I know that probably doesnt make sense, but I cant think of any other way to explain it :P there's also a natural extra silence with mp3 files, but I can't fix that.

I agree on length, fair criticism, but loops are helpful for flash games.

I thought plunder meant "to sack a place and reduce it to a pile of smoking rubble" hmmm I look into better word choice haha :P

Thanks for the review!

[Expiration (S.C.)]

Interesting...

You said in a previous response that it was Alternative Rock. Isn't there a section for that, rather than in Indie, as most Indie that I've listened to has lyrics that you can understand. Anyway, aside from that, I can understand them well enough, so I don't know what the issue was there.

Anyway, this is a decent song, sending a message across about the futility of the world in general. That's how life is, I'm afraid. Let's move on and talk about the tune itself - it's a quite simple riff on the keyboard, which keeps looping throguh the song, with a basic sounding guitar backing. I think that it's got a little samey through the tune, as you don't even give us an instrumental, which is a great chance to take the instruments away from the vocals and show us what they are capable of.

[Review Request Club]

BreakingFaces responds:

They don't have a section for alt. rock, they really should.
And thanks

[+The Broken God+]

Good stuff

Sounds like you've been allowing yourself to become immersed in this type of music. Looking through your notes of how you've been inspired, I can see how this would fit in well with certain areas of Sonic the Hedgehog, for example.

I haven't listened to Daft Punk for an age, I'll have to go through my collection and dig out some of their classics.

This would be useful if added to some sort of puzzle game, so long as you turned the volume down a bit - this is just a little on the loud side for the distraction factor. I liked the addition of the backing bass, as it adds a whole new dimension to the tune, which some artists tend to ignore. You really can't forget it in a trance track, as it is so prominent.

[Review Request Club]

WritersBlock responds:

Hey, thanks, man.
I guess one thing that I'm better at now than aerlier on, is that I'm looking at the song as a whole, rather than as "this instrument, that instrument", so that they blend together better. I love messing about with unusual basslines in this style. It'd be pretty cool if this was used in a puzzle game. Puzzle games are awesome, which means that I'd probably play it a fair bit. =P
Cheers, great review. I'm so glad you liked it.

[Passionate Playing-UMSL]

Good stuff

This tune has all the stuff that i said you last one lacked - length, variation, changes of instruments.

The 3 minute marker seems to be the key. Stick aroubnd this sort of length and you can come up with a decent tune, provided you fill it with variation. I can quite easliy see this being used for some sort of racing game now, it's got that extra tempo, to keep people with quick minds in the frame of mind for racing.

Mind you, if it's going to go for that sort of game, you'd need to add more bass, that's a must.

[Review Request Club]

umsldragon responds:

more bass, roger that!

[BoomChick-Demo-UMSL]

Needs to loop

If it could loop, this track would be decent. As it stands at the moment, it's quite basic, without much in the way of variation or length. With the looping, you could improve the length issue by cheating slightly.

The basic tune is one of the best known blues riffs, so nothing new here. The stuff that you've put over the top of it, combined with your unusual choice of intrument have given something extra, but it needs to be more - perhaps more instruments. Blues likes a horn section and maybe some harmonica as well. Try watching the Blues Brothers for more inspiration.

[Review Request Club]

umsldragon responds:

will do. WOrking on the whole thing into a full version

[Waterfall [R1]]

Innovative

I think that while you've got the basic melody going, the main problem sounds when you put everything together, as the main tune itself sounds very ragged - the counter melody doesn't go well with the rest - it's either too sharp or too flat. It certainly sounds as if you haven't experimented with how they should all sound blended together. Don't get me wrong, some parts work, but others really don't, which is a shame.

I'm not entirely sure as to where you've come up with the waterfall metaphor from, either. To me, it does sound like some sort of a rainstorm, but not that kind of speed that a waterfall runs at. I'd say that if you were doing a waterfall, you'd need to make it quite fast for the whole thing and end the tune abruptly, because technically there is no stopping a waterfall. Looping it might work well as well.

[Review Request Club]

Bezman responds:

It's not really 'blended' together - it's just 2 hands playing. One take. So I kinda had 'experimented', given that I'd been playing with the tune for years.

I'll admit that the left-hand part is a bit repetitive/derivative in the middle of the tune and the piano is out of tune, which might explain you feeling it's "either too sharp or too flat". Otherwise, I'm slightly confused.

You make a good point about how a waterfall should be a loop - that might be a cool little project too, though I don't think I'll alter this. Maybe rename it. 'Waterwider' or 'Passage of Water' or something

[In-Rush]

Getting there

I'm not sure about the deep 'whirring' noise over the top, about halfway through the tune and towards the end, but everything else seems to sound right. I could listen to this for quite some time while playing away on games like Tetris, that's for sure.

I think that the way to improve this song is to give it more variation (and therefore length). If you give it too much, it could be detrimental to the tune itself, so be careful. It does loop quite well, so you've getting towards a nicely rounded product.

[Review Request Club]

ShortMonkey responds:

cheers

[Metal (S.C.)*]

What sort of Metal?

This tune doesn't sound very metal to me, but mind you, I'm thinking of heavy metal, which is definately something completely different. I'm not sure about the vocals on the piece, as they sounded a little out of place.

To make this track sound properly Industrial, I'd have added a hell of a lot more bass, given the drums more prominence, to make it sound as if the track is being played in the back drop of a working factory, for example.

I think it's a nice tune though, but as per your instructions of turn it up loud, because it makes it sound different, I would point out that the thing about volume is that it only makes it louder. It does nothing to change the sound of the tune in any other ways. The bass still isn't as powerful as it should be in my opinion.

Nice piano used though. Your work on the Piano itself, or done via a synth?

[Review Request Club]

BreakingFaces responds:

I synthesized the piano.
It's not 'metal' as in the genre, its metal as in the material.

It was originally a Gary Numan song

I'm not specifically trying to be industrial, I'm not even sure it fits in that genre, it's just the closest thing I saw to it. I don't want to put it in the indie genre because no one looks there.