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Coop

748 Audio Reviews w/ Response

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Needs more

If we break this track down, we note that there are eight loops of a few bars. Each of these has a slightly different tone and pitch, so they sound different and you throw a loop of a backing melody, to blend it all together. Simple and effective, I'll give you that.

Sure, all music can be broken down to loops one after the other. In this piece, the primary loop is 1.75 seconds long, which is far too short. Try increasing that for starters, giving more variation and encouraging the listener to play it for longer. I've listened to it a few times around and before I started reviewing the piece, I had to stop playing it, otherwise I may well have gone mad.

You've got the potential here, don't waste it. Set the benchmark at one minute and see if you can come up with something. At least you're original, as opposed to putting up some remix of the Super Mario Brothers theme. Play about and see what you can come up with. Experiment with other sounds and if it fits, wear it.

[Review Request Club]

Hikari responds:

Thank you for the review! Every thing you sayd I could right away. Theres not alot I can say about this review because its actualy preaty solid.

A little simplistic

I can see that the balance is a little out, with quite a bit of the track "bouncing off the limiter", which gives the end product a bit of static and makes it sound just a little messy. This is particularly the case with the backing track that you use, which is infused with bass, where the problem becomes a lot more noticeable.

Right, the tune itself is a little too simplistic to give any higher marks, I'm afraid. Yes, when you do perform a "solo" section, the balance has already been upset by the chorus and the verses being too similar, thus making the track seem like there is one massive loop running in the background. Even with the tapping of a cymbal, or the addition of various additional instruments in places, you need to work a little harder in making the piece varied, so it seems to fit its own skin.

Playing about with these issues will certainly help, but I'm not sure it will be a cure all. Once you've tried these, you may spot other things that need to be worked on, who knows?

[Review Request Club]

Horsenwelles responds:

hmm... i like those suggestions, and i'll give them a whirl =)

Building up

Ah, this piece is one of those well known, yet often overlooked pieces, which adds to dramatic tension, possibly while you're either in the main menu (out of the room, feeding or watering yourself), navigating through pause menus, to change your equipment etc, or just travelling from place to place. There is method to a piece like this though.

Without it, there would just be silence and the occasional click from the menus, which would be a disappointment. The buildup is there, with enough dramatic tension, that you feel something is about to happen. To me, the sound is very Prince of Persia or indeed Assassin's Creed 1, as the sounds of the drums in particular seem to resonate with middle-eastern culture, in my opinion. I like it, though I would suggest that the genre you use is "ambient", as that's exactly what the genre is for - the character or atmosphere of a place.

Perhaps a little more in the way of variation, to keep this loop ready for long periods of continual use and you're onto a winner, I feel.

[Review Request Club]

ChineseCommando responds:

Thanks for the advice as to which genre, and I guess it does make sense. Thanks for the review!

Calm and well balanced

I like the way that this piece is billed as Trance and therefore when I listen to it, I'm expecting pumping beats, throbbing nuances that give me a sore head and the like. Imagine my absolute job, when I discover that this is much more than that, with a calm beat, a nice melody that makes me relax of a Friday evening and even when you put in the beat, it doesn't drown out the early calming work that you've done.

A good choice of instruments starts the balance of this piece off well and I came to feel that a feminine voice singing backing along with that would have been a very nice thing in the intro. When I consider the metaphor of the piece and the title, I can feel as if it's a backing tune for a montage at an airport, as the aeroplane circles and descends in to land, before arriving and disembarking the passengers etc. I could perhaps also hear the announcement over the tannoy, about boarding calls from the airport, just to spice things up softly in the background, maybe as the track ends...

Certainly a piece with potential - I'd have liked to see it a little longer and perhaps staying a little more towards the calm and phase out a little of the beat, but those are truly minor niggles.

[Review Request Club]

LUK4IS responds:

Thanks man! nice metaphor, when i was making this song, my inspiration was about travel. So we're in the same ball park. The two things I have a hard time with; short songs and using the kick too much. I need to work on those. Thanks for the feedback!

What does EMFZ stand for?!

Hmm, on first impressions, the backing track seems to be the best part of this - pre-generated and it takes half of the track to get to the actual messing around with your voice, which seemed to be what you were selling from your notes.

So, I'd say sell your voice and the experimentation - lose at least half of that intro and do more with the voice, as there are plenty of effects on these sort of programs, which could give you a very different song. Perhaps make a solo, where it all fades out to nothing and the vocalist realises that he's alone and then explodes into some sort of effect laden vocal free-form jazz skit. Have a play and see what you can come up with, I'm sure it would be an improvement on this.

[Review Request Club]

JPRixdorfer responds:

EMFZ stands for Ernsthafte Musik für Zwischendurch - Serious music for in between.

Actually it worked the opposite way: I made this song and had it lying around unedited for about a year, thinking something's missing, when I suddenly had the idea to repeat the first solo part with my high pitched voice. So I was initially more selling silly solo stuff and a semi epic ending. But I understand what you are trying to say. It's definetely the part of the song that leaves the biggets impression while getting only a fracture of the overall time.
Not just the intro, I guess there's more stuff that could be cut out. Your advice of how to proceed with the voice seems oddly specific though :D almost like you would want to pick it up and fix it!
Someday I'll make a V2 of this and keep in mind what you said by using more voice and going nutser.

Thanks for the review! *hug*

Nice

I'm not familiar with the Bambi Techno tune by Kobojsarna, so I'll just have to review this piece as it sounds on its own.

I think that it's well formed and you've got a certain poise with the beat. I think that the vocals are a little incomprehensible, unless you really concentrate on them. That's a minor niggle, as the rest of the track sounds pretty good.

Perhaps I'd have considered a little more in the way of variation, though that might be down to the original sound that is there, but I'd consider making the solo sound a bit more varied from the "basic" sounds of the beat and the melody blending together. Whether fading one out and letting the other rule the roost for a few revolutions would be the way to go, or even adding different instruments, I'm sure a bit of experimentation could be warranted.

[Review Request Club]

Assios responds:

Thanks :) I should probably have used more parts of the original song.. I'm just using the chorus vocals here..

Enchanting

A stellar piece, with both calm and eerie influences over the listener, while creating a very vivid image of sharp-edged crystals lining the walls of a frankly massive cavern, where the occasional drip of water plays across the background and the lights from sources unseen refracts and reflects through the facets of the walls, creating a veritable kaleidoscope of light and colour.

The part where you get about half a minute in and really are hit by the scale of the cavern really hits home. I love that as a listener, the imagery is very vivid and the suggestion is great in this respect. It almost sounds sinister, with the way that it expands, almost ominously before us.

Given that there is so much crammed into a small scale piece, time-wise, it might be considered frugal to consider expansion - the piece is certainly good as it is, but if you were to make it as much as a minute longer, you could benefit from additional sound effects, such as the aforementioned drop of water on occasion in the background.

As for what lives in the cave, we aren't entitled to find out, due to the ambiguity of the piece - this should certainly stay as it is, because there is a great scope here. Certainly, you could put it in that there is a monster, just after the ominous camera pan (30s), revealing some terrible monster, but in song. Alternatively, the creature could look horrible and scary, but it could be totally fantastic and harmless. You could base two entirely different pieces off this and they would sound so radically different from one another, just by changing the theme.

[Review Request Club]

BenTibbetts responds:

OK, thanks for your thoughts.

Oriental VG?

Hmm, an interesting blend of styles used in this piece, to give a nice overall effect. I'm not sure about the beating and banging sounds across the middle of the piece, but other than that, you've got a very nice sounding track. Perhaps it was supposed to be percussion and it just kind of went a little too far in that respect.

If I were you, I'd stick to the oriental sounds that started the track off, as it's great quality and if you were thinking of adding percussion into it a little later on, perhaps go for something a little softer and quieter? This would help with balance, as the early and late parts of the track just went a little beyond the rest of the track in their form.

Still I love the ambience it gives and you're certainly capable of making it for this genre.

[Review Request Club]

SuperBastard responds:

Thanks for the great review! I especially appreciate the input on the weird noise effects throughout the middle of the song, since I wasn't quite sure where I stood on those myself. That aspect of the song was a bit experimental and people seem to agree that it's a bit excessive, so based on your critique I'll tone it down a bit.

Space travel

Hmm, a very nice piece based around what I feel like with space travel - the beats are electronic and the melody seems to flow smoothly, without friction, like travelling through an endless void of space, from system to system, your destination light-years away and some great amount of travel between you and it.

Certainly a track that I would associate with my short tenure on EVE Online, but beyond that, the sound is calm, yet with the driving purpose that the beat gives later on, it comes alive.

A nice melody, though I'd certainly say that you can stand to make this track longer, adding more in the way of variation and seeing if you can take it forward in another way with something else. The quiet patch in the middle was great, though perhaps I'd have just stopped the bassline and gone with the melody at regular volume, rather than cutting everything out and rebuilding the melody into the track, finally bringing the bass back at the end of that segment.

[Review Request Club]

Stargenx responds:

Thanks for the review! Those are some good points, I'll mess with this one a little more.

Tense buildup

Hmm, a very interesting piece, that builds up quite slowly, almost with emotional tension mounting, ready for the next piece. Personally, I viewed that the next phase of the track was a little tame, given the almost horror / thriller suspense that was being built up within me. Perhaps hit us with something faster, harder, higher pitched and frantic, that really sets itself apart from the constraint of the genre?

The second time around,t he addition of the piano was brilliant and the bassline seemed to hit harder, with more purpose, as it drives forward. The melody was nice, as was the counter that you threw in there, to compliment it. A shame that we couldn't have heard something like this in the first part of the track, but you can't always get what you want, I suppose.

I felt that the fade to black at the end was just cutting off the track in its prime. Perhaps this is because of my slight misgivings over the initial exchanges, but there is still something else within this piece that is trying to break out. I'd love for you to explore and find out if there is anything else that you can share with us in this respect.

[Review Request Club]

Adjeye responds:

Yeah I need to work on my ends, you're right about that.. I will use the rest of your review too, thanks for taking the time to listen :).

You know, I stopped shaving to think of something to write here. That worked out well.

Will Cooper @Coop

Age 40, Male

Author / NG Mod

Old Skool

Vancouver, CANADA

Joined on 4/28/04

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