Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Outlook]

Good, except for the "stutters"

Don't get me wrong, the might of the classical genre has seen a generous nod toward it in this piece, where you have tried to meld it with more modern styles, which is acceptable, as it has been done before, though personally, I would not have gone with the stutters - it makes it sound like the track is buffering and I know that my internet connection is not that slow.

You've made a nice start with the basic classical sound and I think that I would like to hear it taken further, perhaps developed into something more than just a string backing track - perhaps combine it with synths, to give a different sound, but suitable modernised, to take it forward. I just think that while your idea is good, the execution alienates purists more than other tactics would.

It's something to consider at least.

[Review Request Club]

lnitroburstl responds:

Much appreciated man.

[Concept X]

Why the silence? We can hack 10-15 seconds off the intro and lose nothing at all. My speakers aren't that bad and I heard NOTHING for that start. Throwing more at the piece there would help, or throw it in the deep end from sooner.

After that, the track is quite repetitive, without much merit in variation at all. Sure, you use a few flourishes that give some flair to the piece, but the melody gets boring far too quickly, even for a trance / dance / house piece. You've got to be more out there, in order to grab the audience's attention and this lacks that, with a single instrumental melody, which needs something to give it a boost to the next level.

Vary the pace, the instruments, the bass, hell, give us an instrumental or some vocal samples to bust the track out of this funk. It desperately needs to be shoved forward.

[Review Request Club]

ForeverBound responds:

I really appreciate your review. Thanks
And i'm gonna work on that ;)

[WawaWowWowWOw]

Good use of variation.

Not just the usual techno jazz of adding something, taking something else off and playing about with the combination through the song, like you're experimenting. This sounds like you've thought about it and are ready to show us just what you can create.

Yes, some parts were a little repetitive, especially as you brought the melody back in at the end of the track - we'd been too long without it, so suffered at the reintroduction. Try perhaps having the bridge with no melody being half as long and see how that bit works out.

An interesting vocal sample at the end with the "techno" being replicated in a voice that reminds me of a 1980s BBC school computer. Yes, I am that old.

With the way that you build up your track and indeed build it down, you change the track, but are careful not to change too much, which is nice. A few more tweaks can prevent it going too far in places, but overall, an enjoyable listen.

[Review Request Club]

[Cruisin' LA]

Driven by the beat.

A very nice track, that gives a good atmosphere, kind of the sort of thing I expect in certain rooms of a Zelda-like game, from the 1990s, if I'm honest. Don't get me wrong, that's not meant to be derogatory, but it's what I thought of, when I first heard it.

As Jazz goes, the drums were a little too regular - everything should be composed as it runs along and that gives it a very abstract quality. The drums seemed too generic to really get off the ground, while the sax and the synths seemed brilliant, the bassline pumped, but that and the drums seemed to get away from what I think of as Jazz, myself.

Still, a nice break from having to listen to Dubstep for the RRC, I suppose :P Keep them coming, this shows a lot of promise.

[Review Request Club]

[[Ezekiel]]

Well balanced, but could use more variation...

I feel that this is a good track - like you say, it's not bad at all for an hour's work. It starts off well enough, building up from a synth loop and bass beat to something a little more, from a few more effects being added in for good measure. I think that along that line with the intro / opening salvos, you could have added in slightly more in the way of instrumental variation. The bass is powerful, but not spectacular and the synths do nothing to make me feel that this is anything other than the rest of the techno herd, blindly following the others.

Really good techno pushes the boundaries and gets confused with the other similar genres - trance, house, garage, drum & bass, for example. Nothing here seems to come close to those and as a result, something is lost within. The outro, with the high pitched xylophone was fantastic, but merely too little, too late.

[Review Request Club]

alienchao responds:

Thanks. I can see what you mean about pushing the boundaries and variation; I'll keep that in mind for future stuff. Also, I'm glad you like the outro. I too thought that was the best part of the song.

[Sun Down (Zx Dubstep)]

Dominated by the overtones..

The whole track is overrun by this sound, which overflows and drowns out the rest of the track. As a result, you're losing marks, as the melody doesn't get much of a chance to come through, while the rest of the piece does get to make a few marks, but they don't give you as much impact.

Given that the sound of the piece as a whole is good overall, you do come out of this quite well, but then we consider that it could be so much more, if that overtone in itself was reduced in volume and presence, just to give the rest of the track a chance, it would sound so much better, with little additional effort.

[Review Request Club]

ZxOOxZ responds:

IâEUTMm assuming your talking about the bass wub, the high synths need to be clearer, and this is a redone version of my original which is on my other profile -.- long story.... http://soundcloud.com/zxooxz/sun-down