Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[FR] By the River]

Contrasting

Hmm, with the way that this piece starts off really quietly, then launches into a loud and proud bass beat, before bringing in the other aspects, you've clearly thought about how tow aspects of a tune really fit together and deliver a quite creative punch.

Perhaps I'd have faded in the main beat sooner, to get the melody in there as well sooner, but other than that, this tune is great. Would it use vocals? No, they could completely ruin the ambience of it. In the present form, it doesn't loop well at all, which is the major stumbling block, so I'd perhaps consider messing with the blend, not cutting the track out for 8 seconds at the end, even finishing the piece off with something that calms down to sound like the intro, so they could blend together in a loop, for example.

Not much wrong with the piece though, keep up the good work.

[Review Request Club]

Frazmaster responds:

Thanks a lot for the review! :)

The song is not intended to loop

[Game Music 1]

Interesting messing

I'm not sure if it's my type of music, but messing with the sounds that you've got with the piece, from choosing to mess around as a DJ would, plus giving a nice piece of melody, that really helps to assist the flow between the other parts, where you "experiment".

Listening to the sounds that you've made, it almost sounds a little like a part of the escape music from Assassin's creed, when you're trying tog et away after making a high profile assassination, so if that's the thing you're after, you've gone to the right place.

There is certainly a degree of mystique in the piece, as it runs back and forth with the more traditional sound in the intro and the gradually more futuristic, when you alter the sounds. I'd love to see what sort of game this gets added onto, because you've intrigued me. Get your friends together and make an advert with this piece on it!

[Review Request Club]

[Fallacies]

Not a abad start

Yes, it needs some work to make the piece complete, because at the moment, it's a crescendo loop, which gradually build up to something more complex with this same sound. Little in the way of variation has been added, though the counter melody that built in and got stripped out at the end certainly needs to be developed and taken further forward.

As far as Techno goes, you end up with a piece that doesn't sound specific to the genre, because it doesn't drive the piece forward as I were expecting something with more of a pounding bassline and up-tempo melody. Still, it's nice to break the mould every now and again, I suppose.

If you're after tips for finishing, I'd say give the counter melody a solo and extend the piece possibly in the region of the 4 minute marker, see what you can come up with around those guidelines.

[Review Request Club]

[A Fleeting Life]

Very pleasing

A lovely piece on the piano, complimented beautifully by the backing instrumentations of the orchestra. Did you use the full selection of the orchestra, or just a few choice instruments? A full orchestra would sound much better, if you could arrange that, despite it being a very laborious task, if this is worked or mastered on a computer.

Certainly something that I could see used as an opening for a "sword and sandals" piece, be it cartoon, game, or even real life film. What I'd suggest that you do is develop it for another minute or two, especially as it is classical, which can usually stretch to 6 or seven minutes, possibly even longer.

Given that the buildup sounds quite epic, I'd be tempted to have something a little more mellow, just to temper the piece, before coming back with another salvo, which could knock people's socks off.

[Review Request Club]

[HDC Presents: Mao vs. ER]

Draw - neither was good enough to win

Right, summing up the two artists rapping in this battle, Mao has a few bits which made me cringe, like the laughing after the first verse and then in the third verse, he doesn't seem to know how to get the rhythm to his lines while the beat goes on. I love the irony of calling his opponent a Hip-Hop Flop, as he makes a complete hash of the rap.

ER just seems to swear for a reaction - too much detracts from the lyrical genius that this could be. I'm not really well versed on the etiquette for this sort of thing, but the fact that his tone is more abusive than his opponents just seems to rub me up the wrong way.

Right, the beat was a little too simple - there's more complex rhythms out there that really compliment the rap, without testing the rappers abilities too much, thus letting people concentrate on the lyrics.

You could have given us a transcript of this, as I'd have been able to orientate myself with the piece a little more.

[Review Request Club]

HDC responds:

thanks for the detailed review

[Simple and Clean]

simple formula, goto10

Well, what can you say about a "rinse & repeat" formula, that gets a little additional dash each time? It's simple and effective, as I feel that there's a good offering of components across the board, showing us exactly what I can see within the genre.

The methodical progression and almost rhythmical repetition is symbolic of Industrial music, but in a different way to the "furnaces and hammers" that I'm used to for the genre. This takes on a flavour of robotics and possibly assembly lines, which make electronic goods and we see as very white buildings, hermetically sealed from contaminants and producing the latest gizmo for the consumer market.

The metaphor expands, allowing for the thing to be assembled from its components and slowly taking shape. The basic frame of the melody and beat is added to gradually and it becomes more complex than the sum of the component parts, giving us a very pleasing piece, which I'm not sure it was what you were after, but a nice effect, nonetheless.

If anyone reads this and wants to, make a flash of this. Who knows, it could be P-Bot we are building :P

[Review Request Club]

Morph94 responds:

Hey, glad it worked for ya. Good vision, too. Not sure there's going to be a flash artist that takes interest in my work, but a guy can always dream. :D

[Gaussian Jungle (Soft Mix)]

Nice flow

I like the way that this piece sounds - calm and collected, but without being over the top - I'm not sure about the choice of genre though, but overall, this piece has a lot of potential.

If we consider the symbolism, it's almost a cyberpunk setting, with a rainy city and subterfuge of some kind going on, where everyone is trying not to be seen, while doing one thing and another to either each other or the system. Then the woodwinds came in and frankly took that illusion away from me.

Perhaps the cyberpunk is "punking" feudal Japan or some other timescale around then, when that sort of sound would have been more common? Don't get me wrong, this piece is fantastic, I'm just trying to work out the fantasy picture that is being painted here, as a picture is worth a thousand words and this piece of music paints a picture, but one that it out of focus for me...

[Review Request Club]

WizMystery responds:

One look at the "Hard Mix" and you'd know right away it was somewhat industrial - I removed ear rape that was frankly meant to sound like machinized tigers and the like. I think the removal of that removed quite a lot of the picture as well, unfortunately. I'll have to change things around the next time I do a soft/hard split, I guess.

Thanks for the review!

[Rage Racer V.V.]

Sounds worthy of the game

I like the piece overall and I feel that the impression that it gives is solid, where it could be used for a racing game, particularly along long, winding Japanese highways, where there is no traffic and six lanes to weave across, as you push your car to and beyond the limits.

The sound that you produce has a vague "oriental" feel to it, though I wouldn't be able to swear exactly why, so subtle is the blend of styles here. It's almost like you have mixed in some oriental instruments as well as the more modern stuff.

With the way that everything plays through the piece, it puts a nice impression in there, with a buildup and then some sort of Mortal Kombat style effects, which I wasn't over impressed with - I was expecting someone to yell "MORTAL KOMBAT!" in the background, if I am being honest, which never helps a racing game out. Sorry, the theme of the piece seems to have been well set.

[Review Request Club]

Rinileki14 responds:

Thanks for reviewing!