Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sir Sirius - Electrostep 2.3]

Good

Hmm, a well received and laid out piece, the start is better than the end, in my opinion, because I'm just not a fan of the "whum whum" noise that these tracks seem to generate, as if they are an electrical generator on the fritz.

Therefore, the first minute was brilliant and the rest of a the track dragged it down. Yes and no would be my answer, because while it did reflect poorly on the track, it wasn't a complete death-knell for the piece. The light and airy feel to the track stayed in abundance and came back to take over from those sounds which didn't feel like they dominated as much as I had first feared they might.

I'd like to see you do more with creativity on the side of the higher melody, as opposed to the bass / counter that comes along,a s I feel that there is more potential to be extracted from there. In that, I can wish you the best of luck, perhaps in finding new instruments to try out, or some other way to make this track better, without compromising on the overall sound and the genre choice.

[Review Request Club]

[8bit short]

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.

[~SW~ (Caelum) Blood is Shed]

Nice loop

Certainly worthy of various middle-eastern / eastern themed video games, that require up-tempo tracks. I could consider this as one of the alternative tracks that I'd listen to while playing the menus of Dynasty Warriors, certainly. With that playing, the theme is certainly enough of a boost to get the adrenaline up, though perhaps in that style of game, there isn't enough modernisation for the angle the games developers want.

Still, that's just their tastes and this piece stands well enough on its own, with the strings in various forms and the other imagery of flight being manifest in the feelings of wind rushing through my hair at some breakneck speed, flying across the tops of rolling canopies.

Overall, the track is a little short to sustain the imagery, but I like the way that we see these little flickers - either sustaining the flight part would be the way forward or to give other images in a sort of audio montage, presenting the listener with various other windows into their own mind, so that the tune can make them travel, without leaving their desk.

[Review Request Club]

[solidify and coagulate]

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 =)

[Vadum]

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!

[LUK4IS- Arrival]

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!

[E. M. F. Z.]

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*

[Bambi 2011 (Assios Remix)]

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..

[Furious_Battle [Box-killa]]

Fast paced and energetic

Sure, this piece is a little short, but it gets the blood pumping and the pulse racing, to keep up with the frankly furious pace that you set in the early going. I'd love to hear it a little longer, because if it's used for a Final Fantasy style game, while most of the fights might be taken up in less than a loop, the longer ones can get a little boring with only a 2 minute loop.

Still, I love this sound and I think that my typing has sped up for the duration of this review as well. It shows lots of variation and it would take a lot of loops for me to remember that I'm listening to the same piece.

A good feeling of more than just the traditional "beat the crap out of him / her" combat comes from this, as in there could be magic, vehicular combat or various other aspects, making this nice and wide ranging for the potential artists out there looking for something to incorporate with their game or toon.

Keep up the good work.

[Review Request Club]

[Drink Diesel]

Not the best, but surely not the worst

A basic, somewhat slow track that moves from start to finish, but doesn't seem more than a ferry though the time for me, which is a shame. Perhaps it needs more variation to take it away from the mundane and up to the creative levels.

I think that you've got a good few vocal samples in the piece here and they have been used well, but with your beat and melody blending well into a nice backing track, I'd have expected more from a counter melody to really set this track alight. Once you'd got it there, suddenly, the potential of the track is closer to realisation and you can show off what you're really capable of.

[Review Request Club]