Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Challenger]

Interesting

A strange choice of musical blend to lend to this particular piece - I love the vocal sample, but it sounds quite upbeat and quickly paced to be tragic as we all know the Challenger disaster was.

I think that as we listen to the vocals, there was a feeling of loss there, but this could have been put into perspective with the music by some sort of slower solo that stepped away from the pace of the beat and allowed people to come to terms with a tangible sense of grief and loss that this scenario embodies.

[Review Request Club]

nickbryant responds:

Thanks for the review. I was hoping that someone would take the review from an emotional angle so I could see how my artistic viewpoints were being presented. The synth was supposed to symbolize the moment that the craft took off, the piano break symolizes the error. The synth playing muffled behind the piano shows how the crowd below was unaware at first, then when it all comes together, the synth becomes pandimonium, and the piano still resembles tragedy. After the tragedy is over, the pandimonium continues, and the speech fades back in. Thank you for the reveiw.

[This Is Rock n Roll]

Needs balancing

At first, I thought this tune could have used some vocals. Then when I listened more closely, I discovered that there were some on the track. I think that you've got the balance all wrong here - try increasing the volume of the vocals and decreasing the volume of the music, just to balance it out. Sure, you can have softly balanced vocals for parts of the track, but if it's going to encourage people to sing along, it's going to need a little more help to get there.

I think that the track itself is good. A nice balance of guitars and drums, but you could certainly use a solo, just to take that piece to the next level - without it, you're going to be lacking slightly and it just seems like you're repeating your same guitar riffs over and over, which no-one wants to hear.

[Review Request Club]

StickyRemnant responds:

Cheers for the review, Coop, I appreciate it.
Yea, I have a tendency to kind of hide the vocals when it is me doing the singing - because in reality I can't sing heh. I was going for a 'Wall of Sound', but I agree i think it is overdone (or underdone as far as the vocals are concerned).

With regards to a solo, the plan was to have a quite distinct outro with a variety of lead guitar parts. I do think that during the main part of the song tho that atleast a small solo could be added.

I plan on remixing and in some cases re-recording the track when I have the final lyrics written, so I'll put your advice into practice then. I should have a proper singer in by then also. I hope you can come back and review the new version :)

Thanks again.

[Cleanse My Heart - BK]

Good piano

I like that this piece is quite forward and up-beat. It has a great lifting feel to it and there is almost a euphoric quality to it. I think that you could possibly sort out a slightly slower piece in the middle there, as it would just give the listener a chance to hear it as a step taken back, which then prepares them for a second run at it.

I think that it's certainly a very good piece with lots of potential for growth, so you're one of these artists that is poised to exploit that. I think that you could take it further with the addition of a few more instruments, giving an interesting aside that can bring more people into a great feeling from this tune.

[Review Request Club]

Bracksta responds:

wow your suggestion was perfect man! i will slow the middle down with harmonic pads and let the listener sink into the music :). i remix is coming! thanks so much!

[wandering in the dark]

Calm and almost surreal

I like this track. The harp music just seems to be what was called for here, just to blend in with the sounds of the background that you've made for the piece. There is a serene calmness about the whole piece and I can even feel my shoulders loosening up as I type this.

I think that as you progress with the track, perhaps it could have something that was a little more hard hitting in contrast. Perhaps some sort of deeper solo from the strings, just to impart a little more of the meaning and a feeling of some other meaning. It feels as if it is someone preparing for great sorrow on top of the whole ideal, so taking it to the next step would be a nice boost.

[Review Request Club]

[Live 9 - The Awakening]

Invest in a microphone!

Well, if it's a complete ad-lib, this is a wonderful piece. I'm intrigued by the using only of the black notes, as I'd have never considered something like this before. Possibly one of the reasons that I gave up playing the keyboard some time ago, in all honesty.

I think that the piece is certainly worth re-recording, with a proper setup. You cna get a good quality mic off the internet that you can wire up to a computer. Download Audacity and that will give you so much freedom to work with it. Once this is sorted, you can really take this piece elsewhere - try smoothing out the duff notes that you hit in places and it will suddenly start to sound better.

I look forward to version 2 of this track, as you've got some good skills here with the piano.

[Review Request Club]

[first time blues]

Needcs work, but not too bad

Something tells me that you need to take away that hum from the backing of the track. It's really noticeable at the start and finish of the track, so please have a go at ironing that out.

The blues aren't bad here - you could use some vocals, certainly and possibly a little 'Paul Schaffer' piano in the middle, just to carry you through. It's a promising start, but not the finished article yet. These things take time and will come to you, no doubt.

[Review Request Club]

[a solo tolittle wing]

Mellow

I like this piece, as it's a nice mellow start to a solo, but it gets a little fast and rocky in the end, so watch out, as it seems like you're crossing too many genres there. You start off sounding like Clapton (a little), but end up wanting to sound like Hendrix. These two styles are very different, so perhaps settle for a happy medium and make your own sound?

I think that it's a great piece until we hit the up-shift at about 50s, where it just seems to go all Marty McFly from Back to the Future, when he added the Heavy Metal riffs to Johnny B Goode. Great at the start, but then he took it too far. Good drums, a good sense of timing, but don't think that because it sounds good, you should try for better, more ambitious riffs. Sometimes, simple is best.

[Review Request Club]

mistermurfi responds:

"seems to go all Marty McFly from Back to the Future" aww but i love that :D thanks for the review mate :D

[-(Raindrops-For-My-Soul)-]

A good ambience

Just what I needed after a hard day in the office - something to project a sense of calm and expansiveness, which can be interpreted two ways. The way of an out-of-body experience, floating above your own body and looking down at yourself, just lying there, as you begin to experience euphoria. The second way is that there is some sort of flight involved. Possibly an astral projection here, as it feels like everything else her pales in comparison with the actual feelings of flight itself, so other senses may become distorted due to this.

I think that the three notes that keep repeating, but moving up and down through scales are nice, but they are a little simplistic for a track of this magnitude. Perhaps start thinning them out and putting other combinations of notes in, just to change it slightly.

I like what you've done and I can see this track going a long way. An interesting thing to note was that you essentially gave the track no beat, but you discovered a nice rhythm, throughout. Excellent work.

[Review Request Club]

Tykwa responds:

I was trying to work on that kind of feeling, aiming for ambient/trance, I usually don't even have a beat in any of my songs, but I do what i can

[-(she Takes Up My Tiny Chair)-]

Good experiment, but...

I think that while you've got a good sound, you need to work on the mastering phase slightly more. In the intro, I get a lot of static that tends to indicate that you're just a little over enthusiastic with the end product of the sound, namely the volume. Quieten those notes down a little and you won't get so much feedback and interference with them.

When you move onto the dance / trance part, you've upped the game - no more sign of these notes and it seems to all want to piece together, giving a well designed beat and melody that mesh together nicely. I think that this experiment needs to be taken out of the lab and given a proper airing.

Using the preliminary results, I'd consider stopping the beat and going for something like a melody solo, while the beat then comes back with something a little different. Small steps, but I'm sure you can get there.

[Review Request Club]

Tykwa responds:

Hmm, I'll take these points into consideration if I get around to opening this one back up and i'll see what I can do to make this better, esp. mastering.

[Frozen thunder - TTC1]

An interesting title

I think this is a tranquil forest-style theme that reminds me in part of the trailers that I've seen for Avatar. In all honesty, it's probably a lot less hostile that I've seen of that, especially when you get the pan pipes playing at the start.

It loops really well and it certainly doesn't sound like a VG track until you come up with the 16-bit sounds that just anchor it firmly to the late 1980s, which is a shame. Change those to more modern sounds, like a piano, for example and you'll suddenly be able to step forward to something that sound slike it belongs with the intro.

[Review Request Club]

Calamaistr responds:

thanks :)