Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[8-B(oss)it]

Don't give up the day job

To be honest, this isn;t the sort of tune that you expect to hear while fighting a boss or even being introduced to one, even in an 8-bit gaming atmosphere.

It's a decent start, but after about 5-10 seconds, when it starts to go downhill, you need to reign it in and start conveying that the boss is big, is bad and is out to get you, rather than the fact that you're going to win. Themes for Bosses tend to be full of trepidation and fear, because these are the most stern of challenges that are going to be faced by a gamer in any given game.

[Review Request Club]

zcaar responds:

I blame all on Mikkim, his idea, his approval

[[LY] `Elysium, --]

Gets repetitive

Sadly, this track does lack in variation, which brings it down slightly from the technical grace that you've given us. It's a nice sounding track, but after a few minutes of this, I'm not so encouraged by it and it needs to have a little while to calm me back down.

If you could take it slightly further - extend the track out to make room for some variation and then throw some variant melodies in, it would certianly help to give this track a much needed boost.

[Review Request Club]

la-yinn responds:

This point has been brought forward already, but it is indeed the truth and I certainly agree that it lacks in variation.

At some point, I will be redoing this track but for the moment I have bigger projects I want to focus on so the 'extended boost' will have to wait. ;p

Thanks for the review!

[Western Spaghetti]

Not a bad tune

It's got a little twang of the Mexican about it and this is what for me, brings it forward as a truly Spaghetti Western song, even though the Spaghetti Westerns were all made in Italy.

I think this tune has potential, with the fact that it's pushing itself forward as the basis of these sort of traditional John Wayne movie tunes, so given that you've set yourself a nice base, you can expand it, with a bassline, maybe some drums and maybe even some "Rawhide" style vocals.

[Review Request Club]

[High Score!]

Nice

I think that the start of the tune needs to be cut, so that you start with the happy jingly piece, rather than the count in - that way it would loop much better and you could certainly apply it to many children's style games to show that the participant had achieved a high score.

It's nice and impressive, so that this indicated something good has happened. Need I say more? I don't think so.

[Review Request Club]

Adam-Beilgard responds:

I personally would get sick of this real fast if it were a loop, the idea being at the end of a level this might play if they met all their objectives, and their little character can dance around or something. I dunno.

I'm glad you thought it was impressive, thanks for the review!

[Intro/Down The Rabbit Hole]

Alice 2000

Not a bad tune - this seems more of a modern adaptation of how life would be like for a modern day Alice in Wonderland, as she steps through the rabbit hole in pursuit of the ever-elusive White Rabbit.

A new world of whimsy and wonder awaits, but the problem with this tune is that if you're going for this analogy, it needs to have a darker, more sinister side of the coin, so that you can express the point of how scary it was for her.

Also, you could trim the bass line at the end for time, it's not needed with that low hum, once the rest of the tune has finished.

[Review Request Club]

Chymo responds:

Yeah I'll trim the end. I like the idea of having a dark side. Maybe I'll add a darker version as an interlude on the album half way through, using some similar melodies so that it's recognizable. Thanks for the review.

[Falling Airplanes]

Not sure about the dreams

It was a good song until the dream sequence started, which takes away from the original song so much that you actually feel that you're in a different tune - there's too much variation there and it feels like you need to split the song into two pieces and treat them like the two separate entities that they have become.

The first piece sounded excellent, with a well worked tune and vocals to suit near-perfectly. With that under your belt, you must have felt like you were able to vary the track, but for me, it backfired.

In the last minute or so of the track, where the music starts and stops, it really sounds awful, so you need to do something drastic about that - most songs of this length are justified in being so long, but this seems like you're trying too hard to reach this pre-determined length.

[Review Request Club]

soulofbass responds:

thanks for your input, i don't agree with everything you say but i appreciate the time you took to write this

[Heimdall]

I can feel WipeOut

It's a nice track that would be well suited to playing WipeOut to, but the main issue with this track is that the lines are too repetitive for my tastes.

If you went and added more variation, this piece could certainly go places, taking you to the edge of your senses, for the ultimate driving experience that we have all come to know and love with the games in the WipeOut series.

A good start, but a little more work is required before SCEE contact you, asking permission for some of your tracks to be used on their games ;)

[Review Request Club]

[An Open Mind is an Open Heart]

A little raw

This isn't a bad piece - it's better than anything I could play, after all. I would suggest that you spend some time working on it, in order to bring the whole piece forward.

I think that it's more like a sad sounding rhythm guitar line, accompanied by a tearaway lead, which needs to be worked at bringing the two pieces together, in order to convey the feelings of this sound better.

It doesn't seem to be a piece that requires the addition of either drums or vocals, and I think it might actually harm the track to add them. If you're going for a ballad, try making it longer and having a solo section, where the lead guitar takes off on its own, allowing the bass to rest, reflect and then join back in with some new ideas.

[Review Request Club]

[Dawn Light]

Good Ambience

I think this tune can certainly be used as an ambient tune, just to give some atmosphere - it sounds like a very 'spacey' themed tune, that tends to gravitate towards the weightless feeling of performing tasks in outer space and the feeling of being more than just one part of a well oiled machine.

With the way that it pans out, this could make a nice menu tune, although I wouldn't normally suggest that you limit yourself t something just like that, rather than pushing further. If you made it a better loop, it would be able to fill in all sorts of ambient gaps in the market.

[Review Request Club]

[-'+ Darkside +'- (Final)]

Pumping in the club!

A nice tune, that's got the driving beat to pass it through most club scenes. This piece is powerful and if it weren't for the overtone of static on the melody, I'd have played it a lot louder.

I think that the melody is nice, but could use a little more variation, as could the vocals, since they just repeat whenever you feel like putting in another "On the Dark Side" Not that I'm complaining, but it could use another sample, just to make it more impressive, when the Dark Side comes in.

[Review Request Club]

Krussi responds:

Thanks for the review :D

Yeah, I looked for vocals fitting the Darkside vocal, but didn't find anything that I liked :/
I don't really know what you mean about "the static on the melody", but I can guess that it has something to do with the lead synth, or the mastering, since I'm not that good at EQing or master my tracks properly.

Well, thanks alot for the review and the pointers :)

Cheers