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 ;)

[[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

[~SW~ Dreamland Chronicles]

Great ambience.

Wow, I love the way that this piece grows and gives fruit to the imagery of my imagination. The bassline, that has little branches of melody growing off it, in the form of percussion and woodwind melody in the early going. Then you move on and get into a faster paced part, as a horse gallops past the tree, suddenly quickening the pace and taking us elsewhere - some sort of Indian Jungle, or perhaps an Arabian Bazaar, for example. Then we are off again, galloping across the landscape, with a sense of renewed urgency. Suddenly, we find ourselves back at the tree of the intro, continuing that journey, through day and night. From this one tree, others grow around it, making an oasis, perhaps even a forest, all from that one source.

I think that the piece should be classified under Ambient, as opposed to Miscellaneous. That's just how it sounds to me. The other change I would have made is not to use the dubstep "stutter" sound in the piece, as that just doesn't seem right in such a piece as this. Almost as if it is too big for my computer to cope with and the track has not downloaded enough, so it stumbles.

[Review Request Club]

SkyeWint responds:

Hey, Coop!

I am glad you like the song! :D That imagery you described... that was really what you thought of? Coooooool, man. Sounds like it was fun to be you while you were listening.
As you probably noticed in the description, I spent an entire month working on this, polishing and fiddling with everything to make sure it's just right. It was a pain, believe me.

Now, the stutter you're talking about - I know about it. It's not the actual song, but an issue with the NG audio player. Several possibilities about why this is happening. 1. It actually hasn't loaded enough (unlikely). 2. You're opening/closing new tabs and/or windows in the same web browser you're using to listen. Not sure if it also happens from external applications.

If you download and listen to it, or aren't surfing the 'net while listening from here, you should be fine! :D

...And the main reason I didn't submit this under ambient was the big orchestral section in the middle. It's also slightly less ambient afterwards, so...

Thanks for the review!