Coop's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Ostrich Run]

Nice sound, but a little slow.

To be honest, if it's an Ostrich run, I'd have thought it would have been a lot faster - those things can really get a good head of steam going if you let them.

I think that the piano isn't bad here, but there are one or two areas that do need some work on them, in order to give a more rounded feel. Don't fade the intro in over so long, it just seems too quiet. If you';re going for a crescendo, give it a chance, by starting louder and building the sound up quicker.

Sounds a little Eastern European to me, on reflection, that's a good place to start with, but it needs something else to perhaps cross a culture barrier.

[Review Request Club]

The-Mercenary responds:

Thanks, but this is the Menu song, so it' quieter and slower. There is a second part to this that's much faster paced that will serve the gameplay. It fades because it has to loop, and for something like this it makes more sense for it to fade and come back then to loop perfectly. I think the "Koto" is what makes it sound Eastern, but that's a Japanese instrument, it just sounds different when its in midi form and its normally a melody instrument, I used it for chords/rhythm so it sounds more percussive.

[Fertile Grounds and Open Skies]

Vocals were too Manowar

I think that the music of the track was very good, but the vocals need to have something done to them - perhaps lose some of the gurgling sound effects from the voice, as it sounds very difficult to understand at the moment.

The music scarcely needs any improvement upon from someone like you, so just keep doing what you do. It could probably be longer, but that would be the only flaw that this piece has. Giving it more length enables more variation and a chance for your talents to shine even more.

[Review Request Club]

SessileNomad responds:

i almost took the chorus effect off a little bit, but i decided to go with it, guess i made the wrong move xD

length..yes...i know

thanks for the review man

[Hope-Demo]

Nice sounding piece

I think that this is a nice;y balanced piece - perfect for ambience in all but one key area: It doesn't loop. If you take off those 3-4 seconds of silence from the end of the track, you would be able to loop it better, which makes for something a lot more useful to the wider world of people in the market for Ambient music.

I think that at the end of the day, this is a nice calm piece, that kind of rekindles memories of yesterday's trip to see Avatar, so there is some good company there. Flying over the forest canopy, or wandering through the forest in a serene setting like this can do wonders for the mind's eye.

[Review Request Club]

itsameyayo responds:

Avatar was a fantastic film! Thanks for reminding me to get the soundtrack for that movie!

-ImperfectDisciple

[Merry Christmas (Chilvan Mix)]

Merry Xmas

A nice twist on an old favourite. Just don't get doing the same treatment to White Christmas, by Bing Crosby any time soon - I'm too good at singing the original one.

I think that this is a very well made piece, where the pace has been ramped up for a nice festive sound that is still in keeping with the dance genre, which I applaud you for. I think that over time, you could have made this slightly better, perhaps by postponing the beat for a turn or two, allowing the Merry Xmas lines to come through without the beat, for a change.

Still, as it is, it's the most festive song I've heard this year.

[Review Request Club]

DJ-Chilvan responds:

Thanx! Haha, I love White Christmas! Great song!
Yea, I think I could have added some more features too, it's just that I didn't want to clutter up anything, and plus I had a deadline on this song.
I'm glad you liked it!

[Hardstyle Rocker {Dj-Abbic}]

Old Skool Rave

I think that you've taken too much time to fade in the melodies here - they are too quiet and can't be perceived properly over the rave style beat that you've got going to proceed them.

Perhaps consider just dropping them in with a phase change, so that one minute they are there and the next, they aren't, just hitting us with it. It's a good start to consider doing something like that.

When you get to the quieter phase at about 2 minutes, the melody fades in nicely as a counter to what you've already got working there and then as it continues, there is a tangible sense of progress here. It works well and towards the end, I even get the feeling that if you took "The Shire" from Tolkien's works forward to a more modern setting, this would be what the rebellious young Hobbits listen to, much to the disgruntlement of their elders.

[Review Request Club]

DjAbbic responds:

O_o thanks for the feedback. I was like ?-.- at the 'shire' bit :S

[AF - Final Pulse]

Very overbearing

When the track starts, there is a nice, calming intro that really gets me in a nice mood. A shame that when I try to listen to the track in earnest, I can only get upper end static from most of the notes. I tried turning the volume down, but as soon as it gets to a very quiet volume, I find that I've still got these static feedback sounds on the notes.

It's a good track, but the whole effect was somewhat overshadowed by all of the feedback, so more work is required in mastering first. Perhaps use more of the 'twinkle' sounds on the synths that you were using at around 2.30, they sounded wonderful.

[Review Request Club]

aliaspharow responds:

i thought i had fixed the static but il check again on my speakers. thanks for the feedback!

[[Assios] - Euphoria]

I like it

Good crowd noises, good beat, excellent choice of instruments for the beat and melody. You win.

I think that this piece has got the euphoric quality to it and we can certainly have a good time listening to the piece. I'm not so sure about the way that you stop the beat in the middle of this one and build up to the next phase of the song. I think that you should just carry on and have the crowd noises help to perpetuate this piece. Perhaps have some sort of bass solo, where it does something different, but keep the melody going and carry on with the rest of the track as normal.

There's a bit of a misnomer where the bass tends to fade in and out, which could be cured in mastering. A little tweak here to keep it constant would be a nice move, I feel.

[Review Request Club]

Assios responds:

Thanks! I didn't want to exaggerate the use of the croide noises, but, I don't know..

Thanks for a great review!:D

[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!