MaestroRage's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Old Life]

This one was a keeper...

Hmm, now this is a really really great track. It begins with that very soothing strings and cello chords. That piano introduction just emphasises the happy mood.

When that oboe comes in... and the strings disappear, I feel a great nostalgic feel. As if a person is looking at the hills that he used to live around.

And then he suffers a great remorse when he sees his home and the whole village in shambles... everybody was gone?

When the piano is by itself, I see the character walking into the village slowly, remembering who used to live where, the children running, the elderly sitting around their coffee tables, telling stories.

When that sax part comes in, with that synth? like clav piano, it again fills me with that nostalgic feeling.

I didn't expect the percussional aspects at ALL XD, it turned it into a jazzy kind of theme, a more livlier (did I spell that right?) kind of theme.

In any case, it was another good piece deserves my 5 at least.

Good stuff Bosa, good stuff indeed.

[The Side Path]

Sweet

I havn't been around your page in ages Bosa... it's time to change that!

The introduction was quite interesting, I see a man lost in the bustle of a bazaar, bumping into people, being pushed around, this man is so old, so frail.

There must be a way out...

Then the drums come in, and the image changes nearly instantanously!

Now it's a warrior, bruised, cut, wounded, dying. Another wave of enemies are approaching, and he knows he can't fight anymore, yet to leave now would be a betrayel to his comrades. To die here, or to cower?

He is torn between his choices, the drums and dissonant strings screaming chaos.

Then the image changes again, with those... forgive me, I don't really know what those stick like percussionals are called. What are they?

What I really like about this song, is though the images are all insanely different, the theme, the melody and instruments hover around the same core, an alteration, a morphing change here, but essentially they are the same!

Then it softens, as if both that old man, and that warrior found a way out, the old man sitting in his home, sipping a hot beverage. When the drums come in again I see the warrior resting in a tent, happy to be alive.

The bells at the end, neatly wrap up the images, closing the threads, and wrapping up the story in general.

At the very end... what is that plucking instrument called? Where do you get all these ethnical instruments Bosa? I am very interested in using instruments outside the norm, and you seem to have a great range of them.

In any case, it was a great experience. Well done! Keep them coming, I look forward to whatever else you bring.

Bosa responds:

Answering a few questions is in order here, and I might even help you out a bit. Soon, I will share with you the instruments of diversity, yet not now. I'm working on another song and I will make sure it is diffrent. Try looking for some castanets and perhaps a shamisen or dulcimer. I would also reccomend an arsenal of middle eastern and celtic instruments. I have done all I can for now.

-ßosa

[Chutzpah - Daytime W (& P)]

Neat

oh man... what is that man saying!? He sounds so sad, he's crying... man, it made the song wierd... I made a song like this where people are just crying XD. I'd like you to listen to it, not review (not that i'm stopping you if you want to ;), but because the two songs basic ideas are so much the same, it's kinda scary. In my account MaestroSegments, go to the song A Deep suffering, you will see what I mean.

In any case, this song flows rather well, though I couldn't make out the sayings out too much save the "oh fuck!" XD.

It was still quite an enjoyable song, so props to you. The claps are reverbed nicely, good to hear.

chutzpah responds:

I'm glad someone finally reviewed this song been wondering what people would think. And hell, I respect your opinion above all. Just to satisfy your curiosity the audio clips in this song were from Maury. Its maury saying "you are not the (father)" A woman saying "I cheated on my husband with an african american man" and [her husband] crying in tears later in the show also saying "get away from me." Various clips included are from Jerry Springer of two women fighting saying "wanna fuck me up." In the interlude is the same crying found earlier in the song, only extremely altered.

I feel theres a lack of emotion in my music, as most techno, and the way the guy cried to me sounded like a good way to fill that gap. I'm glad you at least didn't hate it, let alone gave it an 8.

The other random sound effects are from Counterstrike.

Thanks for the review, I'll check out more of you're music sometime.

[Chutzpah - Chorus]

Pretty neat!

Hey chutzpah, you've been a good sport and visiting quite a few songs on my page, so I thought i'd return the favour, thank you btw.

Lets begin, with that melody. The melody is quite neat, truly it flows quite nicely. That piano kicks in, and i'm bobbing my head.

I love that piano <3.

However I felt the transition to synth and piano were a tad too sudden, I would suggest perhaps a buildup and then a crash before you jump into the piano, or have the synth AND the piano going off at the same time... now there's an idea... I wonder what that would sound like...

In any case.

After the second boat with the piano, you get that wavey synth going on, with that neat bass beat afterwards. I really liked that bass beat, it was definately an entertaining listen!

I would suggest some reverb on those percussional aspects, I felt the percussional was a tad weak, it could be made more powerful, more demanding if you know what I mean.

You even have this arabian like synth melody going on at one point! Now THAT was unexpected, but definately a pleasure!

That piano melody, you seem to like it alot, so do I, really I find that melody quite exceptional, but I would ask you mix it up from time to time.

Regardless, this was a pretty neat song, good stuff! I'll drop my 5 bomb here as well. Keep them coming chutzpah!

chutzpah responds:

At the very end the piano and the synths all play, I thought it sounded pretty good. Maybe you didn't catch it but its at the very end.

My weakest element tends to be drum work. I get lazy with it and don't think its very important. On my more recent work I put reverb on almost everything and it sounds a lot better. Right now I'm downloading 1 gig of samples and in the future i will work a lot more on the drums.

I'm glad you noticed the arabian synth solo, thats my favorite part. I've also never been very good at transitions, this piece is the best example of that.
I'm glad you liked it cause your music is awesome and i could learn a lot from you, so keep the reviews coming 8). I'll check out your stuff some more too.

[SpK*) - Oompa Loompa DnB V.2]

Neat

I havn't heard this song in AGES XD.

The percussional additions to it were pretty neat, I don't have much to say i'm afraid, it was however quite entertaining. I just wanted to drop my support good stuff!

[Kim - Blood Field *DEMO*]

Sweet!

well then... I must say i'm quite impressed. Really the recording is very crisp, very clean, and SOOOPER effective >:(!

So much energy, so much power in this piece! I mean when I read Roflmasters review saying it rivalled paragon's stuff, I was a tad skeptical, on the grounds that firstly, his is DnB mostly, and this is Video game... but then I clicked teh play, and truly I now feel the same way!

You play very well, and I absolutely love the melody of this piece. When you say video game, do you mean the song is built around a video game feel, or the inspiration came from a video game, if so could you tell me from which videogame, this really sounds awesome.

I got nothing to say, 5/5 for you! Keep them coming KimKen!

Kimken responds:

Hello MaestroRage!
You asked where i got the idea for the melody of this song. I don't know where i got it from! :D
Just wanted to compose some metal for a change.. but it accidently sounds like gamemusic hehe :D

If you like gamemusic you should try listening to some of castlevania's OST's. I would recommend "symphony of the night" OST in that case! (this song may sound inspired from there. or maybe a little malmsteen, without the uberfast solos) :D

Thanks for doing the review!
Always a pleasure hearing from you!

-Kim

[{Rose}]

Jebus...

my dear GOD!

XD, that is some INSANE energy levels.

I gotta say this is some serious... serious stuff right here! I sat down and thought "what would it look like if somebody tried to play those uber fast notes near the beginning with a violin (and again when the real strings come in), and i'm sure the musician would end up with chronic artheritus at best... at BEST!

The beginning synth was pretty sexy, I don't know I personally liked all the synths, didn't see a need to change any of them. Really, quite sexy.

My one and only qualm is I think that saw synth, is a tad loud, it's volume levels are pretty okay when everything else comes in, but when it's by itself in the beginning, it's a tad loud.

I just imagined like Megaman's fastest battle EVER to this tune. Go Megaman GO!

I'm going to go check out the others songs in these series, this song totally kicked some ass.

5/5 for you + buttsecks.

cornandbeans responds:

:D :D buttsecks plz!

thanks for the nice review. ^^ btw, which saw synth are you talking about? If you're talking about the bassline one, then I can see what you mean. :P

arrr.. I be workin on a pirates of the caribbean remix next..

[Chutzpah - Satanic]

Neat

now those are some wierd choirs good sir. The song has a pretty warped, unstable core, and I like that.

But with some better choir samples the song's impact would be much greater.

Try googling Papelmedia choirs, you'll get a soundfont that I use a fair deal myself.

The song gets a tad repetitive, it's pretty long without much mixing up, I would definately suggest more mixing up. Also, the song does tend to go into the "too random" part sometimes. I felt at times the melody got too unstable, like near the end where the piano's were going off at the same time.

In any case, good work, keep them coming! I'd like to invite you to listen to some of my work sometime.

chutzpah responds:

Finally a real comment. Thanks man.

I have another version with vocals which helped the song a lot, but without them its more ambient and better for flash videos/games and that nonsense. The piano solo's a little ridiculous, but I decided I liked it after attempting to fix it. The piano rhythm in the rest of the song would be a lot better if i had a MIDI controller to play it live. As for the choir, I personally liked the sound I got out of it, but anyone who uses FL is probably sick of hearing it. Thanks for the advice I will stop by your collection very soon and review your stuff as will I start looking for more samples.

[SS- Sleepless Night]

Neat

I personally liked the Oriental type of flute sound, made the song more interesting to listen to. As mentioned before hand, it really is a great song, very spacey, and ambiant. The EQ issue has been brought up so really i'm not going to dive into that.

I also personally liked the insane levels of echo, just reinforced the spacey image personally.

In either case it gets my 5 also. Good work.

DJ-Moth responds:

Yeah yeah yeah... EQ and stuff. But yeah, Im starting to fiddle around with it so that my Ambiant songs wont be fuzzy again. sorry about that =( Anyways, thanks for the review! 11/07

[Solo Piano -Improvisation in A]

Awesome...

Man, I must have been listening to this piece for hours...

A is my favourite key to play in, so really this song struck many many chords with me, get it, cuz it's a musical reference! Oh boy, i'm priceless!

In any case, I really liked when the song picked up, for an improv song, you have a lot of confidence in your playing, then again I suppose if you're going to go improv live, then you had better be confident eh?

The tonal control, the range of emotions in this piece is outstanding. I wish I had more knowledge of theory to comment better, but sadly enough this is as far as I can go today. You've played very well, kudo's. Here's my 5 bomb for you! Keep them coming WuSchell.

WuSchell responds:

A is just my favorite key to improvies. Indeed its the easiest key for improvisation. When i finally finished a idea I play them in a different one.

Thanks for the review =)