MaestroRage's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Earthbones]

Crushing souls?

Hello Bosa...

this song sir, is frightening! It has a pure dark and angry malice to it! It would be PERFECT for a boss theme. I wonder... perhaps you should consider submitting it to the MAC contest?

The only problem I could say if you were considering is that the song doesn't loop all that well. With a perfect loop version I can't see this not being a winner. Really now.

Everything was really loud, which must have been hell to equalize. I had to turn my earphones done, I believe you overdid it a little, but you can't have sky ravaging flames of hell without such a feel I suppose.

All in all, brilliant... pure brilliance. Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

Bosa responds:

Ohh... you can count on it. I might just submit this in the MAC contest.

[::Z::Last Hope]

Slick

Hello Zajed.

Some very interesting beats you have going on here, and my hats off to you on that. I felt the percussion was a little on the loud side, and I felt some slight reverb may have done the song some good, but thats all just overall sound, presentation. Structure wise I felt the song was slick.

That distorted guitar and piano duet was an interesting idea. Definitely a very hard combination to tie together, let alone work together.

It doesn't move around much, then again thats not surprising as it is a hip hop track.

In any case, it was a slick track, well done! Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

Zajed responds:

meastro your reviews are always helpful you are one of the few persons who listen carefully and review with good advice

the piano and guitar is something new i tried, i think did it pretty good
yeah the drums a bit loud, i had some problems with them so i just left them like that

thank you for the good review

and you, keep doing your thing with the great classical/epic music you doin

[Airborn (Pulstated)]

Nicely done :D

hey Pulstate!

8 minutes?! Woooh... didn't think it was possible to compress a song this much, yet keep it at the quality you have here... I'm left wondering how exactly this piece would sound full quality!

What impresses me even more besides the low compression/quality, is the fact you've managed to keep you kicks meaty and full of impact! Very nicely done!

My favorite part is around 2:08, where the song begins to pick up. Very nicely done... it almost in my opinion borders above the trance energy levels i'm accustomed to hearing.

That is another point i'd like to make, for a trance song this piece moves around an awful lot, and by NO means do I intend that as a negative. I'm often used to sitting here listening to a very very slow gradual progression with most trance pieces, but this moves around ample, whilst maintaining that trance like state.

I do not have much to say in terms of critique, I don't have anything for you, but I wanted to drop my support! Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

Pulstate responds:

Maestro! Long time no see man, how are you?

I am being taught how to edit sound and create music by Daniel Kandi, who i must say, is the best producer and editor in the world at the moment. He showed me compression tricks. ;)

'' for a trance song this piece moves around an awful lot '' - Yes, this is my style for the future, trance has been criticised too frequently for repetition in the past. I'm going to keep the long 8 - 10 min tracks, but even more exciting and NEVER repetitive. =)

Thanks for a friendly review.

[Marche au Château in G minor 2]

ah ha! To you sir!

Brilliantly composed my good sir Winter! Very lively, very powerful stuff indeed!

Here are some points i'd like to make though.

I'm not entirely sure which part of the game you were thinking about when you made this. Perhaps the intro? It has a noble command to it, which is incredibly powerful, yet I am left thinking the song demands too much attention. I know i'd constantly die because i'd go "HERE'S MY FAVORITE PART!" *closes eyes, clenches teeth and waves imaginary conductor stick furiously in the air!*

*you have died... again... >:(*

It loops damn flawlessly! Well done, well done indeed!

There is nothing much more to say, this piece is incredible, and I will see you on the battle field! Keep up the genius, for it pushes me onwards!

Winterwind-NS responds:

hey maestro! thanks for taking the time man i really appreciate it

u kno wut, i was htinkg the same thing, wut aspect of the gameplay would i compose for, and how will it fit the interactive-ness of an actual console video game. Then after reading the first post in the mac thread, i realized i could "make my audio about practically anything". so i decided to make both my marches a theme song to the entire game.

haha but yeah thats tru, this is very melody based which a lot of music beds for gameplay dont necissarily have.

thanks again for reviewing me man
glad u could enjoy it

[Jungledrift: ImperfectDisciple]

:D

Sad to see that this will be your last major work Imperfect. Surprisingly uplifting for your last work XD...

X'(

I'm sorry I don't really know how to critique a song like this. I know it's uplifting, and I like the bass you've got going. It makes me think of that old game where you had to catch these monkeys with these siren lights on them. I forgot the name now, but it was a really really fun game, and I lost my childhood to it.

The worlds you'd travel in it were very majestic and creative. Even with the PSX limitations and cruddy graphics, it was very wonderful to look at, and the music was equal to match, very much like this. The song brought back several good memories!

The mix of instruments were well carried out, and the diversity of them are also incredible.

I also like the abrupt ending to be honest, kinda helps the song loop!

All in all, some wonderful work! I feel bad to see you go, but I hope wherever you go next, you own! Keep up the good fight Imperfect!

itsameyayo responds:

Thank you man, I'll PM you with some info, but in general, I'm still writing music, no doubt. It's at a place called Purevolume, I'll give you the link that's in my profile. I'll also find that game, I know what you're talking about :D

-Thank you so much for keeping your word to review my music.

-ImperfectDisciple

[Karco - Behind the Undergrowth]

Impressive

a darker theme for sure. It reminds me of a dark cavern theme. Swiftly moving across a large canyon, hidden by the pitch darkness at the bottom, being pelted by rain. Mud trails and slushy ground to compliment the mood.

They are heroes. Mighty and unbreakable forces moving out to once again change history. To change the fate of anything they see unfit.

It reminds a lot of Lord of the Rings, especially that brass.

When the rain cuts off, it's like they find a cave to hide in for the night.

Okay nuff with teh story! Now onto some technicalities.

The sound mixture here was incredibly well layered. The instruments all speak well, though slightly muddied by the rain and thunder sfx, I would not hold anything against that though. I felt the rain added superb layers onto the piece.

The constant timpani thumping was also effective for the image. Definitely gave the mood of tension. I wish I could show you this movie I have in my head, it's so damn perfect...

The song doesn't move around too much melodically. Seems to have a somewhat linear progression.

also, sorry for not including Metroid Prime in any of this, I just didn't see that image ;).

Great stuff Karco, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

Karco responds:

Second review! :D

Hmm, interesting image at the beginning... I assume it came from the introduction? Still, I think the song moved on to become a bit more triumphant-sounding, once the rain comes back. ;)

Well, for the layering, I have good ol' Squidfont and tgsf21x to thank. :P I really didn't do much to the volumes myself.

Ha, my song inspired a movie? :D Awesome.

This was actually heavily inspired by a song in the game Super Metroid, and only slightly influenced by the game Metroid Prime. XD I'll PM you a link to the Super Metroid song sometime to show you what I mean... ;)

Thanks for the review, (and the high ratings :D) glad you like it!

[Karco -- Aurora --]

slick!

Hey Karco! I totally forgot you made music too man XD. You should remind me of such things >:(

>:(

Really now.

But jokes aside, if you have this much talent that you can make electronic arts alongside classical, that sir is a feat in itself. I commend you!

This songs extreme level of energy is something instrumental artists would find incredibly hard to emulate.

I'm not that well versed in the electronic arts, so my criticism should all be taken with several grains of salt. In fact, keep one of those giant salt blocks beside you at all times, and lick viciously when reading my reviews. If the sodium levels fail to kill you until the end of the review, then you've accomplished what very few have! :D!

In any case, I felt near the end there was some clipping, some distortion that may not have been intended?

The song doesn't move around much melodic wise, but it is a damn catchy tune as it!

Excellent work Karco, you've impressed me a fair deal, and for this you deserve cake. Enjoy your e-diabeetus!

Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

Karco responds:

Ha, I thought the potential reviews you could be giving me would be better given to "Deserving Underdogs." Remember that thread? It ought to be revived sometime... >:D But if you want me to remind you as I did a while ago, sure. :P

Well, let's see. I suppose I'm pretty lucky. I listen to all sorts of electronic music which together form the inspiration for my various electronic songs... and then my source of inspiration for classicals like Falling Farther and my untitled piece has pretty much disappeared but I'll still submit an orchestrated song inspired by some other thing now and then, as can be seen by my other song Behind the Undergrowth. :P

Salt? Well I personally think people would rather take advice with a grain of sugar rather than a grain of salt, and that they'd rather be licking giant cubes of the sweet stuff than stuff that'd tie their tongues in a knot. XD But on your advice itself: hmm, I think there was some unintended distortion. :O I must've not noticed it, but I'll keep an eye out for it later on. And glad you like it! (Though in some parts I just cheated and used an arp. Hey, it sounds good... :D)

Thanks for the review, Maestro, glad you like it! Now to respond to that other review...

[I Don't Love You]

Slick!

when I read you were getting used to FL, my first thought was "Beginner?" and it seemed that this was not the case.

I don't really know why you don't like this one. I adore the type of feel and mood this song sets. Angry, unfocused, and unguided anger...

There were some parts where the piano notes clashed, and at the end, it DID get pretty strange layering two piano melodies on top of each other, and then changing back so abruptly.

The song loops damn flawlessly though, so top marks for that.

I really really liked the beginning. That angry pad with the ascending piano riff was awesome.

All in all I felt the beginning and middle of this song was spot on, it was near the end that things began to fall apart. Keep up the good fight Dexi, and keep em coming! I'd also like to invite you to check out my page sometime!

Dexi responds:

Thanks for the great review! The end is basically what I didn't like about it... how its abrupt... I don't have the FL file so i can't fix it... oh well. I'll check out your page.

[Conversational_Rag_Rolls]

Sweet :D

hah, this track made me laugh XD. I keep imagining those black and white movies with no sounds, and those fancy screens with the words they're saying.

Quite humerous the track, so the movie in my head was quite humor oriented.

And then for the strangest reason I took one of our most recent movies, like 300, and turned it black and white with the subtitle screen. With this track.

I've committed a sin here somewhere i'm sure.

I don't have much criticism, though I did feel that the piano felt like it was being played by a robot rather then a person, the volume levels per note seemed the same. I don't know if that was intentional, but still, great stuff!

Keep up the good fight and keep em coming Digimaks! I'd like to invite you to check out my work sometime!

Digimaks responds:

Haha< thanks )) well- yeah- I should of toned down some notes. As midi sequencing is a robot-like.

Lol- would be funny to see 300 BW- with hair and scratches on the tape and all moving 2 times quicker))))

Should try it )))

Glead it sounds pleasing to people :)

[Treasure These Moments]

Damn sexy

hello pitbulljones!

I can't believe I didn't see this on the top 5 list until today. Good thing too cuz it's like 3 hours away from a reset!

In any case, I really really liked the "aaaah" voice you got on here. The almost unhealthy level of reverb you stuck onto it gave it an incredibly airy feel, and I felt this complimented the feel perfectly.

Those reversed guitar? sounds were another really neat element of this song I liked.

This is perhaps one of the best ambient songs i've EVER heard. Or at the least it has the ambient feel to it.

Maybe it's because i'm a classical composer, but honestly I don't think the song needs lyrics.

The song doesn't move around much, but I figure this is because you intended to at some point put vocals on it. Not wise to have a song moving around all crazy like if you plan on throwing vocals on it.

All in all, a brilliant track. I'm glad I dropped by to hear it. Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

pitbulljones responds:

hell maestro' how you be. haha good spot there my son good spot. the aaaaaahhhh is myself, like you've noticed with a truly unhealthy amount of verb on it, makes it swell really nicely i thinks though. as previosuly mentioned i really was aiming to get vocals on this track too. Yep reversed guitars, and a couple of others floating about the mix too.

See i don't know whether this is ambient or not, tis indieish to me, but then again there are ambient elements, suppose it's just me, my PBJ style trademarked and copyrighted haha. Im amazed u think that highly of it as you are just awsome with the classical stuff. means a lot and yea not alot of movement due to the intention of vocals.

thank you very much for the kind words.

pm me with anything you want reviewing.

pitters