MaestroRage's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[[F-777] Aqua Dream]

:D!

The beginning of the song wasn't very dance like. In fact I was even beginning to wonder "Does he mean underwater slow dancing?! Because that image gave me a giggle. Do the moonwalk, try not to float up!"

Then the song picked up it's energy levels to an appropriate setting.

That vox you had in there somewhere, BRILLIANT! I loved the texture it gave the song.

The heavily reverbed percussion beats served this song well. I felt because it was so loud, it should have become more varied. Like this it gets a little tiring only because it grabs so much of your attention.

The bubbly quick high echoed synth notes complimented that underwater feel.

I think this is indeed one of your best works yet! It's my personal favorite of yours right now in any case! It's also very diverse with it's sounds, save in the department of percussion.

Good stuffs! Keep up the good fight F-777!

[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

[| - Airborne (v6) - |]

:D

I really liked this one! The reverbed synth really boomed out an epic core, and though it heavily muscled out the other sounds, it was a damn interesting melody and feel overall.

After that first breakdown, with that heavily gated synth segment. I felt that part was also incredibly epic. I could see a very fierce, fantastic air fight to this piece.

The bass synth in my opinion was a little too quiet. I understand that making it louder may have made it muscle out other instruments, but as it stands I feel it's a little heavy on the high end of the frequency range.

The percusssion beats though simple, were effective.

The ending was a tad abrupt, again I know you're not done with it yet. The last melody segment didn't really move either. I would have liked to hear some change, either through some new synth or perhaps a change in melody.

All in all, it's a great piece, I look forward to it's final version! Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

[| - Digital Sunshine - |]

Well done!

I've listened to this piece for nearly an hour. It's got a very easy on the ears flow, it glides along and is very fluent.

It's not a very diverse piece, but that in my opinion compliments its behavior.

I would definitely have liked to hear some variation along the way, but I understand that this is a Work In Progress so i'm not going to comment too heavily on that.

The ending was abrupt, but we all know why that is.

The synths you picked work well together. Is there white noise in the background? There seems to be some faint staticy kind of sound there...

In any case, workw ell done DJ-TroKis. Keep up the good fight and keep em coming! I'd like to invite you to my page sometime!

DJ-TroKis responds:

Wow. Probably the best review i've ever had. It's stuff like this that keeps me writing. Now i'm even more eager to get my computer back from best buy so I can keep writing! Thanks a TON! I really appreciate your response =) And i'd like to be invited to your page sometime, too! I'll keep at it, man. Peace.

[Twilight Mission [F-777]]

Sweet

This is a damn interesting piece! At first I was a bit skeptical of that beginning. The electric guitar synth didn't seem to merge too well with the other synths. After some careful consideration I decided that they did in fact belong there.

I really really liked it when things just PICKED UP, all high in energy levels and all that. After that break of silence and pad goodness, with those happenin synths.

After the second initial breakdown is where I am referring to. Where things really pick up.

I felt the ending was too abrupt, the song doesn't loop that well.

All in all, it was a great track F-777. For sure, quite enjoyable! Keep up the good fight and keep em coming! I'd like to invite you to check out my work sometime!

F-777 responds:

Thank you very much for the great review! =D

Yes the ending was terrible and too fast i was just trying to finish cause our family was going to watch a movie.

Anyways ill be sure to check out your stuff later.

Thanks again!

[HrrHd - 62 sec Trance]

Slick

I really thought this belonged more in Techno, it doesn't have that ambient quality of Trance, and is far too upbeat in my opinion.

But thats just technicalities. The song itself was incredibly dark, and energetic. I really liked how you used that saw? synth. The supporting synths that came in later, vocal pad like things really complimented the mood, and enhanced the imagery.

Well done.

The sliding synth was also pretty sweet.

I didn't quite like that really shrill synth that came in later on with the sliding synth. I felt it was just... not really effective in it's use.

The ending was abrupt, but thats because it's a work in progress. Overall, this was a damn fine track horrorhead! I really think you should finish it! Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

I'd also like to invite you to check out my work sometime!

horrorhead responds:

Thanks for that, i'm not too good with choosing song genres =P

Yeah i'm quite fond of that saw too =P. Yeah i do like how the choir-style pad comes in..but i know that i could improve and add other sounds that could perhaps enhance the effect even further.

Thanks.

Yeah..lol..i've kinda abolished that sound now, you can see in the next version i bring out. (If i can..)

Yeah the ending..well, i was going to put some build-up at the end and let it finish..just so you could tell it was the end of the demo..but i'm sure it's fine how it is. ^^. And yeah, this is the track that i've spent most time on and have actually used vst's and effects =P.

I'll be sure to check out your work and thankyou for you review =D.