MaestroRage's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hallelujah performed by Cayler]

Great rendition, great voice, well played and sung

For the past couple days I find myself coming back to listen to this track. It's one of my favorites and you've done it brilliant justice! Your voice really settles with the song and fades/strengthens at very appropriate times.

Gawd I love these lyrics. So deliciously awesome.

I'm not going to talk about the vibrato in your voice, been brought up enough, I agree you can feel how genuinely you felt the song as you sung it. I wanted to talk about the instrumentation. Now this is all entirely personal preference of course, but I can hear a full orchestral score for this song. A low rumbling cello, the soft reverbed panflute to double your voice and the piano. I wish you had brought those strings up a bit, and introduced a bit more bass.

you know what, you've really inspired me to try that out. You really are a talented musician, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

Cayler responds:

You said it, these lyrics are so deliciously awesome. xD I know what you mean about the music, when I was mastering it the music ended up being too quiet and to me it sounded like old people music and that had to change. I ended up bringing it up more but not enough. The version of this that inspired me to make it was just an acoustic guitar so I was trying to keep the peaceful effect by not overwhelming the listener, but in retrospect I'd say that this piece is just too beautiful not to be fully filled out with music. I too wish I had put more in there. I hope you take a chance at this song too, and let me know when you post it. :) I'll give a good review, just like you did.

[Dr. Crafty's Castle (8-bit)]

brilliant melody, inspiring, bit repetitive.

following very restrictive rules you've done a fantastic job. I've always sat back and enjoyed your chiptune works. I can hear this fully fleshed out and I can hear it being something very powerful. The very notion it can inspire such clarity in my head is a testament in itself.

Brilliant work Nick, i'm always watching you *stalker level*

Keep up the good fight, keep em coming!

NickPerrin responds:

Cheers, thanks for the review. These are tons of fun to make, but I haven't made a full orchestral piece in ages, so I think I'm putting it off by making these haha... Oh and if you, as you said, hear this fully fleshed out into something powerful, I could give you the MIDI of this to make into something more...

-N

[@ndrea - Silver Rose]

euphoric, catchy

I don't quite agree with my fellow reviewer BJRA. Sidechaining is a common technique used in much electronica this I admit but I didn't quite really see the need here. Not everything has to be sidechained and I think this is one such songs.

The super fast melody here would be disrupted constantly if you side chained the bass/pads. The song reminds me of DragonForce to be honest, and I love DragonForce :D!

One of my favorite moments in this song is 1:06 where after the insane speed melodic riff you throw out some extended notes, very euphoric sensation.

There are some areas of improvement. The song does sound a bit lifeless. I WOULD recommend some side chaining at 2:33 to give your song a nice thumping, give that extra push after all that. The song felt a bit repetitive, I would have loved to hear you explore your theme a bit more.

I noticed you are new to the portal, it is good to see you up here so soon! I like your style, I hope you stick around, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

AndreaDigita responds:

OMG!!! MAESTRORAGE REVIEW :D lolz XD

Yeah you're definitely right, I think I could give it even more variations and I promise I will on my next song ^.~

I'll keep fighting! Thank you very much Maestro ^^
xoxo
@ndrea

[==(Cloudclimber)==]

great story! good ideas, repetitive in parts.

What I really liked about this song was the diversity of it. There were a lot of sounds going on, a lot of melodic ideas. The mixing was supurb. Nothing clashed, nothing was dull, stale or lifeless, and the deep thudding percussion worked very well.

My personal favorite percussion movement 4:11 with the panned kicks. The song did blend together making it difficult to focus on for long periods of time. The imagery written in the description panel was incredible SBB. As a story writer i'd shake your hand. Well done.

The beginning here felt like just the watching the silent and still sky. The dawning sun painting the heavens it's orange and red hues. Then when the piano kicks in our plane pops into the picture all "hai guis!"

oh that silly plane. Though I do agree the whale sounds are a bit distracting. I mean in your story I can hear the giant gliding birds make the sound, but I still saw a giant flying whale first.

still, excellent track, keep up the good fight, keep em coming!

[Solus- Cast Off]

WAY too much reverb, great ideas, very relevant.

Solus normally I find great idears in your song. But I felt this piano ballad was not one of your best. Though it's far from bad it's also not as original as most of your work. As mentioned I hear a lot of FF. I even hear Balamb Garden melody at 0:24-0:28.

For one Solus, why is there SO MUCH reverb?! I mean yes a bit of reverb and echo makes a song feel nifty but this was overkill sir. It was difficult trying to get the image to click with that much going on. Not going lie to you sir, lost big points for it.

I think a dryer right hand and a much dryer left hand would have made a bigger impact.

Though this song portrays loads of interesting melodic ideas I felt it also didn't have much consistency. Jumping from one idea to another. However each idea was constructed well and it felt full througout, and each segment did flow to the other quite well. There were little in terms of melodic repetition which I think would have made this ballad stand stronger on its feet.

Still stalking you ya bastard, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

SolusLunes responds:

Yay, finally something other than "OMG GREATESTSONG EVAR", with REASONS too!

I'm gonna make you some pancakes.

Seriously, as far as FF goes, I think I played FF8 for all of about ten minutes. Then I had to leave, and I just never got around to playing that game again. So you can't blame me for that.

Too much reverb? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. Um. I guess it's really a question of personal preferences... but just for you, I'm going to turn down the reverb and listen to it again.

Okay. After listening again, I really have to disagree with you there. The lack of reverb completely takes away from the body of the song, and the "floatiness" I was trying to convey. Even just like half of it seems to kill it.

Again, the lack of consistency was kind of what I was aiming for, to just fly free, and tell the rest of the world, "fuck off, I'm flying here."

Granted, yes, sure, it would make it a better song overall, but then it'd be pulled from the direction I wanted to go.

Plus it made it SO much more fun to write.

[SR - Flowe]

Great sounds, wonderful mix, wrong image?

Devin I have to be honest, I didn't quite click with the imagery here. The crushed synths at the beginning was a complete confusion area for me. It not only didn't make me think of flying, but it also made me want to play my old SNES games. The great mix of sounds and effects made the piece really chilled out but I just didn't see flight with this in much shape or form. However quite a few judges disagree with me so consider this the opinion of an ignorant fan :3!

The mix and synths are all pro level as pointed out before. I could never even begin to try and critique them, they are far beyond my level. I'm just not seeing flying.

Well made song all the same. Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

SineRider responds:

Hey maestro. Thanks for being honest and not masking over your opinion. I'll admit i didn't exactly have the MAC in mind when I started working on this song. That's why the beginning drums may confuse you. But as it progressed I got this nice image in my head of floating, especially when the guitar part comes in. I guess that technically isn't flying, like in a plane in the picture, but works too, I think.

Anyways, thanks for your critique :)

[Flight in Freedom__RR (MAC 8)]

quite repetitive, bit empty at parts, driving vibe

This song's piano is pretty neat. The song feels a bit empty at the beginning and the piano's progression is a tad slow. It takes a long long time for it to go anywhere and the techno elements feel a bit empty as well. Once 2:30 kicks in things begin to feel a lot more full. Yes it's a very repetitive melody but the reverb here really did it.

I would suggest introducing those bass strings or bass pads at the beginning to make the song sound more full, or play simple and light chords with the piano, my biggest issue here was the empty feeling. Also the piano clips rather drastically at the beginning.

A good track, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

RenoakRhythm responds:

Thanks MaestroRage, appreciate the review. I'll keep 'em coming. I'll keep an eye out on ya in the forums...... :P

Later,

-RR

[Ship That Time Built--_--]

Great vibe, steady flow, a bit ancient sounding.

There's something about this song I really REALLY like. The great soft relaxing feel, sparsely thrown about strums, the great panflute/ocarina woodwind like sound, the easy chill beat.

When I listen to this however I get a very fantasy oriented image. The tubular bells don't help. I get for some reason a large foresty like zeppelin. It's large balloon made from leaves and other various weird fancy looking things.

This is one of my personal favorites in this MAC Jadan. I don't even know what to critique it to be honest, it's perfect mixing/mastering wise, very sound. My strongest and pretty much only complaint is that it just didn't click for me. I should get to listening to the other contestants... but i'm going to sit here for a little while longer. Damn fine work, really, thanks for submitting it.

Keep up the good fight, and keep em coming!

[[EtR] One Day]

accomplishes ambient vibe, good mix of sounds.

You already know what I think on the piece but here it is again a bit more fleshed out.

Firstly, you've gotten that ambient vibe right. It's very spaced out feeling and the sound effects aren't distracting. To boot the shimmering pads also do well in setting up the mood, the funky percussion beat blended back enough to compliment, not detract from the ambiance.

The repetition of the synths is what makes them ambient, and I think you are already aware of this. The fact you use that winding down synth a good deal serves to make it lose it's unique vibe and settle right in there with the mix.

Now one thing I wouldn't have done is cut off that percussion beat. When it disappears for a short period for that xylophone? it somewhat disrupts the flow.

I can see myself working on schoolwork with this in the background for hours so you've accomplished your desired effect. Good work, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

EthernalRain responds:

Well, I wanted to have some sort of a break when I brought in that soft xylophone/airbell mix. To flesh it out more... But you might have a point.

Thank you for the review. =)

[Kevin R. Czarnecki Voice Demo]

That is by far the best demo reel i've heard.

aaaa HAHAHAHA!

Damn great. That's one of the best damn demo reels ever! Fav'ed!

I wish my credit rating was strong with the force...