MaestroRage's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[{Ascent}]

Impressive!

Damn straight it should sound best on Earphones! 95% of all people who download tracks do so on earphones, so I always think you should engineer your tracks to work best on earphones.

Unless you're up and bassing the heck out of something, like herdcore lel!

There is so much energy in this piece, it's kicking and bumping, and convulsing all at once!

You've used automation clips pretty well here, I don't really even know what to say DaGraham. I mean I can't really find anything to criticize about this piece, it's a pretty sweet, awesome track. I love the arpeggiated notes, FO SHIZZLE I loved those!

That interesting synth sound that came on with them was an equally impressive layer, it was so simple but it added a great amount.

In any case, 5/5 from me easily DaGraham, keep em coming and keep up the good fight!

DaGrahamCraka responds:

thank you for such a nice review, im glad you liked it.

[Chutzpah - Desolar]

Sweet

Gave me a James Bond kind of feel, especially that bass and bell combo, I don't know why exactly, but I keep expecting some guy in a tux to come smashing through my wall and then strap some high tech gadget into my left ear and knock me unconcious...

the nightmares... they will be vicious tonight :(

In any case, the track itself is well mixed, it's quite powerful. I'm not really sure why you didn't put a higher bitrate version up here, it didn't make a huge difference, but still, just curious.

In any case, well executed and formed piece, keep em coming chutzpah, and keep up the good fight!

chutzpah responds:

The mission impossible theme is in 5/4 time and uses the exact rhythm this song does. The dun-dun - du-nun. Catch my drift? Thats why you see the tuxedo men. Its a very rare rhythm to hear for some reason, I really like it and plan to use it again - but whenever I hear it I think of the Mission Impossible theme too. The low bitrate is for protection. No ones using my songs in flashes so I figure they don't need to be good quality. And why not save old Fulp some hardrive space?

[This mind o mine (Subterfuger)]

Impressive

I missed a LOT of school work for my own musical interests, so I know exactly where you're coming from XD. Though I never actually skipped school for it, many a homework never got done.

Anyways, onto teh song itself.

I liked that smooth, yet raw synth in the background, i'm tempted to say saw synth, but it doesn't quite sound like it, you do some pretty funky things with that, quite funky indeed.

I found it quite interesting how after the breakdown you get these plucky synths jumping in, very out of character in my opinion, yet it did have it's own charm. I wouldn't have expected to hear them come on at all, but this did well.

The song is repetitive, but as a trance piece it's supposed to be as such, when it DOES change though, it's core completely shifts, and thats something I can respect.

In any case, thats all I have to say for this piece, top quality mixing, everything flows and functions well. Keep em coming Subter, and keep up the good fight! I'd like to invite you to check out my work sometime.

Subterfuger13 responds:

yeah its sort ofa DnB Techno Trance mix
weird thing.

[Mutzi Schnutzi (2:40)]

Soothing

Hey WinTang, I didn't think i'd see you make a song in this genre :D. Now I don't know what exactly constitutes a blues song, I always think of blind guys playing a saxaphone with a blues piano/organ with some double bass pizz action!

In any case like King already mentioned, very soothing, I really enjoyed listening to it. I hope you don't mind i'm going to take those tabs and see what I can learn from them. I've been trying to get a natural sounding guitar and thats hard to do when you don't know how to play the instrument itself.

This song also made me think of some kind of intro song, you know for a tv show. I can just see the credits now, smoke forming them, and blowing away again!

Sweet.

I liked the ending.

Loops awesomely as well.

In any case, I don't really know HOW I should be marking this, but in any case, a song well written! Keep em coming WinTang, and keep up the good fight!

*A quick question, what brand of guitar are you using for this, and does brand make a huge difference in acoustic works? I mean I know electric guitars differ greatly by maker, but acoustic, I just can't seem to imagine sounding differently by brand*

WinTang responds:

Wow, a review through the famine... chapeaux! And thanks, it's a big one too!

I cheated big time. The only thing that could really be considered Blues about this is the beginning. I would qualify this as Folk, but that category is absent, sadly.
What you describe is more accurate, bordering on jazz and all that. Ah well, who cares? Not me, and apparently not you either.

Please do take the tabs and use them for whatever you wish, that's what I posted them up for. Be sure to notify me of anything you accomplish in recreating a guitar, I can tell you it's fricken hard to do, especially the fingerstyle is something I've never heard done artificially in a convincing way. Not that that should hold you back, I'd love to see you break some ground there.

As for the brand, I don't know. It's an old Spanish guitar, my mother gave it to me and she bought it back in the 70s, there was a paper label inside the body but it's been gone for several years now.
There are two major types of acoustics, the Spanish/classical (nylon) and the steel. The sound is mostly determined by the shape of the body, and as with electric guitars the manually built (thus more expensive) are considerably better - I have a cheap factory one that I bought to take to pop festivals and it's utter crap. There's also no acoustic exception to this that I know of like the Fender Strat is for electric. I'm not very familiar with classical guitar brands, but a good steel brand is Takamine.

Thanks a lot for the review, and good luck with your musical odyssey (now more so than ever I guess, but we'll keep that to the thread).

[Spiriax: Second Ocean]

Quite impressive!

I've been listening to this track for nearly an hour straight. It's a very top mix track i'll give it that.

The mastering and equalizing of everything seems top notch, nothing is abrasive on the ears, and everything flows smoothly.

The percussional works were cliche, but in all honesty it's close to impossible to create percussional genius, everythings been done so i'm not going to hold that against you.

Nice build ups/break downs.

The synths were well picked.

Sometimes I felt the song was a little too high in treble, not enough bass, but that could just be personal preference.

In any case, great work Spiriax, very enjoyable track. Easily a 5/5 from me. Keep up the good fight!

Spiriax responds:

Ooh, I'm glad you really liked it! Thanks!

Yeah I tried to master things well, but those darn kicks and basses, it might sound a little weird on the treble/bass part. =P
It might be personal preference but there were one more guy that agreed with you so I'd definitely say we got a problem there. =)
As a minor excuse I'd also like to tell you that I'm more used to the psy/goa way of trance. But that doesn't mean anything really, hehe.

Again, glad you like. About synths and things being out of place.. I thought that guitar in the middle of the song might not have fitted very well with the rest but since I thought it sounded cool, I kept it. xD That's also why I put another synth together with the guitar so that it would still maintain the sound of the song a little more.

Yeah you're right, it's too hard to be original with percussion and that everything has been done before, but it's not possible to be a little unique with it... although it wasn't in this song.
And the snare with most loudness sounds like an ass-slap. xD

I just noticed that you were a really good artist, and it feels nice to get a review from you. (And everyone else of course!)

Thank you very much!
Also I'll be pleased to keep you updated with more songs!
/ Spiriax

[Itsa...]

smooth

I would have to agree with King here, I felt the mood and structure of the song itself was very well built, it definately gets a feeling and essence on the dot, however it doesn't really move anymore. This would make for a great ambient piece.

I really liked that constantly going up and down melody in the background... what IS that? It feels like staccato strings, which ones? Could be brass too I don't know.

The sullen brass in the background were my favorite part, adding so many layers of mystery to the piece, I am a firm believer they constituted a large bulk of this piece's mood.

In any case, I look forward to seeing what you would do with this, do try to get send me the flp, i'd love to take a look into it and see how your mind works :D!

Good stuff languid! Keep them coming and keep up the good fight!

languid-phenomenon responds:

OMG I TRIED TOO!!!! but for some reason it said it couldnt connect to your inbox or whatever. Basically gave me a big middle finger >< I shall try again, but if i cant get it to you through email, *if you can possibly get on* Wednesday is my day off, my AIM screenname is Kenshin9989. send me a message and i can transfere the flp through there XDDD

Realy wanna show you the piece, cuz i would like your help on it.

The french horn is definately my favorite instrument in this piece, and you are right, the sole reason i put it in there was to give the song its personality.

As for the arpeggio in the background,
i had originally wanted to use strings, but actually, this one is the wonderful voice of a clarinet :D !
The staccato strings in that range are strummed differently than others, so in the arpeggio, the um...for lack of a better term, attack of certain notes was longer than others, and made it sound like a middle school band kid was trying to play it lol. So i did a good 25 minutes of thinking and farting around with variouse instruments and determined that that clarinet suited the part just fine!

Again, this piece *in its entirety* is far from over. But as for what NG is going to hear, this is pretty much all they are going to get :P

(i know it was a bad loop, but i dont really care XD)

LP

[-Shattered Dreams-]

Nicely done

Hello again Dave!

I love stories, the whole reason I make music is to tell a story, and i'm glad to know that you are taking a similar approach.

I was looking forward to reading the full story, but hopefully you'll post that up soon ^^.

In any case, lets get onto this piece.

This piece Dave, is one that holds a lot of potential, and don't think that means I felt you did it wrong, or that you didn't do a good job, but what I mean is that there is so many ways of carrying out this story, it's sometimes overwhelming.

Lets begin with instrument choices.

Now I love the strings, more so then anything, however I don't know if the strings were the best way of handling this scenario. For example, I really think a flute or oboe would have truly nailed this story home. Not so much flute... no I guess flute would not be that effective, though interesting, I would most definitely consider the oboe a valuable asset though.

I would suggest the piano however I'm not sure if using it would make the song too... cliche? I know there is only so many instruments one can use, and really it's how one uses it and not what they use.

You've got a lot of ambient type like feeling here and thats perfect for this kind of story. The length of the piece is also rather extensive, a concern I have is the diversity of the song. This would make an awesome background track no doubt, but it tends to start blending together, and sounding the same if you're not paying attention to it.

So really what i'm trying to say is it lacks some diversity, and as a direct result I felt it wasn't as original as it could be.

I'd also suggest a nice choir, but would that bleed the song from it's core? I don't really know, it adds a lot, but potentially removes just as much, depending on the emotion you were going for I suppose.

The ending is debatable. It ended on an angry note, and the extended note it held was a little hard on the ears, perhaps dissonant? By no means do I mean it shouldn't be there, it is an interesting twist, and definitely it makes the song more noticeable before it ends.

In any case, this is another good work! Keep them coming Dave, keep up the good fight!

DaveTheMusicMan responds:

Oh, dammit...you didn't listen to the end, Maestro! After that dissonant chord, there's a key change, which is very crucial to my story...I should've said something about that in the description, huh? I didn't have anything other than strings for a reason...The added texture of a piano would hurt because of the percussive nature of the piano...although a choir would've worked.

The story of this song is one that's very close to me...A man looses everyone that he's close to. In anguish, he contemplates suicide, and even goes as far as to get a gun and put it to his own head (represented by that dissonant chord towards the end)...he drops the gun, though...and decides to just live in pain, a changed man...and yet the same...(represented by the key change but identical melody)

Not too many details of the story, as I like to let the listener get them him/herself.

Thanks for the review, Maestro.

[Fly my Angel, fly]

Quite soothing...

hello madboss.

I'm glad you made a nice soft piece this time, truth be told I needed to hear something like this. It's been a rather lousy week, it's good to find peace for a minute.

The chime bells were a great addition, they really added a lot of flavor, a lot of wonderment to the piece, the gentle strings that would swell to such great strengths and diminish to such a timid core.

Brilliant.

I was a little disappointed to hear the piano go, I felt that piano had so much to give, that it didn't give it's all before going silent. I'm not saying the song was worse because of that, i'm simply stating it could have added more.

Now those xylophone/vibes/glocken later on in the song, i was JUST thinking "I wish he put some bell melody in here!" and you did ^^.

I can see imagery to this song, about the nighttime. The stars, in a field of long grass, only my head above the grass, peeking out into what I could never explore.

Now i'm depressed again :'(

Overall the melody was great, it flowed, the structure was solid. I thought there was a tad too much treble, and could have used some more bass.

I'd say the beginning was actually the most powerful in my eyes, it was the most intimate start, the most shy, approachable melody. You know, like it gently walked up to you and started to tell you it's story.

Easily another 5/5 from me madboss. Keep me up to date on future released :D!

madboss responds:

I knew you'd drop a rev! I'm glad you liked it - even I wanted to make some different songs than epic or action themes. I thought this tune is really beautifull for a soft little piece like this.

The piano was missing from the "big" parts I know - It would have been a difficult task to fit it's volume to the overall orchestra and I wanted to create a grand sound (a bit epic after all but not as war) - I wanted to create a feeling of joy and excitement like you'd fly over a landscape or something like that. So that's why the tremble sound. Maybe some more brass would be better but I also thought that the french horns are gentle enough to give my image trough.

For me the favouite part is the one after the first grand part with the piano, oboe, glocken variation. I think it has the best melody.

Thnaks the 5's and you'll get those pm's for sure!

[Kickin A Beat]

Neat

Hey now this was pretty kicken! I would have definitely put this in techno. That high synth plays an awesomely catchy melody! It just dragged me right in.

You have quite a few synths going on, and a few effects and I must say you've molded them all well together!

The string intro was for me a very interesting twist, i've never heard a song being introduced like that, and though the strings itself are quite repetitive, in its repetitive core lies it's use, to constantly just keep pushing forward while that high pitch synth took over.

Interesting.

You seem to have a good sense for that bass, simple, solid, effective.

I would have liked to hear a pad or something in the background, I felt the song sounded a little empty at times, but I know this was just a song for fun! Still good stuff!

Keep up the good fight Languid... I don't know which jerk 0'ed all your stuff ahead of time, but in vain hopes of helping, here's my 5.

languid-phenomenon responds:

thanks a lot for your support!! I have no idea who it would be either...i mean, i just GOT here lol.

Hm, a pad sure would have been nice in this piece, im not sure why i didnt think of that at the time :\

With the bass, i had tried to do more with it than just than one riff i kept playing, but since i had just about built everything around the preussion before i got to the bass, i was in no mood to rewrite the synths to fit around a fluctuating bass *something i still cant get quite right anyway lol* so i just kept it simple but strong.

Lol when i finished the song and played the mp3 to myself, the first thing i though was "Dear God, the intro sounds Vanilla Ice" and i almost died from laughter XD.

Thanks again for your reviews and supprt! It means a lot to me :)

More is sure to come, so keepz a lookzout XD

LP

[Languid Determination]

Neat

uh oh, the hip hop genre is rarely nice. I see more 0 votes fly in from there then... well some rather large thing that throws a lot of other things.

The beats are stable, fluent, but there is something about this song that doesn't quite say "Hip Hop to me"

I begin to think that maybe the piece is too full? Then again don't look at me, I have little experience in this field. In fact the last time I tried to make a hip hop track it ended up being an evil santa song... good times!

You've got the lead synth fluctuating well, do you have a flanger effect on it also? It seems to slide a bit as it plays I wonder if it's the instrument or an effect.

The melody is pretty catchy though no doubt.

The percussional side to the song is also fairly solid, the bass I liked. It really did its stuff and did it well, I wonder if reverbing those claps and clicks would make it sound better. It may, it may not, not sure, but i'd recommend you try it, it may surprise you.

In any case, Keep up the good fight Languid, I hear some potential in you!

languid-phenomenon responds:

D'OH! i never thought to rever the clap/snaps lol. As for it being to "full" for hip-hop i can see your point, most hip-hop songs are pretty redundant and without the lyrics, gets kinda dull to listen too. I am not a big fan of redundantness, so even in my trance i like to keep it chaning even by just a bit. The same pattern over and over doesnt really speak much towards somones ability to compose a song in my opinion. As for the synth, there was no filter effects on it other than what Z3ta had put on it. I believe it is the "cutting lead" preset. Im not sure if it came arpeggiated, but if it did, i took it off to get the solid notes. The reason it seemed to slide was because i discovered that when i placed a small note on top or below a longer one in the piano roll, it would slide down to that note, and if the note ended before the longer one, would slide back. A very usefull discovery XD So after that accidental discovery I then used my newfound knowledge and extended the ends of certain notes to have it slide down or up to the next one, and then break and have solid notes and stuff. XD very fun, very fun. So it might be the instrument, but then again, most of the samples on z3ta+ have effects already added to them XD
Thanks again for the review XDD

LP