MaestroRage's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[battle theme..()..]

good flow, diverse, not boss fight like, smooth!

A very subtle, smooth piece. I don't really see a fight to this beat, the only real agent of aggression in this piece would have to be the percussion you have going on. Other then that the melody isn't aggressive, there isn't any supporting instruments, no crashes, etc.

However this makes me think of spies for some reason O_O. I can see James Bond pimping out the death and destruction to this beat, it's very sly like that, which is oddly incredibly entertaining.

The song also loops perfectly, so props to you there for that!

In fact I was wondering, how it would sound if you exchanged that 8 bit synth with a saxaphone! I can almost see the sabatouge!

A great loop for sure, i'm afraid not very boss oriented however. Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

STU-PIDASO responds:

thank you maestro, i always enjoy tough well thought out reviews.

good points...it IS more spy...kinda 70's mod-squad-ish i think now.
i will perhaps think about loosing the 8bitsynth and try some saxomofone...(simpsons reference)

and the looping, well that was accidental.

[StompMosh - Squishy Mix]

too repetative, solid beat, smooth flowing.

I didn't quite like the guitar in this piece, it just didn't have enough power to move me, nor was it clean enough to sway the song in that area. The percussion WAS a neat addition no doubt, but I felt this song was far too repetetive. Even with the mindset that the player would not be paying much attention to it while playing.

I also felt that the song could have had some more bass to it, perhaps some bass strings? A pad? Something.

The percussion was neat, well done, the distortion on those drums really gave it a punch, though again I am left with the desire to hear more from them.

Good track, though too repetative for my liking. Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

encino187 responds:

Thanks for taking the time for the review.
I do have to agree that it is repetitive. But I have to face the fact that it may be in a game and well, I was limited to 1-2 min. I opted to keep it around 1 min and lets face it any song played over and over (that was constructed to be 1 or 2 min) being looped will be repetitive.

"The percussion was neat, well done, the distortion on those drums really gave it a punch, though again I am left with the desire to hear more from them."
- I've learned from being in a band and being in the studio a few times that if you make it short n sweet people always want more. But if you make it too long, you lose them. So, I'd rather leave someone feeling disappointed wanting more as opposed to annoyed and wanting it to stop. :) The drums were moreso the focus, it's actually two tracks of people stomping on a wooden floor. I tweaked them to give it beat/army/battle marching vibe.

However I'd have to disagree with two things (1) the guitar track and (2) adding strings.

When the song was constructed I attempted several sounds with the guitar track. In the end I felt that without distortion, the guitar track would lose it's feel.

There is a bass track and I tried to maintain it's levels as not to blow out low end speakers(example, cheezy tv speakers) yet if being played on a good speaker set, it'd be audible. Adding string would compromise the feel once again - I was shooting for metal-ish and yet again minimalistic feel and sound.

Thanks again,
S

[Empty Trails]

subtle, effective, slightly repetative, good perc.

This song loops perfectly! That tensive subtle opening gets repetetive, but I can see it being a valuable asset to the game in the sense it is not at all distracting, whilst still giving the energy it needs to give out.

I also really like the percussive work you have here. That mix of reverse and normal cymbols add a very interesting flavor, I will have to try and use that myself some day!

I wish the song had moved around a bit more, that saxaphone? instrument that plays the same riffs again and again does get a little tiresome.

Great bass use.

All in all, a worthy track, though not much to comment on, I can see it doing well in the contest, i'll see you on the battle field >:}.

Well done encino, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

encino187 responds:

Yes that be sexiphone. I did that all up in Garageband with a Midi Controller - no "real" instruments on that one (Booo). I have a few other songs that have all sorts of string arrangements n whatnot but, I kinda felt greedy entering more than two into the contest. Plus I wanted to offer something different to the contest. So, I guess it's either fly high or crash n' burn for me :P

When I upload my newer stuff I'll PM ya so you can add your input.

Thanks for the review - always appreciated.

[-(WB)-Last Castle]

perc weak, too repetetive, mastering issues.

This song presents some more interesting melodic ideas, however in this song you are using repetition far too much, and in the wrong places.

For example, for nearly throughout the entire piece you have this flute melody going again and again. If you had lowered the volume for this flute and made it the background support, it would have worked better, and if you had made that background brass, louder to become the leading instrument, it would not have been as repetetive.

The percussion still needs a bit of work, still seems too chaotic. Claps very rarely work, and you might want to search for more snare samples, something that sounds rougher. If you're not already doing it, remember to add reverb to your percussion, it will sound much more realistic and entertaining, this I can promise you ;).

The song also does not loop. It cuts off too quickly.

Though a worthy effort, there is still some work that need be done to this song. Keep up the good fight though, I can really hear your improvement, keep em coming!

WritersBlock responds:

Thanks for the reviews. Yeah, epic percussion, it aint. I like how I can look back at these songs, and compare to my music now, and it's a big change in production quality, and most of the stuff that I do now, you've mentioned in these reviews back when I was relatively new to it all.
Cheers.

[-(WB)-8-Bit Warlords]

perc unstable, synths work well, a bit repetetive.

Nice selection of synths, right away I noticed what you used worked well together. I also noticed that the percussion section was again on the unstable side this time. Those rapid firing snares didn't really do much for me, if you're going to have them fire off that quickly, one idea you can try is to have their volume increase with each note, if you are using fruity, right click on the mouse, starting from the first note, click about halfway, and then without lifting your finger, drag the cursor to the top of the volume window at the last snare hit. This should automatically set the volume for each snare note so that it increases gradualy.

If you're not using Fruity Studio's, I don't know what to tell you :/

In any case, the synths all worked well together, albeit still repetetive, it does present some diversity.

Another thing to consider now is pads. Pads give songs a very satisfying thickness to them, try some out, I assure you, you will love them!

Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

WritersBlock responds:

Lol, thanks MR, I said I was going to go back and respond to your reviews, and I slacked off a bit there. These reviews of yours were probably some of the first genuine critical reviews I recieved on NG.
Cheers.

[-(WB)-Destiny]

solid synths, good flow, perc decent

This song is really an improvement from your others! The sounds are all mastered properly, and for the first time you are using the reverse cymbol without excessive cymbols for transitions. It lends itself well to the song.

Still a little cymbol crazy you are, but it's getting better ;).

The synths you use this time around work much better. They have more texture, more flavor to them.

The transitions again though they work well, you are shifting the song a little too much. Keep in mind as I said in a previous review, that sudden shifts of energy and instruments makes the song more tiring to listen to in the long run. Sure it sounds slick for the first couple of times, but give it 10 minutes, the user will find one part of the song they don't like, and then start focusing on it.

But thats besides the point.

The percussion aspect of this song is good, solid, though still a little unstable, keep at it though you're getting good at it. That bass kick for example, sounds excellent!

Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

WritersBlock responds:

Thanks for the reviews. I did a lot of submissions for that competition, in a short space of time, and I thought each one I made was a surefire winner, but I had no idea what I was up against, I didn't really listen to the other stuff, lol. I think I got a lot out of that particular competition, your reviews, for one, definitely taught me a lot.
Thanks.

[-WritersBlock-Gipetto's March]

decent perc, transitions awkward, good vibe

The percussion for this song is definitely a lot better. Much more solid, much more powerful! However this song does not loop, cuts off abruptly.

The synths you have, though not properly mastered, present an excellent theme. I love that shrill synth you have up there, very slick! When that raw saw comes in, the percussion loses a bit of stability with the crashes, but still manages to assist, not damage the song.

A rather quick change and cut off at 0:55. It's like two short loops put together in one, and another sudden change again at 1:13 ish. Be carefuly how you transition moments like that, especially in loops where the player might be listening to it over and over, they easily become tiring to listen to.

I enjoy listening to your progress, you're definitely moving along nicely! Lets see how your other submissions are. Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

WritersBlock responds:

Hey, thanks so much for your reviews. Now that they're working, I'll respond to them all.
I really appreciate the amount of detail you put in your reviews, it's very honest and I'm glad you picked up things I wasn't aware of, I'm sure I can make a giant leap in progress with quality from this.
Thanks a million.

[-WritersBlock-River Voyager]

solid theme, flow, weak perc, good imagery.

Again I am hearing those crash cymbols. You seem to like them a lot. Be careful how you use them :D!

The progressive piano really does make me think of a river scene, and the synths you have layered over the piano does a good deal as well imagery wise.

I like how you had a little piano solo near the end, and then how you decided to take the piano at the end.

It also loops well.

I find myself repeating a lot, this songs weakest part is the percussion. The volume levels this time for all the instruments are actually quite pleasent! It's good to hear you grasp a better handle on that!

I can hear your improvement with each song! Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

WritersBlock responds:

Hey, thanks for the reviews. It was a while ago I said I'd respond to all of these, but I was too lazy, I guess. Anyways, I might as well say that I'm planning to give this song a makeover, add more melodies and harmonies into it, extend it, turn it into a more well rounded piece, although I won't get around to that until some time next year.

Cheers, MaestroRage.

[-WritersBlock-Forgotten Hymn]

good vibe, solid flow, weak percussion.

I like the mix of synths in this song a lot more then your others. They seem to work well together, and the flow of the song is steady and constant throughout!

The melodic line is again quite interesting, a little repetetive, but nothing major. I would say the weakest part of this song is the percussion, be sure to spend more time with them, it seems the weakest part of most of your songs is the percussion. In this one it isn't so bad, but it's still not all together enough to carry the song, if nothing else works, try first by creating the standard 4 kick per measure deal, and then go nuts from there.

good effort, keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

WritersBlock responds:

A few months into '08, and I'm a bit better with my percussion. Thanks for the reviews, I'm pondering on weather or not I should remake some of these songs from the CC comp, as I think I could make them A LOT better now, but the issue is motivation... =/

Thanks, maestro.

[-WritersBlock-Four Swordsmen]

good vibe, overused crash cymbol

You seem to really like that cut up crash! You must use percussion like that very sparingly, use it once, it's effective, use it twice, it's been around, use it every measure, and suddenly people will be after your head!

Once again you have a rather neat melodic idea, however there quite a little bit of flow song wise, when that guitar came in and cut off the lead synth it was too sudden. Felt awkward.

The song loops perfectly, so props there.

Watch your volume levels, again that low bass synth that gets cut off when the guitar comes in is way too loud.

Keep up the good fight and keep em coming!

WritersBlock responds:

*crash*
Lol, it was terrible, as is the guitar, levels, percussion. At least I can say that the composition of my CC entries were okay, even if they were poorly executed, due to lack of experience/knowledge.
Thanks for the reviews.