MCarsten's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[(CHS) S&K: Suicide From Above]

Interesting effects and good melodies

For a video game genre song, this is really good, by the effects used, the kind of guitar and percussion and by the additional generic sounds. The eletric guitar sound was pretty cool and well designed, I mean it's really "mechanical" by the sound from this and it gives the way to think that is a place during the game with more impact or some speed-running, so you did great on the guitar rythim, one thing I don't liked too much is the obssessive percussion, it's so repetitive, maybe you could change it in some times for other rythim, maybe on more slow, other more faster. I also liked a lot the bell effects next to the end of the song, also the flute sounding, did more to sound like a video game song, it remembers me a lot, that classical games, you did a nice job on it. By 02:36 was a really cool transition where several sounds go in one, like something from keyboard, guitar, flute and the percussion, then comes the bell sounds, it was awesome, but the transitions from this song are not so well structered also for the melodies, but I found they more well placed than the transitions, you should better on this. Now for the topics:

{NAME}
"Suicide From", this represents like a suicidal act for the player, like as I said, a speed running for win the level, or maybe challenging a boss, or something really hard, this title is good, but would be better have a different name, but would be just a little better if be "From Suicide", or maybe "Coming to Suicide", then would be a lot more like something more "violent", I mean, showing that is something really hard or a problem.

{CONCEPT}
The concept from this song is really well constructed, like the first seconds of it, would be like the beginning from the gameplay at the level and during the intro of 00:18, you start to find the enemies on your way and more to 00:25, you already can noticed more enemies coming in your way, so turns a lot more with action, the bell during 01:00, represents a good entry for showing that the player is defeating everyone in your way and for 01:20, is like the player walking for some time and then find more enemies. For 02:10, should show some enemies that are more hard to defeat, but in 02:36, he can defeat them, but find more enemies coming through his way, and then he comes for the last part at 03:00, where he find a boss, and the bells does for it, something really challenging and for the music going more faster on 03:15, it seems like the player jumping through the boss, or something and giving the last attack to the enemy and defeating it, and when the music silence at 03:45, we can notice he finishing the level.

{PERCUSSION}
The percussion of this was good, but was a bit repetitive, giving a boring company for the other instruments, but they can show a lot of going on gameplay, like in 01:05, the percussion with the company of the guitar does it looks like that is more fast, so we can think about a more challenging part, so you did a nice job on this, but stills you change these repetitive drum sounds. You could add in some parts, a strong drum beating, that would be perfect in the final seconds from the song with the bell FX, then we can see like a great transition for show the player challenging the boss.

{FOCUS}
The focus of it, in my opnion, was more for the gameplay events, as I said on Concept topic, you can see gameplay intro, first strikes, first waves of enemies, score running, walking, hard enemies and boss, and a great focus was for the guitar to his volume, for the parts where it have more balance or for when like 02:12 that is more for a great "jump" melody. Also the speed-lenght for the sounds was another take of focus, that did it sound like the player running, so you did a nice work on the events produced by the velocity and occupation of the sound.

{OVERALL}
Song was excellent for a video game song. The flute with guitar did it remember me the classics, so this was good. The percussion was interesting, but I think you should remove some repetitive parts, the "concept" was good.

Score 7, vote 4
SpyS.

Review Request Club

ChaosDragon004 responds:

I understand what your saying definately. As im listening to this song I feel there could have been more transitions in the beat definately. More breakdowns or just an overall beat change. I do feel the song could have had more ballance and I will work on that in the future. I think If I were more patient I could have fixed alot of these things but hey.

I should have definately changed up with a change in melody too. I think I could have impacted the song alot more with a more engaging one.

I would definately like to thank you on the well thought feedback. I feel that you did more than what I expected in feedback and I feel that the review counsel should be glad that they have you in the club. Once again, thanks friend.

[RD2010 - I'm a Robot]

After a lot of hard work, a 10 score!

Hey Steph, you really did a lot of work on this song, because to add all the special effects for it, maybe could be hard to find some great ones like that and also the additional effects for it, the transition sounds were great. The most interesting is that the music combine, add on it, 6 kinds of musical genres and of course you did a nice job to do the listener catch the sounds, and was good you say that you did these genres, because we can know more what exactly we did and you preserved the main theme from techno, because as this is for Robot Day would be more easy to people search, also the concept and sounds along the music are all "mechanic", the thing I most liked from this is a special effect on 00:07~00:08, this was really cool, other part I liked a lot was the transition from ambient song to jazz theme, this was well done, the melodies are well prepared with a real touch of good composer through it. I can see that your work yielded a lot, because after days, you can see that people liked from this awesome song. Also the lyrics from it according with the Fro and Nick's intonation did in sometimes the music something really comic and with comedy, also for do a funny thing, you did a nice job. I also laughed a lot when Fro says in the last seconds from the song: "Great, his batteries ran out... now how are we going to win the competition?", haha xD. I also liked the parts when Fro sings like "My name is Ro -- // -- My name is Bot", these words like do a kind of rythim and rhymes for the song, so this was cool. The breakbeat trajectory was really interesting, but I most liked the transition from trance to breakbeat, I felt like I hearding like a wave, this was cool. A thing really funny, was the voices going on slow motion. Now the topics:

{NAME}
"I'm a Robot" of course is the main lyric from the song, and this calls the attention from public to understand that it was made for the Newgrounds's Robot Day Competition, also it's the single talk from the music, and with just single words you could do like a rhyme thing, with cutting the voice like Ro to Bot and putting these words together, (pretty obvious), we will got Robot and this does the song name implicit.

{CONCEPT}
This song have several interfaces from different genres, in an order, this was really cool, generally we find songs of one or two genres in one, now we have a pack of six songs inside one techno song, so it's a good creation. The balance from the songs was awesome, also for transitions from each one and melodies, that in my opnion, was hard to do, because this sounds so great and for control all of it. So for a techno song (also with six other genres in pack) was brilliant, the techno does a calling for it be a robot song, or "mechanical" with like "futuristic sounds" or like a "prototype", you did good on show the listeners your concept.

{PERCUSSION}
The percussion from the breakbeat part was really expansive, I mean, sounded like it was in a middle of a big room, with two drums above a table and a guy playing it, so it was interesting, by this sounds like stereo with great muffled sound propagation, the sound from the beginning and along the music was a bit relaxing, it doesn't was like a strong beat, was more just of a touch, and this matches more with a techno song in my opnion, for a strong drum, is better with an orchestral or heavy metal.

{EFFECTS}
The effects were awesome, as I said from the first theory of my criticism, I said that I loved the intro effect and also the laser sounds were pretty good, also for when the music ends, the effects sounded like a television being turned off, they sound really cool. Also, you did some computer effects and also like some spaceships travelling, everything was perfect and cool on it, don't forgetting the blaster shot's sounds. You did great!

{OVERALL}
I found the central focus from it more on the I'm a robot lyric I think this because, the lyrics don't have a complete sense, but they were very funny. This was really good. After a hard work you deserve score 10 and vote 5.

Review Request Club.

Step responds:

Dear God, Spy, that's definitely the largest review I've ever received O.o. I really can't thank you enough! I mean, you've analysed every microsecond of my song, and I'm really honoured to have received a review this big. Sure, I give out reviews this big all the time, but I'd never actually think I'd get one myself. Thanks a LOT!

I'll try and answer to your review as properly as I can xP.

Well, I'm quite glad people like my transitions, I always like it when people like them. I'm also quite surprised myself that the sound effects came out this good, they're mostly random sounds (woodblock sounds, cricket sounds, kicks, snares, hammer hits, etc...) which I took and edited like crazy to make a robot-y sound. It took a while but I must say that it was definitely worth it.

Actually this isn't the first time I made a song with more than one different genre. Speeding Through Infinity and Racing Through Eternity have Trance and Ambient, Cobra has Rock (drums) and Orchestral, The Ancient Curse has Ambient and Hip-Hop, War Theme has Rock (guitar) and Orchestral, The Forsaken (Electro) [Submitted to my shared account Raven-Guard] has Orchestral and Electro, and of course, Musical Evolution has Drum'n'Bass, Dance, Classical, Techno (Windows XP sounds) and Medieval :P. I love varying genres.

Yeah I agree with you that the transition at 2:43 is probably the best transition in the song, or at least it's my favourite. I don't know which one you're referring to about the 'transition from trance to breakbeat'. If you mean the one at 2:25, then yeah haha that's one of my favourite parts of the song. I'm also happy you enjoyed the melodies; I had the intro melody stuck in my head for days lol.

I agree that Fro and Nick's voices really make the song sound more comical and funny :P. That's our main aim, to make a funny song, but still make it enjoyable.

The 'Great, his batteries ran out, now how are we going to win the competition?' thing was my idea xD.

Now to answer to each topic in your review...

-NAME-
I'll have to thank Fro for inventing 'I'm a Robot'. It's actually a really simple name, but it works quite well in my opinion.

-CONCEPT-
Cool :D. There are a few other songs in the Audio Portal which use more than one genre (dj-Jo's Contingency of Music, for example) but I don't think I've found one which uses as many as in this one xP.

-EFFECTS-
I can't really comment much about the stereo sound of the breakbeat, since as you already know, I'm deaf from one ear and I wouldn't know. I just make the breakbeat, maybe I was lucky enough to get it having cool panning effects :D.

Yep, I didn't make the drums so powerful this time. I don't think they're my best, but this is my first time somewhat glitching drum sounds, so I wouldn't expect too much. Maybe my best drum work would be in The Forsaken (Electro), In a Teardrop or Minutes to Midnight, all found in Raven-Guard's profile.

-EFFECTS-
Thanks! Like I said, a lot of the effects were random sounds I edited lol. Although the 'blaster shot's sounds' were random sounds I found off the Internet :).

-OVERALL-
I can't really express my gratitude in words. I really have to find some way to repay you; I'll definitely review one of your submissions sometime :D.

Thanks AGAIN for the awesome review!

[MD2010 - War Theme]

As a General Rock

Wow, the music is really awesome, you combine rock with like a classical and jazz, this was awesome and a touch of classical.

The strong drums was one of the most cool from this, by the percussion, this was great. The guitar was really "enterteining" and was really next to a real guitar on a general rock song, you did a nice job on it.

I can't see any fails or wrongs on this song, is all absolutely amazing, you really did a nice job with this. The concept remains, but as this is for a game, I can't say something bad about it, the percussion was awesome, excellent, the guitar for a rock was brilliant, by the beginning for the final transition, was excellent and I can't forget the strong drums, that sounded great.

Nice job!!
~Review Request Club~
SpyS.

Step responds:

"Wow, the music is really awesome, you combine rock with like a classical and jazz, this was awesome and a touch of classical."

Thanks! I love combining genres. Don't know how you heard jazz in there too though xP.

"The strong drums was one of the most cool from this, by the percussion, this was great. The guitar was really "enterteining" and was really next to a real guitar on a general rock song, you did a nice job on it."

Hmm, yeah, I'm better at percussion than I am at other things. I'll have to thank sorohanro for the guitar sounding real, he made the VST which I used :D.

"I can't see any fails or wrongs on this song, is all absolutely amazing, you really did a nice job with this. The concept remains, but as this is for a game, I can't say something bad about it, the percussion was awesome, excellent, the guitar for a rock was brilliant, by the beginning for the final transition, was excellent and I can't forget the strong drums, that sounded great."

Haha I'm glad you like the drums, and basically everything else too :D. Thanks for another great review!

[-RG- In a Teardrop]

"Creative for the suspence with perfect balance!"

The music is awesome, by the way, is very similar to "Requiem for a Dream" song, but don't mind, if the author of that song saw your music and thinks that is similar he will think that someone liked it hehe xD.

Ok. The music melodies are really incredible and really interesting, with amazing transitions, the sound is amazing, the sound is really strong, just like a trailer soundtrack, you did a nice job and is a nice work, because this is a produce of like a month and Steph did great on the instrumentation.

{NAME}
The name "In a Teardrop", is a dramatic name, sounds great for this, because is like a drama song, and the most interesting is that we can imagine some sad story behind it, so the name is excellent.

{CONCEPT}
For a dramatic song, this sounds AMAZING and "realistic". The sound came from a shadow and explodes in the light, just seems like this. The strong beat of drums says like some climax for the song or some battle/confront, the sounds from a tea in the beginning are awesome to represent some dark behind everything. Nice job!

{PERCUSSION}
Very interesting. Strong notes, you did a nice work on this, they sound really perfect while the other instruments play, so they do together a melody, and then it generates a perfect transition and with the string behind, turns the sound like a real trailer. Nice job too!

{FOCUS}
The focus on it was great. I throught in something like a bad guy in a dark street hunting a person in every street that he's walking, and then when the drums beat more faster and stronger he strikes the victim, but we can't know what exactly he did, because, we think he robbed, or fired a shot or beated, you did an excellent story behind it.

{OVERALL}
Interesting song with a well characterized percussion that turns the song in a rythim of suspense and creating an brilliant story behind it. 10 score and a great vote 5 for you!

~Review Request Club~
SpyS.

Raven-Guard responds:

Wow, Spy, that's a long review O.O. Thanks!

"The music is awesome, by the way, is very similar to "Requiem for a Dream" song, but don't mind, if the author of that song saw your music and thinks that is similar he will think that someone liked it hehe xD."

Cool, yeah :P.

"Ok. The music melodies are really incredible and really interesting, with amazing transitions, the sound is amazing, the sound is really strong, just like a trailer soundtrack, you did a nice job and is a nice work, because this is a produce of like a month and Steph did great on the instrumentation."

I'm really glad you think of this as similar to something you'd hear in a trailer. I absolutely love Trailerscore (stuff like With Gun & Crucifix, etc) so thanks :3.

Although it wasn't me who did the instrumentation. Darklight17 did :P. Haha that's like the second time someone thought I did something he did.

"{NAME}
The name "In a Teardrop", is a dramatic name, sounds great for this, because is like a drama song, and the most interesting is that we can imagine some sad story behind it, so the name is excellent."

I'll have to thank borntodj167 for that. He thought of 'In a Single Teardrop' and we took away the 'Single'. Glad you like the name.

"{CONCEPT}
For a dramatic song, this sounds AMAZING and "realistic". The sound came from a shadow and explodes in the light, just seems like this. The strong beat of drums says like some climax for the song or some battle/confront, the sounds from a tea in the beginning are awesome to represent some dark behind everything. Nice job!"

Well, I don't really understand what you mean by 'the sounds from a tea' :P. If you mean the sound a teapot makes when you hit it with a spoon or something at the beginning, then yeah, that's a xylophone :3. Glad you like it!

"{PERCUSSION}
Very interesting. Strong notes, you did a nice work on this, they sound really perfect while the other instruments play, so they do together a melody, and then it generates a perfect transition and with the string behind, turns the sound like a real trailer. Nice job too!"

Awesome, thank you. I did the drums xD.

"{FOCUS}
The focus on it was great. I throught in something like a bad guy in a dark street hunting a person in every street that he's walking, and then when the drums beat more faster and stronger he strikes the victim, but we can't know what exactly he did, because, we think he robbed, or fired a shot or beated, you did an excellent story behind it."

Thank you! We always aim at giving our orchestral submissions a story, and that was what we tried to go for. Dark and sinister.

"{OVERALL}
Interesting song with a well characterized percussion that turns the song in a rythim of suspense and creating an brilliant story behind it. 10 score and a great vote 5 for you!"

Awesome, thanks! Really glad you liked it, and thanks for the amazing review!
--
Supersteph54

[{-=Bugg=-} Fresh Start]

"Trance Song"

For your first Trance song, this is really good, in fact, the percussion sounds great with some effects, nice job. In my opnion, you should do some improvments in the melodies, like they sound the same every time, so turns the song a little boring, you should try to change for some parts of the song or in some specific time. My favorite part is during 02:20, in that like "classical" part of the song, this was good.

==OVERALL==
This trance song was very well modeled, with great transitions, good percussion, good effects, I just think that you should change your melodies to a thing not so repetitive, out this, your song was nice. Good luck with your future projects.

~Review Request Club~
SpyS.

BuggMusic responds:

Thank you very much! I will try and make more interesting melodies!

[King of The Mountains]

Strongly epic!

This classical is absolutely amazing! You can feel each part of it in your mind, is just epic, the music sounds great, you can have a perfect imagination about all this, to put a King, as the main character from this theme, was a great idea, like a king preparing to attack, strike, in a battlefield with several knights behind him, feeling the war and the fear in the same time, the melodies give you feelings about background and everything, with can add a story.

~Name~

The name really sounds great, like "King of the Mountains" showing like he's the better and anyone can be more than this, he will be the great one forever. You choosed a good title. Sounds good. The name reminds me a song from a russian compose that is "Nigh on Bald Mountain". Awesome the title.

~Concept~
You can dream with several things on this music, like I thinked on a green grass with some plants on the sides, some blur mountains on the back and in the middle of the scene, a King in a horse with metal things and knights with the same kind of horses, but more simple than the king's one. I also thinked the brave knights with some spears, some with fear from the battle, some with war blood.

~Percussion~
One thing that I liked in this song, is the percussion, sounds great because it's so smooth, that seems that is inside from a box, like with no expansion from the sound itself. And also in some parts they remember me percussion bands from the english-american war. Was absolutely great!

~Focus~
You really done the listener a good catch from what happens, kingdons, arenas, enemies, heroes, horses, metal, a brave man (the king), and you really done a good focus through the scenes from the battle during 01:33, that sounds like the heroes advancing through the enemy lines in a blood "defeat" or "victory", we can't know who won this duel, by the end of the song you can have a feeling, in mine the King, won.

~Overall~
The song was really brilliant, don't mind if you thinked that some part is weird or bad, is absolutely fantastic! You're epic! Good one!! I give you 5/5 and a 10 score.

AWESOME!!

SpyS.

masheenH3ad responds:

I want to let you know that I'm very grateful to you, for choosing my work and give your time to give it a very awesome review.

I always seek for things that needed to improve in this work, In doing so I failed to see what are the strengths and what is the beauty of my work.

It is because of You (having a high level of music appreciation, articulate writing, and being a very good listener), I realized what I needed to realize. You don't know how your review inspired me to create more music.

Thank You Very much!

[There's Still Hope Left (]

Classic!

Impressive! This classical is a greatful one! And really gives us, a dream or thinking, like in mine, was something in the forest, like with animals, thress, fruits and birds flying, a really good relaxing song and really don't mind with the transition during 0:44, this part was cool. Other thing that this song, made me think is something like a river in a artistic background.

My favorite part in all the song, was the new melody during 0:50, absolutely fantastic, or any words that you prefer. Absolutely great! Good job.

I give you 5/5 and a 10 score.
Awesome work!!

SpyS.

Step responds:

Thanks! It's interesting what people can think about when hearing this song. Personally I think the song speaks for itself as an emotion of happiness, although I bet if I added some animal sound effects and a jungle-like soundscape or something along with a few congas, this might sound epic :3.

Yeah I still think I was a bit lazy with the transition at 0:44. It sort of cuts off and then a small kick buildup, when I could find some melodic transition to fit instead xP. Ah well, I'm a lazy person at times :P.

Yep I agree with you, I think the new melody at 0:50 would definitely be my favourite part as well.

Thanks for the great review!

[-Orr- 4 Brave Champions [FULL]]

Overall, the most epic!

This classical song is really awesome, is really hard to find someone that produces songs like that with that glorious way, I loved the song in the first time that I heard it. Your balance is really perfect. Like start with an action or glorious scene in which remembers me roman gladiators, like the music name "champions" and some winning and then later change to a more calm part, is really interesting.

I found great the coral voices in the beginning, but my favorite part in the all song is that: 0:30, it's perfect, amazing, absolutely incredible, fantastic, epic and everything more that can describes that, you're really good making music, congratulations!

I give you 5/5 and a 10 score.
SpyS.

[Spacewalk (FL Core)]

From Space to Universe!

Amazing! I loved the singing voices behind the sound. A cool thing from the song, was that remeber me the space or the universe, like a futuristic sound. The balance from the calm intro to a more action part, was really nice. One of my favorite parts in the song, is during 02:00~2:20 and don't forgetting the intro to 00:00 ~ 01:00.

During, 01:00 remebers me an action scene, like some people running or some adventure, that was great how that sounds like.

To me, this trance, remembers space, universe, action and bunch of speeding, really amazing.

I give you 5/5 and a 10 score.
SpyS.

Step responds:

Thanks for the review! I'm actually surprised someone reviewed this since it's made entirely out of really bad sounds I had to find which came with my music making program xD.

Hehe, glad you like the singing voices (they're choirs :) ). I enjoy adding choirs to my songs, since they not only fit in Classical and Orchestral songs, but even Trance, Dance, Techno and sometimes even Rock.

It's funny you should mention the futuristic or spacey sound. Loads of people have told me that this sounds futuristic and spacey. I was trying to make it sound like that anyway, so I'm happy I succeeded :P.

I'm also really glad you like the intro. I always try to make my intros as interesting as possible. Also, the part at 2:00 - 2:20 was just something I did to try and make the song a little longer, so I never knew people would actually like it xD.

So, glad you like it, and thanks again for the awesome review!

[{Heim} The Legend]

Great!

The intro of this song was amazing and also the quality of the sound was pretty good. My favorite part was in 0:12. Good job!!

JeffHeim responds:

thank you! :)