mechanoid-9's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Jobless Trance]

Interesting melodies

Some very original and quite unusual melodies you got here. The bass and kick is wonderful in this combination, it grabbed my attention instantly. Also like the almost choir-like synths at the end. But it's a bit dull otherwise, could get much further with a little more work. Additionally, the noise intro kinda disembowelled my ears >_< Good job anyway.

DjZombAid responds:

That's a bit generous, it's VERY dull lol.
YUh the intro is kool but ear piercing.. but i'm still quite fond of it =].

-Thanks yet again man =].

[Awesome Is 0verrated [TEST]]

Good to start with

Good bass pattern, instruments and melody.
My recommendations:
- Better quality (achieved by higher bitrate conversion).
- Harder kix.
- It would be better if the bass started right at 0:50.
- When the reverby background stuff comes back you could add a different melody on top, with a less spectacular but well audible instrument, and also some kind of snare roll or other lead-in before this part.
I managed not to write a novel-length review this time :3

DjZombAid responds:

Thanks =]
Lol yet again, i try to keep the filesize low thus lower bitrate because of the upload time =].
Thanks yet again for your shorter and just as informative review =P

-Aidan.

[DJ-Mrtcr & DjZA - Island Life]

Not bad but.........

[As promised, I'm gonna listen to some of your songs now.]
There is one very serious problem: the bass melody of the first part creates a dissonance with the synth melody, and this is likely to ruin the song for a lot of people. I recommend very much that you change it. There is nothing wrong with the bass of the second part, thankfully.
In addition to correcting the bass melody, I think you should move the first part bass in stereo position higher and more backwards, because it stands out a bit too much from the rest, and that's weird when you listen to it with headphones. Adding reverb to the bass would also be nice. Also try converting at a higher quality and/or compressing, because the second part crackles a lot and has a general low quality. The file could get a lot bigger, you don't have to squeeze it in 1,9 mb when there is 6,1 more it could take up.
However, for a start, the iron drum synth thing is simply brilliant, it creates a fantastic atmosphere all by itself. The second part is also pretty nice, and the whole song is a great piece of euphoric trance. But the two parts are quite different, they don't really feel like the same song. Even so I'd give this a 10 or at least a 9, if the bass and quality problems were not present. Until you fix those all I can give is a 7. I know I'm being a little hard on you, especially since you're fairly new at the AP, but there are things like melody dissonance that can kill songs, and result in non-negotiable score loss in my rating. Lol I'm starting to sound like an audio scientist o_O
Ignoring the mistakes, it can be called very good work. For now I'll rather not vote. If you correct at least the bass melody and the quality, you can expect much more reviews and dls in my opinion, and my download and five for sure.

DjZombAid responds:

Well thanks, i always knew their was something wrong with the bass.. but didn't think of it so much as no-one really made any mention though i myself could detect it. I seriously appreciate your review i'm sure it's one of my, if not THE most well thought-out review. I will try to correct the problems you mentioned and perhaps send you a PM when it's done if you'd like. Also i know the 2 parts don't really gel together.. but that's kinda how i wanted it to be, i mean you know day-light being fairly different from night-time. And about the quality.. it's only 96kb/s instead of the normal 128. I did this because my internet was slow at the time and wanted to upload it faster (i'm rather impatient =D).Another thing i meant to fix with this song was the slight pop at the beginning, why it is their i am un-sure. But thanks for your helpful review and i shall try sometime soon hopefully, amidst my work and other such things to get this song completed to a satisfactory standard =].

Thanks again,

-Aidan.

[Remember my Name - part 2/2]

Review as i had promised (loooooooooooong ago ^^')

Quite a controversial piece. First let me say that technically it's perfect. Good and plentiful instruments, good use of 3d positioning, velocity change etc. Also possibly the most complex piece I've ever heard on ng. However, for some reason i don"t like pt 1 as much as pt 2, the latter came out much better in the prospect of melodies and actual listening enjoyability. There are some discordant (is that the right word?) parts, like around 3:00 in pt 1 and the intro of pt2 with the violin gliss-thingy, that i cannot bring myself to like; they do express feelings and atmosphere really well, but they're just not pleasant for listening. I know the song's like a story and it needs such parts, like real movie score, but eh :/
Anyway. Pt 2 gets gradually better from around 1:12 till 2:39. The glockenspiel here sounds quite original and very nice. The next notes gradually rising in pitch let me know that something grand is coming. And behold, at 4:15 you introduce the best melody and it blows my mind :D From here to 5:42 it's constant awesomeness, and the slow glockenspiel is a perfect lead-out. Years later sunshine dances on the graves as the grass moves slightly in the gentle breeze... Oops, got carried away. Another good aspect, it can make my mind wander away like that and induce such visions XD
So, to sum it up, it's outstanding work Madboss. There are parts that my ears don't exactly like, but still it's awesome. I reckon it takes a lot of patience to make such long songs. I noticed this is one of my major flaws: if I get stuck with the making of a song, run out of ideas or can't find the right instrument, I quickly lose interest in the song and abandon it. There are min. 10 unfinished songs in my Reason library :/ I gotta learn to be more patient. A download and 5 for ya.

madboss responds:

Well well! Hy Skragga and thanks for writing a such long review! As you could realise I'm not really often on Ng but I felt I have to responde to your review.

Yeah I know about the dissonant parts in part one - I thought they are important to express the feelings I wanted altough I knew not musch people will like it. Well they are in...:)

I'm glad you liked the second part that much. I was working really long with the fast paced action part. It was a hard work to put everything toghether and they sound like one piece. But I managed it somehow and you liked it - taht's the point!

Thank you for your review and your time spent on writing it. I'm glad you liked my song!

[_-={An Unseen Dance}=-_]

:O :O :O

Yeah, another song you made which makes my jaw drop in the first 5 seconds XD The accordion is an interesting touch, maybe it doesnt completely fit the style, but eh, why not? It's amazing how you can come up with classical/rpg songs that are the same genre but ages from each other in style. So I'd give you 10 for originality if there was still an originality score =_= idiotic new system...
Drums are awezome, just as the little medieval guitars(?). However. Something is wrong with the choirs. I feel they sound a bit too artificial, the notes are too separated. Perhaps if you turned up the wetness they'd be more realistic. I'm used to hearing astonishing choirs in your songs... So the score's actually 9,5 cause of this, but there's no such value, so I give you the 10. Dled.

MaestroRage responds:

I should start making songs which make your eyelids drop in 5 seconds :D! Bust out the 5 hour single note songs!

This song did very little in terms of caring if the style matched it or not. If I thought it was an interesting mix, then damn it, it was an interesting mix >:(!

I miss the old system too :(, but we have to get used to this one, it's got a lot of great stuff thrown on top of it too!

The choirs do have that issue, I just noticed them now. I wasn't paying too much attention to them this time around, focused my all on making the harmonies for the solo vocalist.

Thanks for the review Skragga, i'm glad you liked it! Cheers for catching the choirs!

[_-={Wolf Team}=-_]

Lacks the icing

Nice work with the snares. The melody's good too, although i know it's just a remix. However, maybe it's just my epicness-mania, but I don't feel it epic enough. It sounds like it's building up till 2:08, but there's no climax after that, which should be. Again maybe it's very good like this and I'm just too used to your songs exploding into grandioseness sooner or later :) Nevertheless, good job, as always.

MaestroRage responds:

This song is not meant to be epic in the sense of excitement, or even deep sorrow. It's aim was to depict a more noble, semi soldier defiance stance, and truth be told I think the remix may have damaged as a result.

It was a song that was long into production, but it is, at this point, where that road ends.

Thank you for the review, i'm glad you liked it!

[_-={An Endless Desert}=-_*Ext*]

Hmm... hot XD

I noticed one problem: that instrument that goes 'vieaaaoooow', its higher notes sound weird. Apart from that, nice job. Interesting and fitting instrumentation, I especially liked the trill flute and the violins at the end. Btw during the whole song there's a kind of paranoid feeling, of some constant unseen danger. It makes me uneasy o.O I couldn't relax to this... buut nevertheless very good song.

MaestroRage responds:

the Sitar? I liked the higher notes D: It's quite true the higher notes have a different texture and feel!

Also that paranoid feeling is only there because i'm totally stalking you. Look outside the window.

*waves*

>:}

Thanks for the review, i'm glad you liked it!

[_-={Subito Crudelo}=-_]

Creepy

Wonderful and spoooky. The description is appropiate, although I personally pictured a duel in a cathedral. During the quiet parts there is a duel of words as the opponents circle each other, while during the action parts they duel with their blades...
The vocals are pretty awesome, although I noticed very slight problems with its timing to the music, it's nothing too serious. Strange enough, the harpsichord fits quite well in the atmosphere. I haven't imagined the harpsichord as cathedraly or ominous before, but it works. Overall, it's pretty original, and a very nice job. 5,Dl.
P.S.:You haven't answered my pm about the flute :'(

MaestroRage responds:

a duel you say eh?! A most fitting image, one which I would not have foreseen. The timing was a bit off, I tried my hardest to cut them up and synch them, but there were some parts I just couldn't do anything about. By no means is that LadyArsenic's fault, it's hard enough to keep to tempo without any music to sing to, let alone the fact the segments will be going into a machine, which keeps perfect tempo all the time. In a real performance i'm sure this wouldn't have been a problem.

And yes, harpischord for the win! Using the organ would have been too predictable.

PM answered! Can't believe I forgot it :D! Thank you for the review, i'm glad you liked it!

[Fruitgrind]

Eeep

The first part is super crap, no rhythm at all. It gets more songlike at 0:46, I even recognized a melody. Third part isn't too good either, and the ending... OMG do something about that whining! However it must've been hard to make it hurt this much so I'll give ya a 5/10. I think the best thing to do would be to cut off the whole beginning and end, and submit the middle part as a loop. Some insane screaming and yelling would add much to the effect, but that's not something you can make with FL:)

Williamforce665 responds:

its grindcore man... supposed to be terrible

[_-={He's a Pirate Dance Remix]

Hmph... :/

(Um, why did you put this into classical instead of dance?)

Well, it still can't grab my attention too much... Has a nice bounce to it, but... Here comes something that I'll probably never say again (because I LUV your work in general XD): I don't really like this. I wouldn't say it's bad, only it's rather... mediocre. It still doesn't have enough content for my taste... Eh whatever, plz keep doin what you do best: classical!

MaestroRage responds:

thats perfectly fine Skragga. I have started undertaking these new genres because lets face it, if I want to be a useful composer for anybody I will need the ability to produce and manafacture different styles and genres. I will do majority work Classical, and truely this piece was a failure in the guidelines of a dance track, but every step taken is one step I won't have to take later.

Also this was originally supposed to be in Dance, but I went into my "Not Paying attention and submit mode", and automatically clicked Classical XD. I suppose with the classical aspects I might be able to get away with it >:}!

I respect your opinion, i'm glad you shared it. Thank you for that.