MaartenC's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[NLC] Four Meteor]

Good, but some major flaws.

At first, I found the piano extremely boring, but it got quickly compensated by the orchestra and the drums, which were good, so to say.

Then the song starts to build up, the drums fasten and I got ready for a heap of a few instruments and the drums going all-out, but instead got an anticlimax thrown in my head at 0:34.

After this part, the song picks up again and starts to get good. It's not my genre, but I can hear professionalism splashing from this.

When the song picks up, it's a good D&B song, even enjoyable for me, with all the small instruments and melodies. I only noticed it at 1:31, but the xylophone-like instrument at the background really makes the song 'whole' at that point, well done.

Then the song shifts about, making the whole less repetitive, well done too and all with all, the ending's made well too. I'm not quickly satisfied with the ending (as you know), but this one's really good.

~What I liked~

- The drums, again.
- The melody
- The piano constantly in the background, playing
- The ending
- The timing of ~90% of the song

~What I didn't like~

- The first ~40 seconds and everything mentioned about them above :P

What I can point out is that you change the first 15 seconds and make the piano less blank and delete 0:34 - 0:53

Other than that, you did well, so the 6/10 is well deserved. Keep going, you're starting to sound professional. I'm really wondering what your work will sound like in a few years.

KrisKrosNL responds:

I'm meh at intros; don't expect too much. :P

I have a different point of view on the intro than you do; it's hard to explain.

NLC

[[NLC] Forbidden Blade WIP]

Good track, though I'd like you to change some instruments.

The whole build-up with the first instrument goes well, the drums start out fairly good too (though it's hard to explain what I want here; I want instead of the normal '| | | | ||||' a '| . | . | | | |', if you know what I'm trying to say here :P)

Anyway, the bass is good, very good and the drums are fantastic, so to say. The only thing I'd change qua instruments is the bell. You should consider a piano (grand) or something else, WITH echo.

I don't hear two unexpected piano (oh hey, a spelling mistake in your description :D) in the end, so nothing is ruined for me, luckily.

I really like this one, since you don't have to change that much, other than changing the bells.

Good job and keep it up, you have a gift. Seriously.

KrisKrosNL responds:

I understand what you mean with the Drum pattern. However, I, personally, do not prefer to change the drum patterns unless I alter some main patterns.

Somehow, I strongly disagree with your statement that I need to change the bell (you know I'm that sort of person).

I can't believe you haven't noticed the two damn piano notes that play in the end. Are you deaf? :P

Nah, I don't have a gift (in fact, this was made within 4 hours).

[[NLC] Truth]

I like it, but it's quite short.

Seeing this is an experiment, it turned out really well. I'm not really into D&B, but so once it a while, as long as it's this quality... I like it.

I liked the first instrument, but I had to get used to the melody, from which I suspected mass repetitiveness, which also happened, hyperbolically speaking, but luckily had enough different melodies and didn't bore. The variation of instruments and the (especially for you) fantastic drums made up and even made it better.

The song builds up well, the effects are well-used, not overused and the different melodies fit well into each other.

- What I liked -

~ The intro
~ The drums
~ The melody
~ The timing of everything

- What I didn't like -

~ The melody started to get SLIGHTLY boring at the end, so it's good that you made an ending there
~ Then ending itself. I don't like fade-outs and you could have let this end with an echoing snare drum, to be honest
~ The lack of a strong bass. The base is ok, but it could've been stronger.

Anyway, The 4/5 is well-deserved and I hope to hear more of you again. Keep it up!

KrisKrosNL responds:

I'm kinda dissapointed at the ending myself; I wasn't creative enough on that.

Yeah, "bloody fade-outs", would you say. I'm bound to exclude a fade-out on my next drum 'n bass track (which will be slightly longer).

And absolutely, missing a bass (because the bass totally failed on me).

Anyway, thanks for the review.

NLC

[FS: Father and Son (ac.)]

Pleasant, really.

I pretty much like everything about this: your brother sings very well too.
All with all I don't find anything wrong with this, so I'll just name the positive things:

- Song chosen:
Very good. Cat Stevens is an excellent artist, maybe you should do (yet?) more of him.
- Lyrics/singing
Beautiful. Both you and your brother did an amazing part at this. Just well done.
- Guitar play.
Just as always, excellent. 'Nuff said.

Also, I can't hear anything from your cold, so no worries at that. Job well done; keep it up!

FairSquare responds:

Thanks!
And i think the cold was in my favor; it gave my voice an extra edge.
I'll look into Cat Stevens (not literally :O) to find if there are more songs i can cover.

Anyway, thanks again for the review! It's always pleasant to see them ^____^

[Rainwave - Solar Vision 2]

*whistles* Wow, pretty amazing.

I heard of you via Tech-X on newgrounds and decided to check out some of your audio. I've already faved one of them, and this upload, together with part one is going in too. I'm really amazed: I'm not usually a fan of this 'light' music, but sometimes I can enjoy one or two of those songs.

Anyway, the review:

The song starts out, good intro, good fades and the instrument is also plausible. After a while the drums started, well chosen by the way and after a bit of (seemingly) 'exploring' with different melodies and drumsets, the gear goes up a bit. This was done extremely, but then EXTREMELY well.

The melody is good, the drums are strong and the part around 2:00 -where the song goes back a small gear- was timed well.

More things I liked:
- The build-up at 3:15 with the raise in tone before the song bursts again
- The climax following that
- The ending of the song, which was perfect, by the way.
- The song made me feel happy ^^

What I didn't like:
- The instrument is... mwah okay. I'm fairly neutral in the choice of instruments, really so no minus-points for that.
- In the second half of the song, there is quite a lot of repetitiveness in the main melody

All with all, I give you a 9/10 and so a 5/5. I'm gonna download both parts, mix them together as one song and it's going into my favorite list of songs (currently 277 songs there), if that's okay with you, of course.

You deserve to be proud of this, now excuse me, I'm going to check out some other uploads from you. Keep it up!

Indigorain responds:

Wow, thanks for the extremely solid review!
And I really agree with you on you criticism, especially in the midsection, theres a lot of adding and layering melodies, without a great amount of variation. And the instrumentation isn't extremely rare either.
Thanks for the great score, the favouriting, and once again, for the great review! :D

[Lance Battle RMX WIP]

Mwah, it's not bad.... But extremely chaotic:
The first six seconds were good, seriously, but after the second instrument played a few notes, the whole song got EXTREMELY chaotic.

I'll admit immediately that ALL of the instruments used are fantastic. The basses were playing a good loop and the drums are well chosen as well. I'd make them harder though.

Anyway, the build-up towards a climax is good, but be sure to add a climax in the end result and (please) not the 'battle win' tune. It's just not... right for the Lance Battle.
I'd end the song at 1:48, but with a 'big bang' from all the instruments together and ending with a crash, just a suggestion.

I end my review with this, giving you a 3/5, giving a 2,5/5 for the remix itself and ,5 bonus for high expectations (motivation), meaning I expect a great work when it's finished.
I'd love to be a beta tester for that, if you want one :D

Anyway, good job, keep it up!

KrisKrosNL responds:

Chaoz style? lol, I never intended to aim for that, but still: lol.

The drums, I agree to make them louder. I couldn't make them louder, however (or maybe it's just my headphones).

Pffft, I never liked the win theme. :P But yeah; hard climax would be better. I'll try it out.

Anyhow, thanks for the review.

[[NLC] The Liberaten]

:D I got credited! I feel absolutely fabulous right now, one of the few moments in my life that I have that.

Anyway, I'll be splitting this review in two parts, the first half of the song and (of course) the second half.

-The first half- (I'll get straight to the point, seeing you can handle a bit of criticism)

The effect used in the first seconds is a good add, but 10 seconds for that...? Seems a bit too long. 4 or 5 seconds should be enough. Also, you should let the instruments kick in while that effect is still active, like you did at 0:25.

Anyway, the intro with the bells and the (god I need to learn those instruments) epic-sounding instrument sounded good. It fits well with an intro. The only thing (minor) about that is when the effect, mentioned in the previous paragraph, kicks in, those instruments stop too suddenly.

This was actually the only thing that bothered me in the first half, apart from the effect spamming, which isn't THAT bad, but well... Some people can't stand such things :(

The good things were the other instruments used and the changes in 'swing'. The instruments used were good, very good. The sounded quite eastern and the swing put into that they mostly have. They made the song less (or even almost not) repetitive. Great job.

-The second half-

I see the song from 2:11 on as the second half, where the song did get slightly repetitive. All the transitions were good, but it did seem as if the song was slowly shifting from 'Hm! Impressive!' to 'Mwahh... Meh'.

The instruments were still great and the swing too, but then another effect, and the song started over again.

The end: at 3:41 the song started to end, from which the transition was done well and the ending was good. It's not something I hear often, so I was surprised. The song didn't 'die' out, but calmly ended. Those two are close to each other, but (meh I'll stop here, I'm rambling).

Anyway, You get 3 stars from me, 2,5 for the song itself (I'm stricter than usual with this one) and ,5 for potential. I hope you can use this information and someday make a fixed version!

Keep it up, voted 4/5 by the way.

KrisKrosNL responds:

Dude, I freaking FIND THIS REVIEW SUPER!

On the 1st half, I never though about what you said. I'll be sure to give it a try.

Fuck, the transitions are being assholes in this song. I'll be sure to fix that.

Well, in the 2nd part I have to admit I was too lazy to add shit. :P I'll wake up next time to make it less repetitive.

You've just turned gold, man. This review is epic. You're not just an inspirerer, but also a great critic!

Thanks for the review.

--NL-Courage

[FS: Hard sun (acoustic)]

Damn, that song is hard to sing. You did quite all right though. Not to sound queer, but your voice is really calming and nice to listen to.

Anyway, in the beginning a couple of tones seemed off, but after the first 'BIIIIIG, BIG HARD SUN' you recovered, and good too.

From he second B,BHS on, all the tones were practically perfect and I started to enjoy the song. Made think about how the original was, and I must say that I enjoyed this cover more than the original, what is very rare for covers/remixes.

The guitar play was also very good. Good ol' acoustic guitar play, which was just perfect.

Overall, I believe you're improving very much and please keep sending me PMs with the next song/cover, although I'll be raising my standards for the next song.

Oh yeah, the chorus... Big, hard sun? Wrooonnnnng. It's probably my perverted mind, but...

FairSquare responds:

Haha, the first couple of times i couldn't sing 'Big hard sun' without a giggle or two :3
And about a couple of notes being off in the beginning.. it seems that, when i try to sing a song, i just can't start as good as i want to. I have to sing a verse or two before i get really into it and basically stop thinking about how it sounds, starting to enjoy the actual singing more and stop worrying about how my voice sounds.
That you like my cover better than the original (which i love) is a pretty big compliment :)

Thanks for the review! :D I hope to keep improving :)
And of course, i will send you a PM when i upload my next audio creation ^__^

[Death of a pixel]

Hm... Strangely that reminded me of...

...lavender town. Damn you're good.

The instruments were indeed pretty disturbing, in a good way and held my attention throughout the whole song. Anyway the review:

The intro started out well, with just the one instrument and shortly after the others started to kick in and the song still managed to stay calm, yet impressive.

At the end, when all of the instruments/melodies were playing at the same time, it seemed wrong and right at the same time and I loved it. Too bad it ended WAAAY too abruptly. Really -2 for that, because otherwise it was perfect. I really hope this will be remade/revised by you, because this has great potential.

Keep it up and sorry for the late review.

8/10, 4/5, faved.

ErlendHL responds:

Hey thank you very much :)

[[NLC] Waluigi Pinball]

Hot damn :3

As I told you before, this is my favorite (MARIO KART DS!) audio and my favorite track. I must say that I expected something differently, and at the same time you fail to disappoint!

When the track started, I did think it was too slow, but keeping in mind that the speed would change, I kept listening with enthusiasm.
The fade-in was a good add. With a song like this, it's better not to fall straight into it.
Also, I must applaud you with the instruments used. How long have you searched for them? They fitted perfectly with the style of the song.

I know you've had a bit of trouble with drums before, but it seems that you've found a good solution for it, the drums are good, but also in the background.

The pitch and speed change was also a great add, but I do think that when the transition came, you could've made the the transition last a bit longer, just a second or two. That would have made this perfect.

Also, while the fade-in was a good add, the fade-out was less, in my opinion. The speedy part could have lasted longer and suddenly ended. This is just on basis of my opinion, a lot of people will see the fade-out as good, but (blah blah blah)...
Me gusta.

Anyway, this is one of your best works yet, and the 9/10 is very, very well deserved. Now let's hope SOPA doesn't pass, so Rainbow road and Airship fortress will be uploaded too.

KrisKrosNL responds:

I'm very glad that you actually find this a good one. :)

For the instruments, it took me FOREVER to find them. I wanted techno style. :P On FL 10, I used both Harmless and Harmor (I abandoned Sytrus this time since it uses less power) and that's the good part.

Yes, the drums are my nightmare, but it seems better than before. :\ At least, I don't really know which drum I shoud have used.

The transition? Maybe it was too short. I'm bound to make it longer in the next songs! I wanted the transition by myself, so yeah; my taste. But you're totally right; needs to be a bit longer.

And today, this review has given some usefull advice. ;)