MaartenC's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[NLC] Master Hand Battle]

Ahhh Melee...

...I've had a lot of fun playing that game. I really enjoyed some of the songs in that game, like Gourmet Race, Meta Knight's Revenge, King Dedede's song and, indeed the Master Hand's tune. And this tune did work out quite all right, especially seeing how hard this must've been.

The seems to start off a little... murmurous, but I got used to that pretty quickly and after about half a minute it didn't bother me anymore. I do want to know how it comes that around 2:04 the song suddenly seems a lot 'brighter'.

I really liked the instruments you've chosen here. There's a lot of variation and you made the instruments come back when it was necesary. The drums came faded and came back at excactly the right moment and even as I'm writing this review I'm still impressed. You should be damn happy with this kind of result.
For me the best part, by the way was at 2:26 where the song does seem to 'darken' a little bit, just want to say extra; well done.

The only letdown for me is that at 3:09 you should have let the song end. It felt for me that this was a good moment to stop, but then you 'sewed' another part to it. The quality of that part is good, really, but it's not needed.

Anyway, I do believe that this is waaay better than the original and as soon as I find my old disk I'm gonna stuff that into my wii (I sold my gamecube, I'm ashamed) and I'm gonna play this instead of the normal tune.

As I could only find one flaw (I tried my best) you're going to get a 9/10 from me and so a 5/5. I hope this review satisfies you, I'm gonna review 'Molgera Battle' another time. :|

KrisKrosNL responds:

lol, you confused Brawl with Melee.

[[NLC] Basshunter (WIP Remix)]

I hear a good song, but it's still very much WIP.

The song started out good, I love a bassline intro and then the piano kicked it, which is a thing that I liked too, but at 0:28 the sudden low tone in the piano made the whole song get into a pause... That's maybe something you want to avoid using... Instead you could just let the drums start. You fixed it quite good by making the piano play a few more tones, but I'd still make the drums roll into the song more smoothly.

Anyway, at 1:10 the song started to get really interesting and the orchestra-like sounds are very enjoyable, if you decide to redo this song, I insist you keep those.

As previously mentioned in the review from Mr-Ultimate, the sudden change in the song at 2:22 is really something you gotta watch out for, it's often for a lot of people a letdown.

What I don't agree with him is that the song is too repetitive. The main melody is used a lot, but it didn't bore me one second. The changes in intruments made the song interesting to listen to and the song ended in time.

What I think you should do with this song is:

- Make the bass a little louder
- More elobrate drums
- Make the drums at the part where the song goes 'loose' at 1:10 more smooth
- Remove the pitch change at 2:22
- Keep the orchestra instruments

Overall I can't give any higher than a 6/10, but I hope that the finished version will blow me out of my chair, I know you can do that.

P.s. I think melody-like this is definately better than M-U's version.

KrisKrosNL responds:

Finally, a MaartenC review that isn't useless.

First, orchetra stuff is my favorite. Of course I'll keep those.

Drums...I'm having a shitload of trouble with that.

You hate pitches? You see, what I usually intended to do with the pitch was add an unusual short rythem before the 3rd part of the song.

Some people like repetitive, some don't. I might consider changing some notes, but never the entire rythem itself.

P.S: at least, not yet.

[[NLC] Hyrule Field Fixed]

Calming...

The full version is out now and you've indeed made some good decisions concerning pitch etc.

The pitch is this time perfect, usually I don't like pitch changes, especially when it's higher, but this is indeed a change for the better.

I haven't played any zelda game in my life, to be honest and so I haven't heard the original hyrule field before, so I check youtube before finishing this review and I must say... I like this one better. As mentioned by CliffRacer below me, this could fin into some videogame, perhaps even replacing the original.

Anyway, the instruments were perfectly in harmony and the loose instrument that played small pieces were done fantasticly, this made the song enjoyable for a much longer time.

Personally, I think this a good song to play a game to, but not something you just sit down for and listen. If I were you, I'd still keep on remixing, but also focus more on making different kinds of genres...

Anyway, great job, the 9/10 is well deserved. Keep it up!

KrisKrosNL responds:

Next time express exactly what went wrong in the song.
If the situation was boringness, don't bother reviewing.

[FS: Look I'm Running]

Now that's a swining song you put up there...

Let me say first, sorry for the (kinda) late review, new year's business etc. Speaking of new year, I listened to the English new year's celebration show and there was some real quality work there. To be honest, this could belong there.

I have forgotten the name of that program (I'm quite ashamed of that), but I've heard that getting a feature on that show is more of an honor than to score a #1 hit in the USA, you see what I'm getting at?

This is one of those songs that is calming, yet energetic. I think you should have hired a female singer to sing in this kind of song, if that would be possible :P

The song started good, apart from the fade-in effect, what wasn't that much of a letdown, but just starting off as a regular jazz-like song would have been better, I believe.

After that, all the instruments, which were playing different melodies (piano and others) were all blending in perfectly and kept the listeners attention; the song wasn't boring for one moment.

Later on, when the wind instruments started, this song really got deep, I loved that, but to be honest, the song could have lasted a LOT longer.
You have done something great here and if you decide to make this, or another upload much longer, I'll be sure to add it to my list of best songs (currently 209 songs with over 38 hours of length) and I'm serious here. Almost no NG audio portal upload ever made it there. Not even all of my favorites on my userpage have.

Anyway, I believe the song ended too abrubtly and because it's not a perfect song, I'll give this a 9/10 and so a 5/5, but this has limitless potential. Keep it up and SEND ME YOUR NEXT SONG!

FairSquare responds:

Haha, i think it would be possible to 'hire' a female singer if i really wanted to :p
And yeah, maybe i could've made it longer, but i just ran out of patience with this song for some reason. Don't know why exactly.
Thanks for this review and all the compliments and stuff :D
Oh, and don't worry, i'll send you my next song ;)

[FS: This Time (acoustic)]

Well done...

Good intro, good singing, lame text (sorry :P) and a good ending.

The intro was was really good, but after I heard the intro, I heard the whole song. That's pretty much a shame with acoustic music.

Assuming it's you singing here (you are, I know) you sing like a pro. You should do something with that. I mean it. Not many people can sing well these days.
With songs I think you should broaden your horizon with music. You can find lots of non-pop songs that are great too.
This is coming from a pop (and rap and hip-hop)-hater, though.

Anyway, I don't think at all that you fucked up at the end, it was well done, don't be harsh on yourself.

I'll just give this a 8/10 and so a 4/5 and hope you'll let me review your next audio too!

FairSquare responds:

Not all acoustic music is repetitive like this :p
And thanks for the compliments on my singing, although i don't agree with you on the greatness of it.
Oh and on 02:12 i play a wrong chord, that's what i meant with fucking up :p
Anyway, thanks for the review! :)

[[NLC] The Great Sea]

Hmmm.... Now that's a calming song... Love it.

I'm writing this review when I'm awake for about ten minutes and this is a great song to wake up with.

The great thing is, that this wasn't repetitive for one moment. The melody was calm, yet strong and had a great deal of variety. Also, the little use of drums made this a great classical song.

I find little to nothing wrong with this, so I can't give any lower than a 10/10. I see that doing this over and over for 9 times (why did over 9000 pop up in my head?) actually works.

Great job, really. Keep it up!

KrisKrosNL responds:

It was meant to feel like the ocean, and therefore sound a little peaceful. :)

You see, the drums were for one simple reason: keeping up the entire rythem. I was supposed to add to the 3rd part a "cursed" part of the song, but it was too hard to do it, so I put part 3 the same as part 2.

You might not know, but I made this for one simple reason which I will edit on the comments soon. I also made it for you guys, for supporting me all the way from my first crappy loop too this.

Although you haven't any critisism, I still find your info interisting.

lol, 9000 times would be insane. My 9 times were all failures, until my friend helped me out a bit. If you master the song over and over again, you will get it right. I've been doing that to my songs lately.

[3 Hours to Midnight]

I can't believe I forgot to review this...

... To be honest, this is my absolute #1 favorite song, which is really, REALLY impressive.

The song builds up perfectly; slowly adding more and more instruments and building towards the climax...

And then the climax, one of the best I've ever heard. I had to pause for a while writing this review to listen to it.

Also, after the climax most songs tend to get extremely boring, but you made this song build down just perfectly, till the end, which brings me to the only downside of this song. Suddenly you used an instrument at the end that wasn't used throughout the whole song... I'm used to it now, but the first time I listened, this was quite vague.

This song isn't perfect, but if I have to use decimal nubers, I'd give a 9,9. I'm giving this a 10/10 and this is perfectly deserved and I think this song will be my #1 for a very, very long time.

syphonmax responds:

That instrument was actually used through most of the song :P

[[NLC] Hyrule Field]

A demo, yet...

...Very good.

I'm impressed with the intro and also all the changes throughout the song. Reading the author's comments, you put a lot, A LOT of work into this. The instruments were well chosen and I must say, very well done, even more for a demo.

The instruments were well chosen, as mentioned earlier and the atmosphere around the three stages fitted your description very well, but the only thing that bothered me was that during stage two -the enemy aproaches- the tempo seemed a bit too slow. I don't know how familiar you are with FL10 (I run on FL9, I don't know how FL10 works), but it should at least be possible to change the tempo.

Also, I'm generally not too fond of the type of music you've put up here today, but I must say... Not bad, not bad at all!

I'm gonna give this an 8/10 and thus a 4/5. Great job, and again... I'm jelous of your patience.

KrisKrosNL responds:

Really, really great thanks for that info! I might be a little off with the emeny part. But I tried to fasten it but it just doesn't really fit my style. But you're still right, since the monster part is the ONLY part where it's slow. It'll be certain that the tempo will be different on the middle in my final version. But I must think of it for some time. :)

Since you say you have bad patience...does it mean that you are very quick about everything? What a very typical nature. I was like that a long time ago. :)

[[NLC] Healing Song]

Hoe je het geduld kon opbrengen....

...I have no idea. But well done. This is something I could've made too, but in no way I'm patient enough.

That aside, now the review:

The song was good, I'm not familiar with the original, but the use of instruments was very much well done. The melody was smooth and soothing.

Also, "Finally, the reason I made this is because on December 13, I was beaten up (almost killed) by a fight with the strongest kid in the 8th grade. I also made this because I promised to make music. Well, here you have it."
That's some heavy shit, man. I can understand your motive to make this audio.

What's perhaps better (it's something I EXTREMELY like in a song), is to add halfway a smooth beat, which gets stronger over time. And after some time the song gets a huge twist... Aaand I'm rambling again. I musn't forget your motive to write this.

Anyway, Perhaps for a next song you can keep my previously mentioned advice in mind and upload another good/great/better song.

I'm giving this an 8/10, 7/10 for a good upload and +1/10 for great potentional.
Keep it up!

KrisKrosNL responds:

This review is by far really useful to me. For some reason, I believe you're right. And yeah...patience is the key.

I can see that the gap in the middle is a little off. I could have added what you said "add halfway a smooth beat, which gets stronger over time" and I strongly agree with you over this.

Your advice seems to be the most important one I got.

P.S: the next song will not be really that sort of loop, it's gonna be twice longer, way more instruments, and no gappings!

Thanks for the review.

[FS: Life Is A Song]

I felt obliged...

...To write this review, this was for me a very... Interesting thing to listen.

Personally I don't like pop songs, or anything with an acoustic guitar, but the song managed to keep my attention, mainly the lyrics.
The lyrics themselves were pretty much too soft for me, when I first listened, but then they started to make sense and the song had my full attention again, well chosen.

Then your part in this:

You can sing very well, let me tell you that. I had to get used to your voice at first, but that can also be because you sing the sing a bit higher than I'm used to (with other songs).
I'm assuming it's you who's playing the guitar and I also think good job at that. I've never played the acoustic guitar in my life (I've played electric baseguitar for a while), but I've always found it very hard to play it; respect for doing that AND singing at the same time. Nowadays this doesn't seem much, but you did it and you did it right.

Sidenote: how well is the quality of your recording mic? It's perhaps a good idea to invest in a better one.

Overall I'd give a 6/10 for the song chosen for the cover and an 8/10 for the cover, so in total that'd make a 7/10 and a 4/5, well done.

(I'm counting the cover heavier, but rounding that up would still make a 7/10 average).

Keep it up!

FairSquare responds:

Yeah, the lyrics are my favourite part of the song too :)
And i actually have a very low voice, it's pretty weird that you experience it as high :p
And the quality of my mic is pretty good actually, this is just a bad recording :(
Thanks for the review! :D