Nomader's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[I Am Sorry I Am Slipping- Bare]

The lack of variety...

There's only one thing that I thought brought this piece down from being truly great... the lack of variety in the instruments.

Imagine, say at around :52, some background violins could come in, or maybe some other instruments -- the piano would be a magnificent opening, and it would be an amazing piece.

I kept on expecting an amazing entrance, a whole orchestra of instruments... but I felt a bit disappointed... it's just such a beautiful piano piece -- with anything backing it up, it'd be so amazing.

Still, as a piano player here, I loved it anyways. The chords sounded great, and the music sounded crisp (If it turns out this isn't a piano, I'll feel stupid. :D). The tune's catchy, and it's something that I'll probably remember a day or two from here.

The lack of variety and a rather repetitiveness to the song bring it down -- it's so close though!

DeusExMagna responds:

No, it's not a real piano. Just about everything I do is digital-- hell, I don't even know if the fingerings required to play this on one piano are executable.

As for the repetitiveness, hell, maybe you could work on it for me, and you use the piece however you want? Like, it'd be yours? I don't know what to do to it.

Thanks for your kind words, and for your critiques (even the ones I disregarded-- hah! I chuckle at me). It's great to hear some thoughts from a fellow musician.

[Synth Tears]

It was okay.

This is an example where a song, though not totally awful, fits squarely into its genre and squanders the possibilities it had.

The beat throughout the song is simply put, somewhat annoying. The sounds seem as though they intentionally clash with each other, and the beat (the synthesized sound at an even pacing) grows tiring after the first time someone hears it (starts at around :24).

The lone bright spot was at :45, where the transition sounded excellent -- just for that quality, I boosted my score up a point. :D

I know that the potential's there! But it just isn't showing itself in this song -- I'll have to wait for the next one. :P

Take care!

omgitskatman responds:

Fuck this music shit. Its over for me everyone. DJ KatMan has resigned.
Fuck you Immune an everyone with there bull shit advice.

[Tsubasa Theme - Back To 80's]

It's alright.

So I could compare this to the source material, I tried to find the Tsubasa Theme on YouTube -- and I did, only to find that it wasn't a very good song...

Luckily, your song doesn't sound much like it (or at least the version I heard). But there were still problems.

At times during your audio of the song, I had to turn up the speakers to even hear the sound. I understand that you want the dramatic effect, but I shouldn't have to do that... varying with the volume that badly isn't a very good thing (happens numerous times from about :35 onward).

I thought the song was repetitive, and... again, I can't stress enough the changing volumes -- at point, it went so low, the volume disappeared. Whether that happens or not in the original, that just can't happen in a submission on Newgrounds.

Anyways, it was still a good effort -- I did enjoy the sound at around 1:54 (save the annoying crescendos and decrescendos).

Don't get me wrong -- this song isn't bad... but it's not that amazing either.

G'luck!

[D-Kay: Red Square]

Not bad.

For a genre I don't care much for, this isn't half-bad -- in fact, I enjoyed it, which completely surprised me.

As I listened to the song, I didn't really go for the synthetic sound you had at the beginning (the beeps and boops), but as soon as you brought in the strings as a background at 1:07, things just started to go up. You moved away from a traditional mediocre dance song to an impressive mix of genres, and for that, I loved it.

During the more string-part that started at 1:07, the beeps and boops sounded a ton better with a more traditional background -- however, the 1:44 odd sort of cymbal/drum/synthetic stuff didn't do it for me (it lasted about ten seconds as a transition). I enjoyed the more traditional sounding drums at 2:00 though.

This piece shows that you have true potential -- I'll be looking to see it the next time you submit.

Take care!

DJ-DKay responds:

Nomader,
Thanks for actually taking the time to write a quality review!
I personally think the beginning synth is pretty cool (I made it myself), but to each his own.
And yes there will be plenty more on the way!

[Sonic Megamix]

Amazing beat!

This was overall, one of the better video game songs I've heard -- a job well done indeed!

For starters, I loved how you used repetitive beats to make good quality transitions in the piece. It worked really well, built you up for the next section slowly, and really makes you focus on the rest of the song instead of when the song changes... I didn't really notice them until I focused -- which is a good thing.

The length of this piece is certainly impressive -- eight minutes! But I enjoyed every minute, even though it is heavily synthesized (something I normally don't enjoy). The high pitched synthesized beats really do the song justice, and I thought that you mixed them nicely.

Thanks a bunch for puting this up -- I loved it!

CrimzonWolf777 responds:

thx for your review. glad you enjoyed it! ^_^v

[Castle of Tears]

Amazing job!

It's quite often we see killer re-mixes on Newgrounds, but it's not so often that they come in at this incredible caliber. Truly a job well done.

The entire song sounded synthesized, but considering the nature of the song (being from a video game), it fits perfectly. The transitions were all rather quiet and they were hard to notice -- a good thing if you ask me. You made them truly invisible, but I didn't care because it still transitioned so well.

At about 2:17, I enjoyed when the quieter nature of the song took over... and I loved everything else too... this is just a fantastic song that goes on for so long, and I loved every moment of it!

This is one of my favorite songs on this site, and all I can say is: wow. Thank you for making this -- it's truly great.

NemesisTheory responds:

I'm glad you think so highly of the song, it really means a lot. <3

I don't know what else I can tell you. I honestly enjoyed reading what you had to say. Really good explanations of what you liked about the song.

Again, thank you for the kind words. :D

[triste: a snayk tetris mix]

It wasn't good.

I really don't like bashing work too much, but I truly didn't enjoy this piece -- I thought that the main part of the song, the Tetris part, sounded far too synthesized even for a Tetris song, although I did find most of the transitions throughout the song enjoyable.

The main thing that needs to happen in a good Tetris re-make is that the main melody needs to be enjoyable to listen to -- but here, I sort of turned down the volume a bit so I could hear the other things going on in the background better... I shouldn't be doing that. It is unique though -- a point for that. :P

I understand (as you said) that this isn't exactly a favorite piece of yours -- I'll try to check out some of your better pieces sometime to balance it out.

G'luck! :D

[Song of Storms remix]

An amazing remix.

All I can say about this song is that I simply loved it -- the best you can find.

I loved the original song in the Ocarina of Time, and I simply adore it here, where you magnificently put together a great remix which accentuates the incredible sound that was already there while adding in extremely nice synthesized touches.

This remix is truly a good quality effort -- everything from the high pitch synthesized sound at 1:40 to the new slow opening, I loved it.

This is truly magnificent -- great work!

keatonkeaton999 responds:

Thank you!

[Glorious Day]

Catchy goodness.

I enjoyed every part of this song -- it's not everyday that I can say something like that, but this.... this is truly awesome. This is the sort of song I could show to someone if I wanted to show them what Newgrounds had to offer, and I'd say, "Cool music," and play this. :D

The trumpets (please, like usual -- correct me if I'm wrong) played a surprisingly catchy tune throughout the song except in a few parts. And for me, that was my favorite part of all of them -- it was the melody while keeping the beat at the same time, and it sounded incredible.

The more techno-ish parts (more synthesized) sounded great too... again, I'm normally not this sort of fast beat kind of guy, but I really enjoy how you make the sound accessible and with an overall good quality -- compared to the other loops on Newgrounds, this stuff is gold. :D

The only problem I had with were the bass drums right before the end (only before the end -- they sounded good to me throughout the entire rest of the song...) -- I didn't particularly enjoy them, but I've never truly enjoyed percussion as much as other people... and it's no reason to dock anything from this amazing composition.

mechanoid-9 responds:

Your first paragraph makes me proud XD Though there is much better stuff out there in my opinion, it's still good to know there are people who think of this as a standard in awesomeness XD

This time you got it right, they are trumpets; they are actually the same as those heard in When All Things End, only here they come out much clearer.

I guess the bass drums conflict with the bigger amount of instruments in the end...

Again thanks, and again good to hear a very positive opinion.

[Lux Aeterna Remix (Full)]

Wonderful.

I'm a huge fan of the original Lux Aeterna song, so for much of this review, I'll be comparing this song to that one.

I noticed a few changes -- none of them were really detrimental to the song, and in some cases, by the way you remixed the song, it really made it sound nice.

I wasn't really sure what to think when the more techno-style beat came in at 1:24. I sort of have mixed feelings about techno in general, and I think the reason why I enjoyed it was simply because I love Lux Aeterna so much in general. :P

I didn't really enjoy how you sort of started to warp the background part, the more traditional sounding part, to match the weird techno you had going, but it still worked out in the end. It did sound interesting to put it bluntly, but it was nothing bad enough to dock points for.

At 2:40, you got back to the more traditional sound of the song, and even added in a small chorus in the background.

I enjoyed the instrument that came in at 3:17 -- the synthesized sound. It really meshed well. The instruments also really meshed well at around 3:35 when you brought in the higher sounding instrument, and it fit the bill perfectly.

I enjoyed how you ended and began the piece on a more traditional sound -- though a bit more echoed than what was in the original song, it really made for a nice loop.

What impresses me most about this submission is that you manage to keep the relative sad, but beautiful tone of the original throughout this piece, even when the techno's blasting at full sound -- and, to put it frankly, I'm impressed. This is truly good work.

(I'm trying to review the ones you told me were good now -- so far, so good. :P)

mechanoid-9 responds:

Firstly, it ain't techno, it's drum n bass :P
Secondly... duuuuuuuuh I don't think i could reply specifically to your points with something other than "thank you". ^^' So as usual, thanks for the review and I'm glad you liked it.