Nomader's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[_-={An Ambitious War}=-_]

Amazing.

It seems you have too many reviews to respond to them all nowadays, MaestroRage -- but I'll still do my best to review as many as I can anyways! >:D

... anyways, on with the review.

I'm beginning to notice that you seem to have a preference for strings and solo instruments... and it really comes through on this song. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that there were strings and percussion for most the entire song -- if I'm wrong, I'm probably just tired. :P

You haven't been making as many epic songs recently, which in my mind is somewhat of a shame -- you're epic pieces have always been what you've been best at (in my opinion), and though you do make amazing slower pieces as well, they just don't stand out as well as these sort of epic pieces do... it's this sort of song that I can truly enjoy just because I'll remember it for so long after I hear it.

It may be that I'm listening to a little bit too much classical music nowadays, but I feel like the strings sound a tiny bit synthesized -- not a problem though, because they still sound really amazing. :P

I docked two points for the repetition of the violins (... I hope I'm right on that instrument) in the beginning, but once the song picks up at around 1:05 (something like that), so does the quality of the song, and I enjoyed it immensely more after that transition.

Sticking only to the violins (again, I hope these are violins -- if they aren't, I'm sure you'll correct me) at around 1:30 really worked well. By taking out the other parts, we realize the true beauty of the piece you've put together, and by that point, I'm sold. :D

Like usual, I loved the work -- but respond to the reviews! >:D
(Seriously, if you can't, it's just fine -- I care about the music more than your dastardly non-existent sarcasm and wit. :P)

[Halo - Kickass Dark Theme]

Not bad... but not amazing either.

I couldn't bring myself to give too good of a score to this -- but, I didn't totally hate it either. :D

I'll try to listen to the song about ten times -- my review will sort of be a running commentary of my thoughts as I listened.

I really enjoyed the much different guitar that comes in at around :50 or a bit after that. But though the guitar sounded much better, it played far too loud, and drowned out all the other beautiful parts to the Halo theme music that made it so good -- the organ in the background sounded really nice, but it's so quiet...

This song does sort of sound like you took the Halo song, slowed it down a bit, and added in your own strings, guitar, and percussion to it, while lowering it all the same. The slower speed just sort of doesn't do it for me, I felt that the guitar sort of dominated the chorus (which is one of the coolest parts of the song -- but in the beginning, I give you credit for making them sound much cooler as a lower group).

I had some volume problems on my speakers -- it might be just mine, but it's a new computer, so it better not be. :D

Anyways, I noticed that when the guitar comes in, the volume of the guitar is three times as loud as the rest of the song -- the more I listened to the guitar piece, the more I felt it was grating against the rest of the ambivalence that this song has... it sort of takes away the relaxing atmosphere that you can get out of it.

Pretty much, it was a pretty good effort -- but, I'll be looking for more of your work in the future. G'luck!

JakesFable responds:

Thank you so much man and I'd really like to thank you for your very detailed comment, honesty, and the effort you put into the review, A big thanks from me ;)

[All You Base Trance Remix]

Like usual, it was good.

I'm starting to notice a habit in all of your songs -- they all seem to start out really slow, but they get into it if you listen long enough.

In this case, the awesomeness started to come out at :36 -- before the high notes started hitting the song, the claps had become repetitive, and the beat was mostly synthesized junk that I didn't care for(sorry.)

It was an interesting choice to go with bells at 1:50, but they really did go with the clapping found in the more repetitious parts of the song.

The points I docked were simply because I really didn't enjoy the beginning of this song -- I think the clapping, though interesting at fist, sort of gets old after twenty seconds of it. Still, I understand why you used it.

Lastly, I think what we all remember from "All Your Base" are the amazingly funny vocals, not the song itself -- I think a more standalone title would've fit this piece. :P

Take care, and good work!

mechanoid-9 responds:

About the structure - read my reply to your news comment.
I know it's synthesized junk, and I should have implemented a longer clap pattern to repeat. As I said in the response below, I was an FL noob; after training on a series of eJays, I was glad to be able to put together something fairly songlike by myself, without using loops. I threw something together and thought it would be enough. Today I know it wasn't. Again as mentioned below, I didn't even think of the vocals, just wanted to remix the melody.
So I'd question the "good work". I'd rather say "fairly acceptable work", and then I'm still being partial to myself. But if you like it, I won't argue with that :) Thanks for reviewin.
Oh, another thing: in case you haven't noticed before, as you scroll down on my audio page, the songs get generally crappier, with maybe a few exceptions. So if I were you I'd check out the upper ones first:)

[AI (Artificial Insanity)]

Good.

This isn't your best work -- but man, it's addicting. :D

For starters, I loved the drum transitions -- they fit in perfectly with the music, and you don't really notice them. At about 1:20, the synthesized whole note sort of music comes in, and by then, the song is totally entrancing. Because you're already with the beat, it sounds fantastic.

My largest problem with this song came from the bass at the beginning -- I know it fits in with the genre, but the bass there just doesn't sound as clean as it does towards the end. Still, once other parts start to come in at around :35, the piece picks up -- at around :45, the song had me entranced.

Like usual, good work! I'll try to review more of your stuff.

mechanoid-9 responds:

Hehe, this song was completely a joke, I threw it together out of boredom and for fun, I suppose I wasn't meaning to finish it at all, just got carried away. It came out better than expected, though. I'm not surprised you think it's addicting, I also couldn't stop listening to it when I put it up XD
A strange thing is, this song is one of my friends' favourite of my songs. Generally he doesn't like too fast songs at all; Burning Heart makes his brain pour out his ears XD despite that he likes this one a lot, and that's most likely due to the entrancing-ness you mentioned.
The bass - eh, as I said, I put minimum effort into this, so that's the reason for its lesser quality. Thanks a lot for the review, I'm glad you like it despite the weirdness and lower quality (in the aspect of content and sophistication I mean, not the actual audio quality).

[SMRPG Forest Maze Remix]

Glorious!

This is one of the greatest re-mixes I've ever heard from one of the greatest games ever made -- a job well done! :D

I must admit, I loved how the song opened simple, as though we could hear it in the game, but you add in your own twist on the song -- the instruments and beats you add in perfectly fit in, and the entire song just meshes on a level that I can't really describe.

If there were a weak point to the song, I'd have to say that the transition at :08 does sound a bit weird, but it's a weird part of the song -- in-between a sort of video game style sound and a more usual sounding one.

The best part about this re-mix is how many times I've played it. I just left it on my computer -- I played it while I worked, and truthfully, I never got tired of it because of the amazing variation in the sound. :P

After quality like this, I might just have to check out some of your other songs -- amazing work!

[Zelda Memories]

Incredible.

I'm normally not a fan of using video game music in songs -- I've always wanted people to put things together that are original.

But when people combine so many amazing songs that are so perfect -- and make them even better, it's hard to ignore. :D

This composition is one of the best video game pieces I've ever heard on Newgrounds, and I almost feel that the rating I gave it above simply isn't enough to do it justice.

The composition you put into the song is just wonderful -- you slowed down the second song to make it almost more... dramatic, and the other songs have been changed enough that we recognize that these are the same old pieces from Ocarina, but that you've put your own spin on them.

A job well done indeed. :D

[Abyssal Terror]

Not so good.

I listened to this song at least twelve times before I made this decision -- so, hopefully, I won't make a bad review. :D

This song was decidingly mediocre -- it stood out as a good song in an awful genre. I'm sorry if you really put effort into this song, but it just didn't do it for me -- listening to it after about the tenth time, it became quite grating, and rather depressing.

I do prefer your more classical and hardcore pieces far over this -- I'm sorry, but this is a genre I just can't enjoy. :D

G'luck! (I'll continue to review your pieces. :P)

mechanoid-9 responds:

Hehe, I didn't actually put much effort into this, it being more or less a for-fun unserious piece. Just tried to make something in Goth, and apparently it had come out good enough for lots of people to like it. Back when i submitted it it even led the goth list for a couple of days. I know it's depressing and not the most enjoyable song ever - on purpose. Add the fact that it's my 3rd FL song (as i mentioned in responses below) and thus the lack of professionality is also explained. Even I don't like listening to it today. It's for those who would like to take the musical equalient of a glass of arsenic. So to sum it up I perfectly understand if you don't like it. Go check out my normal songs instead XD (hint: Artificial Insanity and Killteck 2-3 don't belong in the normal category either <_<)

[Burning Heart [Hardcore]]

I promised. :P

Reviewing all of your work may take a bit longer than a week -- or, I may never finish -- but, you recommended I check this one out, so I decided to give it a look at first. :P

At first, like the loop I reviewed earlier, I was really put off by the fast pace -- but I have nothing but praise to deliver the entire song after I got used to the pace.

I'm not going to go into too much detail because, well, there's not much to criticize -- I could probably dig up some small little thing at :29 about how the video game music stuff doesn't really fit in -- but it so does with this sort of song. I was amazed at how many times I could loop this song (over and over) and still never get tired of it.

This is some amazing stuff -- good job! :D

(About my other review where I said the Xylophone thing -- I reviewed it when I was tired. I thought it might've been a harp, but I decided to put down something that wasn't my gut guess - sorry!)

mechanoid-9 responds:

It's ok if it takes longer or you can't check out all, take your time. It's no good to hurry with reviewing a song anyway - in fact I think it's better just to listen to a song for a couple of days and as you get to know more and more details and have more ideas you can make a much better review. Hmm, come to think of it, I don't often follow this piece of advice :3 but in the future I will, I promise myself...
The fast pace does take quite a lot to get used to - but it's rewarding :P Back when I just started listening to hardcore songs I also felt it was weird, but nowadays a normal hardcore song (ca. 180 bpm) doesn't sound too fast for me at all.
Again I see the main flaw of this song (it's only a flaw for me though), I wasn't planning to achieve a video game effect with the fast arp, and it still sounds a bit like something different for me, but only because I know my original intention with it :/ That's the problem with one's own songs, you hear some things as you want to hear them, while others may not. Anyway, I'm glad you like it, and also that it doesn't get boring in your opinion. Btw this is my favourite of my works currently and will stay so unless my next piece of insane hardcore comes out better XD So the good opinions on this song really mean a lot to me - they let me know it's not only me who likes this kind of doped shit ^^

About the harps/whatever: Lol. All I can say is don't make a review when you're feeling undead XD better wait with it as I said above. No offense taken of course, actually I've experienced this a couple of times before, although mainly because of the what I make myself hear - what they hear effect, again as I said above.

[A Clash Of Destinies]

Incredible.

Too bad I won't be able to review all of your songs tonight -- but I'll get as close as I can!

I loved the fokesy feel to this song -- I'm not sure if I would consider this classical simply due to the use of such odd instruments, but they all fit in perfectly.

I loved how this song speeds up on you and you don't even notice it -- the pace quickens, and it crescendos up to the point at 3:00 where it suddenly calms down -- it's one of the few songs where I truly feel drawn in by the music, and I loved it.

The only problem with it was that I felt some of the instruments were too quiet at the end -- but it's so minor compared to the rest of the song, I just have to give this one a ten.

Amazing work!

mechanoid-9 responds:

There isn't much I could write as a response to this apart from a thousand thanks ^^ Keep on reviewin, I need the constructive ideas/criticism XD