Karco's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[_-={Arise Sleeper}=-_]

You're submitting often... :D

I'm not complaining, though. And poems turned into songs are often good ones, so... review time. :) I'm not reading the poem, however, (or any of the other reviews) until I'm finished with this review... so my thoughts won't be tainted, etc., I'm sure you know what I mean.

Great so far, and epic-sounding. I hear strings that don't sound as overused, which is good. Are those horns I hear, or just strings playing low notes? They're a bit quiet...

The note progressions in this are great, too... again, very epic. And later on... I just love how they play, and then are interrupted by the bells - a great idea. All confidence vanishes here, upon arrival of a new threat. More in the story... >:)

The song, I think, approaches a climax later on after the third chime of the bells... and you pull it off well. Not much to say about it here.

Aah, here's the ending... woah, did you just use that trick I reccomended to you in that PM? :O Or did you come up with it on your own? Either way, nice use. :)

Great job overall with this song - I'd normally have criticised you more for lack of other instruments but this was amazingly pulled off with the strings that you did choose, and the note progressions, and harmonies, and everything... :D This must have been some inspirational poem but I'm not reading it until I'm done typing this story! So I'll start now. :)

Day 1 - A clear day at sea for a great ship, and the pride of its fleet. Yet not all is well. The sails hang limp, for there is no wind. The water lies flat as if it were a glass surface, the air so still time could have stopped. This is the calm before the storm.

Day 2 - A cloud on the horizon. White, but on such a clear day a sign of what is yet to come. Activity on the ship, once lazy, stirs slightly.

Day 3 - Multiple other clouds join the first one on the horizon, varying in color. A breeze blows and the water ripples. Activity on the ship increases. What once was idleness turns to tension.

Day 4 - The clouds loom closer, now massed as one great entity, towering tens of thousands of feet over the ocean, the ship, and the sailors. Sailors begin to panic, fearing for their lives. Night falls. Strong winds blow. Rain begins to fall.

This is it... the story of tension at sea, before a storm. One of the tension and panic before it, which is a storm all on its own. Hope you enjoyed it... and the review. :)

MaestroRage responds:

I appreciate the fact you wrote your review first so not to allow any form of outside interference taint it's core!

This song is one of my best I believe, for it employs several new methods and formations which I should be using, but never did due to lazyness.

Thats right, this time around, I cut no corners! I wanted to really try to put some more effort then usual, and the result was rather pleasing. There is very few recycled beats in this song, in fact there is only one segment which uses the same 4 chord base notes twice, and thats it, after that, each song was built differently.

Getting rid of that "recycle" syndrome, where I use the same segment chords again and again.

There were some low brass mingled with some low strings, you are right to say they blend in together, as this was the idea behind them :D

I don't recall the pm you sent me involving any tricks *except that choir one?*, i'm too tired to check now, but the chances that this is the case is relatively high, as I tend to forget a lot, and store it in subconsciously, which is why sometimes people will be like "DUDE, DAT MLEDOY IS TUTELLY DONE ALREDY!" and i'll sit here with a ":(" plastered on my face because I thought it was totally original... then again Hollywood has made sure to use nearly every conceivable style.

The story was also quite enjoyable. At first I didn't appreciate that it ended on such a quick note >:(. I was waiting for some super stormy sea action, then I realized that the piece itself ends on a rather abrupt key, and so this was my fault. I lol'ed me for about a minute, and envisioned the story properly, eyes and lights closed, piece playing, story and image rolling.

It was really... quite something i'll say.

I enjoyed the review greatly Karco, I highly appreciate them, thank you for the review, i'm glad you liked it!

[Tome89 - Greenland Whales]

Hello. :)

You don't seem to get too many reviews and this introduction to your song sounds a lot like the stuff I make. :P I'll give you one.

I LOVE the atmosphere in this song. It sounds just like my song, After the Nova, though not as spacey. Gives me the image of drifting peacefully down through the ocean, the environment slowly changing... aah, so relaxing for how late I'm up right now. XD

It does begin to drag on after a while... your effects, especially that formant-ish thing that plays now and then, are amazing but you don't quite use them well. Listening to this, I'm sure you could have come up with others to diversify the song, make it more enjoyable while keeping the great ambient feel. Actually - what VSTs/samples/whatever did you use for this song?

Your note progression in the main pad is a pair. Hah! XD You might want to diversify it more than that as the song moves on... sure, I understand you want to keep that feeling but there's a lot of potential here and you really should diversify it a bit more. You do - and it's great when you do, but I'd like to hear that more often. You know what I mean? ;)

Great song overall. Why don't you stop by my audio page sometime and review a song of mine? Judging by this song, a review for my song After the Nova (either version will do) would be interesting, as they're very similar in certain ways, but you can choose. ;) Much appreciated... and keep up the good work. It's been more than a month since you last submitted and it would be nice to hear a new one soon. :)

Tome89 responds:

I have reviewed you tune now :P and have something to compare too. I say lmao.

First off this is ambient and not chillout, and you should learn what's what.
IMO, diversifying is unneccesary. Have you ever heard drone ambient? That's music with only one chord that lasts for sometimes fifteen minutes.
The idea of ambient is to be ambient, simply put. Does the sound of a river change?

As for equipment (my favourite part):
I use no VSTs since I use Reason.
All the sounds in this track where made, from scratch, by me. No samples at all, no presets.
That's kind of the idea with experimental music.

Thanks for reviewing Karco!
The lack of recent reviews almost killed me.

[_-={Passionate Freedoms}=-_]

I've got a great story this time...

But as always, it's at the end. ;) How about we get straight to the review? :) (It's a long one, by the way. :D)

Hmm... it's okay in the beginning with the strings - nothing special, compared to some of your latest. The guitar sounds awkward when it comes in - as if parts from two different songs in the same key are put together - but once you support it with the drums and more strings, and build on that simple melody it gets a LOT better. :) And the progressions are great, too - your style's very prominent in this song at times. Aah, that was great - I especially liked that short break with the violin, "Stop!" and then right after, "Go!" and you come back in with the panflute. Now, if only you had some drums there like you did for the beginning... imagine that! :O

I like your melody in this song... it's not much of one, actually, as the song continues on a path, making turns, growing wider and narrower through the progression of the song. We'll hear more of that in the story... ;) Basically, metaphors aside, it progresses a lot and doesn't really come back to anything. :P And it works, too - nice touch there.

Your harmonies are great as well... and they seem to lead their own paths as well. Yet there are no clashing notes among the instruments... nice job. I do think you could have been a bit more diverse instrumentwise than simply a string ensemble - nothing wrong with the string ensemble itself, mind you, but the lack of much else. These and the panflute I feel I've heard all plenty of times from you... though the guitar in this song is showing me that you're trying, and you can definitely consider it a good idea. ;)

Overall it's a great song... it takes its time getting really good but once it does, it's great stuff. :D Keep up the great work.

All right... my thoughts on this song, storywise. It's always fun to do these... how, exactly, did you get people to start giving you these? I started because I saw other reviews for your songs including them and I decided to give it a try. Now I'm doing it because it's fun. :P

A young man from a small settlement has come of age and is leaving his hometown to pursue his dreams. His family is somewhat grieved that he finally has to go and it's like any parting between parents and their child - tears of happiness, goodbyes left and right and finally the son leaves, not looking back, now on his own.

He travels the world and is welcomed where he goes. His path takes its turns - at times it steepens and narrows, but he doesn't complain - he climbs it, teeth gritted, knowing to look forward to the top.

He makes it. He sees the view. The panorama almost distracts him from the last thing he should be forgetting, but he doesn't - he turns around and views the entire path behind him, and sees how far he's come. And there's his hometown, at the very end of it.

Then, looking at the path ahead of him, he finds no sure path like the one behind him. There are many potential directions he could go from here - one, however, is long, straight, not too steep, and so smooth it could have been paved. Yet he doesn't see past the bottom of the mountain.

He runs down, enjoying every step, knowing the climb was worth it.

I think this was an especially nice story... hope you enjoyed it, and the review. :) Looking forward to reviewing more.

MaestroRage responds:

It was a great image Karco! I absolutely loved the young man's resolve, his drive to continue into the unknown, absorbing the views, the environment.

Just brilliant. I actually saw the whole scene in my head in rather large detail, and I have to tell you, it was quite heart warming.

Now onto teh review :D *it seems I always start with the story, then get to the technicals of reviews!*

This is a rather laid back melody, nothing drastic occurring, not sharp turns. Simple, progressive, enjoyable. These were the major pillars I felt were necessary for them.

I love the segment where it stops and just "GOES" like you said. I wish I had done more with it, but I wrapped the piece up here and I have this nasty habit of not being able to open a project I already "wrapped up" in my head.

I should have been able to use more instruments true. I was considering the french horns, but then it sounded too epic, and epic was not on the agenda today. Maybe more woodwinds, a normal flute would have added more to it. There is actually a choir in the background, could have made that louder.

In any case, thank you for the review Karco! I'm not 100% sure how people started writing their images, but I enjoy reading each and every one, and am grateful for it! I'm glad you liked the piece ^^.

[3D World (ClubEdit)]

Powerful? :O

I like the sound of that! Let's have a listen... :) How is your thing with TR Records going, by the way? :)

Great opening. That kick could be a bit more reeverbed, or less hard, though. In the first transition, I hear a synth that sounds like a guitar - it should have been louder to emphasize that feeling! >:( It would have been great that way. But so far, the song is developing very nicely. It definitely is passionate and very powerful... BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM go the kicks. :D Is that a melody I hear emerging? Yep, it is. I'm sitting back and listening... eew, quality's going down here. Some of your synths are too loud.

Your melody's great. Simply put. Though it COULD be better... there's not very much variation in it. What I have in mind however doesn't belong in a review, however, but the piano roll. ;) I won't attempt to describe it here. Your synth is great but a bit too... out there. It doesn't hold the same quality as some of your other songs, namely Nova and Higher Force.

Harmonies, harmonies... what do I have to say about them? Well, they're all good notewise. No clashing notes, etc. But, like the melody, your synth choice doesn't have that same professional touch Nova and Higher Force do, in my opinion. It's also that it's a different style of song, and that A) I like songs like Nova and Higher Force more, and B) I think you're better at them, too. ;) Aah, well... can't spend your entier musical career making one type of song, right? Especially if you want to be the best. :P

Percussion... well, it's plenty hard and powerful but later on the harmonies overpower it and all I can hear is the kick, and if I try the hihats. Try not to let that happen. ;) Every bit of effort you put into your songs counts, especially those five minutes you spend to fix it! ;) Samples are good, but again that kick is a bit too hard. You have the right idea but it doesn't quite work, I think. I'd have put something a little quieter - but still loud and hard - but not as much reeverbed - rather, it would be a kick that simply lasts longer without reeverbing. Do you know what I mean?

Wow, I've had a lot to write about this song. Hope all of my advice is helping, Pulstate... keep up the good work. Looking forward to listening to and reviewing more. :)

Pulstate responds:

Thanks mate, i'm going to re-continue producing tracks like Nova and HF soon, but i'm trying all the styles out.

Cheers.

[-Field of memories-]

Aaah...

I was wondering if you'd still be submitting. :P Gah, I can't believe I missed this song by twelve days! Well, here's a long, in-depth review for you. You said in the response to the other review one of the reasons you make music and submit it is for reviews... so I hope this makes your day. :)

Hmm, interesting opening. I like that instrument that plays the melody, it sounds like a cross between a piano and a violin. Nice choice, there. Bass arp comes in, and then the percussion... nice, nice. Key change... already? Okay. :P

I like your melody in this song... it fits nicely, and the piano playing it (or that instrument mentioned in the last paragraph) is a good choice. ;) You keep it new throughout the song - I'm still not bored with it! :D Nice job with this.

Harmonies are great, and contribute to the atmosphere of the song. I like your choices in synths - that bass arp is especially nice and an unexpected fit, alongside the piano and otherwise. Parts of the song feel a bit lacking in harmonies but at the same time pleasantly simple, a nice break from songs with a ton of harmonies that give you a headache. >_< The pads you introduce later on are nice. No clashing notes or anything... nice work here, this is great stuff.

I like your percussion in this song... I'm jealous of everyone with their great drum samples and otherwise. >:( Those effects are an especially nice and cleverly used touch to the song.

This song gives me quite the pleasant atmosphere... a "pleasantly rainy" feeling, one that makes me imagine weather that under normal circumstances would be gloomy... but in this case isn't. Half of two feelings. Nice job with this, Waterflame, a nicely accomplished feeling and a well-done song! I don't have too much criticism but I did tell you what you did right, huh? :P Great work - a download, 10s in all areas - as I can honestly see no reason why this deserves less - and a 5 from me. :)

Waterflame responds:

First of all, than you for takng the time to write such a long review! infact i am submitting again, i just have alot of hold ups, but as said in the newest song description; more to come ^^

And also, thank you for all the inspiering comments :) to be honest, i dont really like the percussion in this song, exept the orestrated ones. since this song's tempo is, originally 280Bpm, beleve it or not, it was hard for me to get the drumloop sound just the way i wanted. the reason i worked like this is cause every roll and fill, and timing on the pads get alot easyer. :)

again, thanks! i really enjoy these reviews, as said ;) im just kinda slow on my replies :P

[tF-[Lookin for collab]]

Sure! :D

All right... well, I do know the basics of FL and can show work to prove it. If it's a yes, I'll get it to you ASAP... which will be soon, of course. :P

This melody's good... it's a nice start and I an see a lot coming out of it. I like the note progressions... and the synth is amazing. Too bad it ends so soon... :( I'd give it a longer review but... it's only, what, 20, 30 seconds? I can't make something very long for that. ;) And then, this one's pretty long already... :P

Waiting for a response... and if you already have someone to collab with, 1) it never hurts to collab with more than one person, ;) and 2) you could at least show me a trick or two on chat, right? :P Much appreciated.

tF-ownedyou responds:

[e-mail]

Add meh, we will talk.

[Nova (DemoEdit) (TR-Records)]

Heh...

Good choice, Pulstate! That one's currently my favorite that you've made. Let's review this one, now... :)

Hmm. Honestly, I liked the lead synth in the original more. And the synth playing notes three at a time... that wasn't as good of a choice either.

I like this one too... not as much as your first remix of this, though. There's not much to say about this one that I haven't said about the other one in terms of notes and drums, and I've already given everything in terms of synth choice.

Well... I guess all I have left to do is drop my support - are you applying for a deal there or do you already have one? If you are then I'll tell you I'm wishing you well that you make it into TR Records! :) (And if you're in there already, well, then I'll wish you luck in getting higher up in pay. :P) Keep up the good work.

Pulstate responds:

Until i get the label, dont drop your support!

:)

[Chaos Spectrum {preview}]

Hey, Envy...

Thought I'd review this WIP of yours... so this is a Z3ta+ test? All right... I'll use this to decide whether I really want it or not. :P

Good introduction, though a little rough there, with the quality. Very nicely done.

I like your melody... it's repetitive at times and yet you change it often enough so it's repetivity done correctly - nice job there. There's synth diversity here as well. You could have chosen the synth a bit better, though, rather than going with some cliched sawtooth.

Your harmonies are very good! I honestly can't count them. :P I especially like that bass. No clashing notes or anything... since this was a Z3ta test I can't expect too much from synth diversity but you still could have tried harder here. Still, nice job with this.

Your percussion is decent, but could be good. Your kick is hard but could be harder, to get that bassy, club feeling. The hihat (or is that a shaker? XD) is very weak as well... either make it louder or leave it out altogether! ;)

Overall a very nice song... you've convinced me to get Z3ta+ when I can. XD Why don't you send me a PM when you submit the finished version? I'm interested. :) Any chance you could stop by my audio page and review one of my two latest? Much appreciated. :) Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to it.

Envy responds:

Yeah, Z3ta has tons of presets, and tons of stuff you could do. I didn't want to spend too long on this on account of the other project I'm working on which is under raps right now.

Nope, it wasnt a shaker. It was 2 different claps a few octaves up (A little trick that i learned from pilchards song "Tzachitx"

Yeah, I'll do more work on the percussion definately, but for the preview I just wanted to give it that powerful-like feeling with the bass and everything.

The only downside with z3ta is that it takes a little while to figure out, but once you do that it's awesome! There are just gazillions of presets.

[*Heart of Sword* // ZeRo BaSs]

Heh... our monthly ZB song. :)

And this time I'm reviewing better than ever. It'll take me a while to review both, and I probably won't be able to get around to doing both at the same time. But I intend to... ;)

Hmm... I'm not one to review hip-hop, but I'll do what I can. :) Good introduction, I like how the song develops. Nice introduction of vocals.

Huh, key change. Okay. The new vocals seem to favor the left side a bit much... and I'm questioning the quality, too. Careful there...

Your melody seems to be pretty good, knowing this is a hip-hop song. However, like I said, the vocals in the higher key are a bit strange, with the panning and sound quality. Careful, there...

Aah, now the song's building up to an explosion! And... it's not as big as I'd hoped, but then again this does have its hip-hop influences. So it flows pretty well.

Your harmonies are pretty good, no complaints here. Synths well-chosen, etc. No clashing notes here... I'm not so sure about the bass in the beginning, though... its introduction is a bit awkward and it doesn't really fit as well as the rest of the song.

Percussion is good. I like your samples, though that clap in the introduction at times doesn't quite sound good quality-wise. After the big transition, it's in-depth and varied, as always. Nice job there... no suggestions here.

You have hip-hop and hardcore/rave influences in this song, which is apparently what you were aiming at... so great job there. It's quite a change of pace from some of your latest and yet it fits your style perfectly... so nice choice in genre there. It's great if you ignore a few parts... downloaded and voted 5, keep up the good work.

ZeRo-BaSs responds:

Thank you for your awesome in depth review karco!!

Heh hearing vocals in my songs is quite unusual..damn it's pretty tricky to make them work :(
sorry for the clap sound..it actualy sounded good in the WAV.. in the 128kpb Mp3 it lost quality!

TY! ^_-

[_-={Blood Fields*Demo*}=-_]

A demo?

Aww, they're nowhere near as fun as full songs. Aah well... if it's a work in progress, I suppose a finished version will come sooner or later. ;)

Hmm. This doesn't quite have the same grandeur, the same great feeling as your other songs in the beginning. Also - your drums' quality is questionable. The reeverb detracts from the sound quality, in my opinion.

The melody of the song takes its time to develop, too. But once it does, it's good! It really gets that epic feeling that I think you're aiming at... however, the strings that play it feel a bit weak and could have used something in the lower range to support them... some brass, I think, would have done nicely and also the right ones might add to your attitude... if not, then some lower-end strings would help.

Interesting choice with the sitar... though it feels a bit out of place. I'm no expert with them... but single notes won't do if you want one in this song. I think that you should try getting a "strummed" feeling on the sitar, strumming a chord. Something like that. Experiment... I'm sure that multiple notes strummed together will have much greater effect than single ones. Of course, single notes are okay in between strums... like I said, experiment. ;)

I like those chanting effects there! However, they share the similar low-quality sound with the drums. Was this, by any chance, exported at a low bitrate? That might explain it... if not, well... keep trying to make it sound better, I guess.

You end on an interesting note... that high-pitched and plucked-sounding violin (that's what it sounded like to me) gives it a bit of that Meditteranean feel... if you know what I mean. :P It also gives the song a feel of regret, as if all of the warriors who participated in this brutal fight depicted in your song suddenly look at the firey, bloody battlefield about them and regret the damage they have caused to each other... and themselves. No, I'm not giving you any more of an story than that... it's a work in progress, after all. :P I'm saving the full thing for if you upload it on NG.

Last question - can you tell me about this Escalation game? I'm interested. :)

Great work, Maestro, though it could definitely use more. I'm looking forward to hearing the finished version. :)

MaestroRage responds:

Some very interesting suggestions Karco. Though I can agree with what you said, there are still some problems i'd have to learn how to deal with before I could actually deliver what you say.

Firstly, the lower end of this song is mad saturated. You'd be surprised, frankly I am too. I suspect it may be the reverbed timpani that eat up so much of it, as it's rather hard to hear them. The reverbed timpani are also not really low quality, I suspect that it's the mix and competition of other instruments that got in its way.

For the sitar, strumming does not work for the "droning" sitar as they call it. Strumming makes it sound like one giant sitaric white noise, if you know what I mean. I will try putting in a normal sitar, see if that works, i'm just worried of clashing then. I mean the song already has a fair deal of clashing in it, I worry what chords may do to it at this point *I am even considering removing it*

The choirs are probably suffering in quality due to instrument competition and reverb levels.

You know, i've never tried exporting this higher then 128kb/s. I highly doubt exporting it higher would help, but this IS perhaps my busiest piece, so perhaps it needs more room. I'll try 192 next.

That plucking sound, an awesome instrument. I know exactly what you feel and mean, and thats why it was there.

www.escalation-online.com is the game in question. We just started the new website so it's a little scattered, but the game will be out shortly. The full piece of this will probably be a main theme/battle theme within that game.

Thank you greatly for the review Karco, always a pleasure! I'm glad you liked it ^^.