Karco's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fast Rollin']

Well, I'm not much to review rock...

Heck, I'm pretty sure this is my first review for a song in this genre. XD Aah, well, first time for everything, right?

The song's started... the composition's not bad, what bothers me are the FL preset drums... they're very plain - you've hardly even FX'ed them at all. Find better samples, ASAP - they'll add to your songs a LOT. ;)

Second thing - I'm hearing a lot of Slayer presets, and while presets can be useful... Slayer, not so much. At times your song approaches realism, and at other times - like in the introduction - it sounds obviously programmed. Aim for a bit more realism next time, maybe?

The composition itself, like I said before, isn't that bad. Thing is, though, there are so many guitars, the song becomes quite crowded, loud, etc... and clarity suffers, quite a bit. I can understand if the alternative to this is a very "empty"-sounding song... but another thing to look at next time is keeping the song sounding clearer.

Not much else to say... it's not bad, but could use some improvement. ;) Keep trying and I think you just might get somewhere.

redcru92 responds:

You are right about the drum stuff, and if you hear my latest song, i have used those drum loops. They do sound a lot better.

[_-={At Roads Ends}=-_]

Exceptional...

Another song that you put quite a bit of effort into. So know what I'm going to do? I'm going to... treat you with the ending of the story with the sailors on the sea. (My reviews for Arise Sleeper and Wrath of a Vengeful Soul, remember? :P) This song seems perfect for it. But it's after the technicalities, as always...

It's interesting how, in the beginning, you cut off the strings in... the eighth measure? Something like that. It was in an odd way... or was it the reeverb that I'm hearing as that little extra sound? Aah, well. It was extra creative, I wish I had seen more of it later in the song.

Is that a flute I'm hearing? Don't hear that often from you... and now a music box! :D What would have been extra nice is if I had heard more than one note at a time from that music box... gah! It's getting drowned out by the strings, brass, and choir. :\ Maybe keeping it in seperate ranges from everything else (or playing it during quieter parts only) would help?

What are those extra low notes played on the 1st and 3rd beat towards the end of the song? Or, I should be asking, what's playing them? Another creative touch, anyway, and seeing as that I can remember hearing similar in other more professional orchestrations in movies or just alone as pieces, a professional touch as well. :D Not much else to add now... I suppose it's storytime. :D

Back on land, the family and friends of the sailors waited patiently for their return. Rumor began to spread and while some accepted it and broke down, others refused to believe it and continued to wait. Eventually only the strongest-willed remained.

Funerals were held for the sailors whose families had given up. They were shunned by the others, scorned as faithless and weak. But in fact, these "faithless" and "weak" families had it better in the long run. Being able to put it behind themselves, they looked towards the future and the issues at hand. The admittedly more stubborn group wasted away, trapped in the past.

Heh, my first story in a while. :D I almost came close to leaving you on another cliffhanger just for your reaction, but I couldn't think of anything realistic enough. XD Aah, well. I enjoyed the song, Maestro, great work! :D

MaestroRage responds:

How could I forget the sailors :D!?

The ending, yay :D!

The music box was actually a very high played Celesta. It does sound like a music box, and I assure you, that it cannot be played higher, playing it lower, gauarantees being lost in the mess that is the song.

Same story for it playing more then one note at a time. It just got muddy, and so to keep it crispy clear, and effective. A single solemn note was necessary --_--!

As for the ending. You know I had never actually confirmed that they had died. I had always thought "Maybe now they will be saved!", but I suppose with this ending, I will have to bid the images of those sailors I had seen a long time ago farewell.

I suppose I am one of the weak ones then ;')

Thank you for the review Karco, like always, they were greatly appreciated. Sorry for the delayed response, I had thought I had already responded to it!

I'm glad you liked the piece ^^

[{SD} - Vapor]

Hello, welcome. :)

So this is your first submission... is it your first song, too? Because this isn't bad for someone as early on as you are. (Well, it was better than my first song. :P)

Your melodies are nice, I have to say. Creative. And you keep things fresh and new throughout the song, which is great. Now, the problem here is that you're lacking rhythmwise. I hear mostly eighth notes and quarter notes - there's little variety. The notes are great, but rhythm can make it even better - so try for the same quality there next time. ;)

Harmonies, harmonies... well, there are a lot of them, which is good - when I review newcomers to making music I often find too few! So you know your stuff. ;) Now, what we have here is what almost seems to be too many harmonies! They clutter the quality and make it a bit fuzzy, unfortunately. Actually, it's your choice in synths as well that brings the quality down. For example, the one that plays that five-note eighth-note riff is a bit too... airy, if you know what I mean, for the sake of the sound quality. Now, there are a few things you can do for next time. What program do you use for your music? FL Studio? Sounds like it... well, tweaking with the individual volumes of the synths and sounds can help, if you didn't know that already. And if you did... well, keep trying! :D

Your drums seem a bit plain. Samplewise, you seem to have used raw ones, without FX'ing them or anything. A bit unoriginal, and, thing is, there's not much I can do to help you here. :\ Keep looking for better samples, experiment with FX, hopefully you'll get somewhere. Oh - if you use FL, do you know how the Fruity Slicer works? I'm not going to bother explaining here in case you don't use FL, but you can PM me asking for an explanation - the Fruity Slicer really helps with your drums, provided some good drum loops. Now, samples aside... your drum rhythms aren't too bad. You're trying to be a bit creative with the hihats and snares, I can see... :P It works, but later in the song the snare becomes hard to hear - try lowering the volumes of some of the synths and slightly raising the volume of the snare until you think it works.

Now, what I really like about this song is that, other than the drums - those samples really can't do much, unfortunately - everything contributes towards the same feeling. Again, you're no beginner at this, it seems. It's an important point that you nailed, great job. :D

Whew, long review! PM me or tell me in a response to this review if you have any questions. Hope I've helped. :) Keep up the good work.

ShirkDeio responds:

Thanks! And yes, this was my first song (about the fourth version though)

[Pulstate - Highway Central.]

Pulstate with... MIDI?

Wonder how that'll turn out. And so far, about ten seconds in, and I'm already impressed. :D

I notice it's a bit crowded - the clarity's a bit fuzzy because there's so much going on. It gets better after a while, though.

Aah, an interlude, and you're expanding on the melody. The notes seem a bit random, unfortunately, but they gain a LOT of purpose very quickly and soon are a great melody. And I mean that! It's especially nice after the buildup - this is one of your best melodies... now I see why you call it professional. :D

Don't know if you'd agree, but I'm going to suggest trying something new. I don't mean a new genre, but a huge twist on your next song, for example, would be a good idea - most of the songs you've been making (or at least the ones I've been reviewing :P) sound very similar and so I'm having less and less to say about a song - my reviews are becoming shorter! :( They're still great songs and your style hasn't become boring yet, but still, just a thought. ;)

You know, I still can't find that MIDI. It all blends together so well - what was it? The lead seemed to stick out the most to me...

Anyway... a 9, 5, (right away this time! :D) and a download. :) Keep up the great work, Pulstate.

Pulstate responds:

Thanks mate, i do agree it was a bit crowded, couldn't master the synth's much more unless i wanted the song volume to go down which i didn't because i'd lose alot of energy. The midi is called, Vision84 - Highway Central. It can be found on http://www.nonstop2k.com and was made the the member named SYQ. Hope that helps.

I'm trying a new style for my next track, lots and lots of percussion, echoing everywhere! It will be released also, so maybe it won't be on here, but i'll get you a 96kps version somehow.

The new track will be called, '' Now To Beyond. ''

Meanwhile, i'm working on a remix for Karybde & Scylla for release also, so i'm VERY busy indeed.

Working on 2 songs at once requires the maximum of patience.

Thanks for the review mate. :)

[NH22 - Acid Rain]

Heh, long time no review indeed.

So here's a little something for you.

Hey, it's Vanguard! Enjoying it? :P Unfortunately, the quality explodes with that sliding synth, and everything's falling apart and clipping like it's at max volume with Fruity Blood Overdrive on Master, also maxed out...XD what happened, Nighthawk? Owowow...

Here's a tip: Don't put gates on the bass. XD

It's one huge headache, I'm going to use speakers instead... scratch that, don't want to break them. :(

Melodywise and harmonywise it's great, drums are third-rate as always - you REALLY need to work on those! But otherwise there's no getting around that horrible quality. Please, don't let it happen again... :(

Aah, an interlude at last! With soothing pads and piano compared to the part right before it. MUCH better, really nice. Unfortunately you had to come back to the melody and crazy-low-quality clipping madness part, after all.

Can't give you too high of a score, especially under quality and effort... quality explains itself - but effort... well, it must have sounded like this, if not, worse when you were playing it on FL. Why did you submit it like this? Please say you at least TRIED to fix it... :\

Keep trying, Nighthawk. Hopefully Nova Mortuus is better. Not sure if I'll have to much tos ay about it or if I'll review it at all but I'll definitely listen to it and rate it.

NightHawk22 responds:

you'd see why the quality is so low if you read my response to the previous reviews

[Revenant]

Overdue by a month, but...

But I told you I'd get to it sooner or later, didn't I? :D Hope you didn't mind the wait... heh.

Oriental opening, it's interesting. Very foreign-sounding, and you use instruments creatively, too. Your use of that one string instrument which I'm not going to bother naming is very original.

Next section... the abovementioned string instrument is gone and the chimes are, too. Oh, but they've come back. :P What the... is that that sort of horror-movie effect with the strings to give chills? Here? Woah... completely changed the song. O_O Interesting, I really wasn't expecting that. It almost worked, but it was more than a bit too loud and could have been made quieter.

One thing I found not so good with the song was that it tended to repeat itself, especially in the beginning. Maybe you could have taken the chimes a bit farther, for example, or continued and built on that short flute melody. (Of course, if this were to be for a game, you could almost completely disregard this paragraph - a gamer's attention is rarely fully to the music, after all.)

Not much else to say, it was an interesting song. :) Good job, keep up the good work.

MeteorSuit responds:

You're right about it being for a game. That's what I imagined. Thanks a lot, again!

[Your The One (OriginalMix)]

The opening's got me impressed already. :D

I especially love that choir-like pad, and those percussive effects behind the kick are great... and now some more are filtering in. Yep, this is like Nova and Higher Force, and Oxygen and One Wish, only souped up ten times with awesomeness.

Still, though, I have to comment on the melody in the beginning - of its two parts, the second seems a bit... off-key. A note is clashing somewhere... bah. Oh well, while it's not quite as good as it could have been, though as the song progresses, it begins to fit more.

What an interlude and buildup! I spent most of it typing the above paragraph but here's the part where the kicks hit very fast and hard, (16th notes, I think, building up) getting louder each hit. :D Love it. And now there's the classic Pulstate setup which hasn't gotten old. :) Won't for a LONG time, it's great.

Not much to say about the end of the song - but what a LONG reeverb! I might be off by a little or a lot, but it felt like nearly 30 seconds to me. :O Was that really necessary? You could have faded it out after enough time. Aah, well.

Well, Pulstate... you never fail to impress with these. :D Downloaded, voted 5... what the heck, here's a 10 overall just because you worked so hard. XD Keep up the great work, as always.

Pulstate responds:

Thanks mate, unfortunately, it's been zero'd. :(

[Pulstate - Life Ahead (OM)]

Heh, first review for you in a while.

I haven't been able to keep up but I've been listening to your stuff, don't worry. I like One Wish a lot. :D

The introduction reminds me of Oxygen, except a bit harder, of course. Woah, what was that weird, scream-like effect? Odd. But okay.

You introduced a bass just now and I feel, instead of jumping in, it could have been filtered in somehow. Would've sounded much better, I think.

Here's the piano, of course... it's nice. Not much to say but there's a bit of a quiet interlude later on. Is this the start of the buildup to the climax? I hope so. Aah, here it is, I think, as there's a ton of tension that's waiting to build. That's the perfect buildup synth, right there. :D Now, do you even know what I'm talking about? XD It repeats itself during the snare roll... you know? It's a LONG snare roll, by the way!! XD

Breathy effects. And now here everything comes in, yeah, it's the big climax! :D I should say though that it doesn't sound so... powerful enough. It's good, but after that snare roll that lead should have become more... out there. Louder, more aggressive. Do you know what I mean? It would have been a much better climax, I think, had you changed it to fit. In my opinion, buildup synths don't quite fit too well in climaxes... so change it up a bit. :P

Don't have much else to say, Pulstate, great work on this song! Here's my 5. :) Looking forward to more...

Pulstate responds:

Thanks mate. :)

[_-={Lacrioso's Breeze}=-_]

Woah, lucky! Both of you! :D

Who knew you'd get first on the weekly top 5? Don't know how much this matters to either of you but hey, it's gotta mean something, right? :P It's a really good song. Time to review it... >:)

It's a grand-sounding intro, giving me the image of a king, regally making his entrance at last into a ceremony of great importance. Everyone takes their hats off before the king and bows. And it's a strong image, too.

And now a very nice, long piano solo. It's also great - and is it Lacrioso's composition? Heh, I've got to say you're lucky to collab with someone so talented with it. (And Lacrioso's lucky to collab with you. :D)

Ah, here comes a choir. And strings now. They're a bit overpowering. Now, the problem is the low ranges the piano's in here gets mixed with the choirs, and overpowered by the strings, and it becomes hard to hear. There's also a bit of fuzzy quality due to clashing notes which happens... at the end of the eighth measure after the strings come in, I think.

Hmm. This is so different from what I normally hear from you - true, it's a collab and I should expect it, but still - I hardly get any image at all other than the aforementioned one of a king, and that one's of the introduction. :\ One came to mind just now, actually - while I don't get much from the piano solo, I do get the image of an aged man sitting down and reflecting on his life. But that's it, unfortunately. :( Happens sometimes, I guess.

Still hope you enjoyed this review - it's a great song. Keep making the great stuff, Maestro. :D

MaestroRage responds:

I'll try to keep entertaining teh people as long as I can!

As for the piano composition. The first 10 seconds or so along with the entire string intro was entirely of Lacrioso's doing. He showed me this song a while back and I asked him to let me try and continue the piano piece to give me practice on creating piano works.

He accepted, and the rest is me trying to stay with the flow. I lost myself and put in a choir/string section at the end, because I just couldn't help it :D

Thank you for the review Karco. it's true, sometimes the imagery just doesn't come. I don't blame you, happens to me sometimes too. I'm glad you liked it ^^.