m1kclark's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[-|FROST|-]

Emotion

You claim a "cold" feel, but I honestly think this song has much more emotion in it than I expect from trance electronica. You start with feeling, and never abandon it even when the music gets heavily percussive. The best part, to my ear, is at around 2:00 when the percussion threatens to overwhelm the tonal music, you throw in discordant notes to add that extra feeling of desperation. The song always tells a story with added motion, instead of being just a deep beat with music. Love it.

15thDimension responds:

Thats very true, songs can describe things words cannot.

[{425} Wasted]

Needs fleshing out

This piece is an assembly of some excellent musical ideas that are all under-developed and awkwardly combined. It reminds me of the NG "collaborative" flash animations, where some stuff is too short to be interesting, and the differences in style but similar theme just throw you off.
You've got two awkward transitions at 0:45 and 1:39 that used a slower drum beat; those parts should last longer because they sounded like cool ideas. And 1:45-2:25 doesn't fit; it's empty so it has no energy, but it's too noisy to be the "quiet part". Either beef it up, or reduce the instrumentation.
Finally, why the one major chord in the last segment? Switching from minor to major is cool, but that's not what you did - you changed *one chord*. It's jarring.
Globally, the separate sections should be more different from each other to give contrast, or more similar to each other to make the song cohesive. I know you put a lot of effort into the instrumentation, but just a little more effort into the music would have made a bigger difference.

Michael425 responds:

First off, thank you for a great review. I don't mind anyone giving me zeros as long as the go into detail on why I "should die in a fire".

I was stuck in a hard place with this song. I had a bunch of great separate tunes and needed a way to blend them together while staying around 3 minutes long.

I was hoping that the transitions at 0:45 and 1:39 would be supported by the main high lead synth.

As for the section lacking energy, I agree with you. It could use more to beef it up. It was a difficult section because that is where the tune change begins.

For the ending I didn't want to drastically change the tune, but instead just give it a different feel. It's supposed to leave the listener with a different feeling from the beginning.

Thank you for the analysis you put into this review. It was very helpful.

~{425}~

[Tetris [Techno]]

Monophony

There frankly aren't enough voices. Others have mentioned "something missing", and that's the harmonies. The 8-bit Ninteno Tetris music had three toned voices: melody, alto, and bass. It was composed (using counterpoint and voice leading) to make the music sound really full with few voices.
Your track has only a melody and a drastically simplified bass line. That's gonna sound empty, no matter what instruments you use. Using the original voicing would improve this piece. Or even make your own original harmonies!

[{dj-N} Theory of Everything XL]

Wonderful dualism

Briefly: fantastic composition.

In depth: The very beginning actually reminded me of Thomas Newman's soundtrack music (e.g. the more upbeat lines from 'American Beauty' and 'Shawshank Redemption'), specifically because you chose a soft piano. The next line with the synth strings and the harder piano take it up a notch, destroying the Thomas Newman image of flawed, stagnant beauty. Then the club percussion kicks in, feeling dark, heroic, and forceful. But behind the club is the original theme, sometimes with the original piano. It's as if sadness is somehow providing motivation for action and motion. The image in my head, oddly, is of a grown-up Haley Joel Osmond suddenly thrust into the world of the Matrix and trying to make his way among the chaos. The remainder of the song was thoughtful, but driven, always referencing that original feel but covering it with a dancing, animalistic rhythm. It shifts between two ideas: the thoughtful confusion of the piano and the determined certainty of the club sound, and it ends with a quiet mix of both transitioning to an ambiguous and toneless noise that merely fades instead of a final conclusion on either sadness or certainty. This above all leaves the entire song open-ended.
The progression of the whole song is a wonderful story-like arc without having a story, full of promise and imagination and open to infinite interpretations. That's why I think it appeals to so many people!

[neon2]

"Movement"

Excellent work, on both parts!
Part 1 sounded static, like a video game menu or the background to an art exhibit, i.e. "Ambient". The one moves more, experiences more fundamental changes, and implies something is actually going on. This would be the background to a moving art exhibit, like in a science center or planetarium.

[Fight For Your Rights!]

2 instruments?

Good foundation for something, but too simple to stand alone.

[28-X : The Remix]

Lacks focus

(This review reflects my personal taste in music.) I like the motif that continues throughout the song, but neither the beat nor the motif ever develop into something with focus. What I mean is, each bar of the piece feels like it's trying to introduce something: it's too ambient-style for my liking.

Excellent instrumentation, though!

TheSoulOfTails responds:

Everyone has ther opinion :D