m1kclark's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[A Priori]

The ambiance is incredible. There is no theme to determine the mood, so it's completely open to interpretation. It seems overall optimistic, but is soft enough to allow for sadness. The added noise is an excellent touch, suggesting chaos in the background and that this music described a moment in time that is separate from the mundane world and connected to something much, much bigger. I think it's wonderful, and I'm happy to see you keep uploading things, sir.

Slug-Salt responds:

You are to kind, I hope you are well my friend!

[[HP] Artificial Nature]

Nice mixture of timbres

As a background for a game, this is perfect. The piano and strings lend it beauty and emphasize the dramatic impact of what the player sees, but the omnipresent percussion give the song some drive and impetus to match the movement and task-oriented nature of the game.

It would make a poor song for a puzzle game, RPG, or RTS, but it is perfect for a visually striking FPS or 3rd-person adventure. The scope of the music also suggests a 3D game, rather than a side-scroller, because of the level of detail and the sense of space that the reverberations give. It's truly perfect for its goal. Hats off, sir!

ZaronX responds:

I honestly find RPGs and side scrollers to make the most use of music and crank out the more memorable tunes in gaming (but maybe it's time to change that?), and think 2D can get a lot of depth into a world in its own way. You pair the right elements together, and dimensions or even genre don't matter anymore; you're in this world now! And that is how a well-designed game should be!

The question being if I can pull that off. x:

[F-777 - "Life"]

Unfortunate coincidence

The musical content is very nice, a good sample of the genre and of your talent for combining sounds, and I like other works of yours for this reason. But it suffers as a result of a random coincidence.

There's another song "Frost" on NG (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/list en/385985) that uses many of the same instruments and even some of the same melodic motifs and general structure choices. I've been listening to "Frost" for a year or two now, so it's really familiar to me. The similarities to "Frost" cheapen your new song in my ears. It's unfair, actually, because if the order had been reversed and I heard "Life" before "Frost", I'd feel like the other guy's song was cheapened for being to similar to your work.

The take-home message is this: it's a great composition, but you might want to get experimental with new instruments, sound fonts, and filters. With all the users on NG submitting music, it's hard to remain unique when several people are using the same exact toolboxes.

F-777 responds:

Thanks for the review!! I listened to the song and havn't found a single
same sound XD. The chord progression is the same but its used in
a million songs. Actually i can name 20 off the top of my head hehe.

I do appreciate the note though =).

Thanks again for the review!

[Acid Paradox - Progressive]

Echo all good reviews below, plus ...

Triplets FTW. That really, really added texture to the sound!

And I absolutely loved the moment at 2:22. "Yey!"

Acid-Paradox responds:

Yeah man, triplets are the best thing in the universe.

Awesome

Ruben-Acid Paradox-

[Enemies (industrialnoiser]

Wonderful contrast

The harshness of the instruments and even the content of the lyrics is very dark, which is at odds with the nice-sounding melodies and progressions, particularly in the chorus. I love the harmonies on "dissatisfied", like poetic irony in music. Excellent stuff.

LupeGarcon responds:

It's all in the textures, man. Writing this song was more about planning the shifts more than creating the music itself. I'm not a big fan of overdubbing multiple vocal parts, but i will admit it paid off here. Thanks for giving me your valuable time.

[-|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}~

[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