Esn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[River Song]

Imaginative

I could really see the river rushing past. The texture (the feel) of the song was very well-done.

The chords kept things pretty interesting too, though there was one just before 0:50 that seemed to go nowhere, and the ending was a little too repetitive.

A nice and unique piece, overall.

By the way, did you use the GPO to make the instrument sounds? I only own Finale 2007, so I don't know if this applies, but you might be able to select different "playing styles" for the playback. The sound wasn't bad, but it probably could've been a little better too. It sounded like all of the dynamic highs and lows were equalized, for some reason.

Mattmaestro responds:

Hey, thanks for your feedback.

No, actually I did not use GPO. I borrowed Finale from a friend and for one reason or another I don't have the GPO installed on my computer. All I can use is 'Smart Music,' I believe is the name?
So yeah, I'm not sure where I can download or get Garritan Personal Orchestra but I want to. The sound quality with that is superior.

[Good Night]

Interesting

Some sections (particularly when the guitar first starts up 6 seconds in) were a bit too disharmonious for me, but a lot of the time it was pretty interesting. The chromatic sequence or whatever that was was pretty good. I also particularly liked that section 54 seconds in which sounds like the aftermath of an explosion.

[Where are you Going]

I like it.

It reminds me of some of the Star Control II MOD tracks, which I'm a big fan of. I do wish that you developed it a bit more rather than just repeating it halfway through, though.

Still, I wish there was more stuff I like this. I'll keep voting "4" for a while until your score rises (well, I'm going on holiday for a week, so after that).

:)

[<SK> - Grocers]

A nice little song

This is a very nice little composition, and is pretty different from most stuff on the audio portal (that I've come across, at least). The melody is great, and the instrumentation couldn't be improved.

The only thing I would want to improve is the sound quality - it would be nicer if it was a bit deeper. I don't know why, but it sounds just a little flattened and "tiny", almost like an old record (missing the fullness of sound in the lower register - no tiny echo for the low notes).

[Crazy Voice Trumpet Solo]

This was hilarious!

Seriously, thank you for bringing some levity to my day. :)

That was just awesome, really funny, and the trumpet imitation particularly was spot-on. The "9" is for some slight scratchiness in the sound, especially in the low register.

sorohanro responds:

thanx for review and good marks, as for the the"slight scratchiness" in low register... well, i don't really have a good voice, i had to retune some sounds :))

[Dream Machine (feat. Bamsukka)]

Nice

I have no idea how to review an ambient song, to be honest. I've never made one, and I don't listen to ambient music usually (my attention span isn't long enough. I don't really like using music as just background noise, but prefer to give it my full attention). The structure was quite hard to figure out. I vaguely noticed about three different sections, though I'm probably wrong about that.

But in any case, this was quite pleasant to listen to. The overall sound texture throughout the piece was very nice, and I liked the little barely-heard background sounds that you had in places.

Gillenium responds:

Thanks for the review! Yeah, this is one of my most "ambient" ambient songs... if that makes sense. Everything fades in and out and the structure is difficult to figure out. I like it that way, though. This is a song that you can sit down and listen to with full attention, because there are so many parts. Plus, it can put you in a dreamlike state! It does that to me anyway..

[The Journey Home]

some comments

(+1.12)

Man, the score for this piece was way too low.

I really thought that the melody in the first minute was too repetitive, even though the harmonies were nice. It seemed like it was just repeating over and over again with no end in sight. I'd recommend adding some different notes to the melody (within the harmonic structure).

The second half of the piece was a lot nicer and largely made up for the first half, but I suspect that many of the impatient listeners on this website didn't bother to listen that far.

[SPACE WALK]

Very hypnotizing

I really like this. Any analysis that I try to give will look really stupid ("I like the bubbly sounds" :p ), so I'll just leave it at that. :)

It really does convey the proper mood!

[(dj-b) Medieval Times Final]

Some comments

I liked the oboe or whatever that was about 1 minute in. It made for a nice ending.

You have some fairly good ideas in here. The biggest thing I would suggest is to change the pitches of some of those fast notes when you have a different long note playing in the bass rather than keeping them exactly the same throughout the whole piece. That would avoid the dissonances, create more logical harmonic progressions and would sound nicer (to my ears anyway).

[Noiz - The Land of Crying Sand]

Good work

I probably wouldn't call this classical, but then I'm not exactly sure what else to call it! Anyway, it's a pretty appealing piece. The harmonies were quite interesting, and the sound texture especially was very good. The only thing I didn't really like was the constant repetition of the piano part - I wish there was some more variety, but I can understand that it's part of the style. I just don't happen to like that particular stylistic element (which I often also hear in rap songs).

Come review my latest piece if you have the time. ;)