Ninjkabat's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[.:Silent Night (Brass):.]

Very capable

This is a great royalty free version of a public domain song. I see no reason why it won't be used in Christmas themed flashes in the future.

Great work. You did a very capable job.

camoshark responds:

Thanks alot, thought I'd have liked the zero-bombers to think the same!

This is very pertinent criticisme, I like it very much!

Cheers,
Samuel Hébert

[[S,J] Spectral [WIP]]

All over the place

The song is too all over the place; it doesn't know when it wants to be. There's no real beat (I tried to pretend the bass beats were dotted quarters to no avail) and no meter. I even tried to count in fives, sixes and sevens, but couldn't find a rhythmic pattern.

Also, aside from the rhythmic apathy, there seems to be no real unifying theme or phrases that helps me to identify the song. The whole thing gives the impression of someone randomly pressing keys on an overdistorted Casio. Work on you composition before you worry about the levels of your tracks, but having a balanced song will help it to be more popular.

I could see this being used in some sort of acid-trip flash, but not really much else.

SmithCommaJohn responds:

The time signature is in 5/4, like Jealous One and Five Time Seven; it gets complex at times, but when you get a good blend in percussion, it sounds amazing.

As for the 'random' composition, it's more or less organized chaos. It has a particular key structure, and it has a point in everything.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it, but the good news is that I have more accessible songs available as well.

[~ Joy Giver ~]

A much better use of your tallents

I believe that this song is a pretty good use of your tallents. There was nice parallel rhythm structure running throughout, a very classic chord progression, and the background drums really added to the song. There were only a few things that rhythmically felt like they didn't fit upon first listen, but I can't even hear them anymore.

It's quite catchy, upbeat, and transitions pretty nicely as a loop from the end back to the beginning. Overall, much better than your mercinaries 2 song. I would stick with this style of music if I were you; you seem to have more flare for it.

Catstuffer responds:

LOL, my mercenaries 2 song was just something I felt like doing.... I never tried overdubbing onto another song before, just thought I'd give it a try

[~ Mercenaries 2 Theme Rem]

It felt contrived

Yes, I believe contrived is the perfect way to describe this submission. It was an interesting idea to add a beat to the song, but one that has already been done with more success. It just felt as if what you added to the song didn't actually add to the song at all.

It started off promising enough. The simple beat was pretty fine, with the build up during the first verse and the good instrumentation. But as soon as the melodic trance chords were added in during the first chorus, I was turned off of the song. The descant was overbalanced, in unison, and didn't really do anything interesting rhythmically or melodically. For the most part, the descant just followed the singing melody with arbitrary cyncopation thrown in. I think this is the reason it feels contrived. It's like you took an ok idea and tried to stretch it without putting much thought into it.

Anyway, I'm sorry to be your lowest review score, but I believe that this accurately describes what the song deserves. It's just not that amazing and makes me lose interest after one chorus. And it's a song that has held my interest all the way through in the past, so I think the bottom line is that your addition makes the mercinaries' song worse. Just because something can be done doesn't mean that doing it is a good idea.

Catstuffer responds:

I thought It was pretty sweet, and I have been getting good feedback from it on teh net, and from friends, but sure, I thank you for your opinion and feedback, My goal wasn't to make a new song out of this, just to add to it

[Burning Heart [Hardcore]]

A little rhythmically spaztic.

Well, an interesting work. I will definitely give it that. It would make a nice backdrop to a very action packed sequence in a game both because of it's high tempo and classic, almost 16-bit, instrumentation. The instrumentation before the tempo change was a little contrived sounding, and didn't really serve to draw me into the piece. But that improved after the tempo change to the 190 BPM section with the addition of a driving percussion section and a synthesized descant that served as the melody for the remainder of the song.

Now, the descant, while melodically fitting, felt a little rhythmically spaztic to me and my percussion-trained ears. I can't descern a very clear or standard accent pattern in the descant, which just overall gives the piece the feeling of being slapped together. I am sure that this is just my interpretation due to years of rhythmical training, and that the normal person wouldn't listen with such detail to the lack of precise accents. But I just couldn't tell what pattern was being attempted. In particular, at the end of the patern, there's an accent pattern that starts out in straight tripplets, but then ends the last accent slightly behind the beat, ending the phrase in sixteenth note tripplets. Even the opening accent patern, seemingly trying to accomplish a straight "1 + a" feeling, is slightly behind the beat and slurred beyond ordinary recognition.

Again, I know that this nitpicking of interpretation of rhythm is something that will not be covered by many reviewers out there. But my main point of nit picking the accent pattern is that the lack of a clear pattern gives the descant a general feeling of being behind the beat. And this clashes with the other instruments, which play on the front of the beats to keep the pulse driving. So, with the drum track pushing time, and the descant dragging it, the piece just has a certain sense of conflicting with itself and tearing apart.

But it is a nice piece, especially when the descant isn't playing: a nice chord progression, good accent patterns in the other instruments, and nice choice of instrumentation overall. It's just this descant that makes the drummer in me cringe because the piece doesn't feel solid and together.

mechanoid-9 responds:

ZOMG I honestly don't understand a word out of this X_X I've never learned music in school (there were some music/singing lessons... only I didn't ever pay attention ^^') so I really don't know what you're talkin about. However I'll try to extract the meaning... you mean the arpeggio pattern is too chaotic?(descant = the arpeggio here?) If yes... well it was meant to be chaotic, I put together one half of the pattern then copied it and randomized it till it sounded good to me, then copied it three times, making four pitches in a loop (this also sounds like blabla but at least I understand it). I didn't bother about making a clear pattern. However if this is not what you mean then I dunno what ^^' Thanks for the review anyway. I'll try to improve the... whatever... eeerm... yeah, that. (perhaps an explaining pm? in a more common language?:)

[Canton's Theme]

I hear the inspiration

I can definitely hear the Danny Elfman inspiration. What really gives it that feel is the bass line going "middle up down up," which gives the whole thing a bit of a circus feel. And the melody also is pretty on with his style. A little different resolution in the chord progression, but, like, having the strings playing that descant up top near the end is really good.

And the synth you used is quite good. The instrumentation was awesome. All in all, I think you accomplished what you set out to do.

[.::Trance-a-lot::.]

Pretty repetative

While I like the generic beat you have established by using the old sixteenth-sixteenth-eighth note pattern, I think that pattern gets a little boring after a while. There is some nice instrumentation, especially with the distortion of the chord every once in a while, but overall it just needs a little bit more than a repetative melody with some ambient distortion going on above it.

Although, it would make a nice loop for a character select screen or something of the like.

[Aphasiaphile]

How relaxing

Well, I definitely feel like I've been miditating all day. The nice use of synthesised chimes in this song gives it a very laid back feeling that makes me wonder if it shouldn't be in the "Ambient" genre.

The author makes good use of reverb and syncopation, which makes the song have an uplifting and floaty feeling. I also like the choice of tempo, because it easily could have been too fast, but it's just right.

Anyway, if you're looking for a nice relaxing electronic piece, this is one that would be awesome to wake up to in the morning.

Creamy-T responds:

im no good with the genres on here =(

thanks for the in depth review though, lotsa feedback i can use.