Knuckstrike's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[NLC] Basshunter (WIP Remix)]

A remix of a remix

It actually sounded nice.

What I liked is how you made a soft song from a powerful techno song. I haven't heard the original before, so I listened to that one first.
I must say that I wasn't a fan of the quietness at the start, but when you put a few extra instruments in it (e.g. the echoing instrument) it sounded well together.

The simple melody is good because of the dance feeling it can create, but of course don't let it get too repetive. I agree with MaartenC that it didn't get too repetive. But adding another instrument would make it even better.

It's good how you changed the song in the end though. You should keep that in if you are ever going to make a next version of this. And by that part I mean the part from 2:49. That's probably my favorite part in the whole song. It's to most complete there. And nice work on the transition there.

The clapping at 3:06 was a nice addition. I had hoped you put that a bit earlier in the song though, along with one or two extra instruments. It gives each part a bit of a different feeling, which is important in a song for me.

Review request club

KrisKrosNL responds:

Very epic review of you.

Yeah, you can see by my submittions that I dislike loud sound.

I'm planning to add different instruments and some extra notes on each part.

I'm gonna add the claps at the early two stages, as well. (You know, make it sound a bit lively)

Hmmm, gotta check that out. 2:49...the stall part. Maybe I'm gonna keep that and change the first two parts.

Yes, I will put the claps earlier in the song.

Thanks for the review!

[Kipling - If]

Something you don't see that often.

I have to admit that I don't know what a few words mean in this poem. But I don't think that that isn't necessary. Your voice is very nice for a poem like this, and just hearing it is quite relaxing.

It was a good idea to post the `lyrics` in the author comments. Because I read it with the spoken word, it´s like an audio book. Very professional.
I even learned a few words from the poem.

I wouldn´t mind a very soft background song though. I bet you can find or make something that fits with a nice poem like this.

I haven´t heard from the real writer before, by the way. But he´s certainly a good poet.

Review request club

Coop responds:

Surely you've seen Disney's Jungle Book at some stage in your life? Rudyard Kipling wrote The Jungle Book as well.

I'm after some decent background music for my reading, but even if I could find it, I don't have the skills and / or programs to adapt it.

If you know someone that could, give me a shout, as I have big ideas for 2012!

[[NLC] The Great Sea]

Sounds great once again

The wind waker is one of the only Zelda games I haven't played yet, so I don't know the original. The only time I've heard this song before is in brawl, so I'll compare it to that.

I'm a fan of this song's opening part. At the part where more instruments start to kick in (at 1:41) the song really starts, but I like the part before more. The background music isn't too different from what I've heard before, and certainly as nice, if not nicer.

That doesn't mean the part after isn't nice though. The instruments used are perfect for a song like this. Every one with high notes, and with their own notes.
It sounds like all the notes are a bit higher than the original. That's nice, and it gives the song a little more character, but some notes were a bit too high for my liking.

Another small point of improvement is the repetiveness. Something you can easily get with a song this long is that parts repeat too often. That was the case here too. Everything was nice to listen to, but not exiting enough to listen to three times.

It's a pretty soft song, and it would fit great into the original game. Or at least into what I've heard of the game.

Review request club

KrisKrosNL responds:

The high pitches are done for one reason: a second part, according to the original. I couldn't add a special "third part" since at that time my computer couldn't handle the amount of power it was using. That's basicly the reason why it's repetive. :P

Thanks for the review. :P

[Christmas Rock Medley]

A nice variety of Christmas rock songs

I'm going to review every Christmas song apart.

Jingle bells:
It immediately starts hard. Although I hoped for more of an intro, it's directly clear how it's going to be. The rocking here is good, and the drums fit nicely with the main guitar. What the guitar plays changes enough to not make it boring, but the background music stays the same almost all the time. Since it's quite hard too, it would be better if that changed sometimes too.

Frosty the snowman:
I liked this more than the previous, because the Christmas feeling is more here. The melody is clear, and the guitar sounds nice. Again the background drums are repetive, but it's less boring somehow because the front melody is more on the foreground. Good job on this bit.

The part I forgot the name of:
The original melody stands out a bit more here again, but this time it's still rocking. It's the shortest part, but pretty good. I didn't like that it had the same drum sound as the first part though. Now it started to irritate a bit.

Part I've never heard of before:
I don't know if this is a real Christmas song, but nevermind. It was the nicest part IMO. It had the most original drums, the most variation, and sounded the most like rock. I expected to like a more Christmasy song to be my favorite, but this one is. The fade out is nice here. Instead of the others, it finished nicely. A good ending for the medley.

A small improvement would be a bridge between each of the different medleys. This is because the style changes completely with a different christmas song, and that makes it more of a real medley instead of just a collection of rock Christmas songs.

Review request club.

Thegluestickman responds:

Thank you for such an in-depth review. The last two songs are "Deck the Halls" and "Carol of the Bells", "Carol of the Bells" isn't that popular so that's probably why you never heard it. Appreciate the criticism, hope I will do better next time!

[Under the Stars]

Great

This is just the perfect song for some background music. I can't see how this hasn't been used in a game before.
I think this mainly because I think it sounds really well. It is indeed very calming, and all the small, crystal sounds in it make it complete.

Not just those sounds, but also the trumpet are my favorite part of this song. It just fits very well.

Great job on the very quiet part in the middle too. I recently read that one of the characteristics of ambient music is a small pause in the middle. Nice to hear that in this song too.

And I don't know how you can make six minutes with very slow music not boring, but you did it. Well done.

Review request club

ChineseCommando responds:

Thanks for the review!

[<EagleGuard> Wandering]

Great

It almost sounds like a remix. I hear all those lines that sound familiar. Not a bad thing though. The first few notes from 0:20 sound a bit like the song "I was made for loving you". But that might just be me making odd connections.

The clavinet is an instrument I've never heard before in a song. It gives it a nice effect, and some variation on the rest of the song, which is more dark.

After listening to the whole song again I didn't get bored, which is I think because of the clavinet. I did find that some of the parts were too long and too often, like the part that starts at 0:36, and then again at 2:12 and 3:16. It was a nice part, but not good enough to hear three times in a song.

Compliments on the intro and the end though. They fit well with this piece of music.

Review request club

EagleGuard responds:

Haha, I never noticed similarity you mentioned at the 0:20 part! You're right, it does sound a bit like that song from 'Kiss', but that's purely incidental.

Wasn't too sure about the clavinet when I first put it in, but I'm glad it worked out alright. It was one of the few instruments that I could think of that has a bright, yet 'crisp' sort of sound.

I was really doubting about shortening the parts you mentioned. Guess I should've done that, but oh well. That's something to think of next time ;)

Thanks for the review!

[Zexus - That One Track]

Happy hardcore :D

The simple tune you start with is a nice intro for a dance song. Once the beat starts to kick in, you immediately notice that it's a dance song. These are both positive points. I like happy hardcore, and this almost immediately made me smile.

The most important thing in a dance song is that, of course, you need to be able to dance on it. This song is just perfect for that.
It also loops nice. The fade out isn't too long, which I like a lot.

I do think that there are too many, or too long quiet parts. A dance song doesn't have to be hardcore all the time, but that's what I like most about a song in that genre.

Review request club

[KKS - Parkour Jam]

Great

I'm surprised by the large amount of great music lately. This one is certainly no exception.

I'm not familiar with the D&B genre, so I probably can't say much about it, but I think it starts off pretty good. The rush/adrenaline feeling continues for quite a long time, which is good. The slow bits throughout fit well. I did find it odd that the song got more quiet as the song progressed. You'd expect it to have some sort of climax. It's not a negative point though. More like something special I haven't heard before.

If this is your first step into Drum and Bass, then I really want to know what it's like when you dig into it more. I'm sure that music even more awesome would be created.

Review request club

KKSlider60 responds:

Thank you ^^
From what I've read so far, some people got surprised by this track having 2-3 different themes with little or no connection to one another. I think no track has to be limited to only one kind of melody or structure, since the realm of sounds is so vast and diverse you can't possibly miss the opportunity to paint a greater picture of the whole. I thank you for your expectations about me, and that motivates me to move on and step further into this style.
KKS

[Fluttersphere]

Another pony song :)

You did really well with this piece of music. The calm intro suits the image of Fluttershy, and is a nice way to introduce the rest of the song.

I like it how the rest of the song has a bit more of a beat than the start, but is still calm. It's hard to explain, but you did really well with that. I think that the sound effects add to that. The sound effects aren't too present throughout the song, but just enough to have a nice mixture between the effects and the music. Wonderfully done.

I don't want to say that the effects are what makes this song good on its own though. The beat and music behind it would make a nice song, even without Fluttershy. The whole calm atmosphere that the song has is strengthened even more due to the music being almost silent at some parts.

All those small things make the song really good. In fact, there's nothing I'd like to have changed in this song.

Review request club

TheBellmaker responds:

Thanks for the review! I might make something similar to this with Rarity vocals in the future...

[[NLC] Hyrule Field]

Very good

After listening to the song a few times I read that this is just a demo. A DEMO? I can't remember a demo ever sounding this good.
It helps too that, as you know, Hyrule field is one of my favorite Zelda songs.

It also flows really nice between the three different remixes you did: one of the field, one of an enemy and one of the sunset. I almost didn't notice it changing, and that is a huge compliment. You should definetely keep that change when you put on the real song.
The differences between those three songs were just enough IMO. It wasn't enough to think it doesn't fit, but enough to keep a level of variation throughout the song.

All the different instruments you used and all the different sounds fit well with each other. I love upbeatness, and that's not an exception here.

The only thing I thought didn't sound too well in this song were the three notes you interrupted the song with constantly, starting at 2:36. I did like how two different scales came together at 2:48 though, so try to aim for that sound.

The rest of the song needs no change at all IMO. I'm really curious how you're going to improve this demo though. That will be tough.

Review request club

KrisKrosNL responds:

Hmmm, I'll check on that. And yeah, it's a demo because it sucks like shit (really, the Final Version I'm working on is way better) but I'll be sure to see what I can do with the middle. In fact, I felt a little skeptical about it in the first place. Well, thanks for the review!