Knuckstrike's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[How to be a Monster]

It doesn't sound like something serious, especially now I've read the author comments. However, you want a real review so here is one.

I'm not starting off negative. It's your first audio submission, so it's nice that you want to sumbit something. It's also good to hear that the younger ones are interested in Newgrounds as well. :)
It was short, but 470kb is still pretty small for audio. Good job on that.

I'll have to point out the obvious though: your cousin is barely hearable. If you can tell him to talk clearer and a bit further away from the microphone it would sound less horrible to the ears.
Maybe you could post the "lyrics" in the author comments so we know what he's saying.
It wasn't completely unhearable though. I managed to hear everything after listening to it a few times.

For next time, it would also be better if there was a bit more time spent on the story. It didn't really have an end. But what bothered me most was the "and then, and then". I guess you can't help that with a story written by someone so young, but it does take away from the quality.

Review request club

JimmyTheCaterpillar responds:

Lol. Thanks Knuckstrike.

[[NLC] Truth]

It starts off with clear bell sounds. This is almost a habit of you. Not that I mind though, it's nice to have some sort of personal thing that often returns in your songs. Again it makes a good intro. Something calm which you can break later with percussion.
This bell sound didn't give me pain in the ears at the start, but it was good that you slowly took it out. For start because it gives that difference between calm and percussion, and because the song sounds more like a D&B track because of that.

The softer part after 0:48 sounds well. I don't know why you picked that race car sound, but it actually fitted there. A good addition.
What I like less is the drums coming in at 1:01. It throws the song off a bit. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but it pulls in all the attention. That, and each time a hit of the drum sounds just before the start of a new beat, which sounds a bit irritating.

I really loved the drums at 1:55 and onwards though. It's not spectacular, but a good beat before the end. When the electronic sound comes in at 2:18 it becomes the best part of this song IMO.

I liked the ending. It wasn't just a fade-out, you kept one instrument "alive" and stopped the rest. Maarten's idea of an echoing snare drum would make it even better though. After all, nobody's perfect. ;)

Apart from that drum thing it's a good song. You picked the right instruments to mix together. The main melody is good, something I hadn't heard before. Actually, the whole song doesn't have familiar elements, apart from the structure (calm part, loud part, calm part). Originality is always a plus.

Review request club

KrisKrosNL responds:

Ha ha, that bell is something you always hear in my original work. :P

I was looking for a good transition, so that race car sound came into being.

I, myself, feel uncomfortable about the drums at 1:01. I should have changed the beats. -_-

Thanks for the review. A drum problem solved is always worth it. :P

[Lance Battle RMX WIP]

This is one of the most remixed songs of all pokemon games. Rightly, because in my eyes it's the most epic Pokémon song. Not to mention the one I have the most memories of. I have heard this over fifty times in both the original Pokémon Silver version as well as in the more modern Heartgold game, so it's nice to finally hear a song from you of which I really know how the original sounded.

I love how at the start there is a difference between the clear bell sound and the more dark sounding instrument. You should definitely keep that in the final version, if you're going to make one.
The best part in this song is the part from 0:25 to 0:40. Amazing how well the climax builds up. A climax that sounds like it's faster than the rest of the song is the perfect build-up for the chaotic part that comes next. In fact, it would be a great build-up for almost any part that's the main part of the song. Whatever you're going to do with the part that comes next, keep this build-up in the song.

From here on it seems to get more and more chaotic up until the ending theme. I liked most of it, even up until 1:27. From 1:23 to 1:27 it still sounds structured and epic. But from 1:27 and onwards (until 1:49) it's too chaotic. And the notes are too high at the beginning of that part.

I wouldn't mind if you delete/rewrite those 22 seconds entirely. I think it is supposed to act as the end of the piece of music, but you don't need that since you have the quiet battle end music which already acts as an end.
That ending song is just fine. If you would put that right after the epic/hard part it may give a nice surprise effect.

Just an idea: you can also try to cut off the last four seconds and keep the volume of the ending the same as the rest of the song. I don't know if you want the last note to echo or not.
It's probably a bad idea, and I don't say you should. I was just wondering if that would sound good too.

Anyway, this is for me the best of all your songs. It's a song I have always liked, and you did well remixing it. You should keep every instrument you used. They all add to the epic feeling this song has, and is supposed to give.
I don't mind that it's chaotic: it fits with the majority of the song. Be careful with that part just before the battle ending theme though. It gets a bit too chaotic there, even for this song.

And one final note: I'm sorry if I used the word "part" too often in this review. It's my new word that I use very often while reviewing. :)

Best of luck with your final version of this song.

Review request club

KrisKrosNL responds:

I'm planning of removing the end part (it just doesn't sound right).

The part after 1:27 will be removed from the final version. :P There will be a similar, longer rhythem playing instead of a lame stop.

This is probably the longest review you've written for any of my works. :P

Thanks for the review.

[[NLC] The Liberaten]

This is your first non-remix, right? It must be hard to think of a song like this by yourself.

This has a very simple intro. That's fine, and fitting for an intro, but I would've liked some more instruments to back it up later. During almost the whole song only one distinctive instrument plays. Your melody can be amazing, but it will still get repetive if you do that.

I don't know why, but there seems to be a difference in how precise the time between two notes is from 0:28-0:58 and 0:59-1:33. I like the second part more, as it seems a bit more professional and tight there.

Then came the "effect spamming", as Maarten said it. I don't know how to call it, so I'll just name it like that. It wasn't irritating, but to say if it sounded nice... not really.

I don't like this song as much as your other songs, mainly because there is less in it. It doesn't sound as full as your other songs. It's not a bad song, as there isn't a thing that's really bad about this song, but nothing attracts me to it either.

Review request club

KrisKrosNL responds:

Yep; non-remix.

I couldn't add extra instruments since my old laptop couldn't handle the amount of RAM it was using. Now with this new laptop, I'll try to make it sound more specific.

Indeed, you've noticed the off-key zones. I've already noticed this but never payed enough attention to actually correct it. I'll be working on the re-noting.

[City Vibes]

I like the creepy feeling it gives at the start. Because of that there was a large difference between the intro of the song and the rest. Not a bad thing though.
After about halfway down the song it became a bit too flat and more of the same, so I didn't like that part as much.

After listening to it a few times, I finally noticed why this song was called city vibes. Nice use of the sound effects. :)

Everything sounded well, there was a nice build-up, and the sound effects thrown in keep the song entertaining, so this song definitely deserves a four. Either make it a bit shorter, or indeed make it more powerful.

Review request club.

Hikari responds:

I love you

[Not Enough {Dj-Abbic}]

The starting beat is fine. Just a beat is a pretty nice way to start. What I do have, all the way until 0:53, that I did get a bit bored with the basic beat that almost stands on its own. If you cut half of this, I don't think it would take away anything from the great quality of this song.

When the real melody came in it immediately starts to sound better. It doesn't sound very clear, but the electric and a bit distorted sound it has sounds nice with the rest of the instruments. Again it continues a bit long, but because this has a bit more to it it doesn't sound as irritating as the starting beat for 50 seconds.

I like the slower parts. I normally have that with a continuous loud beat I turn my volume down, but I don't have that with this song. The calmness of some parts cause that. It's also a climax for the somewhat louder parts. Good job on this.

One of the climaxes builds towards 2:45, definitely the real house part of this song. I feel like that's the core part of the song, and it's really good. The variation of instruments makes it exiting, almost like the beat is faster there. And that's something I like in a song. The title doesn't say anything about this part :).

The ending is very creative. At first I thought it would just be the music playing softer and softer, but that isn't the case at all. Awesome work on that. It is something I haven't heard in a song before.

The only flaw about this whole song is that a lot of the parts go on too long. The whole part from 4:15 to 6:37 is basically the same, but with an instrument left out every thirty seconds.

It's a really good song overall though. It almost deserves a perfect score.

Review request club

DjAbbic responds:

I understand what you mean by the intro/outro being very long. I made it that way because I followed the standard club layout (long intro and outro for easy DJ mixing), but now I see that 4:15 to 6:37 is just a tad too much :P. I might change it but then again, I might not.

Thanks a lot for the constructive review! I really appreciate it.

[DJ Dela - Elite (Original]

Great

The starting beat is nice. It didn't last too long, and gradually builds up.
The whole building up, in fact, was very well done. It did take too long though. At 1:30 the first real house/dubstep music started, and I would've liked it more a bit earlier in the song.

Overall there's nothing in peticular I think is wrong with this song. Everything sounds nice, the intro and the end are well built up, and the little dubstep sounds in it fit nicely. It was a bit boring though, since there was not much variation in those five and a half minutes. If you could make a two minute version of it, it would be less repetive, and I think you can still fit all those sounds and things in it that make this song sound nice.

Still, it's a nice song, and certainly deserves an 8

review request club

DJDela responds:

This is not dubstep dude, just electro.
Well, I don't know what do you expect out of a song, but I don't think that it was repetitive (and I really made lots of repetitive songs). :(
I respect your review, I don't bash at people if I get less that 10, as long as it's helpful, and yours really is.
Thank you.

[FijiWiji - Insomnia (HT remix)]

Great

I like how this sounds a bit more clear than the original. The soft melody sounds really well. Dubstep is not my favorite music genre, so I liked that it wasn't too clear and loud.
A negative point about that is that it makes the change to dubstep less sudden. That is one of the things that gives the original character, and this doesn't have that now.
Still, everything sounds nice, and I like how you made the intro and the fade-out quiet and with few instruments. Since there's nothing in this song that's wrong, you definitely get an eight.

Review request club

HyperTrough responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I'll try to emphisise the drop more next time :)

[Simplicity of trance]

Writing this while still listening

Making a song 10 minutes is nice, and takes a lot of time. Props to you for that. A negative point about that though, is that it can get very repetive. This is no exception to that.

The changes like the one at 1:11 make that feeling less though. It is very sudden, which I do think you should change, but it's still a variation.
The beat in that second part is really what makes a difference from the first part. It's a good effect that the main melody stopped for just a tenth of a second each time there was a beat, but the BPM (about 140?) is too high for that to continually sound nice. The melody didn't change enough between two beats to make it flow.

Still, when I skip through other pages, I really liked this as a background music. When you don't focus on critisizing, you can hardly hear any odd sounding stuff. In that way, it would fit perfect as a background music. It wouldn't sound different if you made it three minutes and a loop though.

Review request club

cecilyokami responds:

Background music, never really thought about it but
Thanks

[[NLC] Waluigi Pinball]

Great remix

I remember this music very well from Mario Kart DS. Although it wasn't my favorite music, I still liked it.

I liked how you started off with kind of a "question and answer" style, with a completely different sound for the question and the answer. The difference between those parts is significant, which gives a nice effect.

The whole song is happy and energetic enough to keep me interested. The part at the end is nice, and though maybe a bit too energetic, still nice.

It isn't perfect though, mainly because it was still a lot of the same thing. Not too irritating, but still repetive. You partly fixed that by adding the last bit though.
And, as mentioned before, an ending/intro specially for this song is always better than just a fade-out or a fade-in. (Is that a word, by the way?)

Review request club.

KrisKrosNL responds:

I know that fading in/out wasn't the best that I could put in this song. Appretiate your review, though. :P