WinTang's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Night Terror]

Awesome!

God, that beat is meaner than my Hitler Hacks LINUX one!! XD

Terrific job. Only things were that the interlude was a bit too long for my liking - I was really missing that phat beat there for too long! - and the fade-out which I felt as an uncalled for anticlimax.

The whole arrangement of the samples is wonderful. I'm loving the eerie shards of synth melodies, and the spacy sound FX.

Hey! On repeat, I notice that the string section closely resembles a part of one of the battle tracks from Heroes Of Might And Magic III. Was that intentional?

dj-padman1 responds:

I don't know about your first comment! But I'm flattered you say so, I heaped a lot of distortion and grit on it.

Interlude..you're right..I got carried away with it a bit. Probably wanted 1 or 2 less repeats and maybe some sparse but heavily processed beats. The strings should probably be dropped immediately after the beat comes in.

Live and learn I guess! Glad you liked the synth melodies, it was a fluke that the LFO's worked out like they did, I usually ravage tracks (my own) totally when I start messing around with those things.

I must have a listen to your Heroes of Might and Magic song, I promise you I've never heard it before. It wouldn't surprise me if they're alike, I think we're on a similar wavelength.

Thats scary..for you...:p

Catch ya around.

[I'm Not Coming Down (preview)]

Hmm

I'm not so sure about this, to be honest.

I can see where you're coming from, but that might just be the problem - I feel you're making it too obvious that you're working against the "clarity rules", so to speak. It's mainly the distortion on the hi-hat that I feel is too much in-your-face-lo-fi. The drums are very loud in the mix too, and the combination for me goes just a little beyond acceptable experimentalism, tending toward insulting the listener, and I'm not exactly one to turn down some good old noise.

I do like the whole goofy synth idiom, and the melodies are very good. It would be awesome if you take some time to fugue-ishly build up some weird harmonies using several themes, once in a while resorting to chaotic atonality. Ideas like these are best executed with lots of virtuosity, which I know you're perfectly capable of.

Just my $0.02, of course. And I'll even fifify to counter the zero-voting it already seems to have endured. There's how much I love ya.

Oh and e-mail me about the CD swapping. My e-mail is now in my profile too.

attemptedperfection responds:

thanks for your honesty, and for the review; I haven't exactly put much effort into this, and I guess it shows... I just kinda started out with the idea to use four different bass drums... *shrugs*

[Emeril]

Writing this along with the song, so, incoherent

Dance based around sustaining harmonics! Top stuff. Lovin' the bass. Lovin' the meaner passages with the throbbing synths. Beat is nicely lukewarmly soft, but the kick could've used an edge. Hey! That bassline sounds like the one in "Smack my bitch up"! It's very soothing and uplifting at the same time. It does go on long, but eventually it drifts gently to the back of my mind, and that feels nice.

Check out my song "Sharkpool", it has a melody line that consists entirely of harmonics! :)

Triskele responds:

WOW!!! so sorry it took me so long to respond...we kinda had a nice review exchange goin down! Well, I'll respond now...2 months later lol.

[The Creggan White Hare]

For the love of God!

Tune your guitar (or is a mandolin?) man! Jesus, it fucks up all the interludes! I'm inclined to not review this to teach you a lesson!

But I won't. Because otherwise it's very nice indeed, I hope that's you singing because it's a very special voice... nicely low and warm, and you move freely in the music. Not outstanding in terms of accurately hitting the notes, but I have never cared about that much, and if anything, it helps compensate the out of tune guitar (or is it a mandolin?).

The flute and that other thing (please tell me what that is) are awesome. Is that you too (no U2 pun intended)? You could've turned the vocals up a bit, it's difficult to make out the lyrics at times.

Wow. It's very long indeed. That's courageous of you. Not a lot of people might like this. But I do. Except for the guitar. Or is it a mandolin?

Triskele responds:

Actually, it's a dulcimer...and it's in tune. I'm not very good at playing it though. I'm working on it!

Thing number two = Bagpipe chanter. And I played all the instruments on this, so yeah I played that :)

[Rucklo - I Switch It On]

Contest review!

SuperDrummerStyle review!

Originality - I don't come across this stuff every day, that's for sure. It's really genuine, reminiscent of the Avalanches, but much more minimalistic.
23/25

Clarity - Clear as crystal production, top notch. It's very transparent with all the weirdness going on. It's also worth a compliment that you didn't lose yourself in fancy programming. You build up and ease down very smoothly.
25/25

Diversity - It's diverse enough what with all the sampling, but what saves it from permanently sticking in my mind is that the voice samples, while interesting, don't really seem to be connected to each other. I'm not looking for an epic or something, but it could have risen more above the gimmick.
20/25

Effort - It breathes perfectionism. Would've been perfect in my book if you made the "dialogue" more coherent, but that's probably the only complaint I got. Excellent job.
22/25

23 + 25 + 20 + 22 = 90/100

Rucklo responds:

Yay thanx for the great review man!!! :D

/Rucklo

[HM vs DjVisor || Goa Unlimited]

Contest review!

I'll try to do this SuperDrummerStyle.

Originality - I think it's more crafty than it's original, it follows a basic dance structure. Not that that's a bad thing, because you managed to be quite inventive within that idiom. The "main theme" which the song starts with is very catchy and it's nice to have the beat enter so quickly. The all minor-chord scheme works well too.
22/25

Clarity - A flaw is that some of the synths are slightly out of tune with each other. It may be something not everyone notices, but it makes me cringe sometimes. Especially when the piano engages in a duet with that synth.
Luckily, the production counters this. You put a lot of FX and tricks to good use, without having it sound too virtuous. The rhythm section is solid, but somewhat generic.
19/25

Diversity - is okay, but toward the end it doesn't really sustain in my mind. The use of FX and the melody fragments help keep it interesting, but the beat could've used some more surprises, other than being switched off and on.
18/25

Effort - it seems that you have worked minituous on this. A lot of detail was put into making it run smoothly and creating a consequent atmosphere. The only thing you left behind was tuning all the instruments. 23/25

22 + 19 + 18 + 23 = 82/100

HouseMasta responds:

i appreciate it. thanks a lot for the review. im looking forward to submitting in the next compeitition.

-HouseMasta

[About Time]

Dude this is SWEET

deck_head_tottie is a dickhead who tries hard to live up to his self-proclaimed expertise in "art". The truth is probably that he spent a lot of time on Wikipedia while downloading his own song 50,000 times. So just refer to the people who don't have to pull their pants over their head every morning.

I don't want to know how you put this together, for all I care you sampled porn underscores. But it's awesome and actually manages to be laid-back and frantic at the same time. I love that word, frantic!

A high 9 on this one. You are my new discovery!

Oh btw: I almost forgot AGAIN but I finished my "Hitler hacks LINUX" and it's begging to be checked out. Would ya?

Ugh. I had to write a whole new review to promote myself.

(just kidding)

(but you knew that)

dj-padman1 responds:

Done and done, song analysed, and I have to declare it was tasty to the max!

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head with your first paragraph. But let's not dwell on such matters any more! This site is rife with exploitation but the best anyone can do is keep pushing for improvement in their music and not be TOO concerned with ratings.

I'm glad you liked this one, I wasn't sure how a down tempo d 'n' b track would go, is it lounge? err..lounge post punk? Well, whatever it is, I'm honoured with your kind words.

Frantic IS a good word, I like frenzied as well. Saunter is good on weekends. -steps back from the brink of insanity...

This was all played with virtual synths. I mean, I was really surprised that the guitars actually sounded like acoustic guitars. It's actually a soft synth sawtooth patch with a healthy dose of reverb. I can't tell the difference.

Once again, thanks again for taking the time to listen and review. It makes a world of difference.

[Unreal Rebirth]

What the fuck?

Why the hell are your scores so low? You can obviously compete with the best!!

Let me tell you that I despise this kind of music. Generally. And I'm not going to exaggerate and say that you opened my eyes to it, but you really pulled some fucking impressive tricks here. The production is near flawless, save for a few transitions (for lack of a better word) that I found could've gone more smoothly, but that is nitpicking.

Lots of cheesy early 90's cliche effects, which is good, because it shows expertise. Especially because you used them more inventively than I've ever heard. The same goes for the composition, really. You actually followed sort of a verse-chorus-verse chord structure, and came up with new melodies everytime a new instrument was introduced. They worked with each other excellently.

Man, you deserve a 5-by. Based on this I can safely assume you deserve some countervotes. I hope I'll get your scores a fair bit higher.

Keep on submitting great stuff and don't let the lukewarm response get you down. With stuff like this, you'll get recognition eventually.

dj-padman1 responds:

Yo Wintang, first of all, (if you read replies to your reviews), killer job on the updated Hitler Hacks Linux. Very, very classy efort.

Thanks for taking the time to prop up my ailing musical will as well. I don't know what's going on sometimes on this site. I mean, I'm not saying my work is world-class or anything, but to be savaged time and time again with work that more or less can hold its own against the competition gets a little frustrating.

I admit it, there was many cheesy aspects to this production, i sold out a little I'm afraid! Fear not though, I try to come up with one legitimate, hard trance or techno track for every 1999 cheese anthem I make. I'm glad you could enjoy it for what it was.

Thannks again for your encouraging review. It's really beneficial, and please please don't hesitate to rip my track apart if something makes you cringe. I can really use the opinions of the musically knowledgable.

Later WinTang,

[All and Sundry]

Syncopation!

Though the previous review makes a lot of sense, my sentiments are almost completely the opposite. That bass-line works wonders with me. That (again) Underworldesque jazz/fusion chords are awesome and that little synthy delayedly following it is brilliant.

The drums, if a little distorted (which I never really mind, and keeps happening to me too), are friggin awesome. That guitar interlude is cool too.

Still I feel it could've been taken a bit further, dynamically. It ends slightly too soon for my liking.

Check out my new one: "Hitler hacks LINUX". I'd really like to know what you think.

5/5 for this one. You rock dude.

Triskele responds:

I actually started this one a long time ago, but never finished it, cuz I thought that it wasn't going anywhere. I couldn't even find where I saved the damn thing until yesterday. Anyways, I just did a quick finish-up on it yesterday, so I probably could have expanded it more.

Thanks for the review!

[Strings4Breakfast (onBuzz)]

I dig. Again.

I've listened to the original version a few times, and all that really does is give a general idea of the composition - MIDI is never overwhelming in terms of resembling the represented instrument, but the strings sound exceptionally awful. Not your fault, of course.

But this is a lot nicer to listen to and helps a lot in getting the clever harmonies across. Because the sounds blend better together, they (paradoxically enough) are easier to follow on their own. Now that one harmonic note which made me cringe in the other version actually adds to the fun!

Cool to hear that, though you follow the "rules" for writing counterpoint closely, it still doesn't hold you back in trying out some interesting stuff. Sounds vague, but I think you know which parts I mean without me having to point them out.

The double time part is awesome. So is the ending. You have that knack for fucking up your own music, but you do it so clever that no one will be fooled into thinking that you don't know what you're doing. Respect for that!

So it's a 5/5 again. Keep on surprising man, and send me that e-mail about the CD swapping. And go and review my last submission, Hitler hacks LINUX. Also in 3/4 with syncopated beat, but that's where the resemblance ends :)

attemptedperfection responds:

I was afraid I wasn't going to get any feedback on this one, after putting so much time into the tedious process of writing each note out from the original score into Buzz... for all that I praise Buzz, it admittedly is not very user-friendly...
Anyway, thank you muchly for the detailed review!