conorstrejcek's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[T1 ~ I'm Back]

This is really cool!

Do you think you would be open to letting anyone remix this? If you were willing to release stems I would love to make a remix.

[Drifting (Instrumental)]

This is awesome!

I almost gave you 4.5 stars for the bad tone you mentioned, but honestly the composition itself makes up for any inconsistency in tone.

Really cool, would you be open to doing a collaboration some time? Just curious.

Darkmaster603 responds:

I might be, it all depends on my schedule. I work two jobs so it's kind of hard to get free time for my music. I'm forcing myself to write and play again recently though, so just shoot me a pm or email and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Thanks for the review :)

[Death Trap]

Dude, really cool sound you have going!

Your chord progressions are really cool, and your ideas for arrangement are pretty solid.

The things I think you could work on:
1. If you're going to use synthesized representations of real instruments, you really need a good ones, or else it will sound unprofessional. This shows especially at the beginning with the distorted guitar sound. Your drum samples on the other hand were pretty nice.
2. Some of the synths you chose are a bit cliche sounding (as in they may have been used in the 80s, but not since then in contemporary EDM). Some examples are the bell sound which comes in at 0:14, or the lead sound which comes in at 2:16.
3. The little fill you have around 1:25 or 1:26 sounds too bare. If you're going to go for that interruption, you really have to fill that space with a REALLY cool sound, or else it will fall flat.
4. Your trap elements only showed for a bit (around 2:15?), and I thought you could have incorporated it more, seeing as that was your main goal. It works well how you did it, but I thought you might want to even out the amount of dubstep with trap.
5. The ending sounds like you just tacked it on, you might want to change that.

Overall I really enjoyed this -- I don't mean to be hypercritical with all of the comments, but you said you're looking to improve, so I thought I'd give you some advice (which you can take or not, it's really up to you haha).

By the way, what did you use for your bass (was it Massive?)? It sounded really good.

I hope this helped a bit.

- CS

Unknown8 responds:

Whoa. Didn't expect a detailed response like this. I really appreciate the feedback and I'll make sure to put this advice to work in my next track. And yeah, every sound here was made in massive except for the guitar, drums, ect...

Thanks again for the feedback!

[When The Night Falls]

Really nice sounds and great musical ideas in here!

Where did you get the samples for this piece? They are great. There is nothing I would change about this piece, other than possibly making it longer, but it seems you have finished it already.

Also, the term "Ethnic/Oriental" is a bit inflammatory, not particularly PC if you know what I mean. Just wanted to throw that out there, it could be offensive to some.

Mattashi responds:

Thank you conorstrejcek!
the samples are mostly from the East West Quantum Leap edtions (Silk and Ra).
And thanks for letting me know, I'll take the term off.
Thanks for your review :)

[walk the path, Samurai]

Dude, Druid your voice is amazing!

Druids-Warcry responds:

why thank you sir

[depression is bliss]

Really love the mood in this song, you've got a great sound, you've gained a fan.

Not a whole lot I can complain about haha. If you were to change anything I would say to change the string instrument which comes in around 4:41, it sounds a bit too fake compared to the rest of the instruments. Also, sometimes the hi hat seems too loud to me, but that might just be me.

You're a great artist, keep making music.

jambrother2 responds:

thank you, it means a lot to get a review like that :) il take that into account I'm going to re record it in a few days with my electric guitar so there wont be so much unnecessary gain on that either

[Lets Dance (Piano)]

You have some really cool ideas here.

Some things you could improve:
1. You should quantize the midi data. It sounds like you played it into a program, and then didn't change it at all -- the rhythms are very irregular. If you fixed the rhythm errors it would vastly improve the track with minimal effort.
2. You could try orchestrating using a few more instruments to get a more full sound, but this is definitely optional.

Overall it's a nice chord progression with some nice melodies. Just work on correcting errors and maybe experiment with more than just piano.

I look forward to hearing more music from you!

[The Deepest Depths]

Nice atmosphere you've created! I especially enjoyed the delay put on the piano, really nice effect.

Things I thought you could improve:
1. The bass which came in around 0:28 didn't really mesh with the rest of the mix. Partially because it has a distorted quality, and partially because of the way it glides between notes so slowly.
2. The contrasting section around 1:00 was pretty cool, but it became a bit too competitive. You could possibly add more layers with different stuff going on to add interest.
3. I liked the end until that bass sound came back in -- I would maybe just swap it out for something a bit less harsh. Also, the fading out of the piano around 2:20 seemed to come out of nowhere.

Overall, I really enjoyed this piece, I would have given it 5 stars if it weren't for those few things. Very atmospheric and very musical.

Keep making music!

Cimba responds:

Thank you so much! This is an awesome review!

[Getter - Fallout [Remix]]

Nice sounds! I love your drum samples, where did you get them from?

One thing you could work on is exploring more key areas, the whole piece seemed to revolve around only a few pitches.

Altogether pretty cool though!

AxELdub responds:

The drums are from hours and hours of layering and eq'ing.
im still playing with new combinations.
and thank you for the suggestion, i will really work on it. (:

[I'll miss you]

The beginning definitely reminds me of Coldplay's Trouble (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature =player_detailpage&v=kHg-PhseKOQ#t=15 s).

I think when the piano going into fast 16ths you should keep the volume lower because it is more of an accompanimental figure. You could have used some more contrast throughout the piece. The introduction of the synth lead at the end seemed a bit out of place, so maybe introduce it earlier somehow.

You have some good ideas, but you should work a bit more on organizing them all.

Keep making music!