MadMath's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Moon (DuckTales)]

Ha haaa ! Finally you made it.
I was worrying !

Good job here, it always cheer me up to discover a new remix of the moon. And when it's dedicated, I just don't know what to say, ha ha ! Though, I've got a review to type, so let's go.

You really appropriated yourself this theme, with your variations in drums, your modulation and your retranscription of the melody and the bass whereas you rather sticked to the original by respecting the same scheme. In that way, that was nice to hear a quaint remix of this song over redone by everyone. You're right, I didn't hear any version like yours. But I wasn't excepting less from your legendary originality ;) Funny use of the pano, that accentuate the harmonic march of the bass when it tips from right to left. I also liked some of your sounds which were kind of peculiar and unexpected here, like the whistling melody at the beginning and these ascents that sounds like a spell (at 0:34 for an example).

Anyway, in my opinion, and I guess it's more a matter of taste (cause you know there isn't no false step on a strictly musical and theorical way, as far as my very little experience allows me to recognize it), this song lacks something. Couldn't really say what, but I'm not totally enthusiast with some points. And it's mainly the bass. First of all, I don't like your instrument as it doesn't even sound as a bass and seems "cheap" (still in my opinion :P). Then, it was nice to change the rhythm as I told you in first part, but as you get rid of the uninterrupted succession of semiquavers, I got the feeling that it made the track too heavy, preventing it to "lift off" (which is a problem for the Moon level ;) ). That, added to the drums in the beginning which were also too weighty and slow, didn't fully convinced me ! And a last lack I felt were around 1:10 where you just removed the bass (did you forget it ?! :P).

Here it is ! I'm glad I finally heard this song that I was expecting for months now !! Good job Chrono, as always.
Thanks for the dedication ;)
Cheers !

ChronoNomad responds:

First of all, thanks for dropping by for such an incredibly thorough review! I truly appreciate anyone who takes the time to leave a review, and one of this scope is always impressive to behold.

To be honest, I prefer listening to this one over speakers as opposed to headphones for some reason. I don't know which way you enjoy your jams, but since I'm typically wearing my headphones, this is something of a deviation for me. It just sounds better over speakers, maybe because I did this one in stereo and a little more distance between the left and right channels seems to do it justice. I'd suggest giving that a try just for the heck of it if you haven't already.

Having the main arpeggios played out by piano just feels like my style in a nutshell. I need to have some piano in just about everything I do, and it fit so perfectly that I didn't even give it a test run on any other parts. The whistling was greatly inspired by the underlying Sci Fi nature of the piece, and I completely blame The X-Files for that. ;) Nevertheless, I completely love that part in the beginning, and I'm glad that you agree!

As for the bass, yeah...I kind of agree, and yet - oddly enough - this weirdly tinny bass felt like it fit. I tried various options, and nothing really made me happy as far as the bass goes, so in the end I came back to the same one I started out with: this one. I vacillate between liking it and not, so I can understand your comments. Fair enough.

As for at the end where I dropped the bass, that was thoroughly intentional. It had to go, at least briefly, so I could turn this into a decent loop. It still doesn't loop as nicely here as it did when I was mastering the track in Soundbooth, but I'm pretty happy with it. I graciously accept your solid rating of four stars, and look forward to submitting more music in the not-so-distant future now that this one's finally had a pin put in it. Thanks again, Mad! :D

[Stealth Op]

Awesome work ! I love what you did here.

The drums are super great, and as they introduce the listener to this universe you created at the first second, he already directly knows what it's gonna be about. And I wasn't disapointed till the end. You made an awesome occupation of space, and we can feel a super density in your little loop, with different levels of holded notes. I really love the atmosphere you develop here, and the articulation of those screams, industrial percussions and john carpenter-ish synth at 0'32 that persists makes a perfect post apocalyptical and anguishing world. I also loved the way it loops : that makes a kind of breach and gives energy to the song.

No complaints :)

In my opinion that's a very good job. Bravo !

PS : Waaw, I saw you contributed to a video game, that's awesome :) Gonna play it and come back to you if you want ;) See ya !

AliceMako responds:

Allways a pleasure to hear from you :3

Yeah, instant front page no less. Basically making good on my oldest of childhood dreams ; to be involved in making a video game.

Anyway, the wide open space is thanks to a pretty exhaustive collection of unbelievably good effect devices found in Reason as of version 6.5.1, the voices though are courtesy of a bitcrusher by blamsoft i recently purchased.

Glad you like it, hope you have fun playing Think Tank ( i might upload some of the soundtrack if people care for it, the volume is fairly low in the game )

[Gamma ray exposure]

Pfff wolalaaaaa !

Mon gars, faut que tu te calmes la ! Toi qui m'a dit un jour que plus c'etait epure, mieux c'etait, la, ca se barre dans tous les sens, mais un truc de ouf. Mais moi j'aime bien ! Ca biche !
Le debut est gigantesque, les deux premieres minutes sont epiques. Par contre je trouve qu'il y a un gros ventre mou au milieu, c'est peut-etre normal apres un demarrage en trombe, mais c'est un poil decevant.
Mais cette version la est clairement meilleure que la permiere. Elle est moins accessible au niveau ecoute, mais ce n'est pas pour me deplaire, on sent qu'y a eu un travail de titan derriere. Et la qualite se ressent, y a aucun faux pas, zero fausse note, tout colle nickel.
Bon jeu sur les effets, entre reverb cut-off, tout y passe, mais on est entre maîtrise parfaite et surenchere et ça fait presque demo de toutes les possibilités qu'offre la MAO, en mettant a mal la coherence. Enfin j'essaye d'etre un peu objectif, a toi de voir ce que tu prends :P

En tout cas je salue la performance, c'est vraiment impressionnant, et le son est trop balese !
5/5 !

Okipa responds:

Ouais bah les cordonniers sont les plus mal chaussÃf©s faut croire !
J'ai bosse comme un ouf sur ce titre, je voulais faire un truc bien rythmÃf© et bien complet, je trouve qu'il manquait des trucs sur l'autre version.
J'ai essaye de faire s'entrecroiser les sonorites et les styles encore une fois, sans pour autant trop charger la bete. J'en ai un peu chie je t'avoue, et j'ai balance pas mal de choses au final.
Bref, je n'y retoucherai que si vraiment je mâEUTMapercois que je peux ameliorer un truc, mais j'y ai dÃf©jÃf passÃf© 10 fois trop de temps sur ce morcif ^^

[Undercover]

Bon... maintenant que j'ai un peu de temps et que je te l'ai promis, je m'y mets ;)
Comme je te l'ai dit par MP, du lourd.

Vraiment enorme. On reconnais bien ta griffe et je reconnais la quelques uns de tes instru et la meme rythmique un peu syncopée.
Excellent jeu sur les variations legato-notes saccadees-sidechain, percu mortelles (sauf un vieux snare tout cheap) et bien en place (mais t'as pas de mérite ;)), j'ai vraiment bien aime le mélange des genres, accents dub, dubstep, électro, et meme un peu de trance psyche apres 3 min.
Et vraiment la classe de tenir un son puissant comme ca sur plus de 5 minutes, alors que finalement y a peu de lignes melodiques. Mais la petite aigue est envoutante et puis tu arrives a recycler tes basses a la perfection. Ouai, ca fait un peu suce-boules, mais tout est hyper fluide, et j'ai vraiment rien de negatif à dire sur celle la, j'aime beaucoup

Bravo mon gars, j'espere que tu vas continuer la dessus et que ca se passera bien ton dj set ;)

Okipa responds:

Mais quel suce boules celui là ! XD
Plus sérieusement, merci bien pour ton retour sur mon son, même si concernant la snare, tu n'as aucun gout :)
Content que tu kiffes mon canard, fais tourner à tes potes ;)
Allez on se tcheck dans l'été pour se faire une maximum bamboule !

[Radium- Prof. Adm. Bacon]

Excellent choice of instruments (including percussions), nice work on the cut off in the beginning, good density in the end, but...

Wow... my god... bring some changes in your melody !!!
You've got the same main theme for sooo long !
From 0:01 to 2:37 we hear it with no breaks. Of course you change instruments, and the melody is not bad, but it remains the same notes. And even the arpeggiator plays the same thing. It's hardly standable to me, and I welcomed the cadenza part at 2:40 as a liberation ! Actually, that made me appreciate the end of the song, and the come back of the theme which was a success occupying perfectly the entire space.

In my opinion, you cannot leave this melody from the very beginning to the 2/3 of the song just like that. The simple but good drums and the changes in your nice instruments cannot let this pass without creating a boredom.

Good idea to me, but needs variations !

Bacon92 responds:

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll see if I can throw a bridge or variation somewhere in the middle.

- Professor Admiral Bacon

[Rush [Roy0098]]

A taste of unique

Really.
You've got something really different in your compositions. Always something non conventional, something surprising, and which really works (almost) each time. I wonder how is the interior of your brain, but it must be bubbling a lot :D

Very nice variety of melodies (I know you like that), and in my opinion, we don't get bored at all. Cool instruments really well suiting each other. It's really catchy, and always moving from one step to another, chaining melodies and voices.
Sometimes, though, I think the link from one to another is not pronounced enough and the drums sound a bit chaotic... BUT... It definitely gaves your songs its charm. It's unpredictability.

Been a while I didin't review/listened one of your songs. It's a real pleasure to come back to it. ;)

Bravo for your imagination and your creations. 10 and 5.

[Prelude Finality]

Cool song

Hi sir !
Didn't reviewed for a while... Hope it'll be a correct one :P

Let's start with positive points !
Excellent choice of instruments as always, very videogame-ish, could suit every romantic scene of an old snes rpg, or great for an intro, as it is the case here. Again, it definitely sounds as you describe it and how you want it to be. I really enjoyed the diversity of the "harp", with arpeggios, isolated notes or descents, etc.
The structure of the song is very good, as always here again, you know how to make a song last long without getting the listener bored (Ok this, time you were helped with the kind of song you wanted to make, cause it's predisposed to be long), and we navigate on the waves (that i really got the feeling to hear ! did you include sounds of sea ?? if so, it's great !) of the melody.
Anyway, perfect coherence of the ensemble. Impressive.
Nice use of the panoramic, particularly in the begining, wich reinforce the "waves" feeling. Nice work on nuances also.

Let's pass to negative aspects !
Erm... sorry, I didn't find any this time... :)

I'm not sure I understood well if it's a remix, or a pure composition, but in both case, it's an excellent work.
It's a pleasure to always listen to something interesting and greatly composed each time I check your submissions.

10/10 - 5/5 of course ;)

ChronoNomad responds:

Hey, MadMath! Thanks a ton for the great review, and no negative aspects? Excellent! The waves are incredibly subtle and infrequent, but I shouldn't be surprised that you took note of them. I guess that this is something of a remix, though it is based off of a number of FF Preludes. I took a variety of my favorite parts and put them together, whilst adding my own personal flair (as I always do).

Ever since I composed this version of Prelude, I haven't created another, so I guess naming it "Finality" was apropos. I also dig it because it's like an extra nod to the series. Thanks again for dropping off this fine review, man! It's always awesome to know that someone's listening. :)

[Theeketel - Dominion]

Changes !

Yop !
Been a while I didn't give an ear to your sounds (actually, it's been a while I didn't come to NG), and I realize you decided to make something less dark and chaotic than your first submissions.
I guess this song is more classically constructed, and it's not bad at all, in my opinion. Very nice work on percussions which are the main element here. A great variety, with great breaks, great cells. I guess the job is perfectly done with drums, and I really enjoyed them.

Though (sorry :P), the bass would take advantage of some changes. As drums are perfect, it could help them being more effective on some melody, or a linearity melodically speaking. Cause finally, after 2 minutes, I've got the feeling to go in circles. If that's what you're looking, it's perfect :D. But if, not, I'd praise for an evolution in the bass.

Good job, overall, in my opinion ! 7/10 and 3/5

AliceMako responds:

Heya, nice to hear from you again :D

Yeah recently i've been trying my hand at slightly more conventional sounding productions, emphasis on slightly.

Truth be told the bass and synths are just window dressing to the drums which i agree are rather wicked.

My aim was to have something driving yet hypnotic that goes on and on to keep me focused during blc matches, so yes it's perfect. ( perfect for me that is x3 )

For your pleasure i'll play with it some more and see if i can make a more interesting version to share, meanwhile i posted something similar prior to this albeit in a slower bpm and i do plan to produce more pieces in this vein.

[-Emotion-]

Cool song.

As always, actually.

I like the way you approach your theme in intro, with fluidity, romantism, with flutes and bells to definitely cut with this first impression quite suddenly. In fact, i said definitely, but that's not correct. You just change this melody's main meaning. In a cool way, I must confess, and this acceleration indeed leads to something less emotional.

Great variations and most of all, great way to arrive on them. For the acceleration, a simple cymbal inverted (i don't remember the name it gots) which took me by surprise. And about the modulation at 2:50 for some measures, changing tonality suddenly, into the melody and coming back to the main tonality with no more flourish than drums and without finishing the sentence on a long note or without preparing some kind of step-by-step return to it was very good in my opinion. (I hope you got me, but i really doubt it is crystal clear :D)

Anyway, I rather like it, but I'd like to tell you about a few points that doesn't convince me.
I definitely hate the recurrence of the clap and its sound. I'm sure a hat would have been better.
I also really enjoyed your kind of excitation in the battery, at 1:27 and 3:07, but i think reinserting this rhythmic cell each two measures (or something likes that), doesn't serve the song, as they sound more like a transition than a accomagnment rhythm.
A last thing that doesn't really work in it (still in my opinion), is that the kind of legato voice seems to slow down the song. You've got very tonic percussions, but this main melody, with its bending and (too) slow attack doesn't make something that could be a counterweight to it, but on the contrary, prevent the song from moving on.

Overall I like this song, that sometimes makes me think about Donkey-Kong on game boy ;), and I think you've made efforts to present this solid piece of work. Not your best though, in my opinion. :)

ChronoNomad responds:

Nope, not my best; I have to agree with you there. This piece is old...like really, really old. That being said, it's quite good for my lack of experience at the time, but it's just not up to the same quality that I can put out now.

I don't really disagree with you on any points here, and I was still using stock percussion riffs along with my own back then. Your review is honest and thorough, and your proclivity for explaining both the positive and negative aspects of the music - in your opinion - is greatly appreciated. I respect how you explain that it is your own personal opinion, and you don't try to sell it as the only possible conclusion. Big props for being straight up, yet not in any way acting like you're somehow better than everyone else and that you know it all. Your attitude toward reviews equates to high-level respect points in my book. :D

Honestly, I was never very happy with the main synth that I used because of that bending. Back when I made this I didn't really consider the fact that I could ditch the bend simply by using some offset, so every note just has that crazy tone slide at the beginning. It's good, but all those little quirks make it less-than-great. It was fun to make, it's old, and I felt like sharing it here. All in all, I feel pretty content with your tell-it-like-it-is score of 8. Thanks for the amazing review!

[Elizabeth Swan]

Good

Awesome instruments you've got here.
Excellent introduction, the piano line is indeed exceptional, really expressive, and the overall is really good until 0:30. The arrangement is very good, the violin sounds awesome, and its melody is greatly original, particularly in its descent.

The problem is that it's not enough solidly backed, particularly in the end.

First thing that is noticeable is that those instruments are visibly not made to create short notes. So each time you use short notes, it's like a guillotin. It's particularly obvious in the end, with the chorus, and it doesn't sound natural. Same remark for the cello in the end, I thought at a first hearing it was a clarinet, due to the sound it produces !
I can say the same thing about the cut of your long notes each time there isn't another one just after. So actually, each time a silence follows the note, the cut is too pronounced and it's disturbing.

The second is that it doesn't really have a direction in the end in my opinion, and it moves like waves, accentuating one note and then another but kind of approximatively, and the overall melody is not in the logic of the beginning.
This second reason is more personnal, i must admit it.

So finally, I really like the beginning, until 0:30 (despite this horrible cut at 0:18 :]), but was kind of disapointed by the very end, which broke a coherence you built up until this moment.

8/10 for this awesome start. But a song cannot be heard without its end, so I can't make an abstract ;)
4/5

JohnEastman responds:

Thank you for your review. I created this piece a while back. If I remember correctly I was so excited with my new Sound Library CDs that I had stayed up all night trying stuff out. My computer had crashed and essential build files were lost to the ravages of time...
This piece WAS intended to be dark and mysterious but as it turned out, atonal and strangely disturbing musically near the end. I couldn't agree with you more MadMath. Like you say, I really enjoy the beginning too. How-be-say I do a remake soon. I would like to send it to you when it is complete. Or maybe a collab effort?
I was reviewed for another song I did ---big fat ZERO! Argggh. Peace Above, Below and All Around me. Aum