MadMath's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[-Insanity]

Wow. Insane !

Incredibly talkative music. So full of sense. That's an excellent point in my opinion, and this track is definitely evocating a story or a situation. I already tryed to build a story with samples in my songs, but you did better just with a melodic line and a perfect accompaniement.

No need, according to me, to place high notes to give a sensation of madness, as could have said chaosdrakath below me (check shining's soundtrack ;)). I can perfectly imagine a mad man walking in corridors with thousands of demons in his head.
The melody is truely perfect, with a good work on contrapuntal writing and on rythmes. Finally, it's not a very complexe one, but you've got a natural talent to compose nice and long melodies.

An excellent use of the drums, this derbouka mixed to those industrial and metalic percussions is a super idea. And the rhythms are catchy and give an impression of unstability (which obviously suit well to the rest of the song).

Original use of the oriental scale in here, that kinda leads me to consider this mad man is having a walk in Egypt, he he :D

So, finally, for me, it's a great mix between insanity and arabic music, which would make an excellent movie music.
Really love it. Even if I didn't understood well the transitions between the oriental break and the moments of pure insanity. It finally all makes a homogeneous ensemble. Excellent construction, and more than awesome choice of all your instruments.
5/5, 10/10, Fav/Fav.

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks for the mad props, MadMath! It's in-depth reviews like this that really get my blood pumping. You've certainly picked up on the penumbra of Egyptian note progression that was integral to the process. The real question is whether that's the reality of the situation or if it's merely a part of the psychological construct. Can a broken mind even differentiate between the two?

I'm glad that you enjoy the industrial aspect of the song. It's always fun to do something different, and a song like this simply screams for demented metal and corrupt clockwork. Thanks for the incredible review, scores, and for adding it to your favorites! That kind of audio love makes it all worthwhile.

[Legaia]

Very nice.

A good piece of work, and an excellent job on the superposition of the different melodies, it creates a great ambiance, and there is not even one mistake in it.
The arpeggios and the little piano descents are well done and bring a sort of echo and gives the song a little more density than the simple melodies.
Actually, all those little sounds around the main melody that embellish it are great, and make your song vary while it keeps going.
A big respect for being able to lead a melody on almost 6 minutes while avoiding the listener to even think about quitting it.

Nevertheless there is a very big problem in my opinion : about the length of the flute notes in the beginning particularly. And it's really noticeable when you've got quarter note-silence-quarter note-silence. All those flute notes are disappearing in the same way. As if the player was just blowing one sec and then stopped but faintly. It's hard to explain but it's really disturbing. The notes are too spaced and not enough long to be stopped this way. You should make them last until the next one. Cause the way you leave them is making waves and prevent the fluidity of the melody.

Anyway it's really good on the overall, and congratulations again for keeping the listener's attention for more than 6 minutes in a perfect coherence. And for pushing him to ask for more at the end. ;)
5/5

ChronoNomad responds:

Interestingly enough, what you deem to be a flaw was done purposefully to give the music a sort of "breathy quality". It's a technique that I've only used a few times, but there is an extremely slight pause between the high and low flute notes. The high note arrives, and then a split-second later the lower note appears. The high flute happens in short, breathy bursts to simulate a single puff of air.

It all sounds a lot more technical than it really is. I guess in the end I merely wanted to stagger the flute sounds to further the Fantasy aspect of the music. As I said, I haven't used this technique often, but I really like it in Legaia. I'm sorry if it makes things sound disturbing, but it's rather impressive that you're listening with such a musical ear that you even notice such a thing.

In the end I just want to thank you for offering up such a thorough and in-depth review! You possess a very cursory ear for music, and it is very much appreciated. I, too, am impressed that I can manage to keep the listener's attention for nearly a six-minute span with this song. If you have the time and are interested, I would truly appreciate more reviews from you in the future. :)

[-Endure-]

Ouch..

After all those positive votes you receive (you're at 4.77 for the moment after 7 ratings), I was expecting something excellent...
But in my opinion it's not a good song.
Let's begin with the beginning. Fondamentally, the very first mesures are not bad. Those 4 sharp notes and your other voice make an ok small melody. But ok for an introduction or a break. It's really really too repetitive. And undstandable at the end. It seems to me that you forgot this sharp melody that stays here from the beginning to the end, But you can't leave a pattern of 4 notes in 4 mesures in the whole song, particularly when it is that prevalent.
To come back to the beginning, the entrance of a pattern of drum step by step is too cliche, and too long. That leads to the fact that after 1 minute, the song didn't really started, and is during on one "melody" of 4 mesures. And when you expect it to do so, at 0:54, the drums are muted, and finally you realize that's not gonna start until a moment.
It starts for real at 2:34. But at this moment it's too late. Cause if this part can be nice objectively (good drums, nice superposition of voices, even if there isn't melody, that make a nice ambient), you have ruined it by inflicting us the sharp 4 (lethal) mesures since the very beginning.
So finally, you have only patterns that you overuse, while the rest is too empty next to it. You repeat far away too much your different instruments (4 sharp notes, 4 violin notes that are always the same, same kicks, etc.), without making any transitions, without playing on any effect, or even without proposing (another) melody with each voice
Making a song with a superposition of instruments that play 4 equal notes with 2voices and the last one that plays only 2 can't be enough. And the drums that can be good at some moments are not suffisient to take up the rest of the song.
So I'll give you some points for the choice of your instruments (except for the violin that doesn't sound nice and doesn't have its place here in my opinion, cause it doesn't particularly suit the atmosphere) and for the drums after their entrance. And one point for your work.

Understand me well I'm not giving you a low rate because You are on top. I do it cause I don't like the song your proposed. I hope you'll understand the criticism.
3 and 1.

sjm95x responds:

Lol dude, you don't have to be that harsh. This is supposed to be an ear-pleasing DANCE song that I whipped out in less than five hours for fun. And the emphasis is on the bass and kicks and sub-bass. I understand it's repetitive but I don't think your ears are bleeding from this song. Are you deaf now that you've listened to this song? Thanks for the criticism but talk about encouragement.

[Nyan Cat [009 Style Remix]]

Interesting remix

Awesome work on the original different transitions-breaks which are perfect (especially the first one, I was shocked :] ), and really play their role as they "break" your percussive and melodic line with a sort of hesitation and a totally different beat or even sound.
Then about the melody, no problem that's a remix so there's not much to say about the structure of it. It's still a catchy melody. But I guess I know why you got such a bad rating after those few votes despite the quality of the result.
The use of this main instrument and of this long and powerful dark bass (and also your breaks that stop the melodic instruments to make them re-enter in a brutal way) make this song get rid of the initial one's emotion. I mean, it's still catchy and quick, but you give it some accent of epicness and strength that it doesn't have in the first version. Cause actually, the original one stays really fluffy, light and amusing, almost ridiculous (not in a wrong way). And here, you propose something in another vein, with another signification, and that leads, on another hand, to the fact that the climbing melody lose a bit of weight as you replace the melody importance by a space atmosphere, and a sentiment of power.
Personally I have no problem with this. That's rather nice to see how a song can be transformated, while you mostly use the same notes. In a way, that's a useful remix.
Good and original job !
PS : I don't give you ten cause I'm not particularly sensitive to this song ;)

BlackParchment responds:

I'll change what i have to your words then it would be a better song that will have no bad ratings.

Together we will be great

[Something's quiet [Rmx Demo]]

Your version is better...

Your remix gives more weight to the lyrics and to the voice of the girl. You create a density that doesn't exist in the original song. Those melodic sentences and the simple piano touches does help you to do so, cause in the first version I feel that it's just a voice on some flat beats. I really appreciate what you've done with it. Very very nice ordering of all the different instruments, where you mix atmosphere notes, which are holded exceedingly (it's not a reproach here, it's awesomely done) and these small interventions of the piano. Great contribution of the drums, that bring a sort of cutting in the overall and doesn't let this song fall into too much romantism or emotive quality.

Ok now, comparing to what you tried to do... that's to... dubstep ! If I understood well :)
I'm not a professional of this kind of music, but I couldn't say it's pure dubstep to me. In my opinion, it kepts some accents of... dance ! Yeah that's strange, but some of your instruments sounds like that (like one of the first that enters in the very beginning). And even the dubstep bass is too "soft", not enough trenchent. I also wondered why you made a change in your drums cell at a moment. And then I heard your transition, and I realized why. But this drum break is typical of dance-techno songs, even if it's not that cliché here, but you got me, the acceleration of the kick from unique to double, etc, is quite characteristic of a certain kind of music.

Overall, i'd say it's excellent. The work on the voice is impressive (with this kind of echo in the end of the track) and it's perfectly inserted in an intimate little musical space and that does sounds like "something quiet" and private. The use of the breathing of the girl as a break after the acceleration of drums that suddenly cut is an amazing idea.
Very original song well realized, a very good job once again.
I'm just a little skeptical about the "dubstep". ;)
5

Dj-Johnson responds:

Hey Madmath,

Sorry for the late response. Phhh what a long review. This was just a demo, the full version ( /audio/listen/417867 ) is finished and I changed the beat allot, because I think it sounds better now. At first I was just nubbing around with the piano and at some point it sounded really good (in my opinion).

The vocals are great almost perfect. And don't deny, vocals give a song a very nice touch/dimension. My first intention of this song was, it to be a dub-step song, But after a few tries i stopped this project for a month. And at a beautiful day i just got an inspiration boost that helped me finish this song. Now it is a mix of trance/dub/pop thing. I always try to make my own style because i can't make a song to a specific style, always the first thing that comes up in mind.

I started with a break from the original song and then the first verse. I added some little things like the piano touch and the choir to the intro. And after that I just made that came in mind. At day one of this project, that breathing transition was stuck in my head so I had to put it in my remix and it was apparently a good idea.
I'm quite happy with this song.

Anyway thanks for the awesome review.
And sorry for my cranky english :P

P.S. I made new remix with great vocals check it out. /audio/listen/418705
And ill leave some reviews on your songs ;)

Cya!

[Guardia Castle]

Absolutely righteous

This track is absolutely in the vein of (rather old) RPG games, like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, etc. In that way, You incontestably succeeded in the creation of both an atmosphere and a context. That's really an amazing job here. And I'm curious about the different plug-in you used for the composition of this song, but everything sounds definitely coherent and reaches the objective you aimed.
Here again no false step, everything is done with a very good taste.
And the percussion is excellent, both in sounds and in structure, caracteristic of this kind of music.
Great job man.
10 and 5 of course.

Realmguys responds:

Maybe I should change the description of this song, as it is actually a song from Chrono Trigger. I appreciate the feedback and constructive approach to new ideas that you have presented to me with these few songs. I'm glad you liked it, thanks for the 10 and 5, it means alot!
-Tyler

[Regicidal]

Not that idiot for a potatoe...

Awesome work.
Definitely and truely super original. The final result is really good. This choppy and violent beginning is absolutely powerful and awesome. And the melody is very nicely done too, as much as the use of the sample. This combination of industrial-hardcore-8bit-creepy song is perfectly well made. It was an audacious idea and it's well executed.
It just seems not to be totally finished. The intro is a bit too long and the main melody, which is brightly composed is too much repeateated, and could gain to be extended. I mean that doesn't sound like a real song in its ensemble, talking about the structure of it.

Anyway, a perfect note for such an awesome job.

IdiotPotato responds:

Thank you for the review!
I tend to do that a lot, with the extended repetition, so I've noticed. I'll definitely work on that for the future. We learn as we go along, you know?
Thanks again!

[Until Tonight [DirtyHouse]]

Erm...

I purely hate this kind of instruments (all of them) and drums.
And I hate as well those clubbing "melodies", cause finally it's not even melodies, just some beat made with a melodic instrument.

Anyway i, must confess it's rather effective. It's well done, even if i absolutely don't like it. It sounds like professional work. I can easily understand you spent much time on it, cause the result is here. The effects are really worked on, and are perfectly inserted in the general song. They are not over-used in such a style, which is a good point. It stays quite sober in my opinion. And another good point is that you succeeded in the different breaks you made. Many varied transitions (with variation of tempo, mounting notes, use of the cut-off, etc.) leading to a completely different "melody" and beat. And overall, we can't deny that everything is totally part of a very coherent ensemble.

The problem is that these kind of main theme where you just repeat the same note again and again, is just unstandable for me. And quite objectively, i could say that it's not really an original song. That's the other side of sobrierty ;)

Very good job, even if I don't like it.

Dj-Johnson responds:

Hey MadMath,

First of all, thanks for reviewing this even if you didn't liked it.

Thanks that you think it sounds professional ^^. Anyway I'm trying to make some music in all kinds of style's and this time i worked on some club/house music and its normal in this kind of style to hit the same note over and over again (sorry for that :P ). It is club music and not the music you should listen in your room. Or you can turn it up really hard xD. Well everyone have their own music taste :P

I've listen to some dirty-house music and they always use the exact same melody, and I've tried to switch it a little bit up by changing the melody over the song, to keep it interesting. And yes I used allot of effects, this kind of music without good effects is like shit. And it didn't take allot of creativity to make the melody, just like you said, hitting the same key over and over again till you get a "nice melody".

Anyway thanks for listening to this unstandable music :P and writing a long/help full review. Most of the people zero-bomb while they don't even care to listen to it or even reviewing it.
Well I hope that there's more of your kind on NG ^^ .

Cya