SinJim's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Forgotten Tears - Mjattie]

Forgotten

That pad in the background sounds like it's a trance pad that can't get past the filter haha. But it really wants to...

Anyhow, this is an awesome ambient piece and it pulls off the sad aspect, which, in my opinion, is pretty hard to do with ambient since the tempo is all slow and it's supposed to be relaxing. Either way you did it and it sounds great. The piano addition was awesome and I really liked how you managed to put in a buildup in the ambient song you have here. While it wasn't anything epic, it really helped for me and added to the song tremendously.

Did you mean to pan the drums to the right after the buildup? If you did that's fine, I'd just say to pan em to the left after you slowly pan them right to balance the song because that really caught me off guard. Either that or just leave 'em in the middle *shrug* just an idea.

This song gives me an impression of reflecting back on things with sadness and I think it will do pretty well in the competition. Great job on this one a good luck!

~SinJim

mjattie responds:

well, yea it was meant to be on the right XD but if you're so sure about panning it in the left I'll do that for you XD

tx for reaction, glad you like it :P

[Lost - Mjattie]

Lost

Great piece here. The piano melody is great and really leads the rest of the song. The string work is awesome and really adds to the piece as it continues to build. The piano could be a tad louder at times when all the strings are playing. Throughout the song, I wanted more of that cello to fill out the bass end of the song but it's a personal thought haha.

Great work, the only thing I'd say is that, to me, the piano sounds a tad quantized. It could do with some humanizing if it's sequenced. Or at the end, I think you should add a small piano outro but play it by hand and manually slow down the tempo, it would help the feeling of the song.

I really do like the song and the things I mentioned are really not problems, I'm only nitpicking haha. Great job with everything, Faving this one and good luck in the competition, this should do really, really well.

~SinJim

mjattie responds:

well, glad you like it (again) I would like to manually slow down but I don't have a MIDI keyboard XD

[Hills of Tuscany]

Hills of Sorrow

Hmm, given the title, I can't help but wonder what kind of place this is. The piece is really excellent and the subtleties really shine through. Nice selection of chords and great progression. The piano works so well for this type of piece and doesn't need any accompaniment. Strings could fit in, but it works well without them. Is the piano the FL piano? Sounds pretty good.

In terms of your setting for the song, I really envisioned this being a countryside where things may have gone wrong. Maybe even a small village that had been pulled into WWII or something like that. I get the sense that you bypass this village and get a small view of what it's current state is.

Anyhow, this piece is really great, Fav'd it and I think you'll do really well in the competition with this piece. Good luck!

~SinJim

No1r responds:

Hello again Jim,
and again thank you for your reviews. This song came out after a night i spent on the hills near my city .. i should make some photos and show you the beautifulness of these places. But that night really didn't go well, as you imagine.
About the piano: i've used the "Garritan's Personal Orchestra" 's piano..i had a 30 days trial of the VST so i can't use it anymore..it really sounded great.
Good luck to you too, keep in touch.

[Simply, i love you]

Simply

First off, great work on the guitars, you have some nice licks in there and the solo is pretty sweet. The piano is pretty sweet and, while I haven't used AKAI drum samples, I do think that the samples can sound a bit more "live" than sequenced. On the other hand, if you give it the time and have a good quality drum kit to work with, you can make the sequenced stuff sound really good and pretty close to live. Granted, you're never going to get close to a real drummer, but by humanizing and such you have a decent chance at making them sound believable. You just have to be willing to put forth the effort - which a lot of us aren't haha.

Anyhow, I thought the drums sounded good (most likely because I haven't browsed through the AKAI samples, but meh). I do think that this is more "love-ish" than "sorrowful" in terms of the competition. Don't get me wrong, it's got a great beat, progression and all else, but I think for the competition, it might not fit the "sorrowful tears" theme.

Love the song, Fav'd, great job and good luck in the competition!

~SinJim

No1r responds:

Hello SinJim!
First thing: really thank you for your long and beautiful reviews.
I'm glad you liked the song and about drums: yes, you're right the main problem is that you have to spend so much time and effort sequencing good drums..i need to work on it, anyway, and find some good drumkits.
About the competition: i'm aware that this song could sound pretty "love-ish" ..but i just wanted to try it out..:)
Bye bye Jim and keep in touch.

[*-_Alone at night_-*]

Alone

Wow, I have a lot of respect for your guitar work (Makes me sad because now I need to practice a LOT more haha). While this one isn't heart wrenching, it does give off a feeling of reflecting on things done in the past. I sort of get this vision of someone on their back porch alone, thinking about what they used to do and all the conversations they had with a person that's gone.

I think you could have pulled the heart strings on this one a bit more, but seeing as it's an older song, I can understand that you're not pulling out the razors on this one haha. I really am getting to like all the entries that approach a different side of sorrow instead of the emo crap you hear on the radio.

That being said, I love the song, it's calm and the guitar work is emaculate. What guitar(s) are you using? It/They sound wonderful. What amps also? I wants to know cuz I wants to gets me one o' dems. Well I'm Faving this one as well and it looks like when I have time, I'm going to have to go through all your other stuff.

Great job on this one, good luck in the contest!

~SinJim

DarKsidE555 responds:

Hey, thanks a lot for the long and cool review. Sorry for the more or less late response...been kinda busy the last time. ;)

Glad you liked it. You truly got the feel right of this track, really nice to read that people actually think about the music. That's cool! :)

I used my B.C. Rich Virgo blood for this track with a couple of custom fx on my podxt from Line6. It's a virtual amp studio so to say but GREAT for homerecordings. Saves money and space. :)

Thanks again for checking! :)

[(NUB)I would have hated myself]

Hated...

Wow, this is really, really deep. Especially given the story you have along with it. It didn't necessarily make me think of how I would think about myself when I'm younger. For me it made me think of how a passed away loved one would think about my life now if I was able to meet him for one day. Maybe a different perspective and a different view on the story that this song invokes.

Specifically (it's a bit personal) it meant him being not as excited to hear about it when I told him the story... I think it'd be devastating to be in this position (or the one you describe) and I think your song portrays this very, very well. Sort of like having a conversation with that person and them being like "oh, that's nice..." after you've told them how you live your life.

Meh that's me *throws razorblades across the room*. Anyhow, the piano in this song is wonderful and the strings really enhance the effect of the piano and create a really effective backdrop.

I really like all the parts. The only thing I wasn't too fond of was the repeating piano notes. One was around 1:05. I dunno if that was just you hitting the note a bunch before you really struck it but, for me at least, it didn't work very well. Might just be me, it also sounded like you may have done it with the software (an effect or something of the like). Either, or, it's a small nuisance in a wonderful song

Great entry in the competition and let me know if you update this song. Fav'd and good luck in the competition!

~SinJim

nubbinownz responds:

I know that feeling too unfortunately :(

[=The Lament=]

Lament

I really liked the sound to soundfont... Nice sentence huh?

Anyways the piano came off as being, how should I describe this... "old." To me it sounded like it was being played in an old attic by a lonely guy who only has enough money to rent out the attic to begin with. With you mentioning the "Open Window" I just had this image of a camera circling around a house eventually zooming in an attic window where this lonely guy is playing this piece glancing out the window longingly.

The melody and parts are simple but this really gets the job done and has a lot of feeling. Great job and good luck in the contest!

~SinJim

Hades responds:

The idea that came to your mind when you heard this should really be taken into consideration by FateProductions, I'm sure he'll find the idea useful! I didn't really think about the setting in that way, that sort of reminds me of 'The Composer'.

Thanks a lot for the review, and I also wish you luck in the contest, I'm sure that the winning songs will be quite interesting, seeing the number of submissions so far!

[Cayur - Achaia]

Achaia

First off, what's the title mean?

Wow this is a really great piece. I think it is a bit uplifting but it does reflect some sadness in it. I really liked it when you brought in the cello in the beginning but I wanted it to be prominent. Even if your theme and melody aren't necessarily sad, the cello itself will give that impression and I really felt that for the first part when the cello was there.

Drums are pretty sweet and not at all what I expected to come in. You did that with Addictive drums? Wow, I really suck with that plugin then haha. Nice job with them.

At times it felt like the backing strings conflicted with the theme you had going but for me, it didn't really bother me, it just caught my attention and changed the mood a bit.

I really liked when the piano picked up pace but I personally didn't like a lot of the sound effects. Until the shaker came in I wasn't too fond of it, but that's just me *shrug*

The guitar here was really good as well and the different drums that came in really changed the mood of the piece. The buildup towards the end was really good and I enjoyed that.

This is a great entry and I wish you luck in the contest! Great job!

~SinJim

sculpted-cold responds:

Achaea was a province of Greece. The song is about the Battle of Dyme where the Achaean forces were defeated. The story does have a somewhat happy ending, though.

This is from Wikipedia:

"In 222 BC, the Macedonian-Achaean army and the Spartan army clashed at the Battle of Sellasia which ended in an allied victory. This victory forced Cleomenes to flee from Greece and go to Egypt. While Antigonus took Sparta, making him the first foreigner to every capture Sparta."

A lot of the mood changes are supposed to represent the mixed emotions during the time of their defeat.

The first set of drums that come in I did with Addictive Drums. The second set are stock samples that come with FL Studio; I just tweaked them to my liking and pitch bent them.

Thank you for all the kind words. :)

[MAC 2008 - Monster]

Monster

I agree with the previous review that it sounds very similar to clubbed to death from the matrix. I felt like this needed a bit stronger buildup in it and a tad more variation on the drums. Maybe even a bit of reverb. I was also really wishing for a faster piano part at some point like a solo or just some sort of faster buildup. With the piano, I think it sounds a bit like it's sequenced, maybe humanize it a bit more.

If you do add a solo, I think it would fit in really well about 1:40ish where the background drops and it's only piano, it would be sick and I think you could do some awesome things right there.

Those a very small complaints, the song is great already. I loved the chord progression and melody, I think with a couple changes it could be really epic. The strings are pretty sweet and I think they fit well with the piano.

This is a great entry in the competition and I really liked it, good luck and great job!

~SinJim

Scribbler responds:

Now that you say that, I can definitely hear the similarities though I don't think they are too jarring. I agree, the build-up could in essence be enhanced though I think steady drums are essential though "a little" variation would be nice.

Thank you for the review, it means a lot. I appreciate it.

[MAC8-Michael's Theme]

Theme

I agree with Darkside in that it's a bit short and needs a tad bit of an ending. Good god you could expand on this so much and you need to let me know if you upload a revised version of this. It does end abruptly and I think you should expand on it there. The chord progression is awesome and the melody you choose melds really well with all the instruments you used (I really liked the horn).

I really just want you to expand on this because it's so great by itself and I think it can be better. The quality is great and the piano is top-notch. Did you play this and record it, program it, or sequence it?

Hmmm I-III-VI-I I'll have to take a look into that.

Great job, let me know if you update this, off to check your other submission.

~SinJim

PS - Who's Milchael?

Flash-MX responds:

Hey Sin thanks for the review!
I will be expanding on this soon, the same with a few of my other tracks.
When I was recording the piece, I was only able to record one hand at a time (until I get something bigger than 25 keys, I'll keep doing this), but the rest of it was played and recorded.
Its a great chord progression, the Minor really sticks out which I like;

Michael can be anybody to be honest, I just wrote it as a theme for any kind of flash game/movie alike.

Thanks again!
Will check out your submission to the MAC as well,
Peace