EmperorCharlemagne's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[L'olonnais]

not bad for a first sub!

This is pretty tight, and I like the melody a lot.

However, what made me give you a 7 as opposed to an 8 is that this song suffers from some technical issues, mainly that when things get too loud, it starts to crackle and pop, which is pretty jarring.

It's important to fix this problem early in your musical career!

If you use FL Studio, this can be solved by turning down the main volume, or turning down the volumes of the various channels causing the cracking. Filter effects are important too.

If you're not using FL, than the above still generally applies, but obviously with the terminology of the program you are using.

You're off to a good start- keep up the good work!

RoyalRave responds:

Yeah man, you're right, the recording is far to be perfect, but we don´t have any idea of recording at all, the recording was raw (no compression or anything similar) and we did a mess with the volume.

Thanks for the review!

[-RG- Beams of Hope]

Well done!

A very simple and well-meaning melody is accompanied by some very good sounding instrument samples (though the drums could use some reverb or something, they sound a little flat).

I noticed this track is used in a submission... Good job on being featured in something- this means that someone obviously liked it a whole lot!

I admit I like it a whole lot too. Keep up the good work!

Raven-Guard responds:

Thanks for the supportive review. You're right about the drums, This isn't the first time I've made my drums sound too flat...

The guy who used it in a submission is an NG friend of mine, he used at least 5 of my submissions by now xP.

Thanks again for the great review!
--
Supersteph54

[(MD2010)-phathom (demo)]

so far so good

Saw the post in the ad thread, so I decided to give this a go.

My thoughts:
Though I think the attack at :26 or so is a little too abrupt- you should try to smooth out that section since it feels like it jarringly jumps from section A to section B.

I don't know how to explain it, other than I would try to make that more seamless, myself.

Also, in your synths and sound effects, what would REALLY work out well is if you added more sweeps, etc. You know, where the sound goes from one end (left) to another (right)? Everything kinda falls in the middle here, and I think you can stand to pan things around a little itty bit in order to bring out a richer sound here.

But so far this doesn't sound too bad; the style is certainly there. I think it mainly needs technical clean-up. This requires a lot of hard listening.

superuberinsaneausm responds:

thanks! ill defintaley take the advice into account

[§Arbiter§ - Path of Heroi]

Some things to note

-I kinda wish you did a bit more with the strings than relegate them to a rhythmic back-n-forth. I mean, it's not like it doesn't fit, but to me it feels like something of a wasted opportunity

-the flute section as well as the horn solo around the 2 minute mark both sound kinda flat and mechanical. Obviously they aren't going to sound like the real deals (no one has a personal orchestra!), but in the future, see if you can tweak some things around to bring out a richer sound in them. The trumpet/horn whatever in particular sounds like it lacks a good punch to it, and reviews saying "[the horn] doesn't fit" confirms my statement.

The melody for the most part plays it safe and doesn't take any risks, but that's not like it's a bad thing. The African drums are a nice and expected touch for a piece like this, though like other reviews said, you should sometimes change up rhythms and timbres and whatnot to keep your song exciting.

This is sure to go over very well with most listeners and lovers of orchestral music. I hope you keep on improving musically as well as production-value-wise.

Arbiter responds:

Hi Emperor Charlemagne (interesting name, to say the least).

I understand completely your points about the strings, but I feel that I don't really have to have the strings as a melodic voice in every song - and in this particular song I felt that they would fit better as a backing, and I really wanted to try out this form of arpeggios - so where this might not seem like the best course of action due to the repetition that comes with it - I still felt that they fulfilled their purpose.

The second point of criticism that you bring is valid as far as the flute goes, because it was completely untampered - but as a fellow composer you must of course realize that at certain points there's not a whole lot you can do when you are limited to a predestined set of samples.

The melody of this is like you said, a rather safe bet - but that's mainly because as previously stated - I focused more upon the string sections of the song to test out this form of arpeggation. As for the drums, they're consisting of 8 patterns played in different velocities and rhythms, as well as cut up to be in different orders - but I see your point that when they're not prioritized in the song that I should perhaps also change up what samples and drums I use.

I have every intent to continue on developing as both a composer, and a producer - and I thank you for a long, detailed review.
And I am in no way attempting to seem defensive in this reply, merely trying to explain/justify my choices.

--Christian S.

[~When We Come~]

It ain't bad

Though these sounds are pretty common as far as techno goes- so it may not be bad, but it doesn't feel particularly SPECIAL.

Maybe tweaking with filters and effects to make the synth sounds sound more unique? It sounds right now like a lot of presets and while that is not bad thing, it just sounds like something we've all heard before.
When it comes to FL, most of the unique sound is not going to come from instruments, but what type of filtering you give those instruments. That doesn't mean go crazy however; it means finding what works.

As far as the melody is concerned, fairly safe stuff, but nothing grating and the track is generally well-put-together.

Keep at it.

[Redwood's Furnace]

Pretty damn good

It's hard to pin things down exactly- everything builds and molds upon each other as the song progresses and it just gets progressively good as time goes on.

If I can criticize anything, it's that the muted trumpet lacks depth and substance to it. It sounds pretty tinny and out of place with everything else going on in the song.

Other than that, though, I say: Good job, this is one bitchin' track.

SHADOWFOX2 responds:

I sorta kinda completely disagree
The muted trumpet lacks depth and substance because it's muted haha
Being muted gives any instrument a tiny voice, but aside from it being repetitiiiiiiiiiive as crap I think it fits the rest of the track like a glove

I'm not sure if you wanna try to imagine this track without that trumpet
I do agree with the progressiveness of the track, but I'm gonna have to learn how not to bore people with it as well
Anyways, thank you very much for your review!
It is much appreciated and I will consider the weight of the mute trumpet from now on

[Hammernaut - OST - 2 - lvl1]

Really like the bass on this one

The triangle wave moves around here in pretty pleasing ways, and the chord changes are unexpected but not entirely unwelcome.

An interesting way to set the pace for the rest of the game, to be sure, but I think it more than does its job- it sounds fun.

Calamaistr responds:

Its a bit 'humorous' as youll encounter plenty a 'ratty' on your first adventure, as its the sewers.
Thats what the first melody has to personify anyway, as a 'oh god thats alot of rats'
2ndself didnt want it to be cutesy but 'aggressive' but i personally like to think of that first part of my way of saying 'its still a little cutesy!!' :þ

The rest of it is a continuation of some familiar (through the rest of the game) tunes in that aggressive manner.

[Hammernaut - OST - 6 - endboss]

pretty interesting

sometimes I have a hard time believing you keep things to just four tracks at a time, considering how much is going on in these songs.

Nice use of white noise and whatnot to create a very frenzied atmosphere- again I point out that there is a lot going on in this song that perhaps a casual listener might not pick up at first glance.

Though there really is no melody to speak, things always keep moving which I think is always important in a boss song.

Good job.

Calamaistr responds:

Yea its supposed to be chaotic and pushy, keep the player busy, the melody is very chipped up purposely, youll recognice it before during play anyway. You 'should listen to level 3 and the ending imo, im curious as to see what you think of those.

[(CHS) Zelda: Saria's Wish]

Excellent rendition

The constant string riff in the background at the beginning gives the piece a very foresty vibe to it; this is good, because Saria's song is obviously THE forest song of OoT.
Same thing with the flute (?) riff towards the end... Good stuff, good stuff!

The little additions you've added are all great touches and this is very fun to listen.
My ONLY advice is when you have a lot of instruments going on at once, it gets hard to distinguish things. Keep in mind for future compositions how to keep things nice and crystal clear. This is not much of a problem, but only shows up for a few parts during the song.

Anyway, this really shines with quality.

ChaosDragon004 responds:

Yeah, I do have work in that area and I think with more patience I could fix that. thanks again Charlemagne for your honest words.