EmperorCharlemagne's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[A Ship to the North]

Not bad at all

From the technical side of things, the piano sounds a bit mechanized and stiff... Honestly, since i use solely synth stuff, I can't fault you TOO much on it.

On your next project, try to use dynamics and such to bring out a greater diversity in the sound (in this case the piano).

Also, I think the ending could have gone for a bit more of a fade-out ending; as it is, it's a little abrupt. Nothing to detract from the experience, but it is noticeable.

All in all, this ain't all that bad; an all-around decent track that is enjoyable.

Grandvision responds:

Thanks. I use Truepianos and I don't know how to master a piano to make it sound more realistic. I use what I can. I will try to use more dynamics in my next track.

[Lost Myself In a Bass Warble]

cool story bro

The volume was fine for me, but I heard a little crackling, very faint, in the course of the track.

Love the background rhythm section; it had this real funky groove going on that I like, yo. I personally feel the main synth could have been toned down a little bit; it felt a little TOO overpowering, personally. Could have used some support, you know?

But I thought this was pretty neat.

Syntrus responds:

thx for stopping by.

[Song of Storms remix - Full]

Wait, there was Song of Storms in Wind Waker?

News to me!

The distorted rhythm guitar's fuzziness (or is that a synth? Can't tell) is a little overbearing- might want to tone it down a little bit. I also feel like the drums are a little too lowkey- try turning them up a LITTLE, but not much. Also, pan your instruments; like the guy below said, mastering is a skill to learn. I know because I had to learn too. But really, all the instruments fall square in the middle, making things sound muddy (like the fuzziness I was talking about.).

An alright arrangement, but there are some things to kink out. Keep on improving!

[[SxHx] Prfkt.Tempo (REFIX)]

I'll admit that the pulse waves hurt my head too

But I guess that's the nature of the genre, eh?

Nice way to put things together, though I somewhat personalyl question the phasing in and out of the vocal track. That is a personal artistic choice that I don't personally agree with, but it's fine that you did it (for me it just makes it too hard to understand).

This is however and altogether good track, well-produced with no glaring defects, and I have to say good job on doing that.

shesmackshard responds:

a 7 for what lol? thats not justified.

thanks fore the review, outright though!

[The Chapel of Flandre Scarlet]

Ow.

You're reading the reply in the thread you made, so I'll keep this fairly succinct.

Like I said.
Turn down the volume on everything. Everything loud. The organ, the strings, and some cases even the piano. This song tries to assault the listener's ears, so instead of taking in the piece, the listener is trying to fight off the cacophony you throw at them.

Silence is a virtue, some say. Learn to quiet things down in order to let the music speak. Because constant shouting says nothing.

Good try, but some serious issues need to be addressed.

ZakoZaku responds:

Thank you for a honnest review. See, this is why you cant really trust friends. They always say its good, just to avoid makeing you upset.

[Fantasy for piano]

Deserves a higher score

Though not TOO much higher. Agreed, parts could be a LITTLE better, but as it stands, I think this is quite well-made, and has a certain degree of quality about it that makes it very listenable and likable.
Right length, nice melody, nice everything.

[15thD - Light]

Alright

The only criticism I can really hand out is that this is very very very loud. I have my volume set at the dead medium and I'm jerkin' my head back.

This is alright, but again, the volume feels forced.
This is especially so at :36 when the high string quite literally SCREAMS at the listener, which doesn't make for the most pleasant of auditory experiences.

15thDimension responds:

heh heh, well, like I said before, I didn't put a whole lot of work into this, which means no volume limiting or any of that. You should've tried turning down your speakers. But hey, thanks for the review.

[Scattered Dreams]

Some things to note:

-You gots to pan your instruments, period.
Since everything is falling in the middle, when all the instruments get together, it sounds pretty muddy, and I could barely distinguish the strings when they made their instruments. Just shift things a little bit to the left here and to the right a smidge, and this problem is solved.

-Use a bit of dynamics
This ties into the first point, in that every instrument is playing at the same volume at all times. This makes things again, hard to distinguish and muddies up the composition. Also, with not dynamics, parts of the piece feel a little bit lifeless.

-Strings need a bit of fine-tuning
For the most part, they're all right, and this is a note for FUTURE compositions. In the future, try to shy away from using the strings like block chords. Not that this is a bad thing, but I say let them live a little bit as instruments of their own. As well, in this composition the low block chords sound really muddy and hard to recognize, so now how to balance things out. I don't mean to sound like this is a crappy piece; it's not, and it's likable, but I think it was hastily released.

Mainly, the main thing this needs is balance and mastering. Fixing all the small problems so this can be a better piece as a whole. You said this piece took a day to fix; well, it takes far less than a day to address the problems I listed (minor edits at most). Hope this helps.

roensb responds:

wow thank you for such in depth review. I'll go back and do some mastering like you said. Once again thank you very much for taking the time to write so much about my song

[[Dr.S] Sunset Voyeur]

Cool title, cool shirt

Cool song too.

Like the augmented/9th chords, and the piano jam that starts up.
This works up to a nice groove that continues the good pace all through the song.
I think some of the augmented triad stuff (3:09ish) doesn't quite mesh harmonically, but that is only a small qualm in an otherwise bitchin' track.

Nice jam dude.

Dr-Slump responds:

Yeah, 9th chords are amazing chords. Unfortunately, and I know you know this, they're not very friendly chords. They can be really dissonant, but small dissonancy as in the triad can be heard by few people, like yourself (even I didn't notice it). Thanks for the uplifting comments.

Also, I wish I could tell what chord it is by ear... you really did amaze me now. Oh well, until then, my friend! Thanks again for the review!

[[Dr.S] Greyboy]

Cool funky stuff bro

This is all around pretty nice, pretty enjoyable funk.
I would have liked something of a melody to appear a bit sooner, but I suppose that's the nature of funk, mon. It's honestly not a big deal, I can tell you had fun with this one.

This is an all-around solid track, that is cool and groovy.

Dr-Slump responds:

Thanks emperor! You're always welcome to review my stuff! And I guess you're right about the melody. That really funky clavi that starts after the first minute was kinda of an accident. I started with that "not-so-funky" riff and mixed it until I found the pot of gold. A lot of my friends enjoyed it too. It's clear and some of my friends said that it feels like real people are playing this. Yeah.