Kingbastard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mutzi Schnutzi (2:40)]

Lovely

quite lovely. I am a big fan of the acoustic guitar, i love playing it/hearing it, it's like therapy for me. This is a lovely piece, well played and interesting, i'm guessing it's not an original piece though? hence the tab link?

WinTang responds:

Thanks - it is an original, I just felt like tabbing it out. If it was by someone else I would've credited :)

Glad it could soothe you and thanks for the review, I'll review that track of yours in a minute.

[Lemonsalt]

Great...

reviewing as I listen.... starts off nicely with afx style strings a'la the girl boy ep, good sound to them. It's a smooth piece of work. I think the beats could be sharper, perhaps some eq'ing/light distortion and compression would help them stand out more? I find the main body of the trk a little too reverbed/middley, it doesn't quite have enough punch, would really entice the listeneer if it were a little more in-your-face produciton-wise. The little distorted melody line that comes in is superb, relally adds to the mix. It's a very well crafted trk, soild production and a full, well-rounded sound to it. Enjoyed it a lot, had it on repeat a few times now:)

Creamy-T responds:

haha yeh, the string section had a bit of influence from the boy/girl song. i agree too that it was a bit muddled overall (with writing/mixing), as i've said before i believe i was being personally a little too ambitious with trying to have a bunch of tracks and write in 5/4 and all that.

thanks a ton for the review!

[-=LJC=- Atonal Rythmic Noise]

I don't get it

I like to think I understand the idea of making things musically challenging, so I appreciate The sound, it's superb, clean and poignant, but the time signature change seems like its put in there because you can, rather than because it makes for good listening. I enjoy it, a lot, don't get it perhaps, but good stuff nonetheless, doesn't have that killer line though, it's a trk to listen to once and be impressed, then ignore imo.

LJCoffee responds:

The tempo changes are in there for exactly that reason - I could, so I did.

If you listened once and was impressed at all then it's served it's purpose.

Some of the experimental stuff works - some of it doesn't - you know how that goes - I imagine that something like this could be either cleaned up, added to and extended or shortened up for use as either a transition piece or filler on a CD.

Thanks for listening though - and thanks for giving me your honest remarks.

Maybe the next one will be catchy enough to stick in your pants and wiggle around for a while :D

[-=Rainhailer=- My Heaven]

nice enough...

...boring though, seems very quiet. Not a lot to say about this trk, it keeps on going, but never gets anywhere, desperately needs some lyrics/vox.

Rainhailer responds:

yea, i really aint all that good with this fruity loops thing.

but about that quietness. . . .
turn up the volume?

[May]

development

this is ok, the thing that bugs me the most about it is the slight mistakes in the piano, the little moments when the wrong keys were struck really stand out. Also it doesn't really do much. It's an idea more than a finished track. The drums are basic, the swirling fx are just an add-on that kinda complements the trk, but they don't do enough to keep me interested. That sounds very critical, but I have to be honest and say that I was hoping for more. I would suggest maybe bringing in the sections of the trk at a slower pace. start with the swirling synth, leave it for 8 bars, then add the drums, then after another 4 bars add the other swirly synth, then add the piano later, quiteer and not so in your face, who knows. I just find it very instant right away, no mystery, and no development. still, it's nice enough.

[dj_padman - No Prisoners]

Frantic!

Frantic & Frenetic intro to this tune, comes straight in and bullies you into paying attention.
Again the mix is quite erratic and very full, but it works well. I think it would be nice to break the track down in sections and have the more relaxed periods strecthed out longer, as it just gets a bit too busy for me.
The bassline is quality and you have some excellent sounds in the mix, but i prefer my DnB a little more clean and hard edged, perhaps removing the floating synths from the mix every now and then might help give it more punch?
Good stuff again man, can't not give you my 5:)

[dj_padman - sunswept]

Hi.

This trk has an interesting feel right from the get go, the kind-of jagged nature of the beats crossed with the more chilled out synths works well. I would have perhaps liked to have heard more of a build up with the intro, but that's just my preference and the track builds nicely all the way through with what feels like a very natural progression.
I can't really put my finger on it, but there's something about this trk that doesnt sit well in my ears, perhaps it's the unsettled feeling it conjoures in my mind with the slightly erratic nature of the mix when i'm trying to chill-out to the synths, it's hard to place.
Regardless of that, it's a very good track and a throughrally enjoyable listen, shame about the fade end though.
Good stuff man.

dj-padman1 responds:

thanks for the review KB.
Well, the thing that probably doesn't sit well is that its horribly overcompressed. I'm so tired to fighting this 'loudness war'.
Well, back to the drawing board.

[{The Sewers}]

Good Stuff

It starts like some kinda rpg big epic game, nice breaks into bell-like simple hits with a half break and nice bass-sound. Quite a trebley mix so far, hoping for a big bass end. The beats are good ol dnb through and through, the little glitchy bell-like sounds work really well, the stabby synths i'm not so sure about, sound a little cheap compared to the rest of the mix.
It's a very competent peice of DnB that i think would benefit from some EQ mastering to really bring out the frequencies. Also I really don't like piano in dnb music:D SOme of the sounds are a little techy and dont belong in DnB in my ears, but I see this being used in many a flash.
It's really well arranged and thought out and a good listen all the way through, constantly evolving.
4/5

cornandbeans responds:

Thanks for the review, man! Your opinion means a lot to me. :)

I tend to break a lot of rules when dealing with genres, sometimes it's a really bad habit though. :P I really like acoustic instruments along with electronic ones, that's all. :)

Thanks again!
~cornandbeans

[Double Dub]

Now I Know My ABC......

....kinda.

I enjoyed that track, good inventive stuff and nice sound mangling.
I would have liked the trk to go on and develop more, but it was cool nonetheless.
Gets my 5

Laiderdaiv responds:

I got my old files back and I'm working more on it. Spending time on sorting all my crazy wiring and automation out right now to work easier. Thanks for the 5!

[SamPop - Random 0.01]

Thumpity Thump

Quite Intense stuff here! Not at all what I would call Drum N Bass, more Hard Style, Hardcore. Thumping kick drum that rips yer ears apart and weird looping percussion.
Nice big Sub in the break.
One for the Misc catagory I think:)
I would like to have heard some more buzzing synths coming in and out, but I enjoyed the sheer intensity of the trk. 4/5