Arbiter's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Flight Of The Pheonix-with vox]

Darkkloud - Flight of the Phoenix

First Impression; In the beginning you was a bit offkey when it came to the drums.
But it got better after a few loops.
I couldn't hear that much of the vocals, and you need more guitar recordings, including a rhythm guitar along with a lead.
Whilst the vocals playing, the guitar sounded thin.

After the first vocal thing; It lost alot of it's touch, with random playing, singing and impossible drums.
I suggest you start a foundational riff---just something easy. Just something like "Chug Chug Hit Chug" or something.

I liked your third riff thing.
There's some errors with time signature.
But that's ok.

You gotta drop the 8/2 drums.
They're just too fast.
Anyways; Overall I give you 7, you have a long way to go. But you'll get there.

-Christian S. (Arbiter)
Check out some of my stuff, it's not exactly metal, but It's cool anyways.

darkkloud responds:

well thanks, but th vocals were not at all random my friend.as well as th song was only meant to have one guitar, i wrote it for only guitar and drums, but i added vocals.

[Lufia II - For the Savior]

General_Leo - Lufia II | For The Savior

First Imperssion; "So...horrible samples..."
Anyways, I didn't really hear that many changes from the original song. But I guess that makes this a remake.
If you're using FLStudio 6, I suggest you download new samples from Www.hammersound.net .
It's a bit harder to mix them properly with reverb etc etc, but it's well worth it.

The timpani should have been lowered, and I didn't like that you faded it out instead of adding this extra OMPH in the end, as it's not a quiet and calm song.

Anyways, it's a pretty good remake.
Christian S. (Arbiter)
Ps; Check my stuff out if you find the time.
You wont regret :)

LoneEagle responds:

I know about the horrible samples, it says in the description that this is more than 2 years old now. It was done with fl4 or even 3 i don't remember.

Right now i'm using fl studio 5. I don't know shit about how to use vsti/vst so i'm pretty much stuck with the default samples... but i don't really mind cause i don't want to take hours to make some samples sound good. All i want to do is compose just for the heck of it and as long as i'm satisfied with that, then cheap samples it will be.

I know there's nothing new to this song, as i only wanted to remake it. What is an "OMPH"? That's right you are talking to a noob now so terminology like this is out of my vocabulary.

Hmm... about the reverb thing, i don't even know how to use that in fl5. I mean i found where it is and all but it won't let me use it. I guess i'm not doing the thing right.

I'm listening to your stuff right now and i am very impressed about what i'm hearing. It's a shame that it cannot be downloaded, i'll go and review it shortly.

It was a really hard decision to make when i was about to upload that song because i know that it isn't so great, but i said what the hell. Plus there wasn't any songs from that great game on all of newgrounds so that's why i put it here.

Thanks alot for the review Chris.

Oh, i might sound pissed but i'm really not, it's just that i haven't been able to come up with anything these past few weeks and i really know that my bad samples are hurting me.

[Hills of Tuscany]

No1r - Hills of Tuscany

You reviewed one or two of my works, So I found it nice to review back :)

First Impression: "He really likes to use dissonance in his pieces".
This has a general Jazz feel because of your chord structure, and I can hear you're a good pianist/piano-solo writer.
This is not the first time I assume.
I found that first change a bit weird though.
Didn't really like it.
The one from before to when your right hand comes in.

Anyways, It sounds like movie material.
Great work No1r, I'll check back here once in a while.

No1r responds:

Thanks Arbiter for reviewing my work!
This is the first time i write something for piano solo. I am not a pianist, i study classical guitar instead, but i obviously love the piano (probably the most complex and complete solo instrument).
Music was written in Fruity Loops, as well as dynamics, 'cause i can't actually play this (simple) stuff..with my two hands.
Thanks man! :)

[Recovery from my Existance]

SuperDrummer146 - Recovery from My Existance

First Impression: He could have done so much more. I'm going to be brutally honest with you SD, there's so much I feel you could do to make this better, it had a great melodic line.
Just needed to push it to actually GO somewhere :/

I like your piano sample a bit, but the synth string's and your weird solo string'ish thing gotta go.
Download some nice .sf2 files at www.hammersound.net .
and for classical music instruments, search up "Squidfont".
It's not allowed to use commerically, but it's free. (Not illigal).

This got, and I'm not going to lie.
Very repetive, You introduced very few new elements, and it's not that sad really.
I think you did this one in Major?

Anyways; There's room for improvement, but show's promise. Keep up the great work my friend :)

-Christian S, (Arbiter)
Ps; Check out my tunes please.
I'm new to this whole thing, but not to music.
You won't regret it ^^

itsameyayo responds:

Thanks for the great input. Yeah, I actually composed this, this is me actually playing the piano. This was also done in short time, so yeah. I'm looking to be a musician/drummer for a major band, so stay tuned. I'll put samples here in 5-10 years ; )

-SuperDrummer146

[Galactic summer (3:27)]

WinTang - Galactic Summer

First Impression: Some nice pads creating a musical picture of dissonance, then introducing a nice synth accompanied by a brass/harmonica'ish synth. Your drums wasn't really my favorite.
That kick drum was too dominant.
I like your dissonance-style of composing, and you have rather nice samples.

I saw this in the audio advertisement thread, and overall I'm glad did.
It's generally a bit repetive, but that's because of the few instruments.
I liked your rhodes as well though.

Anyways, Check out my two tunes and feel free to leave a review if you find the time :)
Best of Wishes, Christian S (Arbiter)

WinTang responds:

Thanks for your input!
I know it's a bit repetitive, it's intended to be a little hypnotizing. Which is also why I amplified the kick, though I may have gone a little overboard there. Or it may be just a matter of taste :)
My 'rather nice samples' are mostly VSTs like Edirol, but I'm not very used to them yet so they probably sound a bit blunt...
See you around, thanks again.

[Hero's Theme (w.i.p)]

CornAndBeans- Hero's Theme

The piano in the beginning cut on me; or as in your poly limit was far too low making it sound unnatural. I liked your drums/percussionate works.
Your guitar/Synthwork could need some work.

I'm assuming that Piano is your main instrument?
anyhow; it all sounded a bit random. until the piano - tom rolls; I loved that part.

You need better samples though.
I wouldn't call this classical though.
Overall 9/10.

Ps; I'm new to this site; Trying to establish a solid reputation. Mind reviewing/rating my stuff?

cornandbeans responds:

As in piano me playing? My main instrument is the cello actually, but I've been doodling around with the piano for a few months :)

I know I might sound like a noob, but I really didn't know what 'poly limit' was until you mentioned it :P That should fix a lot of my problems, thanks.

~cornandbeans

[>That BOOTY<]

BMI - That Booty.

I'd score it higher; but it wasn't technically that great; however.
You compensate pretty good with nice lyrical work; as well as parodying hip hop.
The guitar was a pretty nice touch as well.
The vocals/lyrics was rather funny
compared to alot of other Hip/Hop parodies.
Drum's was a standard Hip Hop beat really; don't know anything to add there.
Overall; 7/10.

Check out my page if you find the time; You'll most likely not regret :)

Bad-Man-Incorporated responds:

Thanks man, and you are right, the beat only took like 10 minutes to make in FL 4. The guitar actually took longer. but the mixing was easy. Once the other two guys finished their lyrics and guitar...I simply looped the music 3 times. So thanks for the cool review, I will be along to visit your page shortly.\m/

[-MrMaestro- (ST) Menu]

MrMaestro - Menu

Based upon the quality of these instruments; I'll assume you are currently using either Reason; or some powerful sampler.

This song had the correct "feeling" for a menu;
Nice use of effects; and the part without the percussion was a nice pausing.

It looped nicely with a "Boom---pause---boom"
One of the bad things; was amongst other things that it was a bit repetive; nothing big.
I've done that alot myself as well.

You should have introduced perhaps another lead instrument as well.
Instead of the synth-piano.

DavidOrr responds:

Reason it is, with a smattering of Cubase. Yea with loops you want to stay away from repetition, I should have been a little more careful with that. Perhaps if I ever turn this into a full-length piece I'll add in another melody in counterpoint, I think that would work nicely.

Thanks for the review!

[_-/| Solemn Voices]

To describe it; Beautiful.

The percussionate works in the beginning worked perfectly with the harp.
I did however not quite like the guitar; as it sounded very produced; and not very real.
The flute was a nice touch; but shouldn't have been overpowered by the guitar.
The bass drum was quite good; and wasn't too dominating. Good job.
Your spiccato strings seemed a tad washed out; but the choir compensated for that.
Generally a good song.
Nice work SoulStrings.

I believe we can expect great things from you in the future.

MaestroSegments responds:

Thank you Arbiter, my percussion skills falter compared to yours, but I believe I can get somewhere if I spend more time refining myself. My next few songs are pure mastering practice :D.

Thanks for the review ^^.