Haggard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[MoL- Face the Darkness]

Good submission, looping could be better

This is a good submission in the Video Game genre. The beat is very driving and the other instruments create a very "powerful" atmosphere, which is just the right atmo for a song that is supposedly to be used during a fighting sequence.

However, the looping doesn't work too well. The differences between the end and the beginning are very noticeable, so there's still some work to do.
Maybe you could add a few seconds to the end. You have a little "solo" there with one of the instruments (I really couldn't find a better description ^^), I think you could use this as an opportunity to calm the song down a bit, so it fits better to the calmer beginning.

{ Review Request Club }

MeteorManMike responds:

I wasn't happy with the looping either. The long pads at the beginning made it really difficult. Could possibly replace them with something shorter. Thanks for the review!

[Plains Theme]

Good song

This piece reminds of some film score, but I can't really say which one.
Anyway, this is a very good submission. I like how this song keeps itself in the background so nicely. This is one of the main criterias for me if I reate soundtracks for a game.

A game without music can get boring very soon (if there's nothing to listen to I tend to get bored quite quickly), but if the game music is so loud that I can't concentrate on the game any longer, then it's not good music. The music has to fit to the game (let's take the Resident Evil series as an example. The music fits perfectly to the games and even the music alone can make you feel uncomfortable).

Now this piece could be used in various genres. Medieval games, RPGs, or adventures. The atmosphere you create with this song is somewhat relaxing, but it also has a certain "Now let's start our mission!"-feeling to it, which I quite like.

{ Review Request Club }

Step responds:

Thanks for the nice, detailed review, Haggard!

"This piece reminds of some film score, but I can't really say which one."

Yeah loads of people compare my songs to movie soundtrack. I quite like it :3.

"Anyway, this is a very good submission. I like how this song keeps itself in the background so nicely. This is one of the main criterias for me if I reate soundtracks for a game."

Echo and I aren't that experienced at making background music actually. I'm glad we succeeded over here though!

"A game without music can get boring very soon (if there's nothing to listen to I tend to get bored quite quickly), but if the game music is so loud that I can't concentrate on the game any longer, then it's not good music. The music has to fit to the game (let's take the Resident Evil series as an example. The music fits perfectly to the games and even the music alone can make you feel uncomfortable)."

Very true. I think one of the main reasons why Okami is one of my favourite games is that the soundtrack is just so brilliant and is just right for the game. I don't play Resident Evil much so I can't see if I agree with you about its music, I'm afraid :P.

"Now this piece could be used in various genres. Medieval games, RPGs, or adventures. The atmosphere you create with this song is somewhat relaxing, but it also has a certain "Now let's start our mission!"-feeling to it, which I quite like."

Yeah, the plains world was actually going to be the first 'level' of the RPG we made this for, so it's good that you mentioned that.

Really happy that you enjoyed the song, and thanks again!

"{ Review Request Club }"

Never forgetting the RRC sig I see :P.

[Manifestation of Defeat]

Good song, bad sound quality

This is a very good song. The build up is a bit long, but since the song is over 8 minutes long (almost 9!) it doesn't matter that much in the end.

The sing that really annoys me here is the rather low sound quality. Everything sounds very much overamplified, as if the recording volume was just that little bit too high. If the sound quality would be better I could easily rate this song with 9 or even 10 stars.

{ Review Request Club }

[Xyirx - Dragon's Burden]

Great song

A very good and very relaxing, yet somewhat melancholic song. I think you've just found the right mood for this song. A dragon thinks about the past, well it's very easy to get a bit melancholic if you do that, so it's just right for this song.

I like the composition very much. I just listened to this song a few times in a row. I completly forgot I loaded this song, while I was browsing on a different page, heh. This only happens if I like the music, my brain kind of "blends out" the music, so I listen to the music, without really listening to it (if that makes any sense at all... >_>). If I don't like the music I'm always like: "Ghaa, this sh*t is annoying, turn it off!"
So, it's not a bad thing for me I "forgot" that I was listening to this song. ^^

Anyway, I like that this song stays so calm the whole time. Again, this fits great to the little story you wrote up in the comments section. A faster pace wouldn't have the same feeling here.
But "calm" doesn't equal "boring", the song is quite intense, even though it loses a bit of it's intenseness (is that a word?) once the piano sets in at 1:49. I guess this is the part where the dragon learns to accept his true identity.

The only thing I didn't like was the chimes at 0:52, as they seem to be a bit overused in those kind of songs.

Anway, this song is going straight to my favs! :)

{ Review Request Club }

Xyirx responds:

Thank you so much....so, so much for your detailed review. I appreciate for pointing out some things that could be improved or changed. I'll certainly consider these things in the upcoming tracks. Thank you again for the favorite and wholehearted support. :)

Xyirx

[EpicMetalInstrumental(Jeffaro)]

\m/

It's hard to write good instrumentals as they tend to get a bit repetitive, but this is one of the good instrumentals.

I like the diversity very much here. Okay, the song is only about two and a half minutes long, but it's still very nice that you put so many different parts into it. And the best of all: The parts all go along very well together. There's not a single part where I thought: "Now the flow of the song is lost."

The very first part (and one or two parts after the intro) remind me a lot of Metallica. Maybe because I was listening to Metallica just moments before I loaded up this song, heh.

Aynway, very nice work man, keep it up!

Jeffaro responds:

The intro was inspired by metallica actually. The harmony part in leper messiah to be exact. After the intro harmony deal I take inspiration from megadeth. Then I go on to take inspiration from Iced Earth once the galloping starts.

[S.U.I.A-Raptor]

Good song

Typing this review as I listen to the song for the first time, let's see how this works out:

The intro reminds me a bit of something Björk would do. I can't remember the name of the song it reminds me of right now, but it definitely is on "Debut".

Around the 1 minute mark: A very sudden change from a somewhat relaxing part to a very industrial sounding beat now. Maybe this change over could be a bit more subtle. But on the other hand the suddend change is quite good to wake people up that may have dozed off during the intro. :)

At around 2:18: The song gets a bit weird now with those strange noises. But it fits surprisingly well into the song. I also like how you made use of some various parts before this part. This makes the song very interesting.

Towards the end the song gets quieter again. I think this doesn't really fit here, since the song became very loud and "noisy" during the main part. In my opinion you should try to finish the song with a louder part as well.

Overall I enjoyed listening to this song. The beat flows pretty nicely, every part (except for the outro part) fits very well into the song.

{ Review Request Club }

[Key to the City]

Relaxing

A very relaxing song, I really like that. I think the atmosphere is pretty nice here. Reminds me a bit of lazy sundays, or even lazy saturdays, sitting in a street cafe. :)

However, I also think there isn't happening too much in the song. Yes, songs in the ambient genre tend to not developing too much, but I listened to this song about 4 times now and I always feel that there is something missing.
The worst thing about this is that can't tell you exactly what it is that I think is missing here, so I was hesitant to even write this review.
But well, I think some more sound effects would be really nice to have. I know there are a few sound effects in this song, but they are very quiet and barely noticeable.

Maybe you could add some street noises - passing cars, or people talking - or even some café/restaurant noises (forks and spoons clanking on plates and cups).
But on the other hand if you add too many noises you can easily ruin this song, so you'd have to be VERY careful if you follow this advice.

Overall the song is very nice, as it creates a good atmosphere and the flow of the song is pretty good as well.

{ Review Request Club }

Sawdust responds:

Thanks about that! I'll take that advice to heart.

[ECHO - Faith WIP]

Pretty good so far

Too bad it's so short, but well, that's why it's called "WIP".

I like the way the song goes. It starts off really quiet with only the piano playing. Towards the end of this WIP the other instruments are included, which sounds just great.

The only thing I don't like that much is the echo effect on the piano. It's too much, in my opinion.

{ Review Request Club }

[-Fuck Me-]

Good song

When I read the genre "Grunge" I was hoping for some distorted guitars, so I was a little disappointed at first when I realized the song would be without distortion all the way through. But only a little. Because the song works really great the way it is now.

The deep vocals go along very well with the accoustic guitars (which play some very nice riffs, btw) and the percussions add a very special note to this song. They are only in the background so that I sometimes wondered if this song makes use of any percussions at all. I really like that, because when I noticed the percussions again I realized I was hearing them all the time. This is a very strange feeling to realize you where hearing something the whole time, but only "subconsciously".

Also this piece shows that "angry songs" don't have to make use of loud drums and even louder, distorted guitars. The atmosphere you manage to create with your "minimalistic" setup is very tense and yes, very angry. Just not the kind of "screaming out loud angry".

{ Review Request Club }

ShanZE responds:

If you're going to review the other two songs I requested, you'll hear the distortion too :D Actually this is one of the two tracks on the album that are acoustic, the rest is plugged-in crunchy stuff.

Thanks for the compliments on the riffs! Lately I've been having this paranoia that I've heard the main riff somewhere but I guess it doesn't matter since everything's been done before, at least once. Awesome that you liked the percussion, that's actually me playing bongos or whaddyacallthem, the rest of the album is done with a drum machine. In the first mix the bongos were overpowering when listening with headphones, this mix I think is pretty well balanced.

What you say about "angry songs" is something I've been trying to keep in mind throughout recording the album. At times I really wanted to make the guitars louder but in the end I decided to go for balance and tried to make the vocals stand out more. Everything went hell of a lot better than with my last album (or EP, to be specific), and this song is among the best on the album when it comes to production quality. I'm glad you liked the way I presented this song, it never even crossed my mind to go electric on this one, it was acoustic from the start.

But the album also contains some more traditional angry songs with distorted guitars and from-the-top-of-my-lungs-screaming, I hope you'll like them too! If you'll listen to them, that is :D

Thanks for the awesome review and for the 10!!

[.:Motivated Suspicions:.(WIP)]

Good song

A really funky song. Well, that's why it's listed in the "Funk" genre, right?

I think it could use some more bass. It all sounds a bit flat right now. Maybe it's because you used a MIDI converter, I'm not sure. But I think with more bass it would sound a lot better.

The intro is done very nice. It get's "straight to the point", no long winded fade ins or anything fancy like that. It's a bit unusal at first, but after about 10 seconds into the song I think the intro is perfect for this song.

The part after the intro with the trumpets (? or is it just a keyboard?) is a nice touch. The other instruments carry on the song and the melodies from the intro and the trumpets add a very special note to the song. But I think they could be mixed even more into the foreground, they have a hard time competing against the other instruments.

About 01:07 to 01:27: At first I thought that nothing special happens here, but after listening to this part more closely I noticed the small variations during this part.

The trumpet sets in again and it plays another nice melody. I like that you use this instrument again after the small pause. It adds some kind of "dynamic" to the song (well, it's hard to explain, but I like it when an instrument has some parts in the song where it doesn't play and then it sets in again in a different part).

Now to the part around the 2-minute-mark: To be honest, I don't like it that much. Maybe it's because the drums sound too artificial for me, but it all sounds a bit unorganized here. Just as if you suddendly lost concentration and just threw together something really quickly without paying too much attention to the beat. I'm not saying you did that, but that's what it sounds like to me.

The outro: I REALLY like the change in tempo here. It may not be the most subtle change, but it really works in this song and it's a very nice ending.

You also asked for comments on the song structure. Well, this isn't exactly my strong point as I'm not much of a musician myself (I can play the guitar, but all I do is playing already existing songs, not any stuff of my own). But I like the structure here. The way you composed this song is quite nice, there's always something happening in this song. Be it just subtle variations like from 1:07 to 1:27 or the fact that the trumpets have some parts during the song where they don't play at all and then they set in again. It's very nice to listen to all those changes and it makes the song really interesting.

Well, I hope this review was helpful to you and I wish you luck with whatever it is you need this song for in two weeks. :)

{ Review Request Club }

camoshark responds:

Wow, thanks mate, I appreciate the quick response and the massive review!

-Of course it needs more bass, thought it's more about the depth that's lacking rather than a lack of power, and there's ways to arrange that, so it's not that much of a big deal.

-I like straight-to-the-point intros :)

-As for the brass you're hearing, it's actually a trumpet, trombone, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones.

-The part where the "trumpet" comes back is actually an alto solo, thought it may be hard to tell. the next part is actually a drum solo, thought it will SYSTEMATICALY sound like crap however you put it.

And finally the intro. Every time I let someone hear it, I tell them to stay till the end if they don't want to miss out the best part of the song :3.

Once again, thank you very much for the quick response, I didn't think anybody would read this or consider it, but you've prooved me wrong!

Cheers,
Samuel Hébert