Haggard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Thank Our God Cornet/Trumpet]

Strange

This sure sounds strange. And by "sound" I mean the actual "sound" that cornet/trumpet makes, not the playing itself.

I'm not very experienced with trumpets, but I guess it's not too easy to get a good tone out of it, so as far as I can tell, you have some experience playing the trumpet.

So, I don't know what you did to make it sound like this, but - and I'm just being honest here - it sounds terrible.
Maybe it's one of the filters you used (I think I can hear a "chorus" filter there? I sometimes use it for my guitar and it creates a similar "panning"), maybe it's the way you recorded it.

I would like to hear the unedited recording of this, even if there are background noises. I think a clear, unfiltered trumpet sound would be much better in this case.

{ Review Request Club }

AccountableMasses responds:

okay thanks.

[Tomb of the Unknown Warri]

Great

Very good voice again (nice accent here by the way, never noticed that before. ^^) and very clear pronouncation this time.

I like the pace of your reading. Not too fast and not too slow either. Well, maybe you could've made a slightly longer pause before you begin with the "For God, For King and Country" part, but that's only me nitpicking here and the text doesn't lose any of it's power the way you present it now.

{ Review Request Club }

Coop responds:

I've never really thought of my "normal voice" as that good an accent. Perhaps because it's the one that I use all of the time, so it seems more spectacular to use my other voices and accents.

I see what you mean about the pause. Perhaps my next piece or two will address these sorts of criticisms and I'll be much better placed.

[For The Fallen]

Good work, with a slight drawback

Pretty good voice acting again. I like your low-key tone of voice, it fits to the mood of this poem.

However, I think sometimes you could pronounce the words more clearly. Sometimes (especially during the middle of the poem) it seems to me that you pronounce some of the syllables (or single characters) not clearly enough, which does sound a bit like mumbling.
I may be wrong here and only I hear this "mumbling", but with voice acting it is very important to kind of "overpronounce" the words. A bit like as when you are singing. There are certain phonemes that don't carry too well (like a "t" at the end of a word for example, it's very easy to "swallow" the sound of a "t" at the end of a word, especially when you are singing), so it is very important to pronounce those very clearly.

It may be a bit unusual to do that at first, because in every day speech you wouldn't to this (and don't need to do this as you will be understood either way most of the time), but as I said: For voice acting it is very important to have a very clear and very "clean" pronouncation.

Anyway, I still like your work as a voice actor, but there's always room for improvement. :)

{ Review Request Club }

Coop responds:

Yes, I know what you mean and that's always been a drawback. I wish that I could be perfect and unfortunately, I'm too impatient to bother with waiting for the piece to be perfectly ready, before I slap it up here.

Still, I'm glad you liked it. Perhaps the next piece that I do will be to your liking :)

[The Guilty]

Needs better mixing

While I like the music and the lyrics itself I think this song is in dire need of better mixing. Maybe my speakers are just crap (well, they are, but usually they aren't THAT bad), but the song sounds very overpowered. Also, the vocals are nearly drowned out by the music, which doesn't sound too good.

I also think during the solo the rest of the music should be mixed to a lower volume, so that the solo guitar really stands out. Right now it's constant "noise" (I don't mean that word in a disrespectful way) from the beginning to up to the fade out. Some dynamics would sound pretty good here.

I think you should read up on the "Loudness war" on wikipedia (they have a great gif right at the start of the article) to get what I'm trying to say in this review.

I also hope you understand why I can't give you a higher score, based on this review. But just to make this clear: I like this song, but the sound issues leave me no other choice than to give this a low score. :/

{ Review Request Club }

Pure-Metal-UTA responds:

I listened over the song to see if I could hear any of the issues that you brought up, and quite honestly, I hear nothing of the sorts. Listening through my headphones, I can hear the vocals and the solo quite clearly over the rest of the tracks. While I'm no expert when it comes to dynamic ranges, everything seems to be at a right level for my headphones (I will note though that when I listen to this through my amp - which I use as my speakers - I can't hear the rythm guitars at all).

I'm really glad you liked the song, but I have to respectfully disagree with opinion of the mastering. That being said though, it might absolutely be my headphones that are causing the mastering issues, even SeeD419 mentioned in a few of my songs that there are production issues present, so even though I can hear everything in the song fine, many other people such as yourself and SeeD may not hear it the same way I do.

I listened to this with another pair of headphones, and I still didn't hear any issues present.

Thanks for the review!

[Ode to Shalashaska-1]

Nice story

A good story, good story telling and good voice acting, all in one submission. Nice. :)

When you started the story I was reminded of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", because... well, you don't sound exactly like the narrator in the tv series (or the audio drama, I think it's the same one), but the way you tell the story is quite similar. And "which was a great idea in the first place, until everybody got drunk" sounds like a line that Douglas Adams could have written.

Anyway, sometimes there are a few cracking sounds during the story, so I guess you still need some time to figure out how to record your voice properly with the new mic. I guess practice makes perfect here, so just try to experiment around with the recording settings and you should be fine.

PS: I thought your name was pronounced "Co-op" when I first became active on the BBS as well. Shame on me. :(

{ Review Request Club }

Coop responds:

I need to get a stand for the new mic - it doesn't free stand, like I thought it would.

I've read some Adams before and I only wish I could say that it was what I was aiming for, but alas. It only happened by coincidence.

And the crackling sounds might be taken care of using a pop-filter, which would need to be attached to said stand.

[cmb - weird happy song :D]

Review Request Club = WIN

We are not machines who have nothing better to do and impaitently wait for someone to request reviews on their work. Sure, it sucks that we currently can't deliver as fast as we used to (and it sucks even more if you request a review and don't recieve any), but it seems as if currently all members are pretty busy with live and stuff.

Anyway, now that we have that out of the way on to the actual review:
I like this song. The background melodies are pretty cool and quite relaxing. I also like that you used that melody from the intro later in the song. It sounds good and it is also nice to have melodies that appear at different parts in the song.

My main problem with this song is that it all sounds quite overpowered (especially the drums). Don't know if it is supposed to sound like that, but I found it a bit annoying and it kind of destroyed the song for me.

{ Review Request Club }

cheesemonkeybill responds:

i understand yo, sorry if i offended. decent review too, thankies! :]
a win indeed

[The flower prince - TTC CHG]

Piano... <3

Wow, the piano in this song really gives me goosebumps. It plays such a nice melody and hits just the right notes and is played at perfect pace and loudness in my opinion... well, yeah, it's just good... XD

But not only the piano is awesome, the instruments in the background are good as well. The background melodies go along very well with the stuff that is playing in the foreground, so once again a very dense atmosphere is created.

I think the mixing couldn't be any better here. For example right after the intro when the piano sets in. The piano is clearly the main instrument in that part, but yet it doesn't overpower the instruments in the background.
And the instruments in the background a clearly there, but yet they don't take away anything from the piano. It all just adds up to a very nice listening experience.

Again you leave me no choice but to give you 10/10. :)

{ Review Request Club }

Calamaistr responds:

Im very sorry i couldnt reply to your review before, i have been in the middle of a move (ive only just settled my internets on this new adress and still have to put in furniture :þ )

Youre very praising of this track, its not the best of the album so im sure you're going to be happy when i post more ;)

Greets man, and thanks alot again :)
-Cal.

[Yuricharai's plan - TTC CHG]

Great atmosphere

The beginning reminds me a bit of the "Phantom of the Opera" theme, heh.

But luckily this little similarity between your song and the "Phantom" isn't there for too long.

The atmosphere you create with this song is very mysterious and a bit "strange". While I read the story there where many things I coulnd't do anything with. I hope this confusion settles down once I get to read more of the story, heh.
Anyway, what I was trying to say with that is, that the confusion I feel is emphazised by and reflected in the song. Just as if you was trying to express something like: "Yeah, I know it's confusing but don't worry, you'll understand soon."

But I think the song could use some more bass, especailly during the middle part of the song, where the organ plays some higher notes.

{ Review Request Club }

Calamaistr responds:

The track is meant as the character based theme of yuricharai, who is alot like a floating ghoul with a kasa on his head, a bit the japanese style ghost to be accurate.

I havent listened to this album for a long time, have had the strangled album on my mp3 player for a while again now, i roulate em you see :p
So i dont know about the bass thing, then again i wont add anything anymore cause the album is already burned onto cds :P

But thanks for listening and reviewing man. :)
greets -cal.

[The rise of -]

Great

I was hoping to hear some more violins during the song. I was hoping for some "Paganini"-style violin, but... no such luck.

Anyway, the song you created works well even without crazy violins. I really like the atmosphere you create. It is somewhat "majestical" but it also creates great suspense. I had an image in mind of two huge armies preparing for a great battle. Both of them meet on a big field and they are just lining up, about to ride into battle when their commander orders them to do so.

Great song!

{ Review Request Club }

Tomppaah responds:

:O How does a Paganini style violin section sound like? He's a artist right?

Aah, thank you very much Hagri.. erm.. Haggard! It's always a good sign when ppl listening are easily imagining scenes to a piece, right? ;)

Thank you again for your commment!

[In a nutshell - TTC CHG]

Nice

A very good track. Very relaxing and quiet, but on the other hand also very "promising" in terms of the story you wrote in the comments section. I think this track isn't only relaxing, but it also gives a small preview on the things that might happen in the future, when the story continues.

I thought I was really nice listening to the track while reading the story. It is very fitting during the first half of the story. In the second half, when they reached their destination point it isn't so fitting anymore. I think a more mysterious atmosphere would fit better there.

Anyway, overall this is again a very good song!

{ Review Request Club }

Calamaistr responds:

Some tracks are overall themes, some tracks are on the timer.
:)

Glad you too liked it, havent seen you in a while. Welcome back to my musics!
Hope to see you again and thanks :)
-Cal.