curriemaster's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[-WV- Midnight Heights (NG Mix)]

Funny fanny.

Classic clubby track with some sweet thumping bass, and some nice drop-outs. I like it, it makes my fanny feel funny.

Funf.

[Danalpa's Riff Metalcaniz]

A Quality Chill

This song would be excellent as the menu music for a gory first person shooter I think. It has the ambient quality necessary to have it on a loop for a long time, but it doesnt keep grabbing your attention away; as the guy who posted before me has attested. Personally, it reminds me a bit of some of the music in Red Alert 1 & 2, which is definitely a good thing. Keep it up mate!

Curriemaster

Metalcan responds:

Thanks man! I remember that Red Alert music, it was cool.

[Desert Rose]

Scene Six?

Succulent wail on that guitar right there. It reminds me a lot of some Liquid Tension Experiment or Dream Theater stuff, very Petrucci-esque guitaring in this one. The bass line ties everything together very well. I like it, particularly the beginning; it sets the scene well. Good job!

Curriemaster

Metalcan responds:

Thanks, mate! Glad you liked it.

[Mother Russia]

Tasty and Dark

Metalcan,

I like it a lot! One of my favourite classical works is Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition; and I think this had a lot of Mussorgsky flavour to it. Very atmospheric, I particularly love the bit with the woodwinds and the pizzicato strings. Excellent touch! I want to hear some more classical from you! Also, cheers for the sig pic mate ;).

Curriemaster

Metalcan responds:

Ah, a fellow Mussorgsky fan. Thank you very much for the review! :)

[Blood Thirsty--_--]

Dieselboy-esque

I enjoyed listening to this song. It has the build-ups and breaks in all the right places. The quality of samples you've used are excellent as well; particularly the drum kits, and the little percussive sounds. The orchestral elements add a lot to this song. This song is reminiscent of a few songs by Dieselboy.

Hearing this has made me look into getting Reason, I've been looking it up and it sounds like a powerful program. Well done Zenon :).

PERVOK responds:

Good choice.
I underestimated reason before and after i got the demo, i thought it was too....hard to use.
But, after me and my brother sat down, we figured it out, got the full version, and all i can say is:

Reason is freakin powerful when rewired with FL.

Thanks for the review!

[Angry Space Invaders]

Crunchy!

I like your crunchy bass sounds a lot, you've chosen instruments that fit in well together to give a good range of sound in the lower registers. It definitely has a nice, full sound.

However, this does seem like your least polished song; if I had to guess I would say that you spent the least amount of time on this one. Still, it would be fun to have it on some old-school side-scroller or something. You need some Flash artists to visit! Im sure they would be very interested in what they hear :).

[Untitled Menu Music___]

Fun drums

I like this piece a lot, its got a slow funk to it; its simple but it keeps you listening. I particularly like the discordant whistling chords. It sound a lot like early Thievery Corporation.

The drums have a good quality to them as well, if they were of lesser build it would detract from the song considerably. I can definetely imagine this as a menu piece.

Also, I noticed in your profile that you have I <3 Huckabees as one of your favourite films. This makes me happy. Good job, John, I look forward to hearing more of your songs as you upload them.

JohnFloyd responds:

Once again, thanks for the comments! That third movie slot was a tough call. If you don't mind older movies I strongly recommend They Might Be Giants, I've never met anyone who's heard of it but it's a wonderfully introspective comedy (it's nothing like Being JM, but they're in the same category) that kicks my ass every time I see it.

[Restaurant___]

Environment Modelling is perfect

Well done again. I used to play the piano at a piano bar in Edinburgh, and I'm pretty sure if I were to take an MD recorder (tape recorders are sooo passe) and record for the night, it would sound exactly like this. Minus the snare edge, ride cymbal and bass.

I particularly enjoyed how you managed to layer the vocals to give an impression of an enclosed space with hard walls...did you use an environment/reverb modeller like Lexicon Pantheon or anything for this? Anyway, it appears you have a great talent for mixing tracks together. Me likey.

JohnFloyd responds:

Thanks for all the comments! I used to play a little jazz piano myself, although not in a bar, that sounds like fun (especially over there... here in the US our bars are boring :P ).

I use Reason, so reverb is all about throwing the ol' RV7000 into the rack and tweaking it until you have the sound you're looking for. Oh, and a little EQ on top of that helps too, I tried to figure out which frequencies would carry best in a restaurant, in the end I just guessed and it came out okay.

[Insane Asylum___]

Excellent Use of Ambient Sound

Hey John, great work on this song. At first I was dubious about the genre of video game; but after listening to it a few times I realised that this reminded of two distinctly dark and disturbing games: American McGee's Alice and Planescape: Torment.

The vocals were very creatively layered and the piano was placed perfectly in the song to evoke a whats-going-happen-next atmosphere. Ill be rating and reviewing the rest of your songs, but for now you get a 5. Woo!

JohnFloyd responds:

Thanks for the comment! I wrote this for a theoretical video game, so I figured that's the genre where it belonged. It's not really "easy-listening"... ;D

[3rd String 1st Fret]

Sweet and Juicy

Hey Denvish,

I really liked this piece. It sounded warm and bright with a good range of sounds included. For some reason, it reminded me inexplicably of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". Are you a fingerpicker? The only suggestion I would have is to try and reduce the overall reverb of the song, as it causes the sound to become slightly muddled during the more intricate parts. However, I suspect this is an affectation of your recording process, was it a miced amp from an electroacoustic or just a mic pointed at your guitar? Excellent job my friend, and thanks for the listen.

Curriemaster