MockOff's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fisherman's Fantasy]

I like the intro, even though a tad trite sounding it still builds a nice mood. The intro kind of felt like it dragged on being at about 2 minutes long. I mean it was nice, but it got a tad boring after being on too long.
I'm not really sure how I feel about the vocals. They sound too robotic, monotone, and ehh. They just don't do the song justice in my opinion, so I'd work on that a bit.

I like the guitar bends that I hear coming out of the right speaker. The drums and whatnot seem rather standard.
Overall good effort, but some work could be done.

SourJovis responds:

You can't just throw around words like trite without arguments. What's trite about the piano part? The chord progression is nothing I've heard before. I don't say songs with a similar progression don't exist, but at any rate it's not common. The melody is nothing straightforward either. 2 minutes for a full song can never be too long. Especially not when there isn't any repetition. I think that's just your attention span. Sorry. You say you got this boring because of my song? That's a bold accusation. As far as I can tell from your other reviews and your own songs you've always been boring, so don't blame the song. If you don't like the vocals because they are too robotic I can understand that, but how can you call them monotone? It spans a range of 19 semitones. I can only sing about 4 semitones higher than this without switching to head voice (and I can't do that well), and I had a lot of trouble with the lower 2 notes. I know I'm an untrained singer, but you can't expect much more range from an experienced singer. If you call a compound triple meter with constant drum fills standard, then sure as hell these drums are standard. Oh man…

[In The Future (Remake)]

The intro is abrupt as hell, but I guess for this style of music that can work. The mixing is pretty good from what I can tell in this song, I like your synth sounds. As for the actual writing, it seems a tad generic. Like I've heard this done a ton of times before. Not that that is necessarily a problem, as some people like to make music like that.

I like the quiet section two minutes in and the piano playing. I was a bit disappointed at about 2:40 when everything else came in. I think it would have been really cool to just end it with a piano solo. That was definitely my favorite part of the song.

Everratic responds:

Thankyou for your review! I don't mind generic music at all, I listen to a lot of pop music. About the intro, I hate boring and slow intros, so this is how I like to do it. I ended too many of my recent songs with piano solos imo so I had to do something different this time. But I do love piano endings.

[Uncanny Inspiration]

The intro drags on a bit too long, I was losing interest before it really began. When that second guitar came in it does remind me a good bit of Sonic. The mixing doesn't seem to be the best. The guitar sounds too trebly and the drums just don't sit well. The writing itself isn't too bad, i just think the mix brings it down a bit. I'd recommend studying some drum playing too... your drums seem to just be all over the place, not really doing anything to make the song better.

You show some signs of potential though, just keep trying.

Blacklawn responds:

Two stars? Seriously, MockOff? Is this some sort of revenge review for that one I gave you the other day?

I get that it has issues. It's one of my older songs, after all, but I definitely think it's above that. If even Sequenced gave 3 stars to a version with inferior mixing, that probably means something. Mixing is important, sure, and I'm still learning, but I think the composition makes up for that. I admit that the drums are not my best work, though.

[|R|Night of the Zombie]

Right from the beginning the inspiration is pretty apparent. I'm not really sure how I feel about your instrument choices. Your synths sound a bit too flat, maybe too trebly for my tastes. The low end doesn't feel like its fully there, giving a kind of empty feeling.

I like your drum sounds and piano though. Piano notes were nice and I liked the heavy kick. The outro was a bit too abrupt but I feel like you meant for this to loop so that isn't an issue. Transitions were kind of hit or miss for me.
Song was decent though and could work for a title theme.

Radiationator responds:

Thank you for the review! :)

I will take your advice in and try to improve on it!

[Galaxy Inside of Me]

I really like the bassline that starts the song off and everything. I'm not sure how I feel about that synth-y thing that kind of sounds like a guitar, the high pitched one. It comes in a bit too abrupt it makes it harsh on the ears. The piano selection was really good, goes well in throughout the song.

Not really a fan of any of the synths you use though, they all sound a bit too cheesy in my opinion, but maybe that was part of the plan. I like the guitar parts when its just the drums and bass with it, it works quite well there, but I think it sounds a bit too cheesy again with everything else. Almost reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog.

My complainants might just be because of personal preference. Besides those though, it was an enjoyable listen.

Blacklawn responds:

Thanks for reviewing. Oddly, some people actually complained when I took out the synth and left the rest. Can't please everyone, of course.

[Chant de l'Eveil]

Never played the game, but I'll review nonetheless. You have a really nice voice, sounds really professional. I haven't heard the original song so I can't compare it to that, but you did really well with your instrument choices I thought.
I can't really complain about anything, this is probably the most professional song I've heard on the site. You did well.

Troisnyx responds:

Thanks -- I do recommend you look up the original; it goes by two titles: "Song of Awakening" and "Ballad of the Wind Fish". It's Gameboy sound, but that's the reference for this piece.

Glad you liked it! ^_^

[Schizophrenic Days]

I like the experimentation and whatnot but this just sounds more like experimenting than an actual song. I'm sure that is the point though. You do got some cool sounds in there though and it had some nice parts. Its just that it didn't really have any flow or anything and was completely random so I recommend working on that.

Blacklawn responds:

Thanks. I confess I was hardly trying to make anything coherent when I made this, haha... If you want something more coherent, the original track will work better.

[The Best Out (3 Verses)]

It was a decent song. I liked the beat but I think you should have changed it up a bit since it was the same thing the entire song and that gets kind of boring.

MDavidJohnson responds:

I agree, I wanted to, but I'd lost the FLP to it. Thanks for the review!

[The Only Choice]

The mixing in this seems weird. Everything feels like its in the back and nothing is in the front standing out. Transition at the 0:40 mark was a bit odd. Are you playing guitar or did you program that? Nice playing if it was you. Drums could use some improvement too, they seemed rather random at times.
You have some good ideas, I like the main riff, but I think you need to work on your mixing skills so things sound clearer (I think that would help the most) and work on transitioning between sections a bit more as well.

Sielumetsien responds:

:-[ This is what I'm afraid of, those who write criticisms without knowledge on the subject they write.

Anyway, thank you for the attempt of writing good criticism.

[The Road Back Home]

The intro is pretty fun and playful. Kind of reminds me of Daft Punk a little bit. I like the little voices that are panning around in the background. I like the background synth that starts popping up around 1:35, although I wish it would be more prominent. It starts to get a bit more loud and in the main mix but it kind of just disappears as that is happening.

I know this is a techno song so maybe the complaint isn't valid for this genre, but I feel like you could use some more defined sections as the song kind of seems like one big phrase. I know you add some stuff here and there but it all feels like its part of the same section, ya know? It may have been because it seemed like the drums didn't really change much throughout. I know this is a techno song so like I said that may not be valid for the genre, but I thought I'd mention it. Good job otherwise.

idfpower responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Every opinion counts and it helps to hear a different perspective - after all, once published, regardless of music genre, a song is available to everyone; sometimes the critique coming from someone not familiar with that specific type of music can be even more valuable because he/she could spot things a regular connoisseur might overlook. Thanks again & good luck with your work!