johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Miami Shredd3r]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Whoa, yeah, that intro really just knocked me off my seat. It just sounds amazing and eerie in all the right ways. The production is just excellent, as well! The mix sounds really full and detailed, which is great. I really enjoy the chord progressions and overall atmosphere here.

The problems I had with this track were due in large part to the beat, unfortunately! Once the song really kicked in (0:30), I expected a nice steady beat, but unfortunately what I got was anything but that. The beat seems to have random sections of it cut out, to the point where it doesn't drive the song at all and in fact makes it feel constantly faltering and staggering around (maybe like a victim of a serial killer?!?). My other problem is that the guitar's placement in the mix is a little too deep and it's quite difficult to hear, which is the opposite of what you'd want for a track that should be guitar driven!

So yeah, this is a really awesome track unfortunately marred by two huge issues. Still some really impressive and great stuff, though!

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 3/4
Composition: 3+/4
Sound Design: 4/4
Production: 3+/4

Overall: 8.6

Joey4Track responds:

Thanks John for the feedback and leaving a review. Haha, yeah for sure my style of percussion is often unorthodox and you can hear it in almost all of my work to be honest, I'm used to it putting people off, lol. But I was never one to follow strict formats and such which is why I don't really get much into EDM these days, too many labels and rigid structure.. Especially for synthwave you always have that same driving beat and it's something I am particularly trying to avoid. I actually quite like the drums here but then again I wasn't the one getting all excited for the beat to drop so I completely see your point.

This is going to be on a game soundtrack and I am consciously trying to steer away from that typical 1-2 kick snare beat and have a different drum beat for each track(I do have one song that does have that beat but I already made it that's why you don't hear it here, lol) It's not so much the staggering victims but the killer himself who is out of sorts in his own fragmented mind. But yeah I totally understand, you were expecting it to just settle into that steady beat and it never came, sorry mate!

And damnit I knew it about the guitar! but I had people saying it was loud in a feedback session in discord so I turned it down. That was dumb. Last time I ever listen to people again.. My next submission will most likely have guitar as well so I will make sure you can feel that shit in your balls!!

Thanks man

[Paraphrase]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Oh cool, an actual legitimate chiptune track. Those drums even sound authentic, like maybe they came out of famitracker or something? I dunno, but I can dig the authenticity. Unfortunately, what I don't dig so much is the mix of the track - it's far too sparse. It needs some elements to pad it out, like maybe chords played by saw waves or something.

I also think that this song is way too repetitive - you pretty much have one idea and repeat it over and over again through the entire track. Additional sections with different ideas and chord progressions could really help this track stay interesting over its runtime.

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 1/4
Composition: 2/4
Sound Design: 3/4
Production: 3/4

Overall: 5.8

JigglypuffClient responds:

I know that this isn't very good. Not nearly as nice as my first submitted score. I will continue trying though. Someday I'll have it down.

[[FGS] Battlegrounds]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Huh, a rock and dubstep hybrid track. I have to admit, that's something I haven't heard before. It seems to be a mostly successful experiment - nothing is horribly wrong with the track, and it's mostly enjoyable to listen to. The dubstep and rock combination in the 'drops' is pretty fun to listen to, and the overall 'battleground' theme, which seems to have lead to grim and dark music, seems pretty effective.

However, the main problem with this piece is that nothing really stood out to me, either. There's really no melodies or chord progressions that really gripped me. I found myself wishing that the compositional aspects of this song were stronger.

All in all, it's not a bad piece, just one that deserves a bit more work!

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 3+/4
Composition: 2/4
Sound Design: 3/4
Production: 3/4

Overall: 7.2

[G4CE'sz - Haze]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Now THIS... THIS is a hard to score track. Like, okay lets just put it out there, the mix is so so bad, I don't know what happened there but it's just not good. It's almost as if half of it got low passed or something, like everything is SO quiet and then there are a few drums that are SO loud??? And also the melodies are totally random.

But I have to say that your chord progressions are almost all really really intriguing and tasty and THAT is the saving grace for this song that prevented it from getting a really low score. I dunno exactly what you did to them but they speak exactly to my deranged sensibilities that love super weird funk chords, so great job there. I seriously can't give this song too low of a score because some of the chord progressions are like the best I've heard in the compo.

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 2/4
Composition: ?????????????????????
Sound Design: 2/4
Production: 1/4

Overall: 7.0

KayJay-Artique responds:

Thank you for the review, I totally get what you mean by the bad mixing so there's a thing I shall concentrate on in the future but I'm glad to hear that I have my know-how around chords and chord progressions so thank you as well for that.
I look forward to next years NGUAC Contest and the creations from the current contest.

[Chill 2]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

So I wasn't totally sold on the sound design at first, but eventually I kinda slotted it into the 'vintage' section of my mind and it actually works well with the what sounds to me like slight detuning and stuff. And I have to say, this chord progression is actually very cool. Again, I wasn't totally sure if it would work at first, but the repetition really made it work well. It makes great use of a few out-of-scale chords and a well chosen III, and I also really appreciate that it's not just 1 bar to one chord, it has a neat rhythm to it. Very cool. The melody is pretty simple and not great or anything, but it gets the job done.

If I were to complain about this song, I'd say that the mix is definitely flooded at points - there are simply too many instruments all in the same place. That and the drums should be louder.

Still though, this is some cool stuff.

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 3/4
Composition: 3+/4
Sound Design: 3/4
Production: 2/4

Overall: 8.1

Electronox responds:

Thanks for the review! I know I didn't make the cut for the next round, but I am still glad I got 8.1/10! Could you explain to me what you mean by Production? Is that like mastering? Thanks again!

[This Phoenix Will Rise]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Gotta commend you on the really beautiful and atmospheric intro. I feel like I could sit there forever.

I'm not totally sold on the crazy melodies you have going, though; they are okay, but they don't really pull me in or anything, and while they do a good job following the contour of the chords (always a plus) they do feel a bit random.

At first I felt the drop was underwhelming, but eventually I realized that it's mostly underwhelming due to the lack of super loud drums that would really drive the energy in that section. The drop idea is actually pretty fun aside from those issues. =)

Fun stuff - could use some work, but not so bad as is!

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 3/4
Composition: 2+/4
Sound Design: 3/4
Production: 3/4

Overall: 7.6

DJ-DG responds:

Thank you! Yes, even I am a fan of my intro (too much credit)? At this time I had some severe writer's block and so no good melodies really struck... couldn't really spend much time on this so I put something together (was busy). Thank you for appreciating the idea of my drop... wanted to keep it minimalistic.
Anyways, enough justifying myself... thanks for all the feedback, can tell the melodies are the main issue here. Hope the drums are audible here, not like in Luminous!

-DJ-DG

[Digital Night]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

I have to say, this piece started out really strongly with those cool sounding electronic stabs and a neat progression. But then the piece goes in a super weird direction, almost as if you decided after you laid down those stabs that you didn't actually want to write a dance song at all and a more weird sort of ambient techno thing was more your flavor. Nothing wrong with ambient techno, but having both the dancey stuff and the techno stuff in the same song is... a little surprising!

All in all this is an interesting song. It's a bit hard to give feedback on it - nothing is horribly wrong about it, but nothing stands out to me either. I suppose I'd suggest focusing on one of the ideas in a song and expanding it rather than gluing a bunch together though, that might help give a more cohesive and interesting listening experience.

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 3/4
Composition: 2/4
Sound Design: 2+/4
Production: 2+/4

Overall: 6.8

[The Alignment]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Right off the bat, I have to praise you for putting the work into the arrangement. This song has many many different parts - it moves through all sorts of moods and energy levels rarely if ever sounds dull. The song has lots of tricks up its sleeve, and yet it always sounds like a coherent whole rather than multiple sections glued together. Nice work there.

However, there are a few things about this track that need additional work. The mix is a definite pain point, with a number of instruments and channels sticking out, especially during climaxes. (3:13 is a big offender, with crazy dry percussion far too loud over everything else. To be honest, a drum solo section would be great, but right now it just sounds far too dry! Reverb and compression is good.). Also, there's a melodic whistley thing around 1:15 that's so quiet I almost missed it entirely. Furthermore, your composition could use more work as well - while it's not bad, it never really catches or surprises me either.

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 4/4
Composition: 2+/4
Sound Design: 2/4
Production: 2/4

Overall: 7.4

ColinMuir responds:

Thank you, that really helps. I found it difficult to mix during the week with everything going on, so i'll have to work on that. I loved arranging everything and all the instruments. Probably so much that i passed some parts i could have made better in the composition. Right before i submitted it i still felt something missing but couldn't find it, this helped me analyse it better.

Thanks again johnfn :)

- Colin

[Moving Slowly]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

This is a cool start to a song. I definitely like the core melodic motif and the associated chord progression. However I have to admit that it's certainly far too repetitive as it stands right now - the song really only has two sections, as you mentioned. Furthermore, the mixing really needs some love, as all the elements need to have their volumes adjusted (the piano is way too loud, the crash is too dry, and in general the climax mix simply has too many instruments in it. Try using fewer that pull their weight more!

All in all, a cool start to a song. Try varying it up and going a little more minimalistic next time! =)

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 2/4
Composition: 2/4
Sound Design: 1+/4
Production: 1/4

Overall: 5.3

BlujayTunes responds:

I definitely agree with the things you pointed out! I will improve. See you next year!

[Andromeda .]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

First off I want to commend you on a pretty cool chord progression - it's not one that I hear every day! It definitely lends a lot of neat and groovy atmosphere to your track. I almost wish that you went full on diminished chord for that third chord, but hey, it still sounds neat to me. The mixing is also good here. While not standout amazing (no more reverb on bass instruments!), it definitely gets the job done.

Unfortunately, I have to say that the real weak link here is the sound design. The sounds in the first minute are all alright (the drum kit is pretty good, the arps and pads not so great but not poor either), but the melodic instrument at 1:34 sounds straight up bad, which is a shame since it dominates pretty much the entire second half of the song. I also have to say that the arrangement could use some love, as the song gets repetitive. Try adding more sections.

Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):

Arrangement: 2/4
Composition: 3/4
Sound Design: 2/4
Production: 3/4

Overall: 7.7