johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Abendland - Reflections]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

This is a really nice cinematic piece! I have to commend you on your sound palette in particular. Basically every instrument in this entire song is chosen excellently, from the subtle piano tone, to the higher violins to the deeper cellos(?). The addition of the eastern twangy instrument (what is it?) at points is a unique and nice decision as well!

This song would be spectacular as menu ambiance for a game, or maybe a very sombre part of a movie. However, I have to admit that, all things considered, as a standalone piece entered to a contest, I find it a little... lacking? Like, there's no melodies to follow, no different sections, nothing to really draw me back to the piece (except the mood I suppose!). If I were to give you suggestions for future pieces, I'd say to take a little more risk? You obviously have the pieces in play - I'd love to hear you try your hand at writing some melodies or more up-front progressions or something!

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: 4/4
Production: 3+/4

Overall: 7.7

[Abstrack - Volcano Dive]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

This is a good start to an electro track. I definitely like the start with the atmospheric plucks - the song starts on a very cool and moody note. I also like the chord progression in the solo.

However, there's quite a bit to work on here! First off, as you guessed, is mixing. The mix in the climax is just all over the place. It needs a solid bass in the bottom to really be effective, and it doesn't really sound that 'full' - try comparing side to side with other electro tracks to see where you can improve. Additionally, the arrangement really needs some love - just copy and pasting the same thing twice in a song might work somewhere, but definitely won't work on a contest submission track! We notice that kind of stuff ;-)

All in all, nice start to a track, and I encourage you to continue working! It might be interesting to hear you attempt an ambient piece since your strengths currently seem to lie in that direction =)

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: 2+/4
Production: 2/4

Score: 6.4

Abstrack responds:

I agree with almost everything here. After thinking to what you said, I found the big mixing problem here is in fact the bass... its volume is too high (so it takes too much place), and because of its shape (sinus) and its frequency (too low), it becomes almost inaudible and lower the volume of others instruments. Maybe should I try turning off the global limiter...? (^^ Maybe not if you want to keep your listening skills xD)

Where I half agree is the "copy-past" argument. I confess I did firstly copy & past the "drops" (if I can call them so). But on the resulting 2nd part (the sadly-not-professionnal duplication), I changed almost all backgroud instrument patterns (added / removed some notes / slip-notes, added void holes on drum kicks) and effects. So I didn't really copy-past at the end. I think the big problem here is that the main melody takes too much place in the "drops", so we don't hear well other instruments... That said, I'm probably gonna re-upload this song without the main instrument.

Anyways, very helpful review. Thanks a lot! :D

[Crystal Cryonics - 8LayneTech8]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

You very clearly spent a lot of time on the sound design in this song, and for the most part, it pays off. The drop at 0:30 deserves a special call out as been exceptionally cool and enjoyable. That leading into the neato progression at 0:50, which you handle very well, is probably my highlight of this song. I'm actually pretty impressed by the number of different ideas that you get across in the same song.

If I were to complain about this song, I'd definitely start with the mix. A lot of things in this mix are flying all over the place - some stuff is too loud, other stuff too quiet. The bass is not nearly as pronounced as it could have been, and the second drop in particular sounds very rushed.

Special call out to the chord progression at 1:38, which fools me every time. I keep expecting it to go IV-V-vi but it does something totally unexpected instead.

In summary though this is pretty solid electro. More importantly though, it's just a fun, interesting and creative listen!

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: 8.5

[In the Mist]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Okay, this is pretty cool.

Alright, so right off the bat, I gotta admit I don't listen to all that much electronic dance music. And I have to double admit that I've basically never heard anything like /this./ Hard to know if that's because your style is unique or because I'm just out of the loop ;-)

Anyway, this is a pretty neat electronic song. We start off with this really chill section with pads and chords, but then we get into this super cool arpeggiated section. Believe it or not, this section, around 1:15 is probably my favorite part of the whole song. The chord progression has a really nice vibe to it, and while the sound design on the plucks could be a bit better, there's nothing that's super distracting me from the song. Around 1:50 when you introduce percussion, it sounds /alright/, but it seems like you reverbed it a little too much and it doesn't punch through.

Anyways, after that, you do this really bizarre and crazy transition at 2:12 into... bass notes at 2:20. I have to say, I don't really understand the point of this part of the song at all. The bass melody is not really that engrossing or catchy or otherwise interesting, and the fact that it repeats for a full minute, and then comes back later, really hurts this song unfortunately.

If I were to point out my largest complaint with this song, it's probably that it feels too repetitive. There's nothing wrong with the first minute or two where the chords are cool and the plucks are effective, but once you repeat those base notes over and over it starts to feel overdone very quickly. And then when the second half of the song is practically the first half of the song all over again, it feels /very/ repetitive.

There's nothing strictly wrong with repetition, but you have to repeat material that is good enough to be repeated. IMO, those plucks are, but the gritty bass is not quite there yet.

In summary - cool track, with a lot of neat ideas. Trim it down a little bit (and also improve the mix a bit to make those drums shine) and it should be pretty solid.

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: 2+/4
Production: 3/4

Overall: 7.7

[My Life]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Great rap track! It has a really nice moody vibe to it, and the beat has quite an emotional feel to it. The sound design, while not perfect, is pretty darn good, and when I try to imagine how this whole song would work with every element perfected, it's a pretty amazing song, which is definitely NOT true of most songs I listen to

[Great Commune Of Planet Earth]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Okay so like I wasn't totally sold until 2:30 hit and then those chords and yeahhhhh gooooooddddd.

Aite, review over. Can I go home?

...

Aw bleh may as well write a few more words about your track.

[Never To Have Love]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Wow, this song is beautiful.

First of all, I ADORE your vocal harmonies. I think as soon as I heard you sing the first harmony I was hooked and also amazed, and the song only really improved from there. I can't even think of other songs that do 3 part harmonies off the top of my head... maybe the Beatles, or some psychedelic music, I dunno... but like, your harmonies are so effective everywhere. The harmonies in the chorus are a different style, but they're really good too.

While I'm praising stuff, allow me to also praise your composition and melody writing. It's all excellent. There isn't a single bad melody in here. The chorus is great, the verse is great. I like it all. The song is very sombre and thoughtful and pensive in the way that you'd imagine a song about a breakup to be.

I actually find it hard to believe that you're still mixing this down with just pure Audacity. Dude, if you are looking for a sign that you're good enough to use a better DAW, LET THIS BE IT. Your songwriting is great and it could REALLY be helped by all the additional stuff that a decent DAW can afford you, like more instruments to add into the song, greater ease of mixing, etc etc etc. The advantages are too many to really list.

My biggest problem with this track is the slow and plodding speed of it all. When I first saw it was verse/chorus, I was hoping that the chorus would speed up the track a little bit. Unfortunately, if anything, the chorus is even slower than the verse, stripping away even more layers and high passing your vocals. If the song was only a single verse and a single chorus, I think that it would have worked, but unfortunately as it is I get kinda tired of the same thing again once we launch into the second verse and chorus. Don't get me wrong, the melodies and harmonies are great, but it's too much of the same, you know? I would have LOVED to hear you ramp up your harmonies even more for the final chorus, like really fill out that mix!

My other problems with this song are mainly minor. I think that the guitar tone is pretty thin and definitely needs a better recording. Also, the guitar drumming at 1:20 and a few other places is just goofy, it doesn't sound good at all and should definitely be replaced with something else.

All in all, great track, just let down a little by the arrangement and slow tempo.

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

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

Overall: 9.0

kynivoid responds:

Wow, I dunno what to say except thank you! For both the criticisms and compliments all the same. I definitely agree my stuff could use more variety, and I feel ya on the goofy guitar drumming. Looking back on it, it is not the best thing I could have put there. I'm really not working with much so I guess I just look around for whatever sounds I can make and add to a song. I'll try to look for a better DAW, but I'm very very VERY new to this whole music thing (so new that I had to look up what DAW meant). So I don't know what programs and equipment are good for this sorry of thing and I'm also very broke haha.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the review! I'm sad, I couldn't make it to the final round of NGUAC, but I'm glad I at least received a good and constructive review! :)

[Market Day (KindLing A0S1)]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

Jesus, this is not an easy track to review. It's like, 6 tracks in one or something lord almighty

Can we just talk about your composition a little bit? Because every time I start thinking that the composition is faltering, you hit me with a jawdropping progression or melody line, but right when I get into it it's gone and it'll probably never appear again. Like, let's just listen to the first 30 seconds. We start out with a little piano arp idea, and then this music box which is playing a really nice progression but the melody line itself doesn't really do anything all that interesting and kind of goes around aimlessly... until suddenly HOLY F- that chromatic descent thingy at 0:24 is out of this world!... and then it goes away and isn't repeated or anything. (At least you brought it back later in the song.) And this is basically how I feel about the entire track, like you have a bunch of melodically OK stuff and then suddenly BOOM when you least expect it an amazing idea hits.

Or like the idea at 2:24, which is totally beautiful, but then instead of sitting there for a while and fleshing it out, you just speed up the tempo and go onto another section instead. WHY??? Let your good ideas play themselves out!

A bunch of people mention 1f1n1ty in the reviews, so may as well address the elephant in the room. You two definitely have very similar styles, basically sounding like you both just glued multiple songs together with snazzy transitions ;-) I certainly am not opposed to it, and it's definitely preferable to the opposite thing where people will just write a single pattern and loop it for 5 minutes and submit it to the NGUAC. ;-) However, the multi-part song glued together is a hard balance to strike for anyone, because IMO songs just can't transition between ideas endlessly: they actually have to feel like the individual sections can stand on their own rather than moving between place to place so fast. And that's what I feel like the biggest problem of this song is - it's so many different ideas that are each great but you move between them so quickly that I can never properly sink my teeth into any one.

While I'm griping, I figure I should briefly mention the mix and sound design. While obviously the focus of this track is on the excellent compositional work, other judges will probably hammer you for these two things. First, a number of the instruments just sound flat out fake, with the guitar at 0:55 being a prime offender, especially on the trills - try varying the loudness of it. The violins in faster sections are also a large problem - try to use legato if possible. Furthermore, the mix often threatens to go into a 'large' section, such as the rapid violin idea leading into 1:13, but the mix never really backs it up, so it's kind of a letdown.

So overall, excellent work that is unfortunately let down by a rapidly shifting arrangement.

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: 2+/4
Production: 2+/4

Overall: 8.4

Miyolophone responds:

Thanks for the detailed review, johnfn! I'll try to make my final round entry less frantic and dismissive with its melodic material, and I'll do what I can to work around the fake-sounding instruments.

[Minty Bite Vol. 2 - Negative Space]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

So first of all, that is an awesome and great sounding guitar tone! I dunno how you recorded it so well, but I'd love to. It sounds crisp and clear, it's a great tone (though maybe lacking slightly in bass?). Furthermore, I noticed that you have this big heavy reverb on it, but amazingly the reverb does not clutter up the mix at all, it's almost like the reverb is sidechained to the input channel or something so that it only comes out when everything is quiet. But then every now and then I hear a bit of high reverb even when the guitar is going full speed, so whatever you did must be more complex than that. In any case, the reverb makes the guitar sound really really cool, like it's in the middle of space or something =D (Okay, that makes no sense.) If you've ever seen Firefly, this TOTALLY reminds me of the soundtrack to Firefly.

Furthermore the bluesly playing on the guitar is totally excellent. You hit a bunch of awesome notes and the overall vibe that you give off is just great. There's not a lot to complain about on the compositional front, except perhaps that this song would have been better with a clearer main melody to bridge together your sections of improvisational playing.

However, there are a few problems I have with this track. The biggest by far is the arrangement. The song is great, but it would have been MUCH better with breakdowns that switch up the energy of the track. Add a section or two that go at half time, or switch up the style of chords to maybe just arpeggiated chords, or perhaps just baselines, then bring stuff back. Right now the song is a steady barrage of notes. It needs to be organized.

Second of all, the song is so /bare/. I get that that is sort of the point, but I can't help imagining this with some sort of acoustic or maybe electric bass - it would be awesome!!! And imagine it with a fiddle breakdown... alright, maybe I'm asking for too much there hehe, but I'm just trying to give you some ideas. Again, the bareness can also be fixed simply by improving the arrangement so that the arrangement itself carries the song.

Finally, there are a few issues so minor they're almost not worth mentioning. One is that there are a few places where the reverb goes wonky. One is around 1:40 to 1:45 - the volume of the song jumps up and down without any reason that I can detect, and it just sounds wrong. Be sure to put a comb through your song for weird issues like these before submitting! There's also a little bit of a stutter at 0:07-0:08 that should be fixed.

All in all, great song and great blues improvisation, let down a little by the lack of an interesting arrangement.

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: n/a
Production: n/a

Overall: 8.7

[Sensor]

== This is an official NGUAC Review ==

I was already intrigued right when I saw 'minimalistic techno', and you basically fulfilled my expectations to a T.

Can I just talk about sound design for a sec? Cuz yeah the sound design in this piece is excellent. Like every part of this song, the sound design is very minimalistic, and yet it's super effective. The way that you modulate that one arpeggiated pluck throughout the song is really enjoyable and keeps the song interesting. The chordal plucks sound cool too, and the way that they have this weird sort of delayed reverb on them is a really subtle and nice choice. Of course, the real standout in the sound design department is that weird wooshing 'breathing' pad - it adds so much to the atmosphere of the track.

The arrangement is pretty good too - I'm actually pretty amazed by how you keep a song with such few elements constantly interesting, even though almost nothing happens throughout the entire track. The mix is also good, though the bass doesn't really shine through as much as I like - are you correctly high passing all your non-bassey instruments?

My complaint about this song is probably something you saw coming from a mile away. Although the song is never truly /boring/, it never really captures my interest, either. It just sort of sits there, in the background, chilling and doing its own thing. While there's nothing strictly wrong with this, and those sort of songs can totally work in certain contexts (I'm thinking in-game menus, save screens, you know the like), for a contest piece I generally expect a full song that progresses in some way rather than a static snapshot of a scene which is more like what I feel like you've submitted. That progression could come from anywhere - a more sophisticated rhythm on hihats, or a modulation, or a different chord progression, maybe a really low key solo? Just thoughts, of course!

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: 8.2