johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sanctuary]

Oh man... Sanctuary... The song with like 100 reviews... the ultimate challenge as an Audio Reviewer. My review started getting long enough that I needed to split it up into sections, where I would critique individual aspects of the song.

MELODY

Not even gonna bother, the melodies are great. Some are better than others, but I'll get into this in the arrangement section.

MIXING

You've got to be kidding me. The mixing is perfect. Splitting this review up is starting to look dumb. NEXT SECTION

PERCUSSION

Looove. A highlight for me is 1:08 with the vaguely ethnic feel. Also 1:28 with the driving boomy hits. Or the tense tams at 3:11. So much detail work!

ARRANGEMENT

The buildup from 1:00 to 1:20 is really well done and seamless, and the transition at 1:28 is just lovely. Which is good too, because it leads to THE BEST MELODY IN THE HISTORY OF NEWGROUNDS. Alright, that might be *slightly* superlative, but I could really point to only a handful of songs with comparable melodic expressivity to that point, at least on this site.

So let's talk about arrangement - and move in from macro level to micro level arrangement. I assume we're both in agreement that 1:28 is the obvious highlight of this piece. I mean, there is a lot of other great stuff in this piece, but it's not going to top 1:28. So what I think is that 1:28 should come later into the piece. Like, it's the climax, so it should come near to the end, otherwise you're just waiting for the piece to build down, and people are much more willing to let the song build up (rising tension) rather than waiting for the song to build down (falling tension). I think that all the stuff starting at around 2:00 once the 1:28 melody is finally been played out could be moved to the beginning of the song.

While we're talking about it, the thing that I notice that really good artists do is that they'll foreshadow the melody ahead of time. An excellent example of this is "Alone and Adrift" by RetromanOMG (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/542368) The synth at :29 is really beautiful, and then at 1:00 it develops even more, but once the real melody comes in at 1:23 you realize that everything else was just hinting at that melody, and that makes it even better! So while that 1:28 thing is asdfawesome, you could build up the tension even more and make it better by having hints at the melody earlier in the song. (You may be thinking, ah, that's the thing that johnfn did in "The Fight"! Actually, that was completely unintentional but ... sure.)

The irony is that you do build up a melody which I hear quite a few times through the song - first heard at :36 - but imo it's not as interesting. I mean, it's not bad, and I particularly like that take on it at 1:01 with the crazy chords and trills, but why choose that one when you could have chosen 1:28? :P

Last thing about 1:28 is that the structure of the climax is [BIG 1:28 MELODY] [little 1:28 repeated melody]. In the aim of building up tension for the big melody, I'd suggest to reverse the order, so that you do the quiet idea before the big one. Maybe you could put the melody in a woodwind and tweak it slightly.

I enjoy the stuff towards 2:30, especially that little flair at 2:42 (that was nicely foreshadowed at 2:11, in a different timesig!). I kinda wish we'd hear that flair again, maybe just a little later in a variation.

Again I feel like the arrangement is flip floppy, because this is the great exploration, and 1:28 is where you finally find the treasure!

Last thing: I don't really like that section at 3:03 - it's a tension builder, but it's out of place right near the end of the song, since the next section is very calm and not tense at all.

NIT PICKS

One fun nit pick at 3:43: your melody is building up a lot of tension by wanting to eventually resolve down to the root note (I'm just going to call it C because I only have relative pitch), and the trill ramps up the tension even more... but then you actually hit C as you're going down to B, which dissolves all tension. I really like the idea of drawing out that final resolution though, that plus the OCD timpani roll makes for a great ending.

While the 1:05 trills are awesome and really attention-grabbing, I don't really get what the point of them are (from an arrangement/compositional point of view). They seem to be leading into that hit at 1:07, but that isn't all too obvious.

The other thing I want to nit pick is the quantization errors/humanization you put in. Like 3:31 for example. I mean, if we're to imagine this is being played by a professional orchestra, then they probably wouldn't be making such obvious mistakes. (I was unsure if that was the intent, or if you were going for rubato here - if you were going for rubato then I think you should slow down the entire melody gradually rather than just a singe note.)

On the other hand I like the callback to the melody all the way back at :39. Very nice way to tie the piece together :)

OVERALL

In conclusion, good luck fitting a response to this within the character limit ahahahahh

No but seriously this is great and has a lot of detail - it's amazing that I can write all this about it and still feel like I'm only scratching the surface. I can see why this would be one of your favorite pieces. Is it as good as Encapsulation? Well, this is far more complex, and has far more melodic content, but Encapsulation was arranged much better, and what melodic stuff it had was slightly more mature. So who knows.

...Also Encapsulation was done in 3 days and this was done in a month. That is quite an improvement.

Alright I really need to wrap this thing up. This song is epic, easy 10/10.

Step responds:

Whoaaa, I expected a lengthy review from you but not THIS big. johnfn you da BEST.

"Oh man... Sanctuary... The song with like 100 reviews... the ultimate challenge as an Audio Reviewer. My review started getting long enough that I needed to split it up into sections, where I would critique individual aspects of the song."

Yeah, this track has loads of reviews. It's my most popular track by far. I originally submitted it to a competition but it didn't place in the top 8. On the bright side, however, I landed 31,000 views and nearly 100 reviews, so that's sweet :3.

"Not even gonna bother, the melodies are great. Some are better than others, but I'll get into this in the arrangement section."

For some reason, in this track melodies were never a problem. The melodies all just came to me, which is rare considering what I usually have to go through to make a decent composition.

"You've got to be kidding me. The mixing is perfect. Splitting this review up is starting to look dumb. NEXT SECTION"

I actually think that the mix here is worse than my newer mixes. I find the 3/4 section a bit flat and all over the place. But yeah I was and am pretty proud with this mix otherwise!

"Looove. A highlight for me is 1:08 with the vaguely ethnic feel. Also 1:28 with the driving boomy hits. Or the tense tams at 3:11. So much detail work!"

You know me and my obsession for detailed percussion :3.

"The buildup from 1:00 to 1:20 is really well done and seamless, and the transition at 1:28 is just lovely. Which is good too, because it leads to THE BEST MELODY IN THE HISTORY OF NEWGROUNDS. Alright, that might be *slightly* superlative, but I could really point to only a handful of songs with comparable melodic expressivity to that point, at least on this site."

And that melody was just the result of a minute or two of doodling. And then I spend ages working on the melody for Tomb Shaker and it ends up turning out fairly badly. Brain y u do dis.

But yeah I like that melody too!

"So let's talk about arrangement - and move in from macro level to micro level arrangement. I assume we're both in agreement that 1:28 is the obvious highlight of this piece. I mean, there is a lot of other great stuff in this piece, but it's not going to top 1:28."

In my tracks, the highlights are almost always the climaxes. I still have yet to get the hang of creating meaningful soft sections.

"So what I think is that 1:28 should come later into the piece. Like, it's the climax, so it should come near to the end, otherwise you're just waiting for the piece to build down, and people are much more willing to let the song build up (rising tension) rather than waiting for the song to build down (falling tension). I think that all the stuff starting at around 2:00 once the 1:28 melody is finally been played out could be moved to the beginning of the song."

Totally agree. Either that or I add another climactic section like the first. Buoy suggested that too in his enormous three-account review in pages 17-18 of the review section. I think that might've been just because of time constraints (or maybe because I couldn't be arsed haha).

"While we're talking about it, the thing that I notice that really good artists do is that they'll foreshadow the melody ahead of time. An excellent example of this is "Alone and Adrift" by RetromanOMG (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/542368) The synth at :29 is really beautiful, and then at 1:00 it develops even more, but once the real melody comes in at 1:23 you realize that everything else was just hinting at that melody, and that makes it even better! So while that 1:28 thing is asdfawesome, you could build up the tension even more and make it better by having hints at the melody earlier in the song. (You may be thinking, ah, that's the thing that johnfn did in "The Fight"! Actually, that was completely unintentional but ... sure.)"

That is an excellent idea. I hear that kind of stuff a lot in pieces from the baroque/classical/romantic era. It makes a lot of sense because right now the 1:28 melody is only there to serve as a high climactic point, when it could sound a lot more developed if I had foreshadowed it a little.

"The irony is that you do build up a melody which I hear quite a few times through the song - first heard at :36 - but imo it's not as interesting. I mean, it's not bad, and I particularly like that take on it at 1:01 with the crazy chords and trills, but why choose that one when you could have chosen 1:28? :P"

Yeah why DID I do that x_x. I personally like both melodies almost equally (I'm slightly more partial towards the 1:28 one though), but arrangement-wise it would've made a lot more sense had I used the 1:28 melody.

"Last thing about 1:28 is that the structure of the climax is [BIG 1:28 MELODY] [little 1:28 repeated melody]. In the aim of building up tension for the big melody, I'd suggest to reverse the order, so that you do the quiet idea before the big one. Maybe you could put the melody in a woodwind and tweak it slightly."

Interesting idea. Would work really well for the 1:42 - 1:47 measures.

"I enjoy the stuff towards 2:30, especially that little flair at 2:42 (that was nicely foreshadowed at 2:11, in a different timesig!). I kinda wish we'd hear that flair again, maybe just a little later in a variation."

Wow, really nice call on that 2:11 foreshadowing thing. That wasn't even intentional but upon listening again I just noticed they're the exact same chords! I guess that's just because I wanted a perfect cadence at both points, but then again at the time I didn't even know what cadences were. I DUNNO.

"Last thing: I don't really like that section at 3:03 - it's a tension builder, but it's out of place right near the end of the song, since the next section is very calm and not tense at all."

Wow, that is a problem I've had with that part for ages now. I agree 1000%. I wanted to transition back from 3/4 to 4/4 effectively but couldn't think of anything other than making a section that's a bit more rubato and less melodic to join them together, and not only did that not even generate a smooth transition, but the resulting section ended up being far too tense for what was coming after it.

"One fun nit pick at 3:43: your melody is building up a lot of tension by wanting to eventually resolve down to the root note (I'm just going to call it C because I only have relative pitch), and the trill ramps up the tension even more... but then you actually hit C as you're going down to B, which dissolves all tension. I really like the idea of drawing out that final resolution though, that plus the OCD timpani roll makes for a great ending."

Oh wow, you're right - it would've sounded better had I not used the root note. WHY DON'T I THINK OF THESE THINGS DAMN IT. Also that OCD timpani roll haha. It's probably the best thing that ever came out of my self-diagnosed OCD.

"While the 1:05 trills are awesome and really attention-grabbing, I don't really get what the point of them are (from an arrangement/compositional point of view). They seem to be leading into that hit at 1:07, but that isn't all too obvious."

Well, partly to lead onto that hit at 1:07, and partly to indicate a sense of danger, since everything before that was serene and calm. I've been criticised for making those dissonant chords and trills too loud, which might make them sound less like a sense of danger and more like a sense of disaster or something haha.

"The other thing I want to nit pick is the quantization errors/humanization you put in. Like 3:31 for example. I mean, if we're to imagine this is being played by a professional orchestra, then they probably wouldn't be making such obvious mistakes. (I was unsure if that was the intent, or if you were going for rubato here - if you were going for rubato then I think you should slow down the entire melody gradually rather than just a singe note.)"

The intent was rubato, or rather just slowing down the melody for the ending's resolution, but again, I agree that it should've been more gradual.

"On the other hand I like the callback to the melody all the way back at :39. Very nice way to tie the piece together :)"

I personally think it sounds a bit forced and would've sounded better if I transitioned properly to it and perhaps played the 1:28 melody instead (except softly of course). But thanks!

"In conclusion, good luck fitting a response to this within the character limit ahahahahh"

IT HAS BEEN DONE.

"No but seriously this is great and has a lot of detail - it's amazing that I can write all this about it and still feel like I'm only scratching the surface. I can see why this would be one of your favorite pieces. Is it as good as Encapsulation? Well, this is far more complex, and has far more melodic content, but Encapsulation was arranged much better, and what melodic stuff it had was slightly more mature. So who knows."

Well, if one track of mine offers any competition to Sanctuary, it would be Encapsulation. That also reminds me that apart from that song, this year I haven't actually made anything that I'm truly proud of, except my Harmony of Heroes arrangement x_x. I mean, I've made some decent stuff this year, but nothing I really poured a lot of effort and work into. It's times like this I wish I didn't have university occupying something like 85% of my time awake.

"...Also Encapsulation was done in 3 days and this was done in a month. That is quite an improvement."

Yeah Encapsulation was just a stroke of luck. I have no idea how I managed to make it in that small time period, and for it to be actually good enough to win the NGMT round it was in. But that is definitely one way of looking at it :p.

"Alright I really need to wrap this thing up. This song is epic, easy 10/10."

Thanks so much for the excellent review. I realise we basically agree on every point, but since when do we DISAGREE on something? Thanks again, this review really is more than I could've ever asked for.

[Final Battle]

First things first is that snare is amazing. It's the first thing that caught my attention when I listened to the track and it really gives the track a LOT of energy. In fact I liked it so much that I wrote down in my list of musical ideas "write a song with a huge snare." :)

I also really like the use of the electric guitar as texture to bring more energy to the track. I felt like maybe the percussion could have been a bit more varied. You know what would be really awesome? What if in that final coda section starting at 2:00 with the double snare hit you used a similar but more driving snare to really indicate an "end of the world" sort of idea.

The mixing of the percussion is overall really well done.

The melodies are generally really good in dat RPG epic battle sense. I really really love that section that kicks off at :25 that makes use of that RPG III chord idea in such a fun way. However there's a mixing problem here, where the chords and the melody are the same loudness. I think that the instrument carrying the melody should really be front and center, with only the beats louder than it. As is, it sits kind of quietly in the mix and I think that a lot of people could miss it. This problem carries throughout almost the entire track, and it's actually probably my biggest critique.

My other suggestion is that there is no bassline to speak of. I hear almost nothing in the low end of this song at all (alright, it sounds like there's something soft down there, but it's not really filling out the bass as well as it could). In the Chrono Trigger battle music, there's this really sweet bassline that goes through the whole track and really makes the whole thing awesome. Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeNkqEOQ15I&noredirect=1

I'm not saying that you *have* to do something like that, but it would make the track pretty neat :)

Final suggestion is about the melodies (again). While they are good, they aren't really driving the song forward, you know? Some melodies really drive the song forward, but the melodies in this track feel a little "slow" (except at :25). (This is a really hard thing to describe.) I think if you were to bump around the rhythms so that the notes don't always start on beat, you could get some more driving melodies.

I really like the chords at 1:25 that move quickly from one to the other. That's something I don't hear too often, and it works well.

Overall, this track is really good. Totally sounds straight out of some RPG soundtrack, and it uses a lot of the RPG musical idioms really nicely. I think you did a great job here and hopefully my tips can help you make it even better :D

K-Pone responds:

Wow, that's quite a lot. Don't know where to start. But I also don't want to reply just with a little 'thanks'. Indeed I now recognize things you mentioned that I didn't notice before. The mastering can be a problem in LMMS since you also don't have much analyzing stuff available there if you don't add some VSTs. But to be honest, I didn't do much mastering here, just adjusting the volume levels to avoid nasty clipping noises. I don't make use of things like EQs, Limiters, Compressors and such very often, only if it's really needed. Of course lots of people recommend to do it, but in my opinion, it should sound as it would 'normally' do. But that doesn't mean I would never ever do that some day. I'll think about your tips when making a new song next time. They seem to be kinda helpful.

[Shining In The Sky]

I'm quite impressed this is live! I don't think I could play anything like this live without making a ton of mistakes. And what a beautiful song to cover. I've never heard of this song before, but I *really* like it, it has some really beautiful melodic ideas, and particularly good chords like at 1:17, 1:38, 1:44 (!!!), and 2:18. So thank you for introducing me :)

This review is going to be a little weird because since this is not an original piece by you I can't really talk about the composition all too much. Fortunately, I think I can dig up some other things to talk about...

The one thing that I do want to complain about is the piano itself. Though it has a lovely tone, every note sounds like you're striking the piano as hard as possible. Since you said it's live, I doubt this is your fault (unless you really do smash the piano to bits as you play haha), so I think it's a problem with the piano itself. If you can find a piano that's more velocity sensitive, so that if you play softly then it'd play a soft piano note, that would lend SO MUCH to the expressivity of the piece. You might not believe me, but just try out a piano that can sense velocity properly. It's like night and day.

The other thing to think about is the pads. The current problem with the pads is they follow the melody, but in reality you want the pads to follow the chords. If you were to switch the pianos out, you could manually set up pads to follow the chords and you'd fix that problem too. (Or, you wouldn't have any pads and that would juts be fine).

One minor technical thing: I hear a bit of a tempo slowdown at 1:21.

I think that I told you in my response to you on my user post that I would be really nice and tell you lots of things I like. Well, it turns out I LIED. You see, for a normal piece I like to point out all the good things someone is doing because otherwise they will feel bad about themselves. But for pieces that are quite good, I just end up complaining a lot because, well, the piece is good. Your piece falls into this second category. It's great, and I'm impressed by your skills on the piano. With a properly expressive piano (that is, one that has velocity) I'd probably be head over heels. Good stuff!

TeraVex responds:

Thank you so much! I'm very happy you liked it! I'll try to fix the velocity issues that you mentioned in your review.

[Esperanza de la Vega]

Soo, yeah, this is the most overdue review in the world. I think that I was at least partially running into the same problem that Step had, where I was having trouble even dissecting the piece because the structure is very hard to follow. Especially on my first few listens, I remember wondering what on earth was going on, but then things started to click into place.

I'm slightly more familiar with listening to piano pieces off the grid - those are usually a little easier for me to follow because I'm anchored by a prominent bass. In this song there is no real bass at all. That's obviously because it's a solo instrument piece on an instrument that has no bass range, and you're doing your best by hitting the lowest notes you can on the guitar, but I have to feel like the addition of a simple bass instrument would do a good deal to help anchor me throughout the piece.

The song is almost fractally engaging, in that I can sit back and feel the movement of the chords and be happy, or I can listen a little closer to the arcs of the melodies and be intrigued, or I can listen very closely to every note that you play and be fascinated by all that work too. The song works equally well as foreground or background music.

The sounds you're using sound great.

I really like all of the flamenco idioms and authentic sounding riffs that you've included throughout the piece. There are a bunch of good compositional ideas going, and sometimes you even have more than one going at the same time :P The piece is constantly interesting and is continually moving from place to place and idea to idea. I can't even pick out favorites because I'm pretty sure I'd just end up listing out the entire song in timestamps.

The one thing that sticks out to me in this piece is the ending. Like, until those final 3 chords, I can't tell that we're going towards an ending at all. The piece I like to refer to is "A Storm Over Lavender Lane" by headphoamz (I'm sure you've already heard it haha), because it does a really nice job of setting up the ending like 30 seconds ahead of time, and from there on it's seems like an inevitable fall to the final descent.

Overall, this is a piece that is not only very sound compositionally, but also one of the most compositionally unique things I've ever heard. That is probably why I struggled with writing a review for it for so long - it's such a unique and interesting piece that I was never sure that I fully understood it. I'm still not sure if I do, but I do understand it a lot more than I did before.

[Fading (Piano Improv)]

This just embarrasses me with how much better it is than my own piano work. Lovely sense of melody and chords. And it's all done in one take you say? hrrrnnngggg

BlazingDragon responds:

I listened to Snowy Night and think it is really nice! Great improv skills are a matter of practice, and you are certainly on the right track. I don't know if this is helpful to you, but here are a few tips to improve improv skills:

-Spend some time improvising to a metronome to get in the habit of not pausing to think. If you mess up, just keep going.
-Focus an improv around a certain aspect. This could be a specific chord progression, accompaniment pattern, melodic technique (like using chromatic neighbor tones), dynamic shape, texture, or something else.
-Improvise in as many different keys. This is the one that I struggle with. Sure, you can always use the transpose button on a keyboard, but there is a more important goal to playing in different keys. It allows your hands to break free of cliche chord progressions that you are used to and eventually begin switching keys mid-song. It improves your technique. If you stumble and play a funky chord, it helps allow you to use that chord as a key change tool or interesting harmony and make it sound intentional.

Thanks for your review!

[The Door - Beginning Again]

Some assorted thoughts:

I often hear a riser in the song, like at 2:27, but it doesn't rise TO anything, if that makes sense. When I hear a riser I expect a buildup and then a "drop" of some sort on the other side, but that's not happening here.

At 2:37 I understand what's going on - you're doing call and response with the piano and synth. I think this was hard for me to understand at first because the synth does not feel like a lead instrument like the piano does. I can't really explain why - it's something about how the synth sounds.

The chords are quite jarring to me because they move around so fast. You normally only expect one chord per 4 measures, except under rare circumstances that are justified by a complex melody. I would say that for now, try to follow this rule - and then once you feel comfortable with it, try breaking it :)

At around 1:07 I'm feeling like the song is lacking a lot of coherence. Like, one thing happens, and then another thing happens, and then another idea comes, and they don't seem related too much. I think one way to fix this problem would just be to use some sort of pad instrument to "glue" the song together. Pads do a great job of making a tune sound coherent.

The melodies are also kind of random.

I have a challenge for you that might fix this problem of randomness and coherence. What I want you to do is write a song that has a melody and then has variations on that melody. There are a lot of fun "tricks" you can do to make melodic variations. One of the easiest (and most successful - great musicians are doing this ALL THE TIME) is to take an initial melodic idea (say you play E-F-G on the chord of C major), then transpose it (say to A-B-C on the chord of F major) and have that transposition follow right after. Or I could do something after E-F-G and then play the transposition.

Check out the tune "Seeing Other People" by Belle and Sebastian for an example of this - oh my god, so many transpositions - and yet it sounds awesome.

Another fun way to do variations is to play the same melody under different chords. Say I do C-D-E in the chord of C major. Sounds happy! Now I play it in the chord of A minor - sounds sad. :(

(Obviously your melodies will probably be longer than 3 notes... mine are 3 notes just for the sake of readable examples...)

I also want you to focus on melody. Sad thing is that there's no shortcut to get better at melody except tons of practice.

Overall I thought it was an improvement! I don't mean this to sound so negative, I just notice a lot of things that I can suggest to improve! For comparisons sake, if I go back and listen to, say, Lily's Theme, I think you've made definite strides. Keep it up!

TaintedLogic responds:

Well, this is a fantastic review, Johnfn, so thank you SO much for all the careful thought you evidently put into it. ;D About the "riser," I was just trying to smooth out some transitions, but I'll try to think more about leading somewhere with them. I can also understand your disorientation with the lead and piano. For some reason, Autogun sounds different in NG's project system than it does in FL Studio, if that's any defense. I agree with you about the jarring chords, especially at 2:59. I suppose I just tried to keep it a little TOO engaging. Thanks for your advice about the pads. I think I need to stop using random Garageband loops in my songs. XD I agree that my melodies tend to be...random. I'll keep working at it. Thanks so much for your advice, Johnfn! :D I really appreciate the support! ;D

[Introversion]

Nice stuff. Until 1:08 it sounds like the music for a town in an RPG, nice and mellow. Luckily I love this kind of music. Very different than your normal fare too, which is refreshing. After that there's a touch of more standard (for you) jazzy stuff. All in all I like it a lot. Great melody work.

[The Tomb Shaker]

I essentially disagree completely with Rahmemhotep. First of all, the production is immaculate. I'm always impressed by the amount of energy that you can inject into these cinematic pieces. I think that the main secret is those brass blasts that you're doing all over the place, but there's a lot more to it than that. Another key is definitely the big boomy hits. Reminds me of The Festival all over again. That piece rocks by the way. I mean, I already told you that, but... yeah.

But getting back to that main point, your tracks seem to have this Step-esque sheen to them that moves them along and makes them captivating. While I can't quite put my finger on what it is (because it's a bunch of different things), rest assured that the overall affect is awesome.

Though now that I think about it (and now that I think of The Festival again) I notice that there really isn't any bass in this piece to speak of. Yeah, there's a string droning out the root note, but nothing really interesting other than that. I don't think that's a particular problem, since this piece is pretty focused on the high end blasts and flutes and (yes!) dan tranh, but you should realize that there's a possibility to do more. I know that in pieces like Polargeist you've done some cool bass grooves.

The hilarious thing about this song is that although it was written to be a demo for the dan tranh, I actually feel like it's out of place in the song! Like, it just kinda randomly meanders its way through the song and doesn't add all that much. Again, I'm not saying that it's *bad*... but if you got rid of it, I probably wouldn't even notice. (Though I'm not sure if those shakey things - can't think of another way to describe them - at :22 and elsewhere are the dan tranh. I like those.) I can't help but think that perhaps the dan tranh is a more intimate instrument, suited to a more stripped down arrangement.

Now... I said that I disagreed completely with Rahmemhotep, so you know what's coming next: the melody! Yes, I have a one track mind, and it's always focused on melody. Now, since we are basically the same person when it comes to listening to music, I know that you already know what I'm going to say. And since there's no way I can suggest you to improve a melody, I don't even know why I bring it up. Still though, yeah, the melody isn't all too interesting. I know that you have written good melodies before (Festival and Sky's the Limit come to mind immediately) and I can understand time constraints, but, you know. I'm contractually obliged to complain about it.

Overall, I enjoy it a lot. I'm impressed by how high quality your pieces are. The melody is holding me back a little, but other than that, it's pro.

Finally (and the true reason for me writing this review comes out! ...not really), I want to YELL AT YOU. It's been like 2 months since you wrote this piece, and that is FAR TOO LONG. Nah, I don't want to berate you. I understand you're super busy with college, (when I went to college I stopped producing for quite a while) so just know that I will just be sitting here impatiently, waiting for you to find some free time. :)

Step responds:

Aw man I just love your reviews. As you said, we agree on just EVERYTHING. I'd say "commence operation quote response" but it'll be more like "commence operation quote agreement". LET'S GO.

"First of all, the production is immaculate. I'm always impressed by the amount of energy that you can inject into these cinematic pieces. I think that the main secret is those brass blasts that you're doing all over the place, but there's a lot more to it than that."

I think one of the secrets to it is just to make the piece really detailed and full of intricate things, since I find that, with a decently quick tempo, it can really add some energy. Plus, of course, the brass blasts and crescendos upon crescendos probably help a little too :3.

"Another key is definitely the big boomy hits. Reminds me of The Festival all over again. That piece rocks by the way. I mean, I already told you that, but... yeah."

Yeah I'm kinda proud of The Festival. I wasn't at first since the intro was a little boring and two other musicians told me that the second part is too bouncy and upbeat, but it kinda grew on me a little.

"But getting back to that main point, your tracks seem to have this Step-esque sheen to them that moves them along and makes them captivating. While I can't quite put my finger on what it is (because it's a bunch of different things), rest assured that the overall affect is awesome."

Cool. Yeah, I can hear that Step-esque thing too. I find that the less inspired I am while making the track, the more it sounds like generic Step music haha.

"Though now that I think about it (and now that I think of The Festival again) I notice that there really isn't any bass in this piece to speak of. Yeah, there's a string droning out the root note, but nothing really interesting other than that. I don't think that's a particular problem, since this piece is pretty focused on the high end blasts and flutes and (yes!) dan tranh, but you should realize that there's a possibility to do more. I know that in pieces like Polargeist you've done some cool bass grooves."

It's actually pretty tough to add a lot of bass to orchestral tracks, since while there are bass-dedicated orchestral instruments, it's not as easy to get a powerful low end from them unless you do some EQing. I'm pretty conservative when it comes to adding bass to melodic instruments though. I like to leave space for the drums as I'm sure you noticed. But yeah I agree, I could've added some really low bass without making the track sound too beefy, and I could've definitely made the bass more interesting than just playing the root note. It's become a bad habit.

"The hilarious thing about this song is that although it was written to be a demo for the dan tranh, I actually feel like it's out of place in the song! Like, it just kinda randomly meanders its way through the song and doesn't add all that much. Again, I'm not saying that it's *bad*... but if you got rid of it, I probably wouldn't even notice. ... I can't help but think that perhaps the dan tranh is a more intimate instrument, suited to a more stripped down arrangement."

Yes, exactly. I admit I had to force the instrument in at times just for the sake of having a demo. I think it sounds great and I loved working with it, but yes it's entirely suited for more intimate pieces. Still, samulis told me that my track's good because it shows that it's possible to make cinematic stuff with the VST, which, for the purpose of a demo, is a pretty good marketing characteristic.

"(Though I'm not sure if those shakey things - can't think of another way to describe them - at :22 and elsewhere are the dan tranh. I like those.)"

Yeah! That's a tremolo patch from the dan tranh, when you finger the same note quickly and consistently.

"Now... I said that I disagreed completely with Rahmemhotep, so you know what's coming next: the melody! Yes, I have a one track mind, and it's always focused on melody. Now, since we are basically the same person when it comes to listening to music, I know that you already know what I'm going to say. And since there's no way I can suggest you to improve a melody, I don't even know why I bring it up. Still though, yeah, the melody isn't all too interesting. I know that you have written good melodies before (Festival and Sky's the Limit come to mind immediately) and I can understand time constraints, but, you know. I'm contractually obliged to complain about it."

Totally understandable. Yeah I'm not a huge fan of the melody here either. I need more time to be able to make a good melody haha.

"Overall, I enjoy it a lot. I'm impressed by how high quality your pieces are. The melody is holding me back a little, but other than that, it's pro.

Aw yissss. Thanks!

"Finally (and the true reason for me writing this review comes out! ...not really), I want to YELL AT YOU. It's been like 2 months since you wrote this piece, and that is FAR TOO LONG. Nah, I don't want to berate you. I understand you're super busy with college, (when I went to college I stopped producing for quite a while) so just know that I will just be sitting here impatiently, waiting for you to find some free time. :)"

Yeah, uni actually not college. It is so impossible to find time! Factoring in time spent waiting for/taking the bus to uni and time spent on campus, on Monday I've got from 10:00 AM till 1 PM and then from 2:00 PM till 7:00 PM. On Tuesday I've got from 8:00 AM till 5:00 PM (used to be 7:00 PM), then from Wednesday till Friday it's 5:30 AM till 8:00 PM (with Friday being till 6:00 PM instead of 8:00 PM).

Then on Saturday I've got piano and my little brother's friend comes over and wants to play Minecraft with my brother on my PC and laptop. Then on Sunday I'm at my grandparents since we go and visit them every Sunday. And then the cycle starts all over again.

It's not that there's a lot of work because I spend a lot of time on campus sitting at lectures with crappy lecturers who don't project their voice enough and don't explain properly (so basically a waste of time), and also a lot of time in the study area either playing some game or working. Our timetable is really spaced out with like 1 - 4 hour gaps between lectures, full of crappy lecturers, and couple that with the terrible bus system and you've got a lot of time wasted, even if the workload isn't huge.

Anyway, sorry for the mini rant :3. I've got another track in the works but it's just generic boring stuff for a pretty cool game and I'm not really proud of it either haha.

THANKS for the awesome review. You, Buoy and SkyeWintrest are my three favourite audio reviewers out there, just so you know!

[Just too much dancing]

Which one of these is the most unlikely?

1. You continue to post music on Newgrounds 10 years after joining.

2. I continue to review your stuff 10 years after my first review on one of your songs.

3. This song, written 10 years later, is still awesome.

I'm not even sure if you remember me but somehow I remember spamming a bunch of your songs 10 years ago with reviews. I thought they had a really interesting and tasty vibe to them back then (and, relistening to them now, they still do. Your approach to the whole music deal was always really interesting, with a focus on melody and atmosphere over production), and honestly you've probably had a big (mostly subconscious) influence on the way that I eventually took my music.

And listening to this one... it's pretty much the same deal as your older stuff, except a lot more mature.

Wow this song is really interesting though, it's so dark! The chord progression is this twisty thing. Something I've been noticing is that you're really into using high pitched noises to fill out the song. And it's really a cool idea, it makes me imagine stars. That bass sounds like a dubby sort of idea, but it's not obnoxious, it just adds to the creepy atmosphere. The atmosphere is just wild, filled with all sorts of little plinky ideas that come and go.

Anyway, of all the people who did leave from 10 years ago, I'm really glad that you're around and writing music. Though honestly? Could you write more than one song a year? ;-) This stuff is so inventive that I would love to hear more.

crud responds:

I'd say the most unlikely would be that i would come back to the site and check to see if my songs have been reviewed. bless you Johnfn for this incredibly revitalizing and inspiring review. I recognize the absence of music production in my life and it's been a wild last 4 years since i posted this one. I took up traveling with no laptop till this current moment....you know what that means.

Ive always loved dancing and making music to make me jump up out of my chair and throw myself around all rag doll style.

I've grown nostalgic for newgrounds and the boost it gave me to production. Near the end i just got too busy and life seemed more important than 1's and 0's .

now that i've come to these ol haunts your message creates that spark i need to stoke this puppy .

thank you. and yes your request of more than one song a year is a good one :)

[A Weirdo's Gigue]

I remember when you write "She Was Picking Flowers" I was all like "you need to work on your melodies." Well GOOD JOB proving me wrong - the melodies in this song are great. Each great section leads into another, equally great section. I'm actually amazed (and slightly jealous) you were able to think of so many good ideas all in the space of 2 weeks. Alright, I may not enjoy like one or two of the sections, and I'm only ambivalent about the main theme (and this is weird, because Step said it was great and I almost never disagree with him), but the awesomeness of most of the melodies easily make up for the one or two ones that I don't like.

Can I commend you in particular on the 2:55 section which is just great. (Also... dat switch between 5/4 and 3/4... so effortlessly executed ;.; I'm jealous of your command over different time sigs. I didn't even notice weird things were going on until I started paying really close attention)

I agree with the others in that I definitely had a hard time grasping the structure of the piece. After listening to it a lot, it makes more sense, but it's still pretty hard. It's probably because the transitions between sections are not always obvious. (Most of them are, but a few are quite subtle.)

Again, I love your use of countermelody (:20 comes to mind) and I actually tried to apply the same ideas to my song because I liked it so much (with some success), though you do it with much more finesse.

I was having a block with your melodies before because the instruments are so cheapy sounding, and I feel like at times the notes are a touch too quantized. Like you have a ton of great melodic ideas (3:36 comes to mind), but the delivery seems a little too mechanical. Putting just the smallest touch of glide between two notes, tweaking the rhythms a little to be more swingy, and adding touches of vibrato might help. Plus, I know you're all about using the crappiest possible instruments (lol), and it usually works to great effect, but I think that using some slightly more organic sounds would add a lot to the expressivity.

Mega props on the insanely weird and interesting percussion work throughout the whole track. It's not chipdrums and yet it fits very well with the chippy sounds. The first time I heard it kick in I was like "what is going on and why does it sound awesome."

You know what this song really reminds me of? Cave Story music. Check out this song in particular: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPijoprLU4 It's really similar to your song imo in terms of call/response, arrangement, weird melodies, etc. If you like it check out the whole OST, I bet you'll enjoy it.

Overall 5/5, 10/10 and I don't know how my song beat this, it's epic.

steampianist responds:

oh hey congratz man. im tired of reading long reviews or maybe its because i just got back from measles lolz so i only read the final part... though the music you linked me is cool i liked it thanks man!