johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kids]

this is absolutely incredible. amazing melody, amazing production, amazing everything.

i was listening to the tracks from the top scoring auditions, but then my friend sent me this one and it is honestly better than almost all of them.

you killed it.

McGorilla42 responds:

I'm...I'm almost speechless. Those words coming from you, johnfn, mean so much to me and it's lit a fire under my butt to get cracking on a new song, whether I make it through to the next round or not. I'm so happy to have seen this. Thanks so much and I'll try to make the next one even better!

[Stardust]

pretty cool, i thought that 1:54 was my favorite part, but a lot of the melodies seem a bit meandering/aimless, try to make them more interesting! also :48 is so dry, just a bass a kick a snare and a pluck!

i think you should expand on that 1:54 section

Teckmo-X responds:

Yeah I can see your point I've had some people say the same thing but the point of it wasn't to give it too much uprising to the song. It's supposed to be progressive with what I was going at. 0:48 wasn't supposed to have more to it, it was more or less an interlude to the bigger part of the song. Then again I did mention that I used old roots from when I first started music making so it was experimental at most. The reason for not expanding 1:54 is because I know it would have gone on for more than 4 minutes and through my point of view judges are going to be busy with a lot of submissions which I doubt that anyone would want to sit through an8-10 minute song. Anyways your thoughts brought me some enlightenment to improve but I think right now I think this is as far as I will go with this one.

[Dust Sweeper]

this is so impressive. great chorus melody, great chorus b section, AWESOME speedup section.

easy 10/10 with better instruments

LunacyEcho responds:

=> speedup section =>

So much of my influence in writing solos comes from you lol, so glad you liked it!

=> instruments =>

my NGUAC submission will be this same exact song except all the instruments are chiptune and also it has a different name

[Vaeltaja]

oh so you guys went celtic too? this is like the anti soundchris satera matchup, where everyone just did the same thing rofl

very very beautiful instrumentation

i think it suffers from lack of a coherent theme and little in the way of sections/breakdowns.

the etherealwinds vocals and melody at the end are an 11/10 though. you could build an entire song around them. that chord at 3:45 is absolutely beautiful (reminds me of elliott smith, and of course etherealwinds sounds a good bit like that guy lol)

unexpected xenoblade at 2:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OxpAqDc4JE

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yeah! We thought it would be a bit poetic to go for a celtic style considering our opponent. Ofc, SnowTeddy and LSD style :D

I'll buy your argument about the breakdown. Even if it's a pretty high energy piece (though we decided not to use epic percussion, as it would really ruin the mood), a more full break would probably be nice. Then again, I think this way, the end part is more effective! And I don't think everything needs to be structured like an EDM piece, but we've had that discussion before ;)

That said, I don't feel like there isn't a coherent theme! It's not always at the forefront, but I recommend you relisten and pay closer attention :D
Mayhaps the main theme running throughout could be made more obvious, but as the title suggests and SoundChris noted, the track wasn't really made to portray only one mood; it's more of a journey (The title, btw, Means "The Wanderer)".
If you're interested, you can listen to the piano version I'm planning on making a bit later. I think the underlying structure will be more clear without all the orchestra on top ;)

That chord is at 2:50 too (different key), but it's fairly well hidden (I think the orchestra doesn't play one of the notes, so it's only heard in the felt piano, probably a bit to the right side of the mix); I wanted to emphasise the intricacies of the piano more at the end part, with two of the three main melodies. The third one would be the string melody at 2:09, including the minor version which comes right after (and has the main melody underlying too :D).

As for Jordi's vocals, he recorded them in like 10 minutes or less, but he did it so well! It was easy to combine them into the end part. It would probably be a bit over the top to use them for the whole track though, concidering the circumstance, haha ^___^
I agree it would sound awesome though :O

Thanks for the critique! I'll have a listen to your (and ES's) piece a bit later when I have more time. I look forward to it :D

P.S. Interesting how a couple of years ago, you also pointed me in the direction of Xenoblade during the NGADM (that time because of the percussion). Also, yeah! There's a cool similarity there, though I've never heard that track (That melody was made by SnowTeddy; it's simple enough that I'm sure it's a coincidence). Good luck! Jopefully your opponent will submit a piece soon O.o

[War and Peace]

is this really a song about ngadm? thats so gay

beautiful song. great instrumentation. only complaint is that 6 m is probably too long for a song that doesnt really build or progress IMO. other than that its GREAT

also nice suspended chord and nice violin.

its also kinda similar to your other work (not that i care)

do something else next round

like chiptune

yeaaaa

etherealwinds responds:

ello mister johnfn

Thank you for your kind words. There's probably more I could keep adding to it to give it a more dynamic build-up. Actually, you mentioned to me on discord about the lack of bass in the track, which is something I'd definitely want to go back and add if I ever wanted to release the track properly. I think that in itself would make it a bit more hard-hitting, especially at the climax (hehehe)

For my first track at least, it's been a good while since I've submitted anything to an NGADM, so I wanted to give something solidly etherealwinds! If I get through to the next round, I'll definitely try mixing it up a bit. This competition, if anything, is about pushing people out of their comfort zones and encouraging people to learn a few new tricks. I think you should give me a little chiptune lesson! Celtic chiptune could be an amazing thing!

[Till We Fall Again]

pretty good! your vocals sounds pretty good for what is the first time i've ever heard them in a song! they seem to lack some sort of treatment that would make them fit in the mix more. idk, i dont really know how to mix vocals... also it seems to me like every now and then there's a little section of vocals that could be fixed because it sounds slightly off pitch to me (e.g. 3:29)

i like seeing how your style transforms into a punky rock song. the progressions are pretty cool, though i guess i thought that the progressions in your cinematic were slightly more interesting? also the mix is really good IMO. very very heavy and full. almost like stoner rock =p

Jakey-San responds:

Thanks man! Yeah I usually give my vocal tracks a good melodyne treatment, though I was tapped out of time. Thankfully with the deadline extension, I'll be posting an updated version with the vocals fixed, haha.

[The Secret of Satera Prime]

oh man like im really proud of you guys for trying something way out of your comfort zone (and doing chip my ONE TRU LOVE) but i think it may have left you at a disadvantage! the mix is so all over the place on this one, with lots of elements too loud or too quiet (like the lead at 2:10 is too loud, the dubstep noises are too quiet, the arps at 1:25 are too dry and dont fit...)

the composition is nice (the vocal chant thing particularly) tho.

i hope you do another chip song tho. but -50000000 points for saying that chip is not very interesting by itself

(haha just kidding)

SoundChris responds:

Hey man :) Yeah it was a lot of fun trying out that genre. I think i have learned a lot but also that i dont understand the production of electronic tracks (this will change soon - i promise ;) ). I spent too much time to understand what these synths do and had problems to get the sound clear. The drop was a big problem because i find it needed more power. I have to confess that i am very happy with the buildup and everything before the drop. But later the mixing became a real problem for me. Maybe i inserted too much stuff and everything became too "crowded". After this round (which definitely will be won by peter who absolutely deserves it. His track sounds so great - awesome production and he totally nailed the 80ies feel - just awesome!) i wanted to work on this track and try to make the midpart work better. I stil have to understand what makes a dubstep track work and how to get a wider sound. But i find it was ok for my first time. There stil is a long way to go but i am
a quite determined person and wont stop before i understand how it works :D

Thanks a lot for leaving your thoughts here. I also will review your piece, but that can take 1-2 days until i will find the time. Good luck for the contest - i will follow it closely!

Cheers!

[Getting Started]

man you have a great composition style. lots of your baselines and melodies are really tasty.

main problem is the mix has too much reverb and is really really muddy. also its really obvious its rushed. its a bummer because it's a great start!

Noisysundae responds:

Ah, adding reverb is my bad habit, then. I'll at least tone it down next time. But it might sound muddy because the pad in the intro is on the treble side, and that makes the intro contrast with the rest (apart from the beat, of course).

Now that I tried to add a few notes to the lead after the intro, it should be better, right? I checked the spectrum, the only difference from the two is the latter has a bit more mid.

[Kytoon - Magnifying Glass]

great.

outstanding instrumentation and production quality.

GhostLawyer responds:

Thank you dude!

[Sunset Highwave]

this mix is really good. i would love to see how you did it.

track is awesome too, but it like... seems to lack a melody of any sort? :/ which makes it seem weirdly empty, like its just a succession of chords. COOL chords mind you but yeah. kind of a bummer cuz you usually write nice melodies.

also it could do with a breakdown?

its still good.

EvilRaccoon responds:

Thanks johnfn. Information like this is vital to really nail my issues. I still believe I have a long way to go. The melody produced for this is heard at 1:03 - 1:26, that was my intent, anyway :P. I think a counter melody may have helped, with a different instrument to really bring the track to a more interesting state. So you hear one theme, then another and back to the original.

Tbh, this is an on going problem with me, and something I am actively working on to fix. I believe prominent and confident melodic themes are one of my weakest areas, as my simplicity approach to themes can be my downfall. This is partly because I've been learning trailer music, which themes are not to really be evident, because people become attached to them.

I think because Chris and I were learning something new, it was a scramble to cram electronic production and learn a lot in a short space of time, so maybe melody took a hit. But what we both felt was that no matter who doesn't go through to the next round, we both won a lot, and I was forever laughing at Chris's production which had me in it!

Mixing techniques and general production work is something people seem to mention with me, which is always nice to hear because I put a lot of effort into it. I've changed my entire approach over the last few years, so it's a refined production.

It's also something people always ask about. So I might make an audio podcast just talking general production, which covers my approach.

Thank you for your comments, I will take them on board. :)