johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[~SW~ Fog Between]

Yes yes yes yes yes. More of this please.

The organic electro feel is right up my alley and the chords are perfect.

Your other AIM piece was pretty great too but this one speaks to me more.

SkyeWint responds:

It's funny, the synth which was based on 3xosc was inspired by stuff you've made. :P

Other than that, this was definitely more of an emotional piece, so I'm not entirely surprised it spoke more.

[Exploring the Rift]

I really like it. My favorite part is the formant lead around 1:00, I thought that was really well done. However I just really don't like the drum choices. The kick sounds too electro, the clap is weak and too frequent (I think a louder, more reverbed clap that happened less often would be better) and the hats really don't mix (too high?). I hate to be so whiny but I think this would be a really amazing song if you were to take the time to really get those drums working.

I also thought that the second half was not as compelling as the first half, it really didn't grab me as much. The formant is the showstealer here imo. Also I didn't really like the instrument choices like the weird stringy thing around 2:00 or the plucks around the same point. The only instrument I really liked was the formant, I dunno the rest just didnt resonate with me. THOUGH it could be because I recognize them as sytrus presets (or they sound like sytrus presets) and that is blocking me, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

All in all I think it's a really good song, sorry I complained so much about it I think I just like doing that.

ChronoNomad responds:

It burns! It bites! It freezes!

But seriously, even though I really like this a lot on a personal level, your opinion is very much appreciated. Dangit though, John...I really like that kick! It's just so nice and punchy. Rawr! lol Nevertheless, I can agree that the clap doesn't really stand out quite as much as it should, so I'll definitely tweak it soon. That being said, I really love the way it bounces between being Ambient and sometimes more of an EDM vibe. I like the hats too, but I'll grant you that perhaps they could do with a bit of transposing.

Eh, we all have different tastes and such. I was hoping that you'd really enjoy the overall sound, and you did say that you really like it (mustn't forget that!), but maybe the fact that I made it purely using Sytrus instruments did more harm than good. Of course that was the point of the exercise and I had fun doing it, so...yeah. Formant is just plain awesome all day every day, so I certainly can't fault you for that opinion.

You're such a complainer! But I love you for it all the same. You know, like...as a fellow dude...who makes music and stuff. Nothing weird. Obviously. :P

Grain of salt taken, and honestly...thank you very much for taking the time and effort to leave a review. The harsh critiques just make me want to blow you away all the more, so that motivational undercurrent is the real takeaway for me. Hope you'll keep dropping by from time to time. Stay awesome.

[Fox-trot Fletcher]

Awesome. Sounds similar to your NGADM stuff, just better production.

Also better melodies.

YAY

steampianist responds:

yay claps for me!! TYVM

[Radical Dreamers]

One of my favorites too - I always have to stop by for a chrono cross cover :)

I have two complaints. First, the violin sounds quite fake. I don't blame you - violin is one of the most expressive instruments and its super hard to realistically emulate. If it was up to me, I'd probably insert some humanish sounding synth, and then modulate like every parameter of it throughout the entire song, so that it would be expressive as a voice (well, close, hopefully. Actually getting a synth to be as expressive as a voice is nearly impossible, just ask the vocaloid guys.)

If you think about it, a voice is like a synth that is being modulated by a hundred different parameters and shifting through a bunch of different filters constantly. This constant modulation gives it such a compelling quality, but it's also why it's difficult to replicate - you'd have to do all that work manually.

I'm not sure if you'd want to use a synth there, so maybe you could find another instrument that is easier to emulate (but still expressive) and then use that instead. A flute perhaps? idk, just tossing out ideas.

The other is a lot easier to correct - I think you repeated the verse once too many times. Without the expressive detail and interest of a human voice, the verse is not compelling enough to warrant another listen.

Anywho, aside from my two minor complaints up there I thought you did a really good job. You're at the point where all you really need are better quality instruments, which is a good sign I think :p I really enjoyed the part where the choir come in too, I thought it was well done.

P.S. I'd be interested in recording the guitar part (with an actual guitar!) if you wanted to have another go at this sometime. Listening to the original, the guitar is very upfront and personal, including the slides that the player makes (what a nice touch). Again, tough to replicate that stuff without higher quality samples.

ChronoNomad responds:

Care to contribute to my musical instrument fund? ^__~ jk

Still using all freebie stuff, soundfonts and VSTs and so on, and probably will be for a long time unless I find a leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or a magic lamp or something. Maybe win the lotto or strike oil. It could happen.

While I cannot disagree about the violin entirely, I still think it sounds pretty doggone good for what an enormous pain in the rear it is. I would record myself playing the violin if I had one, believe me. I made an instrument choice and stand by, and I don't honestly think using any kind of synth would be much better...if at all. As far as vocaloid goes, I totally know the score there. Sometimes it sounds good, but never really good, and certainly not realistic pretty much all the time. Maybe, when I have the time and proper conditions, I'll just sing the lyrics myself...or see if a friend with talented pipes, such as Jordi Francis, wants to add his voice to the mix! He did his own version of this a few years ago.

As for the number of verses, I followed the original to the letter, so I respectfully disagree. I do understand what you're saying about the lack of variance since I don't have recorded lyrics, but I don't find it to be a deal breaker in any way. Just chalk it up to subjective opinion.

Besides, what if someone wants to sing along? That's an important factor to consider. I can't have some truncated version messing with someone's mojo, after all.

Really glad you liked the choir section and the song in general, johnfn! I know that we artists make some of the most harsh critics, but it's far easier to take honest criticism (that isn't overtly acerbic) from a fellow musician than it is from someone who couldn't lay down the notes for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Can't do anything about the instrument situation at the moment, but when I can, I most certainly will! Until then I'll just have to try that much harder to add my own flair to future projects to make them stand out from the crowd. :)

I suppose that was a bit of a self-defeating prophecy with this particular piece of music; trying to make it true to the original without all the guitar slides and touches that an actual guitar has. I mean it's just not possible, but hey...that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile to try. Maybe other people who have never even heard of Chrono Cross or Yasunori Mitsuda will stumble across this and they'll want to learn more. That'd be pretty awesome, I think.

Just wanted to see what I could do with what I've got. I'm fairly satisfied, but hey...that's me. ^__^

[Seventh Seal]

This is pretty awesome. Sound design rocks! The 'epic' part is really appropriately epic. Only problem I'm hearing is the mixing, like the drums could be louder and the whole track sounds bit muddy (maybe too much reverb?).

Really great work though. So dark! :O

Goran1990 responds:

Hey, John, thanks for commenting.

I could agree that mixing could be better, but when you do songs for clients, most of the time they have the final say in things, so this was how he wanted.

[Forest Of Desolation]

Really nice job. The sounds are all beautiful, I want those libraries :-) Celtic music is the best music! I felt like the melodies could have been a little stronger (they never came out and grabbed me) but at this point I'm doing extreme nit-picking. The mixing is perfect, the whispered vocals add a good sense of mystery and the instruments are just great (I already said that).

This song would be perfect in a video game since it's beautiful and stays out of the way.

Mattashi responds:

Thank you Johnfn :)

[Will's Dream (arranged)]

Man what a beautiful song! I think your arrangement could have varied the velocity (and maybe rhythm) of the guitar, plus maybe done a little with slides and vibrato on the "vocal" (actually not sure what that's supposed to be...), but it does alright as is :) Thanks for introducing me to such a nice song.

SourJovis responds:

Thanks for the review. I had to do something with it. Creating a realistic guitar sound from samples is rather difficult. Perhaps it would sound a little more realistic if I did more with the rhythm, but it's hard to decide what a live player would do, and I'd risk making it sound clunky. Having alternating velocity levels is indeed important, but I think I have pretty much maxed out the range already. Some of the softer notes get drowned out as it is. Perhaps I should've made some of the guitar slides longer and started them earlier. I couldn't make a samples guitar sound much better than this. It would be great if I could get someone to record a live guitar though.
That's indeed a "vocal" track the way I see it. The game was made for the snes so the Original song had a synthetic voice as lead instrument. It was a bit difficult to decide what kind of instrument to go for. With even the most realistic voice samples or synths you can tell it isn't real with such a direct sound. That's why I decided to go for a voice sound that was obviously synthetic so it didn't sound like it was supposed to be something it wasn't. It would be great to make a version of this song with a live singer, and lyrics that fit the theme of the song. I thought about slides for the vocal track, but the Original had a very defined sound with short notes, so I decided to keep that. I always try to stay close to the original song. Rather than putting a lot of myself in it I'm interested in hearing what the song would sound like if the original composer wasn't limited to the snes sound chip. When someone listens to my arrangement I don't want them to have the feeling they're listening to a remix of another song, but instead they should forget what the original sounded like, and that this could've been the original. Vibrato is a great idea. It really makes the instrument sound more alive and interesting. Most of the notes have vibrato on them. The longer notes more than the shorter ones, and the vibrato always fades in and out. I tried different levels of vibrato, and I ended up with an amount that wasn't that noticable just didn't start to sound annoying. So I don't want to add more vibrato than there already is, but it was a good idea.
It indeed is a beautiful song. I knew I had to do something with it. I was a little dissapointed with the result myself, but I tried my best. This is just what came out. It would be interesting to do a version of the song with a live guitarist and vocalist with lyrics. That would really add something.
I'm happy you liked the song and I was able to introduce you to it. The game it's from ("Illusion of Gaia") is also an interesting game. It's quite short so I think you cvan give it a try.

[Starfall]

Compositionally I think it's amazing. Really the only critique I have is the mix, so let me talk about that:

Is it just me or is the piano clipping in the beginning? Actually at :44 the mix is kinda going crazy... I kinda want you to give this to me so I can mix it better!

It kind of sounds like you're using FL studio and you still have the limiter on. If so, take the limiter off the master channel and adjust your volume levels so that you never get into the red. That should clean up a good bit of your mixing issues.

The part at 1:23 feels a little empty. Maybe it's just that the guitar is a little dry, needs more reverb/delay/whatever. Then at 1:55 the mix is too dense in the other way, the strings and especially the pads are too loud.

Also the guitar doesn't seem to have nearly as much precision as the rest of the song, both in melodic development and in general playing style. I can't really fault you too much for that though since it was your friend. Should tell him to get on the ball hahaha

I'm gonna close off this review by saying that again the composition is amazing so I think the piece is great. It has a really sublime feel to it, somewhat melancholy. If you fix up those mixing problems it'd probably be a 10.

BlazingDragon responds:

You are absolutely right about the mix. To be quite honest, I feel that my mixing skills are my weakest area when it comes to making music. We just started covering the basics of mixing these last two weeks (compression, EQ, gating, etc), so hopefully the next few projects should show signs of improvement. This wasn't so much of an issue in the past since I primarily wrote solo piano and orchestral music.

As far as the guitar goes, I asked my friend at the last minute to improvise something over the top. I was required to record a live instrument for the project and had to have SOMETHING to turn in. That, and I gave him an awkward key for guitar. XD So for the situation, I think he did nicely.

Thanks for the review, John. I'll take what you said and apply it to my next mix.

[~SW~ Windswept]

Man this is awesome. Love the rolling feel of the bassline, plus the rise and fall of the velocity. The only thing I didn't really like was that sometimes you sat a little too long on the root chord and I felt like it lost a little bit of interest, like with some chord switches at those points it would be more interesting to listen to. Mainly :53 - 1:03, I was kind of disappointed that phrase didn't lead into another chord (as eventually you get to at 1:15).

Anywho, apart from that fairly minor issue I felt this was a great and emotional piano piece! Welcome to the 1 day music club... perhaps you'll stick around a little longer? ;-)

P.S. How much of this is live?

SkyeWint responds:

I agree about 0:53-1:03. That's the kind of thing I'd normally spend a lot of time on, so that it just goes through things without those little boring bits. I could make a decent amount of music in a day, but I don't feel like it'd be good enough. :P

Also, what is live? This is all sequenced. ;)

[Pure Morning [Cover] Preview]

Not really my style but it's OBVIOUSLY amazing so take my 5 stars and get out of here. Good luck with labels dude, you obviously have the talent.

Bafana responds:

Thanks mate, keep getting "not the sound we are currently looking for" responses but I'll soldier on!