johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Trapped in this Time Machine]

This is really good dude! Loving the egyptian scale thing especially!

LunyAlex responds:

Cheers! Glad you liked it!

[Don't Mean a Thing]

I was destroyed by the bridge. gg

LunacyEcho responds:

boom bb

[When Life Gives You Lemons]

This is awesome! You have too many good ideas LOL let the rest of us have a chance

EctiBot responds:

Look who's talking.. Glad you liked it :D

[Darkness - Darkwave? Metal]

Dude this sounds great! I wish I sounded so good without any inspiration

NahuPyrope responds:

Thank you John!, that means a lot<3

[Minimized (NGADM 2019)]

omfg i 5 starred this in like the first minute. it's so catchy!

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EDIT

I feel like I should say a few more words here. Having listened to a bunch more NGADM tracks, I'd say that in terms of raw songwriting/composition this might be my favorite of the bunch. This is mostly on the back of the really amazing pre-chorus section ("But all I see are stars..." into the chorus). I really really love particularly how you lead into the second repetition of the pre-chorus "now that I look back down" - it works REALLY well melodically. Also like the motif of clustered notes separated with breaks also works really well.

All these words basically to say that your melody writing is really amazing. I really hate saying stuff like "you're a natural" because I think that getting good at music is mostly just working really hard at it, but you have a really impressive grasp on this stuff - better than almost anyone else in the compo.

Another thing which really gets me and which I really appreciate is how un-ornamented the song is. A lot of people (like me...ahem) will try to dress up fairly uninteresting melodies in really complex sound design or add a bunch of notes or counter melodies or something. This song, though, is really sparse. It's especially surprising for an electronic song, IMO, where usually composers will just go bonkers - adding every random idea they have, or really filling out the mix to disguise the fact that they aren't actually doing anything interesting. This song is the complete opposite. The few details that you *do* add are really well chosen, IMO, like the weird "melody" thing that comes in at :19. Like WTF, where did you even get that idea from? It's such a neat idea, and it fits in really well (especially when you bring it back in the second verse at the 2 minute mark)! Anyways, my point is that you have a really good grasp not only on melody but only having exactly what's necessary to convey the idea of the song.

Of course, you might have noticed that I qualified this as the best in terms of raw composition. I feel like a couple of other aspects are lacking, and might drag down your NGADM score a bit. One issue is production, and the biggest issue by far there is your vocals - they're too quiet! I could barely even make out your pre chorus melody the first time I listened, which would have been a disaster because it's so good! haha.

The other big production issue IMO is that the drop doesn't really hit quite like I'd want it to. I think it might need a bigger build into the drop for it to really be effective? I wish I could give more accurate critique here but I really don't know exactly what the issue is.

All in all, great work. Really hoping you make it to the next round - I can't wait to see what you put out!

Drewpy responds:

Thank you!

I'll edit my response as well. I'm super super thankful for your review, it helps a ton. You're absolutely right about the build, it's not very strong, but my vocals weren't confident sounding enough IMO to build with the rest (something I've been working on for a while, I'm no singer). Reading this gives me a lot of confidence though. I'm still learning stuff and learning to be proud of my music. Thanks again!

[Could've]

Wow this is really good! I don't know how I missed it earlier.

acxle responds:

thank you!

[On Go]

I liking this. Nice job improving your compositional stuff. The middle section sounds a little like Chrono Cross :D

Onefin responds:

wait but there's no central melody, why u say it improved :/

[Too Far]

i think the mix needs a little work but the melody is so niiiiiiiiiiice i love it I LOVE U LET MAKE BABIESSSSSSSSS

McGorilla42 responds:

Haha, thanks Johnfn :) Yeah, I'll probably come back to it to sort out the mix. Started working on mixing some of the other songs already so it's definitely on the agenda! :)

[Aquatronik]

srsly, keep working on this one. :52 - 1:25 is too good for this world

demisedaisu responds:

👀👀
1. i will
2. thanks for taking the time to respond!
3. i don't know how i feel about the structure of this one atm. i'm especially attached to the soundscape in :20 - :50, and i don't know totally know what to do after 1:25, but i'm very happy that :52 is well received (by one person (who is you (johnfn, the reviewer to whomst i am referring))).

thanks for the review!

[/crash/]

i dont think there has ever been a song as ruined by the waveform as this one.

its good though

stardew responds:

it's almost as messed up as it sounds!

also you never joined voice >:(