johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ravages of War]

== This is an NGAUC Knock-Out Round Review ==

First things first. Your composition is on point! The melodies are perfect for the scene that you’re trying to portray. The melody you open (and close) with is perfectly mournful. You later harmonize it with a vocal-sounding instrument at :59, which is a great decision. You then move into a separate section exactly when I hoped that you would, and the two sections work together perfectly! This kind of thing makes me happy.

Not only that, but the instrumentation is excellent too. I wish I knew what all these instruments were called, but sadly I barely do any orchestral music, so I really have no clue. :P Nonetheless, both the pluck and flute-like instrument at :22 are excellent, as is the reverb that you put on, and the very quiet background pad. It sounds to me like you also cut off some of the highs of the instruments here, which is, again, an awesome choice! It makes the piece sound distant in a way that really heightens the melancholy.

I really enjoy the stripped down arrangement here - it works perfectly for the mood. The gradual build at 2:05 is great, though I admit that I wish that you would have signaled it coming from a little earlier. I’m also not a huge fan of how the climax of the piece is just repeated twice - I think it should feel a little different the second time around, to maintain my interest.

I even hear a couple of really neat chords, like the brief appearance of a minor major seventh at 1:24.

A curious thing happens at 2:15, though. The bass is building and so I am expecting a more emotional section to come - and then suddenly right at 2:15, all the bass drops away. This was kind of disappointing - I was hoping for a fully fleshed out climax, but none came!

I also have a minor quibble with the end of the piece - it sounds like the song is stumbling around a little . For instance, is there a reason that the note at 2:38 is held an extra couple of beats? I hear this happen a couple of times towards the end of the track, and I’m left wondering why - it makes the song sound a little undirected.

Finally, although I do enjoy this piece, it could be improved, and if you really wanted to improve it - while still retaining the sparseness of the piece - I think you’d have to push your melodies a little harder. Yeah, they’re pretty darn good already, but if you really want to do a piece that doesn’t have much in the way of multiple instrument complexity or arrangement, the only real thing left to do is improve the melodies.

Overall Score: 8.5

Mini-Scores (see here: http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953):
* Composition: 4/4
* Arrangement: 3/4
* Mixing: 4/4

DSykMusic responds:

Thanks for the review and for staying happy :)
I admit I did get a little lazy with repeated the string part twice. I'll likely update it when I later come back to this project. Hopefully I'll also focus on the bass buildup part as well.

[Amarelo Preto (Blackanese)]

== This is an NGAUC Knock-Out Round Review ==

This is a super interesting and cool piece. It has a really unique, chillout vibe that makes it stand out from most of the other tracks in the NGAUC, and that is very cool. The piano chords have a great jazzy, relaxed vibe to them.

You have a great ear for samples, and the ones that you selected work together magnificently to create a piece that’s way more than the sum of its parts.

The arrangement is really interesting to me. I don’t really get bored listening to this piece, which is especially interesting considering that not too much happens in this piece - it keeps the same piano chords, vocal melody etc. throughout the whole song. You do a really good job of adding and removing small elements like percussion, piano solos, and so forth to keep interest.

However, while I don’t really get *bored* listening to this piece, I’m not really *interested* by the arrangement either, since again, not too much happens. This I’m not going to let you off the hook for! I think that additional sections in this piece - with different instrumentation, ideally - would make it a lot more interesting.

I am somewhat indifferent on the piano soloing. I think it’s a great idea and adds a lot of interest to the arrangement, but the actual melody itself could be a bit more evocative. At times, it also sounds off beat.

I’ve noticed a few problems with the mix. I’ll go ahead and list them off. First, those piano chords. They sound really deep and reverbed, and I have to say that I’m not the biggest fan of how they’re presented: they sound a bit muddy to me, and they make the mix feel muddy as well. They also obscure the baseline pretty badly. I didn’t even realize there was one until I looped the song and heard it before the piano dominated it. (The bass at 1:40 has a bit more presence, however.) Unfortunately, since the whole song is built around these chords, this is a pretty big hit - I think with a different timbre it could have been much better. The soulful vocal is a very cool touch, but it’s desperately in need of reverb and/or delay: it’s far too dry in the mix, and that makes it jar. The percussion is pretty well mixed, with the exception of the kick drum, which I have difficulty hearing because of the piano/bass combination.

This is a really interesting piece - keep it up.

Score: 6.5

Mini-Scores (see here: http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953):
* Composition: 3/4
* Arrangement: 2/4
* Mixing: 2/4

DeadlyAlchemy responds:

EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I KNEW THOSE PIANO CHORDS WEREN'T GOOD DAMMIT

Even so, I'm really happy with a score of 6.5 considering I managed to make this in 2 days.
I'm certainly going to take notes and fix this up because it's one of my better songs and it always has the potential to be better with improvement, so thank you for taking the time to listen and give such a thorough review.

[Jewel]

== I wasn’t your judge for the NGAUC, but here’s some criticism anyways. ==

Wow! I’ve always appreciated your music, but it’s generally not been the sort of music that I would seek out. (With a few exceptions like Mote Prime, because I love post-rock). To be clear, it’s not bad music - it’s generally pretty friggin' amazing - but I have to admit, I don’t tend to listen to jazz fusion all too much. It’s just personal taste.

(Though you are doing a pretty darn good job of convincing me to get into jazz fusion, but let’s not get into that...)

Which makes it all the more interesting that I actually REALLY like this song and I would TOTALLY burn it on a mix-tape. (Assuming anyone actually made those anymore.) The first time I listened to it, the chorus really caught me, and I looped it a few times immediately - not even judging it, just enjoying it - which is pretty darn rare.

If anything, I think that the song is a bit short! The chorus is so good that I think it definitely could have been repeated one more time at the end, perhaps with a little more melodic variation like you started to do on the final chorus.

I do have a couple of dumb nit-picks. Someone already mentioned that there are a couple of places where you sing off pitch. This is definitely something to watch out for, though I don’t think I can remember that happening in your past songs. A slightly larger thing that bothered me is the way that your lyrics felt like they would stumble in on the first beat of the measure. “You’re fine”, “You’re mine” etc seemed like they were trying to fit into a single syllable. It bothered me a lot in my first few listens, but less now, so I’m not sure if I got used to it, or if it’s not bad. (On the other hand, I really like how the last word of the previous phrase is the first word of the new measure! It’s such a cool idea, and you make it work great with the melody.) The ending is a little abrupt - I think you could have held the word “closer” for a beat or two more.

I wanted to hear a more epic guitar solo, but that’s only because you spoiled me with like 6 of them in your last song :P

My last criticism is that the handling of the drums seems a *little* off sometimes, particularly when I mentally compare with professional tracks, but I’m having difficulty putting my finger on exactly why. (You know you’re doing pretty good when I’m pulling out professional tracks to compare against.) It’s not the tone of the drums that bothers me, though. One thing I’ve noticed is that you REALLY like to put a flanger on the drums. I’m not sure if it’s bad so much as I just hear you do it a lot ;-) Maybe what bothered me is the use of cymbals towards the end? I think you are using them a little too much - I expect to hear the constant cymbals for really energetic songs, but this one is fairly laid back. It may also just be the 5/4 - without any sort of subdivision the drums kinda make the song feel like it’s lurching forward unevenly.

So if you want to improve, I’d say to head in the direction of drums, but I don’t know exactly what it is. You’re a smart musician, you figure it out! ;-)

This is my favorite of the NGAUC tracks I listened to this round (through I only listened to about half of them.)

Overall Score: 10/10

Mini-Scores:

* Composition: 4+/4
* Arrangement: 4/4
* Mixing: 4/4

Kor-Rune responds:

THANK YOUUU for such a comprehensive review! I will do everything I can to sing better or not at all LMAO. I do abuse the drum flange and the cymbal wash, I'll try new stuff haha! Appreciate all the effort and love johnfn ILY <3

[Your First Love]

== This is an NGAUC Knock-Out Round Review ==

Huh, so the mixing in this one is pretty darn good. I kinda come to expect that out of EDM tracks for some reason, but you definitely exceeded expectations here. Well done. There are definitely some times where things get a little wonky (:33 sounds off to my ears), but for the majority of this track, you really nailed it. The kicks are satisfyingly kicky, etc. The drums are great - the only thing that might bother me is that the clap sounds off when you repeat it a bunch of times.

The sound design is pretty darn good, too. There’s nothing about it that’s really going to steal the show, but that’s perfectly fine.

The vocal sample strikes me as off. It sounds to me like it’s been double tracked and slightly delayed, which gives a weird effect, almost as if it’s been recorded incorrectly (although I don’t think it has been). The delivery of it seems a bit amateur too. There are plenty of free vocal samples online, so feel free to dig around.

I want to talk about arrangement, though.

Look at the crazy buildup going on around :37. It builds… and builds… and BUILDS… and just when you’re expecting something really epic to happen, this massive kick hits and everything gets quiet. The builds in this track build like crazy, and I think you did a really good job on them, but the build doesn’t lead into anything. I really expect the song to build into a more intense or complex section. Dropping me into something quiet is a a let-down! Don’t tease me like that! :P

I have to also mention that I noticed that the section at 3:10 sounds to me like it’s been copy pasted exactly from earlier, at 1:20. This will lose you brownie points in a competition (or anywhere else, really) unless the section is REALLY REALLY good. I think that the section at 1:20 is alright, but it really needs some aggression if you’re going to drop into it.

Finally, composition: I wasn’t really convinced here. There are definitely some cool parts, but there’s no overriding catchiness or sweet riffs or anything like this. The melodies that are here certainly aren’t bad, but they don’t really *do* anything either - they seem like background riffs that want something really cool to be played on top. The exception to this would be the chords at 2:57. Those chords I thought were pretty cool - it’s an idea definitely worth expanding on.

Mini-Scores (see here: http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953):
* Mixing: 3+/4
* Arrangement: 2/4
* Composition: 1/4

Overall Score: 6/10

[1923]

== I wasn’t your judge for the NGAUC, but here’s some constructive criticism anyways. ==

Holy crap! This piece is realllly coooool. I already loved the chords and the jazzy vibe, and then the synth solo really took me aback. My gawd I love pitch bend. The mix, on the other hand, needs a bit of work. I think it would be a much better song if the mix wasn't so darn dense. The song also clips in points, so you're going to need to turn down the volume of your instruments. Hypothetical score: 8.0

Mini-scores (See http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953 for what this means and how to improve)
* Composition: 3+/4
* Arrangement: 3/4
* Mixing: 2/4

Nebulean responds:

Hey, thank you very much for your constructive comment!
I'll try to improve the mix in my following tracks, but I'll improve it slowly, mixing is the hardest part of music (for me).
For the density of instrument, I know, the problem is... me. ^_^
Friends always say that, but I like it, so... If I improve the mix, It'll surely sound better.
Thank you again for this criticism!
Nebulean

[Revelries]

== I wasn’t your judge for the NGAUC, but here’s some constructive criticism anyways. ==

Wow, this song reminds me a lot of Space Walk by Lemon Jelly. I mean…A LOT. When that bass comes in…ugh, it feels so nice and happy! It’s such an awesome vibe - I wish you would have explored it more. And then when that trumpet comes in…eh, it’s actually totally out of place and way too loud. The melody on the trumpet, too, could have been a bit more refined - it feels pretty random to me. Still, I really really like the warm, happy vibe of this piece, especially before the trumpet, and the mixing (aside from a few instruments being too quiet) is very good.

Mini-scores (See http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953 for what this means and how to improve)
* Composition: 3/4
* Arrangement: 3/4
* Mixing: 3+/4

adieuwinter responds:

I had a listen to Space Walk, loving how the voice samples are weaved in between notes. Since this was a bit of a rushed piece (didn't have much time until a couple nights before the deadline) and I haven't submitted it anywhere else yet, I'll definitely try and develop the bassline. Lately I've been trying to find ways to fit MIDI brass into my tracks, but I haven't been having much success - I'll try and substitute other leads / instruments and see how they work out.

Thanks a lot for the feedback and I'll see what I can do to improve this song.

[Neon Valley's Sunset Girl]

== I wasn’t your judge for the NGAUC, but here’s some constructive criticism anyways. ==

Wow, what a happy and upbeat tune! The chord progression is a really positive and uplifting one, and the mix is working really well to really bring that energy out. On the other hand, I thought that this song was really missing a gripping melody - or really, almost any melody at all - to keep the interest. You do keep the song properly varied with a lot of different sections, which is good. It’s a great track, but a good melody could tie the whole thing together and make it much better. 8

Mini-scores (See http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953 for what this means and how to improve)
* Composition: 3/4
* Arrangement: 4/4
* Mixing: 3+/4

bluebooblue responds:

Thank you very much for this constructive criticism!!!
I was very happy when I made it haha and I'm happy again to know you liked it enough to write a review!! Right now I am reading your post about composition and I'll read all of them, I find your advices very smooth and helpful!
Once again, thanks again for your review!!

[Visible But Dim]

== I wasn’t your judge for the NGAUC, but here’s some constructive criticism anyways. ==

This piece has a lot of great ideas. I really enjoy the sparse, organic sounding instrumentation. It reminds me of the beginning of a lot of post-rock music, a genre which I particularly enjoy. The background ambiance is a really nice touch - it sounds really cool on my headphones, and I like how the sustained guitar(?) tones shimmer. However, at 1:05 this blaring bass instrument comes in that is way off key and does not fit with the piece at all. For a piece as sparse and minimalistic as yours, this is a pretty big issue. This is a pretty good piece - without that bass issue, it’d be very solid. Score: 7.5

Mini-scores (See http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953 for what this means and how to improve)
* Composition: 3/4
* Arrangement: 3/4
* Mixing: 3/4

paperbrain responds:

Thank you for the positive review. I'm glad you liked my track! :)

I kept that blarring bass (Deepest Tone of E on my guitar with disorientation turned up to max) in, because I wanted the track to feel broken and slightly falling apart in a way. That's also why I made the synth melody, you hear through out all of the track, not so clear and kinda "jumpy". It has that feeling of trying to to keep up but slightly failing (If that makes sense).
I understand the issue though, because the blarring bass does kill the, more, soft and clean sound of the song but it brings a broken and blurry feel to it, which I intended.

[Deaf Tones]

== I wasn’t your judge for the NGAUC, but here’s some constructive criticism anyways. ==

Wow! This song is weird as heck (usually a good thing!). The drum beat that you open with is awesome, but it does get buried in the mix a bit later on, which is unfortunate because it seems to me that this should be a heavily beat-driven track. I don’t hear much in the way of transitions, which is kind of unfortunate, because I think that more attention to how the song changed over time would really help. But the biggest thing to get right would definitely be the mix - at least for a track like this, anyways. Score: 6

Mini-scores (See http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953 for what this means and how to improve)
* Composition: 2/4
* Arrangement: 3/4
* Mixing: 2/4

bdog705 responds:

well for starters thanks for the review ^_^
the song wasnt meant to be 100% beat driven as the drum beat repeats itself after 8 seconds with a constant resonance progression and the resonance actually fit well with alot of the sounds so i left it like that
i actually thought i did pretty well with transitions on this track and i suck at transitions
as for mixing i don't really know much about things like that, i just make the noise and place it and call it a day, as for mastering well...... i never really master my songs because i have no idea how mastering really works and me usually trying to find out just leads me to more pointless plugin tools

i appreciate the review thanks ^_^

[Twisted Fantasy]

== I wasn’t your judge for the NGAUC, but here’s some constructive criticism anyways. ==

Whoa, stacked rhythms! I haven’t heard that too often in this contest - it always sounds really neat. This is a pretty sweet beat! Of course I’d really like to hear someone rapping over it, but the beat actually does pretty well even on its own. The big thing that this track needs is a slightly better mix. It’s hard for me to explain exactly why, but for some reason this track sounds slightly disjoint, like it’s a lot of separate instruments playing together, rather than one cohesive whole. There’s also the problem of the “HEY!” sample (at least I think that’s what it is - it sounds slightly like a bunch of people yelling “HEY!”, anyways), which sounds insanely distorted and doesn’t fit in the mix. On the positive side, the beat is awesome, the hi-hats are well done (hip hop always has crazy hi-hat rhythms), and the overall atmosphere is so solid you could cut it with a knife. :D Score: 8.5

Mini-scores (See http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953 for what this means and how to improve)
* Composition: 4/4
* Arrangement: 3+/4
* Mixing: 3/4