johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lying to a Stranger]

The sound design here is really really good, speaking as a guy who has tried and failed to design cool sounds ;-)

Song is really groovy and enjoyable. I like it a lot. Could do with a lead melody of some sort or some variation in the chords, but other than that I'm digging it. Solid work.

InvisibleObserver responds:

Thanks John!

I spent a very long time collecting samples, tweaking instruments up and routing controllers on what feels like virtually everything. Fortunately its allllll in the background and just runs now and never needs looking at or setting up again.

Learned a few new tricks and figured out how to do some conceptualized ideas I've had for a while, so this was a rather exciting piece to do up. Mind you stressful - I take the year off school and end up more busy.

[Real Life Absurdities]

Oh my god... Well done. This is so insane. To be honest I like the opening/closing riff the most, the other stuff isn't quite as good, but whatever. The only thing holding me back from a 10/10 last time was melodies, but even those have improved, so I really have no choice.

I'm so happy that NGADM exists so that we can hear awesome pieces like this.

steampianist responds:

ah! so i finally got a 10 that's awesome.

thank you for the review.

[Worth Your Time]

I'm a big fan of Shpongle! In fact it's funny that Shpongle was an influence for your 2nd round song because they actually influenced my round 1 song.

Bridge at 2:33 is really great, I really enjoy the use of noise on top of the otherwise simple passage to keep things interesting. Nice vaguely-post-rock-influenced (guess?) sounding climax too. Vocals coulda been mixed a little louder at that point, but that's just me.

I'd wish you good luck on NGADM but I don't think you need it. Honestly I think you're much better of a musician than me. Good stuff.

[GM - Dragon Of The South]

Another non-metalhead checking in to say this song rocks. You have a really great sense of melody. If you keep putting out great stuff like this you might drag me into the metal camp after all. :D

InYourDreams responds:

Oh man! this makes me so happy! :D ... I 'll try my best not to dissapoint you ^_^

[Juste Une Blague]

Hehehe... YES. I remember during the end of NGMT you said you wanted a evil dark circus round. Well you did it round, or not :D Pretty much every chord change and instrument choice all work towards this goal, particularly the accordion... I love the accordion. (And I'm seeing your matchup with Steampianist was really awesome because you guys really do have similar styles!)

Unlike TheDoor6 I thought that the percussion at :33 was just awesome. It made the whole piece come together and I was left wishing I could have ideas that inventive! Plus, you mixed it masterfully. I admit that I kinda wished it could have gone on a little longer, because it was really enjoyable. I really love the sax(?) melody that's going at the same time, though maybe it could have been a tad louder?

Something that isn't necessarily good or bad, but just to be aware of, is that the transitions in this piece are not super obvious, which means that a casual listener might have trouble understanding the piece or thinking it's disjointed. Admittedly I thought the same thing too until I paid closer attention on further listens.

I know were super time-crunched for this piece, which is kind of sad because this is already a great piece, so who knows what you could have done with more time.

Really great work! Good luck with NGADM!

P.S. Do you like homestuck? :D