johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mind Over Matter]

That was pretty cool. You seem like one of those guys who want to make a song out of noise, rather than the other way around. The core section (starting at 1:30) was pretty neat, and the whole thing is produced immaculately. Seriously, I have no idea how you got everything to sound so clean. You must do some dark magic.

Criticism - I felt that it maybe lacked a core motif? I dunno but maybe that was the point? The central point could be a little *more* somehow? ...

I really enjoy the experimental feel of this piece, and I feel like my criticisms are almost pointless in the face of it. Good work.

RichardBatchelor responds:

Thanks dude, it takes a lot of mixing and drafts to get the final result but I get there in the end, I wish I had some form of magic lol.

Fair critique, I try and be as different as I can to set myself apart from other composers and when you are trying to be experimental and work with a lot of ideas and genres that tends to happen.

Always good to have something to work towards. Thanks for listening, plenty more to come :)

[=(Warriors)=]

listening to the song while writing:

Man one thing your opening got me thinking about was baseline. Like, no one cares if you're doing something fancy down there, although repetition is sometimes nice. THATS WHAT SHE SAID. but what i mean is, just repeating the root note on beat generally works fine, definitely no one's going to call you out for that. but if you write a really nice bass melody it's really easy for it to get buried or just make the song sound screwed up. maybe it's a mastering thing?

anyway i agree that mastering is really difficult, why can't FL just do all the work for me!!! but I think it's very important to be aware that you have problems (and aware of where they are) as a first step. there was a point when i was writing music (and by point i mean '10 years') where i had no idea i had mastering issues at all until someone pointed it out.

i was actually starting to wonder where the problems with mastering even occur, im at 6:00 now and things sound ok. I guess you are referring to the bits around 7:00 where we have these high end pad-sounding things? maybe that's your problem, usually you don't want to have pads fill the high end...

finished, restarting:

i feel like you were maybe a little to harsh on yourself in the comments, the mastering is pretty good, and certainly better than myself (my solution to muddled sounds is to remove instruments until it sounds better :P). i feel like it's important to be able to assess your own stuff well, or you can be like me and think that literally every one of your pieces is your best ever. :D WOW im talking about myself a lot in this review. stoping now. i really enjoy the first time the beat breaks out, it's all very clean.

now my usual criticism, im sure you saw this coming from a mile away, it's just like you telling me i need more diversity of instruments - there's no real lead motif here. no strong melody really jumps out. almost everything just follows the chord progressions you lay down, really. once i get a sense of your chord prog via those vocals at 6:00, i really enjoy it, there's a lot of potential there. i guess the 6:30 synth is a lead, but it's so comparatively quiet for a lead instrument, i dunno, maybe want to raise the volume on him.

hey that instrument in the background at 5:18 sounds really cool.

ok that was a really long review, i think it was just because i decided to listen to the song twice while typing and the song was super long. anyway. keep working on melodies :p cool stuff.

ArcaneSoul responds:

Yeah i kinda do beat myself sometimes. I want to be able to get to this level of trance where the artists just make them like massive soundscapes. But its hard for someone who A: STILL doesn't know what to do when hes eqing, B: REALLY needs to work on sound design.

The melodies were just kinda random btw sadly. I feel like i am really failing at the melodies. Like i remember there was a point during my early days i used to make some weird chord progression and melodies. AND I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE ANY MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE! But now.....it has just been all going downhill.

I really do need help from you sometime because i wanna make amazing melodies! Hell this was going to be my 7th album track but due to the feel i gave it, i didn't (note the 7th track has to have a sad tone).

[=(The Nightmare)=]

The guitar was a nice touch. Industrial is a good genre. I used to be a huge Nine Inch Nails guy when I was younger. If I could make a suggestion, it would be to have the guitar be crunchier at times. Like, I can only really hear the midrange I guess? And maybe you should master it to allow the higher ranges to come out at central points? Because right now it sounds almost backgroundy, like it would fit in trance instead of industrial. It's fine, but I feel like with a little more punch it could really burst through.

lol the only reason I know this is because I just started learning about mastering. AND YES IT IS REALLY HARD. I wish I would have started learning earlier...

If I could make another suggestion, maybe it would be to have that guitar riff move around a little. 7 minutes is a long time for an industrial song to stay in once place. I was listening to some other guy's stuff and one way that he made variations even in the same chord progression was by just changing the structure of the beat, if that makes sense. It's a really interesting idea and it makes your song sound a lot more dynamic.

Anyway it's good and I always approve of a foray into new genres and experimentalism. Keep it up.

ArcaneSoul responds:

Well remember the guitar IS a sample as i can't really play it sadly. I just thought it sounded cool and decided to put it in XD

[Bits and Pieces]

Holy moly, your arps are like candy to my ears. And I really like your bends and slides too - you clearly have mastery over your instruments. The only reason I'm giving this a low review score is because it's clearly incomplete. I'm excited to see a finished piece!

[Phendrana Drifts]

Phendrana Drifts is one of my fave songs from Metroid, so I'm going to be a little harsher on you than normal. sorry :p

First of all, in the intro piano melody, you changed the original melody a tad. I don't like the change as much as I liked the original. It's just a small difference though.

Your solos though... See, Phendrana was originally this soft wintery mysterious song, and I don't think that your solos really adhere to that, they are a lot more energetic. The bit at 2:49 I like, I feel like it's true to the song. But from 3:14-4:20 on I feel like the original song is lost again. It sounds more like an epic battle... If you listen back to the original song again (1:50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbbUv1 hz6mE for reference) it has this really nice harp short solo that really stays true to the wintery feel of the whole thing.

So - yes, I'm really nitpicking here - I feel like the song needs a cohesive direction to it, it's trying to do many different things at once.

Anyway, all of that nit picking aside, this is a very good piece. Keep it up!

AgentWhiskers responds:

Thanks for your review!

Yeah I feel you're really nitpicking the structure of the song when my intention wasn't to recreate the atmosphere of the original, but rather take the arrangement and adapt it to my style of work, which is the 'epic battle' you referred to. Nothing you said was wrong and I appreciate your input but why do you feel that I should stick to the original's atmosphere? That's what made the original so damn perfect and it's not something I'd want to attempt to improve upon or compete with. Instead, I chose to take it in a different direction and put my musical mark on it. It's more of a fresh take on the piece rather than being a retread, wouldn't you agree? This structure doesn't play out like a game score but rather a song.

Thanks again for listening and hope you check out my albums!

[XB (Frost Temple Remix)]

I love the subtle synths that fill this piece. It's easy to make really loud noises, but it takes skill to make the listener pay attention to something quiet.

I searched for "frost temple" on google and found nothing, heh. it was reminding me of Ice Cavern from Ocarina of Time, but a google proved to me that that song sounds nothing like this one. So who knows that this is a remix of. :P

That aside, I really enjoyed this piece. I feel like you have real talent with dynamics. Everything in this piece sounds great and it all works together very well. I hope to hear lots of good stuff from you in the future. (And feel free to hit me back with a review if you get the chance.)

LuigiofDarkness responds:

If you search Frost Temple on NG Audio, you should find the original.
Thanks for the kind review!

[=(Lonely)=]

True story: most of my best received songs have been done really rapidly. Like "Flight" which only took 4 or 5 hours. Kind of insane when I think about it, I have no idea how that happened.

So hey maybe there's something to it. If you're suffering for weeks on a song, maybe that's because there's something wrong with the song itself. (Although I actually liked your recent 2-week-er submission.) I like the chord progression, it is quite sad. The melody needs a bit of work, but then again, it's a 1.5 hour song. I think your melodies in general are improving.

ArcaneSoul responds:

Improving? XD
I swear to go they are getting worse. I need lessons from you or something as i feel like i am going nowhere in general with my melodies. The best ones i have gotten surprisingly were when i was still in school using gband. For some reason i feel comfortable using the piano roll in that than the one in ableton.

[Blue Whispers]

I like the chord prog. and the buzzy bass that kicks in at around 1:00. The melody seemed to be hiding behind the bass most of the time and wasn't really ever the foreground. I'd kinda like it to be stronger - maybe a different instrument would help. Also, there isn't really anything between your bass and the high pitched bells. I think people usually put in pads there, but maybe that was the aesthetic you were going for.

Neat song. Keep it up!