johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Oceans Wide]

10/10 melodies, but that mixing is really screwed up. Go fix it. Also you really love suspended chords, but that's ok, because I do too.

Really those melodies are gorgeous though! so good!

Troisnyx responds:

While I still have time, what exactly needs fixing?

[Swan Lullaby]

Really nice! Some of the transitions are a little abrupt, but the melody has a really nice childhood-like feel to it :-)

Chemiqals responds:

Thank you! That's exactly what I was going for, honestly! (Makes sense if you ever get to play The Unfinished Swan!) =P

[Here, have some groove]

My god... this is like the grooviest thing I've ever heard.

AWESOME

Jernemies responds:

Glad you like it :)

[Acidulus 8]

Oh, wow.

garlagan responds:

HELLO JOHN

[Hope]

Yeah I am sensing some strong underdog NGADM potential here. :D Gorgeous track!

You know what this song needs though, is a slightly cleaner mix (the reverb is a bit too heavy, strings are too loud and muffle the piano) and a little more bass presence perhaps, like maybe some drums when that awesome solo comes in.

Solo is so gorgeous though!

One of the best tracks I've heard on here in a while. If we both make it in the NGADM I'll be with LunyAlex huddling in another bracket, as far away from you as possible. ;-)

Phonometrologist responds:

HA johnfn, if I do make it in, my goal is really just to make it past the group stage, so I'd be pretty much content with that.
I like the tips here. I really don't like using reverb, but I felt I had to implement it to at least get a more cohesive feel with the different instruments. Just used a 1.7s delay reverb with a wet gain of -19db.
The strings were done before I intended to add a guitar part so I was really going for some Samuel Barber Adagio sound with the high/climatic strings. It was close to it, but the guitar gave it a whole other feel. I actually lowered the volume of the piano in the middle of it as well. It really doesn't do too much different from the beginning, and I felt the attention needed to be adverted away from it to avoid an even bigger sense of repetitiveness. So, it was just a choice in how I mixed it, but your suggestions are well taken. If given the chance, I'll consider these for the next submission, especially the drums.
Thanks for the time in leaving a review as time is precious these days.

[Coffee and Cannon Fire]

Pretty good! Definite cinematic quality to it. I just thought that the transitions could be a bit more smooth - the song almost seems like a couple of different small songs at this point, but that is an easy fix with better transitions. Also, the percussion could have more delay on the reverb to make it bigger and add a little more to the overall atmosphere.

Anyway, nice job! Totally get that pirate battle feel. :D

LunyAlex responds:

Thank you! Transitions are indeed still my weak spot. I appreciate the insight; it will be put to good use!

[~SW~ Bells of Atlantis]

The clicky sounds are weird as heck and kind of jar with the atmosphere imo. I really like the muted piano or whatever at :20 though. Pretty cool atmosphere.

SkyeWint responds:

The clicks were somewhat of an experiment, I suppose. Some of the clicks sounded bubbly to me, which is why I kept them. The other one, which is part of the background percussion (heavily reverbed at the start), I can see how that could interrupt. In retrospect I kinda want to remove it.

[Misguided Passion]

Oh man, yes. So much good stuff here.

Actually my biggest regret now is not listening to more of your stuff before you got drafted...

Anyway, fantastic work! I do agree with TheDoor, it could use a bit of a break from the onslaught of notes. Buuut, the notes are good enough that I can look past that ;-)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks for the review and for the high score! I'm glad you like the composition :3
Don't worry about you not taking more listens, as this is the first good song I've uploaded in a while :p

I agree that I should have included some parts that break the flow XD

Thanks again!

PS. Conscription sucks ;)

[Festival Day]

The most well-received? I always thought that Sky's the Limit was the best one, though that may be because I'm a narcissist. Anyway this is incredible and I don't really have anything to critique, it's heads and shoulders above the original. The mix is so good! :O :O

Actually I lied, I do have something to critique: YOUR INCREDIBLY SLOW RELEASE SCHEDULE. MAKE MORE MUSIC DARN YOU.

<3

Step responds:

Heyyyy thanks for reviewing ^_^.

"The most well-received? I always thought that Sky's the Limit was the best one, though that may be because I'm a narcissist."

Haha, well I said most well-received not best! It had the most positive reviews and views. Not sure if I personally prefer it more than Sky's the Limit, although I definitely think it had more room for a remake than Sky's the Limit does (primarily because electronic isn't my main genre so I have trouble making long electronic songs).

"Anyway this is incredible and I don't really have anything to critique, it's heads and shoulders above the original. The mix is so good! :O :O"

Yesss, you like mix! I was worried the climax sounding like a hodgepodge of musical instruments in a loudness war. Also relieved to hear that you think this is an improvement over the original. I don't know if you noticed but I actually took your advice of adding in a bassline so it's not just boomy hits playing the bassy stuff (mostly heard at 1:50 by the guitar). Really like how that turned out.

"Actually I lied, I do have something to critique: YOUR INCREDIBLY SLOW RELEASE SCHEDULE. MAKE MORE MUSIC DARN YOU."

SORRYYYY. I actually am still making music fairly often, just not releasing it. I've got four unreleased tracks, two which are over four minutes in length and one which is seven minutes long! One of them is for a game soundtrack, and the other three are Harmony of Heroes tracks. I can't wait till the album is released so I can upload those tracks to Newgrounds, but for now they've got to remain unreleased :(.

Nice to hear from you again, thanks a million for the encouraging review!

[Tomorrow's Lullaby]

Excellent, excellent. The more I listen to it the more I like it, really - I'm on my third listen right now. At some point I start to ignore the pattern of the melody and just listen to chordal movements instead - and fortunately the chord choice is wonderful, with each switch fitting perfectly but also surprising me just a little bit. There are a couple of times where you seem to be leading into I but then go into vii, which is surprising and intriguing.

I love the choir-like/string-like instrument that sits on top of the whole piece and guides it from chord to chord. The addition of actual singing voices towards the end was a great idea, but I feel like a few times they jar for some reason I can't quite place (too much vibrato?).

At first I was thinking it was a bit too long maybe, but now I'm not so sure.

Love the little twist on the theme that comes in at 5:14 and takes us out of the piece. Great way to end.

The piece makes me think of a river, moving inexorably from place to place, but peaceful. Or maybe even time itself, pushing us into the future - but now I'm getting too metaphorical, so I better stop.

Great work.

Phonometrologist responds:

There are two reasons why I thought you might be interested in this:
First, the 2hr track Sundays inspired this, and of course I decided to invest more time on it and not make the deadline. I was okay with that :)
I also thought the ending was a bit more optimistic.
johnfn layout:

>vii chord

To be honest, I have a had hard time really figuring what the I chord should be through the piece to know exactly which chord would be the vii chord you're talking about. I figured F# Major because it ended there. It does feel like the I chord in other places, but the key change just makes it less clear for me. You know what? I didn't really care when I was writing it lol. I think it was just a flat-minor 7th chord rather than a pure vii.

>voice jarring

Perhaps it is the vibrato, but it probably has more to do with lack of variety in using the sample, i.e. laziness.

>great way to end

Thought you might like that.

>moving inexorably from place to place...maybe even time itself, pushing us into the future

;-) yes