johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nightwalk (Short Edit)]

(Note - I review pretty harshly, so don't take a low score personally! I don't vote harshly.)

The mixing and mastering is spot on. Great work. The main reason that I docked points was because the song has essentially no melody. It could be a personal taste thing, but I really really like to hear a good melody, and I feel like a song is lacking without one. It's like a story without a plot. It's possible to accomplish, but difficult.

Anyway like I said the actual sound design etc is really good, so keep it up. I scouted you for the audio portal.

Ryskie responds:

Thank you for taking the time to listen and review!

[Ascension]

(Note - I review pretty harshly, so don't take a low score personally! I don't vote harshly.)

At 2:11 you introduce an instrument that sounds out of tune. Be careful.

Like I said I review pretty harshly. That's because I don't really understand what it means if someone reviews like 100 songs and the lowest score they give is a 7. Are they really that in love with every song they hear? 4/10 isn't like "I hate this song", I consider 5 to be an average song. But anyways...

This song shows potential but it's going to need a lot of work to really make it shine. It's really based around just two riffs over its entire 4 minute duration, which makes me feel that it doesn't really justify its time with constant interest. (This is not a hard and fast rule, but it's something to keep in mind.) It starts feeling quite repetitive even early on. This is easy to fix though. Make some new melodies. ;-) There's an easier fix too, but it'll only help a little: Toss some filters over your melodies, make the timbre of the sounds constantly changing, etc.

On the other hand I do enjoy your work with synthesis. I noticed on your user page that you had been working with massive - keep it up, I can hear that you've been practicing :-)

Feel free to hit me back with a review if you have the time. I scouted you for the AP, so good luck!

JaxChords responds:

Thanks man and I totally get it. Like I said this is my second song ever and I need as much critics is
As possible so I can get moving and make better productions

[It's a]

Ok the synths at :55 were WAY too loud. Caught me offguard.

I was really enjoying it up until that point though. I also like the synthy melody, once I managed to get a hold of it.

Sounds like you have way too many good ideas and not enough time. Liked it, but liked 'delicate cow' more ;-)

KrrMaim responds:

;3 .

[Delicate Cow]

Wooowww there are some good melodies in here. Properly fleshed out this could be a 9 or 10.

Song was 0-bombed I see. That's the problem with kids these days, can't recognize the difference between a beautiful melody and good production.

Love the one from :55 to 1:20 or so (the one with the C-B-A baseline).

And then at 1:28-44 there's another really great one.

And then at 1:55-2:12 there's probably the best one :O

The outro melody is really good too.

I'll probably follow along on piano later today to see how you did some of this pretty stuff.

If anything I feel like the name is underselling it, it makes the song sound like some cheap nature documentary. This goes beyond cows, this is the story of NATURE. Of the earth and things that live on it.

Definitely the best thing I've heard from you. Wonderful!

KrrMaim responds:

This is actually just part of the whole thing I was working on. I'll go ahead and upload it later since you enjoyed it. Thanks for listening. xP

[Improvisation #1]

6/10 song, 11/10 improv.

Thanks for posting this, it gives some really intriguing insight into your musical thought process. I improvise a lot, so this is really pushing me into practicing harder, because I don't think I'm quite as competent on the keys.

Just to make you (annoyingly?) aware of your own tendencies- you really love that VI-VII-i progression, don't you ;-)

I also hear vi-V-IV-III a lot. I think you know that because I heard you swap out III for II once, which is one of those things you do when you know you're over using a progression. It was interesting but probably impossible to actually use in a song. :P

ErikMcClure responds:

I have to overuse progressions in my improvs because I need a stable default to fall back on when I have no idea what i'm doing. If you had access to some of my other improvisations, you would realize i'm actually falling back on several common melodic ideas too, not just chord progressions.

[Sweet Potato Roll]

I still read audio advertisements... occasionally.

I like your melodies. They seem a little overcomplicated but they are pretty unique. But I'm going to have to be a little blunt: this song isn't really doing it for me. It seems to wander to and fro without a defined climax. Aside from the melody that I like (at :14 for instance) it feels a bit disorganized. You might want to play around with tension and release (buildup and climax) in future songs to see if you can organize your songs better.

Anyway keep up the good melody work! They're the hardest part. :P Good luck!

Genclops responds:

Thank-you for the review, sorry you didn't dig the organization- I find it to be quite clever. If you want build up and climax, please listen to more of my songs- I like to keep a variety.

[Ludum Dare 22]

This is a great song so I'm going to be nitpicky - that piano sounds really cheap. And I'm a little bothered by how reverb filled everything is - the whole song feels blurry.

But it's an excellent song, and when that piano comes in it's magical. I do LD also - will I see you there for LD26? :-)

ErikMcClure responds:

I am aware of these problems, but it was thrown together in a couple hours. The drums are pretty pathetic too.

I find myself doing Ludum Dare 26 pretty unlikely. I haven't developed my skill set enough and my engine has become unstable again.

[Game Over]

Nice, heavy metal chiptune! I enjoy this. I'm having difficulty articulating exactly what problem I have with it. The thing is, when I pay attention to little bits of it, I like them, but for some reason the little bits are having trouble cohering into a whole. I think it might be the chip melody on top of the bass, because the melody feels a little random. That's just a hypothesis though. But anyways I like this song! I really like the bass and how heavy and glitched it sounds. Keep it up!

Pitfall responds:

Thanks! I appreciate you checking out my song btw. :)

Yeah, idk either, but I guess I can understand where you're coming from with that. :)

Thanks for the critique! :D

[Majestic]

This sounds good so far. The main reason I docked points was because it's very clearly unfinished. If I'd give you a suggestion for work in the future, I'd say that the techno bits at :37 clash pretty hard with the orchestral bits before. It's not impossible to combine the two, but you have to be very careful about your aesthetics.

Looking forward to the final piece. This is a promising start!

Contextor responds:

Agree and agree, also, it is not finished, as i saw the competition the day of the deadline, i didn't have any more time than this, thus the result! :) I am currently working a lot more on it ;)