johnfn's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[SD] Voyage]

Hmm...

You definitely have some smart melodies cropping up around 3:00 onwards, and the underlying chord progression is pretty smart as well. On the other hand, the song isn't really whacking me over the head and saying "I am an awesome song, RESPECT!". But maybe I'm just thinking that to be contrary? :) Oh well.

I thought that the melodies up until 3, on both the warbly high synth and the lower thing that sounds a little like a steel guitar, were kind of typical up until the 3 minute mark, as if at that point you suddenly had divine inspiration at that point about how to write good melodies. Heh, it's ok. You have like 6k listens, you must be doing something right :)

On second listen, divine inspiration occurs right at 2:55. That's when you get really smart melodically. Well hey, I enjoy it. So, nice job.

SupraDarky responds:

Thanks for the review! It seems like different people like different parts of this song. Some prefer the beginning, some the end!

[.from the moon yours truly.]

I will review as I listen.

Glitchy and atmospheric, MY GOD I LOVE THIS OPENING. IT reminds me of the good parts of metroid prime. Absolutely beautiful. Reminds me of a rainy day.

Alright, really sounding like metroid with that high synth :20-:40.

1:20 and I am digging this hardcore. Beautiful noises. You can write a song!

Oh man 1:50 and the ambiance is getting louder. Oh I was expecting something to happen but no, it just faded away. That's cool though. I like it.

Wait no it's coming back... hmm, this is like the tides too. A rainy day at the beach is really what this song is making me think of. Awesome work.

VegetarianMeat responds:

Thanks, glad you liked it :)

[Free Days]

I'll review as I listen.

Hmm, rock? Hooray.

Start on one note, diversify on :17. Cool melody actually, props, it sounds almost familiar but I wont dock or anything. Oh, guitar solo on :41. Nice job. Kind of noodly from the :50- 1:00 part, you could make that more concise + powerful. Gets better 1:00 to 1:10, then noodles around again until around :30. Noodels more, gets better at :40, noodles at 50. Wow, this review is coming out really stupid. :D Sorry about that.

You're halfway to a good riff there, just make it more concise, hit the high notes, and make it stand out more as well (it almost seems like it's hiding - don't have your melody hide if it's a good one!)

2:10 and we're reminded of the opening riff, cool idea, and then we go into .. synth pads? Awesome choice!

JohnQ4 responds:

Hey thanks for your review, it's very objetive =), I'll take your advices and apply them on my next compositions =).

[*Touch the Sky*]

Cool and not immediate.

Like the other reviewers, it took me some time to figure out just what was going on in this piece. Eventually, I figured out that it was a really powerful melody chorus buried under a lot of chords, then copied a lot and separated by some rather less interesting segues of piano randomness. I think that it could do with a good polish to make those intermissions more interesting, but the melody itself is excellent and deserves a good 9 stars.

Valtrix responds:

Yeah, the chorus is the best part. I tweaked it a little bit, but that was mostly Envy there, so it doesn't surprise me that you found the other parts less interesting. It was certainly different trying to get my writing to match the chorus melody, but I think what I have might not be as interesting as the melody, but still flows smoothly, which is what I was going for. I wouldn't say it's quite so random, though maybe a bit so...You know, it's hard to make every part of a song interesting and non repetitive :P

Thanks a lot for the review!

[Industria - 3]

Whoa!!

I was thinking that this was boring and I was just going to refrain from having to review you at all, cause I didn't want to be mean or anything. The chord progressions were going all in the wrong ways, the arpeggios weren't working for me either. Those weird bells that come in were sounding off tune too. It just wasn't sounding good. But fortunately you turned it all around on a dime and got some awesome melodies and had it speed up to a good tempo and darn if it didn't start rocking out. But then you stopped the cool part short. Oh well, it was still pretty awesome.

10/10 for the second part, 6/10 for the first. Now if you just took that jazzy section out of Industria 1 and put it with the second part of this, that would RULE! Still pretty good though.

AlexanderZero responds:

You're more for the fast music I see :P Dunno, it doesn't sound out of tune, but then again my friends tend to think I have a weird sense of tonality.

Thanks for the review :D

[Industria - 2]

Hmmm

The background noises in my opinion need to be louder, so that you really feel like you're in a steam room. I just realized that when you bring in the loud lead, there's another melody going on in the background, but its too quiet. I think you need to quiet down that lead :P

Other than that, good. The melodies could actually be sped up a little bit here (there's just no pleasing me :P) A little short, but then again, its only a section of a longer song...

AlexanderZero responds:

The other melody in the background is really just meant to be background ^_^ They're not really meant to harmonize. I wanted the focus to be on the main lead. Also, this section is a little slower on purpose.

Thanks for the review :D

[Industria - 1]

Hahahaha.. Awesome.

I was loving this from the beginning. Some of the backing base was a little too fuzzy for me I think (I would have prefered something more clean), and the last lead instrument that comes in before you shift the whole thing to the Laboratory was really strange and contrasted kinda bad with everything else. Also, the synth thing that hits a note, then 1 octave up, then back down to the same note is way too loud in contrast with the rest of the song. That's probably the biggest problem here.

On the other hand, this is freaking awesome!!!! I absolutely love it, especially the jazzy section at the beginning. Great melodies in there, although you may have done a few of them a little too fast. I also loved how you made a beat out of the weirdest sounds, it reminds me of Time by Pink Floyd.

On to the next one!

PS. Wanna check out some of my stuff? ;)

AlexanderZero responds:

Yeah the jazz lead could have been longer I suppose, I didn't want it to die out though. And you also have to consider the song is pretty long already :P

The idea in the first part was get a song that sounded like it was coming from machinery and robots. The octave jumper in laboratory is a little loud I agree.

-I'd be glad to check out some of your stuff ^_^

[Checkerboard Dalmation]

Coolness.

I haven't dropped by to say Hi in a while...

I'm liking this. I think my favorite part is the drums, because they're so unique. Especially that WOP thing... They definitely bring up the song. I really like the arpeggiating synth that sort of changes too. That's a cool trick cause then you can repeat the chord progression for a while and the listener wont even notice cause they're too busy following the synth.

A really cool song, it reminds me of staring at stars.

Later on in the song you bring in some really muted bells/piano/some other thing. Near the end. I'm not sure if you need to use them that much because the notes end up muddling together and I can't hear a lot of any of them... except like the 3 near the end of the melody line (which are the most important anyways) It might have been better with more accent on the notes most important to the melody, but I dunno. Either way, critiques aside, this was a cool song in all respects. Voted 5! :D

.

PS. Check out some of my new stuff? ;)

crud responds:

i never realized how much the simple sounds can really throw people off and what ears perk up to.
i like the synth alot, which is why it's hard for me to not include it, but i wanted the dissonance to build in the end, and sound creepy, though muddy. i shall try harder next time.

[Infinnion - UpTown]

I like it.

Simple trance you have here, but good. I like how the melodies and changes are understated. I like the chord progression a lot. This is a lot better then most of those overblown songs on the first page of the list... Keep writing, and tell me if you ever put something new out. I'll there to listen :D

Infinnion responds:

thanx for reviewing^^

[[Crystal Cavern g-R]]

Sweet.

The beginning of the song shows absolutely nothing to how cool its going to be. It sounds just like generic techno, which is bad, since its not, and it's really repetitive, which bothers me. I don't really like the big thumping beat you've got going at the beginning either, but thats just me.

But enough of the criticism, I really love some of the melodies you pull from who knows where towards the end. They go everywhere I wouldn't expect, they're really awesome. I had no idea what you meant by "crystal caverns" at first, but now I do and I love it, excellent job with the bells, they rule. A lot of excellent touches in this song, and the quality of sound is awesomely good.

PS. Now I'm listening to it on headphones. The very beginning where the sound pans from one side to another is extremely annoying, and some instruments sound a little more fuzzy, synthy I guess, then I thought they should, I would prefer some of the sounds to be more smooth I suppose.

PPS. Don't mind me being overly negative, I really enjoyed the song. :D

g-r4ve responds:

its too bad ive lost my touch... id love to make a second attempt at this song