ChronoNomad's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Breathe]

That intro makes me feel like I'm waking up and preparing to go on an epic adventure! It actually kind of reminds me of doing just that in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as well as a handful of other classic video game orchestrations. Some of the early chords around :21 do seem to possess a bit of clashing dissonance where the deepest strings are concerned, so that might be worth looking into if it was not intended. I really like the progression of this track from start to finish, and some of those chords take unexpected turns that really draw my attention.

I think the biggest problem is one that I suffer from, as well: sample quality. Not everyone has thousands of dollars to spend on things like high-end East/West orchestral suites and Omnisphere! Not that we don't wish we could, of course. Thankfully, the judges for the NGADM don't tend to let sample quality affect their overall scores and instead listen to the heart of the music. :)

The one instrument that really does stand out beautifully from the rest is the oboe that begins playing around 1:54; it sounds brilliant and has such presence. In fact, your build here is one of my favorites throughout the entire piece. You then release that built up tension with some lovely, slow piano arpeggios and a very nice choir that fades off into the distance. I found it to be a fairly simple yet effective ending, to be honest.

Ultimately, I found this to be a very soothing piece of music. Not much in the way of Cinematic orchestral entries thus far, so I found it to be a refreshing respite from the more hard-driven, thumping beats. For that you have my thanks, and I wish you the very best of luck in both the AUC and ADM!

DSykMusic responds:

Thanks for the review! I'll take a look into the lower strings when I go back and revisit this piece.

[Majestic They Are]

Oh man, this is just so pretty...I'm trying to really listen closely with a critical ear so I can offer you a solid critique, but I'm finding myself simply getting lost in the beautiful atmosphere.

While I don't dislike the percussion, I do agree with midimachine that the drum kit used here just doesn't do the song justice. I personally think that the hi-hats work well later on in the song, but a good shaker would have really fit the mood nicely earlier on. Maybe some soft cymbal swells, too. Yeah, I think that would sound amazing.

Truthfully, this piece gave me chills. There are a few small details that could use a bit of tweaking, but the overall atmosphere of the piece made me feel all warm and fuzzy, and if I closed my eyes it felt like I was flying. That is some incredible imagery that you've managed to conjure up with this music, and it almost feels as though it builds and builds from start to finish, until it finally eases off towards the horizon.

The ending is simple yet fitting, giving me one more shiver up my spine before passing into the horizon and out of sight. I keep going back to that ending to listen to that rumble and final echoing boom, again and again.

I love this, it is just so good. There's nothing more for me to do here besides listen yet again and wish you the absolute best of luck in the NGADM. Excelsior~!

[Oblivious]

Not a bad little DnB track, but there isn't really much that makes it memorable. It's got a nice quick driving tempo and the beats are decent, but the bass doesn't really add much in the way of variety. After a few listens, I still find that your main melodic instrument comes across as more strange than awesome.

There are a handful of nice breaks here and there where you lose the bass and add something a little different, but what ends up standing out to me the most is the single gunshot at :55 that leads to the rapid-fire gunshot transition at 1:00. It was different, and that's always a good thing. You did have some fun with the stereo field, and I found that to be pretty cool, especially some of the wider and more active stereo panning effects.

Ultimately, I was hoping for increased variation within the track. It's good, but I think it could be improved with greater diversity in the beats and bass riffs. Switching up the timing even once within a track is a good way to keep the listener interested. Otherwise it ends up sounding more or less like a background track. I can't really complain about this being under three minutes in length since it has such a driving tempo, but the overall lack of variation is rather damaging. There isn't really any kind of underlying melodic structure, either. It's just the same rising and falling pads at its heart, which makes even a track this brief repetitive.

I know there are only a few more days left before the deadline, but it would behoove you to consider adding at least one or two sections that differ from the rest. It could be quite impactful. Best of luck!

[[NGADM] Undertow [final]]

All my five on this beast, Sir Jimmypig! Not going to leave a long review since I already did once, but you not only fixed that ending issue, you made the entire track that much more awesome! That's how you do it, man. Very nicely done. All my five and a fist bump for good luck.

[Find the Light]

This is a lovely piece of orchestration, and I am always a sucker for anything with such lovely piano strains. It was understandable, but I was admittedly a little bummed to hear the piano be so utterly overcome by the strings and such quite early on. Then the choir began to sing and it filled the void left by the lack of piano pretty nicely. :)

Overall, the music sounds beautiful and has a particular emotional quality that I tend to like. At the same time, the core melodies and progressions sound very much like something that I have heard before and even used myself, which is what ends up making it come off as being somewhat generic. And anyone who knows me will tell you how very much I hate the g-word...just ask Step!

There is so much potential in this, though! Good heavens. Just when I think it's sweeping up into an epic crescendo....it ends! "What? No. No no no no no No NO! It cannot end like that, not just when it's getting so good! But, but...it's the perfect transition into a key change! And that's it? Why...?" And so it simply ends too soon, so much potential left untapped, and I am left to write my review--wishing and hoping that you might choose to do more with this! To expand upon it and build it into the mighty saga it could become. There is still time. Make an ending worthy of the greatest, most-emotional saga ever told.

In conclusion, it remains a wonderful piece of music. But it is an egg, a tiny fragile thing that could be - should be - nurtured into something great! A bird? Perhaps. But if so, why not a phoenix? Or even a mighty dragon! For now it is too short and over far too soon, but there remains the very familiar-sounding core element that could really shine with some variation and something a bit more...unexpected.

I truly do hope that you are able to work on this more and tease it into something still grander and more imposing. Wishing you the best of luck! ^__^

Marterro responds:

Thanks for taking time to give such an overall feedback! Such reviews are the best source of information for me and I will definitely follow your advice and expand the track if I have time!

[Wings]

This is very cool and ridiculously fun to listen to, guys! Just like johnfn mentioned before me, the mix does require some additional work, but man...it's already so good. With proper mixing this could be an ungodly powerhouse of a song! And that change up, wow--music to my ears! Both literally and metaphorically. This is the first ADM track this year to make me think to myself, "Did five and a half minutes really just go by?"

There are some crackly pops in the first 30 seconds of the song, and I'm not sure if they're meant to be intentional or not. Maybe a scratchy record in the background? If it's not actually purposeful, I would suggest cleaning it up. And if it is supposed to be there, I'd suggest coming up with some way to make it more obvious that it really is part of the song.

On a final note, do yourselves a big favor and trim the six seconds of dead air from the beginning of the song. I was actually beginning to think that my sound had cut out for some reason.

You know, I have to reiterate just how phenomenal that change up at 3:44 is! The transition that precedes it particularly nice. Those Home Alone audio clips from "Angels With Filthy Souls" (a parody of the 1938 film, "Angels with Dirty Faces") are incredibly fun and very well integrated with the music. I wish you the very best of luck!

TheMoebiusProject responds:

Woah! thanks! and yeah, I keep forgetting to trim those first seconds jaja They're there for countdown when we recorded the pads, and now that you mention it, I hadn't noticed the cracks. I guess we'll have to record those pads again. Still don't have good monitoring equipment to notice some stuff (that's gonna change next year!) so thanks for ponting it out. Although it made me think of maybe getting that pop scratch from those vinyl players on the background just for the intro..I love that sound so much!!...Will be updating it ASAP. Thanks again!

[Friction Point]

Good grief, this is just so powerfully shredtastic! What can I even say? There's so much going on even before the lead guitar dives in, and those first twenty of buildup alone already give the listener an epic sense of what's to come. It does feel like there's maybe a tad too much reverb on the drums at :10 due to the filter effects, but once those come off it fits beautifully.

The second half of the song breaks out with a bit more variety, while still maintaining the original theme. There's very little in the way of slower or more sparse sections to relieve the tension, though it does happen for a few moments at 2:48. I personally would have found a little change of pace, maybe with some sweet syncopated drumbeats, to be a really effective way to blow things up all over again. And on that note, the percussion is - in a word - exceptional!

The dynamics and overall levels are solid, and each component finds its own place in the mix. Wider stereo effects are used sparingly, which makes them all the more effective. Each instance of filter effects just fits right where it is. And while I'm generally as big a fan of sudden endings as I am of fade outs, this one is actually done pretty well with the help of some nice echo/delay effects. It still feels a bit weak when compared to the rest of the jam, regardless. That said, it certainly isn't a deal breaker. Best of luck in the ADM!

PirateCrab responds:

Haha, I always use too much reverb, it's just a sound I'm particularly fond of :P That's rather surprising you like the percussion! I'm no drummer at all so I manually program everything in by hand, glad it's sitting well with somebodies ears!

Thanks for a stunning review mate, best of luck in the ADM yourself :)

[Caliginous Newcomer]

So hey, you've finally dropped this one like it's hot! And man oh man, am I digging this darkling vibe. It's gritty and exciting, and the mix itself is wicked tight. Very well done!

Interestingly enough, the piano strains at 1:40 made me think of something that would be right at home in a newly revamped Castlevania soundtrack, and that perception lingered on throughout pretty much the entirety of the track. The music has an almost Baroque-esque quality at its core, which is a very interesting complement to the pulse-pounding DnB beats.

I honestly don't have much in the way of complaint with this, so I'm just gonna lob five stars in your general direction. Welcome to the Audio Deathmatch, Adjeye! Best of luck to you; you're up against some truly stiff competition in Group G.

Adjeye responds:

Damm you're good with words man :), thanks for your honest review! I'm still finding a way to perfectly mix dnb and classic elements, because I really dig those.

Btw your response to the review I gave you and this review made me smile :), thanks for making my day :D