ChronoNomad's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[NGADM] Undertow]

Yo, Jimmypig! You're the fifth one to release your NGADM track thus far, and I continue to be impressed by the diversity across each one. This flows so freely from the softer, more ambient sections into the hard-thumping beats that I can't help but move my head to.

Your initial build is nice and steady, but also uniquely subtle, which I find to be refreshing and very well done. The percussion in this is absolutely fantastic! Just the right levels and velocities; kicks are nice and punchy with an appropriately airy hiss. Lots of awesome things are going on in the background, so it requires a couple times through to really dig into the depth of the music.

I really like the syncopation on the rather metallic-sounding instrument you used for your arps, though I'm not quite sold on some of the more atonal notes, especially when they seem to clash with the bass. It sounds good on its own, but when other things are going on around it, not so much...but hey, that's just my opinion.

The one thing that bothered me, as it is often does, is the way the song just stops so abruptly. The piano note simply cuts off, and that leaves me feeling a bit cold at the end of an otherwise epic ride. Let that final piano note play out, man! Do yourself a solid and fix that one thing. Believe it or not, that's the main thing keeping me from giving you full marks on this bad boy. Good luck, man!

Jimmypig responds:

Okay I updated my song! I tried not to add too much, just changed the harmonic part to make it fit better rather than be such a sudden change, added a few quality of sound changes and let that final note ring out properly!

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[Chip 'n' Swing]

Three songs in and I continue to be wowed by the level of these NGADM entries. This is such a fantastically fun and retro Chiptune romp! Not to mention a real contender, in my opinion. Quite the pool of talented musicians in your group, to be sure. You've set the bar nice and high.

The track itself sounds like something that would play in a pixelated nightclub or casino. What it really brings to mind are some of the Jazzier tunes from EarthBound, and goodness knows how I adore the OSTs from the Mother series. Awesome job Yahtzei, and I wish you the absolute best of luck!

Yahtzei responds:

Thanks so much :) it's always nice to see when someone takes the time to write a review longer than three words ^^ and YES! The jazzy tunes in Earthbound are the best ones :D

Thank you, ChronoNomad :D

[Death Match]

And Ceevro comes on the scene with the second fastest NGADM debut in 2015! Man, this is a seriously tight track, especially on the instrumental side. All the guitar sections sound stupendous, from the main descending bass line to the electric licks...simply epic. Seriously, I cannot stress just how impressive this jam is, and it's mostly due to your jamming. The percussion is the same story, and I have really been digging the organic mediums that you've been incorporating. An old leather jacket? I love it!

And now you're probably expecting me to tear apart your lyrics or some such thing. Well--surprise! I'm not going to. Do I have a little more feedback for you? But of course! That's what friends are for. The lyrics themselves are really quite well written, so song writing just seems to be one of your natural talents, methinks. Not that it's ever easy, mind. That being said, they could definitely benefit from a bit more tweaking on the EQ side. So while the lyrics themselves sound really good, they just don't fold into the music as smoothly as they could. I'm actually thinking that a little high pass filter would have sounded appropriate on top of the leveling EQ, but hey...that's just one dude's opinion.

Of course the fact that you laid this entire track down in a single post-work day is ridiculously impressive. You speedsters are all a bunch of overachievers! And I certainly don't dislike that.

Ceevro responds:

Hehe. I wish I was a vocalist, but I'm a rank-amateur on the singing side. The singalongs gave me a little bit of an idea of how to make my vocals sound a bit better, but I KNOW that I've still got a lot of work to do. Surprisingly, I have much less of an issue singing live than I do recorded...probably due to my lack of knowledge of vocal mixing - I do what I can with what I got!

As to the organic percussion; It's just like I was telling everyone in the singalongs! Need a sound? Grab the nearest thing and hit it, and really listen to the sound it makes. You'll find a place for it in the jam. I recorded this in a walk-in closet (best acoustic room in my house) and I had an old jacket hanging up. I'm sure you can almost visualize my shrug just before I grabbed it.

I'll have to try the high-pass filter thing. You're the second person to recommend it.

[Codename: Michael J Fox (NGADM '15)]

Great Scott, Marty! Did you have a time-traveling Delorean on standby just so you could crank this baby out so quickly? You definitely win the Quick on the Draw achievement...

I honestly have no earthly idea what this could possibly have to do with Michael J. Fox, but I like it! The instruments work well together and mix nicely, though the drums felt a bit weak and the stereo field seemed rather limited, but that could be partially due to the fact that I'm rocking out in headphones at the moment. The bass sounds solid as is, and the timing is spot on, but a little more variety in the notes being played could make it stand out a bit more.

It's a very nice overall length, though some parts do start to sound a bit samey after multiple repeats. Regardless, I found it to be a very enjoyable listen, and your mad guitarist skillz appear to be quite intact. The rising and falling synth arpeggios that begin around 1:52 really bring to mind Prelude from the Final Fantasy series and add a nice touch of flavour. At 2:56 you drop the tension a bit and things get nice and chill, but then - just before the 3-minute mark - it starts to ramp up towards the crescendo.

At that point it's all golden as the song reaches its climax, followed by a nicely implemented - if not a tad brief - ritardando. I did find the ending to be a bit sudden initially, though I believe it works well enough in concert with your reverb effects. 4.5 stars, which translates up to a 5-vote from me. Impressive on a number of levels, not the least of which is the rapidity with which you dropped this on the NGADM. Boom! Headshot.

Best of luck, man. Keep on rocking.

JDawg00100 responds:

Oh man I love in-depth reviews, I wish I could get more them! Thanks for the listen and the thourough review :D

[Whate]

Yeah, this really conjures up memories of 80's music. For a few seconds there, I actually thought it might be a rendition of Safety Dance by Men Without Hats. Now I'm just trying to figure out if DivoFST meant a guy with long hair on his head, one with tons of body hair...or both!

Good stuff, JDawg! Loops beautifully and took me on a crazy nostalgia trip. Familiar, yet different. I can dig it.

JDawg00100 responds:

Thanks, the loop was actually a last second thing that i did and it somehow worked out

[Some of My Foolishness]

Man, this is just great. The fact that you laid this whole thing down in the space of an afternoon quite simply blows me away. It kind of brings to mind songs like Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson, mostly because of the overall organic quality.

Your voice totally shines in the lower register (as always), and the mids sound great, but some of those higher notes sound strained and tend to get washed out in the mix, especially where there are so many instrumental layers. I know you didn't really have much time to play around with mixing and mastering due to extreme time crunch, but I would love to hear what you can do without a deadline looming over you!

I also wanted to congratulate you personally on making it past the NGADM auditions! Can't wait to see what you come up with next, Ceevz. Allons-y!

Ceevro responds:

This did have nearly 20 layers going...I just wanted to grow the choruses as big as I could get them. And I really do mean the lyrics...this was primarily a thank you and secondarily a contest entry.

[The Dream of a Robot]

Happy Robot Day! What a great piece you've put together here out of nuts and bolts and spare parts that you found in your basement. This clearly has a robot's soul clanking around inside, and I dig the way there are no pauses in the action, it just transitions (quite smoothly, I might add) from one section to the next. Very well done! An excellent Electronic track, and the influences are definitely apparent. I also thought that I should add, while the sound is reminiscent of johnfn's particular brand of music, nothing here sounds directly borrowed from his repertoire, so no worries there. This is all you, buddy!

The mix sounds pretty solid to me, and your overall improvement in such a short time is impressive. I'll probably always think of you as a piano virtuoso first and foremost, but this track really demonstrates your growth in other areas. Bravo!

So hey, I was wondering: if androids dream of electric sheep, what do you suppose robots dream about?

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Ahahaha, this review made my day; it's filled with as much energy as this track :D!

I'm glad that the robot soul can be heard in this. I was a bit worried at first, when I noticed that most other people submitted more industrial/dubstep-ish tracks XD
It's great that the constant action worked as well!
I literally gave myself a headache (nothing a pill couldn't fix) trying to mix the transitions, so the smoothness is a reward for that, I suppose :3

Whoo, johnfn! He really is a great composer, not unlike you :)
The parts especially that sound like one of his melodies from "soar", are the parts at 1:00, and 2:07, with 4 notes that are basically the same as he used, even though the rest differ. Also, the chords from the intro sound like something he has done in some form before. But nothing stolen, I hope :p

It almost pleases me the most to hear that the mix is solid enough, as that is where I mostly tried to improve when it came to this track. I guess I could've made it a bit louder and such, but I didn't want to compress it too much if at all. A spectogram would probably show how much unnecessary noise is still in there at parts though.
And yeah, I'm definitely a pianist/piano solo composer at first hand, so you're totally right there!
I am trying to learn new things however, and what better way to do so than participating in competitions such as this?

Btw, I've listened to all of the singalongs you've been participating in recently, and I've got to admit they're simply amazing!

Robots dream about love, mechanical sheep, awesome leads, fields of grass and flowers, LED colors, and the death and destruction of humankind. So basically, the usual stuff :3

Thanks a lot for the awesome review, dude!

[A Folklore]

Oh, man...this is just plain fun to listen to! It's so catchy and bouncy, instrument samples are clear as a bell, and the occasional tempo increases really lend themselves well to the overall vibe. Very nicely done.

On a funny side note, I was originally planning on making my contest track out of only short, non sustained instrument samples, but that idea went out the window pretty early on. Worked out beautifully for you, though! ^___^

Emid responds:

Thanks a lot Chrono. You can't imagine how precious is your review.

Yes, I chose the shorts to see the potential and scope of the samples. And also, I never did a folk type of music so this was an absolute opportunity for me. On the contrary, I started with 'longs' but kept dropping the ideas. Don't know how much I succeeded but it was fun using raw samples and tweaking them. Thanks again for your kind review and I wish you best!

[Nothing But Sand & Water]

Wonderfully done, Mattashi! Thanks to you and your submission, now I want to enter this contest. You have done so much with these samples, and it definitely fits the role of retro RPG. I suppose it could be reminiscent of some of the early Final Fantasy titles, but what this really brings to mind is Secret of Mana for me. Such hauntingly beautiful music, just like what you have created here.

Mattashi responds:

Thank you ChronoNomad :)
I'm glad I inspired you to enter the contest, now I can't wait to hear what you'll come up with!

[Dark Forest]

Nice bit of creepy ambiance here, and it certainly feels appropriate for the artwork you chose as your inspiration. At times it's very sparse, but not only does that fit the style, it also works well to emphasize the huge climactic build that begins in earnest around the 2:07 mark. It brought to mind being chased by something - some nameless, faceless horror - through that dark and ominous corridor of trees.

I am actually quite fond of the section that begins at 2:20, where it again becomes sparse, but the instruments change repeatedly, until it works up to a second climax. I've always liked that particular style of music, and I think you handled it well here. The last chord was initially confusing, mostly because it doesn't seem to fit the rest of the piece, but then I read your comment about it. Is that something you're going to be removing, or is it like your own little Easter egg or inside joke? Color me curious. :)

Azhthar responds:

Thanks for passing by ;) Glad to hear that it works. The chord at the end (which is actually just a C major) is just some easter egg. Maybe I will delete it at some point. It´s basically from an early version where I did not have a proper and and tried to just put a C major chord sfter the climax. I wasn´t happy with this so I just moved the chord a few bars to have space for a proper ending. When I finished this and listened to the whole track I actually got jump scared by the chord because I forgot about it. So I decided to leave it in and maybe jump scare some people in C major ;)