ChronoNomad's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Frozen Horizon]

Hey, I saw your audio post requesting feedback, so I thought I'd check things out and drop a little critique on you in the process. I find your music rather enjoyable to listen to, so I thought I'd go ahead and become a fan, as well as scout you for the Audio Portal. That puts my butt on the line, so this had better be your own original work, or I'll come back to bite your face off! :P Okay, on to the actual review...

You have a nice mixture of instruments here, and it really gives me that whole 'traversing the arctic expanse' kind of vibe quite well. Very appropriate for the image source provided, and I like how you share your inspiration for each track in this way. I would personally like to hear a bit more from you in the Author Comments, if only a short little blurb, but hey--to each his own.

While most of the instruments are mixed really well, a couple things stand out as being slightly less good to me. First off, there's that tambourine hit. It's a bit too loud and up front in the mix to me, and with it works with tambo, I can see a light jingle bell fitting in even better within my mind's eye. But hey, that's just me. As far as the melodic instruments go, they're all pretty solid, but your main pan flute could use a bit more decay to make the longer notes sound more like they're actually being played. Or just taper off the flute's velocity. Either way.

ietsu responds:

Hey! Thanks for your review ^^ It's my original work, I pinky promise D:

I usually don't extend myself writing down my inspirations for each track because english it's not my first language, so it takes a long time for me trying to express exactly what I think.

Again, thanks for listening and for scouting me! ^^

[Innocence Lost [Piano Solo]]

A truly exceptional piano piece, Lucid. The dynamic quality of the music and beautiful mixture of highs and lows, coupled with a tempo that is almost constantly in flux, all make for a truly emotional experience. It simply flows in and out, rising and falling from one progression to the next, and the way you made this transition back to the beginning is no less than flawless.

The previous version is good, but I am well pleased that you decided to upload a version without the ambient effects, as well. I was hoping that you would do so. Thank you for once again sharing the music that resides within the depths of your heart and soul.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks a lot, Chrono :3
I almost always tend to make use of both high, middle and low keys when playing the piano, and when composing. It's pretty much automatic at this point XD
Of course, I always play with emotion too. If I ever play mechanically, it's because the mechanical playing best reflects the emotion I want to go through :P

It's great to hear that people appreciate both the version with the cries, as well as the solo version! Thank you for a beautifully written review , and of course, for listening :)

[The Power of Passion]

Really digging the overall vibe here, LSD. I'm glad that loops are working properly again, and while this is decidedly short, it gets the job done. I don't really have a lot to say, though a bit more variation to the drum pattern would have made this even better in my opinion. That said, whipping up something this solid over the course of an hour and a half is fantastic.

Congrats on scooping up Stormdrum 3 during good ol' Black Friday! I look forward to seeing what else you do with it going forward.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hey dude! Nice to hear from ya :D

Yeah. I became super happy that the audio player was looping properly again, as I really dig me some smooth loops :)
I totally agree about the percussion, it could be a bit more varied for sure. But then again, I made this in a really short time frame, and the main thing I wanted to check, was how much power I could easily get out of this new library. The answer is, a lot more than with anything I've previously owned XD
Do you have anything new on the way? :)

Thanks for listening and for leaving a review!

[Maginot]

Very nicely done, Ceevro. Beautifully written, played, and sung.

The vocal sound reminds me somewhat of Rob Thomas or Counting Crows at times, with a sort of wistful melancholy. Keeping the mix simple is what makes the most sense with a song like this, and most percussion simply wouldn't feel appropriate, unless it were something non invasive like a cymbal roll. A couple acoustic guitars plus vocals just works perfectly here to set the proper tone.

A truly excellent job on your lyrical composition. I love the way you delay some of the timing to really draw out the emotional impact of each word and chord, especially at the end. You really put a lot of time and effort into this piece, and it shows.

Ceevro responds:

Coming from you, that means a lot! Like I said, this was a couple months in the writing/composing phase. I wanted to really make it work right, so I just took my time and let it evolve naturally.

[Dawnfrost]

Sounds good, man. The beats are super chill, nice and catchy. And that overwhelmingly deep bass that never really changed from one end of the song to the other...is gone! I know how hard it is to make solid bass riffs with unsatisfactory speakers, but it sounds like the earbuds got it done. Even headphones make gauging good bass a bit tricky since they tend to automatically boost the bass, so having a couple of sound outputs on-hand, like a good pair of headphones and solid speakers, is the best way to go.

I do think that the build and subsequent drop (or transition into the bass riffs, if you prefer) is rather underwhelming, but for a first attempt I think you're on the right track. The instrument that sounded off before sounds less so now without that deep bass to clash with, so bonus! Keep up the good work.

Hallow responds:

Haha, thanks. The earbuds helped quite a bit, but in the future I'll try listening to it with my boombox (which isn't that easy because it's not anywhere near my desk, but I'll make it work).
What could be improved with the build and drop (because drop is less wordy)? I'd love to be able to make a better one on my next work.
I'm glad that you feel that the high synth is less off - it was the last two notes of that sequence, right? I only started to notice it about two listens after you first pointed it out, so I for one find it sounds more off :P

[Forest of the Black Flame]

Oh my goodness, I just love this piece to black flaming death! It's been giving me chills on every listen, and I've already run through it about half a dozen times. Still a bit on the short side, but...so what? It just plain works.

I can totally hear Eternal Oath in this, but it also brings to mind a couple of great tracks from Chrono Cross, as well. Some really incredible use of Shevannai here, and the entire piece feels very appropriately dark and desolate, with just the right amount of fire and ash sprinkled in.

Neon-Bard responds:

Many thanks, Chrono! Yeah...it's a little short -- I apologize for the short tracks haha!

Eternal Oath is just so darn gloomy, and I really wanted to bring about a similar atmosphere with this piece. The artwork is phenomenal, so it really made creating the track an enjoyable experience. I haven't played Chrono Cross (gasp!), but I will have to check out the soundtrack.

Thanks for listening man! :)

[Riverside]

Argh! It's so short, but--man! It's just so good. Short or not, it's really great to see you submitting something. I love these nostalgic Crystal Chronicles feels. Well played, Neon-Bard...both metaphorically and literally. I feel a strange urge to pick up a Crystal Chalice and collect shimmering drops of Myrrh. Incidentally, my 2014 NGADM track Tir Na Nog was inspired a bit by FFCC.

I don't know why exactly, but nothing is looping properly for me here on Newgrounds anymore, including my own loops. Hoping that the issue is corrected soon, but until it is I can't really tell if the loop is seamless or not since everything skips at the end. I'm going to assume, for the sake of argument, that it's flawless. :D

Neon-Bard responds:

It is pretty short, huh? I have been so busy with school and contract stuff lately that I haven't really had time to just mess around -- I put aside time aside to have some fun, and this was the result.

Crystal Chronicles is one of my all-time favorites! I imagine that I'll listen to its music for the rest of my life. I remember your 'Tir Na Nog' track well, in fact, I'm surprised that I haven't added it to my favorites (done and done). The looping thing has been bothering me. I've tried just about everything...alas, nothing is working. It loops perfectly everywhere else. Odd!

Many thanks for listening! :)

[Dawnfrost WIP]

The beat is catchy, but the deep rumbling that carries on throughout the entire track is something that would have a lot more impact if it came in later or was simply used more sparingly. Even though there's only a minute's worth of music, it quickly becomes overwhelming. The listener at least needs a break from that sort of thing from time to time, and that would also serve to make it a more dramatic effect. Bringing it in and building it up slowly from the start could also work quite well.

The string-like instrument you bring in around he halfway point (00:34) doesn't really seem to fit the overall vibe to me, but the real problem is that some of the notes are out of tune and simply don't match what's going on in the background. Also, and it may just be that there's a particularly slow attack on each note, but whatever it is that's causing it, the timing sounds off.

Hallow responds:

Thanks for the great review!
I didn't notice any deep rumbling when I re-exported it at a higher bitrate - my original three attempts to export at 128kbps had some really noticeable error with the exporting where some deep sound was just randomly appearing, but this time I didn't hear anything (which might just be my speakers). I didn't add anything deep at all so far. Do you have any idea how to fix that? Also, is that the part which you were calling overwhelming, or were you referring to something else?
About the pad coming in halfway, now that you point that out, I do notice that some of the notes don't match the chords. I'll have to fix that. As to the attack, that was partially intentional - I wanted to give it that feel - but I can fix the timing by moving the notes forward a bit.
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Since NG doesn't allow for discussion threads within the reviews, it would help if you could PM me with any answers.

[Chuckles likes children]

Chuckles like children...how, exactly? Medium rare? In a stew pot? Something like that, I would suppose. This is such a creepily fun and energetic song, Azhthar! Those crazy squeaks are hilariously freakish, and your overall instrument choices and composition are simply fantastic.

I really love how you mixed it up at the end with something completely different, it really spices up the Halloween vibe. Interestingly enough, while I know that this is an homage to the great Chuckles by thespazicat, it also feels like it would be incredibly appropriate set against some of the infamous Joker's shenanigans. He's got that whole lunatic clown thing down pat, so I can't help it when my mind wanders in that direction. Throw in a few psychotic bursts of laughter and--voila! So much clowning around...

Suffice to say, I love it. This is an awesome Halloween-themed track and I think it has an excellent chance at taking one of the prized top spots in this year's Halloween Spooktacular. Good luck!

Azhthar responds:

Rare to medium rare actually ;) Thanks a lot for such a positive feedback. I thought about recording some psychotic laughters. Acutually I wanted to make a completely dark and evolving intro finish it with a squeak followed by a laughter and then start the real track but I always do these intros and I chose to make it different this time putting the music more into the focus... So the laughters were thrown out :) It would be awesome to score some silly fight of the Joker´s shenanigans in the old trashy Batman series but I guess this time is over. Sigh...
Good luck to you, too! Your track was really awesome, too! Ahhhh... I love musicboxes :) Simply the best instrument out there. I whish somebody could invent a real midi driven musicbox where you can make thousands of tracks for one musicbox. I think I would go to write a whole concert/symphony or opera for this musicbox. Not that I´m able to do this but I would start to learn this just for this instrument...

[Tℎ𝑒 T𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 H𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟]

Hey, this is a pretty nice chiptune, spyderbrd! I'd say that, overall, you still have more work to do to create a smooth mix; but the only way to get better is to make tracks, so you're on the right track.

It only seems moderately Halloween-y to me much of the time, but some of your instrument choices really fit the vibe, like the lead that comes in at 3:05. Those are some of the most creepily appropriate progressions in the entire piece as far as I'm concerned, so well done!

One other thing of note is the ending, which has an increasing amount of hiss for some reason. I don't know if that was intended or merely an anomaly, but it just doesn't sound good. The ending is also rather sudden, not to mention incredibly simplistic, but hey--endings are hard.

spyderbrd responds:

Thanks for the review! edit augut 2016: Went over this track recently and noticed that hiss you were mentioning. Apparently when i reformatted to .mp3 or .wav it caused a clipping issue in audio bandwidth. Sorry for not uploading better quality. Still was fun and lengthy to create... not even including the early version that was never released, that i built upon to make this. I thought it was great but i now know that after a year, only 600 people have heard this song. and that saddens me.