ChronoNomad's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Threnody for Innocence]

I have been wanting to leave you a review for this ever since you submitted it! Sorry that it's taken so long, but here I am now, so--let's do this thing! :D

First of all, it's long. But you know what? For a composition that is very nearly nine minutes long, it seems like almost half that, and I shall tell you why. Quite simply, it is because you are a superlative pianist. The powerful emotions that you pull from those little black and white keys are stirring. I feel as though my very heart is rising and falling along with the melodies, my soul made to float and fly one moment, to drown in sadness the next, and on and on it goes. The tempo and key changes are superb, and you've created such lovely cascading arpeggios and chords, a mix of harmony and dissonance that transports me completely within the music.

And now we come to the part that I have struggled with, mostly because I cannot stand to be even remotely negative when a piece moves me in such a way. In fact, I am sure you know what's coming, and I would rather not touch on it at all if I could. *sigh* But with as gorgeous as your piano playing is throughout the entire piece, the other strings simply don't do the composition justice. The overall quality comes across as almost being MIDI-like, which is kind of ironic after covering your track from the second NGDIC! :3

Anyway, while the strings don't always sound bad per se, they rarely sound what I would consider good. The higher notes are especially telling, while the lower range actually sounds fairly decent. I do think that a bit more attention on the mixing on the string section could have helped; maybe making the notes a bit more sustained with fuller reverb, but the sample quality just isn't there. Man, I thought you had some sweet symphony strings at your disposal, but maybe I'm thinking of dem0 now...I know he has a pretty jealousy-inducing tool set.

Okay, so ultimately this one was hard for me to gauge what I should do, ratings-wise. The piano is, once again, chock full of unparalleled awesomeness! The other strings are, well...less so. But despite its shortcomings, I still can't see my way clear to giving this anything lower than 9/10. And it's all because of how you yank on my heartstrings as you tickle those ivories.

Amazing job for a song of such length, as well. I purposefully stay away from doing things that are too much longer than five or six minutes simply because I figure that a lot of casual listeners would probably be like, "NOPE! Ain't nobody got time fo' dat," and bounce before even giving it a chance. I just hope that many more people give your Threnody of Innocence a chance. It is well worth those precious, non-refundable minutes of time in my humble opinion. Well done.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Whew, no worries about the "late" review :p
This response is already more late than it should be as well XD

"For a composition that is very nearly nine minutes long, it seems like almost half that..."

=> Thanks a huge deal, Chrono! That's something I really appreciate hearing. I feel that that is how I feel when a track really manages to swallow me up for a while, and really let me live it its world. I think that the dynamics you get from real piano playing do indeed help a lot when listening to longer compositions. At this point, I am a pretty good pianist, but I have so long to go still that it's quite insane XD
I'm really glad you managed to live into the piece, as that is part of what the intention is.

We tried to do a little bit of everything for this composition, including a lot of progression, key changes, and indeed arpeggios, dissonance and harmony, among many other things. But mostly, we wanted it to include the real emotions we were feeling.

Oh yes, no worries. This ended up becoming a really hurried production. I don't have particularly good strings, especially not solo ones. EWQLSO Silver does have some okay strings, but the solo violas/violins/cellos aren't really that many nor great, and this piece definitely was intended for solo intruments, as most parts are rather melodic (there is a String Ensamble at one point though). The intention was all along to use dem0lecule's samples. But this track took a while to compose, and alas, we were both gone for the weekend, as dem0 was asked on a sudden camping trip, and I had other plans. He also first thought the deadline was on Monday, and didn't arrive home before late Sunday himself XD

I definitely get that it takes a lot away from the piece, as it has that very same effect on me. The piano is not great either. It's okay, and possibly the best free piano vst out there, but we could've gotten a much better sound out of that as well :)

Another fact was that I too came back pretty late on Sunday (earlier than dem0), so I had time to fix up the most important parts of the tracks, like a few more note edits, velocity levels and balancing. But I had no time to adjust the attacks of the strings either, which really doesn't leave much of a great sound :p
As for the mixing itself, I think it's okay, but I am far from being really good at it.

So no worries about hard feelings or anything, 9/10 is still an insanely high score :D
I hope the judges won't be afraid to say what they really think either when their time to review arrives, as I'm personally very content with Cadmus and Chris moving on to the next round :p

I love how ever since Phyrnna mentioned "ivories" in a review, and I accidentally read it "ovaries" on the first look, I can't see that word anymore without remembering my misreading. Leaves a really weird feel in my thoughts now. Tickle those... XD

I tend to just do whatever length suits me, be it 16 seconds or 1 hour (both, I have done), but I am aware that the avarage attention span isn't very long. But I'm glad to hear that the lenght didn't take too much away from the track. I think it's partly helped by that the structure is divided up into 7 natural sections, that all have their own unique identifiers and progressions.

Man, it's still such a shame that dem0's strings had to be abandoned -at least for now- for this. We should definitely do our best to produce a better more awesome version.

Thank you so much for such a long and passionate review, ChronoNomad!

[NGDIC 2 - Mayhem Trance]

Hey, Gragon73! Nice to have some fresh blood here on the Audio side of Newgrounds. This is a pretty solid adaptation from Noisysundae's MIDI track and I like what you've added. The bass could actually sound much worse, and I think you've done a good job here.

To be honest, this might just be the coolest way for someone to get into music production. It's how Samulis got his start right here on Newgrounds once upon a time, in fact. Now I really want to hear what you can make on your own! But hey, don't let that make you feel pressured or anything. Good things come to those who wait. :)

Hallow responds:

Yeah, the "I know the basses don't sound that good" was before I messed with the oscillator waveforms a bit (pretty sure they were all saws) and it really sounded terrible x.x
(To be honest, I really want to hear what I can make on my own as well, lol.)

[Mistral (Piano)]

Hey, lordedri! This is a very nice piano composition you've got here, and anyone who knows anything about me at all knows that I positively adore the piano. That also means that I'm sort a harsh critic when it comes to said instrument. :3

Such an intense tempo and you manage keep it going throughout the entire length of the piece! That is quite impressive, though if I'm being entirely honest I think having a more subdued, slowed down section would have helped to break up the monotony and give the song more depth. A few more key changes could have also worked wonders, but what you already have is great. With that said, I still really like what you've done here. You make excellent use of dynamics from one end to the other, which becomes all the more important when working with a single instrument. Fantastic job!

Love what you do, so I hope you'll keep right on doing it for a long time to come! :D

Adjeye responds:

I totally get what you mean, you should know I adore the piano as well :D, most of my used electronic melodies I've first played on the piano.

Changing keys is something I slightly experimented with in this composition, but its clearly not enough (around 1:30 I switch from G#minor to major) but its something I'm not too experienced with.

Thank you for your constructive feedback, it helps me a lot! It really does!

[Dark n' Damp]

You did this in just two days? Color me impressed.

When I saw the overall length of the track I was first amazed, then kind of concerned that such a long track would be crazy repetitive, and ended up being just plain blown away. Yeah, it's a little repetitious here and there, but for a song that's over seven minutes long it's much less so than I would have imagined.

I truly dig the vibe, or perhaps I should say vibes, since this goes through a few transformations as it progresses. Starting out all cool and chill I was already enjoying the ride. Then you morph into kind of a sweet Pink Floyd-esque jam around the 3-minute mark. Finally it enters the dark, heavy chugging of the dangerous cavern as it reaches the epic climax. Then you end it all with some more super chill acoustic strumming and cymbal builds. And I love every single minute of the journey!

Please keep on doing what you're doing, man. This thing gave me shivers even after I was done listening, so I came back and gave it another go. Considering the overall length of the song, that is really saying something.

Thanks for making this. Seriously.

thebitterroost responds:

I'm humbled, glad you like it! Though the past two days were pretty full with this project, the toughest part for me (the general writing) was mostly done before I left town, so it's not as impressive a feat as it maybe sounded via the thread. Drums were already set up and mic'ed from the past tune, so that alone saved a lot of time and motviation, lol. So, mainly tracking and writing a few leads. It's funny, the whistling and choir parts I did because I needed something on top of those sections and didn't have time to root around and find a good soundfont/patch, so I was like "f**k it, I'll use my voice." I am *not* a good vocalist, so it was kinda desperate, but luckily turned out tolerable. I also learned that whistling is damn tough. Thanks for the encouraging review, man.

[Facing the Foe]

With the incredibly long review you gave me this round, I almost feel like I'll be shortchanging you, but I honestly don't have a whole lot to say. You have quite simply outdone yourself, Lucid. Again.

In so many ways this brings to mind classic Final Fantasy battle themes, as well as other JRPG offerings of a similar ilk. Your track is easily as good, if not better, than most. The lack of repetition is fantastic in my book, not to mention the sheer variety of instruments that take the stage. To someone like myself who really enjoys a good video game dustup, this is like the blood that flows through my veins. It's precisely the kind of jam that gets me pumped and keeps me fighting with all I've got.

Ah, man. There are really only a few things that I want to bring up, and they're purely based on my own personal tastes. First and foremost, I do not like that closed hi-hat. I do like what you do with the transitioning from hat to snare, but as hi-hats go that one just doesn't feel like it fits the song to me.
Next, there's so much going on most of the time that it's almost overwhelming. I'm good with it, but it does make me wonder what a more casual audience might think and if they can keep up. In a way, I suppose this is a good thing, because it almost forces the listener to play it through more than once.
Which brings me to my final act of opining, which is simply a preference for songs that have an actual ending to loops here in the ADM. A crazy semantic sort of thing, I know. Not to mention the fact that I think it actually loops incredibly well, despite what you said in the Author Comments. That said, since this is the type of track it is and it loops well, it could fit very nicely in an actual game. Bonus! :D

So yeah, feel free to take most of that with a grain of salt or two. I love this track and what you do. Some of the key changes are really impressive, and they don't even last all that long! And the brass--so good. I'm kind of jealous of the instrument library you have at your disposal, and my imagination is running away with me just thinking of what I could do with a bit of EW at my fingertips....

Once more, VERY well done, LSD. I've probably listened to this a good half dozen or so times by now. I have absolutely no earthly idea what the judges will do or how they will rate our tracks, but I want to wish you the very best of luck even though we're up against each other. Excelsior~!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

"I almost feel like I'll be shortchanging you"

He said, after having written a review that's only slightly shorter XD
Also, you've written reviews for tons of tracks lately! Great work o.O
I should get to my round of reviews tomorrow...

I totally used the same rhythm here as in several FF battle themes (including VII and X!), and in other tracks from other games as well. I must admit, it's a great rhythm (I think bassfiddlejones actually used it in "Unsung Hero" too)! I tried to write my melodies in a way that both references the FF/Kingdom Hearts feel, as well as making it feel battle-ish enough while still keeping a pretty light tone to the atmosphere, apart from a few parts.
Great to hear that I'm not the only one who appreciates a lack of repetition (there is some secret hidden repetiotion in this track though, muahahahaha)!

"Closed hi-hat"

=> I totally knew that pretty much everyone would comment negatively on this XD The simple truth is that I don't think I had a good closed hi-hat sample whatsoever for that part. But conceptually, I really wanted it to be there, so I included it despite my better judgement (also , time). It's one of the only intruments that's not EWQL (the other three are two atmospheric effects you probably wouldn't even hear if I didn't point them out, and the piano).
Hey, btw, did you find that flute trill?!? :D

As for the complexity, I am aware. But I think that even a less experienced listener would be able to enjoy this track; especially the highlights. While I have layers of melodies upon each other at points, I feel like the main ones are prominent enough to work on their own. I've actually tried to focus on listening to only certain parts of the track (also for mixing reasons), and if you just focus on one melody enough, you'll barely notice the other ones :)
Also, I imagine that in a game, people would hear this enough times to know it's every second by heart (while I am a musician, I am also partly a game designer, hehhe).

As for the looping, I get your point, even if I don't feel the same. The reason is that I don't think a battle track is much good if it can't loop, even if it's not featured in a game. Especially not a "random battle" theme. If this was for a cinematic sequence, I'd agree it should have an ending. The other option was to fade it out, and say that it would loop in-game, and I did NOT want to do that XD Even though this was made for a competition, I want it to stay as true as possible for the genre. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have looped it (at one point, the piano version actually had an ending).
That said, I think this is the wrong kind of loop for a (most a) battle track. Instead of starting with a climax, I think the track should start on a calmer note, then build up, and then at some point gradually turn calmer again, before starting over. That's because most battles themes start that way, slowly easing you into the battle. But I am okay with a loud boom that's really telling you that a battle is starting as well. It just takes away some of the seemlessness of the loop as a whole ;p

So basically, I agree with all of your points, and I was aware of them from before, but decided (perhaps unwisely) to make them as it is. The hi-hat still bothers me though, but I didn't have time to swap it out nor searching online for a better suiting sample. This track was divided into 7 different parts, due to both software and hardware limitations XD

Key changes have been my thing ever since I noticed one can do that. I try to use both new and old key changes (ones I've used before) all the time, because I love the extra energy or emphasis they can add; especially into a track like this. I basically started this track out with 4 changes (5 keys/not key specific chords, depending on how you want to look at it) in the first 9 seconds, so yeah...
But I tried so follow two (or three) main keys, while borrowing chords and jumping around a bit, as to not go too much overboard. This was originally written as a solo piano piece, but arranged to work for an orchestra. The base for this track took only 3 hours to compose on the piano. The rest took me more than 40 hours, because I had no idea what I was doing, and just hoped for the best, while constantly adding more and more, including new melodies, despite time limitations XD

Yeah. I got EWQLSOSE when it was half price. It was a very good decision, I feel. Not only because of the quality of the intruments (though some feel it's dated), but because getting myself an orchestral mini-arsenal really motivated me to write more, and bigger things!!! I definitely recommend buying something like this on sale ;)
Now, learning how to mix the orchestra is a completely separate deal that I'm still obviously working on... I am very happy with my progress on this track though, if you compare it to "Facing the Stormy Sea", which is my previous fully orchestral track. In a few years, I hope to be much better in this area as well :)

Once again, thank you very much for the long review, and for all the compliments! I've probably listened to your track more than 20 times already :D Not meaning that as a listening competition; your track is simply so relaxing and soothing to listen to that it's perfect when reading or doing something similar :3

Same goes for me. I just feel like I don't want to disappoint dem0lecule, but he said he likes this track, so that is good enough. If you win, I'll be rooting for you XD
Best of luck!

P.S. Sorry for my rambling in this response, it's already over 6am, and I'm still awake :p
This will be an interesting school day :D

[Clockwork Waltz]

Very nicely done, Azhthar! Your track is solidly awesome and it really feels like it follows your previous entry perfectly. Were you planning to create back to back tracks with a similar theme all along, or did it just kind of happen like that? Color me curious.

The clock theme is, in a word, awesome. I love stuff like this pretty much right out of the gate because it's so fun. The winding and ticking clocks make for a very appropriate form of percussion, but you didn't rely on it too heavily and switched over to some nice March-like snares and rolls with cymbals. When you brought the clock effects back at the end it felt fluid, like it had been a foregone conclusion from the start. I was expecting something really weird at the end when you said it shouldn't be taken too seriously, but the cuckoo and chimes are quite appropriate while sounding great.

There's a lot that I like here, but just a couple things that stand out as being slightly less impressive. For instance, while the lower choir that you use often sounds surprisingly good, the higher notes don't really match up in quality, though it isn't as noticeable when there's a lot going on musically already, but stands out much more when things are sparse.

And while I generally loved the bassoon that plays throughout much of the piece, all of the early notes seemed to be staccato, and I would have liked some to have been more sustained to add still more variety. I do get why you did it that way, of course. I was just imagining what it would sound like with a few longer notes thrown in at that point, maybe even just the lower notes where you create brief chords. Of course then I also started thinking about grace notes and trills (yes, bassoon trills), but that's just me letting my imagination run wild. Sometimes I think I can hear more possibilities within the music of others than my own, if that makes any sense! xD

Suffice to say, this is a fantastic track. You vs. IglicaV this time around, eh? You've made quite the contender here and set the bar high, that's for sure. Best of luck to you here in Round 2 of the NGADM!

Azhthar responds:

Awesome! Thanks a lot for the detailed review! It could be a nice idea to continue a story with every track in the NGADM ;) It wasn´t intended actually. I guess it´s more due to my taste of music and what I like to do.... Anyway, I have to pass this round first to do that which won´t be easy I guess...
I know what you mean with the choir (actually I think you mean the solo voice, because the choirs I just used at the beginning in the background). Bassoon trills could be awesome but I´m lack of samples here... But maybe I can play around with some other articulations. I used staccato because I wanted this a bit funny and "grotesque" sound. Also I liked the stereo delay on it, which probably doesn´t sound good on legato lines... I thought about adding a bassoon bassline to the duet at the end but then I thought that it´s already full enough. Thanks a lot again for your suggestions. Let´s see if I manage to put some of them into this track till tomorrow. Glad you like it ;)

[~{ || MEGA || }~]

Man, folks are listening and downloading, but no one had even bothered to vote! Lazy buncha NGers, if you ask me. This is hella tight, dude! Mad props. I can tell you had a blast making it, too.

The repeating string progression from :52 is reminiscent of the Super Metroid theme, actually. Nostalgia factor engaged. :D

larrynachos responds:

Haha, I'm glad you liked it! I definitely had a blast making this song!

Huehuehue, the strings were totally inspired by the super metroid theme. I'm dying to do cinematic arrangements of metroid songs, but I haven't really had the time.

Thanks for the vote and review! You da best!

[Witches' Hut]

I have always really loved the Matoya's Cave theme from Final Fantasy, and while this totally brings that to mind with its oldschool charm and video gamey goodness, it feels even more appropriately sorcerous. You're a couple months early, but this makes has the perfect ambiance for Halloween. The instruments themselves really remind me of Shadowgate, too! So there is just wall-to-wall VG nostalgia packed in this for me, and I think that's awesome.

My one complaint is one that I have with so many of your tracks, which is the way the ending just cuts right off. I'm sure the song is finished, but when the reverb effects of the final notes just end like that it feels strangely incomplete. Not something I'd dock points for outside of a contest, so yeah...an easy breezy 5 stars from me, mate! Keep on keepin' on.

On a side note, I would have sworn that I made you one of my favorite artists years ago, but apparently I was somehow remiss. I apologize for the oversight, but it is one that has finally been rectified. Huzzah!

johnfn responds:

I don't know what you're talking about, the ending is perfectly

[NGADM'15: Higher]

Welcome to the party, EliteFerrex. I can say right off the bat that your entry got me moving to the beat, and yes, you did indeed bring the thunder. This is a very enjoyable Trance jam you've brought to the table.

I don't really have a lot to comment about, but I do find that the mix sounds pretty sweet to my ears, and those drums have some excellent thump and presence. The kick has some nice punch so it stands out nicely, though it could stand to be just a touch louder still...mainly for the sections where there's a lot going on already. The same could be said for the clap sound on the downbeat. The rest of the perc sounds just right to me.

Since this is Trance I suppose it's bound to be a bit repetitious, which it does tend to be, but there's also some nice variation to be found here. The ending isn't bad at all, and I like they way you transition into those final notes with some cool cymbal effects, but I still think it could be improved upon. It doesn't sound very full, if that makes any sense.

Very nice job here, overall! I've already listened three times simply in the course of writing this review and it never gets old. I wish you the very best of luck in the ADM!

EliteFerrex responds:

Thank you very much for your review, ChronoMomad.

I greatly appreciate your feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed the track!

[Who Killed The World?]

LunyAlex...oh my, oh my. When you show up to the party, you really make an entrance! This track is tight as hell from one end to the other. I guess my biggest complaint is that it's over too quickly, which is really more of a compliment than anything else. Since it is so short, I kind of have to fault it for being a little repetitive on the back end, but man--your buildups are simply rife with tension! But the percussion, instrumentation, and the mix in general are all crazy tight.

On a final note, the ending (accidental puns ftw) is admittedly a bit underwhelming in comparison. Even so, I can't help but give you a well-earned five stars. Your track is truly an epic ride and a joy to my ears. Group L is wall to wall talent, but you have most definitely thrown down the gauntlet. Best of luck!

LunyAlex responds:

Thank you very much for the review! I'm very glad you liked the song overall.

I'll definitely take note of the critique. Now that I'm happy with my entrance I'll work some more on my exit, haha. Endings, my weak point.

Thanks again! Cheers!