ChronoNomad's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pluto]

Once upon a time, Pluto said to his brothers and sisters, "I sure would like to be a real planet!" The other eight just laughed at him until he wandered off into the furthest edge of the galaxy to be alone. Pandasticality, being the kindhearted sort that he is, thought it might be nice to dedicate a song to Pluto in the hopes that it might cheer up the little guy. And so we begin our journey...

I like what you've made here, and the vibe is really quite fun. You totally fooled me with that fake drop, too! As Admiral Ackbar would say, "It's a trap!" ;D There are some nice solid principles at work here, but to really get that polish and shine every piece aspires to, there is a fair amount of room for improvement.

Some things have already been mentioned, such as the saw that is used throughout pretty much the entire length of the piece. In this instance, I think that a little LFO would go a long way to adding some much needed variance and depth, but it would still probably be altogether too much saw in the mix. A greater variety of synths of increased quality would help tremendously, as well.

One of the things that I can't really figure out is the timing on your snare build at 1:43. That first snare sounds pretty much on, but then they're all weirdly off the mark for a bit. The build changes a little and the timing seems good for a moment, but then it shifts into another strangely timed section before becoming the wall of snare which precedes the drop.

For the section around 2:58 where the synth patterns do short fade-ins, it would actually be better to not start at a volume of zero, so that you can still have a nice fade effect but carry the note from the very beginning. They have no presence at the start of each note, which isn't really what one would generally aim for.

Finally, it may seem like a small thing, but I can't stand it if my tracks have four or five seconds of silence at the end. This one has like twenty. Chop that dead air off the end, man! That's a quick and easy fix; just toss it into something like Audacity and give it nice trim. Easy peasy.

There are some super fun melodic bursts in this song, P-man! That three-note lead is super choice, and it makes me smile each and every time it hops into the mix, like the one in the final moments of 2:34. It's one of those things that sticks in your head, kind of like that oh so familiar "You found the (map, compass, shield, Navi repellent, etc.)!" tune that's become so well-known from the Legend of Zelda series. Very catchy stuff, indeed. Lots of luck to you in the NGADM!

Pandasticality responds:

tons of precious feedback!! thank you ChronoNomad <3 much appreciated.
- Pandasticality

[Tenebrarius]

Greetings and felicitations, LucidShadowDreamer and dem0lecule! You two have put together a truly dark and tension-filled tour de force here. I have always been rather fond of endings that match or are similar to the beginnings, so I found your music box motif to be quite satisfying. Very appropriate, indeed.

All the elements work well together throughout the track, from the soulful strings to the chant-like choirs (such an impressive mix of female and male choir, too!) to the intimidating brass. And then there are those gorgeous smatterings of piano to top it all off. There is a wealth of variety to this track, from the pervading sense of seeping darkness to the more epic moments where the rhythm intensifies, and a very interesting journey back and forth betwixt the two.

The percussion is also very well done, working to increase that level of intensification, or dropping out for a bit to ease the tension...only to give rise to a quieter, more diabolical sort of tension yet again. I can't help but believe that this track has an excellent chance at moving on, but the Group P competition is really heating up! Best of luck to both of you, and extremely well done.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Wow, thanks a ton for your great review! I don't even know where to start responding to this o.O
I've seen you leave great reviews for a ton of tracks lately, well done!

I'm glad to hear that people seem to enjoy the music box, as it was pretty much a last minute idea I had, some hours before we wrapped up the track. I too enjoy when the beginning and the end of a track are connected, so if it fits the theme, I often try to compose in a way that can lead back to the start. It was dem0lecule who crafted the ending though, and the tempo slowdown of his was a great idea.

The choirs are pretty interesting, as the two male choirs were my ideas, and all the beautiful female choirs were added by dem0lecule. Unless I am mistaken, all the brass parts are of my making. I wanted other intruments in contrast with dem0's strings, both on the low and high end of the piece, as well as something to play the melodies I came up with. I'm pretty sure I made things unreasonably difficult to mix with all of those (sorry dude).
Originally, this piece had a crappy piano intro made by me that didn't fit at all. I'm really glad we changed that in the last minute. But I personally enjoy the piano parts that were left in the track, most of which were made by dem0lecule, and edited by me, to fit my additions. You've done quite an analysis on the soul of this track!

I had nothing to do with the percussion, as everything was great in that department pretty much from the start. Later on, even more was added. I think we should all be happy that I wasn't responsible for percussion, as this track would've turned out to be very different...

I do hope that we get to the next round, as I have an idea I really want to turn into a full on piece, but either way, I was very happy to get to work with dem0lecule again. Thanks once again for your uplifting review, and good luck to you too!! :D

[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.

[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

[[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 :)