Everratic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cracking the Code]

This reminds me of johnfn's music from several years ago :D

I love the automation on the main lead. The orchestration is very good. I'm not as fond as the melodies, but the interesting orchestration and bass line mitigates that to a great extent. The piece is rhythmically catchy.

The one thing I dislike is the panning on the snare. It feels a bit odd and arbitrary to me. It's not so bad though.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot and it improved my mood :)

ChronoNomad responds:

Hey, thanks a bunch for the feedback, BlueOceans! You're aces, man.

The automation on that main lead was fun to do, but took a lot of fine tuning. I'm glad that it was worth it. Not much I can do about the main melody since this is for a remix contest and that progression couldn't be altered much, but knowing that the fun and funky bass line mitigates the damage is a relief. Also glad that you dig the rhythm!

I panned the kick to one side and the snare to the other. Not particularly arbitrary, but duly noted. I was ultimately trying to create a nice, wide stereo field for all the elements.

Hooray for mood improvement! It always makes me happy to hear things like that. :D

[Mourning My Memories]

I listened to this in the background while doing some work and it helped me get into flow! I still managed to pay attention to the song, and I enjoyed it a lot. I listened to it analytically some days ago, and oddly, I think I appreciated it more when I listened to it as background music. The intro is my favorite part :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I think most solo piano music lends itself well towards being listened to in the background :)
I personally don't tend to enjoy analysing music too much in real-time. Even when not listening to the music in the background, I prefer allowing it to take me to a new world, where it describes a setting, feelings, or even a story ^___^
Thank you for your review!

[Chasing The Horizon]

This isn't bad! I enjoyed it, and it has a lot of energy.

Don't take chips scores too seriously. The participants, aka voters, have varying degrees of music knowledge and competence, and the categories and even the scores themselves mean different things to different voters. Furthermore, "overall" is a category that is supposed to reflects how much voters enjoyed a particular song as opposed to individuals voting on it based on what they think is the objective value of the piece. This can be a major problem if many of the voters in a particular competition happen to have very different musical preferences.

FateModified responds:

Hey BlueOceans! It's good to hear from you again. I'm glad you liked it, and thanks for your comment. :)

I'm pretty new to Chips Compos, so I appreciate your input about how the compos are all judged. Personally, I wasn't too happy with my production on this one. I think it would have turned out much better if I had more time on it (as is always the case).

Thanks again! :D

[Allowed to Dream Reality]

I can't get over how effective the chord progression is at depicting your idea. I don't emotionally connect with music often, so when I do, the piece in question means a lot to me. I praise your chord choices quite often, but this progression is truly special and undoubtedly one of your best. I'm very sensitive to aesthetics and in music, and I think this composition is absolutely beautiful and enchanting. I think you can get one of the highest scores in the round if you submit this to ngadm. You might even win!

Good luck again with the song you're making for ngadm! If you manage to top this one, I think you'll have a good chance of winning.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

It's interesting to me that this piece in particular speaks to you so much. Perhaps it is because chords like this aren't used very often, and thus they stand out to you!
I still know a couple of parts in the piece that could use some slight editing, but I didn't do anything to those parts, since I also recorded a video. I'm likely not going to use this for the NGADM, but we'll see how much time I have to finish my other work :)

Thank you!

[-More Killable Squares- [TAWBS OST]]

I love the percussion throughout the piece. There’s a lot of nice, unpredictable variation. Although I don’t find any melody to be very memorable, the track is still quite catchy. This has a high replay value, which is perfect for a game. In the beginning, on my first listen, I kinda disliked the chaotic nature of the melodies, but by the end, I started to enjoy it because it contributes to the track’s liveliness :)

Preds responds:

Thanks for the feedback man! I really putted all my effort into this song, means a lot to me. Im sorry to hear that the melodies arent that memorable :(. I'll get better on those catchy melodies haha.

I tried to make it non-repetitive a lot, since as you said, its going to be playing over and over again in a level of the game!

[endK - Moon Café]

The sound design is phenomenal, and the instrumentation is great. The chimes sample is really nice, where did you get it from? I can easily visualize a moon cafe while listening :D

I'm not fond of much of the composition. It's not bad at all, but it's also not memorable or enthralling. At times I felt that the rhythms of some melodies were a bit odd and it briefly ruined the groove, but overall it's not a big deal.

I'm glad you tried incorporating jazz elements into your music! This is a really interesting track.

endKmusic responds:

Sample's from the pack named 'FX Pack', lol. Don't really remember where I got it from. There's also some video game, glitch, nature, bang, etc fx in it. (doubt it helps >.<)
Well, I certainly wasn't going for something that's too 'in your face', although I do find both of the main melodies somewhat catchy.
There were also a lot of harmonies / variations going on in this one.
Nevertheless I'll work more on that for sure. Sometimes I get lost in the production aspect too much. Totally aware of that.
Thanks for the constructive criticism and kind words BO! :)

[Tripping Through Time]

I listened to this for a half hour while doing chores. I enjoyed it a lot!

zybor responds:

Thanks BlueOceans! :3

[Rag 01]

How did you make this in 2 hours? The composition is phenomenal. The main melody is incredibly catchy and the chord progression sounds so nostalgic. :)

AzulJazz responds:

thx so much friend

[Markiplier: Game Over - End Credits (WIP 1)]

You’re very talented. The instrumentation is great, and so is the arrangement. You’re really good at build ups, I noticed. This evokes very vivid visuals for me.

FateModified responds:

Aw, you're too nice, thanks! You're very talented yourself, especially with how well you handle harmony in your compositions. I'm weak with harmony, so I've recently started learning counterpoint. Maybe I'll get to your level before too long! :D

[Gunslinger: Retro Rider]

I love the melodies. The main one is super catchy. The key change is a nice addition. I like the instrumentation, though it all sounds more or less conventional. The panning on everything feels perfect. The only thing I disliked is that the drum beats felt slow at times compared to what I felt the pace of the track should have been.

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks for the solid feedback, BlueOceans! Since I enjoy doing these kinds of tracks quite a bit, I decided to try my hand at one that was solidly of the Chiptune variety for a change. That said, it's a pretty simple premise, though I tried to spice it up a bit and make it my own.

I'm happy to hear that the panning comes across well in the mix, but I can understand why you felt the percussive rhythm was a bit slower than the rest of the piece since that was intended. While I made it more downtempo on purpose, that doesn't mean that it will jive with everyone else's sense of musical style.

Sometimes I like sparser drums, but it seems that a lot of folks prefer a more driving beat. However, if the beat is constantly driving, there's no real increase or release of percussive tension, so I do my best give to create some semblance of balance. Of course, with the highly subjective nature of music, others will always hear their own musical ideas and visions. But hey, that's kind of the beauty of music!

Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, my friend. Your thoughts are always appreciated.