BlazingDragon's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Winter's Embrace]

So lovely! The beginning reminded me of a track from Maple Story. So pure, comforting, diatonic. I didn’t expect the wonderful harmonic twists ahead! I’m a sucker for chromatically descending lines. The sort of darkness there just makes the return to the original material even more joyful. And I love that you change the register at 1:38. Gorgeous ending, too, like a warm hug.

Everratic responds:

Thank you for the review!!!

[Within These Castle Walls]

Absolutely gorgeous. Parts of it remind me of the Tristram theme from Diablo, which is one of my favorite pieces of video game music.

I think it would be cool if you experimented with delay effects on this. You could also master the track to bring the overall volume up without losing the dynamic range. You have a decent amount of headroom leftover in the waveform. You could also let the final chord ring out longer, since it cuts off a little abruptly.

Flamadour responds:

Thanks for the review, I thought about using delay but I didn't want to oversaturate the composition. And thankfully I have Wavelab Elements now, so all my tracks will be mastered from now on.

[AIM - Bellowers of Grief]

Gorgeous track! I'm a sucker for the Dorian mode (minor with the sixth note in the scale raised a half step), which you use at the beginning. This piece feels somewhere between Jeremy Soule's Skyrim soundtrack and Harry Gregson-Williams' Narnia score.

My only advice is to master the track. You have plenty of room to maximize the volume without losing the dynamic range. If this appeared in a playlist, listeners would have to turn their speakers up to clearly hear.

And congrats on this being Frontpaged today!

Everratic responds:

Thanks for the review! It's nice to hear from you again :D I'm also a sucker for Dorian! I definitely took some inspiration from Jeremy Soule and will check out the Narnia score.

I get that the track could theoretically be louder, and that in the waveform above it appears that it can simply be raised, however, I did carefully master the track and chose this specific volume level. Although it's quiet by NG standards, the truth is that the peaks of this song are louder than many orchestral and film mixes, including many Skyrim songs. This kind of orchestral music is extremely dynamically sensitive so I wanted a clean, non-limited sound. I'm not a professional, so if you feel I'm wrong or missing something, please feel free to follow up :)

[A True Hero]

Great track! I loved the key change at :48. This piece starts with anime vibes but briefly has more of a Disney feel at :53 with the triumphant brass.

Also, I want to hear about this adventure of yours!

Bosa responds:

thank you so much! i’m going to try and get the full version released by this weekend if i can, i would like to submit this to the AIM contest going on rn. I plan on adding more of a heroic theme — which is the direction i think i want to go with this, so something you could hear in Captain America haha.

[Sweet Street]

Such good vibes. Loved it!

The electric guitar at 1:36 was so unexpected, but in a fun way. Same with the ending. Lots of playfulness and ear candy to enjoy!

supermelon-creations responds:

(sorry for late response) but thankss!! exactly the vibe we were going for ;p

[Lost Joy]

Wonderful little track! Love that you use several registers of the piano and not just the two octaves in the middle. Nice dynamic contrast. Also textural contrast between the waltz sections and the soft arpeggiated ones. My favorite bit is around :50 where you set up the expectation of a picardy third but then spin out the phrase to end on a dissonance. Is that the leading tone in the bass at :59? Sweet.

I wish it was longer and had more development. Especially considering the entrance of the violin which just begs for more material. I do like how you keep the right and left hands of the piano at the outer registers as to not interfere with the register of the violin. Cool track!

Everratic responds:

Thank you for the review! I'm glad you noticed what I did at :50. I agree this should be longer.

[Boundaries]

--NGAUC Review--

Dude, I LOVE the energy level in this piece! Within seconds I had a stupid grin on my face and was moving with the music. In that sense, this track was a welcome change of pace during the course of my judging for this round.

First, some of the things I like:

-The melody is catchy and rhythmically interesting, and I love all the little runs and turns
-Transitions were tasteful. I like how you started with chiptune style drums, added a four-on-the-floor kick, and then layered more increasingly complex percussion on top of that
-Contrast between sections. I love the rising falling tension around 2:30 and the vengeful comeback at 2:59!
-Loads of automation and shifting colors

Suggestions:
-The ending fade out could last another bar or two. For how energy-packed the preceding material is, I feel the track should either end with a bang or have a little more time to wind down. It felt a bit unbalanced to have the fade out occur so quickly.
-This piece seriously needs a B section. You've got a gut-punching aggressive sound that rips my attention to your piece, but you don't have enough contrast to keep the energy and my attention focused. There is a lot of development in the sound design and subtle details such as percussion, but that's icing-on-the-cake stuff. The foundation needs more contrast. There are loads of ways to achieve this, and here are just a few ideas: add a section with a different melody and chord progression, change tempo, change keys, drop out the percussion entirely for several measures, add a solo/improvised section, change registers, pass the melody between different instruments or octaves...There are a million ways you can achieve contrast. The important thing is that you have a section that is really different than what proceeded it, something that makes sense in the context of your piece but forces the listener to pay attention and be like, "Oh man, new material!" The more you can do to make your listener engage with the piece, the better. Write music in such a way that people wonder what's going to come next and cause them to ask questions of the music. Repeat something, lay a pattern, and just before it gets old, throw something entirely new at the listener to catch them off guard and laugh in awe of your genius! Writing interesting music is an act of juggling tension and release, surprise and predictability. It's reeling people in to a great story and keeping their eyes glued to you in expectation until the very last word.

You've got such an enjoyable gem of a track here, and I really want to rate it higher! There's that one critical flaw in the foundation though, that weakness in the form that holds this back from being excellent. Keep writing music, and try to think about your material from the perspective of a new listener. Keep asking yourself what you can do better, what you can learn from each track you make.

I'm looking forward to hearing more of your material down the road!

Score: 6.8/10

Adhenoid responds:

Whoa, thank you very much for your long and detailed review and suggestions! It really helps me getting the bigger picture!! I will keep making music and thanks for looking forward to it!!

Cheers! :D

[Counter-Cathexes[Piano]]

Your piece has beautiful chord progressions and pleasant melodic ideas. The first eleven seconds are particularly interesting in the way the piano line rises in an arpeggio and then falls in block chords.

The bulk of this piece consists of left hand arpeggios and sustained melodic tones. This lends to a airy, impressionistic atmosphere. I wish within that there would be more melodic development (like you start to touch on at 4:54). Try using more of the piano's range, and perhaps consider creating some counter-melodies. Varying the accompaniment pattern more might prove beneficial. The length of this piece would be more justifiable with more tension and release. I believe Chopin nocturnes to be a goldmine of ideas regarding melodic development.

You've got a beautiful framework down, and I'd love to hear it developed further. Looking forward to more of your music!

HeAvEn-SmiLE responds:

Hello!

Wow, I didn't expect to see that, this is a truly aspiring review, I'll be honest, and sorry to disappoint you: I just learnt to play the piano by myself that year, I have no official formation, So I'm not familiar with any of the vocabulary you just used.

But, I don't want to simply say that, so I took some time to fully understand the review, and this is a really impressive, informative and joyful review you just sent me there.

This version is actually the light version of what I would like to make, the sustain melodic tones are supposed to be mostly interpreted by a lyrical female singer, and there would be a lot of FX's inspired by Flying Lotus, Fergusson, Silent Hill, and Ed Harrison (strings, Atmospheric sounds etc.)

And yes, this version isn't finalized also, I understand that I'm acting as a repetitive goof for this one, and the version I can now play is definitely better, and the next version, that will be settled in the official soundtrack will be much different.

Now, I thank you a lot for your review as I'm currently discovering some of the Chopin Nocturnes to find some inspiration, also, the words you used, how you structured your review about the music is outstandingly one of the most honnest and aesthetic review I've recieved on NG, for that my friend, I can only thank you, but I'll find a way to catch up!

[In his darkened heart]

Did you perform both the violin and the piano parts? If so, you did fantastic! Just a couple minor timing issues, but very nice overall. I would love to hear this orchestrated. <3

Lumina33 responds:

Yeah I did this :) thanks a lot! :D
An orchestrated version could be very nice indeed!

[Crystal Cave]

I love your chord progression starting at 1:13, and the little piano riff in the background is lovely. I can totally imagine this in an RPG! :D

What's your musical background?

Lumina33 responds:

Hello, and thank you so much! :D
I didn't understand your question, what do you mean? :)