endKmusic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Rising Star]

Is it me or do I sense Green Hill Zone vibes in here? :D
Great arrangement and composition.
Some synth sounds didn't fit that well to my ear, but it's a great song nonetheless.
Especially loved the solo!
Good work. :)

SourJovis responds:

You are the first to make the connection between Green Hill Zone and this song, but I completely agree.

Like I mentioned I went for a first level type of song. The kind that is catchy so it draws players in so they want to continue playing and which is the song that immediately comes to mind when they think about the game. Green Hill Zone is such a song, but with a pop-music vibe many other game music of that time lack, and which is what gives Sonic a cooler image than say Mario for instance. I bet it also helps this song uses a lot of FM modulation synthesis, just like the Sega Genesis does.

What are the synth sounds you felt didn't fit so well if you could describe them?

Thank you for the feedback!

[The Wizard's Grimoire]

Nice touch with panning!
Hooked on that main motif.
Love your sense of 'brief' storytelling as much as I liked it in One Hero's Journey, although I'm curious and wonder how it would sound if it was longer and every part had more time to develop (since there are a lot of individual parts).
Great job once more Chrono!

ChronoNomad responds:

Haha, awesome! Two positive comments on the panning in a row. Thank you very much, endKashika. I respect the heck out of all my fellow artists, but I generally deem you to be right at the top of the heap when it comes to all things Chiptune, so your feedback means a lot to me.

My time for working on this piece was a bit more limited this year, but I still wanted to make the most of it and do something along a similar vein to One Hero's Journey. Fortunately, I was able to finish the track with a few days' grace, especially since I ended up coming down with the cold that's been making the rounds. Suffice to say, it's much harder to work on music when your ears are all stopped up and your head feels like it's locked in a vice.

Perhaps one day I'll take some of these smaller sections and flesh them out a bit more. For now, it's been really fun trying to tell a story over the course of a handful of minutes. What's really crazy is that this track has more individual sections that last year's...even though it's almost a minute shorter!

Thanks again for the review, endKashika! It's really cool to know that you're listening.

[TL - Exposition of Unrequited Love]

I feel that for pieces like these (that sound like an improvisation) it takes a lot time to write and produce and/or you have to have much inspiration. Really enjoyed it.
Played it and felt really relaxed. Like someone right next to me was sitting and carefully improvising. ^_^
Don't think there's anything to point out in this one, since it's solo instrument song that effectively represents 'background music' style.
Amazing work.

TaintedLogic responds:

Thanks a lot for the kind review, endK! I'm really glad you found the piece so relaxing. :)

[Ace Attorney - Steel Samurai (Remix)]

Nice one!
Love the production, althought that filter at 0:49 was kinda weird.
Nevertheless great job and keep it up! :)

mutty99 responds:

Thanks! :)
I used that filter to make the song less repetitive since it's also a loop.

[Hazard Pay]

Nice composition!
Really tense and evolving.
Stereo separation is really great and love the instruments you chose overall.
I'm spooked!

Possibly responds:

Hey, thanks very much, appreciate the review and the kind words, glad you like it!

[Possessed]

Smooth and catchy.
Melody, perc and instruments - right on point.
EW's vocals amazing as usual.
Agree with Conquestus about the bass though, but on the other hand it kinda adds that room live effect inside the song though. :)
Great work guys!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you for listening and for reviewing!

I had fun working with the sax and the synth. I rarely create jazz songs, so it's a nice change :D

[Felix Zophar - The Dark Plains]

Hey Zoph!

Nice short track you got here.
That intro was pretty amazing, I just love the fx you used.
Sets the song off in the right direction.
The beat nicely kicks in along with layers of spooky plucky melody.
Would be even better if you added some spooky reverbed hats or ride along with that.
Also that stabby chord synth at 0:23 is great. Props to that.

Lead in the second part feels kinda weird to me, too dynamic - I'd compress it or lower the volume overall if you wanna keep the dynamics. Maybe even cut a bit of those mids and boost the high frequencies.

I didn't like the dubstepish part, since I don't hear the drums at all.
I feel like the piece is evolving all the time which is good, builds up to that final drop and finaly the energy is somehow lost.
I'd really go crazy on that third part - bring up some sidechaining, volume up the drums overall. This way the synths are taking over the whole song - that's my main complaint.

To sum up, really great start and setting off.
The idea is really great, atmosphere's really brought up, but that end (3rd part) needs some work in my opinion.

Keep up the good work! :)

FelixZophar responds:

Yeah I didn't really like the dubstep either. I just started making dubstep so yeah. And pretty much everything you told me to improve on, like adding fx, I did. But I guess not enough. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

[Från ett frö]

Beautiful!
Great sense of dynamics, structuring and evolving the piece (playing overall).
Love those chords that caught me off-guard. ^_^
Ending got me woooah.
Amazing work!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I'm glad you like it!
I like this piece too, but I'm a bit surprised that so many people like it that much! Maybe it has something to do with the structure.
Thank you for the review!

[Showdown!! [SSS]]

Wow!

Love the sounds, rhythm and whooooooa!
I'm positive that it's a top-notch for a game you worked on.
Sumo-wrestling pancakes, lmao. :D

Amazing work overall, no complaints. :)

Deemo-R responds:

Wow man, thanks! Really glad you liked it, and I really appreciate the compliments! All credit goes to my teammates for the ridiculous ideas, lol.

[Not Knowing What We've Found]

Lovely build-up you got going on here.
Composition and tension is evolving really nice.
Catchy and videogame-ish.
Feel like some kind of heavily reverbed snare would be great in here. Brass also. :)
Would also recommend humanizing instruments more, but if you were going for some sort of simple and (as I said) videogame-ish vibe, don't mind this.
Keep up the good work!

FateModified responds:

Thanks endK! I wasn't particularly going for a video-gamish vibe, but I'm OK with that. You're right, I could have humanized the instruments more. I should have done some automation on the volume levels of the strings and brass, but I kind of ran out of time. This was done for a compo, and I was short on time. I didn't think about the reverbed snare for this one. I'll keep that in mind for my later compositions.

Thanks for the review, I appreciate the feedback! :D