Nice! Sounds really clean. The intro is outstanding. Then it's lacking a little bit of loudness on the drums imo (but it's minimal). Length is pretty much perfect. Listened to it many times and really enjoyed it.
Keep it up man!
Reviews for "substructure"
johnfn responds:
Thanks man! I will be sure to properly louderize my drums in my future tracks :-)
Outstanding! I love the groovy sound it has and the transitions
The voices added even more space to the piece (and it was huge already) it's a great use of all the electronic sounds! and that solo at the end haha just outstanding!
Really great stuff!
johnfn responds:
Thank you!
Sounds very pleasant. You mentioned earlier your songs weren't very complex, but I think it's complex enough though. More complex doesn't mean better. I like the fast synths a lot. They're hard to follow, but they sound funky and go easy on the ear. The ending isn't bad, though just a little cut off it seems. It would be nice if you could fix that, but it's not too annoying. Cutting a song down to most important parts sounds like a good idea. 3 to 5 minutes generally is the best length for me to hold my attention. Good job.
johnfn responds:
I just fixed your problem with the crash as you made this comment.
I'm glad you liked it! The thing about being unable to follow synths was in some way part of my goal, in that the melody would come second to the emotions that the melody brought through. It's kind of weird and I can understand that maybe I could have executed it better!
Your point about complexity is interesting. While I consider this song to have a lot of notes, I don't consider them to be particularly complex notes. ;-) The chord movements are all very straightforward, as are the melodies. But I don't think that's necessarily bad. Some of the greatest music ever written was straightforward too.
I love the use of the piano that comes in around the minute mark. (You know how I feel about piano.)
After waiting from the buildup for the beat, you did not disappoint. Have you ever listened to William Orbit? This reminds me of a modern "Water From a Vineleaf". Very beat-heavy, a driving synth, but not overpowering. Takes you up into a Tron universe, and offers a relaxing dip back towards reality.
The only critique I have would be to soften the voice a little bit, make it somewhat more blended into the background. It caught me off guard at first. :)
Anyhoo, I downloaded. Gonna listen to this while I go for a run. Makes me think I'm in the Matrix. Good work!
johnfn responds:
I really like piano. Will probably be using it more if I get further into NGADM :p
Wow, Water From a Vineleaf sounds very similar to my song, down to the repetitive electronic melody with 7ths and spoken word female vocals! It's also totally awesome. I really love songs with the groovy bass guitar :D
I think you're right about the vocal, so I turned it down just a tad when it comes in. Thanks for the review!
This piece is pretty chill overall, and I dig how it picks up between the 1:50 and 2:45 mark with some tight percussion. The electronic style and progression of the instruments is fun and - to me, at least - a bit reminiscent of Daft Punk. I found just one thing to be decidedly negative, and that's the way your stereophonic cymbal echoes are so abruptly cut off at the end. It just doesn't sound good like that, and I don't know if it was intentional or not, but in my opinion it would sound much better if they were allowed to taper off completely.
Best of luck to you in the NGADM! Keep up the awesome work (like you need me to tell you).
johnfn responds:
Thanks for listening, and I'm glad you liked it! You're completely right about the crash, and I've since fixed that problem. I didn't have enough time to do the once-over listen after I finished rendering it, so I just uploaded it to NG, figuring I'd smooth it over later. But then you guys came and left reviews that did pretty much the same thing. Thanks! Will keep up the awesomeness :D