Reviews for Chip 'n' Swing

[Geoplex]

This is an NGADM 2015 Round 1 Review.

So I almost always have a soft-spot for chiptuney stuff, despite not playing many games as a kid beyond like, pokemon. It's certainly left me with a love for simple wavetable/noise based percussion though :P

So this song is lovely, and I enjoyed it, though it has the unfortunate characteristic of being very much like background music structurally. I understand that's a result of its inspirations/origins, but when comparing it to the other songs in the group I have to take this into account. There are some really really awesome melodies in there, particularly at 1:40 and 2:33, but I feel that there isn't much else that actually stands out throughout the song. It's all very consistent, coherent and flows nicely, but it keeps the same steady pace pretty much throughout. I understand though that this could be considered part of the genre.

As mentioned, this song is pretty damn sweet melodically. Sweet really is the word, it's just satisfying, and there's something about the purity of square wavetables that I just love. I think the melodies of this piece are the strongest aspect for sure - though with that said, I didn't like how you ended it. It was very sudden and caught me off-guard, and honestly felt a little rushed. Looping it may have even been a better decision, going back to what the intro started with, or something similar at least.

Production-wise there isn't a lot to say because this is a simple song with simple ideas, but what you've done works well. My only complaint comes from how quiet this song is. I know that, again, it's probably appropriate for the genre; but you've got nearly 5dB of headroom throughout most of the song. You're also sitting at -20RMS which is very quiet. You should be able to achieve louder results without losing any quality of your mix from these levels, in my opinion.

Anyway, this is a nice song. It's nice, it's quite lovely in fact. I don't think it stands out, but it's consistent and solid and enjoyable, and for that I think it's a great song.

[TaintedLogic]

I liked the arpeggios at the beginning. The drums were cool. I liked how the track sort of built on the chords at the beginning as it went onwards. The melodies are cool. The one at :49 has an especially cathartic vibe to it. I also like the variety you started incorporating at 1:19. It sounds really fitting for a videogame. The production quality is pretty high, although I think you might’ve been able to fill some more texture at times, even if that simply involved using more reverb. This piece is varied a lot, though, which is usually a good thing, although I think you took it a little too far. It kind of lacks coherence after a point. You never brought back any of the more memorable melodies from the first half of the piece during the second half. You also ended the piece a little ambiguously, which was not really in keeping with the videogame theme. In fact, practically speaking 0:00 to 1:16 and 1:17 to 3:20 could be entirely separate songs, albeit probably part of the same game. Still, my main problem with the piece is that you never really bring it full circle by the end. I suppose you could say it’s structurally disjointed. I admire your sense of harmony and rhythm, though. The jazzy vibes you have during the second half of the piece are awesome. Keep at it, man. ;)

8.5/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

[Drewdler]

I love all of this. The rhythm, melody and everything else :D

[ethasaur]

I can tell you've put a lot of work into this. Musically, this is interesting. It's got a nice basic structure, and changes up enough to keep it from being repetitive. The arrangement is good too, all the parts blend together nicely, and the transitions between the different portions of the song are smooth and unnoticeable. I could definitely see this being a track on something like Donkey Kong Country, very nice. As far as the mix goes, this song also excels. It is smooth and sweetened, and avoids the classic, painful high end hiss of actual chip generated music. Clean and clear. Good work, and good luck! Keep it up.

[SILVER128]

The second the music hit my ears all I could say is you are awesome and your music is amazing

Yahtzei responds:

Haha! :D you're too kind. Thanks a lot ^^