etherealwinds's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Juste Une Blague]

You're giving me the urge to try and compose some sort of Haunted Circus theme. I'm envious of your talent really and in such a short amount of time too!

Keep it up and good luck!!

[In the end]

This piece actually reminds me of Final Fantasy 8. For some reason, I can imagine Julia playing this for Laguna. And then it kicks in and becomes something really fun to listen to. For something that was written so quickly, I think you should be really really proud. I'd be scared if I was up against you (even though you played the piano in mine haha!)

I think that NGADM or not, you should go ahead and compose the piece you wanted to pull off. The piece deserves to be made, just as this did. Great job BD~! :)

BlazingDragon responds:

You said you would be scared to go up against me but you got quite a bit further into the contest! Congratulations on that. :)

[GM - Dragon Of The South]

This reminds me of Dynasty Warriors music personally, a love of mine. This really flowed quite well for me, which can sometimes be a problem I've found with some metal. I think the balance of the different parts could be looked at, for example the pads I find would benefit with some stereo shaping and some more vibrance. I felt like it wasn't packing as much of a punch as it could, but then I decided to turn my volume up! ;) fantastic work!

InYourDreams responds:

Thanks for the nice words, man! ^_^ ... yeah, this thing with sacrificing loudness for dynamics still doesn't convince me. It sounds great but you have to turn the volume up... I don't know... Why can't we have both? :D

[Cthulhu Surfaces]

You've really pulled it out of the bag for me. It's reminiscent of so many different things for me, feeling-wise in each of the different parts! I just love 2:10-2:20 and the eerie turn it takes. This could be shot straight into a movie IMO. You're probably my favourite composer on Newgrounds, simply because you really push the boundaries. You're not afraid to experiment and take risks and they *always* seem to pay off. 5 stars out of 5!

headphoamz responds:

D'aww, thanks EW! Appreciate the feedback here. I'm happy you thought 2:10 was eerie as well. That's what I was going for!

[Delving Into Desolation]

This is absolutely beautiful. With most cinematic composers on NG, I've noticed that I've never heard a track that doesn't have some sort of climax. I think the fact that this doesn't actually build up to anything but really just remains consistently beautiful goes to show that you don't need this 'huge' sound to create something absolutely beautiful.

Seriously, I could see this for some reason in an older Tomb Raider game (if the quality was lower that is!) So beautiful. You've earned yourself a new fan :-)

Neon-Bard responds:

Thank you so much for the kind words! It really means a lot that you think that this track can be associated with the word 'beautiful'; a simple word like that can be a representation of a thousand things, all of them good. I often struggle with the conclusions of my songs, but I think you were right in saying that not all cinematic songs need that huge sound to come off as...well...beautiful!

I have never played a Tomb Raider game, but considering the weight that this title carries, I'm taking that as a huge compliment! Thank you once again for the review and kind words. :)

[Steam's Wonderful Contraptions]

One of the visualisations is hypnotising which, along with this song makes me feel like I'm being slowly shrunk and being dragged into some sort of toy world. This is really awesome and very you. There's really something to fresh about what the audio section of NG seem to have to offer the world and this is a fine example. Five stars, amazing job.

steampianist responds:

A weird toy world haha I like that! And yes there is alot of interesting tracks here in NG (and its free)
anyways thanks for the review and goodluck in round 2. You have an amazing track as well I downloaded It haha

[Worth Your Time]

I really really enjoyed this! It feels very Owl City or Hello Goodbye which of course can only be a good thing. The lyrics were really nice too and this was really well put together. The vocals sounded a little nasal and the accent almost sounded too American to sound natural, but apart from that I thought it was very sweet. The sudden build up in the end chorus was nice, as was the atmospheric ending!

Good job :)

[Automation]

Wow. You can really tell that you've put in the hours of work it took to perfect this piece. The atmosphere is so industrial yet genuinely beautiful at the same time. Before hearing this, I wasn't sure that was actually possible. It seems I'm learning more and more about the music world every single day.

I really enjoyed the way the music box brought the beginnings of this piece together and the contrast between the orchestral instrumentation and the mechanical half of the composition I felt was extremely well thought out. I feel this is less of a review and more of an awed comment of a finished and perfected piece of work.

It shows true workmanship to take a song and receive feedback from so many other artists to really get the *best* out of a piece. I'd have loved to watch this composition unfold. Really fantastic.

Step responds:

Oh man, thanks for a second review! Love your reviews, it means a lot coming from a person who swiftly became one of my favourite composers and singers on this site.

"Wow. You can really tell that you've put in the hours of work it took to perfect this piece."

It's what I try and aim for in every track of mine. I am very, very bad at speed-writing and have to put a tonne of detail and time into every piece of mine. I don't know about other musicians but I can't compose something unless I'm entirely satisfied with how it's coming along haha.

"The atmosphere is so industrial yet genuinely beautiful at the same time. Before hearing this, I wasn't sure that was actually possible. It seems I'm learning more and more about the music world every single day."

Got to credit steampianist's track - it gave me the inspiration for this track, and probably nails this atmosphere much more than I do.

"I really enjoyed the way the music box brought the beginnings of this piece together and the contrast between the orchestral instrumentation and the mechanical half of the composition I felt was extremely well thought out."

Thanks! Glad that worked.

"I feel this is less of a review and more of an awed comment of a finished and perfected piece of work."

Aw shucks x_x. Thanks!

"It shows true workmanship to take a song and receive feedback from so many other artists to really get the *best* out of a piece. I'd have loved to watch this composition unfold. Really fantastic."

I believe getting feedback from lots of other people during the work-in-progress stage is a veeerrrry important thing to do. Opinions from other people really help clear up the perceptive "fog" of bias that a musician has while listening to his/her track, and other people can point out things that the musician himself/herself wouldn't have noticed, along with, of course, give cool ideas that can really shape the direction of the track.

Anyway, enough rambling. This review made my day (more like my week). I can't thank you enough!