etherealwinds's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lullaby]

I saw you commented on the flatness of your voice. I'm not sure if you have any idea how good this really is. When I'm listening to this, I'm not thinking about the technical aspects of the music. Your singing, your playing, the lyrics... everything speaks simply from a different dimension that directly hits the heart. This is so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes and shivers down my spine.

Krichotomy responds:

Thanks. I have a very critical mind and like to address all aspects. I was outlining there some of the things that separate my work from something with a professional polish. For the record, I'm terribly fond of this recording. :)

[ECHO - Awake]

This is wonderful! Really nicely produced and beautiful compositional elements. I specifically like the choices of instruments. I felt that the ending was a little abrupt, just in my opinion. Just a concern about selling the song. From 1:10 - 1:40 bar a few notes here and there, the melody is the same as the Skyrim theme. Not sure if it was intentional and it's also highly unlikely, but that could be picked upon Copyright-wise. ^ ^

Really enjoyed this piece and I look forward to more of your work in the future!

Echo responds:

I'm glad you liked the piece. I have no idea why the ending sounds like that, because it sounds perfectly fine on the .mp3 I uploaded. Anyway, I've re-uploaded the track and it should be fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out!

As for the Skyrim-like notes, I think I might get which part you're referring to now that you mention it, and I can safely assure you it was not intentional. In any case, it sounds pretty different and I doubt anyone can accuse me of copyright infringement on a few similar notes. If that were the case, I'm pretty sure new music would have stopped being produced decades ago. There's only so many notes we can use after all xD Still, thanks for the concern, and for your support!

[Childhood Passing By]

This is simply gorgeous. Reminds me a little of Julia's Song from Final Fantasy 8 soundtrack. So, so beautiful. Happy Birthday TC <3

BlazingDragon responds:

Thank you so much Jordi. FF8 really does have an amazing soundtrack, so your comparison is very flattering. Also, congratulations on your amazing success in the NGADM! :)

[Depths]

Hello Mr OMN, thanks for uploading!

I'll start with the negative aspects. As you're just beginning, the most useful thing is being able to be aware of what's good and what's not for yourself (as subjective as that is) ^ ^

So, the timing off this song is very muddled. For example, if you had started the drums at 0:09 instead, it would have fit the composition better. This is because you're composing in the time signature 4/4 which is 4 beats in 4 measures. This means that usually, changes are made in fourths of a beat. (8 beats pass from 0 seconds to 9 seconds, so that's usually when the drums would come in.) Instead, 10 beats pass and then the drums come in which is very strange to me.

The tempo (speed) of your song means that each beat matches one second perfectly. That makes it very easy to keep to 4/4! :) try keeping to that time and see how it works out.

I've noticed that in this and other tracks, there is a lot of repetitiveness. You do have some interesting melodies here and there. Knowing when to place them in the composition effectively will make them shine more. It almost sounds like you've created lots of random melodies and riffs and just pasted them in random places if you know what I mean. The structure and rhythm of a song is just as important as the melodies and the actual sound.

The ending is very abrupt which in this case isn't a positive. ^ ^

You do seem to have an ear for good melodies and interesting parts, I think your next task is to just place them in a more ordered way so it doesn't sound like you're just throwing things here and there. I'm not very good at explaining things, however I hope I somehow helped. I'll be listening to your future tracks. Keep improving! :)

Mrobeymenow responds:

That was actually quite good advice, I need all the help I can get and I'll try to use this as much as I can. Thanks.

[Mining Capital of Az'ahil]

Fantastic atmosphere!! Enjoyed listening to this :)

Neon-Bard responds:

Awesome, I'm glad to hear it! Thanks for listening. :)

[Fading (Piano Improv)]

This is very delicately done. Gorgeous, TC!

BlazingDragon responds:

Thank you so much, and congratulations on the competition my friend. I tied for third place in the NGADM last year, and it looks like you've done the same this time around! Maybe next year we can battle for 1st and 2nd (or collaborate, who knows? haha).

Anywho, I'm terribly busy at the moment, but I'd love to catch up on Skype sometime in the future. I'm looking forward to hearing more music from you!

[The Traveler (Battle) WiP]

I think you are the most perfect human being. This is fantastic!! MORE PLS C:

headphoamz responds:

Thank you my dearest EW <3

[the fight]

I think that you've really done a great job here. I think this track as well as Steam's is extremely final worthy. For some reason, I find myself getting hooked to this track a little more though. I really like the movement of the section starting at 2:13, however at 2:22, I can hear distortion in the two of the drum hits (perhaps this was intended! ((I'm not experienced with the glitching effect)))! This is one of those tracks that is easy to instantly fall in love with and rather action-packed. I can imagine it in an online beat-em-up game or something and I'd just pause it so that I could listen to this track.

This sure is going to be a close final!! <3

johnfn responds:

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. That is in fact part of the glitch, though I can understand it being a little jarring, especially if you haven't heard glitchy stuff before.

There's definitely a degree to which more epic stuff is more instantly likeable. It's something I sometimes have a problem with, since I'm not always in the mood to write super explosive songs. (And I don't think that epic songs are necessarily better, just easier to like.)

Thanks for the review man! I need some time to recuperate but we definitely have to do that 8 bit collab. :D

[A Weirdo's Gigue]

A final-worthy piece indeed. This demonstrates your ability to transfer your strong musical identity through genres! This has your Steamprints all over it. What always astounds me is your attention to detail in both the composition and mixing. Everything just seems so perfectly placed and I will never know how you manage to do that. My mind finds it a little hard to distinguish the structure of this song, I think as somebody else mentioned. I'm not sure what it is that makes it difficult o_o I also didn't expect it to end so abruptly. I expected the repeated part at the end to carry on as long as before and for a separate outro to come in and tie things off.

Really well executed and another amazing Steampianist track. My favourite from you so far. It's so great to see how the NGADM has progressed into this point where we're left with two near-flawless tracks from two very talented artists. Impeccable! :)

steampianist responds:

your having trouble figuring out the form its pretty simple or so i thought

thanks for the review! dude

[Graveyard Shenanigans]

Hello Steam!!

Great to see yet another track, Steam doing what Steam does best. I can't hear any flaws at all in the production technique. That's one thing I truly envy about you. You have such a technical ear for knowing exactly where to place each instrument, the levels, the reverb or lack of... everything that I struggle with! You're a master.

In its own right, this track is also masterful, just like you. It's like you put a part of you into every track you make. It really comes alive and that is something you cannot learn to do. You've also inspired my Halloween costume through this song! To look at things in a wider perspective, there is one thing having a niche or a personal sound that people instantly recognise as being personal to you (I'm very much that type of artist myself!). However, it can get to a point where things start to sound a bit 'samey'. I mean this in the sense that I don't really hear anything new hear that you haven't already done. That being said, what you've already done has always been executed so successfully! (I usually avoid giving personal critique on stuff such as this because it could come across as offensive, although that is far from my intention!! ;^ ^)

I'm a huge fan of your work SP, truly. I'm going to be listening to your existing and future tracks for a long while to go and I am jealous of your production techniques. Please give me some tips some time ;_;

steampianist responds:

Thanks man and its probably obvious im a big fan of your work as well.

Uhm yeah it is kinda samey and lolz cmon give me some slack its hard to think of something "new"
anyways thanks for the review and congrats for winning 3rd dude for someone who is fresh in newgrounds thats awesome