LostChronology's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Path Less Traveled]

This deserves to be in some kind of horror short or game. Very ominous and eery, these drones are a perfect fit for this. The kind of drum pattern which you are using here reminds me a lot of a 90s drumloop from the Distorted Reality sample CD. You should really give the OST of Rayman 2 a listen some time, some of your ambient tracks remind me so much of the work of Eric Chevalier on the Rayman 2 OST.

Great use of percussion in combination with the synths. Not a huge fan of the distorted part around 03:33, but the advent of business around 04:00 and later adds to the 'storyline' in this piece of a chaotic and unknown path which leads to strange ways and an unexpected journey.

That hi-hat effect around 04:45 is very nice.

Where did you get the bird samples from? Fadeout and outro work great.

Magnificent piece.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Wow! Thank you for such a wonderful in depth review! I used to listen to the Rayman 1 CD when I was a kid. I never got a hold of the 2nd game though. I should look into it for a listen. I suppose this song could be dark or light themed depending on the visuals used. I like when music has a broad bandwidth of emotions to work with. It’s more like real life that way IMO. I’m so happy you saw a story line in this. It was written as such. It’s to be expected that there will be elements people like and ones they don’t. I’m glad you enjoyed the journey though! All the samples were made by me. I used a field recorder to get all the chime, bowl, rain, bell and bird sounds. Only stock sample was the thunder. : )

[Ola Horn Boy!]

That bass loop and piano part around the middle are interesting!

It seems like you were inspired to do upbeat and simply happy sounding pieces lately. I am not sure if I would personally have done the percussion a bit louder, I might be wrong but I think they might be a bit too soft. I can imagine this as an intro to some kind of adventure or journey in medieval times, if you get what I mean. This is most likely due to the orchestral instruments in the beginning and something in the rhythm.

All in all a nice piece! :)

Getting to learn new software can be difficult so it's cool that you are getting a hang of how Cubase works!

pitbulljones responds:

Yo! Yea, definitely been more upbeat lately, but don't you worry, I will have some shoe gaze, ambient hellscape concocted soon enough ha. I can see why you may prefer a louder kit, to be honest, if I did a tiny wider mix and rolled some reverb off it would likely punch through better. I like the imagery you have. I do try to create atmosphere, i never know where I land.

ty bro.

[Echo My Bunny, Man. (Demo/Rough Pass)]

Nice relaxed feel, I like the bass line a lot. It's a bit short, but it's a nice beginning groove, I am interested to see how you could continue and expanding on this to let it rock out, if you get what I mean, using a cymbal after that last part and completely rocking away the scene. At least, that is what I would find interesting as a thing to do with this, as I see that you mention this is a thing you are working on.

Like somebody else here said, sounds very clean. The trumpets around 0:40 really give it an additional relaxed feeling.

pitbulljones responds:

Yup.

Lots of work to be done. I'm trying to sort things with a new band. It's hard being all parts to try and not be me innit lmao. I know my b section which will help.

[It's Not The First Time]

Mysterious...

I like the initial sounds in this, very calming.

01:22 is a pleasant surprise, I really like this old rock sound in this. Mix sounds good, clear shift from the beginning to a more worldly, open piece from the initial esoteric seclusion from the world. It clearly goes from the inside to the outside, esoteric to exoteric.

Synth works well with the guitar and the soft percussion which gives a flow to this. Wonderful nice little piece. :)

pitbulljones responds:

Yea. Its very much meant for a vocal on this. Fun fact. All of this is guitar. Not a single synth was used on this :)

[Knocking On The Sky (remastered)]

I really like how mysterious this sounds. Very atmospheric. I can't remember which track exactly, but this reminds me a lot of some of the soundtracks of the Rayman 2 OST. I think it was this track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7-QZ2O-Bz0&t=8072s

EDIT: I think specifically this track of Rayman 2 sounds very similar to your track here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7-QZ2O-Bz0&t=10456s

I really love this track.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Hey thanks much!

heh, ah rayman. I remember listening to the OST of the first game on my boom box as a kid. : P

[Happy Space Adventures]

Cool, I love the weird vibe this has and the spacy feeling as well.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Thank you. Glad you like it. : )

[Skyline Submarine]

From around 0:17 it gets interesting.

I like the instrument selection and how they work in combination with each other and the song structure in general, however I don't think that this would strictly fall into the genre of Drum and Bass and would fit more as an experimental piece. It sounds more like something which would fit as game music.

I really like the dissonant parts around 1:08 and from there, it almost makes one think of some kind of mysterious place.

One thing to work on is building in more dynamic range and playing with silence as opposed to full sound and also the addition of sound effects and allude to new sections in certain ways, for example by risers. I also think the percussion currently is a bit dry, so maybe add some reverb to it like the reverb on the synth to make it sound more like it's part of a whole.

Good work!

Walle031106 responds:

Thanks! I'll make sure to take your feedback into consideration. I'm always looking to improve my music.

[Super Demo Fighter 2 Turbo Tournament Edition Deluxe]

Interesting use of reverb in the beginning, due to the bassline this reminds me of early pop music from a few decades ago.

It all fits together, I like the slight background vocals in this. It's a demo as I see but the only thing which I would improve in a full non-demo version is to not make it repetitive, as the bassline stays the same for a long time. But that is the only thing, it sounds well mixed to me with good leveling of the different instruments.

pitbulljones responds:

Thanks mate. For the verb, i use vintage reverb by valhalla, swear by it it ha. I did decide I would make something 'poppy' i tend never to do so, though the bass is just my normal telecaster eq'd.

Absolutely agree, it's repetitive. I'm not even sure what I do or don't like and there's a high chance I scrap most of this and redo it, hopefully with a melody, vox, some acoustic. I think maybe keep the chords and the bass....but i may do them again. Tempo's an issue, i may go to 140 from 120.

I basically need to spend the next week really tearing this apart.

thank you for the kind words mate

[FD - i (Full Album)]

A very odd intro, this sounds very experimental.

I love the part from about 01:45, very outworld-ish melodies and soundscapes here.

Part around 03:25 makes me think of some of the experimental tracks of bands like Boards of Canada, the violins are a very nice layer upon the more lo-fi elements in here.

04:26 has more of a poppy sound to it in my opinion which has some interesting build-ups to other loops which return to the otherworldly sentiment in an earlier part.

Not entirely sure on the part around 09:01 personally, it fits the title of backwards insanity but it is a bit too much insanity for me I think haha.

I like Pulsating Resolve a lot, it has some very interesting aspects to it, even borders on IDM with an Aphex Twin vibe to it as well.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thanks for the kind review~ It is very experimental to me, indeed, and also personal to some extent. I'll leave you pondering about what could have been.

[Whisper Truths]

I like the intro of this piece, from 0:54 it gets great, love the ambience with the synths and soft low pass percussion. I think this is one of the best progressing tracks I have heard, there is a complete change yet coherence in the complete build-up of this and it all fits together with an interesting soundscape.

The tag triphop fits very well for this, I can see this work well as background music. The part around 03:16 reminds me of this track of another Newgrounder: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/85134 (02:49 I think, it reminds me most of)

Very clean mix and great placement of instruments, I can clearly hear how it's your style, your tracks are always recognizable. Probably one of your best ones so far.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Thanks. Ambiance, atmosphere and coherent evolution, IS, MY, THING. Sometimes I suck at it. Sometimes I’m boss. It really makes my day though when it turns out I did it right. To be completely honest, it’s a force of nature thing. Some tunes just want to be. They just grow very evenly and naturally. It’s really a treat when that happens.

Wow, that’s really satisfying to hear you talk about my style being recognizable in a song that came together so well.

One of my best. Well it’s my newest tune, so thank you for making me feel like I am still improving. : )