Michael-Flaherty's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Battle For The Red Saber (OST For An Imaginary SNES Game)]

These are all really freakin good. I had a similar idea recently to make a soundtrack to a fake game, I bet you had a lot of fun doing this!

AlexanderJoshuaDavis responds:

Thanks a lot mate! Yeah I had so much fun with the SNES Music competition on here that for the next week after I wrote my entry I just kept jamming out additional tracks (although not as polished/detailed as the first one) in that SNES style... I'm thinking of actually putting together a really cheesy 2D RPG Space Opera game to the music at some point haha (but I'm working on another more serious game project for the time being)...

Hey... maybe I should start a competition on here... "Writer the score for an imaginary video game", (abridged, say 15 mins of music minimum) maybe have a vote on the genre/era/console or whatever... let me know if you'd be interested in that and I'll try and put something together, maybe with John Montoya, I'll have to save a bit of money for some prizes.

Cheers!

[Trump Guard]

Great work as always!

[Escape from Lunad IV (OST For An Imaginary Video Game) - SNES Music Competition 2020]

This is really great stuff. Good job!

AlexanderJoshuaDavis responds:

Thank you very much mate! I found it so much fun I've been writing one SNES style track for an imaginary game every day since haha.

[Crimes Across The Moon]

This rules! Awesome genre of music that you pull off really well. The overall production is really great, great instruments, great sound FX filling out the soundscape. Very interesting chords, I felt like the song is always doing something I didn't expect harmonically which I like. For criticism I think too much of the song sounds like improvisation (which is maybe exactly what you were going for) but I would have liked a more prominent melody. from 0:58-1:16 there's a strong melody there with a repeating idea that's good but I would have liked if that ended going somewhere new, make the song feel like it's really going somewhere. 1:36-1:55 is just perfect. Good work!

Trippple responds:

Damn! You really thought this through. Thank you! Listening to the song now I see what you mean and agree. I guess I went blind listening to it a lot while making it. The solos became so familiar to me that they sounded more like melodies. And I totally agree with the ending on the 58-1:16 part. It didn't have to be much, just a different end note or so. Thank you again!

[Escape 8bit (No Drum)]

I love this! Great work!

[Fairy Frenzy]

You're a madman. You're stuff is so crazy inventive and creative I don't even know how to review it really. I liked the sounds for the beat and your use of bit reduction.

[Deepminded - Cyberdjent Album - Synthwave Metal]

This really f’in good!! Love the high pitched delayed sound at 0:07, Love the prominent major 7th in the melody in the beginning and end parts, great production overall!

NahuPyrope responds:

Yeah!, little details like that are things that I love doing!

[Bonus Stage]

Very nice! I like the start of the song, like how it goes from one thing to the next so quickly (sound effect -> a little melody -> octave beeps -> ascending notes -> level start -> rest of the song). I'm sure you wrote it that way because you're envisioning how the bonus stage would go and and are writing to that, but I just like the energy/unpredictability of it. My only criticism is I feel the rest of the song kind of settles into a routine repeats the refrain and varies just with instrumentation (I did like the instrumentation of the last bit with the strings on melody). I enjoy how upbeat and fun the melody is! Definitely fits the idea of a bonus stage.

[Cloud Chaser]

Love to see people doing awesome things with FM8! The jumpy/plucky synth at the beginning is really nice, very full of energy gets the song off to a great start. So many of the sounds are great actually, it sounds like you switch between two different snare drums and I like one of them a lot, its nice and crunchy. The "GO" at 0:28 obviously is killer. I lovvve what almost sounds like birds chirping at 1:34. Did you make that in fm8? The lead instrument at 2:40 also very smooth. I mean you use that reverby violin sound all throughout the song but for some reason to me it sounds especially nice at that moment.

I can't comment on the mix too much cause I'm listening this on crappy laptop speakers, but it seems you make full use of frequency range and the mix sounds not too muddy and things seem quite clear overall.

I would say the melodies and chords are just a touch generic. But again, I think you make up for that a lot with how interesting your sounds are.

I almost feel this could be in the background for an endless runner type game? It just seems like less of something that demands your attention and more like something that could be in the background of a movie or a game. Thats probably due to the repetitive nature of the song.

Overall I really like it. I'm glad you decided to spend time polishing the song, it definitely showed through.

Felocai responds:

Wow, thats a nice review, thanks.
The sound at 1:34 is not any kind of plugin, its just a sample of singing birds I've downloaded from the internet.
The melodies may sound kinda childish and generic, but that's an effect, that I've wanted to get, I've wanted this song to be extremely happy, but I get your point.
Olso when I was making this song, I've wanted it to be like a soundtrack from something, so it may be a little repetitive, but I see you understand this.
Anyways, thanks for rewieving and I'm really glad you like it.