ChioBam's Reviews

['The Cosmic Fork']

Great (:

Very trippy, I like it a lot, almost reminds me of a sort of Salad Fingers, only way more futuristic and a bit less creepy. Great choice of music and interesting art, I like this a lot though, 10/10 5/5

Butzbo responds:

THanks for the review, i'm actually aiming at some sort of creepyness ;D

[Corn and Broccoli (Ep 2)]

Haw,

Very amusing, I like it a lot.
The broccoli fellow makes me want to kill someone though, but I think that's the point, very well done. 10/10 5/5

[Adrellia Village #11]

I like it,

Obviously, it's not very well drawn, but it's a fun little video to watch, I haven't watched the previous ones admittedly, which I apologize for (:

8/10 4/5

[Menulis]

Very interesting. Lost me a good way in. I was really digging this arrangement of Blue Bossa. I enjoyed what I played of the game (Got stuck on the number part, didn't really care to go much further. I was ensnared by the glory of Mr. Dorham. Good job, either way.

[Take a Walk.]

Very fun game. I find it interesting that the first level is the most rhythmically challenging with the rubato. While the 3rd level is the easiest because it has a very defined downbeat. Lots of fun. Good job. 5/5

[Apples in the Tree]

I imagine this game is really cool, but I'm a bit confused. Maybe I'm just being impatient, but I clicked the damn tree sixteen times, all it did was move. I can't move this "Dolly" character at all. WASD won't work, nor will my arrow keys. is this normal?

[Rathunas - Realm of the Wraith]

I really enjoy your mixture of consonance and dissonance here. You never really approach or depart from those consonant chords too abruptly, leaving basically everything sounding dissonant in context, even when it's not. This is something reminiscent of one of my favorite composers, Toru Takemitsu, so it's always nice to hear this idea being utilized so well.

It creates an atmosphere that sways between uneasiness and calmness. Mostly uneasiness. With the addition of all the background noise: the subtle whispers, the string screeching, the cymbals, etc. are all wonderful and important additions. Looks like I'm going to have to reinstall Oblivion. Good stuff, Chris.

[Doswidanja Rodina]

I need to start by saying that this sound pack is delicious. Holy guacamole. You are one of my favorite living composers. The main reason is because you know how to paint a vivid picture with only sounds. Computer generated sounds at that, not even real human expressiveness. The balance is smooth, the voices are warm and brilliant, the harmonies are the right kind of dissonant where I don't feel like I'm sitting through a Berg piece, but you're definitely creating an intensity and discomfort.

There are definitely spots where you've captured that classic Russian sound, but I feel as though you may have been able to implement slower interpretations of Russian dance rhythms or something like that to really give it an authentic cultural flavor, but that's only a passing thought. Your choice of go-to intervals and bass-lines do a good enough job of creating that atmosphere.

I love what you do, Chris. Never stop please.

SoundChris responds:

Thank you cery much, ChioBam. Your words really make me happy friend :) I always try to create a vivid musical scenery. Even i stil only have virtual instruments and no real orchestras (i really hope that will be possible someday) i do think that the virtual ones are created to surrogate the real ones. So its important to try to come as close tho the real thing as possible. Also its important to try to add some human touch. I never quantize. I draw all the cc command lines per mouse. Sometimes i draw a single bar over and over and over again until it sounds well for my taste. Such a track takes quite much time - maybe 30 hours of hard work. The composition itself only takes about 5 - the rest is the editing :D

I see what you mean with the russian dance rhythms / folk elements. I also was thinking of that. In the end i wanted to try out to combine a lord of the rings sound with russian elements and some atonal harmonies as you could find it in an alien movie - this was the result. Maybe that explains that the piece is hard to be categorized.

Again: Thanks so much for your support. I always love and loved your reviews because i do know ver well that you are listening very carefully and have a lot of listening experience. For me as someone who composes since about 3.5 years this feedback always helped me a lot to show me that i am on the right way. There is stil so much to learn and to improve. But thats something i never want to stop trying to do :)

All the best for you and thanks a lot for leaving your thoughts here,
Chris

[To the Stars]

I'm a bit late to the review party on this one. You have a ridiculous library of sounds, Step. Ridiculous. I'm so goddamn jealous. I don't know where you get the drive to work tirelessly on all the nuances that go into arranging and mixing.

There are so many subtle things happening within this arrangement I don't even know where to begin. I've said this time and time again, but your orchestration is phenomenal. You have a fantastic ability to break an orchestra away from tutti which I just don't understand at this point in my orchestration education.

The way you've incorporated the 8-bit into an orchestral setting is a pleasure to witness. I've never heard it done before, and I don't think I'll ever hear it done better than this. Bravo to you.

Best,

Chio

Step responds:

Oh geez, wow. What a review. I don't know where to start! Thanks for the huge boost in self-confidence!

Honestly, I don't know what tips/pointers I can give about the balancing of the orchestra. Thinking back, a lot of the stuff I do while composing is almost done subconsciously. Sometimes I finish a section of a song and think to myself "how the hell did I do this". I guess all I can say is keep on practising and racking up experience until all the tweaking you do on the orchestration becomes natural. I don't have any formal education on orchestration so I just try and judge by what my ear thinks haha.

That last comment really got to me. I really appreciate that. I'm sure there are plenty of excellent chiptune/orchestral hybrids out there though! (in fact, I was semi-inspired by this one, even though it's not quite as chiptuney as my arrangement: https://youtu.be/5tSTEa3G9Ng?t=9971).

Anyway, thank you very very much for the review!

[543368]

What is the decision that goes into not giving a name to a work of art? This is lovely and evokes a feeling of uneasiness in me, but why don't you give a name to your work? I see this with a lot of art on newgrounds, where someone will post something called "Untitled_54" or something, or in this case "543368". I suppose if that's the name, that's the name. But a title for any work of art, music, literature, etc. gives you a piece of the artist.

I suppose if your goal is to make the meaning of this piece completely up to the viewer, then you've succeeded, but art is a piece of the artist. Your interpretation is more valuable than mine.

Either way, great work.

Surfsideaaron responds:

Thanks, with the whole naming thing you are correct, I like to let others see the characters as anything they might think of it as

[Demon]

Love it.

Rhunyc responds:

Thank you :)

[Elephant with a Hookah]

Love it,

Anatomically, this elephant is completely wrong, but I don't think that's the point. What I, personally, would love to see from this is a background. A strong forest background, carrying over your psychedelic styling, of course. Perhaps with a different coloring tool (looks like crayons, and detail is not an easy thing to emphasize on with crayons). I think the elephant is fine naked, as opposed to what the guy below is saying. Definitely keep the pink smoke, and perhaps fill the hookah with pink smoke, underneath the green glass.

I would definitely like to see this piece look a lot cleaner. Smoother details on the elephant, the stump and everything else that is to come. Make the base of the hookah actually look like glass. Make the body of the elephant actually look leathery. Make the tusks look ivory, and so on. I think it would also be interesting to see other elephants accompanying the elephant. Perhaps a multi-hosed hookah and other elephants of different colors and different personalities that can be displayed by their looks.

This piece has a great deal of potential that I would love to see reached.

4/5 - 9/10.