SourJovis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Important Thing]

Original! I like the beautiful emotional song with the computer voices, told from the perspective of a robot. Very different from the other Robot Day submissions, yet it sounds more robot themed than most other songs. Faved!

egguterra responds:

Thank you! Glad you liked it!

[Glorious Warmachine]

Punchy drums! I like those swampy computer sound effects and lush synth pads over it. Good instrumentation.

[56k of Doom]

Very original jamming over that modem. The backing instruments follow what the modem is doing and the modem sounds like a lead instrument even though without context it would just sound like random noise. Faved.

LexRodent responds:

Thanks a lot mate. Fine tuning the modem noises into something more music-like was the hard part of this ; All the rest was pure rocking joy.

[Cracking The Code]

I can hear the Matrix and Bladerunner influences, but it also sounds very original. A lot lighter than those two. Maybe dystopian in a more cartoonish way. Near the end with the brass and the strings it becomes more cinematic though. Nice buildup.

ZaazNG responds:

Thank you so much! :)

[Paradigm]

Cool song. I like the electronic japanese vibes. Very fitting for Robot Day.

[Kaboom]

Hey TheDayGoes! Great track! I should listen to more of your songs. I haven't heard all of them yet. Are you going to upload new songs as well?

MyMonkeyMyCircus responds:

Maybe in the future. May feature different selections of artists. Busy at the moment.

[ready, go! (remake)]

I like this song. Very happy. Reminds me of old school video games. That brass ensemble at 0:35 that plays the countermelody in between the main melody is really cool.

[Miserable Kids - Them Critterz (NG Exclusive)]

Great song! Very energetic. Powerful singing voice. Well mixed. Balance is good. The instruments that should stand out do so, but you can still hear the individual instruments even the softer backing ones despite it's such a wall of sound. Still a very pure honest sound, as in the opposite off slick and overproduced. I can't believe I haven't listened to this before! Faved!

ZacTaylorTunes responds:

Thanks so much!

[Chiptune]

This is your "Review for Review" review. Nice to hear some chiptune. I really enjoy that kind of music. Sounds 8-bit. What console was this written on?

I like the drums. Very trashy 8-bit sound. The rhythm seems to be the part of this song that made the most sense. The squarewave lead sound is okay. Also very 8-bit sounding but a bit bland. I'd like a bit more lively evolving sounds with automated filters, waves that change in shape like pulse waves that change between 1/2 (square) 1/4 and 1/16 for example. Or that have an attack of a short square wave maybe 1/64th note, than the same note an octave higher also 1/64th note, and than continuing the sound with a saw wave/buzz (or whatever interesting sound your chip of choice can produce) that way you get an interesting raw sound with a clear attack. Even with the limited waves these 8-bit chips produce, you can still create unique and lively sounds by combining different waves and having the sounds evolve.

The melody grows on you because of the repetition. I like how you build the song around a motif and then improvise on that. The notes seem a bit too random to be memorable to. Take a moment to write a really catchy melody first, before you start to build around it. Think about what key you're in, what the chord progression is, what the structure of the song is how the instruments together create good rhythms and harmonies, etc. Start with some basic music theory to build a foundation, before you break the rules to make it more interesting

The hoover bass and electric bass sound I'm not a fan off to be honest. What are those? They don't sound very 8-bit to me. They're also too much in each other's space and don't compliment one another. I suggest you have a deeper bass and than a higher pad, or rhythm like sound for the chord progression, that aren't in the same frequency range and don't drown each other out. Also make them rhythmically compliment each other.

Most 8-bit music has a rawer sound that what you have here. I really like the TIA chip of the Atari 2600. It has a grittier sound that what you've got going on here. You could listen to some well produced TIA songs for inspiration how to make a ballsy 8-bit rhythm section.

I don't think you're making the most of the limited polyphony of 8-bit soundchips. You use very few sounds at the same time, which is in line with the limitations of the 8-bit soundchips, so that's good. I think you can do more though with even less sounds. 8-bit songs seldom use long static notes to create harmonies. What makes 8-bit so characteristic is the moving chords with short notes in quick succession to create the illusion more notes are playing at the same time than the actual chip can handle. This gives such a distinct energetic chiptune sound. You could do more with that.

You should lose 26 seconds of silence at the end.

I like the potential here. If I'm being too negative, I apologise. I don't mean to demotivate you. Just give you my opinion about how I think you could improve. I hope you get lots of comments by people who enjoy your music and have many different takes on what you do.

Keep up the good work. I'm excited to hear your progress.

seeko29 responds:

Thanks for your review, I'll try to be better next time.

[Summertime Dream]

Beautiful song. I like how the vocals and the instruments sound and the mood the song has. Very good build up.