SourJovis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Snow]

That does indeed remind me of snes music. It realy has that vibe. Could almost fit a Zelda game. You made this 5 years ago I see. If you're still into making this kind of music, you should check out Ploque - Chipsynth SFC if you haven't already. For me it's really the best way to create snes music.

BenTibbetts responds:

Hey! Thank you. Yes, I was introduced to that software by @JohnMontoya. I've used and enjoyed it. I also use Super Audio Cart, as well as taking samples directly from SPC files.

[Some Girl Called I Think]

Great song. Awesome production. Very bright clean and beautiful sounds. I like how you use so much reverb without making it drown the mix. Talking about drowning. Listening to this makes you feel like your submerged in music. Like floating underwater, but under music.

The sharp attacks on the bass with the flatter smoother tails are nice. Gives it much punch and fatness.

The melodies are pleasant and playful. They don't actually stick with me though. It's not an earworm. More like pleasant background music. I don't always like the direction the melody goes. Like the part at 0:28. You expect a resolution of the phrase that came before, that either dissolves suspense to round of the segment, or creates suspense to build up for the next part. This doesn't quite do either. I don't know all of the technical details of what makes a great melody or not, but this doesn't quite work for me.

The filter automation works well. I like the dynamics it creates from soft to loud parts and back to softer.

Those voice samples at 1:26 are killing it. Makes it sound much more interesting. Lifts it to a whole new level.

I like your use of stereo and panning. The song sounds wide and exciting without being empty in the middle.

The song feels a little short. 01:58 is where it feels the meat of the song starts. But that would mean most of the song is build up. I believe you could extend the song to 4 or 5 minutes if you continue with the energy of part 1:58 onward, with possibly a quieter bridge in between.

Having said that 01:58-2:29 is probably my least favorite part of the song. Especially because I think the melody line isn't that strong. The lead synth sound is a bit generic. Also, and this is even more a matter of taste, your song sounds very clean and I prefer a grittier sound. Like I said the production is top notch and you should do whatever sounds right to you, but for me it would really liven up with some mild saturation like you get from analog hardware. Especially the loud part. The Reese bass sounds very tame compared to most.

Glad to get to listen and reflect on this. Good work. Keep at it.

[Oceans of Gold]

Very beautiful song. To me this means the arrival of spring, and hopefully for better times to come.

SkyeWint responds:

Hey dude, it's been ages!

Glad that you like this, it's one I'm pretty proud of. Was thinking I should try to convert it to sheet music for others to play, but man... that sounds like a pain.

It's actually pretty heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild, composed it shortly after playing the game.

[littlMix 02_06_21]

Thanks for having us on the podcast. Your presentation of the songs and musicians is great and I like your taste in music. I will go check out the other artists.

[Washcycle Wormhole]

Great song. I really like the mood on this one. The vocals and the trumpet are really the best. The other instruments form a perfect foundation of the song. I like how they form a mellow blanket, staying in the background, but you can hear a lot of interesting things are going on. That pitched snare effect at 2:26 for example. Those spooky synths and old sounding piano. Very enigmatic. Very good build up. All instruments work well together and support the structure never demanding too much attention to themselves.

MyMonkeyMyCircus responds:

Thanks for the review. My current thinking is that the other instruments might be too far back in the mix. It's rather fuzzy. I am happy I was able to get everything fitting at a nice balance, it was tough.

[Awake]

You have a very unique and interesting style. You sing very good. At the start of the song, when you sing softly, your voice sounds muffled compared to the sharp instruments and it doesn't cut through the mix very well. The snare is too loud and sharp in my opinion. Panning it that far to the left is an unusual choice. Later on when your voice gets louder it gets brighter and it sounds much better. The song develops very well. I really like the solo's at the end. At the start the low frequencies are very droning and muddy. I would clean that up a little. Good instrument choices overall. They fit the song and have a lot of character.

MyMonkeyMyCircus responds:

Thanks for the reply that is what I am looking for. I will look into this for the next version.

[Eddy's Workshop]

Congratulations on making it to the next round of the NGUAC! I like the eighties sound. Very phat drums and bass. The synths, percusion and other instruments are super funky. Great animation you made to go with this. I like pixel art. It feels a bit weird how some things have black lines, others dark lines and some, no lines. I think the style could've used some more consistency. Other than that it looks great. The keyboard that appears on the screen is a nice tough.. Good luck in the finals!

[Natural Phenomenon]

Sounds very cool.Doesn't sound very experimental to me, but maybe I'm too open minded. Reminds me of the album Random access memories by Daft Punk, but less dancy, more funky. Not as mainstream, yet very pleasant accessible sounds. I like the free flowing drums. Lots of unexpected things happen in this song, it all works. It's like a free flowing river that just takes you along. I don't hear the errors you mentioned. I won't mind if you keep them in.

ChrisisD responds:

Thanks for your kind words and even more so with the comparison to Random Access Memories. Most of the errors I was referring to, are timing issues. Couple in the guitar and drums.

[Underdog]

Congrats on making it to the final round of NGAUC. Well deserved. Very professionally produced track. Good you put the lirics in, because I wouldn't be able to understand them otherwise. Great structure overall. The bridge at 2:55 is really good. I like the short notes at 3:07. It's the variations like that that keep it interesting.

TSRBand responds:

Thanks so much! I appreciate the review. I'm glad you like the little twists like at 3:07 those are fun to put in :)

[Captain's Hat]

Congrats on making it to the NGAUC final round. Well deserved. This is a very interesting song. Very playful. Hard to predict what direction it's going. Can't believe you didn't do any eqing, but I don't think it's necessary. You just chose the sounds really well so they don't sit in each other's space. That's better than trying to fix clashing frequencies with eqing.

Michael-Flaherty responds:

The EQing thing is interesting to me, I would normally put an EQ plugin on every single track, I was avoiding it this time just to concentrate on the composition and then when it came time to polish thought it sounded good, probably because I'm using VSTs designed to sound good out of the box and the song is suited to more naturalistic tones. Or the song would have benefited from an EQ pass and I was being lazy. Not sure. Thanks for the review!