SourJovis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nowhere Land]

Nice. I like chiptune. It reminds me of Final Fantasy VII. Maybe because of the midi-ish sound and the banjo that is used on some of the songs in that game as well. Like for the chocobo farms.

The bell synth is cool as a lead instrument. Very light and happy. It sounds a bit like a toy piano. Maybe an actual toy piano sample would be even better. I already like this sound well enough though.

The saw wave I like least. It stands out too much and drowns out the other instruments with its sharp overtones. It doesn't fit a country folk song and isn't light enough for this song. Maybe a fiddle/violin or cello sample instead would've been better. If you need it at all. I don't know what melodic information that instrument gives that the other's don't but you would know better than I.

The distorted electric guitar is okay. I think I see where you're going, but it could be excecuted better. It doesn't sound quite like a country guitar and might just as well be a rock guitar. Too thin and harsh on the top. I know it's chiptune and you're limited in how to make the instruments sound, but maybe a little less distortion and more body would be nice. Like an hollow body Archtop guitar without a distortion/fuzz pedal driven into the pre-amp to get the overdrive from the amp itself, then down-sampled and played back on an snes sound-chip or whatever you use to make it chiptune.

The bass and the drum pattern are good they make it sound very country. Especially the tambourine on top.

It would be cool if the song looped. Like most chiptune/video game songs. That may to make sense for an end credit song, but I think it sounds more like a town theme or happy intermission kind of theme anyway.
The song drags on a little too much for it to loop nicely though. It's a constant variation on of the same themes. I think it could do with a break that's significantly different from the rest but still fits the country theme, where you introduce a new melody and rhythm to keep the listeners on their toes. That creates more variation and makes it more bearable to listen to it for longer periods of time.

Thetageist responds:

The whole point of the song’s instrument choices is to be incongruous and have a “huh?” factor - the best way I can describe the sound is like an electronic artist adding MIDI tracks to a recording of a rock ballad, that was itself playing over an older recording of a country guitar. It’s almost a little cheesy, and that’s on purpose.

But I definitely agree that mixing and EQ could be done better here (if I did them at all - I think this is before I knew how to change the EQ), and that GarageBand’s guitars suck, hehe. I’m supposed to be collaborating with an actual guitarist right now - do you think I should try revisiting this with him?

[Chemandos OST: Main Theme]

Cool track! It has a nice funky, retro vibe I really like. Especially in the second halve where the more melodic organ and lead synth kicks in. The percussion and sound effects are also super cool though. I will check out the game.

Jojo responds:

Thank you very much for the kind words. Was too busy to say something before, but in-depth reviews like this are always much appreciated.

[Video Game Virtuoso]

Very good! I like chiptune. You really nailed the gameboy style. I also have Super Audio Cart. You use it very well, but if you're into creating chip-tune on a computer might I suggest algorithmic 8-bit sound emulators, so you can create your own sounds exactly how you want them to sound without being limited to how the samples sound. I haven't found the best gameboy sound-chip emulator yet, but I'm using Ochen K's Chip64. I believe it's only for Reason though and won't work in FL Studio. For FL you probably have other good instruments.

burningmagma responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

[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!

[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! :)

[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.

[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.

[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.