SourJovis's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sanctuary]

Still my favourite track from the second round. Obviously the one I voted for. I thought this was the fabled Step & Echo collab. I already wrote a review. I like how unusual and interesting it sounds. All the sound effects and exotic instruments. The contradiction of the tranquil peaceful sounds and instruments the menacing sound effects. That also captured the feel of life inside a dome. The sound at the opening is as if something evil on the outside is knocking to get in. The reverb makes you feel like you're inside a bubble. Some of the percussion sounds like machines. Other instruments sound more like a forest underwater (or in a dome).

alternativesolution responds:

Haha, I don't think I could compare to them just yet ;P But I appreciate the compliment, as well as your vote ^^
Thanks for the lovely imagery and comments~ I'm glad the reverb did its intended job. And yeah, at the beginning it's supposed to be from the outside, and then you step inside and then it's like 'oh! It's much better in here. Not scary at all!' before you walk around viewing the rest of the dome, while occasionally looking outside the glass to see what lies just outside.

[FD - 6 PM]

Loops well. Does what it's supposed to do. Reminds me of a late sun set in a warm country in summer, after a beautiful day. Crickets, sea and a mild breeze.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thanks, I was inspired by two video games in particular: Sudeki (very obscure action RPG) and Coma. Coma's Red Wind Theme is one of my favorites.

[FD - Chronos]

I like the ambient mood. With the unusual slightly unpredictable drum rhythm it quite puts you in a trance. I like the vocoder at the beginning.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thank you, it's nice to hear you again. :)

[Monochromaticity]

Sounds rather mysterious with the background noise and the distant dim instruments. The panning works also well. It definitely has me thinking about grey. Even if i wouldn't know the theme for the contest. Though the piano and guitar themselves sound more geyish brown to me. Monochromatic as can be.

alternativesolution responds:

Glad I was able to fit the theme, it looks like. Thank you for your review~!

[The Quietlands]

Great song. This was the one I voted for. Congrats with your 2nd/3rd place.

Neon-Bard responds:

Thanks a million for both listening and voting for this song man! :)

[FD - Dreams]

You took a not so great piece. Found the good in it. And turned it into something fantastic. Well deserved of first place. Looking forward to hearing more songs from you.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thanks for your enthusiasm, more pieces are in the works.

[A little fly on a plane]

Not bad. Well structured. I hear you like it smooth. Not really a fan of that. Takes away the human feel, and it doesn't really grab my attention. But the song has a certain sense of adventure that I like. Could be used as a film tune for at the end, building up towards the finale. Keep it up.

GameBalance responds:

I don't like this tune much. I made it as a homework at some group.
Better check "Cold Hope" or "Laser Tears of Science".

[Terre des Hommes Libres]

Great song. Very well written. I like the instrumentation and the melodies. The chorus I like best. I don't mind the volume of the vocals. I do agree it is much and much too compressed. It is a quite difficult to say more about the mix until that is fixed. I also think your voice loses tune sometimes. At the end when the song is already faded out, the piano returns very softly. I hope you will make a new mix, because it is such a fantastic song, and the compression actually spoils it quite a bit for me.

Troisnyx responds:

I trust I will make a new mix -- since I'm planning for this to be Track 1 of my debut album, it's got to have a new mix ^_^'

Thanks a lot for the review, and thank you so much for listening! I will bear all these in mind when handling the final version.

[Bloody Dance]

Nicely complex. Very well mixed. Sounds really transparent. It gets very epic at the end. Good work.

Shanath responds:

Thanks. :]

[The Spelling Bee]

That was good and very funny. The acting and joke delivery were great. The music fits and isn't too loud. Only the recording could've a little been better. I hear a pop when you say apartment, and occasionally it seems to be slightly to loud for you equipment. Sometimes you can tell when one take stops and another starts, because the tone of the voice and volume and such change too much and rapidly. Your characters all sound different and it was easy to tell them apart. Very good.

Jacob responds:

Yeah, I wasn't used to being so loud, and didn't realize it until it was too late.
I didn't have a lot of time to do this, so I had to make do.
Believe it or not, all of that was a lot worse before I made the changes.

I was amazed I was able to even get rid of most of the pop on apartment. It doesn't boom into headphones as far as I'm aware at this point. It just sort of breaks up the recording. If I could go back, I would stand farther away from the mic the entire time. Maybe add my better pop filter (the mic came with a little one).

There shouldn't be any issues with volume, though, since I normalized everything to -3dB.
There was one point that was messed up for some reason (when he read the definition of clitoris), but otherwise I'm not noticing the issue.

Thanks for the review, man! I appreciate the feedback very much.

-Jacob