WarmanSteve's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Clouds move when you're not looking]

Wow, you've really got a good sense of layering and atmosphere! I'm particularly fond of the sampled guitar clips at the very beginning. Are you performing on guitar/bass?

Zanate responds:

Thanks! I forgot to mention I used dblue glitch for the intro. I'm performing on both! An Ibanez RGA7 and an Ibanez GIO Soundgear.

[Karten - In the Horizon]

Oh man I love this. That transition around 1:30 is glorious.

Karten responds:

You are glorious :>

[Karten - Away]

Very nice, I like the way you layer the different voices! My only complaint is that some parts (like 4:03) sound a bit too tinny in the upper register, those ranges could stand to be reduced a bit.

Karten responds:

Thank you so much for your review. Yea I was experimenting with some automation on the piano sounds. And they ended up way to high pitched and clunky.

[Weaver Of Dreams]

Loving all the layers and crazy samples you have going on!

Zodiax responds:

Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

[Reach the Stars]

Heh, this is a hell of a lot better than my first submission :P Nice beats, melody is catchy. It's bit repetitive to me, maybe try more than one chord progression? A few extra voices popping in and out can do wonders too. For your first submission, this is pretty solid though. Good work!

Grandzam responds:

Thanks for the feedback! This is exactly what I need! I will take these ideas in account for the future. I have never tried more then one progression before, I will need to try it in my next track and see how it goes.

[Opus V: Observer]

Man, this is cool. It's like an 8-bit symphony! Some random thoughts:

* I love how thick your sound is, though it some areas it gets a bit too busy.
* That section at 4:45 is PUMPING. Reminds me of VVVVVV when the melody comes in.
* The musical progression is really nice, you transition very well between totally different sounds.
* There's this weird clicking sound at around 6:00, sounds like the audio is clipping :/
* The tempo fluctuations at the end of the third movement are nice.
* Oh man, 9:40 <3 Don't think I've ever heard prog chiptunes before.
* The sudden dynamic drop at around 10:54 is a bit extreme. Maybe you could use a dramatic pause?
* Still really digging the classical sound.
* The recorded guitar and vocals, while good, felt totally out of place.

Despite my minor qualms, I still think this is fantastic. 5/5, gold star, etc. Now I want to write some chiptunes :P

flaminglog responds:

The clicking sound you hear is a DPCM sample offset, an artifact of the program I use.

The reason you may not have heard progressive chiptunes is that, as far as I know, little-to-no one else writes chiptunes that are like this.

The dynamic drop is meant to be very extreme, as it represents the transition from the late Roman Empire into the dark ages.

As for the guitar and vocals, that was mostly because the deadline was approaching and I still needed to cap off the song somehow. I intend fully on releasing a chip-only rendition later.

That said, thank you for your comment, and I'm glad you enjoyed my song!

[Funky Spaceman]

Very nice! What'd you use to make the dj sounding parts?

H2opoloseal responds:

Hey WarmanSteve, I used a combination of two things. I recorded the track out and actually did scratch it (what you call "DJ-sounding" is actually a transitional, beat-matching and remixing technique used by DJ's called 'scratching') with a pair of Numark TTX-USB's using time-coded vinyl, in a combination with a powerful time-manipulation VST called GrossBeat. I didn't want it to sound "over the top," I liked keeping the live-scratch sound. Thanks a ton for the great review, I worked really hard on it! That section of the track alone took a few days and many dozens of attempts to get right.