HoboKa's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Crawling King]

Wow, Cinesamples sound great. Good sequencing! Love that piano arp riff at 0:28 haha. 1:20 is a kick ass breakdown and 2:08 is a sick transition back into the main body! Lots of great variety and hellfire-level dynamics, excellent instrumentation...and I love the tension and evolving direction! Nice work :D

AceMantra responds:

Thanks for the review! :)

[Dies Irae II ~ fakebit ver.]

Nice vibrato on the chips. Something I'd like to learn someday. Reminds me of Castlevania. Nice tune! I'd love to hear the orchestral version.

Troisnyx responds:

Same here if I'm honest, the vibrato is Mackie's doing 😁

[Fading (Remix)]

Nice, is that AlterEgo for the voice...nvm? Edit) What VST did you use for the vocal FX?

CompXsco responds:

Wat?

[Roadway Renegade | 2021]

Like Battletoad's and KRool's 2nd half (first game). Decent E-guitar sample, imo, it has a decent timber and doesn't need much humanization to sound good. I wish I had more samples like that. FL Studio is ASS for automating and Mod wheels and shit...But I'm too stubborn to ditch it.

Anyways, I really dig those rock organs, e-guitar, heavy hitting drum kit and the energy and composition is snappy and makes you wanna fist bump and head bang. Good work Bertn MahBoi :D

Bertn1991 responds:

I'm a bit late, but thank you so much. The guitar sound is from the good ol' FF7 soundfont, with a touch of chorus and reverb added. MIDI control stuff can be a bit of a slog in Ableton as well, but I haven't used FL enough to know how they compare. Anyways, thanks again for the commentary, good sir <3

[Our Queen (V.2) | 2021]

I'm simping for this Queen. The song I mean. It was funnier in my head, OK? This reminds me so much of FF4 and FF9. Lovely tune. Classical goodness. Especially how it layers on more parts; simple yet elegant! Hey we got the same choir sample libraries methinks. Nice!

Bertn1991 responds:

FF4 had a killer soundtrack and FF9 is my favorite game in the whole franchise, so big thanks~

For the choir I'm using Omnisphere, which I may have downloaded through less than legitimate means. That stuff's too rich for my blood >.<

[Abraxas | 2021]

I like the cymbol beat. The lead synth has an interesting whimsical feel to it, or maybe it's the piano that does it. 0:43, and other parts where the string synth** just cuts out, I feel it could have had a longer release - maybe as an automation on the volume so it fades out - but otherwise really solid track. I understand why you wanted it to have very little release, so it compliments the other plucky synths and it works really well in that context. Nice work!

(EDIT)
I meant the string synth at 0:43, 1:43 where it serves as a Legata, rather than a detache (maybe I'm getting these terms wrong...) I mean like the long notes of the String Synth. Piano is A-OK in my books. It's really small gripe, but sometimes my OCD picks up on this shit.

Bertn1991 responds:

I suppose the piano could've used a tad more sustain now that you mention it. Ah, no big deal. Anyways, the feedback is much appreciated. Thank you~

[OliRO - Dragon Warrior]

Man, why has Newgrounds neglected you like this? Its times like this that I question why I'm a paying supporter...but I mean, we need alternative User Generated content sites for a multitude of reasons...ANYWAYS, nerdy bitching aside, I think this is a fairly solid track. The mix could use some work, but I'm not a pro at mixing either. Not a fan of the clicky bass drum at 2:40 area...call me picky =p Otherwise solid tune mah boi. The pipe/glass flute is cool. The bell-key tines are dope. The beat is groovy. 2:20 breakdown bit without the bass to mix things up is a good idea. So ya, nice work imo.

OliRO responds:

Wow man thank you so much for the dope review! This was my second real finished track so there is definitely some polishing to do on it. I'm glad it got such a good review tho, not gonna lie this makes me happy :D

[Space Foot | The Complete OST - 2010]

Awww sad to hear about that. I hate it when I lose my art stuff too...Some really creative melodies and I'm impressed with the compositional skill all throughout. Odd choice to go all piano, then again, if this was like a black and white ye olden times thing game, it'd be really dope. Captain General Fathead (Final Form) version 2 is my favorite, great dynamics and those low keys really slap. Nice work!
LOL Track 11...that is EarthWorm Jim shit there.
Edit 2, Arcade Rag is really well made too. How did you come up with these tunes? Just blew me away there lol.

Bertn1991 responds:

Much appreciated as always. Yeah, losing files is always rough. I don't get viruses that often, but in 2017 I got hit with ransomware that corrupted most of my stuff. I had backups of a lot of it, but not all. Big oof.

Honestly, I have no idea why the soundtrack is all piano. I had Game Maker directly play the MIDI files, but I believe general MIDI has 127 instruments to choose from. Who knows. I made the soundtrack with Noteworthy Composer and it comes bundled with a bunch of demo tracks, and some of them were from Scott Joplin (the ragtime guy!), so I took a lot of inspiration from those songs.

Thanks for listening. You #1 :D

[Paper Spaceship - Axel330]

Nice album mate. Very cosmic vibe with an introspective feel. Especially dig this one. Beautiful!

Axel330 responds:

I always try to capture how I feel when making a song, the comments are very motivating, thank you

[EDEXY - Volcano (2019)]

This is killer. Heavy good shit.

edexy responds:

Thanks!