xxxZigZagxxx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Traphouse4]

Interesting new style. I want you to keep trying stuff like this, even though the synth isn't that well mixed. The snare is nice though. Your kicks are a bit over-bassy and the snares clumsy, but your overall progression is tight.

ThaKidd responds:

I don't care for trap so I said fuck mastering haha

[Every day of Every week - Zieg]

I do like your flow quite a lot on this one. You've got a very cool voice for rappin and stuff ^_^

If you had a better mic it'd be even better. And you're good at lyrics too. The song's got a general theme of hustlin :)

ZigZag

SinZLazTWordZ responds:

Thanks ZigZag. I appreciate the review man. I dont think the problem is the microphone though. Its what the microphone picks up... its a fantastic microphone but I dont have a secluded closed off room to record in. Picks up other sounds sometimes. But I know what you mean man.
Thank you again for taking the time to review.

Ziegie

[Goodbye-[Cinematic]]

This song blesses me in so many different ways. The composition lifts my soul with grace. I feel weighted no longer by concerns of death, but by the promise of life. A weight is lifted off my shoulders. I feel lighter. The world surrounding me looks brighter. I stare into the distance, the grains of sand coarse between my toes, the sunlight beating down on my forehead, the wind blowing across the desert landscape. I can bend time. Life makes sense now in this universe. I am no longer encumbered by all that crap I used to think was important. I cut off my heels and ascend into the sky.

keepwalking responds:

I hope you notice what you just wrote there. Such deep words, man.

[Life of the Party]

Noticeably chill. Your snares aren't overwhelming like they sometimes are. Your scratching is top-notch. I like the static leading from about 1:30 onwards. 1:45 feels kind of out of place within the progression. You have a knack for making a very few elements feel "full". It's nice that you cracked a 3-month block, if that means what I think it means.

[Relentless]

Sounds like dubstep and got lots of wubs and lots of glitches. Much like. There is a bit of dissonance with the riff though around 0:20, I'm not sure if it's just the melody. And a lot of these rely on oscillators, but your filters are BAWS.

I don't really care what genre this is as long as you're pushing boundaries which you are. Nice.

CHiLEDAWG responds:

ZiGGGZAGGGG thanks for the review dude, means alot. part around 0:20 was definitely just what i was feeling lol, pushing boundries in 2014 baby!

[Untitled rough demo]

I like the beginning but the mixing gets way too hectic around the 0:20 part. Probably a WIP part but it just seems like the rhythm is way off from the other sample you're using. And there's not much variation.

It's got a lot of energy though and sounds raw but needs refinement. obviously it's just a sneak preview though so what am i saying

[aspirations of a mastermind]

This is sick man. Your vocals are tight. The beat is tight too. It sounds like you don't care. Which is good. You need some based reverb and/or delay on there too maybe. Lol.

More of this stream of consciousness stuff. Sounds kind of like Clipse combined with Lil B combined with a white dude. And some random screamo. Much like.

[The Traveler]

0:00 Some nice aciddy wubs. I like that.
0:15 This track seems very atmospheric to me. I'd say I'm not very experienced in the genre, but I'll try to provide some useful feedback.
0:35 I can hear some rustling, and birds chirping... oh, there's an art piece attached to this.
1:00 Ah I see. It's very much attached to the art piece. It does feel like a time traveller discovering forests of time past.
1:30 Plucked instruments meandering their way through modulated frequencies.
1:45 A steady melody makes its way through.
2:35 The riffs are kind of getting more sweet than I wished of this piece. I wanted it to be more brooding, mysterious. I thought that was where I was being lead.
3:30 The sounds of the wind and rain surround me. It's very soothing. The piece ends before I wish it to, and it doesn't seem to have developed much over the course of its duration.

It's a piece that fits with the artwork. A calmish song of guitars, and modulating synths along with wind noises and some rain and rustling. But I feel like the song doesn't really develop into what I wished it to develop into. Sure, there are some nice sounds, but they got sort of sickly sweet towards the end, and the atmosphere that the beginning was building kind of dissipated.

I'm not experienced with this genre, but I feel like it should be a bit more swelling, a bit more harrowing given the dark and mysterious nature of the art. Spiritually deep is what I'm trying to convey, and I didn't really feel it in this one. It's still well-mixed and easy to listen to, so it gets points for that.

Thanks for the listen.

Chemiqals responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I actually went back and forth between a more dreary tone and this happier one that I settled on. I can definitely see why you'd want it to go the other way. I decided that I wanted it to be about discovery. So it starts out a bit more careful, then evolves into a sense of wonder and joy. The fact that there was still life in this depicted world was something that I felt deserved a more optimistic song =P

Thanks again for the feedback!

[Tripleton - Fragments]

0:00 Starts off with a short, punchy kick.
0:16 The glitchy hi-hats and the such like here are kind of jarring, and seem like a loop without any effects added on. It'd be nice if there were some little variations in the loop.
0:53 This bass synth is nice, but it has too much low end for my tastes. It sounds muddy. I'd work on EQ'ing it so it sounds more crisp and clean, and less overwhelming in the mix.
1:13 That transition came way too quick imo. It exploded, and then it settled down too quickly as well. The hi-hats aren't mixed properly imo too, they're too "wide".
2:00 By this point the bass riff is getting kind of repetitive, and it seems like it's not really tuned that well either.
2:20 I feel like the several components of this song aren't meshing well together. It doesn't really hold my interest either throughout the song.
2:50 It just feels like a lot of loops were put together.
3:05 Man, that bassline is getting so repetitive. Sorry, it's just getting annoying. I wish you would switch things up.
3:50 This really isn't progressive enough for my tastes, and it doesn't have enough interesting effects and harmonies to hold my attention. Plus that sidechained synth is really EQ'd wrong imo. It's too in-your-face, needs a little more subtlety.
5:30 I really don't have much else to say since the song has so much of the same elements repeated over and over.
5:45 That transition wasn't all that great either.

In my opinion, this track is quite repetitive without the introduction of many different elements. The bassline in particular is really repetitious, basically the same thing over and over again. The transitions aren't all that exciting, and for a supposedly "progressive" song, things don't progress all that quickly. I'd say a lot of work needs to be done on this before it's considered a great song.

Thanks for letting me review, this has been your ~Review 4 Review~

Tripleton responds:

I was, honestly, trying out an earlier deadmau5-esque style, where he has big, echoing synth bursts and keeping a simple drum beat going. As for with the intro, I was trying out a full-drum intro filler, like PR and Arty have in their songs.

Thanks for the review! Since this song is really my first mockup, I'll be sure to go deeper when it comes to fixing it. Again, thank you!

[Tripleton - Aurora (Extended E]

0:00 Starts off with a nice, rounded kick and snare. You can hear the reverb on the snare; it sounds hall-like.
0:25 Slow, analog-ish synths coming in. Reminds me of an old school house track from the 90s or something.
0:45 I like the progression. There's a kind of "release" cymbal that goes on here that is nice.
1:00 I didn't like the second and third cymbal here though. The hits are too large and hard-hitting. I reckon it needs a less jarring cymbal, one with a longer attack.
1:40 Nice drop here. But again, the cymbals interjecting with such huge hits, they take away form the feel of the song imo.
2:00 There's this nice "glitchy" thing the hat does on every so-and-so beat that I really like. The drums are getting more intense, and the patterns varying up.
2:30 OK this transition was beautiful. I liked this general part with the riff in the background, feels expansive like you're in a cathedral. Those glitching hi-hats are still perpetuating the ambient landscape. I kind of like the mixing of the drums you've done here.
3:15 The riff is escalating. I like the slow escalating nature of the riff. And you can tell exactly when it's going to drop at any moment due to sufficient build-ups.
3:40 There's some nice 3rd-note synths going on or something. Gives a kind of variance to the track that makes its progression appealing. Plus I like the delay you've got going on on this synth.
4:20 Wow that was weird timing of the cymbal. Not sure if I liked that. It was like in 3rds.
4:40 That build-up before the drop is nice, but I don't feel the drop is satisfying enough in this scenario.
5:10 Would like a little bit more of a change here, it's getting same-ish.
5:30 OK yeah taht was a really nice change. Well done. Keeping my interest in the song. I like how it's consistently entertaining throughout. The mixing is comfortable on mine ears.
6:00 The hi-hats can get jarring after a while. It might pay to switch them up once in a while.
6:30 More build-up. It would be nice to have a more epic riff introduce itself perhaps earlier in the track.
6:55 But this is a nice ending. Smooth yet sultry.
7:05 Nice ambient reverb for ending.

Overall a great progressive track with a nice ambience, and good analog-esque synths. It was entertaining throughout, although some of the drops I felt were anti-climactic, and the riffs lacked a certain epicness too them. Also some of the cymbals had too much high-end I think and were too jarring, just coming out of nowhere. The delay on the cymbals helped it to blend in, but personally I'd reconsider the cymbal sounds. The hi-hats were a really nice addition at first, but I felt perhaps they needed to be changed up somewhat over the course of the song from the moment they were introduced. Perhaps bringing in an alternate hi-hat sound would have been nice.

Very cool progressive track.

This has been your ~Review 4 Review~!