xxxZigZagxxx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[X-Trav Music Demo]

0:00 Very spooky. I like the high strings just making their way over the top of everything else.
0:30 This sounds like the beginning to an epic battle or something... on Final Fantasy or some other RPG
1:00 Very LOTR-ish. A reminiscent theme, thinking of the past, and trudging on ahead. I could see this played as Aragorn and co. travel over the picturesque mountains.
1:30 Port song. Or an inn song. Very nice and soothing, while maintaining emotional cling.
2:00 Suddenly intensity! It burns! But yes. This has a sort of background drum loop, and then the little violins over top. It seeps intensity.
2:30 Battle scene! Let's FIGHT. But yeah, this is setting up for a particularly intense part of the film/movie/medium I guess.
3:00 A sad song. Someone crying on their bed because they are alone, looking at the picture of their dead lost loved one. A tear trickles down their dirt-battered face.
3:30 I like the background effect of the piano. Seems very supressed, but at the same time as though played in a Church. Very simple chords, with slight detune. Very Tim-Burton-esque.
4:00 A meadow. A lush meadow with antiquitous creatures from another age.
4:30 Sci-fi battle on the top of a train! You gotta defeat the boss! RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE
5:00 Awww nice music. This is the part where the two lovers meet at long last after defeating the final boss. They draw closer to kiss.. *mwah mwah mwah* Such a sweet moment.
5:30 You are in a cave. What is around the corner!? Is it a... BADDIE!? A-WHAT? What was that? A creaking noise from upstairs?

Yeah. It's very nice. Each section fulfils a purpose, and that purpose is clear from the outset. Cheers bro and thanks for letting me listen.

Bro.

[Riot on the Dance Floor]

0:00 Epic intro, rising low pass filter. sweet.
0:25 Hmm I can't really hear the kick that much, but oh well. Things sound quite noisy.
1:00 This part is interesting. It's got some weird pitch-bending effect, and it's kind of resonating in my ears.
1:30 OK now I kind of like this. This has a very space-age-opera-espionage kind of feel to it. I'm not sure where I got that from, but it sounds accurate to me at least.
1:54 This song has some sort of progression, which is good.
2:03 I can hear those 3rds coming in. Very unusual. But not in a bad way.
2:30 OK those are some nice rises and falls. Very dramatic.
2:50 Visceral drop. I'm liking where this is going.

OK I'm pretty sure I've heard enough. This is a pretty nice song with very distorted leads, some pitch-bending, and a whole sci-fi-apocalyptic vibe to it (would be suited in a futuristic action scene, for example). It would make me want to bounce, if you know what I mean?

Things you could improve on: the general dissonance of it all. I mean, mixing is really important and it's important that we get it right - this sounded a *tad* on the noisy side. Although I guess that's what you were going for, right? (Edgy?)

Cheers.

TheComet responds:

yeah I noticed the kick now, I shot myself in the foot pretty much after realizing that this computer force-feeds me that beats audio crap and I had to roam through menus to disable it

[[CLAB] Scavenger Battle]

0:00 Very chill and sexy jass musack.
0:15 Your flow is pretty awesome. Your rhymes swerve everywhere.
0:40 Yeah, I can see the semblance to Deltron 3030. You should explore this vibe a lot more often.
1:00 There's the Fresh Prince of Bel Air line.
1:18 interesting little bass line on the side of my ear :)
1:35 This is true Prozac happy right here :)
1:50 My hands are flying. Well, in my head.
2:00 You flipped those drums pretty tight.
2:20 Wow this woman has got some pipes. Get her on one of your other songs!
2:35 WOW THIS IS TIGHT. best part of the song. do a "SBTRKT-Wildfire"-esque song for me, why don't you? It'd pwn everything.
3:33 This is just swag. Do scatting more often, and the background drums (the pen slapping) is awesome. The beatboxing is awesome. The El-Ghaddafi rhyme was hot. I wished you kept going.

Yeah, this is perfect for the comp. You did really well. I recommend you make like 4 tracks out of this, because each section was pretty pumping. I wanted to hear more, and then you'd switch the style. Cheers brother.

Wuuurrrrrrrrd.

Gasmasq responds:

Perhaps make a Scavenger Mix? //I like your moxie kid mmyeah// ^_^ It's being taken under advisement.

[What Do U Want]

Hmm, I know that you said you were going to be "yourself" at the end, but to be honest I preferred the rest of the song. Your bass wasn't mixed as well into the song as the rest of it. It didn't pack enough impact, but I don't know how to do it, it just felt like... the mids were gone or something? I haven't figured it out myself but it lacks that... punch (without making it too abrasive on the ears I guess).

But yeah. Your rapping is on point bro. And the girl's voice was pretty hard-out amazing too. Sounded like Nicki Minaj (don't think you'll like her but anyway)

But you know what I mean, right? Sometimes you gotta make that music that the girls like, to get the girls? I don't know, I only see girls about 1.5 times a week. But yeah.

Apart from the F*** Jesus part (I'm Christian), this was pretty pro. I'd go soft on the religious slang coz you don't know who you might offend in your fanbase. COZ U HAZ 1.

Cheer.

Poniiboi responds:

Thanks man. I do my best. I PMd u!

[Into the Ocean]

0:00 Oh it's very ambient. Tits and flute. Riiiiiiiiiiight.
0:25 flute coming in there. waiting for tits.
0:35 Strange high-end you got there. Flanging much?
0:50 the dramatic lower strings. They were SUPER EFFECTIVE.
1:10 yawnish.
1:15 the wind has stopped, and now we must sit on the plains overlooking the ruins, contemplating life's meanings. YESSSSSSS.
1:33 Well this feels like i'm in a cathedral listening to a string band.
1:44 And the flute answers in return. Very Irish-like.
2:02 Oh no it's about to end. But I don't want it to! I want a full-scale band takeover! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

Ok, so it ended before I wanted it to. You could make this into something more epic, if at about 2:20 you brought the entire orchestra in, drums, strings, flute, even brass, just an epic tune Zelda-esque. It'd be beauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut.

Thanks.

thewendigo responds:

My goal in the end is to make this something epic with a full scale orchestra, i just don't really know where to go with it yet. Hopefully in the end i will be able to turn this into something wonderful.

[[Tsets] - Red Dragon]

0:00 Sounds very bouncy.
0:10 Low filtered drum loop, nice.
0:17 Hi-hats comin' in.
0:24 Is that drum loop gated? nice.
0:31 It sounds very bouncy and nice.
0:35 oh no. the synth isn't eq'd nicely. sounds like my grandma's panties. she's dead.
0:48 but the drums are nice. they just don't gel with the synth, that's all.
0:58 oh no, clipping on the piano. that not good. But you have to remove the high ends somehow?
1:12 the piano is kind of stilted, if you know what i mean. Play with velocities too much and you get burned, yo. Feels all unnatural-like. Not coo'.
1:41 That bass coming in below me feels good though. This might have promise yet.
1:51 OK DROP YOU COMIN' NOW? I'm just kiddin, I don't expect a drop. But expect the unexpected, right? Right.
2:10 OH YEAH DROP YOU THERE COMON
2:18 Nice piano solos you got layering over each other here. Drums hit hard.
2:30 I like the space in your track. There's space between hits, there's space in everything, but just the right amount.
2:46 Hmmm that piano is kind of annoying playing right through. Consider restructuring for greater impact.

BUT YEAH it's pretty good. Just the points mentioned above. Keep going dude, this is pretty funky, num say?

Cheers.

[ytytyt]

0:00 Oh nice.
0:10 I like your blues chords. The synth reminds me of the Chemical Zone in Sonic 2.
0:21 OK I don't like that you went double time. It was grooving along nicely before then.
0:34 But this is all mixed very well. I like your kick. It nice.
0:43 GROOVIN BOY
0:48 You the man on that synth boy. YOU GO
0:55 Listen to RL Grime's "Trap On Acid". You're not far off here.
1:11 I can hear you, open hi hat in background.
1:20 NICE ending. good. servicable.
and loopable.

WELL, isn't this just lovely. A kind of acid rock 70's feel combined with classy 80's synth pop. But it feels like I'm in the Chemical Zone (Sonic 2) right now. It has flavours of dubstep in there too. I was just waiting for a Lex-Luger-esque hi-hat track to come ridin' on in any moment there. It would have made it GANSTA.

ok, i'm done.

[Da N3w Advnturs Of P00h]

0:00 OK so there's voice recording. And a synth. What is this going to be like?
0:15 I love it. Very reductionist.
0:25 Yeah I groove to this :)
0:31 This drop just went HARD YO
0:42 The drums are nice.
0:49 OH YEAH KEY CHANGE nice.
0:55 I want to go with poo bear.
1:05 YEAH uh huh YEAH uh huh (should be in the background)
1:20 NICE ENDING

yeah. I loved it. More to say? Nope. Just awesome in every way. JUST KEEP BEING YOU.

Bro.

[Welcome Back ~In Progress~]

Oh what, what are these chords? The guitar chords are way different to the bass line? The flute solo sounds pretty weird. And it's very short.

OK. So it would sound much nicer without the guitar, let's be honest. Because the drums are nice and well-mixed, but the guitar ruins it. It's not even the right chords. I hope you didn't just drag the loops across, because I *really* hope that you recorded it all and just got the chords wrong. (on purpose or accident?)

Anyway, I'm not sure what to say here. Except that that guitar pisses me off (so bad, sorry).

Thanks.

[Forgotten Dreams]

0:00 Nice start.
0:15 The melody is interesting, it has a nice kind of sound to it.
0:25 But it kinda sounds like you just stacked sounds on top of each other. The snare is particularly out of place. Needs reverb or something, I think. It has a really "smacky" high end that assaults the ears. You should really check that out.
1:01 Melodies are pretty good tho, but you got some interesting detuned instruments there with very long release. They drown out a lot of the other instruments. They're also probably hogging the lo-mid range. But, eh, what do I know?
1:39 It is quite nice and euphoric here.
1:49 You got a nice little violin piece here.
2:15 This part is nice and different. It's got a nice little lower part, counter melody played by the viola, and then they stack over each other. Very epic violin solo :)
2:58 There's that gated synth again.

Well, I didn't get bored. It was a pretty standard piece, but that's the thing. You might need some mixing here and there, to separate the frequencies, make them more clear. But also, using a noise wave and automating a low-pass filter on it, can give the impression of swelling up to a particularly intense part. I reckon that some parts would gain energy from doing that, then have a cymbal at the end. On the other end, it may cheapen it too. Just do what you feel.

Overall, a nice song, with a few flaws. Touch this one up, and it could be a real hit.

Cheers.

hotsacoman responds:

Hi! Thanks for your response. I was hoping I'd get some feedback. This song hasn't been mixed yet so good call on the frequency issues. I too see the issue with the harsh snare, gonna work on that. Interesting idea with the noise wave and automated filter. I'll try out some things and see. Thanks for taking some time and offering some constructive criticism. Appreciate it!