xxxZigZagxxx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Alone]

Wow, this is excellent! I love this <3 So epic. I love your piano playing, the epicness of your tone and your light touch.

The arpeggios. Then the strings or whatever you start to bring in at 00:35 are very evocative. I wonder if it's supposed to be quite retro sounding? A lot of the high end is taken away. It's still great, though, mostly because of the epic composition.

1:11 Heck those melodies are soaring! Grats!

yeah this whole thing is exceptional, what can i tell ya? Brilliant.

[Logic Gate]

0:00 It starts quite slow but getting there I suppose!
0:25 The bass here is taking up quite a few frequencies. It's quite all-encompassing. Perhaps you could choose a sound that is less massive? Or just turning it down a bit? Not sure
1:06 I do like the sounds here though! Quite interesting scales, mending together of diff melodies. That part is great.
1:24 Nice contemplative ending. The bass is quite all-encompassing, though! Might need some EQ'ing to make it less annihilating XD

Overall great song! I like its playfulness, the interesting things you are doing with scale, and the original groove. Keep creating! You're great :)

RetroCore responds:

Thanks for you feedback! :D

[Journey]

0:00 Ooh I love the arps! Very nice!
0:35 I love your melodies. They are exceptional. They work really well together, especially here.
0:56 The "007 style" staccato is working well here.
1:12 The kick is a little bit weak (i think could use some high end) but still groovy
1:24 OOOOOH i do like the groove to this piece. Disco-ish! I think that your main synth could use perhaps a bit less low-mid? It's muddying up the mix a bit. But it's still groovy!
2:10 I like the overall feel of this!

Wow, this one is actually pretty great. I like the progression of it. Really builds. I do think that the major improvement here would be mixing, because there seems to be a lot of synths taking up some of your low-mid space... and then even some clashing on the high parts. So experiment a bit with taking some low end out of those "lead synths" to give them colour and make them stop from competing for your low end.

Other than that, very solid! This is real nice and danceable :)

[EverythingYouWish - Envy]

0:00 Ooh some pitch bend? Interesting... not sure what it's going for yet
0:15 There's some dissonance here, still kind of unsure what's happening
0:30 Okay the melodies and chords are sort of at dissonance here, I don't think they cohere very well
0:50 I feel like there needs to be some understanding of scales going on here, otherwise if you already know, and are breaking the rules on purpose, I feel like there needs to be a greater sense of melody and harmony.
1:27 I feel like I can skip ahead
2:36 Sheesh, more of the same!
Skipped to 3:30 Oh, I really think there needs to be more harmony here. Something seems out of key.
Skipped to 4:09 It's less obvious when the bass isn't happening underneath. Wow, it finished.

I think that even though I could see what you were trying to go for here, there is a lot of dissonance that isn't quite working in favour of the track, at least to my ears. I'm not sure if you are quite well-versed in chord theory or not, but I think it would be good to learn which notes go well with others. So that it can sound harmonious rather than in dissonance all the time. Don't get me wrong, a bit of dissonance is good, but only when it seems intentional.

So I do think that studying chord theory or looking up a YouTube video on scales would do some good. Keep it up!

EverythingYouWish responds:

Thank you for the building feedback, I will try to look more into the chords and learn from it.
I understand your opinion and I will consider it next time.

Honestly, some other guy would just write: trash song.

[Into the Clouds]

0:00 Ooh nice riffs on the bottom there. Very melodic. Nice melody you're using
0:14 Layering is good. Giving me epic vibes. Got some cool stuff going on.
0:25 I wish the drums here were a bit punchier, they feel a bit "woolly" and rough. To complete the punchiness and epicness of the melody. I'm not quite sure the sample selection is optimal.
1:03 But the melodies are keeping me going. They are very candy nice.
1:13 I think the build up here needs to be a little more dramatic. Since the kick doesn't have much high end you can barely hear it speeding up.
1:37 This is a really nice melody though!
1:43 Competing melodies. Somehow if you could find a way to separate them in the mix I think that could be good.
1:57 But the melodies themselves are quite strong! They do feel a bit "layered on" though, so to speak.
2:11 OOH the harmonies here are quite nice. I like it.
2:22 I'm not sure how they drop out like that halfway though. It feels a little weird
2:35 Yet again the drums are the thing letting it down. It's okay though because I'm still enjoying myself.

Overall I think this was a bunch of great melodies and nice vibes perhaps let down by slightly lackluster drum selection and a kick that doesn't have enough high end to warrant the drop in the middle. Towards the end, the melodies started to conflict in a way that I didn't find pleasing. However, I feel like this track could be better if polished a little more. It probably needs a little variance in "mode" too, so to speak, so it doesn't just seem like elements are being stacked on top of each other.

Thanks for sharing your track, it's got some really nice melodies and some good selections. Keep bringing the awesome work!

[stoned age]

this sounds like the embodiment of being stoned! someone needs to rap on this immediately. i might. soon. lol.

anyways it's one of the coolest beats

[sleepy cavern - folksy acoustic picking]

i don't know how anyone can ever play the guitar this good

[oasis]

absolutely gobsmackingly good

[Gangsta 4 Lyfe (DART REMIX)]

made in 3 hours huh? let's see how it goes
0:13 ooh i like that bells riff
0:20 i thought it was going to drop into half time here but i was mistaken
0:30 building up nicely with the risers! very cool
0:38 ooh the groove here is real! i should probably listen to the original
0:49 this one bops pretty hard. i like the refusal to go into halftime
1:00 mixed really well! everything in its right place, as the head of radios might have said once upon an a+ kid
1:25 nice breakdown. i think maybe could use a bit more layers here
1:36 ooh this is a different riff altogether! nice progression.
2:08 i like the riff

this is riff-tastic! the beat itself is funkaaaay. i haven't heard the original but i think this stands alone as a great piece. some parts i felt could use more exciting experimentation but given this was made in approx 3 hours you are right, it is pretty good! i think it could be experimented on even more. this is extremely solid though!

Dart-Music responds:

Whoa, thats some pretty good advice! Thanks!

[276]

1:30 this arp is quite nice! it's soothing. you've got it at a good place
1:38 ooh this sounds like it goes underwater with that kick
1:58 you got some subtle overtones going on here! spo000ky
3:15 wow this kind of stays at the same tack doesn't it
3:50 spo0000ky

this is really nice! it has a nice and eerie atmosphere which is accentuated by the cool chords and the dreamy synths throughout. i do think the track could be improved by some more daring instrumentation and progression. a lot of it does seem on the same dynamics level and you could bring more excitement. however i do like the sound design and the way the dreamy synths are layered on top of each other. there's great potential there. love it. keep it up!