xxxZigZagxxx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

[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!

[SC 38 4 2]

0:00 Liking the riff you're using. There's some nice arpeggio-like synth riffs overlapping each other that create a mood of livelihood, uplifting vibes and contentment.

0:41 The kick fills your ear-drums. I think the drums in general lack a definite top-end, that gives the crispness to the percussion. This being said, I tend to compensate *too much* in that area, so you can take that as a personal criticism rather than an objective one.

1:29 I feel like the energy of the song should be building up more around this point. More "swishes", more build-up synths towards a climax, or if you are going more for the slow-burn Burial-style future garage, then it needs a bit more automation in terms of reverb and delays.

And yet even those styles of songs have drops.

So far, so good. I'd see this is as a work-in-progress level of quality, as in it can be improved, needs a little work. Keep up the good work and I hope to see more of you in the future.

This has been your ~Review for Review~

jawalker213 responds:

Thanks a lot for your advice! I'll play around with the top end of the drums and see where that goes! Totally digging your music too!

[8git]

Doesn't really sound like chiptune at the beginning.

I think the pitches of the synths are too harsh and they don't have enough interesting qualities. The guitar and drums in the metal part are really good though. You're good at recording them too.

But you need something more "rocky" than a sine wave imo. It's too soft and has a really soft delay on it like a fairy song.

1:08 Then right here you try to use it as chords but it overwhelms everyuthing else.

But you got really nice riffs especially they sound really nice on synth.

1:31 I think I've got the idea.

Could be improved. But a decent composition especially when the guitar gets involved.

3/5

laggy-luk responds:

hey, thanks for constructive feedback. I find it hard to combine guitar sound with chiptune synths, neverless I'm trying. I was planning a solo and mix could be better but I was in a hurry for the battle deadline :(

[Beacon]

please mind me while i put on a youtube video of "2001: a space odyssey".

0:20 i'm loving the washy synths. very emotive. there is some loneliness in the meandering chords.
0:45 i want to see "gravity" again. this time on imax.
0:53 single breath. i heard that. nice.
0:59 glitchy stuff. really nicely mixed. liking.
1:07 oh please please this melody is great thank you for gifting this to my ears
1:20 ok pls dont mind me i'm gonna skip just because i'm tired and this is getting too soothing
1:31 never mind it's getting interesting too. nice progression.
1:41 the equalizer thing is looking trippy right about now
1:47 new synth coming in. something doing some sort of arpeggios down a little grassy hill.
2:04 key change. kind of nice western-y pitch bending guitar/sitar things? interest.
2:21 i like the progression. usually i don't like such brutal transitions from one mood to another, i would have liked it to drag on a bit longer.
2:43 ok i'm gonna skip for real now.
2:49 nope wait i like how this is turning out. those hi-hat-lik things getting ever louder-ish
3:11 good riffs. i'm guessing you got some big pitch bending thing going on there it's really nice i wish i could do stuff like that
3:33 kk that breath is still as coo as ever
ok cool

REALLY GOOD. mixing was on point, command of atmosphere total. i am digging.

5/5

thanks for letting me listen hope i was of help

GdabZ responds:

Thank you for your very complete review and glad you liked it !

For the last lead "the guitar/sitar thing" (2:04/3:11), I used a real guitar. My good old Telecaster, with a metal bottleneck and a lot of aerial effects courtesy of Guitar Rig.

[Beowulf]

epic man, truly epic. i'd eq the strings to make them less overwhelming. but since it's just a composition for a full concert band it should be fine. good work b

JamDrmr1114 responds:

Thanks, epic is the best word that someone could use to describe. The poem itself is an epic so that's a pretty encouraging comment. Cheers!