xxxZigZagxxx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dopehead Waltz #2 - FFsMd]

This is fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Your riffs mesh well, and your chords are beautiful. I don't really know how you do it, it almost sounds like a score for an old Ed Wood film. In a good way. You know with all those horrorful "woooOoOoOoooos" that go on when something scary happens. Wait, is that a theremin in the background? Either way, it's fantastic. Keep it up, boy! You're great at this :)

phosphorusprocedure responds:

It's not a theremin, actually - it's a plugin from http://kunz.corrupt.ch/products - this bass synthesizer on a preset called Asia Lead, with the arpeggiator turned on. It helped make the melody stick out a little more. I'm glad you liked it, thanks for the review.

[Synthetic Reality]

0:00 Very nice and steampunk-y.
0:30 Those delaying synths are sounding very nice and post-futuristic.
0:38 Wow those pads are sweet! Where you get that ambience bro.
0:50 Those hi's are a bit jarring. They're not... EQ'd right or something? Not too sure.
1:13 Not sure I like all those chords you're making. They don't always fit into the melody.
1:30 But it does sound suitably epic.
1:45 OK the stop-go thing is very nice and builds tension quite well. WAITIN FOR DROP BOI :P
2:02 A nice mood piece.
2:30 More of the same. It's nice though. This could loop easily. The futuristic theme is pulled off quite well.
2:50 About to finish... let's see how you do. Oh, a fade out. That works too.

OK, so you pull out the futuristic card, and it works for you. It has the mechanistic kind-of flow to it, which is nice. You pull off the ambience quite well, with your synths and pads and stuff. The hi-hat to the drum is jarring, due to EQ-ing or compression or something (not quite sure what). But yeah, overall the vibe is good. String chords could be improved in my opinion, they didn't quite gel well with the song. My opinion, dude. Overall, good though.

Cheers.

vai90 responds:

Thx for the kind feedback!

[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.

[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!

[Sinsic & Mike - Slizzard]

FLIP YOUR FLOW AT 1:15 is absolute gold. Remind me of Big Boi's flow, straight up. Your friend is good too, bro and the beat is pretty chill bro. Even tho I don't drink alcohol :P But I can understand that you like it :)

Benny

patrickliberty responds:

thanks for the kind words homie, your track will be laid down soon as well :-D