xxxZigZagxxx's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[BP (Sky Trance Remix)]

0:00 Nice beginning, from the beginning, it's evident what type of song this is.
0:20 Wow! Is that a sample from a Disney movie? Cause that's really cool if it is!
0:45 Nice soothing part. Traditional open hi-hat comes in.
1:00 These chords remind me of Tiesto's "Elements of Life"
1:30 The vocals sound *slightly* cheesy. Even if they are very innovative.
1:55 Things are starting to sound kinda stale. Could use some spicing up.
2:30 Ah, yes. It's a My Little Pony thing. "I'm a little pony every pony should know". Too bad I haven't watched the show.
3:00 This part is nice and soothing. Still feels a *little* stale.
3:25 This drop was kinda yuck. I'm just not feeling it by this stage. Maybe this track is too long.
3:55 This tune is nice. I like this riff. It's very happy-go-lucky. The whole tune has this idealist vibe. It's very nice.
4:30 Ooh, nice change! The major chord is very cool.
4:45 This is a good change.
5:00 OK, the vocal sample is kinda annoying. But ah well. Good track.

Overall, good track. I like your mixing/mastering, and your chords are very uplifting. It's got a sweet vibe. Sometimes it may be *sickly* sweet, combined with the vocals, but overall very good, in a cotton-candy-cottage-mary-mary-quite-
contrary-how-do-you-do kind of way.

Well done.

TheBellmaker responds:

Thanks for the very detailed review! My primary motivation for making this track was in repayment for a friend who had bought me a lot of (yes, pony) stuff. The original song is one of his favorites, so I decided to remix it for him. Thus, I couldn't make it as "unstale" as I would have liked, due to the constraints of the original lyrics.

As for you review itself, I find it very helpful, especially with the time markers. Also appreciate how you're not afraid to through in generous criticism, as it does help me out in future songs.

Thanks for listening!

[Ayaklanma Bok (RAC 2012)]

Hey Rahmemhotep

I see that you are very interested with Turkish culture. I'm wondering whether you actually are Turkish, which might have made it easier to create that style of music. But either way, the instruments sound very true to traditional style. I'd say that up to 1:10 it is very serene and nice.

After that, distorted guitar is added, which I did not like that much. It seems like the proportions/levels are incorrect, or that the EQ is wrong, or something that makes it jarring to listen to. The way you put the Turkish voices in was good too, though.

This is very emotional and has a certain angsty vibe to it, probably indicative of the subject matter you are addressing. I thought that from 2:45 onwards, with the distorted riff, it was a rough patch for me. I think you might need to up your skill on mixing/mastering a bit for you to fulfill the intent of what you are trying to bring.

Overall, this is an emotional story-based song about war, unity, dissonance, and revolt. It is quite harsh and has a distorted vibe to it, which I think could be improved.

Thanks for letting me listen:
~
Beauty: 5.5/10
Skill: 6.5/10
Intent: 8/10
Dynamics: 7.5/10
X-Factor: 7.5/10
~
Overall: 35/50 (70%) [B-]

SoulSecure responds:

No, I'm not Turkish, I just have an intense desire to learn about the world, its music and cultures. Turkey is one of my favourite countries musically, because it's extremely unique and has tons of different styles. Even Turkish black metal sounds different from Nordic/Scandinavian black metal.

I love the guitar just the way it is. I made it sound the way I wanted to hear it, a bit dissonant and with a ambient room filling feel about it. It's definitely got rock distortion on it. I'm guessing you'd like something more smooth sounding like death metal distortion... Anyway, I think it sounds great, lol.

I also have the distorted saz sounding just the way I want it to. I could have softened it with reverb, yes, but I didn't, simply because I didn't want to muck up the sound.

[Life, Obstinato - skyood]

Hi skyood

From the beginning, the strings bring about an atmosphere of cool calmness, and the meanderings of a thoughtful piano. The background is very soothing, almost comforting. The dynamics are handled very well, I can feel it in my bones. When the drums come in the textures may not be at the right levels, but the overall composition is appealing.

Your skill in composition is fantastically good. The fluidity of the parts is amazing, and you flow from soft to loud with ease. The rough patch in the middle is fine, because it still sounds great. My instinctive guess is that you are a very good composer, but if you learnt a bit more about mixing, you'd be *fantastic*, professional level.

It's emotional, it grasps me by the heart and fails to let go until the last note. You have poured emotion into the strings, which I feel are the saving grace of this piece. It feels like the music is a deeper metaphor for an inner revealing of self, finding strength to carry on. Encouraging.

In some circles, it could be seen as overly sentimental, as in the soundtrack to a Whitney Houston romance, but you handle it with such finesse that it is bearable. In the right circumstances, even kitsch can be art.

I like your statement. It's an uplifting motif, it speaks to me, it moves me. I like this.

Shot.

skyood responds:

Yeah, I spend probably put about 25% of the time and effort into mixing than I do into the actual writing of the song. This one even less so because I was so stoked about the feel of it I wanted to rush it out and get some feedback. The drums are particularly problematic for sure.

As for more metaphoric type things ... the reason it's called "Life, Ostinato" (oops, I'll have to go back and edit the title as I misspelled ostinato not obstinato. Doh) is because it's supposed to the kind of constant, moving along that life takes us on. Sometimes the steady pulse crescendos into true beauty ...

Back to reality, based on the little feedback I've gotten here, I'll definitely be spending time (when I have more. Yeay midterms!) mixing and perfecting it. Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.

[Kr1z - Forever (NM Remix)]

Highly audible!

~~~xxxZigZagxxx's Listen-a-Trak~~~
0:00 Trancey start, with a hardcore tinge. Epic swoops.
0:30 Snare fades well into the kick.
1:00 Bass is muddying up the mix! NOPE.
1:15 Seriously, someone needs to EQ that bass.
1:30 So far highly underwhelming, but it could get better.
1:45 Ah well, at least it's melodic. You've got a nice lead line going on there.
2:15 This is starting to sound very epic. The addition to the lead makes it 5x better.
2:45 Ah yes, that kick is good. But might need a bit more high end, so you can feel the presence of the rhythm? I'm not sure, that or it might ruin the mix.
3:15 Very chill vibe going on here. Just cruising along the trance route. The hi-hats are a bit weird though. Sounds like they're going through a flange of some sort. Insane upon the membrane!
3:45 Amusing synth coming in here. A bit puny. Is that all you got, synth? Also, Y U GO OUT OF TUNE?
4:15 An overly loud synth that is clearly out of tune.
4:30 Get that annoying buzzy bee out my eardrums, ASAP!
4:40 Thank you.
4:55 Starting to get a bit boring.
5:15 Meh... yawn.
5:30 OK I'll stop the review here.

Very interesting rendition of a great song. I don't believe you nailed it like you could have. There were some minor mixing issues, including a major one at about the *ahem* 3:45 mark. ( I would mute that channel if I was you.)

But yes, overall, entertaining but underwhelming. Gets boring around the 5 minute mark, which is kinda good considering that 3:30 is the ideal radio track length. So your experiment kinda worked.

Production: 6/10
Listenability: 7.5/10
Creativity: 5/10
Style: 6.5/10
Reviewer's Tilt: 2.5/10

TOTAL: 27.5/50
GRADE: 55%
VOTE: 3/5

xxxZigZagxxx

MessanyRecordings responds:

Now that was a long and helpful review.
In fact I could try to improve this remix indeed.
But I will probably finish some WIPs before I get back to this one.

[In a New Dream]

Cool piano tune

TRACK LISTEN REVIEW:
0:00 Sounds like a regular DnB track, which is nice.
0:20 Interesting orchestral hit sounds... add to the epicness of tone.
0:30 This violin part is extremely well produced, and the snare is poppin'!
0:45 Snap! Things changed in an instant, to a grungy-type police-chase music. Exciting!
1:15 Back to the main theme again. That piano is very nice and dainty.
1:30 There's the orchestral hit sounds. Sounds very retro-80's tv show.
1:45 I just LOVE those violins. They're crisp and beautiful and sweet.
2:00 This transition is very abrupt and doesn't really fit in with the mood. But it is still nicely produced.
2:25 Back to the main theme. This doesn't get old.
2:40 OK, now it's getting kinda old. But it doesn't get repetitive for some reason.
2:55 I'm guessing you're just gonna loop this song three times. Very good economic use of your music material. I usually switch things up everytime it comes around, but this is still good.
3:35 Oh, nice ending. Sounds like "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton.

Overall, a very enjoyable listen of a crisply produced track with contrasting themes. It's very retro-80's grunge material, such as some cheesy track played for the TV sitcoms, with punchy drums. Good job!

Production: 8.5/10
Listenability: 8/10
Creativity: 8.5/10
Style: 7/10
Reviewer's Tilt: 7/10

OVERALL: 39/50
GRADE: 78%
VOTE: 4/5

xxxZigZagxxx

JinNJuice responds:

Oh my. I haven't been given an in depth review in a long time. I'll be honest. I was a little frustrated in making this right. Many ideas that I put into this turned out badly. I kept the ones that I liked, which obviously wasn't that much, really.
Anyways, thanks for taking the time to listen AND review! -KN

[Better than I said]

Smooth, relaxing, ultimately chillax material

A moody piece, with great swinging guitars and a light beat that turns dextrous later on in the song. Your lyrics are very professional, reminding me of Tom Waits on Rain Dogs, or something from Oasis, or Pearl Jam. The snare is very "poppy" and nice to listen to, and everything has kind of a lo-fi feel.

The hi-hat is a little loud on the hi-frequencies, you could benefit from turning it down slightly. You could make the lyrics come out a bit more from the mix, somehow, up to 0:30. But from then on, it's good that it remains in the vast plethora of noises.

You remind me of the great alt rock bands. Good job, guys.

ZigZag

Jayson420 responds:

Thank you very much man! Sorry I didn't get around the responding I don't normally expect people too say anything. But I appreciate it man. I've only recently got this drum kit and didn't know how too individually turn down each part until a couple days ago. But the sound i get out of my ghetto setup it pretty much all i'm looking for haha, thanks again man take er easy!

[[TFC] - Mystline]

That's beautiful

Fantastic to lsiten to at 4:30 in the morning. I'm so tired I feel like I'm on drugs gnigh.t

TheFantasyClub responds:

Oh, thanks!

[Evak/gabber!(wip)]

Haardcore as a BAMF.

I like the fact that you're trying new arenas/genres of music. It's a very interesting, almost happy-hardcore mix. There's a lot of noise going on. It's almost industrial.

The glitches at 1:35 are AWESOME. I love how the kicks are just spazzing out. And then the rhythm from 1:45 onwards is very catchy, and the sample is manipulated very nicely and interestingly. At 2:30, the electric-guitar-type-synth comes in, and it starts to sound like a heavy-metal song. Again, the mashing together of song genres proves mind-bending.

It's very dissonant though. There's a lot of noise and randomness, which might be a staple of this genre, but it gets a bit out of hand at about the 3:15 mark. It doesn't really have much of a "groove" from that point on, if that's the word. I like the point from 3:50 on, but there's still too much intensity going on. There needs to be a quiet "epic strings" part, or something. That's what I feel it needs, at about the 3:15 mark.

Anyway, great production. Thanks for sharing!
ZigZag

RandomDanceOfHappy responds:

ahh 3 15 its a break down the grove from the parts before are like 1.2.3.4 thin when you get to it its more like 1...2...3....4....1....2....3...4.12.
.3.4.
as for genres
on a hard kinda scale first you have hard style thin when you want it a bit harder you have hardcore. thin finely you get to a point to where its just hard and heavy distorted thats called gabber
gabber has more distorted kicks and more nasty samples

and what not so this is like a hardcore gabber song
i took alot of infulince from my band that i use to play in (china) guitar (i planed on doing that in person but there was to much feed back on the recording thing)
witch brings me back to the breakdown in my in a generic scremo song theres breakdown like such that have little to no grove but they work and everything as long as you have lots of bass :D
this is a hellstorm of generes being mixed
witch i love cos well lets face it this song stands out a bit more thin normal songs