shizeet's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Summer She Died]

Strange, but neat

This music does rather give me a sense of a warped mind or whatnot, though I'm not sure about the gaining new insights part haha. The main riff is kind of repetitive, but I did like the variation that goes around it, especially the drum parts, which changed texture quite frequently. It starts to stagnant a bit after 1:30 or so though; I was really expecting something different due to the "gaining new insights" thing you've mentioned, but it was just a gradual cutaway of the old theme. Still, a very solid and engaging piece of work. Keep up the good work!

[Listen To The Planet]

Piano Music

The piano part sounded very well done - not sure if you've played or sequenced this, but it sounds pretty natural in terms of expression. It took a while for me to get into it, but there are some really nice parts, my favorite being the segment from about 2:00 to 2:42. I liked how you did the variations around the melody, but at the same time I felt maybe a more contrasting part would be much welcomed.

Oh, as for having to cut stuff out, you can probably get away with a lower bit-rate for something like this, or better yet, use VBR encoding at quality 10 or 9.

Zero123Music responds:

yeah, thanks alot!!
Lower bit-rate - Noted!

thanks alot for the suggestions

~> Zero

[Iku Ze!]

Could defniitely see this as

an adventure/airship theme; certainly has that uppity bounce to it. The samples used are quite nice as well, and the mixing is pretty clear for the most part.

It is kind of on the short side though - to me, it almost felt like an introduction section to the main section for something, especially with how the ending was phrased. It'd probably help if you extended the last section some more, or added an intro to the intro (the entrance felt just a bit abrupt).

Also, for the first two parts that repeated, I'd change the cadence in the first one so that it is less resolute than the second one (such as taking out that suspension), so that's where the emphasis is placed

All in all, pretty nice work though. Looking forward to more from you.

Zero123Music responds:

For the intro I always imagined a kind of Airship ride, when you take the wheel and shows you on the world map

Like FF3 I deliberately made the intro straight into the tune.

The first part of the first section originally sounded very empty - but I still wanted to add more instruments and stuff in the second part - this is the best I could get it :(

As I can tell - impressing you is gonna be a hard job, but I will do it!

[Pickin a Miss]

Aww

This really have a sort of sweet, almost cute sound to it hehe. Even though it may have been originally arranged for acoustic instruments, this electronic arrangements feels very natural, and the variety of sounds you've pulled from the 3xOsc was quite enjoyable. And no need to be so reserved about the change of style - it's usually a helpful experience when you venture outside your norm or conform zone.

loansindi responds:

I think I really want to explore the limits of 3xosc in m future FL projects, as I think it's really very versatile with a little tweaking.

I do think I like this song better as an electronic work than acoustic, and I've been working on expanding it in my spare time. At some point there'll be a longer version.

Thanks for the review!

[Superior Advantage]

Guitars are nice

Some neat guitar riffs you got, but I'm having a hard time hearing the other parts. The drums (especially the bass) is really way too much in the background, and I can't really hear "keyboards" at all in the music. They all sort of just mix together in the background to form a coherent, but muddled mass of sound. I did like the lighter part from about 4:49 though - it's the first part in the music where I get some sense of clarity.

Not sure how badly your studio version turned out, but this version is really a mess - no offense to the music itself, which seems pretty solid (though I can't really make out the finer details in this mix). How did you record this?

[iceland]

Not exactly techno, but...

It's an enjoyable piece of music. I really enjoyed the ambient intro part, with those nice pads and that the acoustic guitar part. The more upbeat part sounded a bit weird to me as I thought it would go in a different direction - it really felt like it branched off into another piece of music from the intro part. Maybe if you had made the intro somewhat shorted it'd felt less displaced. Oh, and the ending part was nice, but I totally wanted that guitar thing to lead to a new section rather than fading out!

[(FMC) -=Beaming=- (MAC8)]

Neat piece

Sounds very happy-ish too me, though maybe not so much of the "hardcore" - which I didn't mind at all, as a lot happy hardcore just feels too spastic for its own good hehe. Also, the cute melodies/harmonies have a video-gamish flavor to them, and I think that really helps it to stand out from a lot of the other trance stuff here, and never felt really repetitive even though it did repeat a lot. Fun piece, really. Good job.

[[BN] - Ambient]

Excellent Loop

It expresses only a few ideas, but manages to effectively get them through, at least in my opinion. Very nicely done. One possible way to improve the effect, though, is to try to add a bit more of a pause, as if in hesistation, in between the chords, maybe even use slightly different velocity levels. You know, just some humanization stuff.

blacknote responds:

Hey there thanks for reviewing, I can see where you're coming from, however I wanted to keep a nice flowing loop rather than a dramatic one, as for the velocity, I presume you mean the celeste, they are actually different, but quite high making it inaudible, though I think some larger nuances in the volume would be a nice addition. Thanks again!

[Please Wait...]

I'm waiting...?

Now that you mention it (the title), I could see this as a sort of loading screen music for some techy shooter or something like that. It's a rather short loop, but I quite enjoy the oscillating synth thing - that should be something for you to recycle for use in a full-fledged piece sometime.

[When I Saw That Star]

Excellent

Actually I much liked the spacey-ness of it all, as well in general the muted but lush sounds that is used throughout. Nice arrangment of the bits and pieces that come and go - gives it dynamicness within the static soundscape. All in all, I think you did well to portray this quiet sort of awe inspired by the star. Main problem right now is the length, but I'm sure that shouldn't be a problem for the final version. I'm really looking forward to chilling out to this for at least a couple of more minutes, heh.