shizeet's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[JLB] Heroic Possibilities]

Cinematic

Sounds like pretty solid film score opener, if that was what you were going for. I personally would've liked to hear more woodwinds throughout, only because most music like this is predominantly strings with some brass.

JulezJLB responds:

Definitely going for a film score type feel.

Kept the woodwinds to the softer sections to soften the strings a bit. I really focused on the brass in this one, some woodwinds may be a good thing to add.

[[MasterHand]*]

Pretty fly

Fun to hear one of these synth orchestral pieces nowadays, where everyone's trying to use super realistic samples and stuff. Getting different vibes from this one, ranging from Zelda to Starfox. Fun Stuff.

Solkrieg responds:

My main problem is a good trumpet synth. :(

[The Nature Of Things]

Activeka

It feels a bit too active and foregroundish in my opinion to be ambient in my opinion, but a neat piece nevertheless (kinda reminds me of Kraftwerk at parts, even). It seems to to do quite a bit with minimal elements, and kept me engaged as a listener throughout. Really liked that panning synth thing around 1:00, and the neat swells that occur throughout. I probably would've given this a 10 if the main riff thing was a bit more enjoyable to me (as it is used quite a bit), but overall, very nice piece of work. GJ.

FuNDaMeLoN responds:

Sorry I'm so late to responding, that's an awesome review.
Well, this song is more of a jack-of-all-trades, if you know what I mean. Active ambience and the drums at the end kind of confused me as to what genre to put this into.
Kraftwerk, you say?
Man, they are the reason I make music, probably.
First electronica music I ever heard, and theyve been my idols ever since.
Nice review, and thanks for your opinion (I don't get much of those these days...)

[Emergenct Room]

Ove

Ahh, the art of the hip-hop, what can I say :P. Anyhow, nice beat ya got here, and those fills are pretty well done too - though can't say I'm personally a big fan of the 808 ;P. I also like some of the short melodic segments you've used, such as string and choir melodies; my favorite part is probably that porta synth thing you got going on near the end, with the glock chords playing a neat counter melody. I'm not diggin that repeating bass-note so much though - just sounds too mechanical to me (maybe try playing with the velocities to humanize it some more?). SOlid stuff overall, though. GJ mayne.

S3C responds:

hey shizeet! i'm glad you like the beat overall, as for the drone bass, yeah sure, I think I should have messed with the note velocities more too. Thanks for the review homie!

[MH16: Piano Song (Remake)]

A lion does what? R--R

Interesting piece - but the constant clipping is turning me off a lot. Please try to fix this by cutting the piano levels or something. Anyhow, I'll try to review the rest as best as I can.

The overal progression and structure of the piece is simple but works well enough. Some of the parts could use some tweaking though. The piano part sounded kind of stiff to me - I'd try humanizing it to some degree, especially since it's a pretty simple part to begin with.

The drums were a bit unexpected, but they work alright. The only thing is that after it stops, it doesn't play again until that final splash in the end, a good 40 or seconds later. I think you should try to keep it throughout, if only intermittenly, to give a better sense of balance.

The strings and flute parts were well done, though. They nicely punctuate the harmony and melody, respectively.

All in all, probably a nice effort, but it's hard to remain completely unbiased in light of the distorted audio.

FairSquare responds:

Thanks for the review and advice!

[Reminiscence =HFX=]

Really A WondeR

I think I'll have to agree with you in terms of this being your best-est piece so far - there's a nice variety of themes combined with wide range of expression (which are often lacking in "electronic performances"). The music definitely has that taste of innocent nostalgia, though parts of it feel forward-looking (such as that stately, more "heroic" sounding part around 2:45) to me, as if in hope for future. The squeaking didn't bother me too much at all: before I read the description, I thought it was an intentional sound effect, as if to paint a picture of that lonely swing set swaying with the wind or something :P.

The main criticism I have is probably the somewhat static figures in the left-hand. It'd be nice if it could get some more important parts occasionally, taking a break from the typical accompaniment patterns for a bit (maybe even pass bits of the melody to it here and there). But given that this piece has a somewhat spontenous feel to it (and that it's generally harder to improvise left-hand stuff), it's understandable as is.

G.J.

Phyrnna responds:

Innocent nostalgia is what I was going for exactly. ^_^ Personally that squeak irritates me to no end, but I like that you found it to sound like a swing squeak. I never thought of it that way. As for the left hand, yes, it's rather bland. :P First song and all, I never changed it from its original composition from four years ago. I don't mind a simplified left hand here though... I guess it adds to that innocent simpleness.
Thanks for listening.

[Piano Collab in A Minor =HFX=]

Pastoral

Not bad at all - it has a rather calm and tranquil feel, even though it's in minor and also somewhat upbeat. I rather like the melody too - it's simple but effective, especially for a short segment. The balance feels kind of off to me, though - I think you should make your right hand notes somewhat louder than the left hand ones; the bass is kind of dominating in the mix right now. Also, the attack on the piano sounded a bit weird, as if it's not really striking or it's somewhat muted. Just minor points, though - nice piece of work!

Phyrnna responds:

Well, the balance was meant to be like that somewhat. I wanted the left hand and the right hand to somewhat meld together. The bass that stands out was there to add a sort of rhythm to the song.
Thank you for listening and enjoying!

-HFX ^_^

[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!