ZipZipper's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Ninth Peak]

The percussion seemed a bit awkward. I think it could have really worked for fusing with the genre, but there seemed to be more emphasis on the electronica aspects than the orchestral elements. Doubling those sustained strings with horns or a choir or maybe even a synth texture would have given more depth to the orchestral mix so that it could keep up with such a heavy percussion part. Interesting that the other orchestral song you linked to seems to have better mixing quality. Maybe it's just a VST or DAW difference? Well musically, it seems you have an affinity for electronic genres, so the melodic material was robotic and boring, but I did kind of like it; it worked well within the context of this song. The melody needed more variation though...it almost seemed like you were gonna do that at the end with the piano, but it didn't really develop. Annnywayssss, yeah...this could use some work, but I still was kind of hooked on it. Good work!

[Abyssal Reflection]

I enjoyed the slinky pings. And the uhh...theremin synth was delightful. The tremolo-ing sound humming underneath was also very tingly and cool to my ears. Combined with the...something-being-slammed-on-wood percussive, there's a nice palette of sound. Definitely good ambience for a Halloween theme. The major IV instead of the predictable minor iv during one part of the harmonic progression was a great choice. It clearly stands out and gives the ambience a hint of playfulness and direction, instead of being just ominous; a nice surprise. It could have looped just one bit better if that rattling sound effect was faded out instead of cut off suddenly. But yeah...great work!

ChronoNomad responds:

Haha, glad you dig the ambient noises going on throughout the piece, Zip! Yeah, I had a lot of fun with the musical progressions, and tossing in something a bit less predictable here and there always helps keep things interesting. As you've mentioned, that one effect is kind of murdering the seamless looping effect, but don't worry--it shall be fixed! Very soon.

Thanks again for the great review, man! Much appreciated.

[Loose CanniBall]

Senpai!!!!!

Omg I hate yoU! You just had to use tingly percussion squishes and wavy theremin throwbacks! The way you really fill up the entirety of the stereo space is so...invasive. How delightful. Omg eating at the end! What great painting you've done here. I see the cannibal, lonely in his ways, but enthusiastic nonetheless. He meets a couple of posers who want to be cool like him, so he teaches him of his ways, but in the end, he eats them because mmmmmmmm how can you resist?! OmG sorry you had your own storyboard.

Anyways...your production value is, and has always been, top-notch, which makes expressing this sort of unique genre become more attainable for the general audience (something we need omg you do great I love you) The looseness of the form was both good and bad. Twists and turns for the sake of surprising the listener, akin to the scary surprises the season should hold, but musically did make somewhat a lack of connection between the purposes of each part, probably because there wasn't an obvious melody to guide the way through. But, you make up for that in your palette of noises and instrumentation pivots.

Okay goodnight I hate you.

steampianist responds:

I notice you

hehe thanks for the review, well if i followed a form with a definite motif i knew i wasnt going to make it to this year's NG spooktacular halloween and so i went aahhh fuck it. free form free form

[The Prodigal]

Now this is quite a formidable opponent. I was immediately drawn in to the percussion, then the plucking duo, and once I realized you had a quartet of voices at your disposal, I turned around and gave up on life. This was a hugely refreshing track from the humdrum and the stress of life, at least in my life recently. And it had the perfect amount of everything; not too long and not too short. It's such a huge advantage that you had live performers and instruments. I half-wish you had a jaw harp solo just so that something was a nuisance in this piece. Great work. A perfect fit for the genre, to the extent of my little knowledge lol...

bassfiddlejones responds:

This was a refreshing review! I'm glad you liked the piece man, we will have to do vocal work more often. :) maybe next time we will include a jaw harp and credit you

[Vintage Cinema]

I clasped my face in agony/orgasm immediately at those swooping strings. Wow, this has such a hyper-realistic aura! But, I'm gonna be extremely invasive though: the way the strings' attack and release sounded at times was unnatural or made it sound like awkward dynamics with very sudden swells. The ending is another thing to point out...the other strings decayed really fast and that last note didn't decay in time before getting cut off suddenly lol. Actually, was it even supposed to be there? To me, it sounded like something in the plugin may have glitched that note into existence, it was pretty apparent during the harp part and was kind of clashing. By the way, that harp solo was lovely. I also wished that vocal part had more presence! I at first thought it was a theremin and got excited...that would have been sorta cute in relation to your inspiration. But, what an amazing atmosphere of an unrequited love story presented through cheesy Hollywood despair! Why did Lorraine have to die in Lester's arms just before their wedding?! Though this would be wonderful for such a scene...well...being a piece of music, I thought it could have gone on longer! Perhaps in another lifetime...Lorraine...*looks at crashing waves*

[Mors Vincit Omnia (Death comes to us all)]

????!!!!!?!??!?!?!?!!??!

I mean, the choral part alone is so ethereal and pretty!!! I think it would've been better that instead of using your voice for percussion, you could have used a plugin and just made a really soft beat. The percussive stuff you had at the beginning was okay, but when you started adding cymbal and kick...I thought it was awkward. To be honest...this is just so darkly pleasant that it didn't make me think of Halloween hahaha. Would be great backing perhaps for a Celtic adventure montage or a slow motion death...welp I used the word death, so I guess it can be construed to fit the Halloween vibe if used correctly.

I kinda just want the tracks for this so I can play with them :l
I would love to expand on this/ruin it :l

raggd46 responds:

Thank you! yeah I wasn't sure about the building with the beatboxing, but I'm practicing so I wanted to try it out :) send me which bits of it you'd like, I can DM to you? (tho I assume the choral bits?)

[QUI SEDET AD DEXTERAM PATRIS]

I'm semi-glad you didn't add background audience noise and mechanic sounds, even though you said you would have. I probably would have enjoyed it either way, but this is extremely pleasant being totally raw, and the reverb seems just right to me. I mean, I think ideally that's what the time period of the style would have preferred, so you did them good. What kinda blows my mind is that you had no keyboard to really see what you were doing! How did you do all those inner-voice workings with just a mouse?!

Well, I don't know if you'll ever do something with organ like this again, but if you do, you should listen to Poulenc's organ concerto. It's supposedly the most-often played organ concerto that's not a part of the Baroque period, and you can hear a modern example of how to make melody stand out on the organ.

Anyways, really nice work!!!! <3

SoundChris responds:

Thanks a lot Zipper! Well maybe you are right and not having background fx and stuff is the better devision. That way the listener is more forced to focus on the instrument an progressions. I usually use my keyboard to create chord progressions to get the basic concept done and then i write everything out / play and record it. But this time it just wasnt possible. So i had to follow my "inner ear". I am not thinking about the voicings that much to be honest - even that would be very important in a piece like this. I just follow my ear / intuition. When composing i can hear parts of the tracks i do already before i write them down (not huge parts but 1-2 bars. After those are written the next 1-2 bars already exist in my imagination - not totally clear but already quite far developed. Sometimes i reach a point where it becomes suddenly very hard. Maybe you also made this experience: You write down a minute without any problems. Everything is consequent and logic. But suddenly you reach a point where you really have problems to see where your path continues. In those situations playing chords on the piano / keyboard helps a lot. This time - without the keyboard - those moments became even harder...

I definitely will write organ pieces / baroque music / bach-style piano and harpsichord pieces in the future. So i am always very thankful for any kind of tipps and new info to understand the instruments / music styles better. Thanks a lot for the recomendation for poulence´s music (didnt know him before). I will give it a listen asap!

Thank you very much for your kind words. Btw - i read that you are going to become a full pro musician and that you are studying composition? Thats really awesome and i am very happy for / with you. I think you took the right path. Even those decisions are hard (i know what that means because i am doing the same here) be confident: I believe you will make it!

All the best,
Chris

[Automaton]

What are u doing???! :(
Anyways, love you.

steampianist responds:

awww love you too <3... unfortunately stuff i cannot divulge or else the director will send MI6 agents to my house

[Skeleton ship]

Well y'know me and waltzing. But yeah, really love all the instrument choices and other miscellaneous noises. I enjoyed that descent at 1:27 leading into the big end. I actually think a lot of your music is already so heavily focused on harmony...so I personally think you should delve more into melody-making. Anyways, I love you. Bye.

Azhthar responds:

Melody is overestimated ;) Actually for this piece it was quite hard to find a nice melody, due to all these chromatic chord progressions. Too many leading notes... So the melody became quite simple here and not very memorable but I really should focus on some more melodic piece in the future. Thanks for the input! Maybe I´ll also do some polka again, soon ;) Love you, too. Cheerio.

[Time Machine 。]

Ooooooo very chill! Love the ambience of it all. The progressions seem sort of classical at times, actually. Nice wispy instruments and the mixing is great.

Tarenlee responds:

Thanks ;)