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

[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?)

[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.