TheZaaL's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Get Through]

You know what??

It lacks a good ol' bass! A powerfull, epic bass!! It would help alot, and yet it is so simple!

Other than that, great job!!

choopocobra responds:

fair enough =)

[A Badly-Titled Song]

I really admire your desire to improve, so I'll make you a revew.
BUT THERE'S SO MANY THINGS TO SAY!!!

First of all, I want you to take the next sentence, print it and tape it next to your computer screen. That means it's IMPORTANT:

KEEP YOUR BASS AT THE CENTER!!! I had to make pauses while listening! It is painful!

Have you heard of sidechain?? If not, it would be a good thing to folow a tutorial on it, as it helps a lot when the bass is centered. Equalising helps too, but it's headache for sure :P

Keep the drums somewhat centered too, as it is highly irritating.

Making virtual instruments sound good is one of the toughest thing to do, one way to do so is to choose a chord (Google it if you don't know), and stick to it. There are some place (example 0:54) where there is dissonance, and it lacks a certain... grace

Now, onto the good points:

1:18 is solid, it tells us you know what you want

Drums are a success, congrats!

2birds1stone responds:

This is one of the more useful reviews I've seen posted on Newgrounds in general.

I haven't taped that sentence to my screen, but it is in my mobile phone, and I will remember, and I've also added the bit about drums to it. I'm looking into sidechain right now.

It's always interesting when someone offers a good review ('good' meaning 'useful') and within it criticises an aspect you liked (0:54 in this case). It's hard to know whether to put it down to artistic differences or whether they're genuinely totally right (I do believe there are some objectives in art). I guess I'll throw that point to WotC in the meantime and focus on mastering.

Thank you, I look forward to stalking you to see what else you've commented on; learning from others' mistakes is far more entertaining than learning from one's own.

[Poison Paste]

The intro is... weird!!! It doesn't give a "proper prevew", it does not represent the track. What I had is an overall "err..." which is usually enough for most listener to just quit listening.

Rest was pretty solid though. Btw, drums were actually great!

NinjaEskimo responds:

Yeah if you're reffering to my comment on my profile about my percusion i wrote that like 3 years ago. ive gotten slightly better, just listen to my older tracks haha. thanks i appreciate the review.

[The SideWinder]

Well, you asked for it, here it is.

Intro is weird and dissonant. Doesn't really give the listener any interest whatsoever

The clipping sound is off beat and annoying. Should be removed.

Drums are great, though. Mixing is good too.

BowserThedestructive responds:

Well thank you for at least giving me feedback I rarely get feedback on anything anymore except maybe my older submissions. How about reviewing my winter breeze one also please ;) its a bit better and my upcoming Industrial song.

[Deep Space]

Good, I like!

2 small itch though:

The sound introduced at 0:54 is repeted 4 times. That's way too much! It takes out the dark athmosphere, and introduce a "ummm..." feeling. I would rather suggest a longer effect, repeted 2 times MAXIMUM

(Personnal opinion, you could just as leave that as it is) The little sound at 0:10 (which plays through all the sequence) sounds a LITTLE bit out of place, too much clear. But at 0:39, it's not a problem anymore.

Robotronic94 responds:

Thanks for the review! Those are some great suggestions, I'll try and add a little more variety, tweak a few things, and maybe have a updated version uploaded in a few days.

[Train to Oblivion Loop]

Good!

Your drums are epic, still they lack a kind of prestance. You mabe overdid it a little bit, especially on the kick. I would have really preferred a deeper and clearer kick.

Other than that, you made a great job!

SpootCaz responds:

Yeah, if there's one thing I really struggle with, it's the mastering aspect of music production. Reverbs, equalizers, compressors... I try to use them and I've tried to learn to use them well, but honestly that kind of stuff just goes right over my head. What I usually do is just write the song and cross my fingers and hope that the quality doesn't sound too crappy, and if it does, then I might mess around with those options. If it seems truly hopeless, I'll drop an all purpose tool like EQUO or Soundgoodizer on top of it and hope for the best. So yeah, while I would like ALL of my songs, to sound clearer and better produced, I unfortunately suck too much and am too poor to pay someone else to master them for me. :(

Glad you liked it in spite of that though! Thanks for the feedback!

[Janze - 70´s is here!]

Good song, technically great!

BUT (yeah, I love this word!!) it lacks an epic feel to be a "among greatest track ever made on Newgrounds". I would have loved (thats my ultimate daydreaming right there, it's not a absolute necessity to add everything (or anything lol) there :P) :

1. Light string in the background : always feel good
2. More present bass : mabe layering something else WITHOUT OVERDOING IT!!!
3. Add reverb on certain part : MAKE IT EPIC!!
4. A... hmmmmmm, muffin!

Good job on this!

[Destroy: Extended Version]

Direct hit!!!

You definitively should consider getting better drum sample. I feel like they are a little bit weak compared to the agressivity of the guitars, in particular the kick, the hat and the ride.

The bass is definitively adding a whole new dimention, which was lacking on the first version. I like that!

The double pedal at 0:38 seems odd past a certain amount of time, but that's just a minor flaw!!

And, yeah, you made an amazing job on the guitars! Keep it up!

LOD123 responds:

Thanks dude!
You know, I started off thinking that the drum samples I was using were okay when I used to do one track guitars/bass guides for me and my band to learn, but you're right they don't pack much of a punch anymore :/ I'll have to invest some time and money into getting a new plugin or something, I'll see what I can do in the future :)

[Rain Forest (EST Mix)]

FOR GOD SAKE, MOVE ON ALREADY!!!

It has been a quite great success, and it will continue its history as a great song of Newgrounds, but you have to KEEP GOING!

I think you do not understand how great this song is. No matter how perfectionist you are, no matter how itchy you get while listening to your creation, past a certain point, the adverage listener will not notice. He will just be in a overall state of "wow, this is so nice!", and he'll pass over. You, sir, have past this point.

I want to mention that this track is one of few that I listened to for 3 month without becoming irritating to me.

And, no, your "fails" are not real ones!

By the way, nice passage at 3:33!

Cahzmana responds:

yes thanks you for the time
i know this is getting old alright.
but in this case im trying to get this song much clearer without distortions without bugs or what so ever. ive done a '2012 new years eve mix' which looks ALLOT like this,
it actually is the same project so.. yeah.
and you know what, i dont care that much of what people think,
i care about my desires. about what i want.

i can understand your logical point there about the average listener.
but still..

[Fields of... - Dureagon]

Wow, respect!!

A bit cheesy and laggy at some places, fix this and you're OFF!!

DJDureagon responds:

Cheesy like pizza? Laggy like my internet? I cant fix either of these things. u_u