Zechnition's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sleepy Mario]

I love the overall atmosphere, this is one of my favorite genres too!

The bell lead quickly gets tiring though. I think it might be the release on the bell or maybe the reverb. Shortening the reverb would probably make the bell sound a lot less muddy. I think starting with low release on the bell for the first few bars, then transitioning into the normal reverb / release levels would be a cool intro effect as well as ease the repetitive nature of the bell melody into the listener's ears.

Decreasing the tempo around 00:58 might sound good as well, in addition to giving the listener a break from the bell.

I might also try to change up the bell melody a few times throughout the song, but only in little ways (maybe a note or two), so that the melody piques the listeners attention a little bit before lulling them back to sleep (Someone might hear the change and be like "ah! that's cool"). At least once in the first minute would be nice. 00:47 sounds great because of the tiny break from the bell! -- maybe more of this?

The bass starting at 00:10 and transitioning to the main bass at 00:19 is a great transition and sounds really good but the instrument sounds a little basic (I don't know how to describe this, but it sort of sounds like somewhere between a saw and square wave with the high end filtered out). If you could somehow give it a little bit of personality in some places it would sound better. Maybe a tiny bit of distortion or overdrive?

The drums are like this too. If you could take each sample and give it a tiny effect like playing over it a (very quiet) bit of a random sound effect or a phaser. It would make the song sound a lot more polished.

You're only using a few instruments, so each one has to be special -- each one has to have it's own unique flavour!

Nothing wrong with the composition of the drums but it feels like something is missing. Maybe some of the beats are off a bit? Maybe I'm going crazy? I don't know, but double checking it anyways once more can't hurt.

The strings note at 1:41 sounds a little too high and the note after it also sounds a little boring. Maybe look for some more flow-y notes by changing the pitch a bit.

The ambient sounds and french voice both really fit the atmosphere. Good sound design with them too!

Summary:
Great atmosphere but is repetitive and lacks a unique 'flavour'.

If you could tell me a little bit about how you made this song it would really help me to learn more! Love it!

Crazy-Unicorn responds:

Awesome review thank you <3 You're helping me alot!

I made this song after hearing this and being inspired : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVH1ICPLfnk
I first started by remaking the melody / chords with a rhodes. It was very beautiful! But I invented a second part with the same rythm to make it 2 times longer.
Then I bounced it as a sample (this is why I never changed the notes of the melody :/) and added some effects, I also added the bass notes with a simple square/saw bass (and it has distortion, maybe not enough), I added basic lofi fx (vinyl crackle, forest sounds, high / low cut...)
After that I created the beat, and I worked hard on the kick that I wanted strong.
And then I added some instruments as I was in the mood :)

And at the end I added every little details like white noise, transitions, some more mixing...

[Waterfall]

I love the contrast of the little ending section!

[Astro Soda]

Jesus man, all of your music is so far above average.

Amazing compositing,
great instrument design,
non repetitive structure,
right in the middle of all genres I like.

Don't stop making music. ^w^

[-Race around the galaxy-]

Amazing composition and sound design!
This song just makes me happy, even after years of hearing it.

(^w^)

[ID #2 (WIP)]

I liked the drum progression and the bass growl sounded pretty good but most of the song is just a single instrument and drums. I would try layering multiple instruments together and adding a bit more melodic progression.

However, there still is potential.
(^-^)

BlueAlpha14 responds:

I don't even know what I did when I made that bass, it just sort of happened lol.

Here's the thing: I know the intro and drop lack a lot of melodic progression, but the problem is I don't know how to fix that. I've tried a few things and they don't compliment eachother very well. I've been drawing blanks, basically.

Thanks for the review, I know I can always count on you.

[They Taught Us To Dream]

Ca, c'est la chanson que j'aime le plus dans NGCHIPS!

DEM0NW0LF responds:

Merci !

[Victory!]

This is really different from your newer work yet it is still pretty good! I gotta look back at some of my older stuff, it's often good inspiration for writers block. :-)

Teckmo-X responds:

Yeah this old stuff was a pretty big start for me because I was starting to get to know how to make music.

[Dawn Over The Horizon]

This is great! How you mix retro sounds with modern ones. Only thing to improve would be the outro, it's a little abrupt.
Have you tried making any bitpop? This is pretty close and I think you would do it well.

Teckmo-X responds:

Thanks! Yeah I've been working on a lot of sounds lately but I'm more on experimenting them right now. I'm supposed to start making Chillstep tracks but haven't got the time since work and college. I look forward to posting more on here soon starting June.

[AIM - Beat Down]

I continue to hear eerie similarities between you and waterflame's work. All in all good song though! Mixing is fine, melodies and song structure is great, yet some of the instruments don't sound the best. I also feel that the bit-crusher is a bit to "strong" (?) as it seems to break the flow of the song and is a bit jarring.

[Calamity]

Good composition, poor instrument quality, and not the best but not the worst mixing. Not really "a cat being brutally raped," at the least a little better than that. Not bad. ^^