xZiriusX's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Ride on the Pianofalls]

Great and ambitious track, i really like it! The drums are amazing and such a joy to listen, although they sound a little too dry for my taste, considering how orchestral the song is. Some instruments sound a little too "midi", but that doesn't matter when the song is really good! You deserved that 9.63/10 on that contest :)

ScottSoul responds:

Haha, yeah, I went for a more hard rock/metal mix for the drums and kept a particular focus on the overhead microphone. It is quite dry, but I felt it was taking too much space otherwise. Who knows, maybe I'll learn how to do it differently in the future :)

And yeah, sometimes it's hard to get rid of that MIDI feel when you're dealing with a couple of free/cheap VSTs; it doesn't help make other instruments sound realistic! With time I'll learn how to do work around it better.

You have good ears, Zirius! Thank you so much for your review and appreciation. I'm grateful to you. :)

[Prevention]

Pretty good! Reminds me of those racing games i used to play on my psp back then, good memories :'). In my opinion, the kick should be a little lower. I know it's common to see loud compressed kicks on modern metal, but i still think the more subtle kick from the 80's is better. That's just me though, so take it as a grain of salt. Still, this song is enjoyable as is.

By the way, the riff at 00:50 is similar to one i used in a song i made (denouement). What a fun coincidence hehe.

HighBallers responds:

thanks for the review dude! i been tweaking this mix for so long. I got the kick kinda slapping. Been trying to get it more of a punch. I'm gonna check out that song lmao

[Ordinary]

This song represents your inspiration very well, i love it! This clearly shows that expensive equipment don't automatically make a musician good, but rather a good musician can make free plugins sound good. I've been looking for free vst's, so the list of all the stuff you used will be very useful :D

Great track!

zybor responds:

You got that right :), tools don't define your music, you do. It's not a challenge to make good stuff with free or cheap tools, people just feel like they have some need to get expensive gear so they could make things sound better. The reality is that it doesn't matter what you use, you could have had Omnisphere or Serum and still sound like shit.

Thank you for your review. Take care.

[Vortex]

oh no, did i make this? how old was i?

[ROBOIZ OST]

Really like it, i can see it in a game made by The Behemoth hehe. I'll make sure to check out your game :)

[Dunai - HoriSION]

This is great! The ideas on this one really fit for a good progressive song. I only wish the song was longer but still pretty good. I hope you find a great vocalist :)

[Lead The Charge]

i really like the ideas in this one, some 80's helloween vocals would fit perfectly. Although the drums are a bit too loud, making the other instruments kind of fade out, and some reverb in them would definitely fit better in the song in my opinion, but overall it's pretty good

Ritz190 responds:

Thanks alot! I always have trouble with volume levels when it comes to drums and everything else. Songs like these are helping me sort that out. I appreciate your input!

[Bandit]

I really like the vibe of this song. Although the bass line was a little too repetitive for me, but hey, take it as a grain of salt because im more into progressive stuff :)

As someone else pointed out, yeah the bass is a little too loud. If the song has lower volume, it allows for more dynamics in my opinion. Keep it up!

[Blue Dawn]

Pretty good! in my opinion the guitars could use more bass in the equalization, but overall i like it. Did the EP come to life? :)

HighBallers responds:

MAN glad you liked it. ......NO the ep never came :( i has failed.

[ParagonX9 - Chaoz Fantasy]

Wow, this song feels so nostalgic. The melodies from the beginning and how the song flows is good. Although, its still feels like some stuff done in this song has already been done a dozen times in 2007, plus this song is just too short! I mean, 2 minutes really? This song feels like it could have done so much more. You got nice melodies, you got good sound, now expand from them and you got an even more outstanding song.
By short i mean this song gets over its ideas too quickly and just goes on. Not to mention this song sounds too bland in my opinion, like, it needs more background bass synths, since the only one it has just doesnt feel like enough.
The melodies in here are really good, if not beautiful, the problem is it just doesnt go even further, and thus this song feels a little bit incomplete. The flow is really good though, but the content is missing.
This song is really enjoyable, since it feels like its telling a story, or at least lets you make one by just listening to it, the problem is it falls too short and thus i wouldnt be able to listen to it more than a dozen times because i would have memorized the entire song by then and thus feel tired of listening to it. But overall, pretty good song that has aged wonderfully.