JinZ's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[DJ Immy & Street Jazzist Zuwer in: Late Night Brake Scratchin' {NGMC 2025}]

For Immy: you've improved a lot, some parts are groovy, interesting synth presets, I suggest lowering the volume of some drum fills
For Zuwer: nice score overall. Creative melodies played by fitting instruments, fast melody with a fast bell, and slow melody with a slow synth. Cool drums as well.
Just in case this goes unsaid: This is not a collab

Quality: 4/10
Race: 7/10
Theme: 5/10

ZuwerWS responds:

thanks for the honest review

[Highway Hypnosis]

very nice and chill score, love the bells
Some more sidechaining could make parts like 01:10 sound less clicky
The bass sounds inconsistent, which may stem from phasing or a sound design issue
The track needs a better volume balance between the main and sub elements, most notably during the intermezzo

Quality: 5/10
Race: 5/10
Theme: 4/10

[Rising Revolution, Chasing Convolution]

nice instruments and melody, funky basses, SFX
The second drop could benefit from more call and response
I'm all for different drum kits played in a track, but the transitions between them are rusty

Quality: 6/10
Race: 6/10
City: 4/10

[ArikXu & Voytek-Music: Ruminative Flashback]

Great blend of melody with the vocals, the drop has a feel of call and response
You should switch up the vocal chops for a more interesting listening experience
When making a build-up, I suggest the kick have an HP filter, more SFX; these will make the drop "drop" harder

Quality: 5/10
Race: 6/10
Theme: 2/10

Voytek-Music responds:

(I didn't really have time to work on this, so all that stuff goes to ArikXu) these are some little things i would add too (if I could)
EDIT: Np bro, thb you cooked with this 👍

[Shenzen [NGMC 2025]]

The instruments are clean, pretty well combined and recycled
Fast-paced arp create a great race atmosphere
One advice, modulate the keys so that the whole track sounds like one loop being extended

Quality: 7/10
Race: 7/10
Theme: 4/10

[[NGMC 2025] X3ll3n - Midnight Freeway (w/ Snikio)]

This sounds like a copy/remake of that one synthwave song, not a bad thing, just pointing out

The melody is nice, choice of synths are fitting too.
There are some parts (like 01:51 where too many things are played at the same velocity) that are pretty clustering, you should leave room for focus
The track could benefit a lot with less sidechaining (about 85-90% sidechain mix is fine) as this isn't a heavy EDM genre.

Quality: 6/10
Race: 8/10
Theme: 9/10

X3LL3N responds:

Which synthwave song ?

[GTGP2]

Idk what you rap but it sounds funny
This works as racing music, surprisingly lol
The low end should be cleaned a lot more, and the drums should have more punch

Quality: 6/10
Race: 9/10
Theme: 4/10

CasualBreather responds:

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback!

[Burning City]

Great composition, an unexpected but considerable mixture of the two genres . The guitars are clean, and the orchestration is realistic. The chiptune melody on top is ear candy.
Tho I'd say the track is a lot too intense for a city theme

Quality: 8/10
Race: 8/10
Theme: 3/10

[Chocnoon x TheStacked - Traffic Traversing (DCLXXVI) [NGMC2025 Round 4]]

The melody is very nice as it gives off a vibe of running at night.
I like it when there's also a melody played below a melody sequence; it makes the track feel more fast-paced.
The transitions could've been better; the lack of FX hinders good transitions.

The intro was slow, and it had unnecessarily long breaks, which doesn't fit racing music. I recommend having more percussion or melodic movement.

Quality: 6/10
Race: 4/10
Theme: 6/10

[TheBroox2000 & Itz_Gamepoint - Red City (NGMC 2025 Entry)]

The drums stand out a lot which is good. The arrangement and melodies are creative, especially 01:00
Some background elements should sound quieter like the phaser sfx in the drop
Also I'd like the piano sound more realistic, not having all notes played at the same velocity

Quality: 4/10
Race: 5/10
Theme: 4/10