InvisibleObserver's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Give Me The Hard Style (Final)]

My review, your song.

Some neat sfx going on in the intro. Not a big fan of the machine gunning clap sounds. The opening snare doesn't really fit tonally with the rest of whats present. Something with more grit would be better.

The gabber kick could probably have some note variation to make it moer palateable, instead of droning a single note you could work it into the melody a bit more for a cohesive sound.

Near 1:20 a soft clip or EQ out on high freqs on the master channel could help tone down the rather unpleasant resonance.

2:00 minute mark, doesn't sound like anything has been EQ'd to fit a specific range, everything blurs over eachother and kind of hurts any definition the song may otherwise have had. It becomes a bit too convoluted.

2:33 as the filter goes down the bass clips a ltitle, make sure the affected channels are limited, lower the quality on the filter if clipping is still an issue.

The vocal sample in the background could be varied a bit, or just flat out dropped in some sections so that its less repetitive, and the mix is easier to clean up.

Overall there is a lot of neat FX, fair length for a hardstyle song, and clearly effort put into this. The primary weak points (in my mind) are that the mix is made to be loud and in a slightly improper manner that hurts the clarity of the song. Other weakpoint would be as far as melody is concerned, its a single track song with kicks and FX.

If anything I've said is unclear regarding mix or you need a bit of direction, just shoot a PM to me.

[[PXS] Western Hemisphere]

Your song, my review.

Sick.

On your cut and repeated sample, add a bit of stereo (the one that runs throughout whole song), and some soft/subtle reverb and it will help it fill out and become far smoother sounding.

Drums are very heavy near the end, it works. Building up the drums further could be very cool.

With your Z3ta arp sound EQ up the higher frequency ranges it hits so it cuts through things a little moer. It will add some more varied definition to the song.

The male vocal sample use is excellent. If you play with cutting his words a bit so they fall on beat more, you can turn a good sample into a signing sample of epic proportion.

This songs biggest weak point IMO is its too short. If it were 5 minutes long, I'd nerd out over it. Totally up my alley.

The pitch/stutter up at the one minute mark is an excellent drop. Worked in very cleanly.

High five dudey. You wrote something unique.

Pixelsaur responds:

Thanks a ton for the in depth review, I will take all these into consideration. Means a ton, man.

[Hood work( trapademic type)]

My review, your song.

Careful with your mixing.

At 0:25 theres far too much resonance and high freq coming through on the vocaly FX sound, and its rather painful. Lower high freqs with an EQ, limit it, soft clip it, filter it, whatever is necessary to take off the edge. It clips.

With the trance gated synth, make sure the notes its hitting sync in key signature with the backdrop of the song.

The kick-bass-drop sound is EQ'd too loudly and clips. While a heavy kick is certainly desireable in hiphop, to acheive the effect one doesn't just raise its volume until its above everything else. You go through your other tracks/instruments and EQ out the freq range the kick falls under so that when the kick does play, it has no competition in its frequency range, so its heard loud and clear without causing distortion.

Song overall is very repeititve, a simple intro/outro would help.

With a few mixing tweaks this is totally useable for doing some verses on.

Blackhoodkrew responds:

good look brotha. most deffinately need tweaking

[Sunrising Escape]

My review, your song.

Could easily benefit from a bit more instrument variation.

0:14, 0:19. 0:24 many other spots the lower bass note is clipping. Limit the mixer channel the synth is on, don't increase the bass so much. Its blurring over and giving parts a tinnyish sound because its not playing properly (its getting distorted).

Odd melody/progression, but nothing horrendous on the ears. Very wandery.

I'd suggest playing with writing a melody with more complex syncopation, or at least more varied, the entirety of this is on the on-beat and gets a very repetitive nature to it that hurts the piece.

Experiment with some drums, something soft could have really improved this.

Not astounding but certainly not bad. Keep in that direction and you'll do well.

Matakor responds:

0.o I didn't really understand half of what you just said...I'm stupidish. Actually, I didn't mess with the synth at all. I just thought it sounded cool, and then I mashed it all together after I found a little trick with it. The reason it's all wandery is cuz I'm ADHD and didn't really pay attention to that bit. Drums I might do...not sure yet.

Thanks for the memo tho. I will work on this.

[Messin' around with synth]

My review, your song/audio clip.

If your having troubles writing melodies more then 3 notes, you likely lack music theory or knowledge, and a developed ear for music.

Lookup the 13 basic major/minor scales, find an image with all of their key signatures laid out, print it off and stick it behind your PC wall. Then when your writing just stick to the notes within the signatures and you'll be able to nearly hit random notes within the scale and it will sound more cohesive.

Low score cause... well it sounds incomplete, poor mix, simple drums and etc. Your learning, don't expect high scores. :P

ShredderJ responds:

Thanks for the review. I don't mind the score at all, I'm pretty new to this whole composing thing, and I want some feedback. I'll check out the scales.

[[TDR] Play The Game]

My review, your song.

Limit the intro kick a bit, maybe soft clip it. It has a resonant/tin clipping sound to it.

Guit sound is pretty full and lushious, it works. Intro drums are pretty decent.

Your autotune use while likely a wise choice, the retune speed is too fast and inplace of fixing the notes is garbling things in a manner where the changes are changing note not on beat, which I feel are hurting the song more then it is fixing weak tuned vocals. Alternatively checkout the graphical settings, a soft retune speed should be ideal over the auto.

Rap section from min mark to two minute mark could benefit from a heavy kick in the background. Just about all hiphop/rap based lyrics are founded upon a simple fat kick. It will help fill things out more during that section.

I'd raise the mid-high freqs on the voice with an EQ myself so they have a bit sharper of a tone.

Lyrics themselves don't seem bad, but they aren't doing much for me. Not seeming bad though is a huge accomplishment. Its an easy thing to really screw up.

4:35 "You're retarded" ok theres something I wouldn't have included myself. Otherwise the rest is fine. :P

I think the chorus sections with the tuned voice would benefit from a higher pitched string acompaniment. May give it a little whirl but to work it in with the current mix is likely to give you some trouble.

Overall pertty good. I managed to listen to the entirety of this 7 min song without skimming. Neat sound, stands out and not for all the wrong reasons. Hope your small tweaks go over well.

ArisingFlame responds:

First, I have to tell you that I highly appreciate the very detailed review. Perfect help there!

Duely noted on the autotune. I hay have to search around for a better VSTi for such. I just have a cheaply done free one at the moment.

I'm currently looking at using a different kick pattern for the rapping areas. Right now it is just filler, backing up the guitar. Thank you for noting that.

I was wondering what the voice seemed weak on. You're exactly right.

Haha, actually, the story behind the lyrics is that me and Trae were observing that every single hip-hop/rap artist has a song that either 1) Praises themselves like gods or 2) Shit-talks like none other. We decided to do a song that did both. XD

"You're retarded" is a stretch, I know. :p I'm still looking for a line to replace that bit.

You have a very valid point about the choruses. I'll look and see what I can do there.

I appreciate your review. You sir are a godsend. All of your points were very helpful and if you'd like to, I'll let you know when I complete these tweaks to see how improved it is.

Thank you!
TJ Tetz,
ArisingFlame.

[SCaNTRaX (dj JPA)]

My review, your song.

-Very short
-Intro is almost all of it
-Intro is really tackey
-Intro vocal could benefit from being cut up and fit to beat
-Perhaps reverse chain the volume output of the rest of the song to the voice so its always on top. Towards the 1minute mark it gets muddled in a bad way.
-Overall the mix is very murky
-Intro has far too much reverb stuff going on. This doesn't help the mix.
-Cut off freq ranges of instruments where they don't predominantly play

-Freq ranges themselves are rather diverse, song has a somewhat full sound
-While not my cup of tea, this is relatively likable minus the shortness of it. It ends as soon as it starts, but whats here is certainly palatable.
-The sample choice does suit the hardstyle genre

Overall I think with greater time investment and a little bit of mix/tech help, this could be quite the good song granted the genre/styel.

djJPA responds:

Thank you for your advice!
with the vocals, i tried a lot of reverb, sounded better but maybe that's just me.
I know this is hardstyle, but trance is really the closest thing to hardstyle based on the newgrounds genre choices here.

[Tarboy OST - Two's a Part]

My review, your song.

Excellent score for the movie, only weaknesses I find is the drums. Has a very electronic sequenced 'trying to be real drums and not quite hitting the mark' feel to it, which in comparison to the rest of the song, it stood out to me. The kick primarily on its own is a little obnoxious, volume dynamics and some rolls of sorts or variance would help bring it up to par with the rest of the song.

Who wrote the instrumentals, who mixed and who mastered this?

[Katlean and Ter amok - TTC CHG]

My review, your song.

Much stronger a beginning (then the other song I reviewed moments ago), more depth to the drums, instruments build gradually in a more melodic way.

Lot of intentional dissonance here, which comes across as that, builds atmosphere well.

Strings fill out the sound spectrum nicely.

Lot of weird syncopation going on wtih the low quality synth (its a 8bitish). There were some spots near 1:40 I felt it being removed would add some clarity.

2:15 is the strongest part of the song by far. The writing flows, builds, no dissonance, instruments are tuned to each other. Need more of this.

Make sure you take the time to avoid discordant writing, you've got the skill but I think more cleanup time is required. Getting more virtual instruments still stands as something that should be on your to-do list.

Don't let me low scores daunt you, I'm voting on a potential system here. :P

Calamaistr responds:

im not daunted :)
You hear the same as i, i also thought that some of the lipsquare in the latter end 'seemed cluttered but it also gives it a bit of how do i say it.. like it doesnt sound like a pre sample. People easily forget that these things have to be placed manually, and with thought behind it. I might remove it but i might also not, cause im sure you know how long rendering takes with heavy instrumentation.

I did pick the square to be retro on purpose since i also couldve gone through sytrus or vanguard for one. ;) I wanted it to be retro.

Thanks for your review man.

Greets -Cal.

[A time to a wonder - TTC CHG]

My review, your song.

Lot of effort here but your tool array really hurts this.

Sounds like lo-fi synths and midi. :(

Some of the synths are detuned from the other instruments which causes a lot of dissonance.

The mix is not present, which in a way lowers songs potential, but it is better to be unmixed then poorly mixed.

You need to look into getting some more insturment tools, and spend more time focusing on writing up a melody and slowly adding acompniment. A lot of this felt like the writing was done in quick layers that don't sync up.

Between the segments of the song, don't be afraid to leave longer gaps for things to fade out. It will help define the sections better and pace the song.

Calamaistr responds:

I disagree with the midi, but i intentionally used lowfi instrumentation (like some strings) together with hifi instrumentation, that afterall is the style of this album. (retroesque electronic, jazzy influences and hifi classical :) )

I got plenty instrument tools haha.

Ill pay some mind to the longer gaps next time, when i do piano works i actually do use these gaps but when youre working with more instruments its a little tedious to edit it afterhand, and in every piece of mine is alot of afterhand corrections trust me.

I dont know what you mean with mix in this. Isnt the mix just the volume and panning of individual instruments? Cause i did pay attention to it.

I think you just dont like the combination of instrumentation for the large part.
Thats ok. ;) Its misc for a reason.

Thanks for your review despite not liking it. :)

-Cal.