InvisibleObserver's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Juggalette Style (explict)]

My review, your song.

There is very little production value in terms of mix here. Vocals are recorded alright, guitars not so much.

Electronic drums are far too loud, the synthy snare is obnoxiously loud.

The bass acoustic riff is highly repetitive and sounds dissonant with the other guitar rhythm.

Musically there is no progression.

Drums are not very diverse, rather cliche hiphop and repeititve, and in some spots near nonsensically on and off. I think near the 2:35 part its on and off for a bar at a time, it doesn't bode well for the overall flow of the song.

All of the vocal recordings are at different levels. You need to take all your vocal clips, normalize them, match up the volume to be even, and EQ them the same. Afterwards I'd recomend exporting that new vocal track for ease of further even editing.

Subtle reverb almost always helps vocals.

Lyrics themselves are goofy, the line about "Better think before you say any more" pretty much sums this up. Theres far too much miss, not enough hit in here. I don't know if this is suposed to be funny or not. I found it rather uncomfortably amateur and sloppy.

RedButcheress responds:

LIke I said in my comment I didn't actually do the music myself its a mate of mine.
I'm still learning how to work with audacity in terms of music and levels.

[Plane_Shift [Box-Killa]]

My review, your song.

Opens with some neat dissonant sliding flangey effectsm neat sound, though rather a-tonal. Not a crowd pleasing sound for drawing in the hordes of NG masses. That being said, I liked it.

Hi-pass filt drums introduce tem nicely, the snare grinds entrance while less then half a second long is a very sexy moment. I personally would have played out the mix of hi-pass drums and grinding, emphasizing a contrast between the two.

After that it falls into a 2-step drum and bass ryhtmhn with some rather nice rolls, and continuation of neat repeating synths. As you said, its only two chords and drums.

1:21 pad/string like sound fills things out nicely, though the lack of diversity in its melody doesn't support the song terribly well.

Overall, songs mixed professionally, as per usual with your works, but the song itself doesn't really go anywhere and is not dynamic. I still enjoyed it, but it has a somewhat incomplete nature to it.

Box-Killa responds:

yeah I agree with everything. This was more of an experiment on my behalf, just to see what I could do with 2 chords and a drum line :D

[Orchestral Theme 1]

My review, your song.

Very interesting take on trance, replacing the house/dance drums with a series of wood and metal percussion to create that primordial feel.

Synth strings swapped out for real strings, a minor detail most people might overlook, but it creates a very unique timbre of in terms of instrumentation.

0:48 is a wicked build up and break down.

0:55 love the vocals, most trance artists that use vocals take stock sounds and female voices, but this sort of 'worldly' tribal sound really sets you aside from the rest. Like your in your own quarantine of art.

1:10 wicked bridge and switch back to main refrain, as the listener its expected yet sounds great when it happens.

The bright sounding trumpet jabs are a wicked interpretation of the typical synthetic stab. This is by far the classiest, most unique trance song I've heard.

1:54 more chanting, it has such a primal feel to it that I can't help but think this would make for a great wedding song, really bring out the emotion.

2:36 the alto choir is a throw back to my youth. I remember when I sounded like that. This song plays on many levels including my nostalgia for the past.

Overall song structure is cohesive while fluidly transitioning, the ideal progression pace for comfortable, easy listening.

Great trance song Gravey, I hope you continue writing in this genre, you compliment it so well.

Gravey responds:

Wonderful to hear such a glowing review from the master of musical disaster, InvisibleObserver. I agree with you completely my friend, this is such a unique and extraordinary trance song. As you mentioned the synth strings really helps to create a unique timbre and sound for this piece.

And the chanting was definitely intended to give a feeling of love and warmth, hence you reference of this as a possible wedding song. It would definitely be fitting for a wedding. I could see a bride just aglow as she walks down the aisle with her father at her side, and her eyes locked on her groom up ahead.

I'm glad this conjures up memories of you in your youth. There was an intention for nostalgia and the effect for a longing of the past that I was trying to capture. That essence is so hard to nail down correctly, but I feel like I really did well with this piece in that department.

All in all, this is by far my best trance song. I feel like it is definitely a step above the other trance songs I've worked on in the past. :-)

Thanks for the great review!

-Gravey-

[Hymn of the ancients - TTC CHG]

My review, your song.

Your variety of instrument use and equipment seems to have expanded greatly. This clip has a few weirdly synced up sections, but for the most part is very very rich with neat little segments.

Weak points mainly lining up with the transitions.

0:53 to the end is very nice piano wise. Make sure the piano's dynamics are taken into account, the first half sounds like it would benefit greatly by being introduced with a lower volume.

Calamaistr responds:

The things i wanted to change (but i didnt want to drag on the night since it was getting late and just wanted it to be done in raw format) was the percussion mainly, i think it needs to proceed on the second entry and different than the part thats being repeated trice.

Imho the rest needs little fixing, perhaps some additional panned effects here and there.
Afterall its no more than a atmospheric track, i look forward in doing the battle themes already. (the first two prelude tracks slightly seem orchestral but the style i want to do this album in is actually a hybrid Folk and electronic. :)

Have you listened to the honor of hura already Invisibleobserver? Its technically better than this track. ;)

Thanks and greets, ill check out your new work sometime soon.

[[SxHx] N'thisisex]

My review, your song.

Intros with a wet reverb synth, which works, a sight automation instead of the instant snap might make for a smoother beginning.

The kick is a bit weak, I think if you were to play with its pogo to make its attack quicker, and mix it seperately to either have a volume priority over the lead synth it would contribute much better to the house feel.

The voice sounds very very cheap. It sounds like a text generator talking, and overall this song has a very Bennybenassi sound to it. The voice needs more mixing done to make it either unique or memorable. It sounds kind of weak. If you record yourself imitating the robot voice you can get a higher quality of audio, saying it on beat, and with your chosen inflections. Then proceed to bit crush it a bit for that scratchy pc sound (which will maintain a bass quality in the human voice), and vocode it for that synthetic sound. If I'm way off, then in future maybe just try that for the sake of it.

The vocals are kind of goofy, personally I don't like them, and I think from a business perspective un-smooth robots repeating sex isn't really super duper either. They need more of a fluidity to them to work them into the song to make them a little more cohesive to the overall song.

Drums overall sound like they have no panning done to them, and very little mixing. Rather simplistic rhytmhns played, there are some decent rolls of sorts throughout the song, but nothing particularily prominent. At about 2:02 its sounds very default-drum-preset-y to a very simple house/trance drum pattern. Not a strong sound. While they don't detract from the song, they aren't memorable.

Lead synth (and at higher parts sounds like its just playing on top of itself an octave up) sounds good. Only suggestion I'd make on tweaking the sound is to make its reverb and the original instrument have varied levels of stereo seperation so the audio has an in and out ping-pong sound. Helps get more mileage out of simplistic melodies.

Song would benefit from some other instruments, be it a deep bass or a few higher up clean synth stabs, it would add a lot more depth to the song.

Overall: Drums need more individual mixing to sound varied, and less preset like. Synth is interesting and could be tweaked a bit more to sound a bit more moving. Structure of song is simple, but thats the nature of house. Vocals goofy, felt on top of the song, not part of it. Overall overall: Not a bad song but does not stand out.

shesmackshard responds:

Thanks for the review!

The vox on this one wasnt as serious haha, you caught me. And the personally enjoyed the mixing on these drums *cries*

Thanks man! All is considered.

[SN | Shift | SN]

My review, your song.

Your song's got very reverb heavy drums. Its tolerable for a bit but I felt like it became a bit too much midway through the song. I think when the strings pick up you could probably afford to have the reverb lessen on the drums and not have to worry about the drums having that click-in-out sound to them.

Effects and whatnot are pretty dandy (primarily on the drums), though I must admit I'm not big on the 2-step beat due to its high level of use. I would have liked to have heard some more altered rhythms instead of just glitch shuffles and rolls of sorts on the 2-step.

Piano melody/chords work, their simple though. As for the little runs, their super duper on beat in a rather not in depth use of piano like way. If there were one thing to focus on, that would be it - expand piano to play in a more life-like manner.

Rest is good, nothing really hurts this song ultimately, just some things that could make it more cohesive.

Quick summary; lessen reverb on drums part way through songs, expand on piano's play style realism, and best of luck in the Ngadm.

SessileNomad responds:

reverb is done donedy

he effects are pretty simple if you watch my tutes, but yeah they do sound pretty xD

thanks man

[Hacks Of Wrath]

My review, your song.

Intro's with a neat synth playing a very simple/generic gated rhytmhn.

0:22 nice clean synth made for a nice contrast to openign sound. Also plays a simple melody, though the layering of the two is much more inclining to listen to.

0:31 Kick drum intro is nicely timed, but the kick itself doesn't have the greatest force behind it. I think increasing its bass a bit would be dandy.

Rest of drums are very simple, they need some alternating rhythms and rolls. Their very bland.

1:20 vocalish synth blips are very cool, very ambiguous, I'd have liked to hear more of them.

At the 2:00 mark the repeating melody is getting too repetitive. It needs some changing/progression to occur badly.

2:15 new synth introudced is jolly and all, but the repeated melody structure is still present, so while it is a new sound, its not new melody-ness detracts from it greatly.

From there song just kind of unbuilds. Poor/lack of outro hurt this.

Overall song sounded more loopy then it did like a song. It has a neat set of sounds, drums are simple, melody is simple, and overall I think this could have done with just a few more detailing, and a slightly tuned up mix.

All in all, not bad but this isn't really a head turner in any way shape or form.

[Mellow Grove Loop]

My review, your loop.

Very neat loop, ambiguous enough its continuation looping is sustainable. I frankly don't hear any sort of link to MGMT or "Electric Feel", but that has nothing to do with this loops overall positive sound.

I think the pads/flanged sound / synths could be made to have some stereo/panning to really make this loop pop out AND add to the trippy sound factor.

Otherwise my only comment would be make songs, not loops. Low scores solely dependant on that.

Toddzilla20000 responds:

Haha, no i know it doesnt sound anything like it.
Yeah, very true on panning, nice idea ^_^

[Meet JAWS]

My review, your 'song'.

Should place this as voice acting instead of video game.

Overall, its mildly humorous, your inflections drive that. Otherwise though this sounds like 5minutes of fooling around.

Your voice needs some mixing done to be louder.

Your other songs (the actual songs, not the other VA pieces) are alot better.

[Drop Kick Beats]

My review, your song.

Kicks are over done in terms of volume.

0:15 neat synth.

Clap gets annoying.

0:30 synth is hitting some dissonant notes from the base synth.

You can leave FL on indefinitely with session files, and you can also have multiple instances of FL open at a time (At your CPUs expense). Continue playing with it before investing in it.

Ronoblasphlmy responds:

Thanks for all the feedback and tips. Unfortunately I can't do anything about them. I now own a copy of FL but I can't load it again to mess around with it as much as I would like to since its only a mp3. Maybe someday I will sit down and rewrite it but for now it just, is. Thanks again.