InvisibleObserver's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Demon Opera]

My review, your song.

Intro to 0:27 is dandy, melody is quite nice.

I may be mistaken, but it just sounds like a distorted guitar playing lead, no bass/accompaniment (for now of course).

Feels like the guitar should be mixed to have a stereo boost.

Some of the pauses in the song like 1:39 could benefit from a drum fill/solo.

Song has what suonds like an incomplete outro, then sort of loops back into the beginning. (Bit jumpy sounding, it lpays smoothly but doesn't sound good.)

Itsplays out well, but this has an incomplete feel as you've mentioned and my votes I'd say are a bit generous. Be sure to take this down when a more complete version is uploaded so you can get fresh reviews/votes.

4/5 7/10

Dimoria responds:

There is bass , but cause of my programs not working I can't mix it right , this is a rough version and the pause you are reffering to is supposed to be an intervall with Strings etc. Or just vocals. Thx for your kind review

[Acid Glitch]

My review, your song.

Post complete worth while songs, and you'll have a much larger haul of ears.

This was kind of a waste of time, its short, a 4/4 kick loop and 2 scratchy drums playing simple rhythms. While it is usable in a song, on its own its pretty boring, and doesn't loop very well. Nor is it mixed to have a more full sound.

Sounds as if time investment on this was minimal.

Having checked your other songs, most of them lack a mix, feel free to PM me about that if you'd like a bit of direction.

2/5 4/10

aloneagainfriend responds:

Well, Thank you. This track was just for fun, and it took all of 10 minutes XD. It got a fair review.

My other songs "lack mix"? Hum, now this is intriguing. I would love to hear what you have to say... I'll pm l8r, but plz keep in mind, this is only a test. Alot of the stuff I post here at NG is just stuff I like but cant figure out how to progress them correctly. So I post them hear to try for the rare, yet so true reviews like this one (In some last ditch effort for help).
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[Kick Pulse (Round I)]

My review, your song.

Liked the intro montage of noises. I got really excited at the possibility of the whole song being like that. (Though writing that would be a night mare.)

0:15 it hops into 4/4 kicks with bass on the off beat and a growing synth.

0:34 is detuned and off key sounding. (but just for a few seconds)

0:51 bass sound you expect to drop another note, but it goes back up, caught me off guard and not in a good way.

Melody so far has been all over the place, while the drums are simple in structure, and the bass is a very linear acompaniment to the melody.

Kick sounds like a water drop-esque kick sound.

1:50 bridge is nice, song begins taking another direction.

The Gretch toilings FL preset sound stands out. Add some reverb and paser to it, stretch it longer. It stands out badly.

2:30 gated strings are nice, needs to sound more full in its mix though.

2:56 new synth is grainy in sound and slightly detuned. This song could benefit from a more controlled setting of tuned/detuned instruments. Some of them are iffy with eachother.

3:23 Theres the pretty sound again. Glee.

3:26 some new section begins, leaving me to believe someone hit you over the head with a heavy object, and you lost consciousness, came too, and just picked up writing music. Its an odd change, and nice one. Drums don't fit well here though. Hats good, the rest just doesn't fit.

4:30 nice synth lead with some slides. On the off beat bass and droplet kick sound returns. This synth needs to be mixed into the forground. (Parametric EQ with the volume adjust knob raised will do this in one quick FX addition.)

5:45 songs outro begins by just taking off layers of the song. Simple outro, it works.

Overall this song is quite cool, its weaknesses are:

-Poor mix
-Some of the drum sounds just don't mesh well (FL preset crashes, and the droplet sounding kick at sections)
-Predictable off-beat bass gets a bit boring
-Simple drums

Strengths are:
-Very diverse in melody
-Tasteful and many changes in instrumentation
-Progression flows

You need to add more bass to your bass instruments, bring the melodies to the forground, mix your drums to be a bit more punchy (and usually to sound 'in front' of the bass too).

Send drums to effects channels so you can edit the preset FL drums to sound more different then out of the box sounds. Add reverb/bass, more grit, less grit, w/e. The preset drums in FL are pretty weak unless mixed and edited.

Just lacks good production.

4/5 8/10

NightcoreVII responds:

Wow, this helps a ton. =) Especially the last part, when you summed everything up. It kinda gives me a checklist for my next song, lol. I was confused a couple times though; for instance, when you mentioned the "Gretch Toilings" preset (I've never heard of that one... in fact, I didn't use any FL sounds in that section), and the "Gated Strings" your referring to, I believe, is the reverb... lol. =) No worries... I REALLY appreciate this review!!!

[Lonely Ocean (Wave I)]

My review, your song.

Opens on a nice pad, bit white noisy (I guess like waves/ocean as the title suggests).

0:40 same thing continues.

0:50 major key happyness / same thing continues.

1:37 I'm hearing crackling thats not white noise. Unsure if its the song, it seems to play unevenly. I checked my audio ouputs and whatnot, and music I play from FL, or WMP is crackless. I'm assuming the mix might be making my headphones play something funny, but it may just be an issue on my side.

2:00-ish drum comes in a bit and leaves a bit before 2:40. It should have lasted longer frankly.

5:15 and on, just water noise.

To summarise my feelings;

The water was ok in the intro, good for the solo outro. While ambient music is flowy and generally more simple then that of other music, you should include a bassline that too plays a simple slow rythm, even if its stretched over the course of several bars of music. Keep it non-obstructive of course.

This song was a series of chords of synth strings all playing together on beat. Accompaniment would have made this go from a generic ambient piece to a nicely syncopated composition boasting both smooth easy listening, and well written music. Something like a flute I think would work.

Needs some filling out, and drop the ocean sound midway through when you have more instruments playing the rest of the song.

3/5 7/10

NightcoreVII responds:

That crackling your hearing must be the song. I forgot to run it through Maximus... oops. I'll definitely add some more drums to any future ambient music I make, as well as a nice lead. =) And once again, Thank You!

[Cipher Cyndicate Theme [Remix]]

My review, your song.

Typically I write pretty thorough reviews, but your getting short shifted in that department.

Songs fine, mix is poor, you need to limit and EQ the instruments so that their more definable.

The use of presets here is gratuitist, while the use is above the FL-garbage line, it sounds like you you just layered FL-Sytrus presets from the Sequenced, 303, and Acid lines. Drums are stinky of presets, hits/bass drop sounds are unedited too. Fl-Keys is evident.

Beginning and near the 1:30 mark most of these synths aren't playing in key with each other.

Needs cleaner writing, better mixing, and less use of having the software do the musical work for you. Spend more time smoothing out your song. It may be tedious but the results are infinitely better.

2/5 5/10

Lazer-B responds:

Thanks a lot for the honest review. I really have trouble finding fresh sounds and synths, that's probably why it's stale.

[The Perfect Escape]

My review, your song.

Enters on strings, their nice, but I wouldn't say they feel real. Big part of having them sound 'real' is have them play something that would actually be written for the instrument.

Crash at 0:14 sounded hardly edited, didn't fit in with what was playing.

Drums are far better in this song then in ~~Remote Control~~. This detail should be your standard, even if its a 'dance' song.

Has a sort of Maplestory sound to it (if you are familiar with the happy upbeat orchestral music style that they have).

The bass sound is perfect.

Flute thats been playing bits and peices is dandy.

Song has an outro, jolly good.

Overall this songs mix is quite nice, its diverse, flows, written well, attention to detail seems to have been had.

4/5 9/10

codbarley responds:

Yes I tend to take up great pride over this genre of music. It's my specialty and therefore, I pay a real good amount of detail to each piece similar to this one that I write. The techno genre is new territory for me as of now.

[~~Remote Control~~]

My review, your song.

Titles little '~~~' are a bit silly, doesn't add anything to the song, just makes you look less proffesional. (Though of course NG isn't the best place for breaking out as a profesional anyways... I digress.)

Piano intro is dandy, the bubbly filtered synth adds nicely, builds well.

0:42 the hihat is very resonant heavy, I found it sort of stuck a wrench in the smoothness of what was built up, then after the crash it was gone, and sort of stole the thunder from that build up, made the release seem weaker.

0:57 Kick is alright, kind of boring, I avoid having the simple bass rythm and kicks for the reason that their almost always boring.

Bass sound at that point I think could use some filter-cut-off automation/oscilation, its a simple bass sound, but you've given the listener time to focus on it, which for me, I felt it was a weak sound.

Drums phase adds more depth to the simple drums. I'd recomend shifting the snares around a lot more and doing rolls with hihats as well. Don't fall into the basic electronic drum rythm. I found it got hard to break after a while.

Strings add nicely to melody, I don't feel theres much to say about them, their good.

Filtered drums coming in and out around 2:30-ish mark, their automation in and out could use some mixing up at this point I think.

3:05 build up was subtle.

3:17 it built up again to break down. Kind of odd, but thats the nature of snare fills.

3:34 new synth could have come in much earlier I feel, the first 3 minutes of the song did repeat an awful lot. For song writing, its more normal to have your intro, melody, then bring in this alternate section, then chorus. Instead of having the first half one big block of pattern A and the second half of the song being pattern B, mix it so its in quarters of ABAB.

4:10-ish song continues, nothing new I haven't already mentioned.

I think the piano is the best part of this song (for me).

5:04 break down, then build up to chorus again. Then repeat piano/the synth that was introduced late into the song. I think the outro could have played some entirely different melody to great effect.

Overall, pretty decent mix, songs written nicely, drums are worked in and out.

I feel the songs progression is a bit weak, you stated yourself you doubled its run time. I'm not sure that was the best decisions, while electronic music tends to have longer run times, sometimes a short song is a better song because it will make the listener play the song again, instead of finding the 6 minute song repetitive.

Drum beats themselves were simple.

4/5 8/10

"Holy Mother, thats an awesome review! i need reviews like that on my stuff."

Hehe.

codbarley responds:

Thanks for listening to that little comment lol Awesome review! *takes out notebook*

[Piano style]

My review, your song.

Your author comments are embarrassing. Spend some time writing it so hoity toity people such as myself don't spend our time commenting on your comments.

Also furthering my semantics. Piano's are instruments, not styles. Title your song title with capitals too.

As for the song:

Intro works, sounds like FL keys. Mix it in better, add feint delay, slight stereo, reverb. Perhaps humanize the piano a bit by intentionally making some notes not 100% on beat. Also EQ it so it has more timbre (sounds like you were going for a plucky high piano, but its a bit damp sounding).

0:17 rev cymbal introduces beat nicely.

Beat works, its a bit quiet, quite background material.

0:36 accompaniment synth hammond-esque glocken sound comes in.

0:55 hammond-esque sound leaves. I like it, I think it could have played longer. Sounds like the higher up piano just took its place. All 3 playing would have been nice, and layered.

1:14, this sounds familiar. Granted this is near the middle of the song, I think a bridge to something different would have done well instead of a straight up repeat of what just played. While hiphop does repeat, and as you stated (I think) that you intended on putting some lyrics on this, that's no reason to have your song literally copy pasted for the duration of its play time. It still should follow regular song conventions of intro, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro all being involved. Its like a book, beginning, middle and an end.

Overall not a bad track, sounds minimalistic in composition, very background sounding, and not at all memorable, needs more production work and detailed writing to have this song really be worth while.

4/5 7/10

rafael3 responds:

o yeah, that is the review i ever waited to read, thank u very much. ; )

About the title, i am just not very creative creating names, really, that was totally anyoning, and the style capitol, hmmm, ok, i forgot it.

And i am not english, i speak portuguese, and i am just in 7th grade, i am not so good in english yet to write good stuff on comments, but i'll try to write some thing more intersting. I didnt understood everything u said, but be sure i will analyse it carefully.

i really apreciate the comment, i will try to make the piano more natural, equalize and review the other stuff : )

thanks a lot again.

[Wipe the tears away]

My review, your song.

Pre-Song ramble:

Cheesy title, lot of people on NG here I find get into this rhythm of trying to make uber-pseudo songs that are the pinnacle of emotion. I find this tends to hurt the song as a song. Lets see if this holds true here...

As for the song itself:

The constant rain/thunder sample is supporting this uber-emotion thing I so dislike.

The piano itself wanders somewhat aimlessly, I suppose that is supportive of some aimless sadness some fictional music character has that I'm supposed to visualize as having had a tragic romance break up.

Piano quality is good, theres not much mixing going on, just volume boost, but it is clear. Its bass/acompanyment is pretty repetitive, I think it could have had a few alternative bass melodies to make the song not just constantly sound like its raising up (And given the ambient nature of the song, that means it doesn't build up to anything).

I found this song very simple, and quite cliche. While there isn't anything really wrong with it other then what my opinion dictates, I wouldn't call this a strong song. Not at all memorable, some breaks of tempo and play style could have done so much for this song.

4/5 7/10

DayDreamingFox responds:

Play the music, not the instrument. ^_~