InvisibleObserver's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Struggles]

My review, your song.

Synths are kind of VGM in nature, rather boring on their own.

Melody is driven by playing scales up and down, and somewhat jerky pauses, neither will be crowd thrillers.

You need to make your writing more smooth flowing, at parts like 2:10 its just awkward. Try some simple percussion too to keep the beat more understandable, maybe just a simple kick and snare beat, nothing exceptionatly fancy.

Song progression feels simple like its ABABABAB (B being 'chorus' A being seperate melody, except in this case all A's are the same)

As you stated, this needs work, its not bad, but the best part is the end outro, which of the many positive things that could be said about a song, isn't making this a killer peice for me.

3/5 6/10.

On a side note your piano stuffs pretty decent.

hij41 responds:

Thank you, I just tried it with a cool drum beat and I will soon post a remix of it.
Thank you allot I will try to smoothen it out and have it flow better so just thanks for the advice!

I listened to one of your songs it was great!

[God is a DJ]

My review, your song.

Weird intro. Great way of picking up interest in the unweary listener.

0:10 seconds, drums come in, as does piano and lyrics.

As you stated, very basic beat, some rolls and mix ups can really hook and reel in the listener.

Lyrics are quite dandy, I'm enjoying the fact that its not obscene (so far, that may change just yet), however its not particularily deep or philisophical. I enjoy it when rap really touches on some weird concepts and points of being. It just makes the song so much more long lasting in my mind.

The beats with some subtle left-right panning can help make it feel more moving. Perhaps kick middle, snare 1 to the left, snare 2 to the right.

1:30 got a bit obscene, I don't think that added much to the track, though it didn't really take much away from it. Don't over do that kind of thing though.

Stretched female voice saying 'God is a DJ' (I think) is neat, though its a bit distorted, it made a nice smooth contrast to that of your lyrics. I find hiphop with contrast of harsh/smooth, deep/high sounds can make it easy, and intrigueing listening.

Overall this songs quite good, one of the better hip-hop songs I've heard. Emphasis is of course on lyrics, piano could have done some bridges and alternate melodies.

Outro could help, or just a slight pause of fade out. Perhaps you should spend a bit more time on minute details and fine tuning of peices to have the song really pull together.

4/5 8/10

RayRayBeats responds:

All in all, it comes down to me being lazy. You point out alot of things i think of doing, but never take the time to do, and i appreciate you doing so. Other advice, like the panning and the kick/ snare adjustments i'd never think of doing. I really appreciate it.

[Squirrel Berry]

My review, your song.

To contemplate the lyrics... I have no sympathy for a creature that has solely the cognitive functions to survive, and even then it failed at that.

As for the song, as a song, not some point of intellectual conversation, mix is nice. Drums are typical of trance though, they aren't memorable in any way shape or form, just 4/4 kicks and claps on the second beats with the occasional roll of sorts.

Lyrics were worked in nicely, had a good sound to them, filled the narrating niche quite nicely.

Synth diversity however was juicy and fulfilling, though they weren't automated a whole lot.

You've written your bass to mainly be on the offbeat of every beat, play with a second bass track playing on thirds, I find it layers very nicely, and makes the song much more unpredictable, without being debilitating to the song.

I found best part of the song was about 0:40-1:20, rest seemed like it was not the focus of your efforts, and just rambled on into whatever came out of your finger tips.

Bass at 1:50 was very minimalistic in its sound creation, I think it could have done with some automating, after a bit it sounds like some painful musical embodiment of swelling organs. Or something less negative, since thats a slight stretch of what it made me feel.

Maybe trance just isn't my thing...

Outro sounded like it was a last thought tack on, didn't fit. Good you included an outro though, helps complete a song so so much.

Oveall excellent job, humourous, and not bad sounding. Acheived status in my mind as a media peice of entertainment.

Four berries out of five, eight dead squirrels out of ten.

Darren-M responds:

haha, i must say i loved your review. it was probably the most interesting i have ever recieved as far as character goes.

yes i am aware that the drums were no more advanced than a typical pattern of most electronic music, however i felt that drums of a more intricuit nature would be overwhelming to the listener when paired with the notation of my instrument voices.

if you liked the lyrics then i did a fine job and am glad i did not redo them.

i agree that the synths need some automation and there were points that i shoul dhave automated my basses. since the instruemnts were changing frequently i thought that a constant element was necessary. yet on the cd i think i will do what you said.

you are right about the focus of the song put into the first half. the last part felt like i had to write the squirrels destiny. basicly nothing changed for him, either he dies or continues to hunger

as for the outro i feel you are right, it was oddly included, yet i felt it needed to close the story.

THANKS for this awesome review!

[Wombat (the fast song)]

My review, your song.

I kind of doubt this is better then the original speed.

Really obnoxious - plain and simple.

Tons of recording clicks and poor production quality.

Random vocals, most of which is not understandable.

Writings simple, only positive thing I can say about this is atleast you have a sense of humour, but it hasn't translated very well into an enjoyable peice.

1-2/5 (I gave a 2 to be generous), 3/10.

CatpoopvsTrain responds:

Actually, it sonds better fast and one the reasons is, is that the bass in the song is way too loud (because of the poor production quality) and it is less noticable at this speed and I thought it sounded way cooler this way.

[The Reaching Hand of Death]

My review on Your song.

Severly short, bassline seems to play discordantly in a not clever discordant kind of way throughout most of the song.

Mix towards the end is jumbly, nor is this mastered.

Whats down is overall quite good, builds nicely, but doesn't really go anywhere and simply sounds like this took no time to make.

3/5 6/10

Spend more time and resubmit!

KooriGraywolf responds:

Oh thanks!! Actually this song WAS pretty quickly made, thing is i was pretty short on ideas... 'sides, escape themes for RPGs tend to be short...

As for mastering.. uh.. I've just begun composing less than a month ago so i still got a LOOOOT to learn! :P

[Z-tone - Grendell(ExtendedMix)]

Here goes objective criticism.

Intro is weak, clap is annoying, lack of any variance is the most profound aspect.

Synths comes in, song improves.

Well produced/mastered/balanced. Some would say the siren sound/kicks are quite obnoxious, bit given their supposed to be that way, production value of them is good for all intensive purposes.

Little sound effect rolls or whatever you would like to call them are cool, really the only unique thing about the song other then the random audio tape samples.

Musically this is exceptionally simple, would highly benefit from a more conventional setup of melody/harmony/bass instead of just melody and bass doing the same thing.

5:35, not enjoyable, no deviation from the buzzing sound makes it more siren in your face-esque then sound one would want to listen to. Song could have been nipped a bit, or end on that buzzing sound a bit more quickly.

Use of samples is 'good', but in my mind is the high point of the song, which could be far far more thoroughly done. Cutting the sample into individual words and syncing it all to beat would be an easy step that would take less then an hour to do, and make the voice a far more coherent part of the song as if it were singing. Perhaps a bit of stutter effects with it too when it first comes in. Typed out would look like "The-the-these were h-h-h-h-hard times."

Then to really go above and beyond, take the voice, cut, crop and sync to the music, turn part of it into a chorus, pitch bend so its playing appropriate notes, and just make the voice not just a literally cut and pasted sample, but an instrument.

I've left reviews with you in the past, and chatted with you before, and as per usual, you've got the software and the skill, but should focus more on attention to detail, and really pump out some beasts instead of commercial house/trance. While this song is overall quite good, the genre has a relatively low standard of quality in composition, and should be not too difficult to blow other songs of the similar nature out of the water.

Z-Tone responds:

i think the intro is good in my opinion:D
love breakbeat intros in hardstyle tunes:P but i think i know what your saying...you think it sould be more ....hitting am i right
and yeah musically its rather simple but hardstyle is a rather simple genre not that it justifies anything, i will work more on that in the future
the comment about the vocal sample would work more i think in either the first part( after the intro) or the last part of the song as i think it has to be a pure narritation in the climax and i think most would agree with me

"I've left reviews with you in the past, and chatted with you before, and as per usual, you've got the software and the skill, but should focus more on attention to detail, and really pump out some beasts instead of commercial house/trance"
you know what?
just for you( and the head of my lable) im going to go reeeeeally deep on the next track
gonna make it a progressive indy house.

"While this song is overall quite good, the genre has a relatively low standard of quality in composition, and should be not too difficult to blow other songs of the similar nature out of the water. "
so true but i guess thats why i completed this one in a few hours

thanks for an awesome review and hope youll check me out in the future just as i will do to you

[W.O.W.(World Of Warcraft)]

Sorry dude.

Yes experimenting with sampling is fine, and poking a joke at WoW is good too.

But voices need compression/subtle reverb, added bass, maybe chorus on the females or something, plus more diverse chopping. The voices just got annoying and the over done kick isn't much better.

More effort next time and it would be pretty sweet, like 52 seconds bit is cool, you just need more of that plus some mastering to make the sounds themselves not sound like their cutting themselves.

Twilight-Perception responds:

i dont know how to do that ;p.. not much you can do with sound recorder based technology.. :P

[3-24-09]

Lacks mastering of any form.

Not bad overall, but this desperately needs some bass, seperate channel effects for the drums, the phased snare/hihat/rim sound or whatever it originally was becomes a bit much after a while and takes away from the other aspects of the music.

This would highly benefit from a bit of panning and even minimal mastering to help define one sound from another.

Drum and song setup was good, though it is rather short.

I think the quick fix would be use some different synth sounds.

THENEWCURE responds:

I just figured out how to use the effects bar so i went a little overboard i guess.

[Explicit Hardcore]

Underwhelming.

The composition/build of the song is fine, but the over-processed/loud kick drowns out the few samples and synths you've used. After a bit all one hears is the 4/4 aprox 150bpm kicks.

Layer your main melody synth a bit, lower kicks volume and instead add some bass to it. Compress vocals and main synth with basic compression, nothing fancy is needed, just lay some defaults on it.

Why would you want people to not rate if they don't like this genre? You would be wasting your time asking for any advice if everyone was just going to tell you its 'uber-wicked-meat-sauce'.

ONESTEPAHEAD responds:

I WISH I COULD LOWER THE BASS BUT I ONLY USE A FRUITY LOOPS DEMO WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY LAYER THE MELODY? AND BASIC COMPOSITION . I'VE TRIED ADDING A BASS BUT IT NEVER REALLY FITS IN!
I I TELL PEOPLE ONLY TO RATE MY SONGS IF THEY LIKE THE GENRE BECAUSE IM SICK OF PEOPLE TELLING ME THIS MUSIC SUCKS WITH NO REASONING AND WHERES THE RAP OR GUITAR THESE COMMENTS GET VERY ANNOYING
PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE TO EXPLIAN THESE THINGS AND THE BASS IS ACCUALLY 157BPM:D

[Its peaness butter jelly time]

Did the FL Speech synth not seem like a bad idea?

7 cause the song without the "Peaness" isn't bad (With it is around a 2-3).

Raw unedited/uneffected drums straight from FL don't sound good. So do something about them. Synths and melody plus effects/sweeps and rolls are all pretty nice, and the mix is good.

Do something about the "Peaness" replace it with a word that people might think is some how meaningful.

anza141 responds:

omg yes cuz i doant wanna offend people by saying PENIS so i writed peaness instead lol