PIED3's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Over the Summer Sea]

Very nice and relaxing. The contrast between the sweet, smooth piano and the incessant drilling is almost comical! I would move your microphone a little further away from the piano as the recording clips when you play loudly.

FlyingColours responds:

Thanks for the review and the recorder tip! I'll certainly do that next time. :)

[cabbage_flowers]

Very unexpected tempo shifts. The timpani was nice and the instruments sounded good despite not sounding particularly realistic. I really liked the flute playing solo at 1:24, very ethereal. The melodies were leafy.

Zump responds:

Thank you for that last part, it means a lot to me. The vegetable genre is very under-appreciated these days.

[Mary is missing]

Love this one! Your voice and singing style are very distinct and unlike most internet singers i hear you don't sound like your trying to imitate anyone (perhaps your just imitating someone i don't know ha ha). I thought the mixing was pretty good, have you just panned vocals apart or have you actually got two different recordings of the same verse playing at once? Either way it sounds nice. I like the string instrument that plays in my left ear at 0:57, the things like that throughout the song are nice additional details that keep it interesting.
Very enjoyable, i was happy to see you'd released a new song!

newhansen responds:

Thx for you review, Pied3! The voices are recorded twice and panned to L and R. Though, i tried to record one vocal track in the middle and that works too. Great to hear that it sounds distinct ^^

[The Most Beautiful...]

Having been on NG as much lately but logged in to tonight and saw your PM. One thing i really like about your songs is how they seem to come to rise and rush and scramble through the bushes until they come to a clearing and there they stop and look at the sky for a while. I get this feeling at 1:20 in this song. Really interesting chords at this point.
To be honest I find it hard to give advice on this because I don't play guitar myself and this sort of song it's really outside my compositional style. The structure's so meandering and whimsical, it drifts and glides, and i love that! But i have no idea how to analyse it. I think perhaps the mixing could be a little better, the guitar sounds a little harsh on the ears, but then again i wasn't listening with headphones. Another enjoyable song in my books, keep it up!

Acoustatic responds:

Hey thanks for the review and the positivity:)
I guess over time I have developed a style of music-making where some of my songs will start off excited and fast and shift into a lower gear as the song goes on. Thanks for the poetic words and I'm happy I could inspire some feelings in you :D

The reason the structure seems harder to analyze is because, in all honesty, a lot of my playing is pure improvisation over a loosely pieced together song structure :P I've been playing and creating music for years but I've only just recently (in the past few months) taken to actually writing sheet music and examining more formal rhythmic patterns and structures. Hopefully I'll be able to transfer those feelings of whimsy and merriment into a more organized, digestable format in the near future:)

And the mixing is indeed terrible haha. My method for recording a track is taking a small recording device, placing it in front of the speaker/instrument to record, jamming away, then transferring the file onto my computer and onto NG/wherever :P I'm hoping to learn how to master tracks in tangent with my education in formal music writing.

Again, thanks for the kind words and for taking the time out to listen to some of my music. I'm happy you enjoyed it and that it brightened up your day :)

[A Genuine Soul (Last Goodbye)]

Whilst i really like the atmosphere this song creates i think some of the riffs are a little lacking. It's the shorter ones that feel very repetitious and lack any movement. The mixing is pretty off too, did you record all the instruments at the same time? To be honest I can't really complain about that too much as it had a nice lo-fi feel and felt pretty wide in a wrap-around-my-mind type way.
The vocals were appropriate just wish they'd been a little louder. Loved the keyboard bass notes at 4:50, especially when they turn into chords. The instrumentation in general is really cool!
Loved the keyboard melodies at 5:45. Good song structure with enough progression to keep interest high and liked how long it was because that really let me sink in to the song. Neat pitch slides at the end!

SelfSufficient responds:

This song like most of ours was recorded live through a camera, we're currently setting up our own studio space which will allow us to record in much higher quality. There is an updated version here with drums for those interested (although I personally prefer the lighter atmosphere of this version I posted, it's more just a personal preference, there is a lot more that is added to this other version including drums and new parts)

http://youtu.be/82Yk6vjrGjU

[Podcast Time]

I thought the instrumentation was pretty interesting. The drums really drove the piece forward and gave it some urgency but because they were quiet and the maraca (?) was panned all the way off to the right the song managed to remain pretty relaxed which i enjoyed. It's just the sort of song i like to listen to at night (as i am now) because it's got a dreamy (but not dreary) sense of repetition. Only criticism i can think of is that perhaps it's the song structure is better suited to a loop than to a two and a half minute song.

PonyStew responds:

Thanks pal. Kinda funny but there's no maracas, it's kinda muted guitar :3 Thanks for your opinion, i really appreciate it.

[Sailing Off]

Wow. Very professional sounding, great mixing/mastering! To be honest it's a bit too "pop" for my tastes but the melodies are fun and the structure is engaging even if you do perhaps overuse the "breakdown -> drop" trope. Very jubilant!

SuperGoodSound responds:

hey thanks ! i appreciate your feedback :)

[Persona 1632 (Re-Work)]

Vocals! Neat, is that you singing? I think the mixing is pretty off on this, which is dissapointing because with a genre like this the mixing is damn important. The piano is far too loud and the synth used is pretty sterile/bland sounding. I like the concept though, chill and dreamy. Not sure how well the guitar works but it certainly adds something to the instrumentation. Structure wise it's pretty dull but Isuppose that helps keep it relaxed. I liked the drums. Keep at it!

Tzarnaz responds:

yup, that's me on the vox track :) you're right - i experience GarageBand to be a limited software on the mixing front. and I admit I'm not that good at mixing either :D but I'm getting there!

thanks a lot for the constructive feedback!

[Corey McJamz]

I like the intro and I like how you have a sort of faux starting of the piece at 0:18 and then really kick things of at 0:27. The guitar that enters at 0:35 however sounds a little out of tune to me, might just be the choice of notes and the playing but it sounds pretty dissonant. The mixing is interesting, everything sounds very clear but the placing of instruments seems to switch around a lot. At times the drums are too quiet but at times too loud.
You can certainly tell it was improvised because the melodies are all a bit random and few seem to lead anywhere plus the playing is sloppy. The instrumentation is nice and full which i like but at times it seems a little crowded, again, that might just be the mixing. Nice chill atmosphere and interesting enough to keep me entertained for the full 5 minutes. Interesting ending.
In fact I sort of wish there had been more breakdowns and reversing/glitching throughout the piece. The structure is a little flat between the intro and outro. I think if you planned a piece out you could create something really great. Enjoyable regardless!

piggemz responds:

lol yess i forgot to mention, but now i'll add it, his guitar was out of tune by like a quarter tone or something, i had to pitch down the keyboard, but i dont think it was totally in tune... but yeah, this was a rushed project, and i just tried to make the guitars as loud as possible, so the other instruments' volumes changed consequentially. Thanks a lot pal, very kind wordzzz

[#1 At The Subway Station]

The first thing I notice is the very poor recording quality. I'm all for lo-fi but this is clipping and muffled and difficult to listen to. I quite like the actual composition, even if it sounds a little improvised (is it?) It's the sort of thing I like to play in those (now rare) moments I mess around on the piano, so it has a certain charm to me. It feels quite segmented, transitions are all very swift or non-existant. I think you could do with some melody lines in there as well. A little fewer apreggios and chords and more plonkity-plonk. The atmosphere is quite nice and it moves around a lot, plenty of variation (at least in terms of mood). Keep at it!

MiSFiTT responds:

Yes, this piece is an improvisation. Do you have any tips for better quality? I record on audacity using a mac os. Any advice would be really appreciated and thanks for your observations on the piece. I'll keep them in mind as I move forward with my piano-playing.

Besides my mom talking in the background I didn't think the AQ was that poor!! X_X