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 :)

[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.

[Knowledge and Absence]

Yeah the mixing is pretty bad which is a shame because the opening was really nice. The electric guitar is just ridiculously loud in comparison to the undistorted one and it sounds like it's clipping alot too. Try turning it down a lot and resubmitting because the riffs are pretty cool and i think this has a lot of promise!

[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!

[Ton Garcon]

I can't hear your voice! A good tip for decent mixing is listen to a favorite song of a similiar style and then listen to your own at the same volume. Think about the hierarchy of importance: does the guitar really come above the vocals? I recommend equalizing the vocals as well as it all sounds a hollow.
I really don't like the tone of the guitar playing the chords either, it's so thick and crunchy its details are lost. I don't think it's appropriate for the style of song either, it's seems far too heavy.
But all these things are relatively easy to fix! Spending a bit more time thinking about them can really help improve your songs. The actual composition of this piece sounds decent. I like your singing style. The structure is a little repetitive but the bass keeps it rolling along and it has a fun mood. I like the lyrics and the sentiment expressed particulary the lines "If I'm a broken record [...] and you'll just forget"
Keep at it!