PIED3's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

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Enjoyable

I definitely recognized the sample at the beginning, what's it from? Any how as for the music it's pretty good. The equalizing and mixing on the various parts give it a very full feel, the song takes up lots of "space", and whilst it seems distant and blurred at the opening i like how it comes together at 1:01. Some hectic beats and synths, and an all round energetic song. As for advice i can't give much (not knowing much about the genre) but you could have put a bit more in the Authors comments, it's nice to read whilst listening. Where did the title come from?

datamouth responds:

yeah i kinda slacked in the coauthor comments.
the voice samples used through out are from Melacholia, a film by Lars von Trier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melancho lia_(2011_film)
the movie is amazing. and the ending gave me nightmares to tell you the truth, even though it was probably one of the greatest most beautiful ending scenes i've seen.

the name of the song originally was "melancholia" but the song, like much of my music starts as something then turns into something else by the time i'm done with it. so then i tried to think of something frightening. like i said the movies ending gave me nightmares. so tried to imagine something that was frightening. i went online and after searching thru a bunch of images i found a terrible image of hostages with burlap sacks on their heads. i found the relation with the sample in the song "the earth is evil, life on earth is evil, nobody will miss it." thats were the title came from. i know. grim.

thanx for the great review by the way!

[The sad girl]

Hmm

"I met this girl once" is an awful start to anything. Very cliched and puts the whole piece in a trite frame. I was glad when it didn't turn out too bad, it moved and had tone. The concept of the girl who looks happy but is really sad is over done, but the first person character was interesting and he had depth that held the piece together. I liked the line "just stronger, as if my hug meant anything", and there were other enjoyable moments. I think a nice twist at the end might have been her saying "i hope you will", but perhaps that was what you were implying? Was the boy failing to return her love really the protaganist? If not i think that'd have been a nice twist. Your voice is quite nice, and the reading seemed natural enough because of the errors/stutters, though you should probably try and iron those out. In all it was pretty enjoyable.
p.s Yes it is in the wrong section, you should put it in "Spoken Word".

SwiftAdept responds:

Thanks for the critique. Like I said in the description, it's one of many that come up for me every week. Also the reason for the errors/stutters is that I kind of have a bad case of a virus that makes me cough a lot. So I was struggling with holding it in.

[Diameters]

Interesting

Interesting, a synth with a VERY sharp attack, and a VERY long decay. Not sure whether i like that or not, it made me feel kind of anxious/uncomfortable. The staccato attack had me on edge, i couldn't fall back into the piece, as it wasn't predictable. It didn't warn me about sharp sounds, they just arrived. I'm not really saying whether that's a good or bad thing, i guess it depends on what you were going for. The bass line that enters is softer on the ear, but the two sounds don't really combine. They are like separate entities rather than two pieces of a system. The song structure is fine, it just builds and then fades, and i can enjoy that. Certainly an interesting piece, i'm just not sure what you trying to do.

[I Get Evil (LIVE COVER)]

Hmm..

Nice to see some blues amongst all the dubstep, trance techno etc. The mixing is a little off, the vocals sound too "weak", and i think the drums are too loud. However for a live recording it's pretty nice. The song structure is pretty average apart from the long solos throughout. The singing is enjoyable and fits the style perfectly. All the playing sounds good, but the song itself is just a little lacking. It's very generic, and perhaps this is just my own apathy towards the genre, but it doesn't really go anywhere.

[[BbS] You Gotta Run!]

Fun!

I like the feel of this loop, every thing "pops" nicely, all the synths are sprightly and light and the panning gives it a slightly dreamy mood. The drums are sharp and crisp and the melodies all flow wonderfully. The well done mixing gives it a nice professional feel. As for negatives, i don't think the transition for the loop is great, the pause is a little off putting. I can't think of much else to change but that, a very enjoyable loop!

BabySteps responds:

oh sweet, i didn't expect a good review!!

ill fix the delay now and reupload, thanks for the review! it means alot :)

[FS: Society (acoustic)]

Lovely

I like (pretty much only listen to these days) sad songs, and this has a nice level of melancholy. I know it's a cover but i just want to say i really like the lyrics. The idea of society being lonely without him is poignant and is a nice non-cliche way of talking about seclusion. Because of course in reality, he's probably "crazy indeed" and likely to be "lonely" without society, not the other way around. Your voice really suits the song, and while at first i was little put off, i really got into it. I don't know much about guitar playing, but you sure got the job done. Do you record both at the same time? What mic. do you use? Any mixing/mastering/eq? Anyhow it was an all round enjoyable listen, great stuff!

FairSquare responds:

First of all, thanks for reviewing :)
And yeah, the lyrics are really nice. They really fit the movie too (Into The Wild) where this song was written for.
The guitar playing is really basic, which allows me to sing and play at the same time. I use a Snowball mic for that. By the company 'Blue'.
And i cut off some of the higher frequencies and added reverb to make my voice a bit more bearable :p

[Insanctuary Wrote Me a Poem]

Ha ha

Great. Insanctuary is a funny fellow!

AKACCMIOF responds:

WHY SEVEN!?! YOU RUIN MA TEN STREAK!>?!!KLEHJ!@?!JK@?!K@DH@!?

[[S,J] Painting Black Holes]

Very nice!

I liked it. Very relaxed and brooding, listened to it on loop for a while as i surfed the web and it created a nice ambience. All the mixing and mastering sounds very professional and everything sits in the mix appropriately. I feel all the different sounds exist in the same "place", nothing seems to odd to pull me out of the scene. The different rhythms are cool and the various new elements you bring in throughout stop it from ever getting boring. I like the sudden burst of synths at 3:12. The chords are very thick and full and i get a great feeling of completeness. Not sure what i'd reccomend changing, just perhaps the "wave" on those chords sounds a little artificial, and perhaps could have been less prominent. Downloaded!

[Do You Feel?]

Neato

I like it. The lyrics are my favorite part of the piece especially the first verse. The thing i like the least is the recording quality/mixing of your voice. It sounds a little "damp", you can hear the sound of you open and closing your mouth much to clearly and the voice has no "depth". Probably just because you don't have a super expensive mic. and recording good quality voices is hard. Some times the volume is a little off in the chorus. Still the overall tone is very nice, very chill and dreamy. Good stuff!

Jay responds:

Yeah I could definitely use a better mic/recording equipment, as well as an actual mixer. But I'm glad that you enjoyed what I made, especially the lyrics, since I like to think of writing as my strong suit.

Thanks very much for the review, I appreciate it!

[Hooked Into Machine]

Finally, a song that doesn't

make me want to kill myself.
I loved this.
Straight from the start it had me hooked, very enjoyable swung beat, sounds sloppy and drunk, lugubrious and glum in an enjoyable way. Did you sing it yourself? If so even better, I love hearing people giving singing a shot on the audio portal, however rate it is. I hadn't heard the original before, but i thought i'd better give it a listen for comparison and i honestly preferred your version. Your instrumentation and vocal effects really fit with the title, and the whole piece has a very trapped, dystopian robotopia feel. Great stuff, thanks for creating and sharing!

GameBalance responds:

Hm Robotopia, nice word =)))
Thanks!
P.S.
Yes I sing here myself =)