sleepFacingWest's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[T-Logic - Terrified]

RAD. FUCKING. SONG!
I really like the direction of this. The spaghetti western opening is pretty cool. It really sets up a lonesome road feel. The addition of the delay during the verse is fucking perfect. I applaud your bravery in singing. I would never do it. You have a nice voice, though, and I think we could use a little more of it around NewGrounds.

As always, all this stuff I'm about to vomit are thoughts I had while listening, and are things I would consider if I was working on this project. I always consider that approach the most helpful (which you've been extraordinary with btw...thank you!). It's up to you to decide what you'd like to take or leave.

Right at :20 where the drums and bass start, I'd consider layering a chord in the guitar so it really feels like it arrives. The sparse intro builds up a lot of tension and I think making that spot feel like a real landing would help with the forward momentum. If you lean on the whammy bar a bit for that chord or pull it in and out of tune with your fingers you can add some real surf rock/pulp fiction vibes to this which could be cool. It would help glue the song together if you dropped a guitar chord on the down beat of the 1st and 3rd bar of every third bar phrase. Just slow strum it and let it ring over the next bar. That way you can keep the song sparse, but help drive it forward just enough to get to the chorus.

I really wanted the guitar to continue through :50 with the delays. I think having a new musical character for that line specifically was a nice way to tone paint, but the addition of the organ does that already. The delay guitar sort of helps glue all the spaces together. If you ended up doing the bendy guitar chord earlier, it'd be a good opportunity to bring that back again at the down beat at 1:10. It would also help with the build up into the chorus.

I feel like the highs could be equed up a bit in general. I'm being EXTREMELY picky, but the mix feels just a touch dull in some of the non-chorus parts. You could add a tiny (TINY) bit of overdrive distortion to the kick and snare as well. Add a bit more to the kick. In general, when low sounds need to have more punch, distortion does wonders as it will fortify the upper partials of the frequency spectrum which makes low end FEEL fatter without having to actually pull it up in the mix. The snare would get a little more sparkle and smack from the distortion as well. Either that, OR maybe push the drums back in the mix a bit with some subtle reverb? The room sound might help some of the highs ring a bit more. I don't think it needs to go all 80's stadium rock, but a super subtle room reverb barely mixed in will give the impression that the drums are further back in the room. Also, maybe consider playing the hi hat in on a keyboard? The time is insanely consistent as is the velocity which works for awhile, but it starts to stand out after a bit. Playing it in live will give it a little more variance in timing as well as attack.

I really like your vocal delivery. It's morose and a little deadpan (and I mean that in *very* good ways). It sounds like you might have been monitoring your vocals as you were singing in the headphones? When people hear their own voice or instrument RIGHT in their ear, they typically play/sing more hesitantly or quietly because they're not used to hearing the sound coming from a source that closely. I usually mute the playback in whatever I'm laying down and put the headphones on over one ear only so I can hear the instrument or voice more naturally to evoke a more natural performance. Also, if you're using a condenser mic, stand a little further back and project.

I really dig the bass line. Was there a reason you dropped the bass out at 1:20? I feel like it would help fill out the low end if you rock some roots with a more or less regular straight 8th note rhythm.
The call and response synth line is super effective. You nailed it with that.

There are places where you could fatten up the bass by doubling it with sine waves. It wouldn't work for every note, but there are landing spots that I feel could seem more like an arrival if the bass was a bit fatter. Usually I'll use a sine wave an octave or 2 below the bass, and mix it SUPER quietly. You don't want it to be obvious that there's a double happening, but it'll just fill out some of the frequencies in the low end that the bass guitar doesn't cover. This usually works best on long tones. Make the attack long enough so the sine doesn't pop on the attack, but not so long that there's a noticeable morph in the timbre of the bass.

I like the long decay on the keyboard line (sounds almost like a rhodes?) that you start doing at 3:50. I think the two keyboard chords before that could have the same character?

There are really a lot of directions you could go with this song. As soon as I started typing a suggestion, I thought of a lot of other things that could be done with it. That's a sign that you have some really evocative writing! I'd love to hear more like this from you. Nice work!

TaintedLogic responds:

First of all, thank you SO VERY MUCH to take the time to write this extremely detailed and helpful review, SleepFacingWest. I'm really glad you liked the "lonesome road feel." :)

"I applaud your bravery in singing. I would never do it." --> Thank you very much! The thing is, I myself felt like I would never do it just a couple short months ago. XD

Regarding :20, I guess I myself wanted :30 to be more of the arrival point, although I really appreciate your thorough constructive criticism regarding layering the guitar sound and driving the piece forward. A lot of the language you use in this review suggests that I recorded the guitar, which is not true. They're all electronic samples, I'm afraid. Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not THAT talented. XD

I definitely concur with your comments about :50. I think I had actually chosen a number of instruments I had wanted to use for this piece beforehand, and then tried to find ways to squeeze them in (keep in mind that this was well over a year ago). You've given me a lot of helpful compositional advice here that I'll most certainly consider in the future, so thanks a boatload for that!

I recognize your comments about the mix. I have yet to experiment with distortion too much, so it's good to know what to do with it when I get the chance. ;) As for the reverb, I had planned to add a lot, to the vocals, snare, and guitars, but as pathetic as it sounds, I couldn't figure it out in Garageband. I could add a reverb automation, but no matter which track setting I put my instrument on, I couldn't drag the bar above "0%." -_- As for playing the hi-hat on the keyboard, I completely agree once again! I need to humanize things more, and once I do get around to that, hi-hats are probably a good place to start experimenting. ^^

I'm glad you liked the vocal delivery. That's an interesting assumption about the headphones, but I don't think that was the case. First of all, I think I wanted (at least the verses) to be a bit deadpan, and I recorded this early in the morning when I probably hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. Also, my school's not-so-soundproof recording studio is right between the orchestra room and the Music Tech lab, so I was a little self-conscious about projecting my voice, I suppose.

To be honest, I don't remember why I dropped the bass line at 1:20, but I'm glad you enjoyed it nevertheless. I did have those punchy guitar chords in there at 1:20, but I agree that a straight 8th note rhythm would've added some meaningful texture to the chorus. I'm not sure what you're referring to with the "call-and-response synth line." Maybe the lead guitar melody during the chorus?

Thank you so much for your advice regarding the sine waves. I think you've given me the inspiration to explore a lot of different compositional and mixing techniques! :D

I'm glad you liked the coda. That instrument at 3:45 is actually a Wurly.

Again, I deeply appreciate your thorough response here, SleepFacingWest! You're clearly very knowledgeable, and it's generous of you to give me so much advice. I'll use it the best I can. ;D

[Photos From Japan]

gorgeous! reminds me a bit of "are you awake" from the lost in translation soundtrack. gorgeous! it seemed like the highs were rolled down or there was some bit reduction done. Is there a reason for this or was I hearing things?

[Pulse Sketch 3]

I don't have critiques for this one. I think the soft attack on the synths is perfect for the composition. I like how there's some audible process involved, but you break out of the minimalist mold. Quite frankly, as cool as minimal composition can be, I really like when people use those techniques in a less rigid structure and incorporate more traditional methods. This is nice. I wouldn't mind hearing this played by two (real) violinists!

Nice work gruber99!

gruber99 responds:

Hey thanks!
I agree re: breaking out of the minimalist mold. Writing something as a rigid "gradual process" could be considered lazy, compositionally speaking. Then again, sometimes it may suit the piece perfectly.

[Meet the Stream]

Cool composition. I love the use of simple wave forms. There's something really raw about those. Your production is super clean as well. I feel like the bass drum triggered side chain compression is a little extreme. I know the pulsing effect is what you're going for, but I think you could dial back the compression just a little so the volume doesn't get squashed down to zero. Some of the energy is lost because the overall density of the track becomes so thin. You could probably get away with using the extreme compression earlier on, but at the golden section when everything opens up, I think the track could really benefit from more overall intensity (less ducking). Either that, or compositionally add another element like a 2 or three note ostinato that doesn't dip with the background harmony to sort of smooth over the the cracks like morter over bricks.

Nice work overall, though. This would be an excellent track to add to a wakeup playlist :)

[Day of the Sloth]

nice reharmonization! The strings got a little muddy at some points. I think with the reverb drenched synths and the super sludgy attack/decay on the strings did it. Making an element here or there a bit more punchy might help clean it up a bit. That said, nice work!

larrynachos responds:

Actually, the strings are just a pad from the Nexus2 VST, so there weren't many parameters to change. I made this song in a very short amount of time, so I couldn't put as much love, care, and attention to it as I normally would in my orchestral pieces.

I'm glad you liked it though!

[Pulse Sketch 2]

This piece was PATIENT as hell. I normally applaud that, but it took me until around 1:30 when the rhythmic ostinato kicked in to hook me. I could have used more going on in the background layers to keep it interesting...or perhaps some sort of evolution of sound. The SUPER sparse space and long decay of the notes was just a little too long imho. I do like the fact that you're taking so many compositional chances with this. It goes in so many places!

[The Fog]

Really nice production here. Did you use some vocal processing on the lead synth? It almost sounded like vowel formants in some parts.

saucybird responds:

yes i did actually! I used a vocoder off of Reason on the synth and then also added in a couple of different effects in the chain that I thought would sound cool, that's probably where you're hearing all the weird change in frequencies in the melody lol

[Death of a Prodigy]

Really gorgeous work here! I love the subtle swelling, and you did a great job building the orchestration. Parts of this almost reminds me of the string parts of Charles Ives' Unanswered Question with the constantly shifting somewhat angular but always nice tonalities. Well done!

larrynachos responds:

Oh, thanks a lot, sFW! It means a great deal to me that you approve of this piece!

[The After Hours]

You've done it again! That dirty bass has this sort of quality that sounds like slowly ripping construction paper. I love it! What is your background? Your bass game is on point and your harmonic sensibilities suggest some serious jazz study. Your music makes me want to get a beer and nerd out with you. Let's not make this weird.

frootza responds:

I dig those metaphors man! I've been playing in different bands since I was in High School. I learned most of my "classical" theory during that time and I studied with one of the best guitarists in the world where I learned a great deal about jazz theory and technique (mind you, he never used sheet music as a lesson tool I learned that on my own!).

Lessons would include him dictating specific chords, like the split voicing of a B Minor 7 played as the third inversion. If I didn't have it within a second he would be very angry! So, it made me practice a lot haha. But he allowed me to graduate his school at a young age which was cool too.

Other than that it's been self study for the most part, which is the lifelong journey anyway. I want to try and get you some gigs in Jersey! PM me if you want to nerd out one day brotha!

[T-Logic - Architeuthis]

This is great! I got some serious Thriller vibes at ~1:00. Nice job separating the countermelodies. Everything sits with a lot of space in the mix. The ping ponging of the bass is a cool effect and totally works in this track. As a general rule of thumb, I typically try to keep bass and any meat and potatoes percussion panned dead center, but you make this work.

I kind of want to see an animated music video for this song featuring a giant squid destroying a city. Any New Ground animators up for the challenge?

Great work! 5 stars!

TaintedLogic responds:

Thanks so much, SleepFacingWest! :D This is a really positive review. I totally understand what you mean about keeping the "meat and potatoes" panned in the center, but I kind of broke the unwritten rules with this one (in multiple regards). Love your idea for the animated music video. Thanks again for the review! ^^