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TimerClock14

109 Audio Reviews

56 w/ Responses

I listened to this just on a whim but boy am I glad I did. First thing I wanna say is that the composition and phrasing in this is absolutely brilliant. I was enraptured through the entire song. Your harmonies are genius as well, absolutely fantastic work.

I do have some issues with the way this ended up in the production department though, it's gonna seem like I'm really dumping on you in this review but it's only because I really really liked this piece and it comes from a genuine place of appreciation and wanting to help you improve and make more awesome stuff like this.

First: As strange as this may sound, I think your voice is too loud in this track, and it's a bit too dry as well. I think you could have re-balanced the vocals to be quieter dry and have a thicker, and maybe even darker since your voice is very bright on its own, reverb to suit how the piano and whistle are mixed.

Second: In the first half (weirdly only in the first half, not the second) your vocal harmonies and extra bits get lost in the main vocal. If you were to revisit the mix of this song, I would recommend giving just a slight volume boost to your harmonies and extra bits in the section starting around 1:00. Also the extra "wanted to fall" at 2:58 could do with a healthy boost - moreso than the first vocal section.

Third: The piano could use more presence in the lower end and a bit more of the foley from the piano wouldn't hurt either :) Hammer sound, string sounds, and seat creaks go a long way in terms of selling an authentic recording. Bringing the low end of the piano through would also help balance the brightness of your voice.

Fourth: This is a personal one so don't let it derail your creative vision. The switchup at around 5:00 - first of all don't get me wrong this section is hands down my favorite part of the song - I don't think there's enough payoff (payoff being the fast pace, lots of harmonies, forte piano, etc...). There's really only like 8ish bars of payoff and then we instantly revert back to the pace of the rest of the song. I think you could have extended it to 16 bars before reverting and building up to the switch back to the slow pace after building to the 16 bars of fast pace.

Lastly: There are just a couple places where I think you're a bit flat or don't have enough definition on each note in a run. If you have a plugin like newtone or melodyne load up your vocal recording in one of those programs and see the difference between what you wanted to sing and what you did sing. I'm not a singer and I haven't trained my ear for vocal pitch but there are a few spots where it does sound a bit off to me.

Here is what I noticed:
0:34 - "The" in "through the trees" is a tad flat
1:06 - at the end of "follow" I think you may have hit a totally wrong note, and the run itself lacks definition
1:15 - "of" in "forest of old" the harmony sounds sharp

That's about it for my criticisms. I just want to reiterate that I really enjoyed this despite all that stuff, but I honestly believe that this could have been taken up to an even higher level than it already is with a few small changes. Excellent work, huge love, biggups. I'm gonna watch out for more stuff from you!

etherealwinds responds:

My favourite type of review! Thank you for taking the time and putting the energy into appreciating my track enough to look for ways it can be improved. I appreciate it - it's my favourite element of these contests on NG :)

In response to the vocals being too loud in the mix, I think that if they were a bit lower it wouldn't make too much difference either way; they certainly could afford to go a little lower and they wouldn't be any less clear. I used to have a real problem with mixing my vocals so loud that they almost sounded on top of the instrumental rather than in the mix. I think it was Step that taught me the trick of turning the volume of the track down as far as you can only hear the loudest instrument to get the balance right - when I turn it down as far as I can, the piano, whistle and vocals seem to all be at complementary volume in my headphones ^ ^

When I go back to the mix, I'll experiment with the gain on the harmonies on the beginning - I think they really kick in in the second half as the first half is just one layer of harmony. Perhaps they can be brought up a bit more! I'll definitely give it a go :) I totally agree with the 'wanted to fall' as well - I noticed it was quite low after I'd uploaded the track and gave it a fresh listen. That's something I'll definitely bring up a lot when I go back to remixing it, which I definitely will after the reviews I get.

I'll see how it sounds after boosting the bass on the piano. I think it could do a lot for the dynamics of the performance, especially on the lower chords when I play them louder. A nice idea in terms of the piano sounds too! I recorded this using a digital piano using The Maverick VST which produces a lovely tone, but it does miss a lot of those woody creaks from an acoustically recorded piano. Let's see if I can inject a bit more charm into it when I go back to it! :)

I can really tell you've got a great ear for things because going through it, you've paid attention to all the things I have been too. The original piano improvisation was 7:30, but I decided to take out two parts that deviated a little too much from the main motif. Because it was an improvisation, I wanted to turn it into a structured piece where the placement of the verses, choruses and different solos made sense in terms of the dynamics of the piece. I still wanted a bit of variation with the piano of course! This is how it ended up after I pieced it together.

I have a pitch correction tool in Adobe Audition that allows me to manually correct notes without sounding at all noticeable (which is perfect for the types of vocals that I record that would kinda be ruined with that awkward pitch bend you hear from so many pitched vocals). I used it minimally on some of the harmonies, maybe on about ten small notes altogether. I much prefer to sit here and re-record the verses/choruses over and over again until I get a perfect run. The performance of the vocals tends to be more natural that way and working like this has really developed my control and pitch over the years! Of course, there's still little imperfections that often fall through the net. If they're very barely noticeable and don't take away from the quality of the track, I don't like to change them all too much - I quite like the human imperfection. That being said, I certainly hear the sharpness on the 'of' in the harmony and I do try to make sure the harmonies are on point! On the line 1:06, the 'follow' line, it's exactly as I intended to perform it - no wrong notes :) perhaps the melody doesn't sound awkward to me as I've been going over it so much, but maybe it sounds unexpected or awkward to a new listener? :) I'm not sure!

Once again, seriously, thanks for going over it. Definitely some objective and potentially game-changing tips here for me to experiment with when I go back into the mix in a few weeks! I'll give some of your music a listen - clearly you have a great ear so I'm looking forward to it. Thanks also for following me on here. Are you also in the NGUAC? If so, good luck!

I wasn't gonna write reviews because reasons, but I can't just ignore this one.

I really want to love this tune. Like, frustratingly so. Give your high end some love man! I started losing interest in the track because I couldn't get over the fact that I felt like I was listening to it through a wall. From what I can hear the melodies and atmospheres you're creating in this track are awesome and just up my alley as far as music I like, but I can't feel immersed if you don't take off that low pass filter.

Bertn1991 responds:

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it somewhat at least. Sorry if it wasn't quite up to snuff. Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I really do appreciate it : )

The song is really repetitive and lacks a sense of movement.

It's also got a really compressed sound to it, try working on letting the pluck sound breathe a bit more in the mix. It could definitely use the space.

Aside from that, sounds great! Drums are nice on their own, I'd like to hear a bit more tail on the snare, but that's just my personal preference. :)

Droplifter responds:

Thanks for the review, I've chaged some of the compression on it and things, I've not got much idea at all with mastering and compression and things. The snare is the only sample I could find that even sounded half decent haha.

Thanks for your time

Absolutely amazing. I'm a huge fan of your melody work and the falling key signature element of the track made my music theory nerd senses overload into a nerdgasm. :D

The only thing I hate about this track is the mixing. Sometimes the percussion gets drowned out, the synths clash ever so slightly, but just enough to bug me.

Check out this website: audio.tutsplus.com

They have some really great tips and tutorials for all things mixing for several DAW's (but most of the tutorials and tips can be applied to just about any DAW on the market right now)

I'm really excited to see your improvement. If you keep working at the mixing and mastering you'll become an incredible EDM artist in no time. I guarantee it. ;)

Decent.

Your kick needs a more powerful presence, and your snare as well.

Great job with the vocals. I just wish that you had varied the samples a bit more. After the first two mins or so the vocal melody just started getting annoying.

Sick bitcrushing work. Props for that.

The drop needs a better buildup. If not for the bass you wouldn't be able to tell that that was where the drop is supposed to go. Invest in sweeps and reverse crashes to aid in creating tension for the buildup.

Brownie points for the bass slides and added funkiness in the melody. I looove me some good funk.

I was honestly expecting more than what I actually got through the entire song which gave me the overall impression of "meh."

So, yeah. Great detail work, but overall it's just meh. :\

Also, idk if it's just my headphones, but my right ear wants to hear more of the song as well. :c

This is really good. I can't say I love it, because I really feel the female vocals in the beginning, but they are really not working for the song. It sounds a bit off key at some parts and I can't ignore that. :\

Everything about this otherwise I absolutely adore. The breakdown is amazing. The bass is nice and sustaining. It's a gorgeous ambiance and mood. Epic work.

RandomDanceOfHappy responds:

the vocs are all random bits and things i found via internet :p i tryed tuneing the vocs but it sounded worse after so i left them as is :p i know there off but. gotta work with whaT U GOT :D i got another new comp :D but lost my headphones :( my new comp has 2 terra bites of mem and 10 gigs of power o.o costed me 800$ with the top spec sound card :D ... dose me no good without headphonesss

ALALALALALALALALALALA BOOOOOOOOM

I like it bro. But it needs moar jihad.

Squeezums responds:

i couldnt agree moar.

OH MY GOD

Y U NO FINISH YET

Or4nges responds:

BECAUSE...

Yeah I got nothing.

I don't like this summary thing.

I like the part where it makes noise.

Or4nges responds:

Dude! That's my favorite too!

Good.

I love your leads and your melody. Very well done.

The offbeat wobble bass needs a lot of work. It would probably work into the mix better if you had it wobble to the beat instead of to an off beat. That way you get your kicks and snares to hit on troughs or peaks instead of somewhere in between, which is less epic most of the time.

If you wanna keep it off beat, then I'd suggesting a different timbre. Perhaps one with more release or tightening up the sound with a higher frequency/pitch on some parts.

It looks to be a very good song in the works, nevertheless. So keep at it!

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