SuperMusic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[GBT-Just Another Story]

Please...

Please get some voice lessons or a new lead singer... you are NOT singing. Also the music is sooooooooo plain and unoriginal. I'm sitting here thinking "really?"

There is nothing new or exciting about your music. Try to do something cutting edge. I could hear something better in a college dorm talent contest. The guitar is almost not noticeable. It's so emotionless. Is it even a real person? It sounds lifeless.

Same with your bass. What are you playing on.... drive guitars? The drums are sooooo weak too. Your whole band needs to clean everything up and step it up. Everything has already been done. It's a simple beat with simple chords and a simple rhythym. That's set up for failure already.

The only thing that could save you is good lead guitar and singing which is probably even worse. I understand that this all may seem very harsh and unnesecary but by putting your stuff up on NG your opening up to all kinds of criticism.

I'm just brutally honest. I suppose some people like it, but if you ever want to improve or get anywhere with your band take my advice. I guarantee that not many people enjoy this and those who do are either very young or have no musical knowledge or taste whatsoever.

giftedbuttwisted responds:

And you're just an asshole

[Rock the World With You]

Cool

Good beat and a nice rythym. I (as RikuTMW) said can definitely see vocals coming into play in this song. The solo was OK, but I felt like there should have been lead guitar throughout the song to spice it up a bit.

Overall this was really catchy and it was extremely easy to sing along to. One thing I've realized from listening to your music is that your chord progressions are very unpredictable but they are also very repetitive.

The unpredictable factor is extremely nice and unique. It gives your songs a cool vibe and sometimes it even annoys me (haha) because when i'm singing along I hit a note that I think would be in the next chord but I predict the next chord wrongly.

As for repitition - it as fine for this song because it was sort of short and well - it just all fit in quite well. However, I think you should try to switch up some of your future pieces. Alot of your pieces have great melodies and harmonies and great overall arrangements but the chords never change. Just something to keep in mind - make sure you never develop songwriting habits. Make every song it's own gem! I think you do this wonderfully in some aspects (mainly mentally... based on your commentaries you seem to be very analytical and imaginary with your songwriting... this is similar to the way I compose songs and write lyrics so I think we are quite the same in this aspect) and you have the right emotions and good musical intelligence but without any chord changes there is too much of a knowingness to your song.

For example, the harmonies and melodies you lay in are great and sometimes take me by surprise in a wonderful way... however... these are used to decorate the chords! Think of it this way:

The chords in a song are like trees and the harmonies and melodies are like the leaves on trees. You can take a type of tree and showcase it's most beautiful leaves. Perhaps you are showcasing a Maple Leaf tree! You can show off those purple-redish leaves or turn them brown for when it's fall or give them that yellow tint during the spring.

But what if you want a different type of leaf? What if you want suddenly a harsh mystical (feeling) leaf like the needles of an evergreen? You can't do that with a maple leaf tree. You have to change trees - or change chords.

There are many chord progressions and certain chord progressions affect certain parts of our body. (Btw I hope my horrible analogy which I rambled on about was somewhat clear to you)

For example, CsusG to EmsusD to Am to FsusG is a powefuly emotional chord progression that is directed towards longing and has a bitter-sweet feeling to it. Most people who are effected by it usually feel the song through there chest and throat. However, if you suddenly change the chords to:

AmsusG to FsusG to CsusG to G there is a sudden excitement upon the chord change.

It's something new and beautiful and will effect the listener instantly! Why is this? Because the listener will already be wrapped in with the current chord progression and the song thusfar. Then suddenly, if you change it up they become even more attached and a rush of emotion may fill them if done very well.

With new chord progressions new oppurtunities arise. With the latter one there is suddenly a suspended G in all of the chords which gives a constant note in all the chords giving a sense of endlesness.

I know I said alot, I hope you can pick through this and take with you what you want.

[Belit's Gallows]

Good job

You did a good job achieve everything you said that you wanted in your commentary. Although, to be honest I think this is definately more of an uplifting piece then a depressing one. Great choice of instrumentation - it sort of reminded me of the soundtrack to "Little Miss Sunshine" in the beginning.

Although the guitars were good and they were better then most synthesized guitars - I felt like they had no emotion. This is most likely only me however due to my love for the guitar and my belief that guitars should always be brimming with emotion. I'm sure no one else will have criticism with them =)

Good melodies and chord progressions. Everything flowed quite nicely and had a place to go.

You have some beautiful harmonies happening all throughout the song. If you had lyrics and a powerful voice to sing them I think this song could be very powerful.

Good job, and good luck.

SWiTCH responds:

Well the theme was "sad" not depressing. I think something can be uplifting and sad at the same time!
Like... A funeral which is a somber occasion, but also a celebration of the persons life.
That's the feeling I get from this song anyway.
Thanks for the critique. :)

Also the guitars weren't synthesized if that's what you meant.

[Mac8 - Forgotten]

Nice Guitar!

This was a beautiful solo. It reminded me a bit of the solo to "Don't Cry" by Slash. I know that you may not seem the similarities... but if you really think about them both there are some.

The strings, vocals, and guitar, all complemented eachother wonderfully. My only suggestion would be to lengthen this piece and have it build up later on. Have the guitar solo act as the everlasting melody or "river" of the piece and have all the other instruments follow it.

Bring in drums after the build up and in the climax have tons of dissonance as the depression and sadness has reached his limits.

This is kind of what I tried to do with "Memories" so if you don't get what i'm saying just listen to that again.

Great piece, once again the solo was beautiful.

Bad-Man-Incorporated responds:

I get ya. My problem here is, two fold. I would have loved to extend this in ALL the ways you mention, but...

I don't have a midi keyboard, and just don't have the patience to draw ALL the notes out like that. haha.
I HAD very slow internet last week. 56k. (yes by choice, but that has been rectified) haha. So I made it short.

But some excellent ideas, and probably the direction I would most likely go, if I had the equipment/patience. haha.

Thanks for the review, man. \m/

[Journey of a Summer's Night]

Very Nice

Simply beautiful work here. Great diversity to keep the listener interested and a wonderful choice of instruments. The arrangement is great as is the production of the song.

Between 0:38 and 2:14 everything was a bit too similar so I got a bit un-engaged.

At 2:15 it is the climax and perfection of the song as even you yourself say in your commentary. The (electric guitar?) was simply beautiful. Very nice melody.

At 3:31 I was immediately reminded of U2. It just sounded so much like them. Beautiful song and beautiful commentary to accompany it. You did a wonderful job here. But as TMM43 says... what's with the ending? Everything is flowing so well and beautifully and then it's like God just turned off the lights... but not in a slow sunset kind of way... just a flick and everything goes black as the animals are dancing around.

cecild responds:

WOW, thanks for the great feedback glad you really liked it. The instruments used were acoustic guitar, piano, strings, drums, organ and bass guitar, and the electric guitar for the solo.
I see what you mean with the similarity between 38 and 214 but i couldnt think of anything else that could take the place.

I know what you mean with the u2 feeling, it was kinda the sound i was after because they have that sort of aura around their music.

And again, im really sorry about the ending, the programme i used for it is quite restricting so im not too sure about how to end it properly but il look into it for you.

Again thanks for the positive feedback, thers lots of similar stuff ive done if your interested, just look at the stuff in the brit pop section, its all quite a similar style so i think if you like this youl like that.

Cecil

[[TMM43] Breathe]

Solid

I like the dissonance of this piece, it also has a very smooth sort of feeling. (mainly in the beginning)

I never heard the original song that you remixed but I enjoyed this one.

Overall, this was a really good 'n' solid piece with little room for criticism. If anything maybe bring in some high harmonies? Like around 2:12? I think that would have added some more variety and would have been a cool change.

You kind of toy with that idea but you don't do anything dramatic with it. I think it would sound extremely cool if reinforced.

Overall, a very nice track.

[Abstract Excursions]

Cool

Ok - after torturing you for who knows how long over IM it's time to review!

My favorite part is the first 40 seconds. You're classical side shows beautifully in this techno piece and what I like about it is that it's not like every other techno song. It sticks out uniquely as it's own work.

You didn't have the "techno cliches" that all techno songs usually have but you still pulled it off wonderfully.

I liked how you ended this piece. It was very unexpected and like "wow!"

However, if you didn't end it like that you could of looped it ;o

Of course if you don't like loops, this ending was pretty awesome =)

MusicalRocky responds:

hahah.

I like that part too! Thought I don't really have a favorite part per se lol.
I'm not surprised my classical side shows, since I've been writing it for 3 years :P
I wasn't aware of any clichés lol. Glad I didn't have any though.
Cool, I liked the end too :D
Yeah, I didn't want it to loop hahah. Not that I don't like loops, I just like endings.

Thanks for the review!

-Rocky

[Natural Expression]

Lol

That's actually pretty cool... for a demo. Work with this - I wanna see what you do.

Mcewthom responds:

Thanks, there will be many natural sounds I will be recording for the final version, It will be like a natural orchaster that cavemen would of made back in there day...

Some sounds I will be recording for the final version is

* A tin of beans

* My cat

* the sound when I slap the cheek of my face

Thanks for the review and check this space for the final version :)

[/|\Piano Medley 2/|\]

Nice

0:20 - 0:21 is an excellent chord progession. You opened up in a very beautiful, delicate way which was excellent. Some would disagree with me, but I would have had some high harmony going with that delicate introduction on the piano. I'm not sure why, but to me parts of this piece didn't seem as "real" as your first piano medley.

I like how it loops.

A very good job for experimenting with stuff you haven't done before. Keep it up, and you'll be the maestro of piano in no time!

[/|\Buried and Forgotten/|\]

Very Dissonant

I read your post about your librarys. I found it very interesting! Anyways, i'd love to help you out (I feel like i'm the opposite of you - Orchestrals are SO hard for me) if you think I am worthy.

Your piece was VERY dissonant! I'm pretty sure it was done on purpose but to be honest I feel you had a bit too much dissonance so it kind of came out sloppy to me. I know that the dissonance helps set the mood as well, I just really feel like there was too much! I thought the voices for harmony was a very nice choice.

However, one thing you did was you made the piano your own. I know that you used a synthesized piano but still, every musician has his or her own feel to certain instruments. Or, at least every good musician does. Some of them copy what their idea of "good" is and it's not their own. Compare this piece to Winterwind, or Me (I don't have any piano pieces up right now... so ya >_>) or anyone else and yours will have it's own unique print. Excellent job with that. I'm sure most people who came to your realization of "not knowing instruments well enough" would have gone and listened to the greatest and just tried to copy them... but you made an original and unique piece with your style bleeding out of it.

I said a little in alot of ways in this review. I apologize for that. =.=