I thought the composition and singing itself were great. However the mixing overall was somewhat lacking and needs improvement.
Reviews for "Propter Te"
Wanted so bad to like it...
Starting with what I liked... The effort you put in, and the idea/composition of the song was pretty good, and I was pretty fond of the piano sound... but.. that's kinda where it stops for me...
Complaints...
Mixing I thought was god awful, like listening through a pillow, nothing really sounded clear, and was overly drenched in reverb, this was especially true of the vocals, which sounded ridiculously muddy... the entire mix sounded like it was played through a broken PA system in a back alley venue... Not in a good, "Played live!" kind of way, but a "We're playing in this shit hole because no one else wants us" kind of way. Everything just muddled together with little to no exception.
Vocals... I already mentioned they're muddy as hell and need to be clearer... but while I give you credit for doing vocals at all, I think you really need to work on a few things... Confidence being a large one, your voice wavers A LOT in this song, and it doesn't sound like vibrato to me, it sounds like you're unsure of yourself.
I also nearly had to plug my ears at 3:51... I don't know if that was intended or not, but it sounded freaking horrible to me. Off pitch, completely out of character for the rest of the song.
Touching on mixing a bit again, I noticed that the drums were nearly non-existent, save the crashes, which were overly in-your-face... which was really distracting and unpleasant.
I really do like what you were trying to do with this... but the horrid mixing and the lack of confidence in your vocals really ruined it for me. I can see you doing really well if at the very least you work on making everything sound a bit more clear and boost up your confidence in your voice... but this song was a complete miss for me. 4/10.
This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.
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Well now, this is one of the more original tracks I've heard in this contest so far. Let me get some stuff straight first - your mixing and overall production value is poor. Everything sounds awfully drowned out and weak. However, luckily enough for your score, I think your composition is absolutely wonderful.
I'll start with your voice. You've got a great singing voice but you're a bit shaky in your pitch (work on tuning your vocals perhaps) and don't drown them out so much by EQ. Seriously, you put too many effects that drown those vocals out. I want to hear them more, they're the leading instrument of the whole track.
The drums are nicely varied but I can just about barely hear them. Turn them up, they're even more drowned out than the vocals! The piano's sound is good but I think the track would've benefited a lot more if it had a brighter piano sound than that. I love the violin or viola or whatever that is. That's probably the only instrument whose sound I had no problems with, haha. On a different note, I like your intro but the outro is just a fade-out which felt a bit lazy. I would've preferred hearing an actual ending rather than the whole track fading out.
The composition is just amazing though. The sung melody sounds incredible, and so does all of the piano and violin stuff. You've got a fantastic structure, everything harmonises so wonderfully. Compositionally, this is beautiful and the iffy mix really ruins it. The only gripe I have with the composition was 3:49. When I was discussing your track with the other judges for the first time, we all pretty much had the same reaction when we heard that part, and it was "what the heck is going on here" :P. That key change is way too sudden. You save it, though, at 3:56, so if you could just find a way to make that key change transition properly, it'd be perfect. 2:49 is probably one of my favourite parts by the way, and I love how you go into that soft melody at 3:09 with a brilliant transition before building up to the chorus.
So yeah. Props to you for making a track with vocals, singing it yourself, going for a pretty unique style and still making it amazing with fantastic composition. You have no idea how much I want to hear this with a professional-level mix :(.
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SCORE:
7/10
Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.
The Good:
-First of all, that's a great piano part.
-I like the bass slide at 0:11.
-Your vocals are pretty nice. I may not know french, but I do like the actual vocals.
-The electric guitar coming up at 2:11 is pretty awesome.
The Not-So-Good: Since you uploaded a new version on the 18th, which is *not good* since this is the judging period of the songs and the round isn't technically over, I am going to use the feedback I originally had, and will lower your score slightly.
-At 3:52 - the key change could definitely use some improvement.
-3:11 is somewhat disorienting and doesn't regain the strength it had before until around 3:33.
-I can barely hear the background guitar playing chords.
-The end could be improved drastically. Try having the piano play out since it's doing a solo there and have a true 'end' sound.
-4:35-4:42 Random panning to the left?
-The singing is obviously cut out of another part and chopped out at 4:22 with the "wha!" sound.
-Ew, FL Slayer. Some of the FL defaults sound good. FL Slayer doesn't. Try getting some soundfonts and putting effects on them, they can actually sound decent if used right.
Overall: I'm giving this a 7.2/10, mainly because of the issues and partially because of you updating the sound file in the middle of the judging period.
First off (I'm posting this to everyone): Note that the scores might be a bit lower than what's typical for NG reviews - no one should expect a 10/10 unless their entry was absolutely incredible.
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Really cool intro, I was half expecting a Bond remix for a few seconds. The piano flows very nicely with very human timing and velocity variations. Good on you for not robotizing it! Very nice musically too, and I like how you changed the pattern up for the first, more suspenseful verse. A few of the other instruments have problems - the bass sound is somewhat tinny and nasal (the basslines it plays however are very good and appropriate). The guitar sound is very synthetic and tinny. The drums, along with the mix in general, are floppy and have little punch (the cymbal hits beign somewhat of an exception). It's therefore very much appreciated when the string section is introduced and takes the spotlight, with interesting rhythmic variation, a great melody and a very fitting timbre. Wish it was featured more in the song.
I'm having trouble enjoying the busiest parts, mostly due to the aforementioned mixing. 2:42 marks my favourite part of the song, with a very open sound that lets the great piano work shine through, and the noise from the voice recording only serves to make it all more authentic. The brief guitar solos before and after that are very obviously synthetic but make for a nice addition that spices up the tune.
I know from experience that placing vocals into a song in a way that lets them shine through without dominating the track that can be obscenely difficult, so even trying is a solid plus for effort. That said, the vocals have quite a way to go: the recording quality isn't too great (seems like especially high and low frequencies have been lost, or the vocals might be so doused in reverb they don't have much presence left). The quality of the singing varies: moments like the second "Et prompter te, Domine" are great, while especially in the latter half of the song there are a lot of sour notes and you often seem to be holding back your voice - some more confidence and gusto could really kick this song up a notch. Lastly, the volume of the vox varies noticeably - I don't know if this is for artistic reasons (like it reflects the lyrics somehow), but it's a pretty quick fix with some careful compression if it isn't. Nevertheless, the words are all very clear (as far as I can judge. I don't actually understand any of it but I'm confident that a French listener would). I never learned a word of French so of course I can't discuss the literary quality of the lyrics. There might be some amazing wording and lyrical tricks in it, but in that case it doesn't carry over to the English translation (not that that is expected anyway).
6 points for sounds and instrumentation.
9 points for composition and melody/harmony.
8 points for theme/originality/other things that might impress.
Overall impression: 7.5