NGAUC Review

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First off, my apologies for the extremely late review -- but, better late than never!

What worked well:
- Super organic Ceevro-styled track!
- Great, meaningful lyrics.
- Fantastic guitar work (clean solos)!
- Nice mixing overall.
- Great blending of instruments/vocals (not including 2:03 - 2:37).

This goes without saying, this track has your clean-cut style written all over it. Your guitar playing is a hallmark of your songs, and this one is no exception. The lyrics, as mentioned, are certainly meaningful and in a way I think they are quite heartfelt. The mixing is clean, and I think you've recorded each element of the track well!

What to consider for next time:
- The vocals are very hit-and-miss here.
- The 'raw' quality of the song is entirely negated at the 2:03 marker.
- The conclusion, as others have mentioned, leaves a lot to be desired.

Some notes sound great, some notes not so great. It seems that you aren't making use of breathing techniques to facilitate full notes. For instance, the line: "And all of my everything just came down today" was sung in a relaxed way, your voice works well here! However, the next line: "but all of my nothing is hangin' around" sounds quite stretched. In particular, the "NUH" in nothing and the "AH" and "OU" sounds in around are sung incorrectly; the notes are falling flat. Furthermore, at the 2:03 marker, your vocals don't quite blend well (but this is mostly due to various notes being sung off-key).

The mixing was also weak from this point until 2:37. I think it was just far too busy, and a simplistic approach would have worked far better. From 2:37 onwards, you settle back into a simple sound again but the track ends abruptly and as a result, things are left feeling a little unbalanced.

I enjoyed listening to this one, and I am baffled at the fact that you wrote and recorded this in ONE day. Major props! Keep at it, Ceevro!

Score: 8.5/10

Score Breakdown:
Production: 18/30 (Average)
Composition: 26/30 (Great)
Instrumentation: 12.5/15 (Above Average/Great)
Originality: 10/10 (Incredible)
Interest: 13.5/15 (Great)

Total Score: 80/100 (Above Average), or 4/5 stars

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Comments:
Mixing average at best, starting off great, then a few mic'ing hiccups, and then a muddy mess at 2:02 with too many contrasting lines, too much reverb, and not enough attention to mix.

Inconsistent distance from mic leads to inconsistent dry/room tone mixture creating a somewhat unpleasant effect of too much room at some points (like first "... and I see", versus the tone of the end of the verse before that... totally different tone, far too much boxy room). Should experiment with additional mic techniques/placements and angles to capture a less roomy tone (probably closer or in a drier room), and perhaps explore the possibility of stereo mic'ing/additional monophonic mixing techniques in the future.

Composition is pleasant, lyrics are nice. Flow of piece is well done. The digital piano elements were unfortunately quite lack-luster, and stylistically clashed with the very live, rough, acoustic sound of the rest of the track. I recommend exploring the plethora of free and affordable sampled percussion and pianos online.

A good rule of thumb I've heard from innumerable sources is to try to keep the number of independently moving lines below four at any time, and to always have one line be the dominant line. It's very important to have ANY stuff intended to be background stuff NOT be primarily more active, louder, or interesting than what is intended to be foreground stuff. Always try to use guide tone lines (moving to the nearest chord tone between chords) for background elements for best results. If a background element has a lot of non-chord tones, it will sound more like a melody or a counter-melody, hence foreground or middleground. Too many elements in one portion of the mix and it gets crowded... something I struggle with daily with my own style of music.

If a line is rhythmically unique compared to the main comping pattern, it should be brief, preferably connect with the main comping pattern on several beats and be around common tones with the current chords. If it acts like it's doing its own thing, then people will hear it as such and it'll literally sound like it doesn't belong in the piece. I'm speaking mostly about the piano at 2:02 here.

Otherwise, a very nice piece, with good singing, playing, and solid structure.

Rubric:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ngauc2015samulis/FinalRound/Ceevro.pdf

So, you've made it to the final round. You've clearly proven yourself. Time to judge by NGADM standards - scoring will be harsher as a result. In any case, here are some pointers for improvement.

The Good:
-THe fact that you made this in one afternoon is excellent.
-All acoustic lo-fi instruments are awesome.
-Excellent mixing and recording of vocals. Everything is crisp and clear.
-Very beautiful guitar solo.
-I actually really like the lyrics. Unfortunately, it's hard to pay attention to them in the face of...

The Not-so-good:
-There are a LOT of off-key notes in the singing. And I do mean a lot. Given you didn't have much time, that's somewhat forgivable - but it would be excellent if you could go back over this and touch it up.
-During the guitar solo, try panning one to each side rather than having them overlap on the right. While that was nice, it covered things up.
-Mixing starts to fall apart around 2:08 simply because there are so many instruments. THe strings are fine, by the way. They're basically just an underlying pad.
-Ending is meh. It just ends. This could really use a bit more of a nicer ending.

Final score: 6.5/10. Incredible for the amount of time you had. Not quite as good for a contest, though.

Again, I'm loving the organic sound here. The vocals are generally strong, and they have this attitude to them that I really like. It's as if you're defensively trying to justify the fact that you're making music. :D The lyrics are good. I think you overused the chorus a bit too much by the end. I also think that you could've enhanced the intensity of the chorus a lot more by simply holding out the notes longer (because I know that reverb and other forms of electronic manipulation aren't really your thing). Despite the generally strong vocals, I thought you briefly went a bit flat around :49, during the last stanza of the first chorus. I understand that you were a bit rushed to record this, though. I like how you have a more hushed tone at :56 just to contrast the verse to the previous chorus. The solos around 1:30 also offered quite welcome structural relief. The production quality seems pretty high, despite the fact the texture is not as full as I'm used to hearing in a lot of other songs. I also thought that the ending was a bit sudden, but I also understand that was part of the edginess and attitude you bring to your pieces, which I generally love. Overall, I obviously like it a lot. It's a fun, short piece with a feel-good down-to-earth vibe to it. I suppose I would like to see you take a few more risks in the future, but as for making good use of the resources you have to make music, you've nailed it! Keep up the great work, Ceevro! ;D

9/10

Man, this is just great. The fact that you laid this whole thing down in the space of an afternoon quite simply blows me away. It kind of brings to mind songs like Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson, mostly because of the overall organic quality.

Your voice totally shines in the lower register (as always), and the mids sound great, but some of those higher notes sound strained and tend to get washed out in the mix, especially where there are so many instrumental layers. I know you didn't really have much time to play around with mixing and mastering due to extreme time crunch, but I would love to hear what you can do without a deadline looming over you!

I also wanted to congratulate you personally on making it past the NGADM auditions! Can't wait to see what you come up with next, Ceevz. Allons-y!