Month: February 2017

Broadjam Artist: Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods
Song: Santa Cruz

Reviewer: Moonstone Moods

Positive Comments: The sound quality is good.

Constructive Comments: Needs more depth, more room for expansion, more aggression. it has a good basis but needs to progress more I think, keep adding.

Broadjam Artist: Signal 30
Song: Shoobydo I Luv You

Reviewer: Charlie Shock

Positive Comments: This track has a very catchy melody and the instrumentation (especially the programmed drums), as well as the lead vocals suit it well! Best of luck to you!!!

Constructive Comments: I thought that maybe the lyrics could use some fine tuning as far as being more unique or more to set them apart from “those other songs” that are out there, but other than that all i can say is Keep up the good work!!!

Broadjam Artist: COSTA / Costa Ioannides
Song: Don’t Listen to Your Heart

Reviewer: Brenda Craven

Positive Comments: Nice beat and rhythm. Loved the vibe and feel of the song. You can’t sit and listen to this without moving…that’s a good sign. Instrumentation and vocals were good. Great job.

Constructive Comments: The only critique I have for this piece is that for me, this sounded a little heavy on the bottom end. With it being so heavy, the vocals sounded a little distorted, so I really couldn’t understand the lyrics very much though it was better towards the end of the song. Tweeking your parametrics and equalizer values a little should clear it up. Otherwise, great job. Keep it up!

Broadjam Artist: Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods
Song: Sometimes When You Fall In Love / R&B

Reviewer: Brenda Craven

Positive Comments: I like what you’re doing here. You have a good base and template for a song. Love the chords and feel of the song.

Constructive Comments: My first suggestion would be to switch up your drum loop/sequence throughout the song to five it more of a drive. Secondly, I would change the lead instrument to either a nylon, acoustic or jazz guitar. I feel that the electric guitar reverb takes away from the beauty of your melody. And lastly, more instrumentation. It was hard for me to follow where you were going with the key changes, but added instrumentation will help make the song fuller and will help the listener to follow wherever you want to lead them. You have a great start here…keep working on this piece.

Broadjam Artist: N.Jones, Music Designer (Protilius Productions)
Song: I was doing alright Ft.Noel (2016 Cover)

Reviewer: Randal Dunkle

Positive Comments: Very beautiful vocals – I also really like the sound of the drums and the keyboards and special effects.

Constructive Comments: Very good song and a great voice to go with it – to be honest I would take out most of the special effects because it takes away from the beautiful vocals.

Broadjam Artist: Hank Thomas
Song: Skinny Dippin’ Clothes (Duet)

Reviewer: Gary Mazzola

Positive Comments: nice duo song. love the fiddle. had me right away. nice chorus.

Constructive Comments: the only thing that i can think to say is a little more seperaion in the tracks. sometimes i couldn’t hear th girls voice. great song

Broadjam Artist: FRED GROSS
Song: Boogie n’ Blues

Reviewer: Jeff Maguire

Positive Comments: Traditional blues gone synth mad, hell yea.

Constructive Comments: Some of the guitar lines in the opening phrase are out of key and not in an especially cool or interesting way. Landing on unresolved A over an E chord without resolving it back into an E chord probably through a G# just sounds ambiguous and poorly formed to my ear. Sounds like you want to superimpose the IV chord over the I, which is a cool trick, but you need to resolve it to make sense. The second riff around a minute in might be the basis for an entire 12 bar blues by itself. Though there is nothing real interesting about the line, by repeating it at a different pitch level over the IV chord, and then having a counter answering line over V, you at least have something approaching a coherent blues melody with a sense of motif.

Broadjam Artist: Brenda Craven
Song: Just Another Day

Reviewer: Bill Oboczky

Positive Comments: Pleasant song, nice peaceful groove. Nice chord changes as well, a bit more harmonically sophisticated than a lot of tracks you hear on BroadJam.As far as market potential, I could hear this playing in a retail setting…or at least that’s what comes to mind most immediately. Sadly, jazz/fusion doesn’t get as much radio airplay as it should.

Constructive Comments: I feel the mix could have benefited from some comp/limiting. There seemed to me to be a bit of lack of cohesion in the mix, and sometimes the piano jumped out a bit too much in places, ruining the smooth jazz feel of the song. Arrangement-wise, I would have liked hearing a bit more variety…perhaps another instrument doubling the piano in key parts to give a bit more of accents and break up the…I hate to use this word for its negative connotations…monotony. Other than that, loved the song and keep up the great work!

Broadjam Artist: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)
Song: Medieval Games

Reviewer: Bill Oboczky

Positive Comments: Loved this track!Great performances all around, and the arrangement was top notch./film Had a vaguely world music vibe that I loved, sounding exotic but accessible to Western listeners at the same time. As far as placement potential, I would say fairly good…I could hear this track on the Pandora/Spotify stations I listen to, or in a TV/film setting.

Constructive Comments: Not much to say negatively. As I said, the performances were all top notch and the arrangement was great. The mix was generally good, although I would have liked hearing about 2 or 3db less of the percussion and more bass.Definitely looking forward to hearing more from you, and keep up the great work!

Broadjam Artist: Jonathan Le Vay
Song: Turn The Light Back On

Reviewer: Bill Oboczky

Positive Comments: Loved this track! Some might say it sounds dated, but to me good fusion is timeless. Has a great groove that you just can’t help but bob your head to.I feel some market potential here. Not quite so much for radio (although yeah, I could hear it playing on Pandora or Spotify as if reminds me of Garaj Mahal and I hear their stuff there all the time) but possibly more for film/TV placement. Your skills as a performer are obvious, and the arrangement was great!

Constructive Comments: OK, now it’s time for me to be a bit of a jerk…I found the mix a bit off. Dense instrumentation like in this song presents all kinds of challenges, especially for the do-it-yourselfer. In general I found the rhythm section a bit hot in the mix, particularly the comping instruments like the clavinet. Parts that should have stood out and possibly helped provide a hook, such as the guitar riffs and the great piano soloing, were too buried in the mix.Technical problems with a mix are relatively easy to solve, especially with today’s technology. A few db’s here and there, maybe some EQ cutting where there’s some frequency overlap in certain instruments, and maybe a touch of mastering and this track would be there. I feel it’s got all the ingredients for a great song already in place, so to re-mix is honestly a minor detail.Thanks for the great music and best of luck to you!