Month: April 2017

Broadjam Artist: Jeff Ashbaker
Song: Supernova

Reviewer: Mitch Siegal

Positive Comments: I liked the lyrics, cohesive and direct. harmonies were tastefully mixed.

Constructive Comments: a little more spark is what i was waiting for to give better section contrast. maybe a more memorable bridge/lead or hook possibly. otherwise It was a pleasent song.

Broadjam Artist: Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods
Song: Baby Un Done Me Wrong / Delta Blues

Reviewer: Patrick E. Muth

Positive Comments: easy stuff jus ridin along good feelin stuff

Constructive Comments: I see where you are going Laid back! the timing is off a little but it wouldn’t stop a clock. first note needs improvement!keep on trukin! catnip pat=========================

Broadjam Artist: Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods
Song: Trail Dust Kid

Reviewer: Drew Hale

Positive Comments: Great guitar tone, some nice playing particularly in the moving chordal lines.

Constructive Comments: Constructively, I don’t know how much I can say here. This sounds like a rough demo recorded so you wouldn’t forget a melody. Which is great. Everyone should have those. As far as being a marketable piece, there are a good deal of adjustments that would need to be made short of a full re-record. First. The piece has a decided swing to it. But the drum loop is straight, with no swing matching the guitar lines. This was incredibly distracting to me as a listener. I couldn’t ever settle into a groove, and I wanted to because some of the lines you played were really beautiful. Second. The overall time of the piece is all over the place between the drums and guitars, particularly when the drums drop out. The guitars immediately speed up, and do so at separate paces. Time is a major issue throughout the piece.Third. The recording. You can hear the floor noise “hiss” from the beginning, and it is prevalent throughout the piece. An easy fix would be to record your instruments at a higher volume, keeping them just at yellow on your meter at their highest level. This will ensure you have plenty of gain on the track, and will help keep floor noise down. I would also recommend using a little compression on your channels in post. This will warm up your tones, as well as help keep your levels consistent, and again allow you to keep track levels a bit hotter, and avoid floor noise.I hope this review hasn’t come off negatively. I really do wish you the very best, and hope to hear more from you in the future.

Broadjam Artist: Kate Carpenter
Song: Look at all the Family

Reviewer: Drew Hale

Positive Comments: Happy, bouncy piece. It’s obvious to the listener that you’re passionate about what you’re singing.

Constructive Comments: I’m not exactly sure where to start here. Your obvious passion and zeal for the content is where the positive notes end for me, personally. While I can appreciate what you’re trying to convey in this song, the arrangement, the playing, the vocal, and the lyrics just feel incredibly trite and dated. This feels like a song I might have heard in Sunday School in the 80’s, which isn’t altogether a bad thing. But when it comes to marketability in 2017, I just don’t know where this would fit. I can’t imagine this has much of a place in modern markets outside of maybe a Christian/Inspirational children’s album, which may be the idea. And if so, thats great. It would work well there. The lyric rhyme scheme is predictable and a bit trite, but would again lend itself well to childrens music. Overall, I really appreciate the heart behind this piece. I just don’t know how to help you make it better, other than to encourage you to do some critical listening to more modern artists in the style you want to write, and learn from them. Study their writing methods, and their lyrics. And I would highly recommend purchasing a rhyme dictionary, and using it as a helpful writing tool. I think you have potential to write, but maybe need just a bit more direction.

Broadjam Artist: FRED GROSS
Song: Jitter Bug Rock

Reviewer: Drew Hale

Positive Comments: I really enjoyed listening to this tune. Has a great Stray Cats/Brian Setzer Rockabilly vibe to it. Would work well as a soundtrack, fun to listen to but not overly distracting with melodic movement. Nice clean tone on the lead gtr. Good energy and presence to the arrangement. Well done, a really enjoyable listen.

Constructive Comments: Constructively, I have a few things. While the guitar tone was good and clean, the playing felt a little choppy in the lead lines, and I heard the same lines repeated over and over. It became a little monotonous toward the end. There didn’t seem to be a solid melodic hook, just a bunch of bluesy solo lines, which left me as a listener feeling disengaged by the end. The guitar tones were good, but the drums, particularly the snare, felt thin and chimey. Didn’t really add to the energy of the piece. Sonically the recording felt thin all around. It could use some love in the the low-mids, and some attention to overall mix. Bass felt very light, as did rhythm guitar to my ear. A little spit and polish, working specifically on fattening the mix could propel this song forward and, in my opinion, make it more likely to get picked up! Overall, great concept.

Broadjam Artist: Bill Dake
Song: Baby Said Bye, Bye

Reviewer: Jeff Maguire

Positive Comments: Nice smoky and down low jazz/blues groove with some solid backing and nice playing.

Constructive Comments: Chord changes are very nice, particularly some of the ones that come about 2:30 , overall this is really nice track and very well played, some of the guitar lines are a little simplistic for what I hear as the overall intent, some of the substitutions are hard to play over, but not rally a big problem. Definite potential in this one.

Broadjam Artist: Cali G
Song: Caliber

Reviewer: paul77

Positive Comments: nice intro, although guitar did sound slightly out of tune but it works throughout the tune. good honest lyrics and a catchy chorus.

Constructive Comments: cant really say any improvements as this isnt my genre of music. sounds as good as any rap song that i have heard in the charts.

Broadjam Artist: Zeiko
Song: Evolutionary Tendencies II

Reviewer: paul77

Positive Comments: This sounds like a great song for a sound track to a movie or backing music for a tv show. I dont see it as a song that would be commercially huge but for what it is aiming for it is a great peice of work

Constructive Comments: nothing really, if you are aiming for a more commercial hit, then a vocal line or a vocal hook would be better, but this sure suits a backing track for a movie/tv commercial

Broadjam Artist: Jeff Ashbaker
Song: Jake’s Away

Reviewer: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)

Positive Comments: New Age feel with a touch of Folk. Beautiful execution on the acoustic guitar playing. Unique progression and all melodies are clearly articulated and presented to the listener on a silver platter. Outstanding. The interlude at 1:10 to 1:15 was superb. The Coda and then hook re-cap in the end was again, very good arranging.

Constructive Comments: The tone of the guitar is slightly bassy. A small cut in EQ around 200Hz to 350Hh and a low cut at 100Hz. A nice compressor would give the guitar more bite and brighter more punchy presentation. I sense this is an old recording, tape? Song doesn’t need any accompaniment, a agree with your choice of solo acoustic.

Broadjam Artist: Rena Enea
Song: Appreciation

Reviewer: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)

Positive Comments: I hear a good groove underneath all the additional parts. Sounded like a blending of two or more songs. Tabla loop in the end was really cool. Lots of credit needs to be given for the creative aspects here. I recognize the tension-release concepts introduced in this song.

Constructive Comments: Sounds a bit like sound check. Check 1 – 2. Some very interesting sound choices, I think I heard a phone ring :36? My take-away on this song is it sounds like piano exercising interspersed with loops and sound effects.