Month: November 2017

Broadjam Artist: Brenda Craven
Song: Fallen In Love

Reviewer: Nigel Barrett

Positive Comments: Liked the way the song built at the beginning. Really liked the lush electric piano/rhodes underpinning the whole thing.

Constructive Comments: The piano sounds a little too midi for me, It needs more ‘feel’ to it. I have been guilty of this in the past and learnt from advice from others.

Broadjam Artist: Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods
Song: Alone to Wonder

Reviewer: Nigel Barrett

Positive Comments: Unusual mix of instruments which I liked. Reminded me in places of some tracks by ToTo.

Constructive Comments: Mix is a little off for me with an inbalance between what is a lead instrument and the backing track.The track could also benefit from tightening up on the time keeping front.

Broadjam Artist: Trinity
Song: Coming From A Different perspective

Reviewer: Brenda Craven

Positive Comments: I like this piece. It reminds me a little of Herb Alpert. This piece has a little Native American feel to it. Great trumpet solo and instrumentation choices. Awesome concept for this piece.

Constructive Comments: For me, the mix sounded a little muddy/muffled…a little heavy on the bottom end. Bringing down the bottom end and raising your mid range may help in that area. The trumpet lead is beautiful…try bringing the rest of your instrument back just a smidge to let that trumpet shine. Lastly, you need a really great ending for this beautiful piece. It ends very abruptly. Repeating your intro at the end and fading it out would work perfectly.I really enjoyed listening to this. Great job.

Broadjam Artist: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)
Song: Kindred Spirits

Reviewer: Brenda Craven

Positive Comments: I’m not worthy…I have so much to learn from you Sensei! 🙂 :)You rock!

Constructive Comments: None!!!!! Perfect.

Broadjam Artist: Nigel Barrett
Song: Saxametosis – real sax

Reviewer: Brenda Craven

Positive Comments: Coolness to the max! Love this piece tremendously. Instrumentation is spot on and the groove is very catchy. From the beginning, this song grabbed my attention…and kept it. Outstanding job on this piece.

Constructive Comments: I did not want this song to end! The only critique I have is that I feel the bass can be pulled back just a hair. But other than that, I love this song. Outstanding job.

Broadjam Artist: Joseph Miller
Song: Safe Harbor

Reviewer: Brenda Craven

Positive Comments: Very nice piece. Very relaxing and peaceful. Great instrumentation and orchestration. Nice vocals as well. This piece has a lot of potential. Great job.

Constructive Comments: I am not sure if lyrics were actually being sung on the piece or I’d the whole song was just ad lib. I would have loved to have heard the actual lyrics with a little ad lib added in. You may need to record your vocals again and make sure the mix is clear so that what you are saying can be clearly heard and understood. Instead of coming in right at the beginning of the song with vocals, I would suggest using at least 8 bars/measures of music as an intro then coming in with your vocals. Give your listeners something to look forward and keep them engaged. As I said above, this song has a lot of potential…it just needs a little more work. Great job!

Broadjam Artist: Oskar Christian
Song: DESAFINADO & SCHNEE IM SONNENSCHEIN – OSKAR CHRISTIAN

Reviewer: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)

Positive Comments: Nice recording, sounds like a live setting. Two players, sounds amazingly like one person playing with a very short delay. Solid backing tracks. Elements of this song are similar to many great classic latin-jazz songs. The reverb on this track, mostly the guitars is very nice. I really like it in this situation. With the doubling of the guitar and a lot of reverb, with the other elements the song has life.

Constructive Comments: Is there just a ton of reverb on the cymbal and shaker tracks… there is a high-end tone (ride cymbal :-}) constant which gives the song a very live and wide sound spectrum, very cool! Ok so you did two passes on the guitar, hard panned one left the other right. Pop at 1:45 was pretty gnarly. try to go back and fix those it you can, it takes a song which could be marketable and played somewhere for money to a song that needs some production fixes. Maybe a little distorting on the electric piano toward the end.

Broadjam Artist: Brenda Craven
Song: Atmospheric Song

Reviewer: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)

Positive Comments: Nice piece. Very good sense of melody and rhythm. Good intro with the percussion, strings and bells. Has a bit of a Bob James or Mike Post vibe, huge potential there! I like how you built on the theme or more like did different variations every pass. Cool bridge, nice passages in the 2:10 to 2:30ish section.

Constructive Comments: You’ve done very well working with what you have. Wouldn’t it be amazing to hear this song being played by live musicians? Could be like a Chaka Kahn groove! Or add David Sanborn… hehe Ok so if you have the ability to quantize your drums that would help a listener like myself. I know you are working with what you have, I fully understand and am taking that into consideration in my scores. The conga tracks could be much louder. Having all of the melodies played on the piano made it somewhat difficult for me to hear the melody. Maybe change to a synth lead and come back. Bass is lost a bit after 3 minutes and drummer gets a little tired. Try to go back and punch in or ‘fix’ some of the ‘looser sections’. This tune is out there forever, make it the best you can Daniel son.

Broadjam Artist: Earl.C.Webb
Song: AVANI ROSE

Reviewer: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)

Positive Comments: Complete song from sounds, mix to melody. Offering nice sound effects and a variety of nice loops (or good programming). I enjoyed the mellow acoustic guitar over the peaceful background parts. Loving the pad from bar one. good mix, panning of percussion is solid. This song speaks to me it is just right for these hectic times we live in. Nice ‘B Section”. Breakdown at 3:00… supurb!! Bass fills were awwwwww. Overall a very nice tune I think marketable and certainly background spa or hotel potential.

Constructive Comments: Missing a hi-hat… Oh there it is at 2:50 just as I write. I wanted to hear a bit more of a high end presence in the rhythm that wasn’t a shaker. In a 4 minute song the tom tom being the alpha drum didn’t climax for me. Although a very nice production and the instrumentation was probably just right for this… I wanted a little more rhythmic support and creativity (being the rhythm guy that I am). Ok on a 2nd listen the shakers are just too loud entering around 1 Minute. You could get away with 3 to 5 db lower, hear them just fine and the tune would be more interesting… we might hear other subtleties. Mixing is tough. That’s it for me, jsut maybe three things and I’m being picky right? Very nice tune!

Broadjam Artist: Felice Kaye-Cooper / Songwriter
Song: The Sheik’s Harum

Reviewer: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)

Positive Comments: traditional Indian guitar sounds with modern sound effects has a global feel. Hypnotic and exotic. Could also be in the “Undefined” or Soundtrack” genres. Quality instrumental work, very precise with great feel. Very original and inventive background tracks.

Constructive Comments: I didn’t feel the background was tracks as being at all settled. For me, I gravitated to the guitar (Sitar sounding) instrument as for me the background made no sense.