ubik's music lounge

[ubik]

Hey what's up people.

Couple days ago I requested a review on a banner, so i finished up that site the banner was for, its a personal little music site. It's really quite simple I spent much more time compressing music than I did designing or coding..lol. Anyway I'd appreciate your input on what you think of the design.

http://ubik.awardspace.com

- ubik

[Kurashu]

Design looks nice. Could use some improvement, though I can't say exactly what. Colors look nice together. Maybe it's the borders. Dashed borders don't look all that great in my opinion, at least how you've used them. Eh, I dunno know though.

And I know you wanted the design commented on, but I took a peak at your code, and you could do to get rid of a few of the div tags. Replace the menu with an unordered list, the date headings on the news postings (and if you've used the same style else where) with a span.

I do have one big thing: "This website is composed mainly with music from 'underground'/'local' bands, hip-hop groups and other unsigned artists who have contacted me with requests to post their music."

I wouldn't consider everything on your rock (don't know about Jazz, don't care about Hip Hop) page down to Hendrix underground, local, or unsigned. I'm not sure, but you are probably in some violation with the music there.

Though, Yngwie Malmsteen, you get props there. =D Same with Pantera and Hendrix.

[slushy77]

The color scheme is good - i like the white on slate on black with the green highlights. the copyright text has contrast issues in FF on nix

A strong yet simple layout with no navigation problems.
I like how you'r showing a random track and giving the visitor the choice of playing it.

be careful with your copyrights - you'r listing a band that was involved in the closure of very popular file sharing site.

the flash animation is a bit distracting, especially on the main page, the green flashing arrows pull my eyes away from the text. Can it be set to loop once instead of constantly ?

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Its simple yet functional. I think you should change the dotted borders to solid ones or vice versa with your navigation, just don't mix and match. I also think your flash header gets a bit annoying after a while. It would be better if it didn't loop.

[ubik]

Hey thanks for taking a look and taking the time to give your input Kurashu, slushy77, & _Aerospace_Eng_.

Kurashu,
Thanks for the comment on the color scheme. I would have used an unordered list for the menu if it was not in use by the song titles underneath each artist. And besides I dont really like how when you use existing elements you inherit its properties in disguize unless you know what they all are and change them, which in turn would probably be a bit more code to write. yeah yngwie, pantera, & hendrix rock.

slushy77,
I appreciate your comment on the color system. thanks. The paragraph at the bottom of the main page has been brightened up a bit. Regarding the copyright issues, the site was originaly for a bunch of underground local music.. All of that mainstream is just filler for now.

_Aerospace_Eng_,
I changed the main page's dashed borders, except for the update boxes cause i thought it looked a little too plain solid. The dotted bottom border of the menu is just eyecandy.. I liked how the edges were cut off as though it were a circular object being viewed on a flat plane, lol. On the flash headers, I converted the arrows into stills. I thined up and darkened the circular lines on main header and on the speaker animation.

I originally had a header with the green arrow stills, and I appreciate the input here to change it back to that.

This is a website i just threw together in 1 night and got stuck compressing music for it for like a week. lol. I write these websites to familiarize myself with CSS, this is my 2nd full css site i have made and its all just a learning experience.

[greasonwolfe]

I will say this much, I agree with most of the others. Nice basic layout, not too cluttered. I personally like the color scheme. It was easy to navigate so I had no problem finding my way around.

One thing I was a bit surprise about though. . . Metallica? After they so vehemently attacked Napster for trading their music? Personally, I wouldn't include them for fear of having them come after me next. Something to consider, for sure, particularly with the whole copyright issues. Some bands don't mind it at all and actually like the idea of the internet spreading their music around. Other bands, however, absolutely hate the idea so that is an area I would definately look into if I were you.

All in all though, :thumbsup: I liked it. Nicely done.

GW

[ubik]

Hey greasonwolfe,

thank you for your comments. Yeah metallica, and all that mainstream stuff is filler so the site isnt so empty but there are quite a few underground bands on there.. When I get my hands on more local stuff ill just end up taking all of those big bands out of there.

[greasonwolfe]

Lol, I just thought of something else. You don't have a section for old geezers like me that grew up on. . . um. . . bands that should be in their grave by now. Maybe spread the rock into Hardcore, Newave and um. . .Classic just for us old geezers?

[ubik]

Lol, I just thought of something else. You don't have a section for old geezers like me that grew up on. . . um. . . bands that should be in their grave by now. Maybe spread the rock into Hardcore, Newave and um. . .Classic just for us old geezers?

lol, yeah im down. I just made these images to put on the rock page after reading your post right now:

http://xs72.xs.to/pics/06111/rock.jpg

Recommend any good new wave? all i have right now is like some berlin and nena.. ill get some good classic stuff. need to bust out some old CD's. got some lynyrd skynyrd, boston, santana, clapton.. some other stuff need to look.

[greasonwolfe]

Hrm. . . that would depend on what you consider new wave. If you think of it as being like Green Day and Alien Ant Farm and the like, there are a few bands in the NJ, NY, PA area that might be good. . . umn. . . Fuzzy Bunny Slippers is one. . . Emily's Toybox. . . I used to see the second one all the time when I lived in that area and became fairly good friends with them. They have some pretty whacked out songs, but have some good stuff as well.

http://www.emilystoybox.com

As for some classic stuff. . . I got a bit on the system. . . some big hair stuff like Poison and Tesla. . . um. . . Badlands. . . .got some newer stuff too. . . Godsmack and the like. . . some WASP. . . will have to check through my list for more, but, unfortunately, I lost about half of what I had when the old comp crashed.

[Konrad]

Interesting website, but you could try a different font. That one is a little boring.

[ubik]

Interesting website, but you could try a different font. That one is a little boring.
I usually just stick something failry easy to read. wouldn't want to make my site any more inaccessible than what issues may already exist. Besides there are only so many web-safe fonts out there. I personally find serif's like georgia, times, and such difficult to read unless the font size is fairly large. I know that It would eventually get boring so thats why i changed shades of colors and used bold and such to mix it up. Thanks for visiting the site :thumbsup:

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Hey greasonwolfe,
wow, yeah i'm really diggin' Emily's ToyBox, they rock. Im going to post the songs: "Before" & "Di**" on my site. Plus alot of the classical stuff u mentioned once i get a chance away from this other site im designing for some business. Thanks for the link man. :thumbsup:

[greasonwolfe]

Yeah, they are a riot when you see a live show. Lots of silly stuff and loads of audience participation. Before loading up any of their stuff though, I would contact them just to make sure they don't mind. I don't think they would but it has been a few years since I talked to any of them given the fact that I moved from the east to the west.

Glad ya liked them though, you should hear some of their "spoof" songs, their rendition of "Summer of 69" and their rendition of "Country Roads." The rock both of them to the extreme, or at least they used to when I'd go see them.

Have a good one.