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TaintedLogic

4,928 Audio Reviews

2,609 w/ Responses

The phasing synth at the beginning is pretty cool, but some of the backing synths sound a little thin. The bass helps fatten up the texture a bit, but the piece only really starts coming together in my mind at about the 1-minute mark. The progression is pretty good, but there isn’t a lot of melodic content, and the beat is very simplistic. Has a vaguely ghosty sound overall, but the instrumental palette is well-balanced and benefits from a clean mix. I like the re-intro at 1:45 and the bridge section at 2:14. The rhythm at 2:43 is a bit too busy, but by around the 3-minute mark there’s a good sense of energy and resolution in the texture. A lot of the riffs and rhythms are pretty square and repetitive here, though, and I would’ve liked to hear some more dynamic melodies. I think the mood, atmosphere, and mastering are all pretty strong, and I applaud your tasteful use of white noise at transitory moments. The sound design was cute, albeit a bit cheesy, but my main concern is the aforementioned compositional details. Still, nice job overall with this one. It’s a catchy and flowing piece that seems fitting for some sort of platformer game. :) Keep at it, ClitBait!

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7.75/10

I like the victorious vibe at the beginning. The chord progression is a bit cliche, but the sound design is refreshing (no pun intended) and cute. The mix is well-balanced and has an appropriate amount of reverb, but the composition is very repetitive and in many ways generic. I like the variations and portamentos at 1:10, but even then it’s just another iteration of the same riff that makes up the body of the harmony for the entire piece. I really like the mood and atmosphere here, but this doesn’t feel like a structurally complete piece, and that’s a big problem. You also don’t really have any proper melodic content here, despite the distinct contour of the main riff. Ideally, your melodies should sound more dynamic than a single 2-measure riff that’s on loop for almost your entire piece. You clearly have a good sense of harmony, flow, and rhythm, with strong production quality to boot. That said, the underwhelming composition is that’s really holding this piece back. I’d totally encourage you to keep working on this, though. It’s a simple bridge and a little more melodic variety away from being 2 points higher imo. Keep at it, Citriclight! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
6.5/10

I like the catchy bass riff at the beginning. I think the bass is seriously distorting the drums in the mix, though. I think you should explore using tools like filtering, compression, and the like to add more clarity to the texture here. That’ll help make your drums punchier and the entire mix less muddy in the bass range. While there are definitely some good ideas with the bass riffs, the composition is otherwise quite lacking. There’s not a lot of mid-range or treble tones anywhere in the piece, and very little melodic content or meaningful progression of ideas. I think you should try layering more harmonic material on top of the existing notes you have to add some complexity and a sense of direction to your track. It’s clear to me that you have a good sense of rhythm and flow, but it’s hard for me to assess a wide range of compositional skills from this track because there’s just not much variety in the piece. There are also several points, like :22 and 1:15, where stereo distortion (also called peaking or clipping) is clearly audible, which is a sign that you haven’t put a lot of effort into mixing and mastering your track. In FL Studio, you want to press F9, remove the limiter from the master channel on the window that pops up, and turn down the volume levels when you first begin your project. Then, you can use some of the tools I mentioned earlier, like compression, to increase the loudness and thickness of the texture after you finish the composition. I know all of this probably sounds really overwhelming, but honestly on Newgrounds the best indicator of popularity is decent mixing and sound design. Please PM me if you don’t understand something that I’ve written about today, or you just have further general questions. I hope you keep working on this piece, and also that you understand that creating a complete and polished track might require a little more effort. Best of luck! Let me know how I can continue to help you going forward. :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.25/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.75/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
2.5/10

ChoNoTuTe responds:

Thanks for your feedback! Actually I made this track using 1 troll tutorial from Youtube. I know that this song isn't the best quality.

I like the pensive mood at the beginning. Those dance plucks are super fun, and the wobbly bass that comes in at :13 was a nice addition to the texture. There’s a good sense of climax into :41, and the build-up continues from there. The melodic content sounds really blissful, too. I think the drums might’ve been a tad over-compressed. They almost sound punchier than is appropriate for the piece. That said, I like the re-intro at 1:36 and the filtering work on the lead building up to 2:10. The bass at 2:10 is a little heavy, but I liked the emotional climax of the second refrain at around the 3-minute mark. I think you could’ve varied the main melody a little more, and also the ending is a little sudden. The arrangement is a little generic too, but there’s still a lot to like in this piece. Solid production quality and melodic content, fun sound design, good mood and atmosphere. Strong work, Cesarinmono! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.5/10

I like the distorted noodling at the beginning. The recording quality isn’t as sharp as it could be, and the drums seem a little weak, but I like the powerful guitars and melodic content. The progression is solid, and the added distortion at 1:25 really helps up the intensity. I thought that section started to drag on for a bit long after a while, though. There’s little sense of shape to the piece over time, but rather a constant sense of intensity that doesn’t serve a larger structural purpose in the piece. I would’ve liked to see you break down the underlying bass guitar pattern and drum beat at some point and purse some structural contrast with a more relaxed bridge or something. You’re clearly a talented guitarist, but after a while it’s hard to stay engaged with the constant intensity. I think you needed a little more dynamic contrast and phrasing to maximize the emotional appeal of this piece. Still, the piece starts coming together nicely at around 4:45, which has a nice rhythmic density and harmonic flavor. Despite the underwhelming drums, the mix is overall loud and relatively clear in this piece. I didn’t think the part at 5:40 did a great job of concluding the piece, though. It’s pretty dragged out and harmonically incoherent with the rest of the track. That said, I definitely admire your talents with the electric guitar, and I think you’re well on your way to developing a variety of compositional skills. Keep at it, Catpocalypse! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7.5/10

I like the relaxed mood at the beginning. The electric piano at :07 sounded really dreamy, but the grand piano at :11 was a little too dry. It might need some more reverb to fit with the spacey vibe of the rest of the piece. The bass at :34 is good for filling in a bit of the frequency range, but it’s also a little too loud imo. The progression of the piece is a little bizarre, with variations on the same riff making up most of the harmonies. The synth bass at 1:20 and the lead at 1:27 sound a bit unpolished and harsh in the mix. You use a lot of different instruments in the piece, and there’s not a lot of cohesion to the instrumental hierarchy throughout. I wanted to see you incorporate a little more harmonic depth here. The texture feels pretty minimal throughout, and the composition lacks an overarching sense of direction. There are definitely some good ideas here between the catchy riffs and creative drum patterns, but overall this piece didn’t really come together well for me. The underwhelming composition is the main problem, but the mix also gets a little distorted at times when the bass comes in. Try to focus on layering riffs on top of each other more so than creating different iterations of the same riff throughout the piece. Still, there’s definitely some potential here. I like the blissful mood and rhythmic details throughout. Keep at it, Calculati! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.25/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
4.5/10

I like the atmosphere at the beginning. Really wet sound here - I’m almost tempted to say you used too much reverb, but I think that would only be an issue if you had more instruments that potentially distorted the pads here. The little melody that pops in at 1:16 is haunting, and I love the ⅛ note pizzicatos at 1:55 too. At 2:26, it seems like there’s some distortion in the mix, because there’s a popping noise and the pads briefly cut out. My main problem with the piece is that it sounds like it’s just starting to progress into something more epic before it ends. I think that, at this pace, you needed another 3-4 minutes to truly capitalize on the emotional appeal of this piece. I was waiting for the tension of the first 3 minutes to finally break and a deeply cathartic melody to tear my heart in two. Instead, you’ve left me rather torn about this piece as, for all its captivating atmospheric motifs and engrossing textural details, you could’ve done so, SO much more with this. I think my compromise with myself is that I dock you a lot for the lack of structural completeness and variety, and I don’t dock you a lot for everything else. This is beautiful work, but with almost any other piece, I would need a lot more overarching shape and direction to the track to give a score as high as I gave you. Please, pretty please write a killer melody to hit your piece home next time. If you do, I promise you’ll not only stay in the competition, but also get an insta-fave and download from yours truly. Keep up the good work, BlockDaH1! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
7.75/10

I like the pensive mood at the beginning. The progression is a little slow-paced, but I like the sound design and the sense of climax into 1:03. The drop itself was pretty minimal, and I wasn’t a huge fan of your clap sample. It didn’t quite feel crisp enough to fit the rest of the piece. The strongest element of the piece by far is the mixing. All the instruments sound really well-balanced and clear throughout, even if at times I thought the drums were a little over-compressed. My main concern with the piece is that it lacks harmonic depth and/or memorable melodic content. Some compositional parameters just isn’t as fleshed out as I wanted them to be. The piece is built around a couple of minimal riffs with simple contours that are never varied significantly. I think that was a mistake, and the result is that this piece often feels anti-climactic, repetitive, and underwhelming. That said, you clearly are a talented producer, and I appreciate the hip-hop influence you brought to this electronic track. One of the details in the sound design that I really liked was the glitchy breaks at 2:51. Overall, this piece has a lot of potential, but I’d like to see you enhance the depth and variety of the moving notes going forward. Keep at it, BlastCat!

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7/10

The beat at the beginning is pretty catchy, although I wasn’t a huge fan of your samples. They sound pretty generic, especially that open hat. When the pads come in at :27, they’re very quiet, and the pitch-bending on the synth at :42 gives a strangely eerie feel to an otherwise cheery piece. Most of the variety in the piece also stems from adding and subtracting instruments over time, which is not very advanced. Try to use rhythmic changes, volume changes, automation/filtering, and other techniques to add some overarching shape and complexity to your piece. Until then, this piece has a very simple progression, no melodies, little variety, and in general just lacks memorable content. Sorry. I don’t mean for this review to sound discouraging. It’s great that you got LMMS; it’s very advanced for a free DAW. I’d absolutely encourage you to do some more experimenting with what it has to offer. But a little more effort into the composition here would go a long way towards adding some harmonic depth and much-needed variety to your piece. Keep at it, BladeFlame5308! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.25/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
3.5/10

BladeFlame5308 responds:

Thanks for the review! It's nice to get some genuine feedback on a piece, especially some critical feedback - otherwise how would I know how to improve?
I do often have some trouble keeping a solid tone throughout a song, and I'm not very experienced with LMMS yet - pretty much all the samples were just generic ones pulled from the program - but I will work on my musical skill and try to improve. :)

I like the powerful piano chords at the beginning, despite my instant recognition of FL Keys. The melodic line at :08 has some fun harmonies in it, to the point that it almost sounds atonal. The build-up was rather short-lived, and the mid-range bass quickly takes over the mix at the drop. It also sounds a bit harsh in my ears. The chords at :59 were nice for some structural relief, but the pacing of the piece seems a little fast. I also would’ve liked to see more harmonic variety in a piece that changes up its instrumentation a lot more than anything else. The cello sample at 1:22 sounds rather inauthentic, and you might be better off replacing it with something that’s meant to sound synthetic. After that, there’s very little novel content in the piece, although I enjoyed the atonality in the last chord that you created with the reverb. Keep at it, BioHexagon!

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7/10

Hi. I'm Andrew. Audio portal junkie since 2010, supporter since 2017. I always want to improve what I do! I make music, run the NGUAC, post poetry on BBS, and am the all-time #2 audio reviewer. I love this site, and I want to make it the best I can! ^_^

Andrew Mikula @TaintedLogic

Age 26, Male

Policy Research

Bates College

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Joined on 8/16/12

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