TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Remastered: Abendland - Alone I stand]

I like the dramatic fade-in at the beginning and the apprehensive strings. The cinematic vibe of this piece is great, and the orchestration is pretty diverse between the brass, choir, and string section. The emotional appeal of the section at :44 is great, and the climax into :57 was nice. The melodic content here is also quite good, and you’ve got a good sense of harmony and progression. The choir doesn’t quite come through the mix as strongly as I would’ve liked at 1:10, and the same is true of the drums in places, but the samples themselves are of pretty high quality. The composition comes together well towards the end, too, with the final climax at around the 2-minute mark really hitting it home. Strong work here, Abendland! Keep it up. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9.5/10

Abendland responds:

Hey TaintedLogic!
Thanks a lot for your comprehensive feedback! I appreciate it a lot!
Yeah I try to keep it up, even though life tries to keep me busy with other stuff way less fun than making music… :P
Cheers, Chris

[stargazing]

I like the smooth bass at the beginning, even if it doesn’t sound that distinct in the mix. The powerful guitar chords at :13 are also nice, but the piece is very slow to progress after that. The dreamy guitar at :37 is a valuable addition to the texture, but I think there’s a tad too much reverb in the texture at that point. I think it would’ve been nice to have some drums in the texture earlier to keep up the sense of drive for the piece as a whole. The harmonies at 1:31 are pleasant, but I was itching for some more melodic content at this point, and the piece loses its sense of direction around this time. The transition at 1:56 is pretty sudden, but I welcome the thicker texture and added intensity. I think you overdid the crashes a bit at 2:23, but I like the lead guitar there and the well-balanced frequencies. The melodies at 2:46 are refreshing, and overall the piece comes together pretty well compositionally. My main problem here is probably the mixing, which sounds a little muddy in the lower register, likely because of the excessive reverb here. The more distorted vibe of the outro at 3:20 contrasts nicely with the more relaxed feel of the piece earlier, and overall I enjoyed the sound design and atmosphere here too. Solid work, at the end of the day. Keep at it, Yoshiii343! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7.25/10

[ELEPS - FORCE (DUBSTEP)]

I like the powerful piano chords and synth arpeggios at the beginning. The vocal samples at :28 are cute, even if they aren’t too prominent in the mix. Aspects of the sound design are a little generic, especially the clap, and the mood shift at :53 is a little sudden. The build-up and drops are good, even if the drop dragged on for a bit too long imo. The production quality is good overall, if a tad over-compressed in places. The re-intro at 2:10 was nice, although I was hoping to hear some more dynamic melodic content at some point that never really came. The lead at 2:36 doesn’t really satisfy my standards because it’s so heavily grounded in the chords. The harmonic minor section at 3:01 was a bit of a sudden harmonic shift, although I enjoyed the variations on the drop the second time around. I wish you had more of a proper outro after the second drop, though, instead of the rather abrupt end to the piece. Overall, solid work with the production, rhythmic components, and instrumentation. I would’ve liked to hear some more melodic content, a more creative arrangement, and some smoother transitions, but otherwise strong work! Keep at it, ELEPS44. :)

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
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
8.25/10

[Rods Critical]

I like the strings at the beginning. The choir sample wasn’t my favorite, and there may have been a tad too much reverb in the texture at times. That said, the melodic content is beautiful here, and the entire piece has a distinct emotional quality about it. The transition at 1:06 was a little sudden, but works well in the cinematic context of the piece, and also gives the piece a pleasant amount of structural contrast. The subtle vocals at around the 2-minute mark really serve the emotional appeal of the piece well, and the warm sound of the texture is really nice during this middle section. When the texture gets a bit thicker at around 2:42, you really hit this piece home. The echo/delay effects on the percussion were a little much imo, but overall the sound design, atmosphere, and melodies here are all really strong. The minimal piano outro fits the piece really well, too. Nice work overall, Papkee! All of my gripes are minor with this one. :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
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
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9.25/10

[Indiana Team]

I like the victorious vibe and sound design, even if some of the samples were a little cheesy and inauthentic. The melodic content is nice, and the mix seems pretty sharp and well-balanced. I might’ve wanted the drums to come through the texture a bit crisper, but otherwise the production quality is solid. Unfortunately, you really missed out on some points in the composition category because I have no way of assessing your ability to make smooth transitions, create a sense of harmonic progression or melodic development over time, or any number of other structural and arrangement-related considerations. Flesh out the composition some more, and this could be a really solid piece. For this music competition, I expect full-length tracks that really tell a story in order to maximize their emotional appeal. This piece, while certainly not bad for its 23 seconds, sounds more like the theme song for a children’s animated TV show. Cute, fun, and well-produced, sure, but not the most provocative piece in terms of composition and variety. Sorry, man. I hope you understand that, in a competitive atmosphere where most musicians are making full-length tracks, this short melodic phrase just doesn’t make the cut. Good luck with your future projects, CzySzy. :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
0/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
6.25/10

[Sacrifice]

I like the creepy bells at the beginning and cool pulsing pattern of the pads. The atmosphere of this song is really cool, and the gradual increase in the pacing of the song through :58 is really nice. The hard-hitting section at 1:04 was nice, too, albeit a little over-compressed. I also wanted to hear some more high-frequency tones to balance out the texture. This piece has a great atmosphere, sound design, and mood, but it’s also missing a lot of the compositional attributes I generally look for in a piece: harmonic variety, strong melodic content, etc. I think the somewhat more minimal nature of the second drop at 2:42 is actually fitting for this piece, but I think you still needed something more to hit this home - whether that was a gorgeous atmospheric section or another heavy drop. I lose the sense of storytelling in this piece a little towards the end. Overall, I like the production quality, instrumentation, and atmosphere a lot, and I think a lot of the sound design and rhythmic content is really unique and interesting. That said, I wanted you to add a little more complexity to the harmonic content here, including some more variety in the structural content. Keep at it, Pulvite! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
8/10

[No Rush]

I like the quirky pads at the beginning and the chord progression. The synth at :09 is nice, too, although I think the kick at :20 has way too much treble in the equalizer and reverb in general. Do you notice how the rest of the texture gets really quiet and distorted at 1:35 during the kick rolls? You can fix that with some more mixing tools, especially compression for the kick, tighter filtering work, and maybe some stereo widening on the pads if you’re feeling ambitious. The texture comes together well at :43, but at this point the sloppy mixing is even more apparent by the distorted drums and overly saturated texture. I’d suggest cutting way back on the reverb, especially on the synths, and compressing the drums a lot more to make them sound sharper. The composition is pretty good - a little underwhelming and repetitive - but my main concern here is the mixing. Still, I like the sound design, atmosphere, and rhythmic content of this one. Keep at it, Juliobee! :)

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

juliobee responds:

Thanks for the feedback! this was kind of one of my old pieces so there isn't too much synth variety and customised design, but thanks for the feedback!

[Snapski - Tribu]

I like the cute synths at the beginning and the atmospheric pads. I think the lead synths and the synth that comes in at :15 get in each other’s way a bit rhythmically, but by :30 I’m loving the cool chopped vocals and sense of build into :45. The pulsing bass and reverb at the drop is really nice, although I think you could’ve done a bit more with the drums throughout this piece. Most of the time, it was a pretty generic house beat with some transitional content (i.e., 1:31) in between. That said, the bridge at 1:47 was pretty refreshing and had a distinct rhythmic appeal after 2:02. The chord progression here is also pretty generic, although I think the sound design still gives you some points for originality. The section at 2:49 wasn’t quite the epic climax to an already-energetic piece that I was hoping for, but the catchy riffs and well-balanced texture there certainly still sounded smooth. Overall, this is solid work. The production and instrumentation are probably my favorite elements of the piece, and the melodic content (while not quite as frequent as I would’ve liked) wasn’t far behind. Keep up the good work, SnapskiMusic! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
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?)
1/1
Composite score
8.75/10