TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Excentrique Unfinished]

I like the experimental vibe of this one. Interesting harmonies and a distinct ascending line on the piano. Combine that with the blissful flute melody, and the overall texture is rather atonal, but still feels dynamic and refreshing. Mastering is solid. I can hear all of the instruments clearly throughout. I especially like when the rhythmic pacing of the melody slows down at around 1:40 and you start experimenting with its range a little more. There are a lot of cool and unique melodic ideas here, but it still maintains a good deal of cohesion. In fact, it might even need more structural variety via a break in the frantic underlying patterns. The tranquil outro at 4:08 was a bit unexpected, but I liked it nonetheless. Really creative work here, guys! I hope you finish this one day. :)

[The Fell Of Rezuri (instumental beat)]

I like the pensive guitar riff at the beginning and the ghostly pads that come in at :20 or so. The drum beat is also pretty catchy, and helps move the song forward despite the large amount of repetition. I was a little confused when the beat cut out suddenly at :55 and then rejoined at 1:12. In fact, this happens several more times throughout the piece with very few other changes to the texture. I would've liked to see you do more with the harmonies here, including giving some more shape to the overarching structure (dynamic contrast, phrasing, etc.) and adding some stronger melodic content. Right now, it sounds a bit like an ambient drone for a videogame or something instead of a stand-alone piece. Still, solid work with the sound design and mixing, and the short outro was a nice touch too. Keep at it, man!

[Muse - Madness (One Man Band Cover)]

Beautiful cover! I love the original, and you totally do it justice. You even preserve the rhythm of the kick drum, which is one of my favorite subtle elements of the original. The more atmospheric instrumental track in this one is really nice, too, from that spacey piano at the 1-minute mark to the cute synth at around 4:50 to the bright vocal pads throughout. The explosion of sound at 1:20 was a little sudden. Just the volume discrepancy between that section and the previous one was a bit much. But I also really like how you layer the vocals at the "come to me, just in a dream" part. There's also some fun structuring differences between this version and the original, notably that the part from 1:20-3:00 is actually at the end of the original. That choice makes the repetition of the "come to me" part later on all the more effective. Really great work here overall! Newgrounds is stronger for your presence, my friend. Welcome.

[[Drum & Bass/Hip Hop] Bulldozer]

I like the minimalist beat towards the beginning and the ominous tone of the piece. A lot of the synths and drum samples were a bit cheesy, though, and the piece gets pretty repetitive after a while. I liked the overarching structure. The piece comes together at 1:46 quite well shortly after the breakdown at 1:26, which I think is a really effective way of channeling the energy. I think my main complaint with the piece is the mixing, though. The sound visualization makes it clear that the piece is very loud, to the point that the output sounds pretty distorted. I'd suggest dialing back the volume knobs on several of your instruments, and also learning to balance your frequencies a bit better. Equalization is a great tool for doing that. I don't know what digital audio workstation (FL Studio, Ableton, Logic, etc.) you use, but I'd suggest you Google how to equalize instruments in your program. The basic idea is to eliminate the muddy lower frequencies in pretty much every instrument except for the bass and kick. That'll make the sound quality of the final product sound a lot cleaner. Otherwise, you're going to have multiple instruments competing for the same space in the pitch spectrum, which generates audible distortions. For example, by the time the pace of the drum pattern picks up in your piece at around 2:10, you can barely hear the pads underneath. Contrast that to how well they come through the mix at 1:27, and the difference is huge. Hope you found that helpful! And if you happen to use FL Studio like me, I can probably give you some more pointers on equalizing and other mixing tricks too. Feel free to PM me. Good luck with your future projects, man! I hope you'll keep working on this one, though. It's a catchy tune with some cool drums. You just need to get a stronger feel for working with the software. :)

[zildox revised]

It is indeed better! Filtering at the beginning is cool, and I think the texture feels a lot more cohesive harmonically at :40 than the original. The section at 1:10 is still a bit rhythmically dense, but it gets easier to follow with repetition. I also like the heavy kick at 2:19, which I didn't notice before in the original. The ending was really cool. Nice work with the panning there. Much smoother track, Echowave! I think the next step might be adding a bit more shape to the overarching structure. Right now, it feels like there's only one direction to the piece as the texture gradually thickens. It could use a bridge or breakdown somewhere in there to add some more contrast and variety. Still, this is a big improvement. Great to see you're so committed to improving your music! ^_^

[To Pilot A Moon]

I like the heavy guitars at the beginning. Catchy riffs, and really loud, crisp mastering. I also really like the dreamy synth riff at :37. The vocal layering is great. I like the tone of your voice, too. Sounds like you're a child playing out his fantasy. The structure of the track almost reminds me of a musical, because it's just itching for some visuals to accompany it. I also love the contrast between the legato vocal phrases and frantic guitar riffs. I really like how the cymbals kinda pulse back and forth in the mix at around 3:30, and the darker-sounding mid-section starting at 4:00-ish was great! The "radio" section at 5:10 was a great thematic touch. I also love how it comes full-circle with the structure of the vocal phrases by "been told I'm a loon." The ending was just haunting. I'm tempted to critique the lack of cohesion in a way, but the storytelling in this piece is just phenomenal. Fantastic work, Kor-Rune! Is there anywhere I can download this?

Kor-Rune responds:

thank you!! it should be up for download here now, it's also on Spotify. Thanks for your kind words!!

[zildox]

Nice dreamy synths at the beginning. The progression is a tad bizarre, though. The harmonies are a bit overwhelming, with a lot of dissonances between the pads and the pizzicato-y synths that come in at 1:10. That pizzicato-y synth sounds really cool, although the pattern of the riff got a little hard-to-follow by around the 2-minute mark. I liked it when you took a step back on the thickness of the texture at 2:02, but then the two prominent riffs at 2:20 step over each other a bit too much again. One thing I really liked about this piece was the drum samples. Good use of hi-hats, and creative rhythms for the snare. A lot of the riffs in here are really atonal, though. Maybe that's what you were going for, but it's a bit overwhelming when the piece is like that for most of these 5 minutes. Overall, there's definitely some strong work in here. I like the overall arc of the piece in terms of energy and directionality, but I think the piece lacks a coherent set of harmonies to keep the listener grounded. The mixing, sound design, and atmosphere of the piece are good, though. Keep at it, man! ^_^

[FF8 - The Man With The Machine Gun Metal]

This is amazing! I love the energy and the layering and the well-timed changes in the rhythmic pacing (e.x., :35). The chord at 1:01 is awesome. There's a lot of different emotions in here, but in the end it comes across as victorious, frantic, and passionate. I also really like the breakdown at around 1:30. The second breakdown at around 2:30 even has a touch of dreaminess to it. Really strong work here, PirateCrab! You clearly put your soul into this track. Keep it up! ^^

PirateCrab responds:

Thanks bud! Got no soul left, gonna just make Metal memes now haha!

[endK - Ethereal]

Another cool short piece! I like the emotional appeal of this one. That piano has a really bright tone to it that's really soothing. All of the rolled chords and spaciousness of the texture are pleasant to the ear, and I like the somewhat dark ambient sounds that come in towards the middle of the piece. Compositionally, it's a bit simplistic, but it has this great inward and ponderous tone to it that I really like. Strong work! Keep it up, EndK. ^_^

endKmusic responds:

Much thanks for the review.
I'm glad you enojoyed it! :)

[Enter the Dungeon]

Cool stuff! Sounds very heroic and even cinematic in a way. Definitely a cute, VGM-ish take on a classical fanfare. While I like the sound design overall, some of the samples sounded more like fake brass than brassy synths, if you know what I mean. It's a short piece with a simple-yet-effective ABA form, though. I like it! There's a great anticipation-resolve set up in the structure of the A-section that repeats every measure. Keep up the good work, EndK! I like the username change, btw. :)

endKmusic responds:

Thanks for the kind words! :>
Yeah, totally agree with you for the brass. However, I think it does its part, since I didn't try to overhumanize or make it 'shine', eventhough there's a lot of stuff that could've been improved.