TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tease]

I like the percussion at the beginning, although the high-pitched clicks might’ve been a little loud. The guitars at :08 have a nice sense of atmosphere about them, but I would’ve liked the flutes to be a bit more legato and reverberated in order to blend in with the guitars a bit more. The melodic content at 1:20 is really refreshing, although I think the solo is a tad too loud relative to the harmonies sometimes. There’s a very slight odd pause at 2:29, perhaps because of a misplaced track or re-recording? That just struck me as a bit of a mistake. Admittedly, I often find the one-climax model for the structure of a song hard to pull off, but you do a good job of making it effective here with the drawn-out solo and rich mood and atmosphere. The production quality is really good overall, and the sub-bass is a great touch for balancing out the texture. Nice work overall, Rainwaters! :)

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
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
8.75/10

[Inviolable]

I like the punchy synth organ and funky bass instruments. Good sense of build starting at :29. A lot of the sound design sounds rather gritty and unpolished, though, and the drums sound a bit harsh in my ears sometimes. I think you need to do more to rein in these volume levels a bit. The snare is a bit over-compressed, and the reverb on the heavily filtered industrial effect at :05 is pretty excessive. I like the melodies at :44, but the underbelly of the grating effects detracts from the blissful texture and overwhelms an already strained mix imo. The snares went from being too loud at the beginning to barely having enough punch to pop through the mix at :44. Some more careful work with the equalizers, panning, stereo widening, compressors, and the like is necessary, I think. That said, I liked the more atmospheric section at 1:15 and the cute, dreamy synth at 1:21. The transition at 1:28 was a little sudden, and the introduction of a new instrument there for the purpose of further the progression back into the refrain at 1:58 seemed a bit unnecessary. Overall, I think you need to consolidate some of your compositional ideas and clean up the mixing a bit. The high-pitched chordal outline instrument at 2:20 sounds pretty harsh in the mix, and in general the sound design here is a little too chaotic to keep the listener grounded in some core motifs and such. During the busier sections of the piece, it can sound really muddy. Be careful about how many instruments you leave in there at a time that have frequencies below 200 Hertz (it should ideally be one, maybe two if one of them is a kick drum). Be sure to use the analyzer feature on your DAW’s equalizer tool to help figure this out. Otherwise, the melodic content and mood are fun, and with a little more polish, this piece could work very well as a quirky, blissful EDM track. It almost reminds me of “Chaotic” by Waterflame, actually, for its mood and collage of instruments. For now, though, I’d recommend investing some research in tutorials on filtering, equalization, and such. Good luck with your future tracks, QruintroX! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
6.25/10

[Judgmental]

I like the drawn-out reverse crash at the beginning, even if it was a bit of a lazy way to begin the piece in a climactic way. I like the cheery mood of the pads and the cute synths. There’s a good sense of build into :35, and the drop is pretty catchy and cool. The mid-range bass sounds a bit generic, along with some of the drum samples too. The re-intro at 1:00 was a good idea, and I like how you create variety with the frantic synth patterns at 1:23. The second drop even had a renewed sense of energy about it. Still, it becomes quite apparent around 1:30 that the drums are struggling to pop through the mix. I think you need to do some more careful filtering and/or equalization work, reverb removal, or maybe heavier compression. The mix as a whole is also pretty quiet. I think it’s a good idea to lower the volume levels when you start working on a track, and then bring them up to their polished level mainly with mixing effects. The second half of this piece had some great harmonic variety at 2:50. The new chord progressions helped to keep things refreshing for the listener. If you wanted, you could even have taken that a step further by incorporating some modulations or something. Still, given the structural placement of that section, it felt more like an outro than a bridge. I think it may have been more effective to place the bridge at 2:50 before the final refrain at 2:17. All the same, the melodic content and rich texture here are really strong. The structuring and variety are good, too. My main concerns with the piece mostly involve the production quality and sound design, with only a couple of compositional details that stuck out to me as needing improvement. Still, this is strong work overall. It’s a fun and energetic piece with some flashy synthwork and a couple cool drops. Keep at it, Przekrosza! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
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?)
1/1
Composite score
7.75/10

[Etched Bow]

I like the quirky percussion and funky guitars. The rhythmic content is really pleasing, and the piece has a great sense of flow and energy alike. Some of the prominent chord progressions in the piece are a tad repetitive or cliche, like at :31. I also would’ve liked to hear some more prominent melodic content that stood out from the rhythmic textures. I think you needed to include some variation on the main riffs later in the piece in order to keep me engaged, too. The plucked bass riff at 2:05 was a good idea for an outro, but I thought the fade-out came across as a bit lazy. That said, the production quality here is top-notch. There’s a good balance of frequencies here, with a loud mix and tasteful amount of reverb to boot. It would’ve been nice to introduce a more legato element to the texture at some point, though, as everything in the instrumental palette can sound relatively percussive throughout. Still, the sound design in this piece is really fun, the adventurous mood is great, and overall there’s a lot of creative energy in this piece. Keep at it, Petrol4brains! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
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
8.5/10

Petrol4brains responds:

Wow, thanks for the review! Really going to try working to improve my future songs based on your feedback for sure.

[Ecarsa (Part 2: The Redemption)]

I like the funky bass at the beginning, even if it’s a bit dry. I’d encourage you to be careful about putting so much reverb on the kick at :08. It can make your mix sound pretty muddy if the texture is thick enough. That said, I didn’t notice any huge problems with the mixing, besides it being a tad quiet. I think the texture is a little bottom-heavy at times, without a lot of mid and treble-range tones. The texture also consists of a lot of catchy, albeit repetitive, riffs that don’t have a lot of forward motion to them. Perhaps fittingly, there are a couple of jarring transitions here that you use to bridge the gap between sections, like at 1:32.

I like the frantic harmonies and the rhythmic content, but I wanted to see you give the piece some more shape - ebb and flow over time will help maximize the emotional appeal of your piece, which is especially important for keeping your audience engaged with such a long piece as this one. Nevertheless, I like the gradual build in intensity with the percussive instruments at 2:05. I think that’s a good start towards establishing the kind of dynamic composition I’m looking for. That said, the transition at 2:05 only really served to introduce what I thought was a pretty clunky snare sample at 2:18, instead of taking the harmonic material in a meaningful new direction.

I’m beginning to think that you should try consolidating some of your compositional ideas here. I think it’s helpful to envision a story while you’re making your piece. If your story is a movie, and I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the movie, I might choose to go somewhere in this middle section of 1:32-4:13. I think there’s very little sense of direction for most of that section, especially in the harmony, and even during transitory moments to the sub-sections, there isn’t a sense of gradual build and flow but of sudden entrance and interruption. Try to think about the “going to the bathroom during a movie” analogy when you’re making your piece, and cut out repetitive or structurally flat content as necessary.

One thing I like about this middle section, though, is the creative drum beat at 3:43. It has a great sense of drive about it, and while 4:13 is another abrupt transition, I feel like the piece has come together more so at around the 4-minute mark than anywhere else. What’s still missing is some strong melodic content (I think the melodies in here now are a little too frantic and fleeting to satisfy my melodic craving) and smooth transitions.

I thought the two-part fade-out ending you had in here was a little bizarre. I momentarily appreciated the idea of a “return to the solo bassline” like you had in the beginning, but I think it would’ve worked better if you had cut off the bassline on the downbeat after the melodic instrument fade-out and ended the piece like that. It probably also would’ve sounded smoother if you had some more reverb or delay effects on the melodic instruments, so that the first fade-out feels more gradual atmosphere-wise than it is note-wise.

Overall, there are a lot of good ideas here. The melodic riffs are catchy, the production quality is solid, and the sound design, while a bit cheesy, fits the thematic content well enough. You just needed a bit more of a “flexible” feel to your composition and arrangement that wasn’t quite there, and some more mixing effects could really enhance the sound design and atmosphere of the piece. Keep at it, PanBat! :)

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
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
6.25/10

PanBat responds:

thank you for this critique. very constructive and helpful, really helped open my eyes to what i could have done better

[Lemon Cake]

I like the cute synths at the beginning and the atmosphere. Some of the instruments are a little cheesy, like the shimmering pads and the snare, but the texture is well-balanced and full-sounding. I like the sitar sample at :44, and how you pair it with the groovy synth bass and dreamy pads. The melodic content in this piece is also pretty nice, although not quite as dynamic as I would’ve liked. In other words, it often consists of 2-measure patterns that are then repeated continuously over an 8-measure phrase. The higher-pitched pads at 1:37 have a great cathartic vibe about them. Really nice job with the emotional appeal there. I also like how that fades into the more mellow section at 2:13. At times, I think you could’ve done a lot more with the drums in this piece. The hi-hats don’t quite feel crisp enough to make an impact, and the toms/bongos are used pretty sparingly. That said, overall the drums are mixed in pretty well, along with most of the other harmonic instruments. The piece comes together really well by the last refrain at 2:50, and I like the gradual stripping away of the texture back into this kind of atmospheric paradise. Sounds like the entire piece takes place in a mystical dreamland, where cute little aliens are adding the frosting to their giant new temple. After all, if I were a toddler tasting lemon cake for the first time, I’d imagine a refrigerator as a mystical dreamland myself. Sugary fantasties aside, this piece is really cute, and has a great sense of atmosphere, solid production quality, and a well-organized composition that helps you maximize the emotional appeal and storyline vividness here. Keep up the good work, OddaSykz! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9/10

[Velocity]

I like the ominous mood at the beginning. The synth at the beginning sounds really thin, but I like how the filtering gradually makes it sound richer. Nice job with the automations throughout this entire piece, actually. The drop at :45 is catchy, if minimal, although the sound design here is pretty generic, between the drum samples, plucked synths, and hardstyle mid-range basses. I think the composition is lacking for melodic content and variety, and elements of the arrangement and chord progression also seem pretty cliche. That said, the production quality is pretty strong overall, despite the texture being a little bass and reverb-heavy during the drops. This piece needs a more creative and climactic section at the end to hit it home more, though. The unoriginal and underwhelming composition here is my main concern. You’re clearly a talented producer with some cool samples and a good sense of rhythm and atmosphere. But the breadth of compositional skills needed for this competition also include melody writing, advanced ways of creating variety, and more creative arrangements and progressions. Keep at it, No1seFactory! :)

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
.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

[Algebra]

I like the glitchy percussion at the beginning, but the kick at :14 sounds way too heavy and over-saturated in the mix. There aren’t a lot of moving notes in the texture at all, and the transition at :44 is very sudden. The section at :44 is catchy and pretty well-balanced (despite the kick), although there still aren’t a ton of mid and upper-range frequencies in the texture. The piece as a whole has very little melodic content, phrasing, or shape. Despite the coarseness of the texture, I like the murky bass at around 1:45. It has a really gritty, industrial vibe that, while still needing some cleaning up, definitely has potential. The mix is also pretty dry, with little use of reverb, delay effects, or other mixing tools that could keep the sound design refreshing as the piece grows more repetitive towards the end. I like the rhythmic components and instrumental palette to some extent, but I think you could’ve done a lot more with the composition here. It lacks a strong sense of direction and variety over time, and also needs more atmosphere to round out some of these crude samples. Still, nice work with the industrial feel, mood, rhythmic components, and (besides the choppy transitions) progression. Keep at it, NNmusic! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
5.75/10

[pretend]

I like the relaxed mood at the beginning and the rippling effects. The quirky pads and pensive arpeggios at :15 vibe well together. I like the sense of build the piece has into :59. The drums are pretty heavy - the piece might be a bit over-compressed - but the catchy melodies and hiphop-inspired drums are valuable additions to the texture. The tempo of the piece is pretty slow, but the atmosphere keeps me engaged throughout. The transition at 1:58 is a little sudden, but I like the re-intro. By around 2:15, you start to really overuse the rippling effect, especially since it’s so up-front in the mix whenever it pops in. The ghostly harmonies at 2:45 are really nice, though, and you did a good job at balancing the texture and increasing the intensity at the bridge at 2:58. The last couple of minutes of the piece sound a bit too drawn-out, but the automations on the synths and the rhythmic content keep things sounding relatively fresh. I also wanted to hear some more melodic development later in the piece - it seems like you rely mostly on arpeggios to fill in the melodic space in the texture later on, as opposed to more dynamic content. Really fun sound design and mood here, though. There were times when I thought you could’ve done more with the composition and arrangement, but overall this piece is very strong. Keep up the good work, Molotow! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
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
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9/10

[Peace of Sky (demo)]

I like the smooth guitar at the beginning and the roots rock vibe. The mixing effects on the vocals are a little bizarre in contrast to the acoustic instrumental tracks, but at least they share the same languid fluidity. It’s hard to make out the lyrics, but I like the injection of energy at :42 and the progression. The texture is pretty minimal here. I think you could’ve gone for some more compositional risks, like a guitar solo or the introduction of an organ later on or something. The production quality is clearly strong here, though. I can hear the instruments clearly throughout, and the drums sound especially crisp and sharp. Soothing piece overall. Again, a tad underwhelming compositionally, but the tasteful instrumental palette, soulful mood, and strong mixing and mastering make up for that in my mind. Keep up the good work, MeinGumna! ^_^

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