TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Virtual Riot ~ Init (Incise Arrangement) [Refix]]

I like the pulsing vibe at the beginning and the bright pads. The mix is really loud, but there might be a bit too much reverb and compression in the texture. It sounds a bit over-saturated. That said, I like the melodic content and the sense of build into 1:15. The instruments are cute, if a little cheesy and generic, but the mix is generally crisp and clear throughout. Nice job with the re-intro at 1:52. It was good for creating some structural variety after an extended emotional height. Later in the piece, I think you could’ve varied the melodies a little more. They get repetitive after a while. During the refrains, I lose the kick and clap on the downbeat in the mix a bit, although the snare still pops through well. Besides the repetition and minor mixing issues, I think the main problem this piece has is how generic it sounds. Everything from the structure to the sound design to the chord progression seems like very textbook EDM. There’s a lot of room for more originality here. That said, the upbeat vibe, overall solid production quality, and pleasing melodic and harmonic content definitely keep this piece afloat. Strong work, Incise! :)

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
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.25/10

[On The Prowl]

I like the bouncy synths at the beginning and the blissful vibe. The chord progression is a little simple, and the breaks at :31 are a tad cheesy. The progression of the piece as a whole is also a bit bizarre, with sudden transitions at :52, 1:14, and other places. The piece cycles through a number of riffs without having a strong overarching sense of direction, which worries me from a compositional standpoint. There are certainly some good ideas here, but they just seem stapled together without any broader sense of storytelling or build. The way the piece is arranged is haphazard, in other words. I also think you should’ve varied the harmonic progression a bit more. Despite the different iterations of the riffs, the chords get pretty repetitive after a while. There’s also not a lot of dynamic melodic content in here. That said, I thought one element of the piece that was particularly strong was the mixing. All the instruments sound clear, crisp, and loud throughout. The rhythmic content of the piece is also enjoyable - it’s catchy and danceable, and the instrumentation is pretty good too. The composition just needs a bit more ebb and flow, and the arrangement needs to be smoother - those are the core of my concerns here. Keep at it, Immitis! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
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

Immitis responds:

The most constructive criticism I've ever received, thanks!

[Light of the Darkhouse - Darkhouse Soundtrack]

Cute riffs at the beginning. Sounds almost melancholy in a way. I think the synths you used sound pretty cheesy and generic, but I like how you layered the melodies on top of each other. The beat at :40 is a little bizarre, with a lot of glitchy and distorted sounds that clash a bit with the otherwise legato and smooth melodies. The part that begins at 1:01 clearly shows a good sense of harmony, but the arpeggios also seem a tad distracting given their prominence in the mix above the main melodies. I also wanted to see you take some more advanced approaches to creating variety besides just adding and subtracting instruments over time. Examples include volume changes, filtering, automation, and the like. The ending here is a bit sudden, and the structure of the piece only really ever involves one emotional height, gradually becoming thicker and denser until around 1:40, after which you strip away some of the arpeggios and secondary melodies. I would’ve liked to hear some sort of bridge or breakdown at some point to give this piece a little more shape and structural contrast. Still, I think the mix is pretty well-balanced and full-textured throughout, and the melodies have a nice emotional appeal. Keep at it, ImminentDeath! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
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?)
.5/1
Composite score
6.75/10

[Welcome (Benvenuto)]

I like the intensity of the guitars at the beginning and the drum rolls at :06. The melodic content is strong, and you maintain the energy and drive of the piece until the very end. The drum roll at :36 seemed a bit excessive, though, and also revealed the inauthenticity of the drum samples imo. While the content that’s here sounds good, this less-than-a-minute piece doesn’t give me a great sense of a lot of compositional skills, like transitions, structuring, storytelling, and progression. For an incomplete piece, it sounds really good, but I’m not sure you necessarily showed off a sufficient variety of compositional talents here. Fleshing out the composition more would help give this piece a stronger sense of ebb and flow, as well as help maximize the emotional appeal of the track via structural contrast. That’s my main complaint, but there are certainly compositional and production skills you have shown off well here, from the melodic and harmonic content to the flow, sound design, and atmosphere. Keep at it, IkarosTheKing! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.25/1.5
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
6.5/10

[What's the Rush?]

I like the ominous mood and atmosphere at the beginning. The quirky percussion and furtive guitar riffs at :18 were nice additions to the texture, but the piece still sounds somewhat minimal for most of the first third or so. I’m not sure I like how distorted the mix sounds, either. It’s probably just the heavy panning, but somehow a lot of the components of the texture sound very harsh in my ears. That said, the mood and sound design remain engrossing for the duration of the piece, and I really like the hipster lounge vibe I’m getting from this. That said, the piece also has some structural concerns for me. It has a sense of continuity that could use breaking up a bit, as in with a bridge or breakdown to give the piece a little more shape. The sudden ending exacerbates the idea that this piece doesn’t sound structurally complete. The melodic content in the piece also seems to come in fits and starts, which contributes to the ambient vibe of the piece in a really cool way. It’s like all the instruments are playing on an even playing field, without trying to stand out from one another. Overall, I really like what you’ve done with the instrumentation and atmosphere here, but I think you could maximize the potential of this piece with a little more work on the mixing and structuring. Keep at it, IceAcheSocial! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
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
8.5/10

[You Come Upon An Old Place]

I like the dreamy vibe at the beginning. The sound design is really soothing, and the cute synth melodies at :15 are beautiful. There’s a lot of reverb in the texture - probably too much for my tastes - but the mix is still pretty sharp and well-balanced. I absolutely love how the piece resets itself at 1:20. The subtle crescendo over that first 1.5-minute section really helps maximize the emotional appeal here. The string solo at 2:05 is beautiful, and also sounds really organic. Did you record the viola for this? I also like the piano at the breakdown at 3:05. It adds a bright tone to the otherwise vaguely somber elements of the texture. I also like the guitar solo at 3:45, although the texture here is very distorted, and I think this is the part where the reverb is most noticeably excessive. It’s also around this point that I think the piece begins to lose a sense of cohesion a bit. There are a lot of different melodies and instruments added throughout the piece, but given how the ending just gradually fades after the guitar solo, I’m not sure that all of these different sections felt like part of the same story as much as I wanted them to. Other than that, this piece is beautiful, dynamic, and showcases a wide range of compositional talents. The mood and atmosphere are haunting, and the piece has a great sense of ebb and flow about it brought on by the subtle dynamics changes and vacillating energy levels. Strong work here, Greyvoice! ^_^

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
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
9.25/10

[Industrial tournament]

I like the cute synths at the beginning and the warm chords, but I think the rhythm is a bit overly complicated. I had a hard time finding the beat until the drums came in at :17, and even then there was a bit too much going on rhythmically. By contrast, the texture is very thin, with only 2-3 instruments taking up most of the space in the mix for the entire piece. You have a number of cute riffs here, but the composition just doesn’t sound as fleshed out as it should be. You needed some stronger melodic content here, and also some structural variety. I’d encourage you to add some contrasting sections to this piece that go beyond 1:50 in terms of varying the instrumentation and harmonic structure. The overarching ABA structure was a good idea, but unfortunately the composition here just comes across as too simplistic to be effective as a stand-alone piece. I’d recommend looking into increasing the density of the harmonies by adding a melody on top of the existing chords, or a bass line, or something. There isn’t much to say about the mixing and mastering here - the mix is quiet, but not unclear or distorted.

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
4/10

GameDevWannabe responds:

Thank you for the reply. Very useful advice ! Gonna improve !
:D

[Quertz]

I like the somewhat anticipatory mood at the beginning and the cute mallet instrument at :16. The chord progression is a bit cliche, and the panning on the piano at :32 is a bit heavy. The tempo of the piece feels really slow, and the call-and-response element of the structure gets repetitive and predictable after a while. I think the piece needs a stronger sense of direction and/or an injection of energy, but instead it devolves into this murky atmospheric section at 1:20 and equally slow, languid section at 1:36 with a lot of square rhythms. Overall, the composition here is pretty bland, and the energy level almost constant. Despite the somewhat indistinct sections, the mixing isn’t that bad. I can hear all the instruments clearly (for the most part), and the drums come through fairly loud throughout. After the 3-minute mark or so, the piece is rather repetitive, and overall I think it just needed more storytelling, ebb and flow, and structural variety in the composition. It has this pensive sense of continuity that makes it sound more like a demo track than a complete, stand-alone piece. The ABAB structure of the piece could’ve been a lot more effective with some more variety on the main melodic riffs, but until then it’s hard to stay engaged until the very end because, once again, the structure is very predictable. The underwhelming composition aside, I like the atmosphere, most of the sound design, and melodies. This piece has a lot of potential, but it might need some more creative energy to make it stand out more. Keep at it, Forger343! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
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
6/10

[Expedition]

I like the dreamy mood at the beginning and the crisp drums shortly thereafter. I think the balance in the mix might be slightly off, though. The drums and bass are too loud relative to the lead synths, pads, or harmonies imo. The piece seems to be going in a bit of a different direction at :44, away from the escalating sense of energy and drive of before, and then takes a turn towards the edgy and hard-hitting at 1:06. I think you need to consolidate some of your ideas here, because it’s a bit jarring to hear a bunch of different moods and textures in rapid succession, connected by pretty abrupt transitions. The breaks themselves at 1:06 are enjoyable, as are many of the other isolated compositional ideas of this piece, but the arrangement feels somewhat thrown together here. I also wasn’t sure what purpose the pitch automations served at 1:28. It seemed like you were trying to create another build-up out of the first drop, but then the re-intro at 1:50 made that idea seem pretty anti-climactic. You have several different moftifs in this piece - the chill, swirling pads and smooth bass; the heavy breaks; the murky, drumless sections - but they don’t feel like they’re part of the same story yet. It’s like there are two different storylines in the same T.V. show, and I keep waiting to see how they converge, but they never do. That’s my main problem with this piece, although I also would’ve liked to hear some stronger melodic content and more use of phrasing and automation. Overall, though, there’s some really strong work here with the production quality, sound design, sense of rhythm and harmony, and atmosphere. Keep at it, FeniXNova04! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
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
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7.5/10