TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Passionblind]

I like the ominous mood and the sound design. I think there’s a lot of distortion in the texture, though, most likely from an excessive use of reverb. A lot of the harmonic content is rather atonal, which struck me as over-the-top after a while. Considering the plethora of reverb, the mix is pretty loud and clear, although sometimes some of the backing instruments can sound a bit indistinct. My main problem with the piece is probably the lack of an overarching sense of direction and shape here. There are a lot of cool riffs and harmonic ideas, but they’re a bit lost in the distorted texture to the point that it’s hard to keep the listener grounded. There’s also very little melodic content in the piece, and a near-constant intensity that makes it hard to stay engaged via any ebb and flow of energy, dynamics, or phrasing. I think you should consider consolidating your ideas a bit before branding this as a stand-alone piece, even if it fits the project you made it for perfectly. There isn’t a strong sense of direction in the composition, which leaves me a bit lost after a while. Fittingly, the ending is very sudden. Despite this criticism, I remain in admiration of the atmosphere, instrumentation, and individual riffs of your piece. There’s a lot of compositional ideas to like here, but I think they’re not serving the most effective purpose all the time because of the somewhat haphazard structuring. I hope you’ll keep working on it, though - a little tightening of the mix and some more careful phrasing considerations, and this will be a baller track. By the way, you should check out @Lich. Your work reminds me a lot of him. Keep at it, CorvonHLordhaze! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
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?)
.25/1
Composite score
6/10

[Electro Dance]

The beat at the beginning is pretty good, although I think you put a bit too much reverb on the kick. By :20, the bass is really driving the piece, and the little end-of-phrase synth riffs and theremin-sounding thing at :41 are valuable additions to the texture. I also like the atmospheric instrument at :56, but I’m not sure that it goes so well with the more hard-hitting danceable elements of the piece. There’s a collage of instruments thereafter that, by themselves, also sound pretty cool, but at this point I think the track starts to lose its sense of cohesion a bit. There isn’t really much melodic content or overarching shape to the piece. At some point, I wanted to see you do more with phrasing, dynamics, or another aspect of structuring that would offer the listener some relief from the repetitive bass riffs and simplistic beats, like a bridge or breakdown section. The glitchy section at 2:33 begins to take the piece in that direction, but I think it’s too little too late in terms of creating some structural variety in this track. It’s a cool beat, and you definitely have a good sense of rhythm, harmony, and sound design, but I don’t think you told a story with this one as much as you could’ve. Otherwise, the mixing is fairly good and I do like the mood and atmosphere of the piece. Keep at it, CompXsco! :)

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
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7/10

CompXsco responds:

Thanks

[The inferhallow triangles]

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

[Fresh]

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

[Buzzer]

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.

[Surge - Nathán Dzul]

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

[Last Wish]

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

[Clades - Untitled]

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