TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Grandeur]

---Official AIM review---

I like the ominous beginning and the emotional piano at :12. The reverb was a bit excessive, and the ascending line in the echoy synth at :55 was a harmonic progression that I think you could’ve foreshadowed better. I love the filtering work leading up to the part at 1:17, though. The drums are really strong in the mix, and give the piece a great sense of drive. The melodic content at 1:39 is a nice touch, too. At 2:24, I like how the drums are exposed, but I definitely appreciated the proper breakdown at 2:46 with a full contrast in energy. Somewhat bold compositional choice with the addition of such an uncharacteristically processed instrument at 3:07. It actually comes off quite well, but I wish you did a bit more with that riff at 3:07 besides just filtering it out once you get back to more melodic content at 3:29. Despite the heavy atmosphere, the production is really strong here. Structurally, the second half of the piece could use a bit more variety. It was especially noticeable that 2:23-2:55 is essentially the same as 4:36-5:08. Still, excellent job with the emotion, atmosphere, and instrumentation especially in this one. Beautiful work, yet still energetic and engaging when appropriate. Keep up the good work, BeauXuan!

9.25/10

BeauXuan responds:

Whoa, didn't leave anything out, did you?
I'm working on getting better at using valhalla reverb, a newer plugin for me, and I see what you mean about it being a little excessive. Good point-out.
My little transition between 3:07 and 3:29 was a bit of an experiment that I do kind of regret but chose to keep it in there because... I'm not sure why...
I do have the habit of copying sections to fill out time and not really doing anything more with them, so I can only blame my laziness for some sections sounding repetitive.

I'm just going to say thank you so much for your detailed review and hope you have a great day. :D

[AIM - Something Evil In The Forest]

---Official AIM review---

I like the ominous mood at the beginning. Nice use of atmosphere and sound design. The progression is a tad slow-paced, but the texture has a great call-and-response between the bell-like synths and orchestral swells. The percussion could’ve been a bit more creative - mostly consisted of a kick drum until around 1:25. Nice use of panning at 1:38. The minimalism is starting to wear on me a bit by this point, and I think the piece could benefit from some melodic content or something. There’s a lot of tension built up in this piece, and not a lot of release of said tension. The part at 2:25 was quite a nice balance of being sharp, but not overly harsh. After quite a change-of-pace, the orchestral bit at 3:25 felt really nice. I think my main worry production-wise is an excess of reverb, and also that the percussion doesn’t come through very clearly at times, notably around the 4-minute mark. The distorted vocals at 4:34 are absolutely haunting. Excellent job with the instrumentation and atmosphere here. I would’ve appreciated the addition of some melodic content during the bridge at 2:44, though. Something equally as haunting as the rest of the piece, but a bit more grounded harmonically (an echoy piano, perhaps? Emotional strings?). Either way, strong work here. Keep it up, FateModified!

8.5/10

FateModified responds:

Thank you for the excellent in-depth review! I agree with you on everything you pointed out. I did struggle a bit in trying to make the percussion more interesting in the first part, but I kind of settled for the "breathing" kick drum along with just a touch of higher register percussion (bits of Damage loops thrown in here and there). I didn't want to add too much percussion early on in an attempt to slowly introduce more and more tension as in many horror movie soundtracks. I've been listening to John Carpenter's music lately, and he seems to use a lot of repetitive kick drum which builds tension in the track.

I meant for the part at 2:25 to kind of be a monster's scream when the woman finally comes face to face with the demon, and I meant for it to fade to a sublime calm, as when you've faced your worst fears and you know that you've made it past the most difficult part so you've got nothing else to fear. That's kind of why I let it rest on that single high note for a while at 2:44 and then slowly introduced the distant wailing and then the crickets. The crickets represented a return to reality in the woods, safe from the realm of evil. Perhaps you are right, and I should have added melodic content at this point. I did think of using piano, but unfortunately I decided against it.

I did have a problem trying to add both the breathing kick drum and the repetitive low monster growl into the mix while the strings, brass, and woodwinds played at around 4 minutes. I knew the kick was kind of lost in the mix, but when I took it out, there just wasn't the punch that I wanted on those certain beats. So I decided to leave it in even though it kind of got lost in that part.

I'm glad you liked the distorted vocals at 4:34. I wasn't sure whether I should leave it in because I was undecided if it really fit the artwork. In the end I decided, hey, maybe the woman goes crazy from her encounter with the demon and starts talking crazy gibberish, haha. Anyway, it seemed like an interesting way to end it so I went with it.

Since you pointed it out, and I've seen you mention it in other AIM reviews, I've become more aware how important melodic content is. I've been focusing lately on ambience and effects, but not as much on actual music. I'll need to do get back to studying the books for that I think. Harmony book, here I come...

Thanks so much for the awesome review! It helps a lot. :D

[AIM-Red Blitz]

---Official AIM review---

I like the riff at the beginning in the piano. The piece throws you right into the middle of the action a bit without a proper intro. The synth bass at the beginning also sounds like a generic Moog synth. You may have gone a little overboard with the reverb, too, especially on the drums. The progression is pretty slow during the first minute, and then the chords at 1:00 sound really dissonant. Most of the second minute is quite repetitive from there, and then you have a build-up at 1:53 that doesn’t really lead anywhere. You have some amusing rhythmic elements at around 2:10, but overall I think the call-and-response that starts at 1:54 gets quite worn out. You use that main riff way too much, and overall the harmonic framework of the piece lacks creativity. I was also rather confused by the transition at 3:17. Sounds like a very different piece all of a sudden. The part at 3:40 was probably my favorite of the piece. Still sounds a bit square and generic with the sound design, but at least it’s more melodic than the rest of the piece. Sounds like you tried to make up for the excessive repetition of the first half of the piece by trying out a lot of different directions in the second half. The result is a rather wonky structure that’s not really effective at creating an overarching narrative for the piece. I think you should try consolidating some of your ideas here. That said, I was impressed by how loud the mix was, even if you could stand to improve some of the reverb issues. You have a lot of good ideas here, but I think you could organize and build on them a lot more effectively. The lack of melodic content was probably my biggest problem with the piece. I’m getting the sense that you rushed making this one a bit because I recall that the previous piece I reviewed of yours was a lot better. Still a lot of potential here, though. Keep at it, man!

5.5/10

J-XVII responds:

At least you were honest, I was certain this song was not gonna go far, because I tried
this kind of idea for a piano based horror song a long time ago, and it was bad. Thanks anyways, I guess sinister joy’ll have to pull me through!

[AIM - DRUGS]

---Official AIM review---

Synths at the beginning have a cool progression, yet feel a bit sharp and dry, with block chords that give them a really closed, clunky feel. Some reverb on them and more careful spacing of the chords might help give them a more open vibe. That said, I like the gradual fade-in of the bass starting at :20 and the build-up into 1:00. I think the kick wasn’t quite as strong as I would’ve liked. Some more compression could help. The quirky instruments are a huge plus. The rhythmic elements of the piece are quite pleasing, and I love the rolls at 2:08 and 2:23. I also thought the stop-start transition at 2:34 worked quite well. The piece was noticeably lacking strong melodic content until 3:02, which is probably my favorite part of the piece. That said, I think the hi-hats get a little buried in the mix there. One thing I think is really strong about this piece is the full texture throughout. Stylistically, it feels almost like a progressive house track, yet you successfully avoid the characteristic minimalism of the genre. Excellent work with the sound design and structuring. The piece feels really climactic by the end, and the vocals help mirror the shape of the piece. Impressive work yet again, ActualElf!

9.25/10

ActualElf responds:

Hey, thank you for taking the time to listen and judge!

Personally I liked the closed feel to the intro chords when I wrote this, having the reverb be really distant and subtle when listening with in-ears and the cluster voicing chords made the opening up of the sound design and harmony around the first drop nicer to my own taste.

I have a lot of issues with my low end in my music, kicks and bass levels/tone, I'm saving up all the money I can to buy monitors, having to make my music on a tiny blue-tooth speaker means my low end mixing is a guessing game half of the time, kicks can sound fairly powerful during writing but then not come across on actual systems. I'm hoping all these aspects of my music will improve drastically when I finally have a suitable setup and can hear what I'm trying to do ahaha.

I see now there was a lack of more melodic ideas, having the sound design being my main focal point I was in more of a production mind with the creative/musical side being on autopilot.

I like the rolls too, I love it when other peoples music has little momentary light hearted breaks.

I learnt a lot writing and producing this track, mainly about focusing on the levels and what can be placed further back in the mix whilst still being present.

Thank you again for the review and the criticism, I now have more things to pay attention to in my future music <3

[~SW~ Entrope]

Woah! Haven't heard from you in a while. I love the bubbly riff at :06 and the rich atmosphere. The melody instrument at :32 is really smooth, and I appreciated the creative rhythmic lead-in to :55. The initial melodic section drags on for quite a while, but I like what you did with the breaks at 1:48 a lot. The progression really comes a long way from the spacey intro, and the piece flows quite smoothly throughout. Great work with the bass, which sits very nicely in the mix. The transition at 2:40 works well. Melodies at 3:05 are really engaging, yet also become rather long-winded by around the 4-minute mark. As always, the production is really strong here. Great balance of frequencies and crystal clear mix. I guess I would've liked to see you do something a little different with the second drop, especially since this is a rather long piece. The melodic touches at around 5:50 really helped give this piece a sense of finality. Solid work, of course. Hope you'll be around more over the summer, Skye! Keep up the great work. :)

SkyeWint responds:

Hey TL! Good to see you too! I plan on putting a lot more stuff on here as I make it. :) I just polished up the melodies a bit on this before actually saying it was finalized.

You know, I actually really intended to have an actual electric guitar playing the melody riffs and doing a solo through the whole section of 3:05-4:35, but it didn't work out that way due to a few... less than respectful messages from the guitarist I asked, so this was how it went. This piece was also an experiment in stretching out sections a little bit longer while keeping it fairly engaging. Glad that it worked out overall, even if the melodic sections dragged on a bit.

Honestly, I thought the second drop was pretty different from the first one - it uses a vocoded bass and has a few separate patterns from the first one, along with an entirely separate section added for some additional flavor. Definitely different than a lot of dubstep that's actually exactly the same lol. Either way, I getcha. I'll see if I can change it up a bit more in the future either way.

Thanks for the review, mate!

[-Floating-]

I like the pads at the beginning. They have a warm, bright vibe, yet seem to be slightly detuned or distorted in some way. The snare is really wide and full-sounding, yet not too heavy. Nailed the mood and atmosphere here. It has a good sense of direction by around the 2-minute mark, but overall there isn't much in the way of distinct structuring here. I also think you overuse the swelling white noise sounds during transitional moments. The groovy bass at 3:07 accompanied by the bouncy piano (as well as the melodies at 3:28) constituted my favorite part of the song. It finally feels like I stepped off the train and into the open air at that point. That said, I did like the thematic elements of the piece, including the train announcer vocals. The fade-out at the end seemed a bit lazy to me, but I suppose this piece is supposed to be about an ongoing period of bliss anyway. Overall great work! This is the sort of track that's really easy to get into. :)

Waterflame responds:

Thanks for the review, as always! Appreciate it :)

[[ GunSlingers ]]

I like the beat and quirky synths. Claps sound really sharp, but a bit too wide in my headphones (might be panning, might be something fancier; I can't tell). There are a lot of really cool riffs going on, and the structure is like a constantly-shifting mold of related ideas fleshed out with different instruments. Basswork and rhythm of the piece are totally on point. Production quality is high, and sound design is killer. There's a lot to like here, but after a time it does feel a bit repetitive/minimalistic. Strangely enough, there aren't a lot of mid-range frequencies for much of the piece. Quirky instrumentation wins the day, though. Keep it up, dude! ^^

G-U-A-R-D-I-O-N responds:

THANK YOU!!! Much love for this awesome review man. Great advice 👍👏🙌

[Headphone Heaven - Please (Won't You Help Me)]

I like the relaxed intro and instruments. The synth at :13 sounds especially tranquil and smooth. The progression here is really slow, though. I don't think the transition at :41 helped much, either. The glissando there kinda just wrecked the flow without leading into anything climactic. The drums are nice, but the first really meaningful addition to the texture after :41 is definitely that wobbly synth at 1:23. Nice work with the automations there. The rest of the piece is quite repetitive, though. Overall, I think you nailed the atmosphere and mood, but the composition is a bit lacking. The way you add and subtract instruments every 4 measures feels a bit formulaic after a time, and overall the progression just gets a little stale. I think you need some dynamic changes within phrases, more automation, and one really climactic section to hit the piece home. Overall, though, nice piece for some easy listening. :)

[ELEPS - CONTROL (BIG ROOM)]

Intro is catchy, and I like the build-up into :32. There's a ton of reverb in the texture. A lot of the synths are pretty generic, and the claps at :54 seem to get crowded out by the compression. The mix is very loud and pretty clear at the low end. I guess my main problem with it is that it's really generic and transitory. Feels like there are a lot of build-ups for not a lot of rich harmonic content. The melodies at 2:02 were really good, though. I also appreciated how you varied the drop the second time around. All in all, solid work. I totally encourage you to keep experimenting with different genres. You've certainly got all the makings of a Martin Garrix track. It's just that Martin Garrix tracks are not exactly the pinnacle of EDM imo, for the reasons I stated above. Keep at it, man. ;)

[Sinister Joy (Contest Entry)]

---Official AIM review---

I like the quirky riff at the beginning, even if it is a bit distorted. The bit at :15 is catchy, but I think the kick could’ve come through a bit clearer in the mix. The piece is also harmonically quite repetitive until the sudden change at 1:01. You have a lot of cool riffs here, though. I also liked the re-intro section at 1:32, but I think it dragged on for a bit too long. Overall, you’ve also done a good job of channeling the energy here through the filtering, build-ups, and changes in dynamics. The main problem in this piece, as I’ve already alluded to, is the lack of harmonic depth. There are only a couple of main riffs that form the harmonic framework of this piece and, despite some notable variations (~3:00), it’s not enough to keep the content engaging for 4.5 minutes imo. You clearly have a great sense of harmony and progression, but I’d like to see you try to fill out the texture with a bit more than gritty bass riffs, drums, and flashy pads. Let me cut to the chase: melodic content will serve you well, my friend. There are a lot of top-end frequencies that are missing for a lot of the piece, and structuring your piece around melodies might help give the piece an overarching sense of climax and resolve too. Also, it seems that you have some reverb on your bass instruments at some points in the piece. You should be careful about that - it has the potential to tax the production quality a bit when you put reverb on basses. One element of the piece I actually liked a lot was the instrumentation. The distorted mid-range basses and whatnot blend together pretty well, and have a pretty unique sound overall. Clean up the mix a tad and add some top end (preferably melodic) content, and this piece would really come together well. Keep at it, man!

7.25/10

J-XVII responds:

Thank you for the feedback, I ain’t done with this contest though fam, so keep watch for numero dos, and it’s a special one indeed, as always, thanks for the feedback.
-J17 ;)