TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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 ;)

[Repurposed Souls - A.I.M. 2018]

---Official AIM review---

I liked the dreamy, pensive beginning. The drums are also a strong addition to the texture. The progression was a little slow at first, but definitely goes in a different direction by around the 1-minute mark. The track certainly has a unique structure. The glissando at 1:40 didn’t quite work for me. I think you needed to prime the listener more for a change that sudden. The section at the end with the echoy guitar ambience was absolutely haunting. That said, I think you could’ve done a lot more with the textural fill of this piece. It’s quite minimalistic the majority of the time, and lacks an emotional height or refrain to tie it all together. The result is that it feels both experimental and in a way incomplete. I think you nailed the mood and atmosphere. I also enjoyed your creative rhythmic work with the drums, especially around :47. I think that the reverb may have been a tad excessive at times, largely in the interest of making the drums sound as crisp and clear as possible. Another problem I see with the mixing is that the bass could’ve come through a lot stronger. More bass is certainly a potential solution to the lack of fill in the texture as I see it now. Overall, though, chilling piece that absolutely stays true to its thematic purpose. Instrumentation was also a highlight. Keep it up, man!

7.75/10

[AIM-The Creepy Doll]

I like the ominous mood at the beginning. The melody at :12 is beautiful and haunting. The progression is a little slow after a while, though, and the texture remains pretty thin despite the reverb for the first minute. Once you add some of the lower frequencies at 1:03, the texture becomes much fuller and well-balanced. I liked the ritardando into 1:28, although I thought the decision to change up the instrumentation so significantly at 1:32 was a pretty risky decision compositionally. On the one hand, you’ve created a kind of variety in the texture that’s quite welcome, but you also haven’t done much in the second half to expand the harmonic themes of the piece imo. There is some additional counterpoint, of course, but overall I’m a little bit confused about the role of the sound design overhaul that occurs halfway through the piece. Excellent use of melodic content and progression within the two halves, though. I also didn’t notice any major problems with the mixing. Some of your orchestral samples during the latter half of the piece sound pretty inauthentic, notably the choir and the stringed instrument at 2:10. Overall, pretty solid work. I’m looking forward to seeing what else you come up with.

7.5/10