TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Amun-Ra - 8LayneTech8]

Catchy piece. The chord progression is a bit cliche, but I like the instrumentation and mood. Harmonically speaking, this piece needs a lot more variation, though. You change up the texture a lot by adding and subtracting instruments, but the basic progression that first appears in the beginning 5 seconds doesn't really change much. There isn't any strong melodic content, and after a while the piece just loses its sense of direction. You do change the energy level a bit, but overall it just needs some more variety in terms of pitch and underlying chord progression. You also have a couple of bass bombs in there that might warrant some stricter equalizing, but overall I thought the mix was pretty clean. Keep at it, man. ;)

[Improv on a Dream]

I love the mood and instruments. Harmonically, it's a little hard for me to follow what's going on, and I think the high-pitched synth at :09 sounds really harsh. One thing that's really nice is when you slide the pitch of the note around, like at :38. Sounds very relaxed in one respect, but very apprehensive in another. I can't decide if the piece is so slow-paced because the protagonist is lying by the pool high out of his mind or because he's slowly bleeding out on the kitchen floor. Pretty experimental track overall, but the atmosphere is great, and the instruments blend really well together. Keep up the good work, Ale! ^^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hey! Thanks for the review :)
I agree about it being a bit harsh. The velocity isn't very easy to control on my MIDI controller, but I could've fixed it in post. I also like the bends! I wonder how good they'd sound planned out, since here I just did them every now and then when I felt like it (it's an improv, after all). It's an experimental track indeed, and you provided quite the experimental visual there!

[Seduction]

I like the progression and instrumentation a lot. It was a little hard for me to follow the rhythm at times, especially before the beat at :42 came in. The production quality is indeed very good here. The post-chorus section at 1:12 was a nice change in the texture. I think this piece needed a few more legato elements to keep the flow together at times. For example, the pace of change is very fast from around 1:30-1:45. It seems to me like that section is a bunch of transitory moments strung together, and it took me a couple of listens to get accustomed to it. The percussion solo at 2:02 is nice, but I think you also could've found a smoother way of transitioning into the final refrain without dropping the violin from the texture for that section. The coda at 2:42 is beautiful, but there was a bit of an abrupt transition into it. Overall, I think a lot of these problems with the flow/structuring could be solved if you fleshed out some of your ideas a bit more and maintained a strong directionality to the piece during transitory moments. This piece is pretty short right now, so I think you have some room to make this work. You know I'm a stickler for these kinds of structural elements, but I really enjoyed the harmonic elements of the piece, and the sound design and mastering are both fantastic. Keep up the good work, BO! ;)

[Andy 234 - Electro party]

I like the progression at the beginning. The synth there sounds pretty thin, though. I was hoping you'd open up its frequency range at some point. The melody at :14 is cool. I thought it was a little too busy at first (as in hard to follow because there are too many notes), but once the part at :29 came around, the rhythmic structure fell together quite nicely. I really like the build-up into 1:27. The drop there is pretty catchy. I'd suggest taking a bit of treble off of the "woop" vocals, though. They sounded a bit harsh to my ears. The production quality is generally really good with this track: loud, clear, and well-compressed. I liked the breakdown section at 2:45, too. After that, the piece is largely structurally repetitive, though. I would've liked to hear some more variations on the drop and main melody the second time around. Overall, really solid work here, man. Cool instrumentation, nice melodic content, well-structured and -mastered. Reminds me of DJ Abbic, too. Keep up the good work! ^_^

Andy-234 responds:

Thank you very much, I will continue trying to improve my production and my musical complexity, thank you very much for the comment, then improve yourself more in what you have proposed ^w^!

[Revenge]

I like the full texture and groovy melodic content at the beginning. The piece kinda throws you right into the action, though. It'd be nice if it had more of a proper intro. You killed it with the melody. The breakdown at 1:18 is a nice touch to offer some contrast from the high-energy first minute of the piece. I think it may have dragged on a bit too long without any much of a change in the texture, though. I like how the melody starts to bleed back in at around 2:10, and the transition back to the high-energy section was effective. However, the final climax was relatively short-lived. It seems to me like you nailed pretty much everything in the piece except for the structure. I think the section from the very beginning to 1:17 would make a more fitting last refrain, the piano filler stuff at 3:17 would transition well into the breakdown/bridge section at 1:18, and you could have the shorter climax earlier in the piece. Maybe that's just me, though. I just think the section from 0:00 to 1:17 is the more climactic of the two high-energy sections, so my natural instinct is to put it at the end of the piece. Anyway, really fun track overall, man. Totally ignore my advice about the structure if it doesn't fit your vision for the piece. :P Keep up the good work!

[Intangible]

I like the wonky drums at :05. They're very creative rhythmically. You switch up the texture a lot during the first 30 seconds or so, with at least 3 different instruments playing your (rather cliche) chord progression. I think all the sudden changes ruined the sense of linearity of the track. In fact, you do the same thing at :50 and other places. I'd encourage you to structure your track around a contrast between some sort of melodic content and a secondary idea or theme. Right now, it seems like the main source of variation in your piece is either adding/subtracting instruments without warning, or laying out the chord progression using another instrument. Meanwhile, the piece doesn't really do anything interesting harmonically. I also didn't think the transition at 2:08 worked very well. I would suggest at least smoothing it over with some reverb. I've been tough on you in this review, but most of my complaints boil down to one main idea: you're using a simple, generic 4-chord pattern for the entire piece. I'd encourage you to make a piece that breaks away from such a repetitive harmonic framework at some point. It'll just be a lot more of an engaging experience for your listener. PM me when you've made a piece that you think fits this criteria. I'll leave you another review. Keep at it, man! ;)

[A-001 - Stars (Remake)]

I like the atmospheric vibe at the beginning. Has a dreamy, trance-like quality, and the entrance of the pads at :15 helps amplify that effect. I think I recognize the instrument at :27. Is it from Sakura by any chance? Nice job with the build-up, and the drop felt rather cathartic, albeit slow-paced. The chord progression is a little cliche, and the piece has a lot of repetition during the second intro-buildup-climax cycle. The mixing and mastering is really strong overall, but I think you may have overdone the reverb a bit. I also wish you would've varied the melody a bit more by the end of the piece. It's a satisfying melody, yet pretty simple both harmonically and rhythmically. Overall, this is strong work. My biggest complaints are the lack of variety and the generic compositional choices. Keep up the good work, man! ;)

[Piano King]

I like the sultry piano at the beginning. Instrumentation at :10 triggers a rapid mood shift. I'm honestly not quite sure what you were going for with the cowbell and gong in there. Choices like that kinda seem jarring compared with the jazzy piano. I really liked the melodic direction you started taking at around 1:10, but I think you also needed a stronger transition at 1:29 besides the gong hit. It'd also help cement the jazzy feel in if you humanized the piano a bit more. As far as I can tell on my (admittedly shitty) speakers, you didn't really vary the dynamics or articulation of the piano very much throughout the piece, which is a missed opportunity IMO. I liked the idea of making the piece come full-circle like you did at 2:47, but I think you need a smoother transition there as well. I've been tough on you in this review, though. I like the melodic and harmonic aspects of the piece a lot. I just think you need to work on transitions and sound design a tad more. Keep at it, man! ;)

Hedrix responds:

Thanks. I really rushed this one, meaning bad transitions

[Anamnesis]

Woah! I had no idea you were still making music. Assumed you had left the site until I saw this on someone's favorites page, in fact. Pretty cool stuff here. I like the grouchy bass and progression. Sounds like an alien-themed video game soundtrack. Drums are also pretty creative. I'd love to see you flesh out the structure a little more. Kinda has a wonky start-stop flavor to the overarching form. Also, I don't think that fade-out ending is helping you if you're trying to sell this as a stand-alone piece. Still, nice work with the sound design and thematic elements of the piece. Keep it up, man. ;)

[In Phase]

I like the somewhat pensive mood at the beginning, as well as how the mood becomes much darker after the introduction of the bass at :07. The progression is really cool, too. Has a rather somewhat cinematic vibe, yet the instrumentation is reminiscent of an old-school video game. Melodic content is nice, too. I like how the melody is really exposed at around 1:50. You really told a story with this one, man. Great work.