TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[No One Remembers]

I like the relaxed vibe at the beginning. Good sense of atmosphere too. There’s a lot of tension in your voice, which fits the mood of the piece really well. The vocals weren’t quite as up-front in the mix as I would’ve liked, though - it’s almost like they were backing up the guitar. I can’t comment on the lyrics themselves since I don’t know them, but I like the premise of the piece. The tension in the piece never really gets released, which is my main problem with it, I believe. I think you missed a huge chance to go into a fit of passion with a raging guitar solo or a more energetic vocal passage. Right now, it’s almost as if you’re reading a passage from a long poem to a rhythm. Perhaps it’s partly because I don’t know the lyrics, but given the mood of the piece it doesn’t seem to have much resolve. I’d really like to see you go out of your comfort zone more, Ceevro, but for now I do believe you’ll make it to the round of 64 (I’m writing this on June 12th). Keep at it, man!

6.75/10

[The Damn Motherfucking One]

I like the atmospheric fade-in, although some of those instruments sound a little generic. I would’ve liked to see you maximize the impact of that initial climax before diving into the lengthy piano section that follows. You seem to set the pacing of the piece up to be pretty rapid with the 15-second intro, but then it’s actually rather slow. I like the drums - they have a great organic roots rock kinda vibe. The piece has a great sense of climax over the course of the next 3 minutes. The drums could’ve even been stronger towards the end. The rhythm is pretty square for most of the piece, though - a lot of straight eighths going on. I also feel like you could’ve maximized the climax by adding a really dominant and empowering melody somewhere. That distorted guitar thing at 2:53 doesn’t quite cut it since it blends into the rest of the texture. That said, the texture of this piece is one of my favorite elements. It’s so full and rich, and really shows off your great sense of harmony. I like this piece a lot, but I think you could’ve taken even more risks in certain elements of the composition and structure. Still, keep up the good work man. :D

8.5/10

MysteriousPresence responds:

Thank you very much for the review and for that cool note (even if I didn't make it :'3) !
I will take in consideration every advice you gave me in order to improve myself. Maybe I'll make it in the NGUAC who knows ? If so, count on me to produce the best I've ever done ! B)
Thanks again ! =D

[Luminous]

I like the ominous vibe at the beginning. It sounded cool how you used the piano for both the dark atmospheric bit and a brighter, more melodic sound at the beginning. The drums at around :45 mesh with the counterpoint pretty well. I wasn’t a huge fan of the string samples shortly thereafter, however. They sound pretty fake, and also cut off suddenly at 1:16, without adding much to the piece IMO. At the drop at 1:30, the kick becomes lost in the mix, and in the general I think you could’ve made the drums a bit stronger and crisper. The chords at the drop are probably doing most of the distorting. I’d be really careful about how you equalize them. You have a good sense of melody and harmony, and the composition is overall really good. Strong transitions and structure, although I wasn’t a huge fan of the buildup-to-outro model at 3:05. That said, the real downfall of this piece is in the instrumentation and mixing. I think those should be your main areas of focus going forward. Keep at it, man. ;)

7.25/10

DJ-DG responds:

Thank you man for the constructive feedback! Will definitely keep this in mind for the future!
Honestly, the strings were a sort of an add-on to the main piece... didn't work too much on their expression and whatnot...
Yeh, the chords do distort quite a bit... I kinda wanted that effect tbh but it went too far I guess...
My mixing needs work, I know, but in my newer stuff the drums are hopefully a lot better...
Anyway man, thanks for the honest views!
-DJ-DG

[Broken Game]

The beginning sounds a bit harsh. The drum part sounds generic and also really distorts the other instruments. Through a process called equalization, you can make each instrument sound much clearer. The drop at 1:10 is very minimalistic and that instrument sounds very thin and generic. After that, the piece features a short series of variations on the same progression you had earlier in the piece, but instead of building off the original riff the piece sounds like a demo reel for a series of remixes. It’s very disjointed and minimalistic throughout. The piece badly needs more melodic content. The piece ends very suddenly, and the structure simply doesn’t help keep the listener engaged. Sorry this is such a negative review. Let me offer some suggestions: going forward, I’d try to focus on writing a good melody, and then thinking about how that melody interacts with the elements of the piece that you have here (a bassline, drums, etc.). There are a lot of ways to go about writing a good melody, but usually you want it to be something that gets stuck in your head easily. Most melodies have some sort of stepwise component (like E, F#, G or C, D, E), but you also want to avoid writing arpeggios in place of melodic content. When you think you’ve written a piece that has a strong melody, please PM me. I’ll check it out. Good luck, man! ;)

1.5/10

[Geoplex - Drift]

I love the warm texture and upbeat mood. It's a little slow to develop, but the sound design is great. The melodic content at around :53 is really enjoyable, too. The mixing and mastering are solid. I like how the piece gets more melodic as it goes on. Atmosphere is especially nice in this one. Keep up the great work, Geoplex! ^^

Geoplex responds:

Thanks man! Slow development was what I was aiming for, I was actually thinking it was too fast while I was making it, haha. Might be because the song I got the idea from was literally 7 and a half minutes long though

Thanks for the feedback dude, I appreciate it :)

[Panda Eyes X FYER - Shuriken]

I love the energy and synths. The mixing and mastering is super strong. The vocal samples add to the theme a lot, and I was a big fan of the orchestral instruments in there as well. The ending came on pretty suddenly, but overall I like this track a lot. It's well-structured, smooth-flowing, and really packs some punch! Has a lot of quality melodic content for a dubstep track too. The distorted guitar at 2:37 was my favorite. Can't believe I hadn't heard of you yet, man. Keep up the great work!

[Deep Fried]

Hey man! Haven't seen a post from you for a while. I like the relaxed mood and busy beat. Cool ambient effect at :40. Makes for great background music. Texture feels nice and full - the snare and ping-pong synths fill in the higher frequencies pretty well. You have a great sense of rhythm. You might've overused the sweeps a bit, but it didn't bother me too much. The mix is totally clean, btw. Everything sounds so clear and crisp in my headphones. ^_^ Yum...

SynchroSpectre responds:

Oh thanks haha, I just saw this incomplete song and it had potential so I worked on it for a bit. I didn't care too much for this song, I didn't know where the creative direction was gonna go so I just posted it here lel.

[F-777 - Kung Fu Battle]

Very similar instrumentation as "The Secret Dynasty," but I guess that's to be expected. The drop at :35 was pretty cool. It has a gritty texture that contrasts the smooth eastern instruments really well. The piece seems to have a bit of a cyclical structure overall. Has a very pitch-and-catch vibe between the heavy breaks and melodic parts. I guess you do strip the drums away around the 2-minute mark, which helps to add variety, and I enjoyed the variations on the last drop. The piece could've used a more extensive outro, though. Overall solid work! Mixing and mastering is tight. Keep it up!

[NGADM 2017 Auditions Podcast]

Thanks for the shout-out! Good to see you're getting the word out. The background music was beautiful, btw. I should really check out more of your music. Well-produced podcast, though. Your accent reminds me of Jenna Marbles. :)

ChronoNomad responds:

Had to Google Jenna Marbles, and what do you know--we were both born in Rochester, NY! Not sure if that means anything, but I did think it was an interesting little factoid. I usually pick up the regional accent fairly quickly, and I've been all over. Of course I can also sound "more professional" with less of an accent, but this was meant to be more on the easygoing side.

I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the music and found the podcast to be well-produced. And I figured it was high time to give credit where credit is due! This just seemed like a really good way to do it.

To be completely honest, the recording session was a pretty quick and dirty single-take affair. Mixing in the background music took longer. Thanks for leaving a review! :D