TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nostalgia (Instrumental)]

The instrument at the beginning sounds very generic, and I don’t like how you spam the crashes at :09. At :11, the beginning riff seems to be distorted a lot by the arpeggios that come in there. At :23, the kick sounds very harsh and unpolished - I’d suggest finding a new sample, and then being sure to equalize it more carefully (try searching for an equalizer in the mixing tab on whatever DAW you use). You have a good sense of melody, rhythm and harmony, though. This piece is quite repetitive by the end, and occasionally elements of the texture (the clap, most notably) seem to come in and drop out without any forewarning. I’d like to see you smooth over some of your transitions later in the piece in more creative ways - the spammy kick-hat-kick-hat thing you do at :42 and several other places is only really appropriate when the following section is significantly more energetic than the previous one. Overall, you have some good ideas here - there are a lot of compositional elements of this piece (melody, harmony, mood, etc.) that are really strong. I’d focus on improving your mixing and mastering skills as a priority. Doing some research on equalization and compression could be a great start. Keep at it, man!

6/10

TheNGVirus responds:

I do agree that I need much work with mixing and mastering. About the drums, this was my first time working with and programming sounds with a TR-909, but I'll definitely keep working on it! Overall, I do agree with the critique you've given me, and I will try to improve myself, whether I do make it into any of the matches or not!

[Seventh Heaven]

This is a pretty catchy piece. I think you may have gone a little overboard with the reverb, though. The progression is interesting. I’m not always a huge fan of purposeful anti-climaxes, like how you had this minimalistic section at 1:00 following a build-up. The riff at 1:00 was a little jumpy, with a lot of ornamental stuff that seemed excessive. At around 1:45, you have these two melodies playing at once that get in each other’s way a bit, especially since neither one was really more prominent than the other. Maybe that section would’ve worked better if they blended together more, but as two separate lines it didn’t quite work for me. You do a good job of varying the energy throughout this piece. I liked the part at 3:38 where you just left the floaty harmony and the bass playing together - it was a cool way of shaking up the texture towards the middle of this piece. Perhaps you could’ve used some smoother transitions at places like 3:38 and 4:32, though. Even a crash or sweep would probably suffice. Tiny thing: the drum fill at 7:16 felt a little out-of-place, but if you had done something similar a couple of times earlier in the piece, I think it would’ve worked fine. Also, I’m not a fan of fade-out endings; they usually come across as lazy, and this is no exception. Still, I have to say: usually I’m very skeptical of pieces that are this long, but with all the variety here, you pull it off pretty well. I’m not sure the track had to be 8 minutes, but I’m certainly not bored. You do a good job here of filling the texture throughout - the mix is very well-balanced. Solid effort. Keep it up, man!

8/10

[AIM - In That Moment]

I love the spacey and calm vibe of the intro. You set up the atmosphere/mood here really well. It’s a little slow to develop, but the texture is absolutely beautiful. The vocals that start bleeding in at around 1:30 are gorgeous. Same with the strings at about 1:45. Nice use of panning on the strings as well. What a rich sound you’ve produced here. This is one of the rare cases when I thoroughly enjoy pieces with a single climax or refrain. I thought the outro was a bit rushed, especially given the lengthy intro, but overall this piece tells me you’re a serious competitor in it for the long haul. Keep up the great work, man!

9.5/10

[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 :)