TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sempiternal Rhapsody]

I like the slow pace at the beginning. It definitely seems like a complex mixture of emotions - at times, bright, melancholy, anticipatory, and even danceable (Pride-and-Prejudice style, if you will). It has a consistent flow throughout, though. I love the transition at 2:20. There are some really interesting chord progressions in there too, like at 2:30. The riff at 2:57 with the high-pitched pitter-pattering arpeggios is highly amusing. Reminds me of rain that's making fun of me as it falls: "HA! You thought you'd spend the day outside, didn't you? Nice try, fool!" Same thing at 4:06. But what I really admire about this piece (and your work in general) is that you then rapidly transition into the section at 4:12, at which you also have a lot of rapid, high-pitched notes, yet the mood has completely changed into a majestic, gentle tone. That majestic tone finally gets broken by the chord at 6:13 - back to melancholy. I think you also added just the right amount of reverb to this piece. The atmosphere feels spacious enough, yet doesn't detract from the distinctness of the notes at the busier sections. Excellent piece, Ale! I'd agree that it's probably your best piano composition of 2016. Onwards and upwards, my friend! Happy new year, and let's Skype sometime, yes?

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

From the start, I knew I wanted to have a fairly slow pace at the start, along with the end. I ended up not having many slower middle sections, but it all kinda worked out like it is :)

I think that regrettably, I haven't seen Pride and Prejudice yet! I'm glad that the different emotions and atmospheres are noticable though! Especially in a Rhapsody, it'd be a shame if it came across as stale.

I think that the parts between 2:20 and 4:10 are possibly my favorite section, aside from the main theme which started it all, and repeats here and there (mostly in the beginning and the ending).
I'm glad you like the thingy at 2:57! That's quite an amusing mental image you're drawing there xD
4:12 is probably my least favorite section, but that's because I knew I needed to have something like that there, but I didn't know exactly where to go. So it's atually one of the very last parts I completed, after having played around with like 50 different ideas. So at this point, I honestly can't tell if the section sounds good, bad, jarring or not xD

I actually think I didn't add any reverb! Not even the internal one, within the vst. I think I just managed to use a fairly apt amount of the sustain pedal, while playing. The good thing about pianos, is that a lot of the reverb is kind of controlled "LIVE". You can still hear a couple of places where I messe up a bit, like the note at 1:46, which almost breaks off slightly.
Ther VST, ofc, accounts for the pedal as well (it's one of the MIDI values one can adjust). For a farily fast paced piano piece like this, with a lot of highs and lows, I wanted to be careful with reverb, and decided not to add any. I also went for a fairly generic Concert Grand piano sound, as opposed to some other uploads, where I've used different piano sounds. It's a safer route for complex and varied pieces. I'm glad the end result sounds good though!

Thank you for your long and fun-to-read review! We should Skype indeed. I've been thinking of messaging you a couple of times, but you've happened to be offline! Different time zones and all :p
It's a bit late, but Happy New Year, and may 2017 be a good one ;)

[~SW~ Thoughtspark]

As always, I love the atmosphere and synths. The pitch on the lead at :27 sounds heavily altered - I like it! At the same time, though, I think the melody there is a bit too loud there. I'd prefer the atmosphere to be a little further forward in the mix. I definitely like the progression here, though. I like how you restart with the bare-bones beat at 1:45. The production quality is really high. I can hear all of the elements of the texture very clearly throughout. You did a great job of channeling the energy through the section from around 2:30 to 4:00. There are a lot of cool dissonances and chord progressions here, though. I love the slow pace of the melody at 3:25. The transition at 4:07 didn't quite work for me tbh. It seemed like you were building up to something, and then the beat fell away and the mood was very tranquil all of a sudden. You spammed the crash/hi-hats at 5:24, which I found to be a bit excessive. I thought the transition into 6:30 was better than the one at 4:07. While still not exactly gradual, it seems more directional and less jarring. I like the ominous ending a lot, too. Overall, excellent piece, though. You clearly put a momentous amount of effort into this thing, and it shows. Fave and DL! ^_~

SkyeWint responds:

Hey!

Not sure what you mean about the pitch on the lead in the first part - I agree that it might be a bit too loud, but not entirely sure. I definitely get wanting the background atmosphere to come out a bit more! Fortunately, the pad is the same throughout the whole thing, lol.

The beat at 1:45 was the part that was really inspired, and led on to make the entire rest of the piece (as you can hear).

3:25 is one of my favorite sections melody-wise, I really liked the atmosphere there, so I kept it. Right before that with the cymbals is one that I liked making as well. :) Glad to hear it shows through!

With 4:07... that was a hard choice. I actually tried keeping things flowing and going back up in tension there, but it just didn't work. I thought I would take a page out of the book of @Step and make an unexpected transition there, to bring back some elements of the very beginning.

5:24 onwards is just like about 3:00 - the cymbals are synced up to the kick drum for a hard DnB effect. The intro leading up to it is similar to around 3:00 as well, with the spamming of the high hats. I guess there are a few more kicks, and by extension crashes (kinda). It's a different, slightly more frantic beat.

6:30 is probably the transition I am the most proud of in the entire piece, so I'm really glad that you like it! It took a huge amount of listening, tweaking, and effort to put it in. Because of some oddities with the way that instruments react to tempo changes, I had to manually slow down and stretch out the individual notes along with gradually slowing the tempo back down to the original temp for the ending.

Glad you do like the ending, by the way! I wasn't 100% sure on that one, so I'm glad it fit!

[~SW~ Mellowdia]

I like the pulsing synths at the beginning. It's very mellow (duh) and atmospheric. I wasn't a huge sample of the kick sample, though. It was just a little too sub-bassy for my tastes. I love the sense of climax into 1:26, and the accompanying melody that starts at 1:06 is great. I thought this piece deserved more than just a fade-out ending with little melodic variation. Still, your sound design is fantastic, and the piece is very well-mastered too. Keep it up, Skye! ;)

SkyeWint responds:

Heyo, TL! We should talk more often than in reviews! :)

I'm glad that you weren't a sample of the kick sample. That's generally a good thing. That said, it is definitely sub-bassy - I had to tone it down a bit initially as my speakers have little sub-bass to speak of, and it really showed when I listened with headphones, lol. It's meant to be a very heavy mix, weighted more towards the low end than treble frequencies - there's a high end to the kick which is completely cut out for that exact reason.

I'm glad you liked the melody - I've been trying to improve on my melodies in general, so I'm really really glad that it's having an effect!

I agree that the piece deserved more than a fade-out. I don't really have much of an excuse for that - the reason is just that this was a short piece (only 2 and a half hours to make) which I didn't put a ton of effort into. It was something I felt like doing, based on a few sound samples I had. Most of the instruments were still made by hand and are based on raw samples, so I'm happy with that with the sound design.

Don't worry, the next piece will have a more proper ending! :)

[-Sinking Feeling-]

Woah! I love your ambient tracks, but this is above and beyond. The atmospheric effects are awesome. It sounds like a big, echo-y aquarium. There are a couple of sudden entrances in here, like at :44. I can see how you tried using the percussion to smooth over the transition, but the pads were too loud to make that effective IMO. I really like the progression here, though. This reminds me of @SkyeWint a lot. The vocals were a nice addition at 2:45, and that smooth jazzy bass at 3:05 fits the texture really well. May I ask what the vocalist is saying? You've combined a lot of cool samples. I especially enjoyed the drum fill at 3:45. I know ambient music isn't known for its melodies, but given the length of this piece I suppose it left me craving more melodic content after a while. The pitch bends at 5:10 were groovy. The details of this piece are really enjoyable. You clearly display your excellent sense of rhythm throughout. I like the edgy bass that comes in at around 5:50. The riff at 6:30 with the bass is seriously catchy. Overall, this track is very smooth-flowing and well-structured. It has a sense of constantly evolving, yet you seem to revert to a more traditional Waterflame style at 7:10. Reminds me of "Control Sentiment" there. I liked how you brought it full-circle at 9:10, even though it seemed a rather hastily put-together way of adding some coherence. Overall, though, this is a really cool piece. Great work for a great year! Here's to 2017! :)

[NeWS]

I like the little ambient riser thing at the very beginning. I think the bass overpowers the kick and snare for the next 30 seconds or so. Generally, the snare should be the loudest instrument in the mix. I liked the transitions at :31 and :58, and the panning effects worked well there too. Harmonically, the piece is very simple and repetitive. I think you need a lot more melodic content here. The very little non-rhythmic content you have in here (at 1:56) is very stepwise and one-directional. The result is that the piece lacks direction. The piece changes and evolves over time, but it has little sense of coherence overall because you never return to and flesh out the themes you introduced earlier in the piece (like at :02). Otherwise, the structure doesn't have much meaning behind it. Overall, it's not bad. The lack of melodic content and structuring are my main complaints. Keep at it, man. ;)

xturox responds:

Thank you I'll keep that in mind.

[Byzantium]

I like the eastern instruments. This track is full of tension that never really gets resolved, though. By the end, it's pretty repetitive and structurally flat too. It's very catchy and the samples are cool, but I wish you varied the texture more. The fade-out ending struck me as a bit lazy, too. It's a great beat, but you could've done a lot more with it. Mixing and mastering are solid, though. I like the reverb. Keep at it, man! ;)

ADR3-N responds:

Thanks for the critique!

Structure is a little flat, yes, although most of this genre tends to be. Only samples I have are the drums and crashes. I used a lot of Nexus and Massive. Will admit that I jammed it out in a couple hours, and I really wasn't sure where to go with that lead. Fade out? Well, I dunno, you can really go either way with that. Crashes and abrupt stops are lazy and jarring, outros in hiphop are just stripped down versions of the intros usually, etc.

Definitely gave me something to think about though. Thanks!

[dead mow cinco - The Veldt (Cancer Wasder Trance Remake)]

I like the intro. It progresses a little slowly, but is definitely catchy and upbeat. I think you could've toned down the dissonance in the background a bit. I'm not sure what it adds to the piece, exactly. The synths are really cool. I like how the melody blends in amongst the chords for most of the piece. I guess my main complaint is that the drum pattern changes without any forewarning at several different points (2:00, 2:30, etc.), and that's a little jarring. I also think you could've varied the melody a bit more later in the piece. Other than that, solid work. Keep at it, man! ;)

WasderNoob-MatiasSWA responds:

Thanks for the feedback :P
I don't really care much about any complaints because, as you can tell from the title, this project is a joke. On the other hand, I think your feedback can help me on some other stuff I may throw together. :P If you wanna check out some legit(ly) solid tracks, then I suggest you listen to my others. If you want good stuff listen to Foil It JAJA
Thanks for the feedback! It helps.

[lucasasdf - Drapes]

The rhythm at the beginning is a little bizarre - it's almost square, but not quite. When the beat comes in at around :30, it makes a little more sense. I think you overused the reverb on that instrument that plays for the first 30 seconds, though. I'm pretty sure the instrument that comes in at :41 is a preset from Plucked. The whole piece is pretty dissonant, which isn't necessarily a problem, but I think you needed some stronger melodic content in there. The simple riff at 1:31 isn't enough to satisfy my melodic desires for an entire piece. The samples you used are cool. This could turn into a really cool ambient track, but I think it just needs to be fleshed out more. I also thought you could've done a lot more with the drums. There's a lot of potential here. Keep at it, man. ;)

lucasasdf responds:

I admit that I'm not the best at sound design, so when making the GMS Sample that you hear in the beginning I turned the reverb all the way up, and I'm new to making music, I've made music before, but I do it scarcely throughout time, but thanks for the feedback! : )