TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Vivo Revenis]

I remember seeing this a while ago, but I never left a comment! First of all, Jordi, the vocals are beautiful - so light and graceful. The balance is good, and the harp and ukulele contribute to the piece a lot. The vocal sections are a bit thinly textured, but I understand that you wanted to capture a kind of simplicity and vulnerability in the piece. Overall beautiful work, guys! :D

[Rejected Intro 02]

This piece has a much more engaging melody than the last one I reviewed. A bit of a slower start, but also with a similarly rushed ending. This time, I think the mix would actually benefit from a little more snare. If you're going for cheesy, over-the-top VGM, it's probably best to give the piece as strong of a kick as possible. If you wanted to loop it, I might suggest having the climax at :36 bleed right into the mini-intro to this nice little ditty. Either way, nice work. Brief, yet enjoyable. ^^

sleepFacingWest responds:

thanks! I'm listening to this again and you're totally right about the snare. It needs to be brightened. My rock drum programming needs a lot of work in general.

This was written for the intro sequence of an animated show, so no looping is necessary.
https://vimeo.com/161172754

I agree that the ending comes quickly. I'd like to revisit this, flesh it out as a longer track, and let the sections breathe a bit more. That said, the musical cuts were timed to the action on screen. The B section (in both this and the last track) were set to coincide with a shift in the animation. Believe it or not, these were the best solutions I could come up with. The first track coincides better with the cuts between scenes, but I like the general flow and feel of this one better even if it only hits the big sync marks. Hopefully the next time I do this sort of thing I'll be able to come up with better solutions.

As always, thank you for your thoughtful response! I've got a bunch of things to work on.

[Rejected Intro 01]

I love the dynamic between the electronic and heavy guitar-based elements of the piece. While it's probably irrelevant to the show you wrote this for, the ending seems a bit rushed and it doesn't appear to loop well. The mixing and mastering is solid, though. Maybe I'm used to a bit more kick, but that might not be appropriate for this genre. This is a fun, engaging, full-textured piece. Nice work! ;)

[Ain't No Friend of Mine]

I love the flowing, old-timey, feel-good easy-going vibe of this song. I love the solos, ABA structure, and transitions. That ending was so heartwarmingly characteristic of jazz. High-quality content here, man! I might encourage you to experiment with vocals as a next step. ;)

[Aniseed Dream - Forever My Destiny]

I like the cinematic mood at the beginning. Not the best sample there, especially if you were going for a more realistic string sound, but I like the way the more electronic elements slowly fade in. The progression is a little slow, but I like how the mood oscillates between bright and ominous. After the 1-minute mark or so, it started to lose momentum IMO. I think you should've tried to harmonize more instead of just reverting back to having just the chords by about 1:20. I liked the transition at around 1:30 that let you sneak that spacious mid-range synth in there, but the synth kind of gets buried in the mix at around the 2-minute mark. The distorted percussion that starts fading in at 2:10 is cool, but shifts the mood a bit to give the piece a little more energy when the track is also almost over. If anything, I would've expected it to launch into a more open, fast-paced, less moody section after that. Overall, you have a lot of good ideas here but the piece lacks coherence. This piece is almost a collage of ambient sounds and bare-bones harmony, but you don't really build off of any of your previous ideas as the piece goes on. The only unifying factor here is the string pads, which wasn't enough for me. I would introduce the drums earlier, add more harmony, and just try and structure the piece in a more cohesive way. I think the mastering also needs more work. You could've created a lot more space in the mix with some careful Equalization and panning, but I'm not seeing much of that right now. If you have questions about anything I've said, please PM me. Otherwise, it has some potential so I hope you'll keep working on it. Keep at it, man! ;)

[Chord'z]

Not a bad progression. It's pretty catchy. I wish the chords that come in at :22 were a bit more punchy and in-your-face. The effects are also a bit cheesy, e.x. that manipulated kick sample or whatever it is that plays two or three times per measure. After a while, I think the bassline becomes really overemphasized. The only really melodic thing going on is the descending line at :43, and that's not very satisfying for me. It gets really repetitive after awhile. My main problem with the piece is probably the lack of melodic content. Also, you could've used some smoother transitions at times. Even a simple crash would've helped at 1:58, for example. You have the basic skeleton of a piece here. Now you need more harmonic variation that builds on what you've already got in an engaging and memorable way. I like what you did with the stop-start riffs at around 2:35, though. Also, the ending wasn't very conclusive. It would've functioned better as a loop if you had set it up that way. Still, the piece has some potential. It's missing some treble tones, but otherwise you have a pretty full texture here and the mixing isn't bad. Keep at it, man. ;)

[When Day is Night]

Very solemn, yet majestic. I love the progression and moodiness of it. Seems perfect for a rainy day. The increase in energy at :35 was also much-appreciated. You did a great job of bringing it full-circle by the end. I even thought (on my first listen) that the riff at 2:00 might've been the same as the beginning (it's actually really close, though). Either way, this piece has high compositional quality. No need to overthink the volume levels, btw - I hardly noticed any problems. Keep up the good work, Ale! ;)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you! I'm surprised that so many people seem to enjoy this track. I suppose it's easier for me to know how incredible it could sound with a more balanced production! Because I too, am pleased with the actual compositional aspect.

I don't know why, but I have the habit of ending pieces kind of the same way they start. Especially if it's a track about expressing the emotions, without making a real discovery. What I mean is, sometimes when you go through your emotions, you often feel a ton of things. But quite often, you will find yourself where you started after a while. So in the same way, this piece reflects the journey in the mind while thinking about all kinds of stuff, yet ending at the same destination as the starting point.

So indeed, the riff at 2:00 being similar to the introduction is very intentional. It's not the only place where the same riff is featured though! If you only count the first four notes, which make up the main sound of the melody (the rest being fills of varying kinds), you get this:

- There is the intro.

- At 0:23 there is a variation

- There kind of is one at 0:39, but it goes up instead of down.

- 1:08 is essentially the same as the intro, but more fleshed out, and with more power (fairly certain it's the same exact chords too though!)

- at 1:23, there is another variation.

- And as you mentioned, the riff at 1:57 is very similar to the one at the intro.

Thank you for leaving this review, along with a billion other ones! I just got back from a friend's cabin yesterday, and it's raining outside today. So I'm hoping I'll take some time to respond to more of these now!

[[Dubstep] Blurs - Original]

The rhythm at the beginning is a little hard to follow, but I like the sense of climax and energy and how that eventually resolves into the tranquility at :14. The pace is a little slow for the next minute or so, and I think you could've condensed that section a lot, especially since the drop is so ephemeral (1:29 - 1:43). Then, you transition right into a build-up to another drop (?) at 1:59, which is heavier but not nearly as entertaining IMO. The structure is a little bizarre, and the part at 1:29 functions much better as a post-chorus (which is how you use it at 2:26). You seem to vacillate back and forth between drops 1&2 until the bridge/breakdown thing at 2:54. I think you could've condensed this piece into something more appropriately sub-4 minutes by solidifying the roles of those 2 drops (1:29 and 1:59) into the actual drop and a post-chorus. Right now the way you channel the energy in this track seems kind of out of calibration, if that makes any sense. Either way, I like the instrumentation and production quality. Also, I'm a fan of reverb-heavy endings, so that's a plus. Keep up the good work, Trunotfals! ;)

trunotfals responds:

THe intention was to have a long intro, the whole song was inspired by Seven lions, essentially the song starts at like :50 where from there on out, its a pretty standard layout, save for the "fake drop" at 1:29 which has become somewhat of a signature for me in my songs, You can hear it in Revolution, Transcend, and I believe Never after. All of which have that "tagline" of sorts which I feel is a unique structure and satisfying to me. It's like a mini drop that isnt quite resolving unlike the real drop, which i try to make a complete resolution of tension. The fake drop is always messy and uncomfortable, yet intense and climactic. At least that is my intention. But I get why you think the form is weird in this, just try to imagine the song actually starting at :50, then it really is just intro, verse, buildup (including the fake drop imo) drop, breakdown (basically Drop A, B, the drops in this song are pretty extended) then verse, as it is the exact same form as the intro before, then another buildup or bridge, then drop, then outro. Pretty simple, the buildups are just weird because of that tagline I like to put in.

TLDR My intention was to have a climactic and very non-satisfying drop, that would not be interpreted as a real drop sense the tension is not really released, finally into a further build up of tension into another resolving drop, the real drop.

However maybe you're right an i did not execute in an effective way.

[Enter Newground]

I like the mood at the beginning. The effect at :04 seemed a little out-of-place and overly electronic when compared to the bright, organic, and contemplative sound of the rest of the piece. The piece definitely has a powerful overtone to it. Great job making this piece climactic and emotional throughout, and I love the dissonance you start to throw in there at around 1:25. The loop is flawless. Overall fantastic work! ;D

Phonometrologist responds:

You have good ears. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it. Any "out-of-place" moments that one may feel can be correlated to just how fluent the writing process was for this as I spent an evening writing it. Sometimes to think less in terms of editing helps the creative flow. "First thought, best thought."-Allen Ginsberg

[Run (ft. Anja Enerud & Lapette)]

I like the instrumentation and sense of climax at the beginning. Until around :30, the vocals are hard to make out over the instrumental though. I like the structure a lot, though. The start-stop transition into the second verse at 1:40 was excellent. I also really like the chopped-up vocals (like at 2:30). The kick sounded a bit too forceful for what is, at least in my view, a pretty feel-good track. I also liked the bridge section at 3:50, though. I thought it would've served better as a bridge than as a coda, but generally I have very few compositional complaints with this piece. Nice mastering as always, too. Keep up the great work, Trunotfals! ;)

trunotfals responds:

Thanks for your continuing awesome reviews man! I loved this song. Simple as put haha. but listening back to it now, i did definitely want this to be a bit of a chill feel good song, and the kick is quite intense. Also this might be the one time i dissagree with you, I cant see myself rebalancing the vocals any different. On my headphones they sound peffectly balanced. Infact it gets a little distorted with its sidechaining somehow even. But oh welllllll. THANKS MAN!