TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[SWeissen P - Extinguished]

I liked the dramatic intro. Those choral samples weren’t my favorite - the uniform vibrato gives them a bit of a fake quality - but you built up to the drop really well. I would’ve liked to hear the vocals a bit more prominently in the mix at 1:15, but otherwise the mixing and mastering here is really solid. The breakdown at 1:43 is awesome. Some dynamic contrast is exactly what this track needed at that point. Unfortunately, you don’t give this piece much sense of direction towards the end because you failed to vary the drop at all. The ending then felt rather rushed. I would’ve fleshed out that second build-up more to maximize the drama. There’s also very little strong melodic content here. Some more memorable melodies could’ve been incorporated into the breakdown section especially, which would’ve helped enhance the cinematic vibe. You do a good job with phrasing here, but you could’ve channeled the energy more effectively by broadening the climax a bit towards the end. Overall solid work. If you had thought a bit more about the pacing and progression here, this would’ve been a top-tier piece. Keep at it, man. ;)

8/10

[The Journey Begins (Remastered)]

I like the sense of excitement and adventure. The powerful melodies at :18 have a victorious tone to them that’s very engaging. I think there are some slight mixing and mastering issues. For example, there was some sort of percussion hidden under there at :31, yet I could barely hear it and overall it didn’t add anything to the piece. Also, the strings seem to be fighting for attention a bit at :11. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t regard this as a structurally complete piece. The mood and atmosphere are great. It’s has a full texture and some strong melodic content...but in order to maximize the emotion here you simply needed to flesh out this track more. I wanted to see you draw some structural contrast by offering the listener a low-energy section, after which you would build to a final refrain that gave the piece an overarching sense of direction. Right now, this piece lacks a sort of structural ebb and flow that makes music - but especially cinematic music - so enjoyable. I was really divided about how to score you here because, despite the structural flaws, you nailed the atmosphere, tonality, and harmonies. I can FEEL the potential oozing off of this song. So I think you’re going to make it to the next round (I’m writing this review on 7/15/16). You just need to promise me that your piece for that round is going to communicate to the listener every last detail of the story behind the track, including all the twists and turns it deserves. Keep at it, man. ;)

7.75/10

SteveSyz responds:

Hey thanks for the awesome feedback! I definitely agree with your points, I probably should have mentioned this track was for orchestration practice two years ago! I'll definitely have a more complete musical form next round; I'm always composing to impress ;D Also thank you for taking your time for such an awesome musical analysis, most people just say 'this string part was cool but that flute was meh'.
Looking forward to knock some people out (musically) haha!

[Spaze - Who You Are]

I like the atmosphere at the beginning and sense of climax at the beginning. The melodies at :31 are catchy, although the bass is a little loud there, even if it doesn’t detract from the mastering that much. I suppose I’d question the pacing of this piece a bit in that the intro and build is only about 30 seconds long, while the melody repeats several times, playing for almost a minute in total by around 1:30. Also, the section after that was a little too drawn-out as well. I think you needed a less energetic breakdown or bridge section to really highlight the structural contrast in this piece. You also fail to vary the melodies during the second refrain, which leaves this piece without much of an overarching direction to it. The fade-out ending was also pretty lack-luster. I thought your drum samples were pretty generic, although you mixed them in well. This piece shows great potential, but doesn’t capitalize on that potential IMO. You could’ve done a lot more with the melodies, especially later on in the piece, and you didn’t add much meaningful or different material to the track after even the first refrain. If you take some more opportunities to create dynamic contrast, structural relief, and a more refreshing and unique sound design, this would be a top-tier piece. As for now, it fails to keep my interest after a while. Keep at it, man! ;)

7.25/10

[Jet]

This piece is catchy and has a good sense of energy and drive. The melodies at :22 are extremely groovy - fast-paced yet flowing. I was about to say it reminded me of an 80s workout video soundtrack, and then I saw “80s” in the tags. ;) This is a well-structured piece, but I think you could’ve done more to heighten the contrast between the refrains by inserting a more atmospheric and slow-paced breakdown or bridge section. This piece is pretty short, and deserves to be fleshed out more to maximize the sense of climax going into the last refrain at 1:47. The piece is also missing some treble frequencies in general, and I think a high pass would’ve been welcome here. However, I don’t think that generally affects the mastering quality too much. Overall, this is solid work. Again, the overarching sense of progression is the main thing that needs work IMO. Keep it up, man. ;)

8.5/10

[Swell]

I like the sense of climax at the beginning. There’s a lot of atmosphere and luscious reverb to this piece. I like the melodies at :28. I think you could’ve brought out the drums in the mix a lot more, though. By :49, I can barely hear the snare. The part at :56 was great for offering some structural contrast. I think the mix is very bass-heavy, though, and a lot of the instruments here could probably use a high pass. I also lose sight of the kick at 1:24. You could’ve done a bit more with the melody during the second refrain to give this piece a sense of overarching progression. In general, I love all of the risers and phasing effects that add a lot to the phrasing of the piece. Overall, though, this is solid work. Great job with the atmosphere, instrumentation, and creation of full, luscious textures. :) Keep at it, man!

8.75/10

[Aquapump (Sonic 3 Hydrocity Remix)]

This is extremely catchy and intense. You use panning, reverb, and harmonic space really well. The mixing and mastering are superb here. The piece has a sort of continuous energy with little dynamic contrast or structural relief, though. I loved the solos at 2:28, but I thought you could’ve used a bridge or breakdown somewhere in there to create a sense of climax and contrast leading into the solos. I love how you develop the melodies at 2:48, especially after you repeated that same melody at least 3 times earlier in the piece. Obviously, this is a fantastic piece overall. Perhaps you could have varied it a bit more from the original, but you still brought the fresh perspective of a new genre to the piece. Still, this is an engaging, fun, and catchy track with loud and clear mastering. Keep up the good work! ;D

9/10

[Aiearih (Piano)]

I like the tranquil mood at the beginning. It has great emotional depth to it. This piece is very flowing and majestic, although there were a couple of small moments when you interrupted that flow by not holding out notes long enough, such as 1:03, 1:55, etc. You did a great job of creating structural contrast here, too, as exemplified by 3:04, which followed a much more energetic section. Perhaps on a less serious note, I’m very curious about the title of this piece. It evokes a person’s name, although I was unable to find its meaning on the internet. Does it hold some special significance for you? I’ve always admired improv in general, though. It’s captivating to me that people can come up with such beautiful music as they play it. I thought this piece had a lot of space to it as well. For example, 5:29 and other little moments that let the piece breathe a lot between some very smooth-flowing sections. The piece also has a great narrative feel to it. If I had to complain about something, it might be that at times you seem to use block chords or excessively muddy notes (9:53, 11:43, 1:27, etc.) that make the piece a bit crunchy and disallow you to use the entire harmonic space that you could’ve to give this piece a nice, full texture all the time. Perhaps it’s just that you need to think more carefully about which notes you’re giving the most emphasis to. For example, the bass notes are a little overpowering at 12:46, even though it’s clear you were going for some drama there to contrast with the tranquil section that follows at 13:15. Also, even though this is an improv, I would’ve liked to see you try to maintain at least some common sense of theme. Coherence is just as relevant to 17-minute-long tracks as it is to 3-minute-long ones, although you do tie the various themes of this piece together very well in general. The piece doesn’t have much sense of climax at the end, but perhaps you make up for that with the emotion at 16:05. Overall, this is very enjoyable work. You’ve exemplified how to use minimalism and simple instrumentation right, my friend. Keep up the good work. ;D

9/10

pftq responds:

Thanks! Appreciate the in depth review. My live playing with chords is not as proficient as I'd want it to be, but much of what occurred in the piece compositionally is intentional and how you end up feeling as a result of them is what I was going for, including the interruptions in flow. The lack of repetition of some theme is more or less exactly what the traveler feels on the journey (and this song can be said to be written from that first person perspective rather than a third person observer) - that as you go further and further, you never really quite find a single identity, becoming a different person with every new place you encounter with no real linkage to the last, with only yourself ever really knowing the full journey and having few occasions to reflect (which is represented by the very rare occasions a theme does resurface). The only commonality is the feel, which remains largely the same, a bit reversed in that rather than a single theme being changed it's many themes over the course of the song with a hint of familiarity. It's like a person changing over time but upon meeting them you can't help feeling you still know that person amidst all the change they went through. Aiearih is just Hiraeia backwards.