TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Waiting]

Hmm...it's a little hard for me to follow the rhythm at the beginning, but it helps when the beat comes in at :19. I love the mood and instruments, though. That drop at :31 is awesome! <3 It's extremely blissful and catchy - the perfect combo in my book. The piano part at around the 2-minute mark adds a nice change-of-texture. The mixing and mastering is superb as always, btw, and this track in particular is quite reverbalicious. The slide-y treble-range synths at 3:16 are awesome, and I like how you transposed them up an octave at 3:31 to channel the energy. You conveyed the feels well indeed, Lockyn. You're quickly climbing the ladder on my all-time most insta-faved artist list. Keep up the great work! ^^

Lockyn responds:

I'm very happy you enjoyed that slide lead synth, I loved playing around with that one :) Cheers mate! I'm glad you think so highly of me, please expect lots more to come! Thanks for reviewing TL <3

[Sticky Toffee [final]]

Hahaha, definitely sounds like sticky toffee. It's a bit hard-hitting at the beginning, though. I think you can amplify the effect of the quirky vibes here by starting a little quieter and building up to that really distorted bass sound. I love the mood and instruments. The drum samples add a lot to it. I know you wanted to focus a lot on the drums, but it's still a little minimalistic at times. Some pads or other filler mid-range riff could've helped you out here IMO. Some more reverb could've also potentially filled in some space. Another small detail: that last note seemed to be held out for an arbitrarily long period of time that doesn't really fit with the staccato-y style of the rest of the piece. Other than that, I love the themes, instruments, and whatnot. Definitely seems fitting for a video game too. Keep up the good work, Majinbell! ;D

[Sunset Breeze]

Very bass-y and catchy. I like the sort of stop-start texture here. It progresses a little slowly, yet at the same time creates a lot of room for contrast. The melody at about the 1-minute mark was quite blissful and uplifting. I can also tell that this has been mastered really loudly. It does get a bit repetitive by the end, but I will also compliment you on avoiding your compulsion to make tracks as long as 7 minutes! :) The tasteful vocal samples you threw in there at 2:11 added a lot to the piece. I admire your sense of harmony and progression. In a way, it has a simplistic quality, but all-in-all that fit the blissful, relaxing mood of the piece rather well. The ending was a little disappointing. It kinda just ends. It would've been worth your while to wind it down a bit with some sort of 15-second riff. Perhaps a volume automation would've helped. It's not that you needed anything new, but it bothers me that the intro, re-intro, and coda are essentially all the same. Anyway, keep up the good work! I hope to drop some reviews on several of your other recent tracks by Thanksgiving. ^^

Lockyn responds:

Hey TL, nice to see you again. I'm happy you enjoyed the track this much. I know the ending was a bit of a cop-out, but I also intended the door close to be the end, and the train taking off kind of a end to the happy sunset feel. I'm glad you enjoyed regardless. :) Cheers mate!

[Idols V2]

I like the vocal samples at the beginning and the groovy guitar at :09. I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I didn't immediately recognize the theme to "Stayin' Alive." The drop is really cool, but I think you could've channeled the energy more effectively if you created more of a build-up to it. You also drag the drop on for a bit too long IMO. Still, I really admire your ability to chop up vocals. I haven't done a lot of work with vocals, but I recognize that it can be really hard to do. I also think the mixing and mastering in this piece is very good. I can hear everything clearly throughout. The coda at 3:48 was also cool and fitting, but I think it dragged on for a little too long, just like the drop. Still, I was really impressed with this piece overall. It's very catchy, the instrumentation is awesome, and you know how to form the drop very well. Keep up the great work, Saao! :D

Saao responds:

Thanks, I'm glad you like it, but I'm even happier to hear that you have some critiques that help me improve my songs for the future.

[8 - Bit Album (Teaser)]

I really like the atmospheric synths at the beginning, and you transition into the hard-hitting breaks at :18 pretty well. I also like the more blissful vibe :33 had. The transition at :46 was clever, but I think you could've made it smoother by "priming" the listener a bit (perhaps incorporating those Windows samples into the piece earlier, because otherwise they sound a bit out-of-place). Otherwise, I think it has a lot of potential, and I'm excited to see what you do with these tracks. Thinking about creating smooth transitions and establishing a direction for your piece should be priorities, I think. I can't really see any of that here, but that's because this preview only devotes 20 seconds to each song on the album. Once you complete the songs, try to make sure it flows smoothly yet also that it rises and falls in energy and emotion as the piece goes on. Hope this helped. Keep up the good work, man! ;D

Saao responds:

As always I love hearing your critiques and I never quite know how to respond at first. But I'm glad to hear that you're excited to hear the full tracks, and I'll let you know when they come out.

[Surfer Ghouls 'n Ghosts]

Ahh, I see you also have a Halloween track to showcase. >:) I thought the whole "ghostly surfer" theme was extremely clever. The franticly picked guitar really adds a lot of tension to the piece. The organ is creepy, yet also cute in a way. It's definitely fitting for a videogame IMO. Time to haunt as many animated people as possible! ^^ As a stand-alone piece, though, it lacks a bit of variety. And even if there is a significant amount of variety, it's hard to tell because you don't really change the texture a lot throughout the piece. I also thought the drums were a little weak. I think it would've sounded more powerful and intimidating if you compressed them and then added more reverb. Overall, though, it's a cool piece! If I or anyone I know ever make a ghostly surfer-themed videogame, I'll let you know. Keep it up, man. ;)

LexRodent responds:

Thanks for the nice feedback, I'll add "extra power" to drums asap, and if I can think on some other change to add extra variety I'll do so too.

[Mysterious Preview]

Hey man! Sorry for the slow response on this. I've been really busy with school. I really like the instruments and the build-up. Nice job with the filters too. It has a great sense of climax about it. I will say that I thought the snare had a few too many mid-treble tones in there. You might want to equalize them out. The mixing is pretty good, although you should probably do as much as you can to make it sound as clear as possible, especially once you add more instruments. I like it a lot, though. This is well on its way to becoming a solid piece. Keep at it, man! ;D

[Ducks.]

Ducks indeed. I like the dark bassline and the percussion that start's fading in at around :12. Some of the crashes (like at :32) were a little high-pitched, though. You did a good job of building up the energy throughout, although in general it's quite minimalistic and progresses pretty slowly. I like the jarring synth lead at around 1:20. It's catchy, and you did a nice job with the energy. The duck samples were also pretty cool. I'd love to see you incorporate them into the beat of the song more - I think that would be really amusing. Overall, pretty cool piece! Hope it comes together nicely. ;)

[Facing the Foe]

Hmm...yeah, allow me to put in my *long* ***overdue*** ******input*****. Heh.

I love the sound design, the huge conglomeration of moods, the progression, the...well, the everything. It is a bit fast-paced at times, but at the same time, it could be made to fit a video game extremely well. The mixing here is also freaking excellent. You've demonstrated rapid improvement on that front, LSD! :O

I love all the string solos, though. Sometimes, they're a little hard-to-follow, but at the same time I'll commend you for tying all these diverse elements together so nicely. Still, 2:33 was a bit of a rushed solo, and 2:45 was almost comical IMO. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. This piece clearly has a lot of character and charm.

OH SHIT, no! The ending...the e- WHY! *struggles to hold back tears*

OH, WAIT. It loops. Never mind. My stupid MacBook can't accommodate the loop feature very well. I'm sure it loops well, too. I'll confirm that fact when I have access to a PC again...

Anyway, overall this is a freaking awesome piece. I suppose I'd like to see you slow down the pace a bit more at some point during the competition, but for now this is going to get you far! Best of luck, guys. ;D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Not as overdue as my response to your message you sent ages ago XD
But I promise, I have actually been busy! Apart from the three animes I watched. But that was research for the next ngadm track, I promise! I hurt myself really badly living through extremely dark animes, so that I could write an amazing track. It kinda worked, I guess. We'll see in 2 days :D
That is also why my response to this review is late; that, and a lot of school work... But I aced the fist test at least, so that's good, right? But we're nearly finished with the next track now! So I'll totally respond eventually, even if I have to write a blog post too... I also haven't reviewed your track yet, as I might take out... My revenge, on it. I'm not sure yet though. We'll see! I suck at time management these days XD

It's great to hear that you love the sound design, as I put a lot of work into it. As for structure and progression, and composing in general, most of it was made on my piano, which explains why it's a pretty complicated piece :p
I'm glad to hear that the mixing has improved. I know there's still a lot to do, but it's fine as long as I am getting better.

Yeah. I think this piece is easier to listen to if you hear it once or twice at first. I wouldn't call 2:33 a solo, but I get what you mean. It differs a lot from the rest of the track. As for 2:45, I'm not sure why it's comical, but I don't mind, as this is meant to be a lively piece anyway :D

Hehhe, yeah. No worries. I am not johnfn XD
The loops is pretty good, but not infallible.

Thanks a lot for the positive review! I'm the most glad to hear that you think my orchestral mixing is improving :)
Oh, and for the next track, I guess we'll slow down the pace, in one way at least, hehhe XD

[~{ || MEGA || }~]

I love the sound design in this one. It has a cool cinematic vibe, as you touched upon in the tags. I love the sense of apprehension. It would fit a movie or game trailer very well indeed. The best thing about this piece is definitely the instrumentation, though. I'm really glad you got your hands on those horns. Together with the strings, hard-hitting percussion, and somewhat harsh sound effects (e.x., :10), they work really well to create the mood I think you were going for. If I had to complain about one thing, it would probably be the ending. I think you could've wrapped up the themes here a little more conclusively, unless you intended on looping it, of course. Still, very nice work overall, and congrats on the 11,000+ plays and 700+ downloads! ;D

larrynachos responds:

Jesus, I'm almost at 800 downloads? Holy shit!

Thanks for the review, dude! I'm glad I finally managed to get more than 4 stars from you lol.