TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[End Us All]

I like the intensity at the beginning and the tremolos (:01 - :09). The drums at :11 are a little over-stimulating, though. I appreciated that they were nice and up-front in the mix, which drum mixing is often overlooked in metal tracks in my experience. The piece has constant energy to it, which doesn’t provide much sense of direction or structural ebb and flow. I think you needed to strip away a lot of the textural elements here at some points to allow for a greater sense of contrast and climax. I also would’ve focused on creating a sense of development within the phrases (varying dynamics within specific sections, etc.). You also occasionally introduce various themes quite suddenly, such as the melodies at 2:28. And I also don’t think the stop-start transition at 3:46 worked very well. It ended up being quite jarring, actually, especially since the section at 3:48 was so different from what preceded it. The song ends quite suddenly, and it’s hard to keep track of any overarching sense of structure here. You had a lot of good ideas here, but I would’ve focused on fleshing a few of them out instead of jamming a lot of them together in succession. The result is that this piece lacks coherence and direction after a point, even though it has several distinct self-contained sections. I would suggest focusing on building on the themes you have earlier in the piece rather than introduce new ones after, say, ⅔ of the way through. Still, overall the mixing and mastering are solid, your melodies are enjoyable, and I enjoyed the nice full texture you had during the intense sections of this piece. The part that needs fixing IMO is that “the intense sections” are basically all of the sections, giving the piece a structural flatness and inhibiting your ability to create melodic development, dynamic contrast, etc. The piece still has melodic variation, but without being grounded in structural cues and past riffs the coherence of the piece breaks down. Fix these compositional complaints and you’ve got a really solid piece here, my friend! Keep at it, man. ;)

7.5/10

[[MBG] << Awakening >>]

I wasn’t a huge fan of the piano sample, but the tranquil, quirky mood and atmosphere of the piece are huges pluses. The transition at :24 was smooth, and I thought the panning on that modulated crash was cool, but a bit overused. I also thought the crash was a bit too loud in the mix and that you should’ve brought out the melodies more there. Unfortunately, I don’t really regard this as a structurally complete piece. You only really have one emotional height here (:48), and no proper bridge or 2nd refrain to channel the energy and develop your melodies further, respectively. I also found the fade-out ending pretty lazy and inconclusive. The production quality isn’t bad (I can hear everything clearly), but I think you need to more carefully consider how you’re balancing your instruments. For example, at 1:00 the arpeggios are dominating the more substantive melodic content. Perhaps it would be ideal to offer some more phrasing that would alternately highlight the arpeggios and melodic content. That said, I enjoyed the instruments and mood of this track a lot, and you did a nice job of keeping the texture full throughout. Flesh this piece out more, including adding dynamic contrast, melodic development, and the like, and you’ve got a very solid piece, my friend. Keep at it, man! ;)

7/10

[The Ballad of Joey Domino]

I like the feel-good indie vibes at the beginning. The vocals are smooth, sit well in the mix, and have great intonation. The lyrics themselves are also pretty great. They fit the tone of the piece very well. The pacing is a bit fast here, though. For example, you transition back into the refrain at 2:04 from the badass solos at 1:52 without so much as a drum fill. This piece also lacks a proper breakdown or re-intro section, which could’ve really helped provide some much-needed structural relief and flesh out this piece more. As for the mixing and mastering, the drums are seriously underpowered and I can’t always hear all of the background instruments clearly (such as the chords during the solo). However, I did enjoy the instruments, mood, and soulful character of the piece. Overall solid work! Keep it up, guys. ;D

8/10

MistyE responds:

Thank you so much for your great review - I'm glad you liked it! I'll try to keep your feedback about the transitioning and structure in mind.

[Death's Whisper]

Really interesting atmosphere and mood here. This song is missing a lot of high-range frequencies and is very slow to progress, however. There was very little sense of build into 1:01. I liked the breaks there, but you could’ve done a lot more to channel the energy. Right now, this piece lacks strong melodic content and structural contrast. You didn’t really do anything new or interesting with the long section between the drops, which detracts significantly from the sense of progression this piece has. Also, to touch on a smaller detail, I don’t think the last “whisper” was necessary at the end, and the portamento there seemed a bit cheesy. Your drum samples are also a bit generic. The mixing and mastering is pretty strong, although I’d once again caution you about not using the whole frequency range for large swaths of the piece. You definitely have not maximized the melodic and harmonic potential of this piece, and you could’ve done a lot more to polarize the intense drops and the more mellow sections (using dynamic contrast, phrasing, etc.). Do this, and you have a really solid track here. Otherwise, it’s not very memorable or engaging. Keep working at it, man! ;)

6/10

Lone-X responds:

Thank you very much for the critique! It is much appreciated.

Peace and love,
Lone X

[LESSON]

The piece kinda throws you into the middle of the action with little introduction. I liked the instruments and mood, though. The cute arpeggiated synths fit the bright soprano vocals really well. The piece has little sense of progression until :27, when you repeat “I’m learning your lesson” just a few too many times. Then, it launches into a minimalistic beat that sounds more like an intro than a post-chorus. The chord progression is cliche, and by around the 2-minute mark the piece is just getting extremely repetitive and lacking some direction. A lot of the samples are pretty generic. The one at 2:09 sounded especially sounded like a hollow stock sample. You did very little to give this piece an overarching sense of progression. There’s little in the way of melodic development, dynamic contrast, or phrasing. I don’t think you even added anything new to the piece after around halfway through, perhaps with the exception of the melody at 2:09. The ending is sudden and unsatisfying. It’s almost as if this piece was originally intended to be a loop. Also, I think you could’ve done a lot more with the texture of the piece. For large swaths of the piece (i.e., :43 - 2:08), there’s very little engaging content. I can hear all of the instruments clearly and the sub-bass was a valuable addition to the track, yet the piece still feels too safe. I’d encourage you to take some more risks with the sound design, melodic content, and progression. This is a solid foundation for a track, but there’s simply not a lot of engaging content here. If you did more with the harmonies, rhythm, dynamics, and variation, this piece would receive a much higher score. The potential is there, though. Keep working at it, man. ;)

6.25/10

[{AIM} Ascend to Madness]

I like the intensity and sense of melody you display during the intro. I thought the drums were extremely weak, though. Instead of using the snare to enhance the drama here, it detracts from the piece’s energy and drive. Also, the rhythm is a little hard-to-follow at :29. I think it would’ve helped to have a prominent hi-hat in there to help the listener with the subdivision. There are also moments when the bass really overwhelms the melodic content, such as at :42. I think this is more a balance issue than a mastering issue, however. Also, it’s hard for me to get an overarching sense of progression here. You go from brief intro (:00) to dark melodies (:04) to robotic, foreboding arpeggiated section (:16) to distorted rhythmic section (:29) to (seemingly) transitory melodic content (:42), then back to the main melody (1:08) and, later, the arpeggios again (1:20). However, it all has an almost completely uniform energy level and very little sense of development within these phrases themselves. There was never really a proper bridge or breakdown that you could use to channel the energy of this piece. You needed more structural contrast here to make the emotional highs have the powerful effect they should. If it all sounds uniformly intense, it might as well be uniformly not-intense. I can see where the final climax of the piece is meant to be (2:26), but you didn’t foreshadow it in a meaningful way. There’s a brief transition there, but that just wasn’t enough to bridge the gap between 2 minutes of structurally flat content and a suddenly higher intensity level. What you really need to do is work on phrasing. That way, your piece has a constant sense of direction to it that simultaneously will keep the listener grounded in a sense of overarching structure. I enjoyed your melodies, and the song had a full texture throughout. Think more about the progression here, and this would be a very solid piece. Keep at it, man. ;)

7/10

larrynachos responds:

Very thorough review thanks dude

[-Oasis-]

I enjoyed the upbeat vibes and sense of climax. The chord progression is cliche, and I have a few issues with the balance. For example, at :45 the melody is buried under the chords a bit, whereas it’s generally a good idea to emphasize melodic content in the mix. I liked the “emotional height” at 1:00, although I thought you could’ve done more creative work with the rhythm. The mastering is generally solid, although I thought the chords were fighting for attention a bit at 2:34. Perhaps you could use some more careful equalizing and panning to bring out all of the instruments as clearly as possible. I appreciated the structural contrast you offered at 1:35. It was a good way of creating some space for yourself and letting the track breathe a bit. Good job with adding a sense of development in the melody too by layering the two main melodies of the piece on top of one another at 2:49. It gave the piece an overarching sense of progression and finality, and also tells me that you carefully planned out the tonality of the piece ahead of time. The ending was okay, but it was a bit dry. I’d suggest adding an echo or reverb effect there just to really sell the fact that you wanted to end this piece on the 3rd. Overall, though, this is a well-structured and smooth-flowing piece. The only area that needs drastic improvement IMO is the originality. Overall, this was a pretty generic upbeat house/trance track with quite a few cliches (the risers, chord progression, etc.). The big pluses here are the melodies, structure and variety, and the full texture throughout. Solid work. Keep at it, man! ;)

8/10

Kyron20 responds:

Wow, thanks for the awesome review! I'll try to be more original in my next piece, although it can be hard at times with house because it usually has a somewhat distinct sound, and for me it feels natural to do what I know sounds like house. I'll also be sure to work on balance, which I think is my biggest struggle. I usually try to spend minimal time on it because I'm so close to finishing the track, so I'll slow down and make sure I get it right this time. I really wasn't expecting variety to be a strength of this track, because I usually find my songs somewhat repetitive, but I guess I can worry a bit less about that now. Thanks again, I really enjoyed the feedback! I hope I can improve off of what you've told me so far.

[Control]

I like the dark, frantic riffs at the beginning. I thought you could’ve done more to transition more smoothly into :08, but that’s a small detail. The progression here is interesting. I love a lot of these rhythmic guitar riffs, but the piece loses a sense of direction a bit after you repeat several of these riffs over again a second time. Then, there’s occasionally some new content, such as at 1:37. It’s not really clear to me how you’re trying to channel the energy of this track, though. Some parts of it seem climactic, but I don’t really get a strong sense of melody until just after the 2-minute mark, and even then you don’t do a lot with the rhythm. 2:54 sounds like a completely different chorus section entirely, and at this point I’m really confused about the structure of the piece. 3:24 served as a great breakdown for some structural relief, but it also seemed to change the character of the piece a lot, and 3:54 continued this theme by being both more upbeat, melodic, and rhythmically varied. You then return to the somewhat robotic, apprehensive vibes of the first half of the piece at 4:38. However, the piece has little sense of conclusivity, and the ending seems rather hastily made. Maybe I’m focusing a bit too much on the structure here, though. The mixing and mastering are both very solid. The kick is a little weak for my tastes, but perhaps a strong kick is a taboo in heavy metal. I enjoyed the instrumentation. You especially used the soundscape well during the breakdown (3:24). That section had a dreamy quality that helped really reform this piece. That said, I would caution you about changing moods too suddenly. This is where some phrasing could really help you out. Instead of a curvaceous, gradual build to the emotion, you seem to prefer to increase or decrease the energy with small stepwise intervals every 4 bars, which I might caution against. It’s pretty catchy, although I think you could’ve done more to maximize the structural contrast here in order to emphasize the drama of the “busy” sections (again: played more with dynamics, phrasing, etc.). If anything, it’s a little too busy and over-stimulating at times. The highly unconventional structure makes it hard for me to stay grounded as a listener. Overall, this is pretty solid work. I appreciate that you took some risks here with the progression, but I’m not sure they paid off for me. Sorry. Keep at it, man. ;)

7.75/10

JDawg00100 responds:

Thank you for the detailed review :D

[Stand Still (Original)]

I love the soft piano at the beginning. It sounds very humanized too. The cello is beautiful too. The vocals fit the mood of the song perfectly. You guys have a great sense of harmony and progression. Well-structured, smooth-flowing, spacious and atmospheric, you two have clearly displayed your excellent melodic inclinations here. While it is very dynamic in nature, there is enough repetition to keep the listener grounded. The lyrics are also quite poetic here. If I had to complain about one thing, it would be the ending. It seemed to be winding down, but it then faded out the rest of the way, depriving this piece of a proper sense of conclusion IMO. The piece is mastered very loudly and I can hear all of the instruments clearly. However, it’s my impression that the piano is in danger of peaking at some points, so I’d suggest equalizing out some of the treble tones. This is a very small detail, however. Overall, this is simply fantastic work. I’m very excited about what else we’re going to see from you two for the rest of the competition. Good luck! ;D

9.5/10

Jabicho responds:

Hi TL! :D
man thanks so much for all the compliments, it means a lot to us, i'm sure peachy will be really happy to read your review too :D
Oh yes! i totally understand about the ending, I think it maybe felt like 2 endings XD, and maybe using just one of them would've make it better :)
Thanks for the treble notes info! I think I feel like i'm learning a lot about mixing since i never checked tutorials or anything, so your help means a lot to help us grow in that area :D