TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Drip]

I love the quirky mood and intricate rhythms at the beginning. I think the tiny pauses you have at the end of some of the mini-phrases (like at :06 and :13) sort of detract from the flow of the piece. I might’ve at least tried to fill in the gaps with some reverb. The part at :27 is catchy, if a little hard-to-follow rhythmically. I liked the (saxophone?) solo at :40, but I think it should’ve been a bit more up-front in the mix. The solos at around 1:15 are also cool. The part at 1:40 really threw me off guard, though. It sounds like a completely different song. The structure of this song was a little strange to start, but towards the end you pushed it a little too far IMO. It comes across as a bit disjointed and choppy. You might need some smoother transitions at 1:39 and 2:03, as well as some longer phrases to bridge the gap between the themes I’m hearing during 0:00 to 1:39 and 1:40 onwards. The ending felt a little rushed too. I think you need to flesh out these ideas here a lot more. It really wouldn’t hurt, especially since this piece is so short right now. Sorry this review is so negative. I like the instruments and melodies, and the production quality is quite high. The structure, transitions, and some of the rhythmic content didn’t sit well with me, tbh. It’s important to take risks as a composer and musician, but many of the ones I’m seeing here didn’t pay off for me. Sorry. I hope this review helped! I’d encourage you to keep working on this piece after the competition because, as I said, I like a lot of the isolated ideas here. Keep at it, Camoshark. ;)

7/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

[The Journey Home]

I like the contemplative piano at the beginning, and the warm strings really enhance that mood as well. I think you could’ve brought more emotion to the piece by creating more of a crescendo through the first 20 seconds or so, though. I’m loving the progression by around :45. The texture is full and engaging. Beautiful samples, too! The guitar at 1:05 adds a lot to the piece as well. I love the victorious vibe I’m getting during the guitar solo. Again, at 1:38 I thought you could’ve played with the contrast more by bringing it down to at least a mezzo piano and then experimenting with some phrasing/crescendos while you brought the piece back to the emotional heights of earlier. I absolutely love the structural relief that 2:27 offers. It’s simple, yet down-to-earth, organic, and beautiful. It also flows into 2:59 very nicely. The production quality is amazingly high as well. I love the soundscape here. There are so many twists and turns in the structure that you really capitalize on opportunities to channel the emotion later in this piece. Fantastic work, Bassfiddlejones! Keep it up! :’D

9.5/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

bassfiddlejones responds:

Thank you for the great and detailed review! Hopefully we can continue to impress. :)

[Who Killed The World?]

I like the drama at the beginning. The strings at :26 also help enhance that drama. The piece progresses a little slowly, though. Once you do add more moving notes at :52, I think they could’ve come through the mix a bit more distinctly. The transition at 1:06 was abrupt, yet effective, and also helped to provide some structural relief. I love the dark, cinematic mood of the piece. I think you need some smoother transitions later in the piece; 1:54 and 2:02 come to mind. I love the sense of climax you’ve created here though. The ending was perhaps a bit rushed, yet again that contributed to the mood. I can imagine a story that really comes to life because of this piece. I love tracks that put images in my head! The production quality is pretty high, and I liked the samples you chose. Overall, this is a pretty strong piece. Nice work! Hope this review helped. ;)

9.25/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

LunyAlex responds:

Thank you for your detailed review.
I had read and appreciated it back then. Once again, sorry for never replying, but life kept getting in the way at the time.

Cheers!

[[IV]Voyage]

I love the atmospheric vibes at the beginning. The piece flows into the warm string sound at :09 really well. Excellent job with the emotion, and the (harp?) at :26 sounds very majestic, contributing to the mood a lot. You switch up the melody instrument a lot, though. I know you’re trying to create variety, but it makes the structure a little overly convoluted IMO. I think you also missed an opportunity for some dynamic contrast at 1:07. I would’ve brought that way down dynamically. That, in turn, gives you an opportunity to do more with the phrasing during the entire middle section of the piece. I think adding more dynamic contrast would enhance the cinematic vibe of this piece a lot. Also, you never really get back to the emotional height of :43. I wanted to see some more melodic development here later in the piece. The piece is literally called “Voyage,” so I want to know if our hero ever makes it to the shore of this far-off land or if he dies at sea while trying to save his crew. Right now, it’s missing a bit of action during the last 1/3 of the piece or so IMO. That said, I think your soundscape here is beautiful, and I admire your sense of harmony and progression. Keep up the good work! Hope this review helped. ;)

9/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

IglicaV responds:

Thanks a lot! I really appreciate your in-depth review, and I will try my best to use this new knowledge :)

[Arcadia]

I liked the atmospheric intro, but by around :05 you used a bit too much reverb so that the notes sounded pretty indistinct. Interesting mood you have here. It seems simultaneously upbeat and a bit creepy, tbh. I think you went way overboard with the reverb. Also, the kick is a little weak. Some of the melodies are a little overly convoluted, and they even compete with each other, like at 1:35. There’s a lot of melodic content here, and you bring together a lot of different instruments at different times. Synths, saxophones, pianos, etc. all play and sometimes share the melodies at different points. It sounds like a continuous conglomeration of melodies, which is kind of confusing to listen to. It’s hard to discern the structure, which probably isn’t a good thing. I would recommend adding a breakdown or bridge near the middle of the piece, just to keep the listener grounded in what you want to be the main theme of the piece. I’ve been tough on you, though. The drums and synths are cool, and I like a lot of the isolated ideas in this track. I think you should focus next time on fleshing out a couple of ideas here instead of using so many different melodies. Hope this helped! Keep at it, Adieuwinter. ;)

7/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

[Pressing On]

I love the combination of moods here. It has a laid back, jazzy vibe at times, and at others a more dramatic, almost cinematic feel. I think you should’ve brought out the hats at around :20 more. The progression is really interesting. I like the drums at :52. It has a really organic and down-to-earth vibe, like it was recorded right from some lounge performers in a classy hotel. I guess one complaint I would have is that the section from :52 to 2:20 seemed sort of structurally flat. You could’ve done more with phrasing and dynamic contrast there IMO. Still, 2:20 brought some welcome variations. I love the improvisational feel this piece has. It’s a very flowy and smooth piece, but I suppose I would’ve liked to hear some more emotional highs and lows. That would help keep my attention a lot more (although I understand that you were going for a laidback, almost background approach). I also thought you could’ve ended the piece a lot more creatively. Maybe a fade-out fits the style of this piece to some extent, but in the context of this being a stand-alone piece for a competition, it came across as a bit lazily done IMO. Still, overall I love the atmosphere, soundscape, and harmonies of this piece. Nice job, BlazingDragon! Hope this review helped, and good luck! ;)

8.5/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

[Far Away Lands]

I like the emotional piano at the beginning. You left yourself a lot of space for climax here. It progresses a little slowly, but I admire your sense of harmony. It’s a very smooth-flowing and well-structured piece. I thought you could’ve added more emotional contrast here. The transition into 1:04 sounds like it’s leading towards a height of drama, and then you have this smooth, slow-paced string section again. I liked the percussion at 2:14. The production quality is pretty high. I like the sense of climax into 2:52, although it maintains its slow pace, and I think you could’ve done more with those drums. There’s a beautiful soundscape and high sample quality here. I liked the ending too. My main problem is that I felt like you could’ve done more to contrast the structural elements of this piece. Some more dynamic contrast and phrasing would also help. Overall solid work, my friend. Hope this helped! ;)

9/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

Stadler responds:

I appreciate the detailed review! I'm pretty convinced my downfall was the drum section, haha. Usually I add far more variety to them, but you know... time was not on my side for this one! What's great is that I can go back and improve upon this song for a re-release. I also totally agree that the more intense climactic parts weren't, well, intense and climactic enough. Some tempo changes may have solved some of these issues even (whole song remained at the same bpm!). I'm really happy that you enjoyed it overall, and I'll certainly take all of your points into consideration when I re-release this!

Thanks so much for the honest response, TaintedLogic!

[The House by the Cemetary]

Okay. Right off the bat, I love the creepy, clashing chords and spooky mood. I appreciated the crescendo in the strings into :15 as well, but then I didn’t understand why you had this gloomy yet relatively tranquil piano part in there. The crescendo at the beginning made me anticipate a huge explosion of creepy wonder, and that turned :16 into a bit of a disappointment. The piano also drags on for a bit too long IMO. The strings at 1:04 add a lot to the mood, though. I like the more hard-hitting vibe you aim for at 1:27, as well as the subsequent effects with the clock. I think it would’ve helped the drama, though, if you had brought out the drum that was playing on the downbeats during that section a lot more. I think the drum needed a ton more reverb, and probably also some more careful equalizing so that it just causes the listener to freak out when (s)he hears it. You completely change the vibe of this piece at 1:52 – it’s a lot more energetic and frantic. Kind of has more of a Golden Eye feel than sneaking-around-Old-Lady-Wilson’s-house. The thing I like about these mood shifts is that it helps the music tell a story. The thing I don’t like is that it makes the piece lose some coherence. This piece is pretty short. I would’ve liked to see you flesh out these ideas a bit more if you wanted to incorporate these different moods. That way, the pacing will help keep the listener grounded instead of frantically flip-flopping between Old-Lady-Wilson-is-undead and James-Bond-infiltrates-the-bad-guys’-headquarters. Still, it’s a pretty captivating track, and the production quality is rather high. Nice work! Hope this helped, man, and good luck! ;)

9/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

Azhthar responds:

Hey! Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback. It´s good that you pint out a lot of critical points and actually I´m quite surprised that you gave me such a high rating with such a critical review. Thanks for that I guess ;) I already knew that it was a bit risky to throw that many ideas together, do to the coherence. That´s why I put a lot of work into the transitions to connect the contrasting parts. I also always tried to adapt themes from the previous parts to give the piece a bit more consistance. Actually I didn´t really have James Bond in my mind for the energetic part :) But maybe that´s because I´m in the age grown up with the "old" James Bond which had these typical "spy music" stuff (with big band and guitars and stuff). You are definitely right about the percussion in the middle section. At the end I think this part was a bit too crowded with noise in any case... The strings at the beginning were more supposed to show the creepy house from outside and represent some danger, while the piano "inside the house" should have more represented the "sneaky, spooky" atmosphere. Maybe a string decrescendo instead of crescendo would have been more consequent here... I was surprised that you meant this piece is pretty short because it´s about 3:20. Maybe the sections are quite short but I have to regret that I hate it, just to repeat sections, even if I slowly build them up. So... Thanks again for the input! I´ll try to build my track for the next round with more coherence but I can´t promise ;)

[(NUB) Dont Leave]

Interesting use of those chords at the beginning. I like the quirky instruments and somewhat mysterious mood. I think this piece is pretty slow to progress, and the transition into the “emotional high” at 1:10 felt pretty rushed. I thought you should’ve brought out the melodic content at 1:10 a lot more, too. By around 1:32, the texture is pretty thin and I think you need more harmonies to build off of that chord progression. A lot of the effects are cool, like at 2:18. By the end, it felt pretty repetitive, though. I’m not sure it needed to be this long. The breakdown at 2:45 was a welcome change structurally, but then I think it dragged on for a little too long. You also could’ve done more with dynamic contrast during that section (breakdown sections are usually good times to play with the phrasing). The transition at 3:43 was pretty sudden, and I think you needed more of a coda in there, instead of rather generically wrapping things up with a simple crash. Overall, I like it, but I think you could’ve done a lot more to make this piece more memorable, including emphasizing melodic development more and adding some more texture at times. Still, it’s a pretty cool piece when all said and done. Hope this helped! Keep at it, man. ;)

7/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

nubbinownz responds:

definitely helped ! This song wasn't actually finished, but i have had a series of events that took quite a bit of my attention and I figured it was better to just submit it as is and call it a day. I'll be removing it from newgrounds next week to release later once it's actually done.
Thank you so much for the awesome feedback :)

[Chip 'n' Swing]

I liked the arpeggios at the beginning. The drums were cool. I liked how the track sort of built on the chords at the beginning as it went onwards. The melodies are cool. The one at :49 has an especially cathartic vibe to it. I also like the variety you started incorporating at 1:19. It sounds really fitting for a videogame. The production quality is pretty high, although I think you might’ve been able to fill some more texture at times, even if that simply involved using more reverb. This piece is varied a lot, though, which is usually a good thing, although I think you took it a little too far. It kind of lacks coherence after a point. You never brought back any of the more memorable melodies from the first half of the piece during the second half. You also ended the piece a little ambiguously, which was not really in keeping with the videogame theme. In fact, practically speaking 0:00 to 1:16 and 1:17 to 3:20 could be entirely separate songs, albeit probably part of the same game. Still, my main problem with the piece is that you never really bring it full circle by the end. I suppose you could say it’s structurally disjointed. I admire your sense of harmony and rhythm, though. The jazzy vibes you have during the second half of the piece are awesome. Keep at it, man. ;)

8.5/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.