TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[EnV - The #IcePack Rises]

It's about time I review this. I think the chord progression is a little cliche, although I do like the build-up into :30. Your melodies were good as always, Envy. I also enjoyed the subtle Far Eastern theme that emerged in some of the post-chorus instrumentation, most notably at 1:13. It's a well-structured and smooth-flowing piece. Your songs generally have very similar instruments and structural elements, though. I'd love to see you take some more risks and shake it up once in a while. That said, your mixing and mastering is fantastic, and I liked the simply yet cute way you ended the piece. Keep up the good work, man. ;)

[The Clairvoyant OST]

I love the still beauty encapsulated by the beginning. The somewhat abrupt transition at :31 actually worked well for me, like the protagonist turned a corner and was thrown into the midst of a celtic market. I thought it was really cool how the acoustic guitar sort of interrupts the rest of the piece at 1:22. I thought you needed a smoother transition at 1:51, though that section in and of itself is probably my favorite of the entire piece. It's just so calming and majestic. The ending was also a bit abrupt, but I'm getting the sense that it was designed that way in order to fit with the film (?). Either way, this is hauntingly beautiful. Two years is a long time, but I'll be listening to this song obsessively for longer. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! ;D

Step responds:

Thanks for another review!

Man, transitions are so difficult in scores! I agree that the transition at 1:51 needs work.

Glad you enjoyed this one too. c:

[The City of Gold]

I love the ominous atmosphere at the beginning. The calming guitars really add an interesting dynamic to the once-apprehensive mood. I also enjoyed the subtle tempo automations, and the melody at 1:05 is just beautiful. Excellent mixing and mastering as always. I don't know if you did this on purpose or not, but I loved the slight separation of each note in the string solo at around 1:35. The transition at 2:15 was a little sudden, but your music does tend to progress relatively quickly. The vocals didn't feel as powerful as they should've been IMO. I think they could've stood to be further up-front in the mix, possibly with more reverb too. I liked the structural relief offered by the relatively tranquil section at 4:10. I also enjoyed the uplifting melody at the end. It was a fitting conclusion. Overall, amazing work. Well worth the 35 hours if I say so myself. Good luck with your studies, and keep it up, Step! ^^

Step responds:

Hey man! Thank you very much for dropping by. I always enjoy reading your reviews.

The slight separation of each note is likely due to the legato transitions between the notes, which is something that the East/West Hollywood libraries do. Instead of just playing each note after the previous one, there's a tiny period of time dedicated to making a smooth transition to the next note, simulating a real string player moving his finger to another note.

2:15 was definitely quite sudden. On the one hand I enjoy that sudden change in mood, but on the other hand it makes more sense story-wise than it does music-wise.

The vocals had me torn. They introduced this really weird phasing with the violins, and I couldn't for the life of me get rid of it. This was the volume level I was happy with which wasn't too quiet that you can't hear them but too loud that the phasing becomes noticeable.

Really glad you enjoyed this! Thank you.

[Lucent]

I noticed right away that this piece is mastered very loud, which I admired. The easy-flowing piano lines have a very bright and uplifting feeling about them. I enjoyed the synths and mostly mellow vibe up until the drop. The drop kind of felt out-of-place. I wish you led up to it a bit more, although I do commemorate your making this song a reasonable length (7 minutes for "Horizons" was kind of pushing it IMO). I definitely liked the "spaciness" of it, though, as you alluded to in the description. Another feel-good piece, so much so that I may go as far as to call into question its categorization as "dubstep." But honestly I don't really care what genre you put it into. Just do me a favor and keep it up! ^_^

Lockyn responds:

Thanks again for popping by as always TL :) Your reviews always brighten my day. I'm glad you appreciated the reasonable song length, I'm really trying to reinvent my arrangement to not be as tedious. Glad you noticed :) I'm sure its not completely dubstep but glad you enjoyed regardless. Expect much more :) Cheers mate!

[From Taiwan]

I love the feel-good sort of melody at the beginning, even if you used a really grouchy bass to play it with. I like how you gradually added layers on as the song went on. The vocals at the end are humorous, but are also kind of out-of-context given the rest of the piece. Also, is that your voice? And yeah, junior year is tough, but you'll get through it. ;) I also hope you find the motivation to make something more of this someday! Until then, good luck with your studies. ^^

LunacyEcho responds:

=> grouchy bass =>

Haha I always love the way you refer to different instruments :)

=> vocals at the end =>

Originally, this piece had a lot more vocal sampling in it, based on a recording of a friend. With respect to his privacy, I have removed most of them (but kept the ending just to annoy him).

=> is that your voice? =>

Nope! My voice never has and probably never will appear in any of my music.

=> junior year =>

><

DEATH

[Hallelujah For 300 Fans!]

I want to start off by saying that I love the original song. I think the reverb was a nice touch, and the whole thing has a nice "reset" sort of vibe about it, as if the protagonist in a movie is singing this to calm himself after his life's completely fallen apart and he's hit rock bottom. I loved the way you started this acapella, too, but it might've needed some more substance later on to create a sense of climax. For example, I like how you started off the piece by creating a sense of shyness about the vocals, especially regarding the note lengths. But I also think you needed to hold them out longer later in the piece in order to heighten the drama more. I also love the light, floaty and breathy quality your voice has throughout the piece. Maybe that's what really made me think that this song came from the perspective of a downtrodden soul. I think you inadvertently changed keys a couple of times in the piece, though, and sometimes your voice falls flat at the end of a phrase. Still, overall I greatly commemorate you for the vulnerability you've exposed in this piece, and I'd encourage you to keep developing your vocal talents. Keep it up, Ale! ^^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Ahaha, 4.5 is way too high a score for this, but thank you :'D

I get what you're saying about the protagonist! I've seen several movies where someone starts singing, in a similar acapella fashion. I suppose that "Edge of the Night" from Lord of the Rings, and "Hanging Tree" from (I think?) the third Hunger Games movie.

There is so much that could be improved here! Like the recording equipment, and the fact that this was just randomly recorded on a whim with no practice or planning. Your ideas for what could've been done better are pretty good!

I did chance the key. One on purpose, but probably a few times without thinking about it too. Either way, I'm singing this a bit too high for my range :p

I hope I do develop my vocal talents! I've been singing a bit more than usually recently. My latest "real" upload is actually one in which I'm singing too, and I've made a few improvements, in the very least.

Thank you! :)

[The Power of Passion]

I'm not a huge fan of the string samples tbh. The drums were pretty good, and it loops well. It has a powerful sort of vibe that you encapsulated well with the thick texture and melodic progression here. However, ironically I think one of the reasons why it sounds like it has such a thick texture is because there's a bit of muddiness between the strings and brass samples. That said, I would love to see you expand on this sometime as I think triumphant melodies like this make for great cinematic content. Maybe the final product of this could be one of your rushed submissions at the end of 2016! ;D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Admittedly, this is another one of those short loops I put a fairly small amount of effort into. I don't have a problem with the string samples per se, but they could probably have been used better. The percussion sounds a bit like gunshots, but apparently it was effective, as so many people like this track! It also has a bit of an unusual atmosphere, compared to similarly built up pieces.

I don't think I want to go on another rush at the end of this year! I don't feel I need to reach the holy 52 tracks a year this time around. If I somehow get to 50 or 51 naturally, I might pump something out. But otherwise, I think I'll leave it be xD

My rush is now instead. I have so much to work on, I barely know where to start!

[BRUCE: Angel - Innocence Lost]

I like the atmosphere and the progression of the piano. Admittedly, I thought the "ghosts" sounded more like melodramatic gargling. Maybe it would help if you tried to hide them a little more in the mix by increasing the wetness on the reverb. I tend to think that indistinctness is creepy, and I think creepiness is what you were going for here. The piece also was a little more fast-paced than it should've been in order to maximize the drama and/or ghostly qualities of it. Also, I thought the delay effect you added at the end of the piece was kind of a lazy way of concluding what was otherwise a very flowy and well-balanced effort. I've been pretty tough on you in this review, but fortunately you might find that the bulk of my criticisms are relatively simple to address. Otherwise, keep up the good work! ^^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I'm glad you like the progression and the atmosphere. Worth to note, is that this animated audio drama isn't really supposed to be 100% serious, which is why I think the ghosts were made to sound like this :)

I don't want to hide them in the mix, but I uploaded a separate version without the ghosts as well, for those who simply like the piano music for what it is :)

As for the ending, it is indeed a bit lazy. The reason is though, that the original piece loops! And you can hear that version too if you want to. Once the project is picked back up, I'm sure this track will just fade after a while, as I don't think the scene is quite this long. We'll see when/if that happens though!

It's fine to be critical. It means you care about stuff, which is usually a good thing :)
So thank you for being critical!

[Percussionella]

I love the use of mallets - there's something cryptic, yet comical about them, and the progression and repetition just fits them so well. The panning is a nice touch, and I absolutely concur that this is great background music, especially for a video game. I also think it starts to lose it's luster a bit after a while, especially when there are so many layers that the listener starts to lose a sense of climax. I might've started to crossfade some of the parts in and out intricately, just to add some dimension to the additive quality later in the piece. You also could've led up to the ending a bit more effectively. Still, if this is the "least creative" piece you've made in a while, that's pretty good. ;)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yeah, I agree completely with you there. Music like this would fit perfectly in some kind of comical animated mystery, even if it's a bit long-winded. It's true that the build up stops working well after a while. But this is just a simple track which I made in a super short time, so I put shamefully little effort into it. I regard it as a fun experiment though!

I hope I'll get to do something similar, in a more fleshed out piece, with tons of more elements to it!
Thank you for reviewing this, and most of my othe stuff! On to the next one ;)

[Jumbo Jungle]

Ooo...it's something quite different! I thought the texture was a little busy, especially when you have two very melodic contrapuntal lines going at once from around :18 to :41. Still, an interesting and catchy experiment. I wish it looped - I think that could've worked well. The percussion is really fun, though, and I think your mixing is improving. I should really go searching some old contest threads for more of these submissions. Keep it up, man! ;)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

You know, I thought about making this loop. But I didn't in the end! Which is quite unusual a decision, considering I am the one who made it. I guess I figured people probably didn't want more of this xD

I made the percussion first, from scratch, with a surprisingly basic plugin which came with my former version of Cubase. I think the mix here works surprisingly well, but this is a pretty simple piece. I hope I've improved a bit since I made this too, though! :D