TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[In Gods Mournful Design]

I like the dark, ambient vibes at the beginning. Sounds like it’s from a dystopian action movie. The melodies at around :35 were really cool. I’m loving the quirky, industrial sound design. I think this piece was lacking in structural contrast. It has this flowing, eternal energy about it that might need some relief at times. I liked the vocals at around 3:20. I lot of the ideas you have in this piece are really cool. You have this industrial beat playing for almost the whole piece, though, and I think it would’ve been a welcome change if you had stripped it away at one point. I think that the near-uniform intensity that you have during most of this piece makes it hard to discern its structure, and it kind of comes across as lacking coherence despite the beat. I also really didn’t understand why you had that last bass in there at 5:38. The piece was conclusive enough without it, and so it just kind of confused me. I’ve seen you use this heavy, industrial, consistent-energy style time and time again, Lich, and while I like it overall, I think you need to broaden your horizons more if you’re serious about reaching the final stages of this competition. I would recommend exploring a style that allows you to experiment more with melodic development, dynamic contrast, and other aspects of a more emotionally-driven structure. Until then, your hard-hitting and structurally flat pieces will almost always earn you good (but not great) scores from me. I’m not saying you need to change the genre you use, just the approach you take to structuring a piece so that it fits with the genre. Hope this helped! Keep at it, man. ;)

7.5/10

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

[Caliginous Newcomer]

I liked the exotic percussion and other samples you had here. Very cool soundscape. You left yourself a lot of space for contrast at the beginning here, but the piece itself progresses pretty slowly. The piano that starts fading in at around 1:10 was also a nice touch. I love the somewhat ominous and apprehensive mood you’ve created here. There isn’t really a big “arrival point” until 1:50, and even then you don’t release a lot of tension. I also think you could’ve brought out that bell-like synth a lot more, as that seemed to be the main melody at that part. The build-up at around 1:30 doesn’t lead much of anywhere. I like the frantic synths at around 2:45. Nice job bringing the structure of the piece full-circle with the re-introduction of that first lead at 2:57, and then the subsequent variance of that lead at 3:08. That variance really helps give the piece a sense of direction. I suppose my main problem with this piece is that you build up a lot of tension, and then you never release it. Take 3:30 for example. I was expecting a soaring melody, a hard-hitting drop, or at least something more cathartic than a mysterious, flowy riff following a huge sweep. It would help create a lot more structural contrast in this piece if you added that point of arrival and release, probably at least twice in your track. If anything, 4:15 was sort of a dramatic “height” in a way, yet it was somewhat structurally isolated from the “height” at 1:50. I think this piece dragged on a lot longer than it really had to. All the various build-ups and subsequent re-intros don’t really keep my attention for almost 6 minutes. Furthermore, the transition at 4:58 was a little sudden. You could’ve at least used a crash there or something. That said, I enjoyed the ominous quality that the coda had (it certainly seemed fitting given the 5 minutes before it). The mixing and mastering is generally very solid as well. Fix the structural and concision issues, and I’ll say you’ve got a well-polished track here, Lordedri! Keep at it, man! Hope this helped. ;)

8/10

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

Adjeye responds:

Thank you very much! This is definitely something I can work on!

[Ersatz]

I liked the mood at the beginning, as well as the synths. It progresses pretty slowly, and you’ve soaked up a huge chunk of this piece with very little development, contrast, or climax. The atmosphere is good. Some variety finally comes at around 1:45, but it in and of itself also progresses very slowly. The transition at 2:51 was also very sudden. A lot of this piece is very minimalistic and even a bit bland IMO. As background music to a videogame, it’d be great work, but as a stand-alone piece I think you need more melodic development, a fuller texture with supportive harmonies, and a more complex structure. The coda with the distorted bass also threw me off a bit. It didn’t seem to fit the chill, quirky aesthetic you had during most of the piece. There are some good ideas here, though. I’d encourage you to keep working on this piece after the competition. Hope this helped, man! ;)

7/10

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

[Dive In (NGADM '15)]

Sorry to start this review off on a negative note, but the intro didn’t really work for me. You have this distorted, bass bomb of a sample playing for 3 seconds, and then you launch into this upbeat, well-balanced and full-textured section hook. The intro was short lived, and didn’t really help lead up to the next part in any way. I suppose the most confusing part of it for me was when you stripped away the filters (or made a volume automation; I can’t tell) at :01, and then just faded it back in before the upbeat part started. I think the intro would’ve worked fine as a sort of start-stop transition mid-way through the track, but at the beginning it felt a little bizarre. I’ve spent enough time talking about that, though. It’s a tiny detail and I’m not taking off many points for it. Anyway, I like the synths at :03 and the mood. Like I mentioned, you have a nice, full and even texture. The modulation at :29 caught me really off guard. Usually key changes don’t occur until much later in the piece as a way of making things seem more climactic. Then, :57 launches into this sort of ambient, pulsing drone-like sound that somehow reminds me of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” I think you’re trying to force these moods to work together a bit too much. You need to connect the disparate ideas you have here a little more. Otherwise, this piece seems a bit all-over-the-place. I’m still getting the “Thriller” vibes from that organ at 1:53 – kind of has this pop-like, thick-pad creepy sound to it. Then, once again I have no idea what to make of 2:19 – 2:46. It sounded like you tried to return to the ambient sound you had earlier, and then got sidetracked with creating a build-up (2:34) that essentially led nowhere. I’m so confused and disturbed that I almost actually like it. But then you come in with these random distorted effects at 2:48 and I’m once again convinced that this piece is ALL OVER THE PLACE. Don’t get me wrong – I love a lot of the ideas here, but the structure is so insanely bizarre that it’s almost impossible to keep the listener grounded by any sort of verse-chorus dependability or anything. There’s very little coherence in this piece. You need to repeat some of your ideas across sections of the piece! It should usually be relatively easy for a casual listener to discern the structure of your track. Adding variety – dynamic contrast, melodic development, etc. – will help keep your track interesting enough. However, neither of those concepts is even remotely relevant to this piece, I’m afraid. I’m sorry this review is so negative, Birdinator99. I’d encourage you to keep working on this piece (after the contest, of course) because I like the ideas you have here as I said, but right now the structure is very confusing and there’s very little repetition. Hope this helped! Keep at it, man. ;)

6/10

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

Birdinator99 responds:

The intro is bad and was rushed -- I'm actually surprised nobody else brought it up. I don't know how to explain how it came to be, but to make the intro longer would've meant me reorganizing a lot of my automation, and I ended up waiting until it was too late to decide what to do about it, so it's a cop-out. My bad. I will be more conscious of this in the future.

Glad you like the first part. It almost sounded a lot different at first, but I made a decision to have that organ play the chords about halfway through the process, and I think it really works.

I don't know enough about music theory to know what I did at 0:29. I had some chords that I was looking to use, and they sounded like they fit, so I just went for it. If it was jarring for you I apologize. Won't change that modulation though ;) haha

I have a habit of adding a spacey or, I don't know, "wondrous" section about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through my songs, so it's not always going to fit in with the rest of the piece. You're right; in hindsight, this track kind of keeps going...and going...and going. It's just one idea to the next without a lot of cohesion. I won't complain about Michael Jackson comparisons though!

2:19 to the end is really just creepy for the sake of being creepy. I was messing around with my tape stop plugin and I found something that I liked, so I just rolled with it. I'm glad you are disturbed -- I felt similarly the first time I heard that part when I stumbled across it. I really personally enjoy this section, so while I realize it doesn't fit with a lot of what else is going on here, I'm proud of it "as it's own thing", if you know what I mean.

I'm afraid I don't usually go back to songs to change them, however I will try to learn from this. I am working on a project right now that will help with my dynamic contrast and melodic development skills, hopefully. The journey's not over yet!

Thanks for taking the time to type out your thoughts. I'm sorry it was a let down for you!

[Ghost Pilot]

I liked the heavy, distorted bass at the beginning, and the “haunted” theme is really cool. I think you might’ve needed a less sudden transition at :09, or you could’ve at least faded in the melodies that came in there to smooth it over a bit. The percussion you have at the very beginning ducks under the mix a bit by around :17, and in general I thought the drums could’ve been a lot louder, with more reverb to add some punchiness. I liked the full texture you had at :24, as well as the melodies, but I think a lot of the individual elements of the mix could’ve come through a bit clearer, especially in the bass range. The transition at :54 is also quite abrupt. I thought this piece was well-structured, though. The bridge you have at 2:11 is neat, but I think it drags on a little longer than it should’ve. As I see it, that whole section essentially lasts until around 3:20, where you bring some more prominent drums and lead guitars back in. You could’ve done a lot more during that 2:11 – 3:20 section to create more dynamic contrast, phrasing and build-ups into the last “emotional height” at around 3:20. I also thought you could’ve added more to the last minute or so of the piece. You lost some opportunities to add some melodic development there, as there weren’t really any memorable leads and/or solos. Overall, there are a lot of good ideas in this piece, but I think they can be fleshed out more. Hope this helped! Keep at it, CruelDeity. ;)

8/10

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

[~SW~ Data Transfer]

I really liked the atmospheric vibe at the beginning. You left yourself a lot of space for climax, which is always good to see. It progressed a little slowly, but you maintained this sort of tense and ominous mood that I really liked. I thought the drop at 1:01 was engaging while simultaneously not being too heavy. The part at 1:27 offered some much-valued structural relief, although I thought the bass was a little too loud during that section. Perhaps it would’ve helped create even more structural contrast if you had kept the bass in the backdrop a bit more at that point. I liked the melodies at 2:08. They helped lead into the second drop really nicely, and it was good to see that you varied the drop more the second time around. It helped create some melodic development. I liked the coda too, but I thought you dragged it out a little longer than was necessary. I’ll also add that there’s a lot of built-up tension in this piece that I didn’t think you released fully by the end, even with the second drop. It would give this piece a much more cathartic emotional height at 2:21 if you had some more hard-hitting content in there IMO. Still, I love the soundscape here, and the production quality is very high. Keep up the good work, SkyeWint! ;)

8.5/10

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

SkyeWint responds:

Hey, TL!

Quite honesly, I can't disagree with any of your comments. I completely agree.

The bass at 1:27 could have been a bit quieter - it didn't sound like it on either my speakers or my headphones when I was mixing though. :( Se la vie, I suppose.

Definitely some tension that could have been released better in the second drop, and I agree that the outro was a *bit* long. I think that's the only part I take slight issue with, as the piece was meant to have slower progression - that's why I had all the little partial melodies hidden in the plucks at the beginning and end. That said, I guess the outro being as long as the intro is a bit much. To be *perfectly honest*, I kinda copy/pasted a lot from the intro and the first drop for the second drop and the outro because by the time I put it out a lot of me was just done with it (partially due to other life issues at the time which are still going on but much improved - see my recent news post if you really want to know). Probably apparent, but I thought there was still *enough* content (since I stuff way too much content into my music normally). I guess there was enough, but it was clearly still apparent.

In any case: Thank you for the review. It was definitely helpful - I can respect every single point you made since they were clearly written and directly applicable. Respect for you yourself +20!

[Escape]

I liked the upbeat mood and the instruments you used. It progressed a little slowly, but the drop at :50 was awesome. I think you should’ve brought out the arpeggios during the drop more, because they did a lot to create a full texture for the piece. I really like the melodic content in this piece. The riser at 1:58 is really cool, too. I like the energy and progression, but I think you could’ve done more to create some structural contrast here. I don’t hear much of a breakdown/bridge/re-intro that would’ve helped you bring out the emotion during the final refrain a lot more. It would’ve helped to vary the melody more, as well as play with the dynamic contrast and phrasing. I also thought the ending sounded a bit rushed. It’s usually a good idea to at least conclude the piece on the tonic. That said, I do admire your sense of harmony and rhythm, and the production quality was rather high. Overall solid work! Keep at it, SolarexMusic. ;)

8/10

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

[A Droplet of Imagination (Original)]

I love the emotional quality at the beginning. At around :22, I’m hearing some dissonance between the piano and guitar. This piece progresses pretty slowly, and I think you could’ve done more to form a fuller texture at times. I’ll also say that the melody notes in the piano at around :40 are pretty high-pitched and harsh-sounding. You might want to equalize out some of the treble tones in that instrument, or otherwise transpose that riff down an octave. I did like the warm strings you had here, though. The part at around 2:10 offers some much-needed structural relief. However, I think the second half of the piece was a little underwhelming. I wanted to see you create some more melodic development and really go for maximizing the emotion. Instead, it had the vibe of being elegant and upbeat, but not quite cinematic or climactic. You could’ve used some more dynamic contrast to really bring out the drama here. I would’ve returned to the dynamic level you had at the beginning during the breakdown at 2:10, and then created some soaring melodies thereafter to really sell the majestic quality of this piece. This is a solid track, but next time I want you to take some more risks! Otherwise, keep up the good work, Jabicho. ;)

8/10

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

Jabicho responds:

Hi man!
Thanks so much for the review, I always improve a lot after reading your reviews! :D
Oh yes, I understand what you say, I think this song felt too "comfortable" after I made it, and needs a climatic part in it.
Thanks again for your words, and for taking the time to check it out, it means a lot :)