TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Troubled Sands]

Haha, I like the desert theme. I'm not sure I liked a lot of the samples, but compositionally it's a cool piece. Good use of harmonies and whatnot. The loop isn't bad, but I don't think this is a structurally complete piece as it is. Cool melodies and drums, though, and the mixing is pretty good. I think I recognized a number of Garageband presets in there. ;P Hmm...yeah, not much more to add. It has some potential, but I think it needs some more progression. 1:01 could function as a neat sort of breakdown, but as it is now it's more of a coda. I would look for some melodic development and other climaxes in the 2nd half of this piece (if it was there, haha). Otherwise, keep up the good work, you guys! ^_~

LunacyEcho responds:

Yikes, sorry this took so long to respond to! I've been... busy, to say the least. :P

=> mixing is pretty good =>

Yay! I'm getting faster at it, too!

=> some more progression =>

Well, it's just a minute-long loop. :P Is progression really that necessary?

=> melodic development =>

I love the Phrygian scale, and you'll definitely see me explore it in further depth in later music.

Thanks a lot! Sorry for the lateness!

[Monochrome]

I loved the atmosphere at the beginning. It was very spacey and chill, yet also dark. I think you used a lot of the same samples as in "Zulrah," especially for the snare and glass breaking FX. I enjoyed the vocal samples, though. They really helped set the tone. It progressed a little slowly, although I love how moody it is, and the drums were quite crisp and engaging. Mixing is solid, and I enjoyed your instruments. I think you should definitely do more with this. Even if it is liquid D 'n' B, it could use some stronger melodic content and structural development. I suppose I would start with adding a little more fill. With this type of track, it also might be a good idea to experiment a little more with some panning effects or something. Interesting work overall. Keep it up, Malifex. ;)

[Equilibria - Blood Moon (Teaser)]

I love the tranquil and somewhat dark intro. You might need a smoother transition into :18. Perhaps a larger pause there would help. Sometimes the progression of the guitar and piano seems a bit frantic and hard-to-follow. Some pads/drums/basslines might help tie everything together nicely. I enjoyed the gritty, hard-hitting drop at 1:10. I thought your drums were a little loud, but I enjoyed the bridge towards the end of the track as it is now (I'm sure it won't be the end to the track upon its completion). ;) There's a lot of potential here - I like the instruments and the themes. Maybe you should think about the structure/progression and transitions a bit more, though. Keep it up, DM! ^^

Dylnmatrix responds:

Thanks man! Since this is only the intro of the track, a lot of the structure is pretty simple in the teaser. It gets really complex as the track moves on. We took a ton of influence from some of our favorite metal/EDM tracks, notably most of Seamless' metal tracks. It's a brand new area for us, so making the track progress well was difficult although fun.

The mixing stuff you brought up has been fixed now (not in the teaser but the track itself). The teaser was made before I began the mastering process.

This track is really something different and unique from us, so I hope you enjoy it when the EP releases!

Thanks for the review man! (And sorry about the suuper late reply haha)

[Silver Rain]

Oooo...I love the frantic synths at the beginning and the energy at :15 when the kick comes in. It progresses a little slowly, but a combination of the filters and synths keep me engaged. I'm not sure I liked the snare sample at 1:25 too much. It seemed a little too soft and wet, as opposed to hard-hitting and sharp and crisp. I loved that angry, distorted bass at 1:54 though. Your transition into the breakdown at 2:22 could've been smoother IMO, but the breakdown itself provided quite necessary structural relief. I had a little trouble following the melody at 2:50 - its upbeat mood just didn't seem to fit with the atmosphere. I will compliment you on your mixing, though. I think that "this guy's advice from Vega" turned out well for you. ;) I think you have a good sense of harmony, as evidenced by how you added in that melody from 2:50 to the part at 4:45. Still, the part from 4:45 to around 6:00 is very repetitive. I like your style, RoVeRDude58, but I think you need to start making pieces that are either less repetitive or progress much faster. In fact, I challenge you to make a piece that's fewer than 4 minutes long. Sometime this summer, please. I'm not kidding. Also, the ending was a bit lazily done IMO. It was very sudden and not very conclusive, and if you're going to make a piece 8 minute long, it should at least have a proper conclusion. Still, I love the synth work, the mixing, and the atmosphere. Your textures are always luscious, well-balanced and full, but you have to change them more often than once a minute. Otherwise, keep up the good work, RoVeRDude58! ;)

[Stairway to Voice Acting]

Lol, this is actually pretty disturbing. 0_O At first, I had just thought it was just okay, and then after around :30 I had decided that I wasn't going to review this piece because it didn't really appeal to me musically (to put it politely). It was only at around :50 that I realized it was a joke, and by 1:20 I was laughing so hard I was concerned that I would wake my parents up and my Dad would get angry with me. XD It's strange to say, but this actually has more comedic value than musical value for me. I especially love the cough and "yep" at the end. XD You seriously should try voice acting sometime. No one knows what LSD will do next...and that's the most awesome/disturbing part! ^_^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

"Lol, this is actually pretty disturbing"

=> Then my work here is done ;)

Hahha, this is definitely not meant to have great musical value. What I woul've wanted more of is consistency and such things, but I had already ruined my vocal chords enough by this point.

And as I wrote in the TL;DR description, this is not a track to be taken seriously. I am working on a track that I think you'll really enjoy (I hope), but as it's for a contest, it won't be out in a while. I'm aslo working on the track for NIM with Dem0, AND I am doing some other things. I can't wait to upload those things...

I'm impressed by how long it took for you to realize that this is a joke. But I guess I was gradually getting weirder. I'm glad I got a laugh out of you though, as comedic value is what I was aiming for. I will definitely try out some voice acting at some point, as it's soooo much easier than to sing with different voices :p

I'm glad I left the cough and the "yep" in there. I think it leaves I nice touch.

I am also known for being unpredictable. Sometime, I should surprise everyone by trying out animating.

Thanks a lot for the review!

P.S. Sorry for the huge delay, but I've been a bit busy. Luckily, I have time to reply to your PM today!

[Shimmer]

Awwww...this is a cute song! :D I found it a little odd that the hi-hat is louder than most of the melodies, but maybe that's just because I don't compress my own drums enough. XD The instruments were awesome, the melodies were adorable and fun, and I love that climax point at 1:05. The balance in this piece is a little strange because the melody at 1:29 is really loud, while a lot of the other ones aren't. Still, I liked the drums and structure and transitions. It's nice and upbeat, and really stays engaging throughout (probably because it's relatively fast-paced for a slow-tempo piece, if you know what I mean). The ending was awesome! Heck, between Johnfn's melodies and your endings, you guys could form a Grammy-winning band! :D Haha, keep up the good work, LE! ;)

LunacyEcho responds:

=> hi-hat =>

Yeah, that was a mixing mistake on my part. In my defense, one of the last things I did was lower the volume of the bells, but I didn't make the additional correction of lowering the drum volume in the intro. :(

=> melodies were adorable and fun =>

Thanks! That's really the vibe I was trying to put out with this one.

=> 1:29 =>

I guess that's because I had less countermelodies than normal. Other than one melody playing through a couple different instruments in the choruses, the rest of the instruments playing were either drums, pads, or automated arps. The one countermelody I had is one I really liked, and it's the ' bit that comes in at 3:32. You know, for a distorted trombone, it conveys a LOT more emotion that you'd expect.

=> stays engaging throughout =>

Even though it's slower than I usually do, it also has tons of new melodies, with a huge "solo section" from 1:53 to 3:20. I like that about this song, but it's not something that can be accomplished everywhere - that's why I'm pretty proud that I pulled it off here!

=> ending =>

My endings? Hah, tell that to all my other BRILLIANT endings. I mean, this is the first ending that I can say I'm proud of. Nearly every other ending I've ever done is below average, since when I get to that stage of the song, I'm planning what I do when I finish. So, I finish with a boring ending because I just want to get it over with. :/

Thanks for the really positive review! :D

[Sway]

Hey Adieuwinter! It's been a while. I like the slow, moody beginning, although I think you might want to focus on mastering your tracks a bit louder. I had to turn my speakers pretty high up to hear the song. Using compressors might be a good start. Anyway, I liked the beat at :29. The instrument that comes in at :40 seemed a little too bassy for a piece like this, although that just might be a personal preference. I like the funky and somewhat quirky synths at :53. It does progress rather slowly in the beginning, yet it still has a nice climax in it. I just love how the instruments mesh together around 1:45, and you really show off your good sense of harmony after 2:10. Structurally, I like it a lot. The breakdown at 3:00 was effective in creating some structural relief, and the part at 3:17 just brought you right back to the quirkiness. :D I love the melodies around 3:40, although I thought the transition at 4:00 was a little sudden. It had a conclusive ending, though. Overall, this is a pretty fun, cool, and unique piece! Nice work, Adieuwinter. ;D

adieuwinter responds:

Thanks for the review! I've been busy with school and such, so I haven't had much time to produce. For this particular track I was imitating a couple artists in a slow-burning type track. I'll see if I can fix up the kick drum and that transition! As for the volume, I was just trying to avoid too much clipping, but reflecting on that I suppose I've overdone it a little bit. ;3

As always, thanks for having a listen and sharing your thoughts!

[Azure (Original Mix)]

Okay, I like the beat right off the bat. When that mid-range bass came in at :16, it added to the progression of the piece significantly. Not that I'm listening with headphones (as my parents are asleep) I can really tell exactly how clean and tight the mixing and mastering is - awesome job! The melody at 1:31 really grabbed my attention, if only because it was so quirky and fun. Really cool instruments you used here, btw. ;) I thought the chords at 1:46 were a little too loud, though. The drop at 2:15 was cool, but I hear a lot of similar instruments to ones you've used in the past. The high-range synth at 2:42 sounds almost exactly the same as one you used in "Gradient." Perhaps an important next step for you would be to be a little more adventurous genre-wise and try to shake up your style more. Otherwise, this is a well-structured and smooth-flowing piece with quite a few cool riffs and melodies. I liked how you used the drums to transition effectively into the drop at 4:32. I'll also compliment you on your usual fantastic combination of wet 'n' juicy atmospheres and danceable rhythmic content. I liked the ending better than some of your other ones, but I think you should definitely strive towards making it even more conclusive. I've told you that a lot already, though, haha. Keep up the great work, Lockyn! ^^

Lockyn responds:

I'm really proud of the mix in this track, so thank you for that comment! Glad you saw that. :) I really tried to make everything tight-knit in this one, so I honestly consider this track my first foray into something more professional-sounding-ish. I agree my sounds do sound similar to past tracks, I need to work on synth variation but you haven't heard something cool I'm gonna release soon that is COMPLETELY different from everything I've made so far. ;D Thanks for stopping by, I'm very happy to have read another review from you, TL! Cheers ^^

[UMakeMeFeel]

Okay, I like the grouchy bass and the way that the synths gradually fade in towards the beginning. Interesting use of vocal samples at :18. I think it's very minimalistic, and also progresses rather slowly, but it's also pretty catchy. I think you overused the riser/buildup at 1:44 (and other places), and by the end it's very repetitive. It just doesn't need to be 4 minutes long IMO. I enjoyed how you started harmonizing a little more at 2:15, but I wanted you to do a little more with that. It was missing a lot of melodic content IMO, and I wanted to see more variation and development, which is hard to do when you rarely have more than 2-3 instruments playing at once. I'm afraid you can't just fill the entire texture of a piece with reverb, my friend, even if you seemed to have been going for some traditional club house music here. You could've done A TON more with this piece. I understand that house music is "supposed to" be minimalistic and rhythmic, but you could've at least tried using some different and/or more creative rhythms towards the end. Overall, I think it's a pretty lack-luster track. Sorry. I know I've been tough on you in this review. It does have potential, but as a stand-alone piece it didn't keep me engaged very well. Keep working at it, man. ;)

[Punch Out Fight Theme]

I like the piano at the beginning, and how you left a lot of space for the following climax. I like the melody at around :50, and it does seem quite fitting for a videogame.

I think you need to work on your mixing and mastering a bit though. I can barely hear the kick drum. You should try compressing the drums (if you don't know how to do this, there are a lot of awesome tutorials on YouTube). I don't know what software you use, but if you use FL Studio like me, try pressing F9. The window that pops up is called a mixer. If you click on the "master" tab, there might be a box on the right side of the window that says "Fruity Limiter." Please click on the arrow next to that box, and then click "none." You NEVER want there to be a limiter on the master channel. EVER.

Otherwise, the slight distortions in this piece might also be because of a lack of Equalizing. I won't delve too deep into this now, as it's pretty complicated, but I will give you one basic tip which should really help you out. In each mixer tab (that is, for each instrument you have), click on the arrow next to the box that says "1," on the right-hand side of the mixer window. Then scroll down to "Parametric EQ 2." You can experiment with this more on your own or consult YouTube tutorials on how to use it best. For now, though, a little will go a long way: drag the knobs below 200 Hz (there's a scale at the bottom of the EQ window) all the way down to zero for EVERY instrument EXCEPT the bass and kick. It's entirely possible that you know all this already, btw, but I think this is something you should focus on, as I think a lot of your instruments could've sounded a lot clearer. Okay...hope all this helped. ^^ Despite my mixing criticism, I think this is (compositionally) a very good piece. Keep at it, man! ;D