TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Inner Eye]

Oh, cool! You made music for a game! :O Unfortunately, my web browser is having trouble loading the game, but I knew that the music would be the best part anyway. ;) I love the moodiness of this one. Somehow you manage to combine the bright, almost cute toy piano sound with some dark, drone-like atmospheric content. It's a beautiful piece, yet also not too distracting. Perfect for a videogame! Well done, LSD! ^^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yay!
I was super stoked to get to work with Chaz on the musical department of the game making. It's a real shame that you're having trouble loading the game! I think the game is very good in its own right (it actually had pretty decent music made by Chaz before I re-scored it). This is a bit brigther than many of my other ambient tracks, as it wouldn't fit the game as well otherwise. But I couldn't help but to include some darker aspects too, hehhe.

There's a piano in this track, but then there's also a music box, which may be the toy piano you're talking about. Though I get what you mean! I've actually played on a more professional version of a mini/toy-piano (worth around 500$) I think, and the sound is very similar :)

And I did indeed aim for this not to be too distractive (though I did want to include some melody, and I ended up liking it enough to do a variation of it in "Euneirophrenia").

Thanks a lot for another review! I am pretty busy this week, and next week, school is starting for me again (well, introduction days). Can you imagine? Me beginning to study again? How will I survive?

Point being, I currently don't know when I will reply to your PM (I need to write a blog this month too). But I'm sure I'll find the time at some point not too far in the future ;)

[Groove M.D.]

Okay, I love the soundscape you have here right off the bat. This has a very original sound design to it. I love the funky synths at :20, and the chill pads and quirky percussion mesh into the texture here really well. I think you made the melody at :47 a little too convoluted, but I love the swells at 1:10, and the subsequent moment of structural relief that 1:20 offered. The echo effects and portamentos are freaking awesome. Sometimes the progression here is a little hard-to-follow and overly busy, like at 2:13. That said, you've definitely created an awesome, full texture here full of bizarre instruments that all compliment each other really well. I thought the ending was a little rushed and ambiguous, though. You kind of just filter away all of the elements until there's nothing but the beat left, and the beat (while cool), is definitely not the MOST cool thing about this piece. If anything, I would strip things away to leave one last awesome melody riff on one of your cool, slide-y leads. Still, awesome work with the instrumentation and moods here, and the production quality is very high as well. Despite my minor compositional complaints, this is a job well done, and I can tell that you really went all-out with this piece, which I love to see. Keep up the great work, Trunotfals! :D

9.35/10

[Racing the Sun]

I love the drums at the beginning. They establish the energy and intensity of this piece right off the bat. You were clearly aiming for a very full-texture here, which I appreciated. The mixing also seems a lot better than in the last piece I reviewed. There's some awesome drum work here, man. I love the rides you have playing at certain parts of the song (:26, for example), and I think the drums are just loud enough with blowing out my speakers (I personally find that drums are often left too quiet during rock songs like this). I appreciated that you were trying to offer some more structural contrast with the guitar solos around 2:15, yet at the same time they seemed to lack direction, and the start-stop beat you have playing in the background there kind of disrupts the flow an epic solo should have IMO. I also thought that you needed a lot more contrast energy-wise. If you make your piece essentially uniformly intense (as you have done), it trivializes the intensity by the end of the piece. Speaking of the end of the piece, it's very sudden and fails to conclude the themes you've presented here properly. I would recommend thinking about how you structure your pieces more. You can have several moments of intensity for sure, but you also need to keep the listener grounded more by adding breakdowns, bridges, or re-intros that offer some space and relief from all the bottled-up energy you have playing for the rest of the piece with the edgy guitar sounds. That said, I like your style of play a lot. It's engaging, danceable, and cool. Keep up the good work, Thebitterroost! ;)

8/10

[Breathe]

I love the warm strings at the beginning. You've really gone all-out to create a full texture here. The progression is absolutely amazing, and I love the more atmospheric shift you made later in the piece when the pads came in around 1:15. You really gave this piece the full cycle of emotion, from hauntingly beautiful stillness and tranquility to drama and energy. I love the oboe solos that come in at around the 2-minute mark. You really tell a story with this piece, too. Fantastic! I thought the ending could've used some more work. It just seemed a little ambiguous and quiet. I was waiting for another emotional high like at :40 for the entire rest of the piece, and I think it would've been well worth the effort to add another "refrain"-like structural element to the piece to better give it some more direction. I generally don't think that the "arrival point" to a piece should come 1/5 of the way through, especially if there's only one. Another issue I see with this piece is that it lacks some coherence. You don't really ever bring back some key themes from the first minute or so, and if you do they're very subtle. That said, paired with the right movie or videogame this piece could channel emotion extremely effectively. It's flowy and smooth, it has hauntingly beautiful melodies and harmonies, and the production quality is very high. This is exceptionally good work despite my structure-related grievances. Keep it up, DSykMusic! :D

9.5/10

DSykMusic responds:

Appreciate the kind words, thanks!

[Modern Day Hero]

I like the funky, bassy vibe at the beginning. The instruments mesh together really well here. I love the vocals (as well as the lyrics themselves). Your style (as well as your voice) reminds me of the Beatles, which can only be a good thing. I think you could've increased the intensity during the chorus a lot by holding out the notes on "arrive" and "survive" for longer. In turn, I think that you needed to create a little more contrast between the chorus and verses because you don't switch up the instrumentals in this piece very often at all, with the exception of the (rather cool) solo at 1:42 (which, in turn, follows a rather cool pad thing at 1:40). I do think you did a pretty good job of offering contrast by varying the intensity of your vocals throughout the verses, thereby creating more of a direction for the piece. I suppose I also should mention that the mixing also might need some work. The bass is a little too loud, and the kick is a bit weak and, at some points, simply hard to hear. I think you need to do more equalizing and sidechaining to ensure that the kick and bass don't interfere with each other so much. The ending was also a little underwhelming IMO. That said, I love the mood you have going on here, and your voice is very soulful and generally pleasant to listen to. Overall, nice work! I look forward to hearing some of your future projects beyond the competition and how you continue to grow. :)

9.25/10

[Bamboozle]

Interesting idea experimenting with the 5/8 time signature. I wish you had found a way to lead into the strings' entrance at :57 more. I like the progression of this piece, although I think it needed something more in the way of dynamic contrast. I think you've mimicked the baroque style very well, though. This piece is conclusive, well-structured, and very flowy and smooth. It's also coherent enough to be regarded as a structurally complete work without being overly repetitive. I will say that the lack of dynamic contrast makes it sound almost like it was written for some sort of montage. Especially since this is a classical piece of music, I think you should've made your fortes louder and your pianos softer. I can sort of tell that you wanted the part at 1:07 to be the "structural relief" and/or breakdown section, but it should've been much softer. That way, you could offer some more dramatic phrasing work (i.e., a crescendo) into 1:42. It would help give this piece all of the shape and emotion it deserves. In fact, many classical composers didn't write dynamics into their pieces, and musicians were simply expected to play the dynamics based on stylistic preferences of the time period. However, I personally regard you as the musician as well as the composer, and therefore this piece needs some more phrasing. If that's the main problem I have with this piece (which it is), though, I'd say you've got a pretty strong track here, Phonometrologist. Keep up the good work. ;D

9/10

[A New Future]

I love the down-to-earth and organic vibes at the beginning. It progresses pretty slowly at the beginning, but I love the part at :36 with the flute. At 1:05, the pizzicato-y stringed instrument that comes in and the flute get in each other's way too much IMO. They both sound like they're playing rather dominating melodies, and I'm not sure which one I'm supposed to be absorbing more. The breakdown at 1:33 offered some highly-valued structural relief. You really capitalized on dynamic contrast as you built the texture of the song back up using the tranquil flute melodies from around 2:00 onwards. I think you've really captured a story with this piece, which I love. The melodies at 2:30 are good, but I'm going to have to repeat my comment that occasionally they seem to get in each other's way, especially when they're playing different rhythms. I love how the mood oscillates between calming and adventuresome, though. The coda was also cool. You almost fooled me with the half-fade-out followed by the piercing, loud and conclusive note at 3:38. Either way, this is a job extremely well-done. I really admire your work here. The instruments and moods are incredible, and the melodies are beautiful. Determining the winner of this contest is going to be excruciatingly tough! ;)

9.25/10

NyxTheShield responds:

Can't. Wait.

[Some of My Foolishness]

Again, I'm loving the organic sound here. The vocals are generally strong, and they have this attitude to them that I really like. It's as if you're defensively trying to justify the fact that you're making music. :D The lyrics are good. I think you overused the chorus a bit too much by the end. I also think that you could've enhanced the intensity of the chorus a lot more by simply holding out the notes longer (because I know that reverb and other forms of electronic manipulation aren't really your thing). Despite the generally strong vocals, I thought you briefly went a bit flat around :49, during the last stanza of the first chorus. I understand that you were a bit rushed to record this, though. I like how you have a more hushed tone at :56 just to contrast the verse to the previous chorus. The solos around 1:30 also offered quite welcome structural relief. The production quality seems pretty high, despite the fact the texture is not as full as I'm used to hearing in a lot of other songs. I also thought that the ending was a bit sudden, but I also understand that was part of the edginess and attitude you bring to your pieces, which I generally love. Overall, I obviously like it a lot. It's a fun, short piece with a feel-good down-to-earth vibe to it. I suppose I would like to see you take a few more risks in the future, but as for making good use of the resources you have to make music, you've nailed it! Keep up the great work, Ceevro! ;D

9/10

Ceevro responds:

I wanted to dig a little deeper into this one, and perhaps I still will. The time constraints I had to work with were...well they were nearly impossible. Not your fault, but my own life and various happenings. Not something that you should cut me any slack on, however, because this is a contest, and any issues that I bring to the table are mine and mine alone.

I considered auto-tuning my vocals into perfection, but then deliberately decided against it. This piece was about vulnerability, and obsessively hiding my own inabilities would have destroyed the spirit of the thing. I will, however, spend some time learning how to do more electronic manipulation in the near future, because I do see value in it. That's why I enter these things - to learn!

This was me. As I am. Not to say I can't improve, but certainly not my normal fare of slapping on whatever character I think might suit the lyrics. If my last piece was about fronting, then this was the exact opposite.

Thank you for the helpful review, and for hosting this contest. I've taken a lot away from it, and promise that, whatever the results, you'll see me again next year!

[The Watchmaker's Daughter]

I love the blissful mood and the pizzicato-y synths. It progresses really slowly, though. You also could've filled in some more texture during the first minute or so by using a bit more reverb. I admire your sense of harmony, although in my experience the method of just gradually thickening the texture by adding new instruments often falls flat, and this piece is no exception. That said, when you start taking your harmonies in a new direction at 2:15 it makes the piece sound much more interesting IMO. There is quite a fair bit of repetition in this piece, though, and I didn't think it needed to be nearly this long. I will say that I liked the piano solos that pop in at around 3:50, and the sound design for this piece is rather enjoyable. I liked the idea of ending with that tempo automation, yet I also think you needed a final crash or something just to make it feel as conclusive as possible. I do think that the main theme (0:00) sounds sort of topically mechanical considering the subject of the piece seems to be a watchmaker's daughter. :'D I can picture this song in one of those dress-up flashgames, or otherwise in one of those games where you essentially make virtual pizza. XD Okay, haha. I'm done with the weird ass ideas for videogames now. Keep up the good work, SleepFacingWest. ;D

sleepFacingWest responds:

Thanks for the critique! A lot of the music I'm writing these days under the SleepFacingWest moniker is with the intent of being useful in video games and animation. My friend Kevin (of incompetech.com) criticized some tracks I wrote for him recently saying they were too active and dramatic to be used as underscoring. He maintained that if someone dropped one of my tracks in a video of a dog being funny, and all of the sudden there's a shift in the music but the dog is still being funny, the music will kill the video (and thus be useless). Since then I've been trying to figure out how to keep music moving forward without making use of dramatic shifts, melody changes, or heavy orchestrational tricks like I normally would. One of the solutions I tried with this piece was doubling of extant instruments so the music would change slightly in texture, but not so much that it would steal attention from possible on screen action. That said, as you pointed out, this might not be enough in and of itself. I still need to experiment more to find a balance between music that can stand on it's own but also be useful as scoring material.

The track is loosely programmatic meaning that events in the music correlate specifically to the story written above. A lot of flourishes indicate scene changes where she falls asleep, or suddenly moves from a starving artist in the streets to a famous painter in galleries. The angular piano solo is her eccentric/exotic suitor trying to awkwardly (much to her amusement) woo her. As such, some of the repetitive quality of the music is intentional as it mirrors the mechanical themes of the story (see the piece "Gretchen am Spinnrade" which uses a whirling motive to parallel a young woman spinning yarn as she fantasizes about love). All intent aside, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I fully believe that music shouldn't require an explanation to be good. I'll try something else next time.

I agree with all of your critiques with the exception of the conclusive end. The story ends with her waking up at the clock strike (the orchestral chime) and realizing that it was all just a dream. There's an indication that she has been working on the machine that will create paintings for her (the unfinished clockwork man slumped in the corner) but hasn't really touched it since she has a job to do. I sort of wanted this piece to end inconclusively as it suggests the story goes on, but whether or not she is actually able to realize her artistic dreams or gets stuck at her day job remains to be seen.

As always, thank you for the thoughtful comments. This is very helpful!

[Skyline]

I like the atmospheric beginning. The reverb helped enhance the atmospheric vibe, too. The drums are pretty cool, almost breakbeat-style. The sub-bass at :21 is a little too loud. Sounded a bit too in-your-face in my headphones, especially given the somewhat relaxed vibe of the rest of this piece. I liked a lot of the instruments here, but this piece progresses really slowly and probably should not have been this long. You have a good sense of rhythm and harmony, yet there are long sections of this piece that are simply minimalistic to the point of being underwhelming. I wanted to see some more dominant melodic content during the first couple of minutes of this piece. You have some cool arpeggios going at 2:10, but they're also pretty far back in the mix. I really liked the arrival point at around the 3-minute mark. That section probably should've been expanded upon and/or repeated (with slight variations) more often, as it clearly would function well as a refrain/chorus except for the fact that it only plays once 3/5 of the way through the piece. The ending also seemed a bit rushed IMO. I would suggest seriously condensing the first 2.5 minutes of this piece as well as the last 1.5 minutes. You might even be able to squeeze another refrain into the first couple of minutes of the piece if you condense the intro enough. Having one main climax in a piece this long just doesn't work for me to be honest. As it is now, the piece develops too slowly for the arrival point to be as effective as it could be in stimulating the listener's emotions. Still, I liked the instruments, moods, and harmonies. Some moderate structural changes, and this piece would be seriously awesome. I'd encourage you to keep working on it (after the competition, of course), because I think it has a lot of potential. Keep up the good work, PolarTrance. ;)

7.5/10

PolarTrance responds:

Thank you!

One part of the song I hate the most is the ending and here I did rush it, since I panicked at the amount of time I had left (I'm really bad at time management, because deadlines are new for me), and I ended up just putting a tempo slowdown and a distortion effect on it.

With the bass I could've probably have added some form of automation so that it slided in better, but my original idea was that it should bring a feel of seriousness in to the song as the notes before had not give any real emotion out.

I tend to listen to a lot of Techno and that genre has left most melodies sitting outside in the cold and my main inspiration was psytrance (and I guess progressive), so as I tend to make only the music that I want to listen to. Usually that means a 5 minute intro to the actual melody of the song and usually the main melody climax whatevers don't get repeated, but if there would've been something like that in this song, it would have been around 7 minutes.

To me a 3 minute song is way too short, as a radio edit that would be fine, but the minimum is around 4 minutes, 2 minutes is a criminal act in my books, deserving of 5 years in the slammer! :D

Though working on this song more, is an idea that I'm going to try :) I'm going to see if I can make use of them suggestions you just laid on the table...

Ps: As my first music contest I've ever been in, this one was really fun and if I'm still tootin' ye old flstudio on the next years I'd be happy to join again. Meeting all the cool people and the feedback will not be forgotten, so thanks for the invite :3