TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Equilibria - Unsustainable (Entropy VIP)]

I like the emotion at the beginning. Well-timed entry of the synths and drums. Love the sense of climax. Seems strangely blissful (I don't recall that the first version was...). Still, I definitely see the resemblance and I'm glad you came back to this track because your mixing has improved a lot since then. I love how you start incorporating darker elements and heavier basses at 1:15. The drop at around 1:25 wasn't as hard-hitting as in the original, as I recall, but that's okay. I don't know if this was intentional, but there's an open hat that cuts off really suddenly at 2:01. Also, the melody at 2:02 gets drowned out, although I understand this must've been really tough to mix and master. I also appreciated that you added new melodies that weren't in the original, like at 3:29. I thought that, overall, this track had a greater sense of longing to it than the first one did. That's generally a good thing, but I'm not sure it's what you were going for. The guitar synth at 5:13 was cool. The coda was strangely emotional. I greatly admire your ability to combine some hard-hitting electro/dubstep breaks with the smooth, trance-ish and emotional sections of this piece. I thought the fade-out ending could've been more creative, but that's a tiny detail. Overall, great work! Keep it up, DylnMatrix. ;D

Dylnmatrix responds:

"I like the emotion at the beginning. Well-timed entry of the synths and drums. Love the sense of climax. Seems strangely blissful (I don't recall that the first version was...)"
Thanks man! We actually wanted to make this a little more "blissful" as you put it, making contrast to the harshness of the original.

"The drop at around 1:25 wasn't as hard-hitting as in the original, as I recall, but that's okay."
I agree. It was hard to get this drop to hit as hard as it does, and we know that we won't get it to hit as hard as Entropy did.

"I don't know if this was intentional, but there's an open hat that cuts off really suddenly at 2:01."
That open reverse hat cutting off was actually intentional, it was a lead into the kick hitting the break.

"Also, the melody at 2:02 gets drowned out, although I understand this must've been really tough to mix and master."
It was, but it was also slightly intentional. We wanted to incorporate melodies from the original, but we didn't want them to feel overused, so we chose to keep the original Dylnmatrix signature a little quieter than the rest of the track. Though we made it a little too quiet there ahaha.

"I also appreciated that you added new melodies that weren't in the original, like at 3:29."
Of course we're going to add new melodies ;) With the guitar line, I wanted to use the original piano melody and then I tweaked it to both fit the guitar and changed it up in some places to make it fresh. Kept a lot of the original melody in it though.

"I thought that, overall, this track had a greater sense of longing to it than the first one did. That's generally a good thing, but I'm not sure it's what you were going for."
We weren't really, but then again, we let the track more or less write itself. We wanted to make an epic, emotional tribute to the original, so I guess that's where the longing feeling comes from?

"The guitar synth at 5:13 was cool."
It's an actual guitar sample with Shreddage with Guitar Rig 5, with a quiet Sylenth lead supporting it, but yes, it is very cool. You should have seen me when I was writing it haha

"The coda was strangely emotional. I greatly admire your ability to combine some hard-hitting electro/dubstep breaks with the smooth, trance-ish and emotional sections of this piece."
It's what we're best at :D The original was emotional too, but with all the compression crushing the melodic content, it wasn't as noticeable as this track's emotional melodies.

"I thought the fade-out ending could've been more creative, but that's a tiny detail. Overall, great work! Keep it up, DylnMatrix. ;D"
Yeah, but we couldn't think of anything else to do for the outro haha. We're still personal fans of fade-outs when they're in good taste, so that's why we went with it.

Thanks for the reviews man! I'll be sure to let you be the first to know when the EP comes out, as there's another Equilibria track (which we're currently in the middle of making right now) that's totally different than anything else we've done.

[~Fire~]

I love the instruments, especially the one at :09. The melodies and moods are cool and intricate. I've always admired your sense of harmony. That said, I think the fade-in intro to the piece was done a bit lazily and could've been more creative. The ending is much of the same story. It's just a little inconclusive. If you wanted to end with that energetic synth at 3:02, I would've filtered it away while simultaneously decreasing the tempo, just to channel the energy a bit more. Still, I appreciated the structural relief at 1:15 and the following piano melody. You use a lot of cool and diverse sounds in your tracks that keep them engaging and refreshing, yet they're still very coherent. This is one major thing that a lot of NG musicians have not mastered IMO - sound quality and coherence. Yet you have! The next step now is the mixing. Mixing will help casual listeners hear your diverse sound set more clearly and, while I understand that there is a basic level of mixing achieved in this piece, I think you should put some serious effort into improving it. There are tons of good YouTube tutorials, or otherwise just PM me when you need advice about specific things. Also, I don't think your composing abilities are faltering at all. Have confidence in yourself! :D Keep up the good work, Larrynachos. ;)

larrynachos responds:

Thanks so much, TL! I'll take your pointers into account when composing my next piece :) I'm so glad you see potential in me, and I'll keep trying my hardest to be the best I can be!

[Stuck in California]

Dude, it's been a while. I love the chill mood at the beginning and how you gradually create this climax, although the intro lasted for quite a long time. Those pads and the drums were pretty much the only things going on for the first 1+ minutes of the song. I'd cut it down to 30 seconds max if I were you. Loved your melodies around 1:15 - 1:45, though. The drums themselves were also really good. You may know from my own music that I'm a big fan of crash samples like the ones at :37 (and other places). I also appreciated the melodic development you used around 2:30. The "shake it" vocal sample at 2:54 didn't add much, in my opinion. This seems more like VGM than EDM to me for some reason, and the vocal sample sort of confused the roles/themes of this piece IMO. Still, that's a tiny detail. I want you to work on varying the harmonies and chord progressions a little more in the future, but other than that this is really solid work my friend. You deserved the 1,000+ plays and 100+ DLs. ;D

TeraVex responds:

Thanks for the review! Haha, the reason I put that sample there was to call back to my old song Shake It, I know it didn't sound right but I couldn't resist XD

[stage clear]

Ah, Johnfn! So good to hear some of your stuff again. :D First of all, I love the groovy sound you've got in this one. That flowy melody at :15 is really melody, and I love what you did with the filtering on it. Mixing was really solid, and I love that little "texture-booster" synth that fades in at 1:24 and other places to help with the transitions. Loops really well, good job with the structure/mood/transitions/instruments, and yeah...not much else to say. PLEASE MAKE MORE MUSIC FOR YOUR OL' PAL ANDREW. XD Keep up the great work, man! ^^

johnfn responds:

> "That flowy melody at :15 is really melody"

> "is really melody"

Uh huh ok then TheDoor.

[Alien Onboard]

Cool effects at the beginning. I appreciate that you're trying to switch up your style a bit. Breaks at :26 are awesome. Love the sense of climax you have here, and the drum fills (like at :38) were also cool. The drums are really engaging and energizing. I love the little stutter it has at 1:07 (and other places). The section at around 1:30 started getting a little repetitive after a while, but I love the drum fills around 2:15, again. Nice use of effects throughout the breakdown section, but I still think you at least needed a drum in there to keep the beat going. Your rhythms and sense of progression are much more creative than in the last piece I reviewed, though. I also loved what you did with that "decelerating riser" from around 3:30 to 3:45. It felt conclusive by the end, and you really stayed loyal to your theme throughout. Nice work! You've earned yourself a fave, my friend.

BoomKitty responds:

Thanks for the honest reviews! I'm hoping out break out of my formula more. This DnB stuff is pretty fun.

[Scazon]

I like the dark cinematic mood at the beginning. The piano with the echo effect works really well to supplement the mood too. It has a lot of emotion, which I recall you didn't go for as much in the past. I love the sense of climax into 1:05, and how you channel that into the chill section at 1:10. I thought it was pretty haunting when the reverb just drops, like at 1:29. That kick comes in a little suddenly at 1:37 IMO. You could've at least used filters to "fade it in," if you know what I mean. Same thing with the sweep at 1:45. I think your drums are a little loud, but that's true of a lot of your tracks and is probably appropriate for the genre. I enjoyed the breakdown at 3:15 and that little riff with the transition synth at 3:27. Again with the reverb cutoffs at 3:50! :D It is quite repetitive, as usual, but I enjoyed the flowiness and constant ups-and-downs, which gave it the illusion of being fast-paced in a way, even when the mood itself was wicked chill. I would've appreciated a little more melodic development later on, but I think you accomplished what you set out to accomplish, my friend. Sounds hella good for something you made when you were "just screwing around." That bass and pulsing pad at the end added a lot to the sense of "release" at the very end of the song. It didn't seem as conclusive as some of your other tracks, but you also evaded the fade-out method, which I appreciated. Overall, great work man! Hope to hear more from you soon. ;)

SynchroSpectre responds:

Oooh, thanks :o, What I meant by screwing around is that I was just reversing some of the hats in the drums and using some stuttering in that Chinese synth thing. But yea, regarding the genre... I have no idea what I'm making; lol, it's my own unique style that just came up. I was always trying hard to make it like those mainstream EDM tracks out there but I never really succeeded - here, I decided, "oh well, I'll just make what I wanna make" and voila, some random deep house piece.

In house, usually repetition isn't a problem, 'cause it's mainly for dancing, but in this song... yea, there isn't supposed to be any repetition; this is supposed to be a piano piece with drums in the background, but laziness got me :l. Oh well, I'll just try to FX harder XD

Anyways man, I enjoy your reviews and thanks for listening :D

[Cave of Mysteries]

Oooo...it certainly is....mysterious! :O I loved the ominous drums and echo-y synths. The (violin?) that comes in at around :57 doesn't sound great, tbh. That's either because of the mixing or the sampling, but I can't tell which. I'm serious about that whole get-rid-of-all-the-tones-under-200-hertz thing, though, although I guess when this was made I hadn't told you about that yet...Still, it is difficult to pick out some of the individual instruments in this track because of the mixing, and fixing that on at least a basic level takes only 5 minutes. Still, I'm glad you're exploring orchestral/cinematic genres a bit more recently. It loops well, and the progression and harmonies are (as always with you) quite enjoyable. Keep at it, LSD! ;D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yay for mystery! :D

I think I made the percussion pretty much like this: Place a few drums (in the piano roll), add some multi delay, done (well, apart from the quick and not so good mixing of course).

I really like that violin tho! It's heeeeavily modified, and doesn't sound even remotely like that from the start. I was trying to recreate something from something I don't remember at the moment, but I remember succeeding surprisingly well in the mimicking, which might be why I like it.

Oh, I don't really disagree with the whole 200 hz thing. I was just trying to say that I believe that's way too radical to generalize (as we all know, only siths deal in absolutes, DARTH LOGIC). Especially as so many music genres sound so different from each other. There are several guitars, for example, that can and will benefit from the 200hz area, while there are some that sound horrible there. A solo piano should definitely not have everything removed from there, and same goes for some vocals, which sound more full if a bit is left down there. I, personally, probably don't remove enough from that area, but there's definitely people who make it work.
I do however remove everything from everything below 20hz, as should always be done.
I think you'd understand what I mean better if you could listen to the solo intruments in EWQL, while doing EQ sweeps, which is when you'll easily notice that some intruments definitely benefit from not being silenced in low frequencies. Also, as I said, a kick and bass don't even exist in every genre, but a song would sound awfully empty if you removed all the sound below 200hz!
What I said is backed up by not only my piano teacher, but in mixing-tips articles you can easily find online ;)

I can easily pick out all the intruments, but maybe that's because I made it. It's supposed to be a bit muddy though; remember, we're in a cave. IRL, the echo and sound would be much muddier than this! That said, this kind of sounds just as much like an underwater track, I suppose.

The harmonies I used in this song are very unusual ones for me. I couldn't even have made them work on a piano, I think. This too, was however, also a very short project. It takes sooo much time to make something well thought out and good :(

Thanks for yet another interesting review! You're very fast in catching up, I must say!

[Dance Of The Violins]

Glad to hear some of your stuff again, Mr. F-777. As a string player myself, I think that your violin sample wasn't superb, and you can especially tell it's just a sample at around :30. Still, I liked the energy and melodies in this piece. After around the 2-minute mark, I thought it was getting pretty repetitive, so 2:28 provided some much-needed structural relief. That said, I think you might've needed a smoother transition into 2:28. The last half of this piece was also pretty repetitive. This piece should probably be more like 3 minutes long, not 5 and a half. You also used a pretty generic chord progression, although I do appreciate the melodic variation later on in the piece. Your mixing is rather good, btw, although it doesn't really capture my attention until the very end. Overall, pretty nice job. I'd love to see less repetition and more originality going forward, but otherwise keep up the good work! ;)

[Twenty Years]

I didn't even recognize it as "happy birthday" at first. It's quite solemn and even regal in a way. Makes me think of a desolate, snow-covered kingdom with an ancient castle looming oppressively overhead. I understand this was a quick thing, but I'm not sure I like the instruments too much (or maybe it's just the way you balanced/mastered them, idk). Still, interesting mood here. Congrats on finding a way of making a song that literally has the word "happy" in its title...well...extremely depressing! :O

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

You're not really meant to recognize the melody at first! That's what makes this interesting, you know XD
The regal is surely because of all the brass. I can kinda see the snow thingy. Interestingly enough, the brass is pretty warm in a way though, and the harp is very similar to the one track that made you think about a more tropical landscape! :p

I don't like the instruments that much either. That said, it's kind if the point. I wanted this to feel heavy, and perhaps a bit unpleasant too. Bu I should've used something else than a harp for the melody; that's for sure.
Thanks!

[Stomping Ground]

I like your style. Cool instruments and progression, and your mixing is really good. You used some pretty generic rhythms, though, which was especially noticeable during your rather lengthy intro. When it started picking up around :50, it was still minimalistic (at best). I might suggest adding some more pads/harmonies. The overall structure of the piece was pretty cool, and it's rather smooth-flowing. I liked the dynamic contrast you tried to incorporate from around 1:45 - 2:15, yet I don't think there's any practical reason why there was essentially 30 seconds of silence in this piece. Interesting way of transitioning back to the "refrain" at 2:17, but the final 30 seconds are so lacked resolution and development from the first refrain IMO. I really liked "1077" and "Bass Knight," but somehow I don't think you managed to have quite the same full texture and engaging sound here as you did in those pieces. Still, I'm looking forward to hearing some of your future tracks. Uploading this kind of music can be a risk sometimes. There are going to be some times when it doesn't pay off, and this is one of them IMO. Maybe that's just because you seem to have a "formula" when you compose a piece that hasn't evolved much in the past couple of years. Either way, keep at it, man! I'm sure there'll be "much more to come" indeed. ;)