TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Horizons]

Excellent! I love the energy and intensity in the guitar riffs. You went for a very edgy sound here, although I didn't think it flowed very well into :57. Your voice is very soulful and emotional. I especially like the guitar riff at 1:31. It's very catchy and contributes a lot to the progression of the piece. I would've loved to have the lyrics (I'm terrible at discerning lyrics), and it is a bit short. The structure of this piece is kind of bizarre. As I see it, it kind of goes from hook (:00) to verse (:23) to breakdown (:57) to what could've functioned as an awesome re-intro if there was an intro in the first place (1:09) to outro (1:52). It's a short piece that might need some structural considerations, but other than that I love your sound here, man. Solid mixing, high-quality vocals and a lot of emotion make this piece really cool. Keep up the good work, and I'm sorry we couldn't accept you into the Knock-out Round of my competition. ;)

[Starlit Flight of the Dirigible]

I like the mysterious mood and cool bell-sounding instruments at the beginning. The (oboe?) also sounded rather beautiful, and I think this is a very flowing and well-structured. I like the drums at 1:18, but I wish they were louder and sharper. You have a very good sense of harmony and progression. I would've liked to see a bit more melodic development on the last refrain at 1:38, even though the piece is very short. The mixing is pretty good, too. I think you could've done a bit more with this piece (taken a few more risks, you know?), but for what it is I appreciate the effort. I also like how you decided to experiment with a new genre for this piece. Submitting experimental pieces is almost always better than submitting generic ones. I love the melodies, and I'll also compliment you on your samples AND the fact that this sounded rather authentically classical stylistically. Good job, ZombieSlayer5P! :D

8.5/10

ZombieSlayer5P responds:

Thank you very much for your review. I can see how the piece could have benefited from a little more something in the second half of the middle section. Just trying not to make things overblown or too complicated to follow along with. Though, this track may get a revision after thinking about it.

I thought about bringing out the snare more, but I didn't think it would sound as authentic if I brought it too forward in the mix (I was a hardcore band nerd, and became familiar with the sound of a symphonic group from the listener's perspective), so it wound up being a bit more subdued as though it were actually in the back of the band with the rest of the percussion. Still, your review has given me the urge to play with the mix some more, and continue to experiment.

Thanks again for the review. I always appreciate any information/criticism which will help me improve. :)

[New Town]

Some of the piano notes at the beginning sound like they weren't quite struck at the same time as the other notes in their chord, which made the track sound rather unpolished. The saxophone that comes in at :10 sounds rather fake. You could at least have smoothed it out by adding some reverb, and I would suggest "humanizing" it, if that's possible in whatever program you use to make music. I appreciated the attempt at structural relief at :46, but that section still sounded rather minimalistic. If you're going for the simplicity approach there, please at least add some reverb and have some tempo automations so I don't know you recorded it with such a simple rhythm. That way, it would really give the piano some feeling there. You didn't really have much melodic development in the piece, although it is quite short. I liked the ending with the strings fading to nothing. Still, you could've done a lot more with this piece. I wanted to see some more predominant melodies, and maybe some stronger drums to move the piece along a bit and create some contrast in energy between :46 and the rest of the piece. The discrepancies in the piano chords also make me wonder how exactly you produced this piece. If you fix some of these production errors and try to do more with the melodies and progression of the piece, this could be a pretty solid work! Until then, though, keep at it, Zechnition. ;)

5/10

Zechnition responds:

Thanks for the review I will use it to make my work better =D

[Yes!]

The effects were a bit dry. They could use some reverb or automations to smooth them out a bit. I admire your sense of rhythm, though, and the synths that came in at :31 were cool, but I think you needed a stronger beat in there to keep the listener grounded, because otherwise it was kind of hard to follow the rhythm at times. The effects were cool, but the first half of the piece progresses a little slowly because of them. I think you should've had some stronger melodic content come in before 1:20. Then, at 1:20, the melodies sort of bury the effects in the mix a bit. I think you need to do some more equalizing with those tones so that everything sounds clearer. Also, around 2:10, the melodies are also a little hard to follow rhythmically. At times, the texture of this piece just sounds a little too busy, like at around 2:45, because of all the extraneous effects and hard-to-follow rhythms. I liked the ending, though (it was conclusive, if a bit cliché), and the cute mood throughout the second half was a nice touch. Still, I think you should be more careful about the progression of your piece and the harmonizing. I think the effects sort of got in the way a bit too much later on, although starting the piece with them was a good idea. You also need to shorten the "effects-only" section a bit. I'd encourage you to condense the first 80 seconds into about 30 seconds. After that, though, you've got an upbeat and cool, polished videogame track on your hands. Keep at it, ZappaFan52. ;)

6.5/10

[Still There]

I like the groovy guitars at the beginning. I love the soul that your voice has. It's a really catchy, yet down-to-earth and organic-sounding piece. I love the classic rock sort of vibe it has. I'm pretty sure you're the only competitor to submit a classic rock-style song to the competition, at least among the Underdogs group. I really like the dry-throated twang your voice has, which is especially noticeable at places like :30. I like the lyrics too, but I really wish you put them in the description (because I'm terrible at discerning lyrics from listening to the music along). You even went for some layered recordings around the 3-minute mark (which I've tried before and they're really hard to do), and they sounded great! One complaint I have is that there isn't really a moment of structural relief in this piece. It's already pretty long, but I think it would help the flow of this piece if at some point you had had a breakdown or re-intro with some dynamic contrast, and then an epic guitar solo before launching into your last refrain. Still, I really liked the ending - the vocal samples fit in well - and I think the mixing was also rather good. Very unique content (compared to many of the rest of the competitors)! Well done, ZacCurran! Keep up the great work! ^^

9.5/10

ZacCurran responds:

Thank you very much! I've put the lyrics in the description for future reference.

[HAPTK - 1980s Bear Pit]

I like the upbeat mood at the beginning. I thought I heard some harmonies in there during the first minute or so, but they were really hard to hear, buried deep in the mix. I'm not sure if this is a balance issue or a mixing issue, but I suggest you find a way to fix it. Also, the rolled synths at :55 came across as a bit jarring and overwhelming. Some of the instruments, like the pads at 1:20, sounded a little harsh too, but I think that this time it's more of an equalizing problem. I like the progression, but I think the piece is very minimalistic overall. There just isn't a lot of fill in the texture to keep me engaged, and it's VERY long. The instrument at 2:59 kind of came out of nowhere. Oftentimes the purpose of having a lot of harmony parts is to connect various melodies and even entire sections of the piece by using other chordal harmonic parts or drums/basslines. That can't happen if you change all of your instruments after one transition. A similar thing as 2:59 happened at 3:40. The chord progression you have at around 4:40 (and other places) is really overused throughout this 8-minute-long piece. It really didn't need to be this long IMO. Btw, some more transitions I thought could've been smoother: 5:37 and 6:56. I suppose I do like the "breakdown" section at 5:57 with the grouchy bass. This is a structurally sound piece, but it's so repetitive that I think you can afford to cut the length in half. The mixing wasn't bad, but with such minimalism it's kind of hard to screw up the mixing. I appreciate how you tried to bring it full-circle in the end, but I think the attempt kind of fell flat because I barely even remember the first part of this piece after the 8 minutes. You have a lot of good ideas here, but you need to work on the transitions and on limiting the repetition. Until then, it simply has a lot of potential. Keep working at it, Wertypopy! ;)

6/10

[Light and Dark]

I like the organic, down-to-earth vibe the guitar has. There was a sort of static-y bass that came in at around :10, though, that I think detracted from that vibe a little. I like the lyrics, and the vocals are generally very good. Sometimes, it sounds a bit harsh when you hit a high note, but that might be because your peak meter is overwhelmed and/or the vocals are too loud. I would suggest equalizing the vocals a bit more on the high range if you could, or otherwise just decreasing the volume. I loved the solos around the 2-minute mark. The bass at 3:12 was hardly loud enough to hear, though. Did you try a) compressing it or b) increasing the volume in the mixer? I seriously love the 90s coffee shop sort of vibe this piece has. Reminds me of the days before auto-tune. :') This is a structurally pleasing and smooth-flowing piece, and the ending felt pretty conclusive as well. I think you just might want to try to re-record the part at 3:43. I can tell you layered some recordings there, and they cut off at different times. Still, I thought the lyrics were meaningful and relatable, and I compliment you on your extended effort during this piece (even if it was a little long), and I liked the last guitar strum at 4:25. :) Keep up the good work, Verbicidemusic. ;D

8.5/10

verbicidemusic responds:

Thanks a lot! I will definitely take that advice to heart and try to make my next pieces more sonically consistent and polished. :D Also, I had put some heavy fuzz on the bass to create a contrast between kind of a light piano lead to a heavier sounding lower end which I thought sounded cool, but I figured might not be for everyone. :P

[Solar Storm]

I liked the melodies and mood at the beginning. I think some of those synths were really high-pitched and harsh-sounding, though. You might need to equalize all of the instruments a bit more carefully, just to eliminate some of those high-pitched tones. I liked the arpeggios that came in at around 1:30, although the melody kind of got buried underneath them. The section at 2:00 offered some much-needed structural relief IMO, and I think you did an excellent job of spacing out your track a bit during that section. The effects at 2:49 were cool, and I like how you used them to build up back to the refrain at 3:21. I love the atmospheric vibe this has. I think you may have needed a crash or something just to smooth over the transition at 4:21. Still, I thought the ending was conclusive enough, and I admire your sense of harmony and progression. Overall, this is strong work, but I'm not sure it needed to be 5 minutes long. The first half especially was a little repetitive, so moving forward I'd caution you to add a little more variation. Still, keep up the good work, Vdragonb. ;D

8/10

Vdragonb responds:

Thank you! That's some useful feedback!

[Flashbang [NGAUC Remaster]]

I liked the mood and energy of this piece. I'll say I thought the drums were a bit quiet throughout, especially for such an intense metal track. It's a very fast-paced piece, and there's not a lot of structural relief to keep the listener grounded in that regard. It might help the mixing and mastering if you tried to equalize some of the frequencies here a bit more as well as compressing the drums. I can hear distinct repeated sections, but they're connected in such an overwhelming stream of continuous music that I feel like it's hard to get attached to the emotion/drama of this piece. It ends a little suddenly, too. I think you need some harmonies here (lead guitar, piano, maybe even organ) that'll help you channel the energy here a bit more and create some more dynamic contrast and melodic development. I can tell that you've put a lot of passion and feeling into making this piece, but that passion isn't necessarily communicated to the listener unless you have the structural contrast necessary to do so. For example, if your piece sounds uniformly intense and dramatic (as this one does), it kind of trivializes the intensity IMO. There are a lot of cool ideas here, but this piece would've been more meaningful for me if you had thought more about pacing, phrasing, and dynamic contrast. Generally (but not always), it's a good idea to try to follow a verse-chorus based structure, with 1-2 bridges/breakdowns to add structural relief from the "emotional/dramatic heights" of the piece. If you can add these structural considerations here, this would be a really solid track! Until then, keep at it TSRBand. ;)

7.5/10

TSRBand responds:

Awesome review, thanks for taking the time to offer these tips! I'll work on putting them into practice. I found your advice on structural contrast very useful, having the whole track be 'fast' gives the listener a chance to get used to it and as you said, makes it harder to get attached to the drama.