TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[I Like Watching You v.2 L]

I liked the risers at the beginning, and the vocal samples at :08 added a lot to the piece. I'm not sure where you got all these samples from, but I think you built off of the vocals enough to make it interesting, creative, and original. This is a very catchy and cool song. I admire your sense of rhythm, harmony, and progression. It loops almost flawlessly. While it's not exactly structurally complete as a stand-alone piece, it still is very smooth-flowing and has an appropriate amount of structural relief within its rather short-lived 1.5 minutes. I think the mixing is also rather solid. Towards the end, you do overuse some of the samples a bit, but overall this is really solid work. Your instruments were well-chosen and your texture was nice and full and engaging. Keep up the good work, Marauderchief! ;D

9/10

[Rippled Reflections [Be Water]]

I think the vocals add a lot to the piece. The riff at :27 sounds mechanical and even mundane in a way, but I think the bizarre percussion at :42 adds a lot of energy to the piece. It progresses pretty slowly, but has a cool mood to it. I think the hi-hat is a little too loud throughout, but that's a tiny detail. The melodies at around 1:30 really start taking the piece in a new direction, which I love. At the same time, though, they make the piece sound really different from the first part. I like how you tried to bring it full circle at 2:45 by bringing back some of the more pizzicato-esque instruments. The reverb also adds a lot to the piece throughout. Another tiny detail: the ending cuts off suddenly. Still, I think this is really cool and unique piece overall. I applaud you for going with a more organic sound design here. Beautiful work! Keep it up, man. ;D

9/10

[Be my Dude, Mario - Super! POLISHED]

This is a really unique sound design you have here. It's catchy and cool, yet it also progresses pretty slowly. I like the chord progression with the choir. I think the melodies at around 1:20 needed to be more up-front in the mix, because that's really the only melodic content you have in the piece. The mood and atmosphere of this piece are awesome: it's energetic and mechanical, yet also dream-like. I think it could function pretty well in certain kinds of videogames. The loop is clean, but I think you at least needed a crash in there to smooth out the transition back to the beginning. I wasn't really prepared for the pads to cut off suddenly when it looped. I really admire your sense of rhythm and harmony, though. This is, overall, pretty admirable work. The mixing is also rather impressive, especially given the dense texture of the piece. Keep up the good work, Kinupsi! ;D

9/10

[A Little Man A House]

I'm not sure I quite grasped onto what you were trying to do leading up to the transition at :08. It has a very mysterious and spooky mood, yet all the extraneous effects and complex rhythms make it seem really busy and overwhelming. It's really hard to follow the structural elements of this piece. I think you need a recurring melody to keep the listener grounded, as well as a bridge/breakdown/re-intro with some dynamic contrast. As it is, it's just a continuous stream of dark and spooky harmonies. While I admire your attempt at going in a different direction with the piece at 3:10, the instrument you introduced was very harsh-sounding and I think you need to equalize out some of the higher tones. The piece ends very suddenly, and overall I'm just plain confused. The mixing is also not great. The lead and drums both sound distorted at various points in the song. I would highly recommend you take the time to learn more about equalizing and using limiters/compressors/panning to your advantage. Compositionally, this piece needs to be smoother. You have a lot of interesting ideas here, but they need to be presented so that the listener has time to chew and swallow them, instead of having all the food he's going to eat today shoved down his throat. I'd encourage you to keep working at it. It has potential. Good luck, man. ;)

3/10

kanashibarimusic responds:

Thanks for your feedback. My mixes do usually sound pretty sketchy. It's due to equal parts suck, shit monitors, and overindulgence on compressing everything to within an inch of its life. They are all issues I definitely should be considering.

However I'm afraid I'm going to have to completely disagree with you on the stuff about composition. This Is actually a cover, so it was really mostly an exercise in arrangement and learning by ear for me (because good luck finding tabs). The guy who wrote it (Tim Smith of the cardiacs) has to be one of the most uniquely brilliant and criminally underrated compositional geniuses of the last 30 years (yeah I know, get off his dick, but he really was pretty darn brilliant, even if some of their stuff sounds a bit dated). Also there are a whole bunch of recurring melodies.
Unfortunately I sacrificed a lot of the tempo and time Sig stuff that was going on in the original, and that's probably most evident in the intro, so Im going to chalk that up as an experimental failure.
I agree with you on the ending though. It's a bit cack, with the whole tacked on generic dubstep wubs and the abrupt cut off.

Thanks for commenting.

[Astronomixel`]

It's catchy and upbeat, and I admire your sense of harmony. The synth at :02 sounds way too harsh and in-your-face, though. I would suggest equalizing it more to eliminate some of those high tones. It's fast-paced, yet structurally sound and smooth-flowing. I like how you start varying the melody at around the 1-minute mark, and then providing some structural relief around 1:10. The mixing is rather good as far as I can tell; I can hear all of the instruments clearly throughout. The modulation at around 1:40 also helped keep me engaged. I thought the ending was cute and also conclusive. Its fast-paced nature makes it quite fitting for a videogame. This is a really solid piece overall, Jonadrew. I'm impressed! Keep up the good work, man. ;)

9/10

[Midnight]

Interesting mood at the beginning. The synth bass makes it sound really heavy and dark. Maybe you should've used some more reverb on the drums to enhance that effect. The frantic treble-range synths add a somewhat mysterious vibe to the piece. It progresses really slowly. Structurally, this piece is not quite complete IMO. There are no predominant melodies/refrains, and it gets really repetitive by the end. The texture is relatively thin as well. You need some sort of breakdown or re-intro to keep your listener grounded. Otherwise, it kind of has the feel of a really minimalistic, drone-like ambient track, and I don't think that's what you were going for. The ending also isn't that conclusive; I think it would serve better as a loop. The mixing isn't bad, but it's also hard to mess up the mixing when you only have 3 or 4 instruments in the entire piece. You could've done A LOT more with this piece. As it is now it's a bit bland. It almost sounds like a 3.5-minute-long intro to what could become a really cool track. I'd encourage you to take more risks with your music in the future. Keep working at it, IslandJump1. ;)

6.5/10

[Punch Drunk]

I like the guitar riff at the beginning and the sort of oom-pah sort of beat it has. Sometimes, the chords clash a bit. This is a very distorted and ominous sound you have here, especially with the bass at 1:15. I liked the ending, and it also doesn't make that bad of a loop. I think that, stylistically speaking, you took some risks with this piece (especially with the atonality), but it still felt a little minimalistic. You don't really have any predominant melodies or structural relief in this piece. I like what you did with the drums, though. At the same time, I'm not sure how I feel about the way the guitar sort of pulses back and forth in the mix - maybe you could get rid of some more of those treble tones so it doesn't come across as harsh-sounding? Besides that, though, the mixing and mastering is rather good; I can hear everything clearly throughout. I still wanted to see you go more of somewhere with this piece, maybe building off of the melodic riff you had at the very beginning. It seems like it would be more fitting as background music than as a stand-alone piece. Still, this is creative and interesting work and I commend you for it. Keep at it, IndustryStandard. ;)

7.5/10

IndustryStandard responds:

Thanks for the advice! I'm glad to hear that the mixing/mastering came out well because that's something I'm just getting the hang of right now so it's good to know I'm on the right track. I probably won't do any more work on this song, at least not anytime soon, but all your points are definitely good things to keep in mind for future pieces for sure. i have a habit of writing one riff and then just rolling with that but it's about time i started expanding on that i think. Also, though, you said this would work as a background piece better than a stand alone song, and that's pretty much exactly my goal for this song - and most of my music, at least as far as IndustryStandard is concerned. I want to make video game music. But anyway, good advice and thanks for the review!

[Pulse Sketch 2]

The synth at the beginning was cool, and I liked how you used a fair bit of reverb. The reverb really gave it a nice, atmospheric vibe. It progresses extremely slowly, though. That synth that comes in at :28 is way too high-pitched and harsh-sounding. I think you need to a) transpose it down an octave and b) add a volume automation and fade it in so that it's not such a shock at :28. You had some nice melodies, harmonies, and progressions in here, but this is an EXTREMELY long piece considering you have only 2 instruments and very little structural variety. It was hard to discern any distinct, repeated sections of the piece because of the lack of transitory material (which, of course, is rendered sort of unnecessary because, again, you only have 2 instruments in the track). I liked how you started to do something different (more upbeat, etc.), at around the 5-minute mark, yet at the same time the first 5 minutes and the last 2.5 minutes sound like two completely different songs! I think you needed some drums at the very least to move the song forward a bit and also to add some energy. It barely keeps my attention at times because, besides the progression, barely anything changes. In a piece this long, you NEED some dynamic contrast, melodic development, and also you need to build on the texture of the piece as it progresses (by which I essentially mean that you should add more instruments!). Again, I admire your sense of harmony and progression, but you also need to be concise! I usually think it's much more admirable when even a short piece can tug at my emotions than when a long piece can keep me engaged. If I were you, I would take the last 2.5 minutes of this piece, add some drums, pads, harmonies, and effects, and try to turn it into its own piece with all the twists and turns a proper piece should have. As ending credits for a videogame, this piece would work well, but as a stand-alone piece, it just didn't have all the twists and turns I was looking for. Keep working at it, Gruber99! ;)

5/10

gruber99 responds:

Hey thanks for your comments!
The point of the piece was to create a full length composition, with multiple movements, with very minimal materials. No drums or pads allowed! Just 2 channels and 2 pulse waves. Composing this way poses some interesting challenges. Have you ever tried it? Would love to hear what you come up with!

[Chord Play]

I like the instruments and somewhat mysterious mood at the beginning. The beat was cool, and I like the melodies at around :50. You overuse the transition with the crash a lot. It also doesn't really loop that well, and has a rather bare and minimalistic texture throughout. This was a cool idea for a track that you could've done a lot more with, but you didn't. You have the same simple chord progression playing for the entire piece, only varying the instrument you use with it once. This also isn't a structurally complete piece IMO. You need climaxes, bridges, breakdowns, re-intros, or at least a moment of structural relief. It's a pretty good start, but I have a feeling you didn't really display your entire skillset as best you could here. Next time, I'd encourage you to take some risks with your music-making! Hope this review helped. Keep at it, man. ;)

5/10

g4ebguyGT responds:

lol yeh for making it in 10 mins it is ruff isn't it.