TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Shipyard]

It's catchy, and you definitely left yourself a lot of space for climax towards the beginning. I liked the instruments you chose, and it was very melodic and energetic, which is good. The minimalistic drop at :55 didn't really seem to fit well with the melodic build-up, but I enjoyed the arpeggios around 1:22 and the re-entrance of more melodic elements. As usual, the mixing is very good. I think you kept the pirate theme alive for the duration of the piece, and I must compliment you on its not being overly repetitive. I enjoyed the build-ups and the transitions and the structure, but I thought that the ending was a bit lack-luster. Still, this is solid work. Keep at it, F-777! ;)

[A War Between Our People]

I like the empowering and dramatic mood this piece has. Those samples are actually pretty good! The transition at :56 was a little sudden, especially considering the drastic change in mood. One of the little riffs that first appears at 1:09 reminds me a lot of Step's "This is Snake." Around 1:20, you can tell that the high strings get distorted a bit by the brass, and the dark percussion sounds a little muddy. I loved the way you ended the piece, though. It was dramatic, conclusive, and very fitting overall. Nice work, Larrynachos! Despite my criticisms, it seems rather appropriate for a war-themed videogame. Keep up the good work. ;)

larrynachos responds:

Ah, the "This is Snake" is an arrangement of Metal Gear Solid songs. I'd be lying if I said that MGS wasn't a small inspiration for this piece ^^;

Thanks for the feedback!

[Galaxy Wandering]

Okay, so the synths at the beginning are a little muddy and distorted. I'm also not a huge fan of the kick sample you have during the first 15 seconds. It seems a little choppy during the first minute or so. There are distinct, isolated sections of music, but they don't really fit well together and there aren't many smooth transitions. The violins get drowned out by the bass a lot, and the effects are so high-pitched and harsh-sounding that they detract from the piece considerably. I'm not even sure why they were necessary. If you want to use screeching effects as transitions like at 2:03, you need to take a few steps to make it flow with the structural elements around it first. For starters, you need to Equalize those effects so they don't sound so jarring and in-your-face. I would also suggest adding some reverb and volume automations to smooth them out a bit. You could also use some crashes or sweeps on top of the effects in order to strengthen your transitory moments here. Also, the piece was a bit repetitive overall. There were some good elements of the piece, though. I liked your instruments, and I think you have a good sense of harmony. Still, you need to vary the rhythm in the melody a bit more in order for it to be engaging and catchy. The ending was also rather sudden. I think you need to work on your mixing and mastering too, but maybe it's best if you focus on nailing the more compositional elements of music-making first. I especially want you to work on your transitions, structuring, and on creating some more melodic and rhythmic variation. When you've made a new piece that you feel does those things, PM me and I'll leave you another review. Good luck, man. Hope this review helped. ;)

BT-WIRE responds:

Thanks, I'm still trying to get the hang of it. I'm not very good at the thecnical part yet. I'd like your opinion on my other releases if you dont mind. Its always good to read reviews so I can get an Idea of what needs to be improved.
thakns bro, see ya!

[\W/ Afterthought]

It's very majestic and flowing. Sometimes, the pacing is a bit off IMO. For example, it seems like you were going for some sort of dramatic pause at 1:06, and then you sort of rushed into 1:07. I like the structural relief you start providing around the 2-minute mark. That part is lighter and more tranquil. Then, you sort of abruptly transition back into some heavier, darker content, interrupting the flow with some more staccato notes. The way you sort of alternate styles (lighter and flowing vs. dark and staccato) may be a bit disorienting, but eventually I recognized that it helps capture a fleeting inner-struggle, rather ingeniously similar to the second-guessing that occurs after one realizes the potency of a seeming trifle of an afterthought. ;) Also, after reading the description I was a bit confused. Are there two different people who use this Newgrounds account? And, if so...which one is judging my competition? XD I thought "Winter" was simply your surname, Skye. 0_O Either way, I like the piece overall. The ending was a bit inconclusive, and it's a little stylistically disjointed (as I mentioned), but other than that this is solid work. Keep at it, SkyeWint. ^^

SkyeWint responds:

Nah, Winter isn't my surname. Winter is another person. I mainly use the account but I thought I should post her music on here as well. :) Don't worry, I'm judging the competition.

Just thought I'd post this on here and see how people liked it, especially since it's her first piece.

[SNES Map Music]

I love the cute mood and theme, as well as the melodies. It loops well. I thought the bass was a little quiet, but maybe that's more of a personal-taste sort of thing. I also think you should've shown off what little harmonic/varied content you have in this piece, i.e. the arpeggios at :15. Furthermore, the snare sample might've been a bit bland and dry given the melody that was dancing to its beat. I guess I just would've expected something that "snapped" a bit more for this type of piece. Still, all of these complaints are rather nit-picky (although, in my defense, most complaints HAVE to be nit-picky in a 30-second-long piece). It's certainly fitting for its purposes (i.e., in a videogame, of course!). Keep it up, SleepFacingWest. ^^

P.S.: After a couple of nights of experimenting, I've determined that I usually sleep facing south, haha. ;)

sleepFacingWest responds:

Thanks! I like nit-picky commentary, especially when it's well thought out and helpful. re: snare sound, I've had a hard time distilling the sound of the SNES world. I understand classic nintendo and gameboy better, I think. In the end, adding more compression and a little overdrive to the snare would probably make it snappier.
The next thing I upload will be longer. This one was kind of bullshitty.

[This Isn't Science Rocket (2015 Edition)]

I like the bouncy synths and energy. The mixing is rather good - I'm noticing that right away - and I like the variety of instruments you introduce throughout. You've covered wispy and atmospheric (:28), hard-hitting mid-range bass (1:09), full-textured funky melodic (:42), and light and brisk melodic (:00) all by about the 1-minute mark. The progression is cool, and I like what you've done with the harmonies and counter-melodies (like at :42). Overall, I really like the upbeat and jumpy style you show off here. You added an appropriate amount of structural relief and dynamic contrast, mostly at 1:50. I might complain about how you could've done A LOT more with the drums. The drums are rarely even up-front in the mix, although the texture is full and well-balanced. I like the melodies and synths, and it's not overly repetitive either. I'm quite impressed! Good job, F-777. ;)

[Stormy Evening]

Ooo...I love the tranquil and mysterious mood at the beginning. Sounds just like an impending thunderstorm indeed. It progresses rather slowly (but that's probably fitting for an ambient track). I love all the little string swells, like at 1:46 (and several other places). It has emotion, and a rather paralyzing mood. The progression is rather good. This is beautiful! I'm going to complain about one tiny detail: the note at 2:06 cuts off painfully suddenly. I would suggest both a) smoothing it out with some reverb and b) adding a volume automation to transition more cleanly into the next dynamic (because I'm not sure a subito piano quite fits in with such a flowing ambient track as this). Still, the instrumentation is marvelous, the mixing and mastering is top-notch, and the atmosphere is quite superior indeed. You've earned a fave and a DL. Congrats, and keep up the good work. ;)

samulis responds:

Thanks, TL!

I'm not sure I can adjust that quick cut off... those were actually sampled swells because I was being lazy, haha.

[Little Ditty]

The synth at the beginning sounds a bit harsh and high-pitched at first, and then gets a little distorted when the pads come in. I think you need to Equalize out some of the lower frequencies in that first riff (and probably some of the highest ones too, as I'm not sure I'd like to hear 1.5 minutes of that rather harsh-sounding riff on repeat). I think you should really try to bring some energy to this piece. Right now, it sort of lacks meaningful progression, dynamics, and climaxes. It sounds like the first half of an intro that's somehow been drawn out for 90 seconds. Also, it doesn't loop that well, but I think you already knew that. You could definitely do a lot more with this. I want to see some more engaging content following this. I want that first riff to repeat no more than twice before you introduce the pads, and the pads' riff itself should probably only repeat no more than twice before some sort of climax/melody/transition/etc. happens. Some drums could also really help move the piece along in that regard. There are a lot of directions you could go with this, but for now it's just two rather quirky instruments whose parts happen to fit well together. I advise - no - I command you to make something of this! >:D

[Thinking]

I like the grouchy bass, but the rhythm is a little hard to follow before the drums come in. I like the energy and the percussion. This is a really bass-heavy track that's missing a lot of higher frequencies IMO, but I see you're already planning on fixing that. Besides that, it's a bit repetitive as it is, and could use some dynamic contrast and more structuring. Hopefully the addition of melodies and pads will help with that, but some crashes/sweeps would still go a long way to give this piece some more direction. As for the genre, it sounds like techno to me. ^^ Hope this review helped. Keep at it, TeraVex. ;)

[~SW~ The Brain Cycle]

I like the screeching FX/effects at the beginning. This piece has a pretty cool progression, although it's a bit slow-to-heat-up if you know what I mean. I like the melody that started fading in around 1:15, although I personally think it should've been a little more up-front in the mix. Cool vibe you have goin' on at around 2:10. Sounds like something right out of a shady, smoky hotel rooftop lounge from a James Bond movie. 0_O The ending gets cut off a bit suddenly, but that's probably more of an exporting difficulty rather than an errant compositional quality. This is a very flowing and well-structured piece, though. I admire your sense of rhythm and harmony. I can tell you spent a lot of time on the atmospheric details of this track, and let me assure you that it's well worth it. The mixing and mastering was very solid. I liked the filtering and panning effects you used at various points in the track. The sound design is superb - this piece has really unique instrumentation (I'm glad you synthesized most of the sounds here!). Full-textured, funky, refreshing, creative...I'm running out of positive adjectives. XD You earned a fave and a DL. I'm looking forward to this impending album of yours as well! Keep up the good work, Skye! ^^

SkyeWint responds:

Sup!

The screeching FX is actually a few random recordings I manipulated which were titled "cd_spin". If you can figure out what that means, be my guest.

The melody at 1:15 was somewhat meant to fade in, since it felt a lot too abrupt when I had it coming in at a higher volume. It doesn't share frequencies with other instruments at the time though, so if your speakers/headphones aren't thin at the frequencies where it's filtered down to, you can hear it the whole way through fairly easily!

...the end was a lowpass filter where the cutoff point was getting lower and lower until it reached zero at the end of the final note, so there wasn't a volume filter going down or anything. I guess it was actually an errant compositional quality. Not really something I can fully correct either since there's nothing to really let ring out at the end of that. Another example of this is in Float: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/573077 The ending there is also a fadeout in the same way. Same thing again in Cranial: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/585340
In both of these cases the fadeout worked a bit better because it was just suspended chords, whereas this was fading out activity.

Flowing composition is something I definitely try to do ( http://skyewint.newgrounds.com/news/post/870256 ). Harmony is primarily learned from jazz theory, rhythm is... uh... I dunno. Fun? Atmosphere, well, you know I've obsessed over that since basically the start of music-making. Similar for unique instrumentation and panning. Mixing, mastering, and production effects... well, that's a recent thing of mine that I've been trying to do!

Glad you like it overall. Here's hoping I'll be able to finish the album sooner rather than later. :)