TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sundans - I Dream]

It's very climactic and catchy. The fade-in approach at the beginning is a little cliché, but I think that's a minor complaint. The sense of direction in this one is good, and you channel the energy throughout rather well. It's very dreamy at times, and energetic at others. The mixing is pretty good, and the melodic content is rather enjoyable. It was a bit minimalistic throughout, though, although you still nailed dynamic contrast and melodic development. Structurally, it's a sound piece, and I thought the way you ended it was much more creative than the way you began it. It kept my attention throughout, but I think you should really pay attention to the lack of fill I see here in the future. This was a relaxing and atmospheric piece - trance that puts you in a trance, just the way I like it! Solid work, Sundans. Keep it up! ;D

8.5/10

[1000 Laughin' Corpses]

I love the ominous effects and mood at the beginning. I think they'd be more effective if they were more rhythmically varied, though. I think you could stand to cut down that intro a lot, too. I love the creepy piano at :40, however, and the climax into 1:30 was simply fantastic. It's very mechanical and quirky, which is why I like it! My main problem during the first half of the piece is that it's very repetitive. The long-awaited structural relief at 2:30 was welcome, but short-lived. It still progresses very slowly throughout. My main problem during the second half was that it seemed rather rhythmically busy from 2:48. It was a little jarring, to be honest, and I really think some more melodic development and well-integrated harmonic content could help this piece a lot. The mixing is not bad, but it really isn't enough to keep my attention for the full 4.5 minutes, I'm afraid. The ambiance was good, but you need to build more around that, Stapless. That acid riser that you have going for most of the piece was cool, but I think you should explore some different methods of channeling energy in this track, yes? Overall, it's pretty good, but it could really be a lot better than it is IMO. It can't be just all effects and bass, my friend. A 30-second intro with them is fine, but a 4-minute song is not. Sorry to be so tough on you - the effects and bass are COOL, but they shouldn't have been the only thing going on for over 4 minutes. I think this piece has a lot of potential, though, so you should keep working on it. Keep at it, man! ;)

6.5/10

Stapless responds:

Thanks for the review :0 I'll keep at it.

[Stories of the Battlefield]

I like the Celtic vibe I'm getting from the strings at the beginning. The melodic and harmonic content in this is rather enjoyable, but I think the mixing/balance could've been better. That echo-y synth really gets buried under the strings at times (I can barely hear it after the 1-minute mark or so). At 1:32, the texture gets a little too thick IMO. What I mean is there's a bit too much going on, and I think the chords might be culprit. I would choose between atmospheric and pizzicato-y/ melodic there. It would make for a neat little breakdown of sorts. The ending was simply not what I expected at all. It sounded like you were introducing an entire new theme at 2:57, and then it simply just ends. That's a little disorienting, my friend. The combination of instruments is rather enjoyable for most of the piece, however. The thick texture issue is an easy fix, and structurally it's sound as well. Smooth-flowing, well-established mood; I have few major complaints besides the mixing! Keep up the good work, Sovarozum! ;)

8/10

Sovarozum responds:

thanks for the feedback! much appreciated. and sorry about the ending ^_^' there will be a revised version in the coming weeks :D

[The_Imaginary_Sword]

I like the vocals at the beginning, but the transition into the more string-oriented part was a little sudden. I think you did a nice job integrating all of the other instruments in there, and then integrating the choir back in at 1:23. It's a beautiful piece, contemplative and pleasant. I think at times it seems to lack direction a bit, as in the middle minute or so (1:30 to 2:30 or so). I think the guitar comes in a bit suddenly, but it certainly adds a greater sense of direction and intensity to the piece. Your sense of harmonic and melodic development is good, and I like how you conclude the piece with a slightly more tranquil vibe as well. I thought for a second there that you might use the cliché "final guitar chord and let the reverb do the work" method. That transition (into the more tranquil ending) was effective, but I challenge you to find better ways of integrating the two sides to this piece (graceful orchestral and angry rock-and-roll) early on. Overall though, great work! Perhaps your mixing is not the best (for example, the guitar at :59 really gets buried under the strings), but overall, I like it a lot! Keep up the good work, Possibly! ;D

8.5/10

[Tavern theme]

I love the jazzy vibe to this one. The synth's melody at :17 is quite quirky, but enjoyable nonetheless. I like the rhythms at :30 and beyond, especially in the percussion. The pads at 1:10 really added some structural relief. It's a fast-paced piece, but really works well, I'd say. It could work well as background music to a videogame, late-night soundtrack at a bar & grill, or even an intro song to a night of dancing at a jazz club! XD It loops very well, and I like those punchy organ hits you put in there later in the piece. They really added some flavor. This is an entertaining and well-mastered piece that's not too busy or overwhelming at the same time. Really nice feel-good sort of vibe you got going on here, Jernemies. This is not only structurally sound and smooth-flowing, but the combination of instruments really show your talent on this one. Keep it up, my friend! ;)

9.5/10

Jernemies responds:

Hey, thank you :) Glad you liked it

[All Minds Obsession]

I like the synths/pads at the beginning, and the quirky piano works very well with them. I like the bright, upbeat tone it has. It'd be good for a video game! The melodic content was rather good, and the chord progression was very interesting. I think the piano could be varied rhythmically a bit more, though. The drums are good, and really have a bright, energetic pop to them! It is a bit repetitive by about 1:15, although that's about when you start varying it. Those quirky synths are just awesome! :D That melody instrument at around 2:10, while I like the melody itself, is very high-pitched and harsh-sounding. You can probably fix that by EQ'ing off the high tones a bit more, but overall the mixing was very good. I liked the ending and, despite the repetitive piano rhythms and whatnot, I think this is a fantastic piece! Well done, Blacklawn! ;D

9/10

Blacklawn responds:

Thanks! I probably need to try harder to make my pianos sound more realistically played. I guess I naturally tend to focus more on the melodic progression and usually don't care too much about adding variation to the rhythm, but I'll keep that in mind.

[Loss]

I love the emotion and instruments. It definitely encapsulates sadness/grief very well. It also feels very cinematic and climactic. It's pretty minimalistic throughout, but in its simplicity is also its beauty. That string sample is rather good as well. I like the variations in style you start using at 2:09 by introducing more staccato elements. These variations really highlight the contrasting high-point in emotion at around 2:45. Despite its incessant beauty, however, I feel like it was a bit long-winded for a stand-alone piece (without the accompanying movie, that is). The transition with the crash at 4:17 was nice, although the slight delay you had on the second crash threw me off a bit...it didn't seem completely natural that way IMO. I also would've perhaps liked to see you do something a bit riskier and grander (add some horn solo or something, perhaps), but as it is it's beautiful nevertheless. In the future, it'd be good to vary the chord progression a little more, although I might make an exception for this piece which utilizes its simplicity so well. Good job!

8.5/10

Bardash responds:

Thank you for your review!

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. The string sample I am using is Rich StringsSoft from Nexus2-Hollywood Expansion 2. It is by far in my opinion so pleasant to listen to after having been subject to violins that sounded like saxaphones when listening to midi instruments play my compositions throughout most of my life. For one of my next possible challenges, I will see if I can seamlessly tie together two completely different themes.

Anyway, thank you again for the review!

[Cloudburst]

I love the dreamy synths at the beginning, and you incorporated the vocals rather well. I think it gets a little repetitive by about the 1.5-minute mark, even if you do start to incorporate new themes. It's pretty minimalistic, and, while there are a lot of transitory moments, the piece is overly long-winded and lacks direction at times IMO. One of the things that REALLY bothered me about this piece was the mixing, though. I think you really took a risk with the harmonies, which is good (I'll come back to that later), but I also think a lot of them buried each other, especially around 3:00. When the drums get noticeably quieter, it probably means you have to think more carefully about what tones to bring out in each instrument in the EQ and what is interfering with what. That said, it's structurally a sound piece. I love the breakdown at around 3:45 and how you use it to transition into that melody at 4:30. It was all very gradually done, though, and, like I said before, I didn't think this piece needed to be 6+ minutes long. At 4:33, the bass sort of comes out of nowhere. I think it's way too loud in the mix. If you really wanted to keep it that loud, at least gradually turn up the volume on it to give it a less disorienting feel. I think the melodic and harmonic content overall is good, although I think some of the harmonic content around 3:00 is a bit too complex to work all that well. I'm also not sure I like some of your instrument choices. For example, the strings at around 3:15. You can really tell that they're fake - they especially sound fake when they hit those higher notes. The sample simply isn't of the best quality. Also, I thought the part at 4:53 was completely irrelevant to the rest of the piece. It didn't really fit in all that well with the atmospheric and spacey vibe established by the rest of the piece. I think you should probably just cut it out entirely and skip to the part at 5:01. After all, you'll have to cut something out because 6 minutes is just too long for a piece like this, my friend! The ending of this piece wasn't that bad, though. I think this has a lot of potential; I've just been very tough on you because I regard you as a friend. You have a lot of good ideas here, but please clean up the mixing/balance and make some more careful decisions about the progression. Overall, pretty good! Keep at it, Adieuwinter! ;D

6/10

adieuwinter responds:

Thanks for the review!

I certainly agree with your concerns about this track's length, I'll remedy that in accordance with your other suggestions. I often do excessively put melodies over each other, and in the future I'll make an attempt to avoid that. The part at 4:53 was my attempt of an interesting transition, but next time I'll write something more appropriate for the style of the rest of the song.

Thanks for all the comments! I'll make some modifications and perhaps reupload it.

[NGAUC Submission]

I like the instruments and mood, although the intro was a little short and disorienting. You should've fleshed out the ideas you had with the choir a lot more. 5 seconds is not a sufficient amount of time to introduce the major themes of a track, however short. I'd suggest slowing the pace way down in the choir, and then that'll create some valuable contrast when the strings come in. I did enjoy the cinematic mood and intensity of the strings, but structurally this is not a complete piece at all. Treating :06 as the intro, you have a moment of climax (into :28), then perhaps what can be likened to a bridge, and a post-chorus/verse at :48. The percussion at the very end does a pitiful job of tying up and concluding this piece. I just need MORE, SilverPoyozo. I'm sorry. I can tell you have talent. The moods and instruments are beautifully done, and harmonically it's well done as well, but I simply can't get past the rather rushed and disorienting vibe I'm getting from this. It's too fast-paced - I can sense how rushed you were in creating this based on the mood of the piece (which, strangely, may even be a good thing that the piece can communicate that to me). Anyhow, I'm afraid this won't earn a very high score. I KNOW that this is not your maximum potential, though, so I'd encourage you to continue working on this. Best of luck at the NGADM. ;)

6/10

SilverPoyozo responds:

It was expected, it was very hastily put together and I was already spent from another recent composition. I can't defend this track much, but it was my intention to make it a loopable boss-like theme for game soundtrack, so the short introduction was supposed to do basically that, scare the listener and fill him with adrenaline just before the fast strings consolidated the feeling of intensity and rush.
Other than that, I absolutely agree, thank you for the detailed review.