TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[denial]

I love the ominous strings and synths - you were always so good at combining the two. It's very melancholy and emotional. You did a nice job with dynamic contrast, too: lot of ups and downs in this one. I love the piano arpeggios that start around 1:55. You had a good amount of reverb and balance in the mix in this one too. The drums at 2:35 sort of threw me off guard a bit. Perhaps you could've had a sweep leading up to them, at least? However, I like the direction the piece started taking after 3:00, and those glitches and harsher-sounding synths after 3:30 really added an interesting vibe to the piece. It's half-chill, half-anxiety-inducing. It's like you can feel the monster trying to escape from the closet for a minute or two, then it's back to the relaxing vibe at 4:15. I love it! :D Instantly fav'd! You started "writing good music" years ago, Johnfn! Keep it up, and best of luck in the NGADM 2014! :D

johnfn responds:

Thanks! I don't know why it took me so long to respond to this review, but I appreciate it nonetheless!

I guess the real monster is... our own emotions :O :O

[Aurora]

Dude, I haven't listened to your stuff for a while now! :D I love that melody synth and the spacey vibe to this piece. The "woops" that started coming in after around :30 were cool, too. Maybe it progresses a little slowly at times, but that's all right. I guess house is supposed to be that way, huh? Once all the harmonies started coming in, though, I think it turned into a really cool piece. The one thing that was kind of bothering me was the ending. Fade-outs are boring and not that creative imo. Also, working on the mixing a bit might be an important next step for you. The kick got a little weak/muddy late in the track once all the harmonies started coming in. Other than that, not much to complain about! Keep it up, man! ;D

DjGubkafish responds:

Thank you . I'll keep the advice in mind .

[Countdown]

I really like the sort of drone-like and pensive quality the first minute or so of this one had. It also was pretty climactic and all with the harmonies that started coming in around 1:43. Your pieces don't really have a lot of dynamic contrast in them, but that might be easier to fix once you start incorporating more instruments into your tracks. I really like the whole "countdown" idea, though...I thought that was pretty creative. May I ask what program you use to make/record these tracks? ;)

oOzeroOo responds:

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts! Hopefully, you're right about the instruments cuz I feel really nervous about using them (>m<") I record using Garageband, though I'm a total dunce when it comes to trying to go beyond the basics :P

[Alive]

Awesome! I love the emotion and instruments and melodies with the electric pianos and synths. It's very trance-like and pretty, but also complex and pensive. It loops perfectly, btw. I think you could extend this a bit, maybe add some dynamic contrast and structuring, and have an excellent NGADM audition piece already! :D Keep up the great work, RetromanOMG! ;D

[The Devil's Outside]

Wow! This is great! :D The sound effects were awesome, and you really established an exhilarating plot well. I admire your voice acting talents. Nice work! ;)

headphoamz responds:

Thanks very much ^_^

[Misguided Passion]

Oooo....it's very graceful and classy-sounding. Makes me think of a ballroom in 18th century England. XD It's very hard for me to determine the structure or even time-signature at times, though. It's very flow-y, as opposed to transitional. In other words, the title fits well, although at times it is a bit...all-over-the-place. Sorry if I'm not expressing this well. Just got back from an 8-hour shift at work. It doesn't seriously detract from my enjoyment from the piece, but I think it would be a good idea to add a little more dynamic contrast or transitional material, just to keep the listener grounded. I think you're a FANTASTIC pianist, btw. Was this improvised? I've always admired your improvisation skills, LSD. Anyway, nice work again! ;) You've been a frequent contributor to the classical playlist on my iPod recently. 0_O

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hey, thanks for leaving a review right after working for so long!

I don't even know the time signature myself if I don't think about it XD
I agree with you about the flowiness. Almost everything is connected, with the exception of parts like 1:25 and so on :p
This is all over the place indeed, which brings me to the question of whether this was improvised or not. It's not improvised, but yet, it kind of is, which may explain the lack of the transitional aspect. What I mean is, this piece was created by inventing a part, improvising until I got a good idea, and I just kept playing the piece from start to wherever I was 100+ times (during about 3 days), until I had a finished piece, stuck in my muscle memory. Thus, most parts were initially improvised, even if I play them exactly the same now ;)
Some segments had more thought behind them though.
Btw, I could NEVER improvise this well in one take :D

"just to keep the listener grounded"

=> The good thing about a constant flow is, you will sometimes teach people how to fly ;)

No but seriously... That's actually how some forms of hypnosis works, and you enter a trance-like state while listening to music too :'D

"I think you're a FANTASTIC pianist"

=> Thanks once more! I did edit out some mistakes though >:D

Yay, frequent contribution ftw!!!
I'll probably begin uploading old stuff while I'm away, so this might be the last piece of somewhat high quality for a while. Still, I have like 20 or so songs at least that can still take uploading while I'm gone :p

[I See Magic]

Yeah, you're a really good singer. :) The vocal stuff is cool, but some instruments could potentially add a lot to your pieces. I also personally liked the lyrics to the last one a bit better. I also think that it's really similar stylistically to your last piece with the "doo-dahs." It's always a good idea to explore new genres and moods. I think that's why artists like Waterflame have been so popular here - they're constantly trying new things and reforming their styles. It sounds good, though, but maybe it needs a bit more development/structuring/dynamic contrast. I could picture it as background music for a car commercial. XD Anyway, keep it up, oOzeroOo! ;D

oOzeroOo responds:

I completely agree with you that I should start adding instruments and such, but I'm kinda lacking in skill as of now ^.^". Honestly, this wasn't that serious of a piece for me, and I didn't really spend as much time trying to make it sound as good or as unique as it could've been. You definitely caught me on that one >o<.
Thanks so much for the feedback!

[Eargasm]

First of all, I like the synths and beat. I think you did a good job with the mixing this time, but this track is a little simplistic. Mixing will get harder once you have more instruments in your tracks. I'd suggest you try challenging yourself to mixing with some more complex harmonies in the near future. You can also try experimenting with Fruity Reeverb, Delay, Echo, etc. I think this track could've used a more interesting structure/progression, but it loops cleanly and has potential to be a really cool piece. Keep working at it, ROUGE! ;D You're doing well. ^^

ROUGE responds:

Thanks :D