TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hero Mountain]

I like the melodies and themes, as well as the mood. I think some of the instruments were a little too harsh, like the one at :23 and the melody instrument at the beginning. It's well-structured and smooth-flowing, though. Still, I felt like the beat was hiding under the other instruments for most of the song. Did you use a limiter? The piano was a nice touch, but it ends a little suddenly. I think this could make a great loop. It has a lot of potential, but I think you could clean up some of the details a little. Hope this was helpful! ;D

[-Swirl!-]

Very upbeat and refreshing! :D It is very wf-ish, but isn't that a good thing? ;) I found it both energetic and relaxing, especially around 1:40. The structure was good, and those little "woops" added a lot to the piece! Nice work as always, Waterflame! ;D

Waterflame responds:

Thanks :D i appreciate it!

[the secrets of the stars]

I love the dreamy atmosphere of the piece and the melodies. Reminds me a lot of "Substructure." It's smooth-flowing and calming. I love the mood and instruments. The mixing is completely fine! It got a little too distorted towards the very end for my tastes, but it doesn't make a bad loop. Nice job! ;D

johnfn responds:

Yo thanks dude! I guess I was being too hard on myself about the mixing hah. It's tough to evaluate that stuff though.

The concept of the ending was to smash the whole song to bits with bitcrushing. I like the concept but I probably should have introduced it earlier in the song so that it isn't such a shock! More things to think about... :)

[the traveller]

I love the sweet, warm melodies and the percussion. It's definitely infused with emotion - from bliss to deep wistfulness. I think it's great that the song tells such a story. There are some points that it lacks some substance, such as 3:00-3:30. I found myself focusing on the percussion a lot, and while it adds a lot atmospherically to the piece, I noticed some places like 3:25-3:26 where the crash gets a little disjointed. I love the energetic turn it started to take around 3:40, though. You should probably add a limiter on that snare at 6:01 (or at least turn the volume way down) because it sounded really harsh. The ending was certainly...unique. I liked how you made it so climactic, but I think the way the horn cuts off at 6:05 sounds really unnatural. I liked the riff at the very end a lot. It adds a lot of relief and cute humor to the otherwise intense finale, a final twist in the plot to this excellently-carved story of music! My complaints are minor. This is another excellent piece, Johnfn! Best of luck at NGADM! ;D

johnfn responds:

Thanks for the review as always! Seriously, I am really appreciative of your fastidiousness on reviewing my stuff.

Good catch on 3:00-3:30, that was definitely one of my biggest struggles when writing the piece. Essentially what I was aiming for was a transition between the first half (calming, happy, peaceful, standard chord progressions) to the second half (energetic, not happy, not peaceful, nonstandard chord progressions). I was trying to make a seamless switch, but moving from one thing to a totally different thing is really hard - in fact, it's probably the thing I have the most trouble with!

Since I only had about 2 days to work on this thing, I can understand that there are a lot of minor technical problems with it (in fact, I'm kind of surprised there aren't even more haha). I was rushing like crazy to get the whole thing glued together, and with the benefit of time I can see some seams. Still though I'm glad you liked it, and I'll definitely take your points into consideration on future projects!

Onwards and upwards!