TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[ADVENTURE097 (NGUAC)]

I like the pensive piano riff at the beginning. It sounds a bit overly contained in the mix, though. I’d suggest giving it a bit more room to breathe in the EQ. Relative to the beat at :12, the piano sounds really quiet too, and in fact the track in general is probably too loud. I’m also not a big fan of the snare at :26 - sounds a bit dry and flat. There are also some abrupt transitions here, like at :52, 1:29, 2:21, 2:59, etc.

Other than that, the rest of the piece is rather repetitive, despite some rhythmic variations and the more atmospheric direction you took at 3:12. I’d encourage you to add some more depth to the harmonies here - layering on additional instruments after a while, changing the contour of the pitches in the original riffs, etc. You could also do a lot more with the drums here - you seem to have a couple of drum patterns that are copy-pasted between sections. I think you could create some variety in the texture and help smooth over some of these transitions by creating some rolled snares or other drum fills during transitory moments, with a crash on the downbeat.

Sorry if this isn’t a very positive review, but for what it’s worth I’m impressed you made this in just a little over an hour. I think you could stand to put more effort into the composition, as well as rein in the volume levels at times (especially 2:56), but otherwise there are some catchy riffs and cool rhythmic ideas here that are worth exploring further. Keep at it, Exdrumi! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.25/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
5.5/10

[Cruising the Tides]

I like the furtive pads at the beginning. The mix is a bit quiet, but otherwise clear. A little compression could go a long way here. The drums help keep things going for a while, but overall the texture is very minimal, and could use a lot more variety. I like when the piece picks up steam a bit at 1:46, but the sub-bass is a tad loud and the texture could still use some more fill. The lo-fi production quality, mood, and sound design are really nice here, but I wanted to see you do more with the composition. You could totally layer on a killer brass solo or vocals here. I’d encourage you to keep working on this - with a bit more harmonic depth and variety, you could really sell both the laid-back and melancholic elements of the sound design here. Keep at it, emersonkid! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
6.5/10

[Wavesong]

I like the relaxed atmosphere at the beginning and the ocean wave and bird sound effects. The beat and lead synth at :19 are nice too, but I would’ve liked to hear more of the drums in particular in the mix - maybe adding a compressor would help. You could also stand to incorporate some more mixing effects, especially reverb if possible, to fill out the atmosphere more. The rest of the sound design is also really nice, though, especially the plucked strings and vibraphone. Later on in the piece, there’s a great call-and-response thing going on between several of the different melodic instruments, but unfortunately the piece fades out when it just felt like it was getting going. I love the instrumentation, mood, and progression of this one, but the composition could use some more fleshing out and the texture could use a little more “decoration,” as I alluded to above. Still, I’d encourage you to keep working on this - it has a lot of potential. Keep at it, Ellietonin! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
7.5/10

[ELD23 - Mission]

I like the bright-sounding synth pattern at the beginning, although the instrument has a bit of a stereo click playing with it that’s a bit harsh in the upper register. The piano at :36 sounds a bit inauthentic, and could also use a boost in the mix, maybe with some compression. There’s a good sense of build into :58, and the melodic content there is pretty sweet. The cutesy synths during the post-chorus at 1:24 are also nice. The stop-start transition at 1:46 works quite well, and I like the quirky rhythms in the lead at 2:18 or so. The final refrain at 2:23 sounds a tad too busy with the piano line layered onto it - I appreciated your effort to create a sense of “all of the elements of the piece coming together” at the end, but it sounded a bit dissonant, is all. Perhaps you’d be better off switching up the melody itself. Anyway, this is a well-composed track overall. I like the melodies, progression, and sound design, and the mixing also holds up well despite my nitpicks. The slightly clashing harmonies at times and the relatively generic arrangement are probably my main complaints here. Keep it up, ELDIOS! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
8.25/10

ELDIOS2333 responds:

Thank you!!

[TX123213]

I like the drum samples here - especially the kick. It has just enough treble to be crisp, while also plenty of bass to make it stick out. The synth basses are also pretty cool, but the chord progression they’re playing is a bit cliche. The chord progression wouldn’t have mattered too much if there was a greater variety of harmonies around them, though. Some melodic lines, or at least a variation on the existing bass lines would help make this piece a lot less…bland. The piece certainly is not bad. But there’s a lot more you can do with this to make it stand out in a competition with 400+ other tracks. I’d encourage you to keep working on it. Cheers, Easyprojekt! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.75/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
4/10

Easyprojekt responds:

I'll do my best!

[Krystallion]

I like the murky atmosphere at the beginning. The echo-y synth at :10 is nice, but might need to come down a bit in the mix, especially on the upper end of the frequency range. There’s a bit of dissonance in the texture at around :27, and I’m not a big fan of the snare sample at :34 - sounds pretty dry and sharp relative to the relaxed mood of the piece. I did enjoy the injection of energy at :37 and the cool sweep at 1:20. The quirky sound design and atmosphere here are both great, and I’m also a fan of the flanger thing at 1:40. The classy piano breakdown was a pleasant surprise, although I think it could use some more reverb or other mixing effects to fill out the atmosphere. I think the transition into the glitchy part at 2:34 could’ve been more gradual, and I’m also not a huge fan of all the distortion on the snare there - sounds a bit grating. You’ve definitely produced a very evocative and unique sound here. I’m not sure some of the more experimental elements of the texture quite land for me, but if I had to change one thing about the piece it would probably be the mixing. At :57, the pads sound very distorted. I’d look into some stereo widening to give them a more even tone, and also double-check that you’ve filtering out the frequencies below 200 Hertz or so in everything except the bass and drums. Otherwise, there are a lot of fun ideas here, from the choices of atmospheric instruments to the piano melodies to the lo-fi beats. Neat track, Dzeevn! Keep at it. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7/10

Dzeevn responds:

Thank you! I'm still pretty new at making music, but I'll try the stuff you suggested!

[S.Y.G.A.]

I like the synth bass arpeggios at the beginning and the organ synth at :08. They occupy a very similar frequency range, though - might help make each one sound more distinct if you moved one of them up an octave. That would also help balance out what was a pretty bottom-heavy texture until that point. Still, I like the guitar melodies at :53 and the walking bass line. The drums could use a bit of a boost in the mix - I’d suggest some more compression. In fact, the mix is a bit quiet on the piece in general, so maybe that compressor should go on the master track. Just be careful that you don’t compress it so much that the entire mix sounds artificial.

After :53, much of the first half of the piece is pretty repetitive. Especially since the overall track is so long, it might benefit from some more structural changes in the texture - stripping the beat away entirely, switching up which instruments are playing the melody, etc. I like how the guitar gradually climbs into its upper register by 2:45, even though it took a pretty long and meandering path to get there. The spacey atmosphere at 3:14 was a good way of wrapping up the first melodic section before the re-introduction of the bass a few seconds later.

I think the brass at 4:00 in particular could use a bit of a boost in the mix, and also the instrument sounds a tad inauthentic. I also would’ve liked to see you shake up the melodic section the second time around at 4:20 - it seems to be copy-pasted from the first half of the piece. The final tonic note at 6:43 is a nice touch, though.

Overall, the sound design and composition of the piece are enjoyable, and it’s especially nice to see such a dynamic main melody. The mixing is the main thing that needs tweaking here in my view. You could also stand to have a bit more variety during the long melodic sections, but it might serve you just as well to loop the piece off at 3:20 instead of just repeating everything again. Neat track, DonDonPan! Keep it up. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
7.75/10

ZuwerWS responds:

cool I'll keep this in mind, also yeah almost everything after 3:20 is a copy paste just to show how it loops

[Hooked on Pythonics]

AHHH!! A snake. >_> I love the quirky texture at the beginning and the eerie mood of that synth at :09. The different instruments seem to be tripping over each other a bit by :17, and the texture sounds pretty muddy and distorted. I can barely make out the piano line in the upper register. Did you use MIDI to record this? If so, I’d make sure that you have all of the instruments quantized. Or maybe it’s just that the reverb/delay effects are a little too strong - hard to tell. The bridge with the sharp piano line at 1:28 is probably my favorite part of the piece - it feels like a real “point of arrival” in a piece that otherwise has more of a “tapestry of sound” approach to filling out the texture. I would’ve liked to see you do something more creative than the fade-out ending, but otherwise I don’t have many structure-related complaints either. Overall, this is a really fun piece. The composition and sound design are really enjoyable - seems perfect for a horror-themed video game.

The one big complaint I do have is with the mixing. It’s hard to hear all of the instruments clearly at a given time, and sometimes the excess of reverb in the texture further makes the piece sound muddy and distorted. I’d suggest dialing back the reverb, adding a compressor to the drums, and - most importantly - filtering out the frequencies in the harmonic instruments (i.e., pretty much everything except the bass and drums) below about 200 Hertz. You can do this with a mixing tool called an “equalizer,” or EQ for short. You may already know about equalizers, but you should use them way more often, is the point. They’ll make your piece sound much more punchy and crisp, which is exactly what you want for a dramatic track like this.

Anyway, I hope this review was helpful! I’d encourage you to keep working on this piece. It has a lot of potential to be a real banger with some more work on the production. Keep at it, dogsinmrimachines! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
6/10

dogsinmrimachines responds:

That's excellent advice on the mixing, thank you!

[Plant-Based Pickles]

I like the ominous riff at the beginning. The chord progression is a tad cliche, and the piece is pretty slow to progress at first, but I like the crisp drums and syncopations at :45. Despite a lot of pent-up energy and some nice filtering work, 1:15 ended up being a bit of an anti-climax, although putting the lead riff up the octave at 1:30 helped up the ante a bit. The airy breakdown at 1:47 was nice and creepy, but also pretty minimal. The echo-y synth might benefit from some stereo widening or something just to make sure it doesn’t distort the core harmonies in the mix. Overall, though, the production quality is quite good here.

I’m digging the bassy groove at 2:47, although the pulsating flanged synth at 2:54 isn’t my favorite - sounds a bit harsh relative to the smooth synths earlier. I also think the transition back into the “A”-section riff at 3:16 was a bit abrupt, and I wanted to see you create more variety and interest later in the piece that never quite came to fruition. You passed up the opportunity to create a real “point of arrival” that released and/or resolved some of the pent-up tension here.

Still, I love the atmosphere, eerie mood, mixing and mastering work, and sound design in this piece. Give me a “radio edit” version of this piece with some more variety, and I’ll blast it at every party I host. :D Keep at it, DJSupaMonkey!

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
7.75/10

DJSupaMonkey responds:

Hey TaintedLogic

Man, I just wanted to say thank you for giving my piece a listen and providing constructive feedback. It's really nice to have some points I can identify and work on in my future music, as most of what I have learned has been on my own over the years. Having someone genuinely listen to my work is an honor in and of itself, but the clear and concise commentary is a wonderful addition.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. <3

Alex (DJ Supa Monkey)

[Luxury]

I like the cute melody at the beginning and the upbeat mood throughout. The beat at :26 with the prominent hi-hat is seriously catchy, and the clap with the heavy reverb is a nice touch. The harmonic content is a bit cliche and repetitive, though. The drop at 1:13 has some refreshing rhythmic content, although the drums could use a bit of a boost in the mix there. I think the breakdown/bridge at 1:50 is especially repetitive and minimal, and also drags on for quite a long time (until 2:43). I also would’ve liked to see you switch up the drop the second time around, and maybe have more of a proper full-length outro.

Overall, the sound design, progression, and atmosphere are all really nice here. The arrangement is a bit generic, and the mixing could use a bit of polishing up in places, but my biggest problem is how bland, repetitive, and cliche the harmonic content is. The entire piece is based on the same 4-bar riff, and could at the very least use some more fill in the texture (especially during the bridge) and a key change or “B”-section riff for variety.

Still, the rhythmic content, energy at the drops, and beats help keep me engaged. There’s a lot to like in this piece, and I hope you keep working on it so it can achieve its full potential. Keep at it, DJ-Minix. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
6.75/10