TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Before You Go]

I like the smooth guitar riff and jazzy drums at the beginning. At :18, the drums could’ve been a bit more prominent in the mix, and ditto for the vocals at :35. Your voice is really soothing, and I also really like the furtive-sounding solo at 1:27. The entire piece has a real ‘70s vibe, to be honest - mild-mannered and down-to-earth. The second half of the piece gets a bit repetitive, though, and at some point some more variety in the energy level and instrumental hierarchy in particular would’ve been nice. Still, you put together an engrossing atmosphere and successfully showed off your stellar sense of harmony and progression here. Keep it up, Spoonman! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
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
8.5/10

[Demolitios-Lost and Found]

I like the relaxed and blissful mood at the beginning. The rhythm is a little hard to follow at first, but maybe that’s just because of how echo-y the guitar is. I like the quirky synth at :19 and the minimal hip-hop-inspired beat at :45. Otherwise, the texture is very slow to progress and repetitive for much of the piece, and there are also moments of prolonged minimalism like at 1:08, which I feel was a missed opportunity to have a cool melodic bridge or something. I can tell the piece makes a good loop, but I still think you could’ve done a lot more with the composition here. The sound design, production quality, rhythmic content, and atmosphere are all really good. I’d encourage you to keep working on this piece. If you flesh out the structure a bit more and add some variety in the texture, this could be a real banger. Keep at it, Splashtinum! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
7.25/10

[FACUNDO GARDIOL - Airborne ( Future Bounce )]

I like the airy vocals at the beginning, although the way they’re layered over the beat in terms of the pattern of emphasis in the rhythm is a bit bizarre. I like the sense of build into :34, though, and the drop there is seriously catchy. The mix is clean and well-balanced, if a tad over-compressed for my tastes. I also like the synth drone and filtering during the post-chorus at 1:06. The arrangement, sound design, and chord progression of the piece are all pretty generic, and I would’ve liked to see more variety in the main melodies and drop later on in the piece. My favorite element of the piece is probably the production, which is punchy and crisp. The rhythmic content is also nice - this piece is upbeat and danceable, and it’s hard to go wrong with that. :) I might have to pass on the skydiving though lol. Keep at it, SPIRALi! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
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
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
7.5/10

SPIRALi responds:

thanks!

[Seeking Light In The Darkness]

I like the waltzy piano riff at the beginning and the pensive, almost introspective mood. The piece could use a bit more atmosphere - reverb on the piano, sharper and more prominent percussion, etc. - but the strings and other layered harmonies as the piece goes on help the texture feel full and rich after a while. The production quality is not bad, but the mix is very quiet. I like how the piece comes full circle at the end with the waltzy piano riff. I also think the arrangement sounded a bit formulaic, with regular changes in the texture every 4 or 8 bars, but not a lot of ebb and flow within those 8 bars. Still, the elegant sound design, melodies, and soothing aura of this piece have really won me over. Keep at it, SomeGuy! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
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?)
.75/1
Composite score
8/10

SomeGuyMusic responds:

Thank you!

[Bx7]

That was a pretty creative fade-in at the beginning. The rhythmic content is really neat here, but I might’ve liked to see you smooth over the distorted texture a bit, especially with the harsh-sounding sweep at :05. The mix is clean and loud, but could use a bit more of a sense of balance between the gritty, low-register content and otherwise. The texture is pretty minimal here, although I appreciate the attempt to fill some of it with reverb without compromising the production quality. The mid-range synth riff at 1:32 was catchy and refreshing, although the screechy effect at 1:42 wasn’t my favorite, especially given how often it was repeated during the ensuing 20 seconds. Overall, there is some very creative sound design work here, and the rhythmic content and mixing are also quite good. The composition could use a bit more harmonic depth and a less choppy arrangement, although you’ve clearly demonstrated your chops as a techno producer here. Keep at it, Solaraloe! ^_^

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

[Techno All Night]

I like the catchy synths at the beginning. The bass is a little too loud relative to the other instruments. The drums at :14 sound a bit minimal and dry - maybe some reverb would help give them more character. The lead synth at :28 is really neat, and I love the rhythmic content throughout the piece. At times, the arrangement feels a tad formulaic here - the texture shifts every 8 or 16 bars or so, but within those 16 bars there’s not much of a sense of ebb and flow. I love the melodies during the extended bridge from :42 to 1:38, though. I also would’ve liked to see some more variety later in the piece, not just a straight copy-paste of the earlier melodic bridge, and a more creative ending than a fade-out. Overall, the production quality holds up well, although you may want to transpose that low-mid synth harmony (the riff at the beginning besides the bass line), just to balance out the mix a little more frequency-wise. Despite my nitpicks, this is a catchy piece with solid mixing and cute, refreshing sound design. Keep at it, SMR! ^_^

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

[Twins At The Edge Of A Dream]

I like the furtive tone at the beginning and the dark organ sound. The chord progression at :24 is a little generic, and the piece is pretty slow to progress for a while. I wasn’t a huge fan of the choir sample at :49 - it sounds pretty inauthentic, and also was introduced pretty abruptly. Right as you’re getting to a seemingly climactic part of the piece at 1:12 with the rich chords, you also strip away a lot of the harmonies, which makes it feel more anticlimactic. You slowly build back up to 2:05, which was probably my favorite section of the piece - it sounded much more like a “point of arrival” than anything that came before. I also really like the warm, triumphant feel to the organ and brass pads at 2:50 or so. There’s another good sense of build throughout the 4th minute of the piece, although the texture at 4:09 sounds very busy and distorted. Part of the problem might be that there’s a bit too much reverb in the texture for all of the instruments to be heard clearly. I’d suggest looking at the plugins you got the instruments from and seeing if you can dial back some of the reverb there. Still, I like the mellow outro with the choir pads and organ synth.

Overall, you have a really good sense of structuring, harmony, and rhythm. The composition comes together nicely here. Unfortunately, the instruments you selected for this piece are not my favorite - most of them sound very cheesy and fake. Sometimes, you’re better off selecting instruments that are meant to sound fake (i.e., synths) if the orchestral samples you have don’t sound authentic. To talk more about the composition, though, I really like all the dynamic contrast in this piece and the variety in how you employ the sound design during different parts. In other words, even if the harmonic content is pretty repetitive, you’re keeping things interesting by having different volume levels, different rhythms, and different instruments playing a given part (chords, melody, bass line, etc.) at different times. That’s an advanced compositional skill to have, and it really comes through well in this piece.

Still, I’d encourage you to work on finding some more realistic orchestral samples to use. I’d suggest PM’ing @LD-W and joining the NG Audio Pub on Discord. The Resources tab there is full of great sample libraries and tips on where to find more. Good luck! Looking forward to seeing what else you produce, man. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
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?)
.75/1
Composite score
5.5/10

[Ellora]

I like the synth arpeggios at the beginning and the ambient sound of a street scene (or…restaurant? Hard to tell). Anyway, the soothing synths and child-like vocals at :27 are really nice, and there’s a great sense of building energy throughout the first minute and a half here, despite the slow pace of progression. The lead at 1:22 is a little too loud IMO, especially relative to the volume of the build-up before it. That said, I like how echo-y it is, and how the rhythmic density of the notes increases over time throughout the melodic phrase. The breakdown at 1:59 was another good idea, and I like the rhythmic syncopations in the piano and flute melodies there. I really like how you varied the main guitar riff the second time around compared to the first melody at 1:22. If I had to complain about something in the composition, it might be that the arrangement and chord progression are both pretty generic here. Still, I really enjoyed the sound design, top-notch production quality, melodies and flow of this piece. Keep it up, Skayden! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
9/10

[Mijn en ambacht]

I like the ominous mood at the beginning. The lead guitar at :07 sounds a bit inauthentic, but a bigger problem is how much it’s drowning out the drums and bass here. I’d suggest adding a bit more compression to the drums, and adjusting the volume levels on the bass as you can. The rhythmic content here is really nice - I especially like the drums at :24 - and the organ lines are also really catchy. The transition at :57 was very sudden, and during that section the drums in particular get very lost in the texture. The mallets at 1:13 were another cool sound design choice, but they don’t quite feel well-integrated with the synth patterns that come both before and after them. The stop-start transition at 2:02 is once again pretty jarring, but I thought it was really clever to slow down the pacing of the main riff at 2:02. There’s a lot of dissonance in the texture at around 2:30. I feel like you were going for a final climax there, but the texture was very muddy and the drums needed to be punchier to sell the sense of urgency given the slower tempo.

Overall, the sound design, rhythmic content, atmosphere, and mood of this piece are really good. The two big suggestions I have are 1) to work on your transitions and 2) to tighten up the mix. There are a lot of sudden shifts in the texture during your piece, and the result is that the arrangement is rather choppy. Instead of adding or subtracting instruments without warning, introducing them more gradually, or even doing a cross-fade with the lead instrument before it, could help keep the listener more grounded here. As for the mixing, the piece needs both some more compression across the board, maybe even on the master track, to give the mix some more sharpness and distinction, as well as some stricter equalizing. There are a lot of muddy, lower frequencies that should probably be filtered out of the harmonic instruments here - as a general rule of thumb, 200 Hertz and lower should only ever appear in the bass and drums.

Still, the compositional details and frantic melodies in this piece are totally cool. I hope you’ll continue working on this - lot of potential here. Keep at it, SirSandman0! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
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?)
1/1
Composite score
6.75/10

SirSandman0 responds:

thank you for the feedback! I generally suck at audio mixing, so I'll definitely be making use of this.

[Celebration]

I like the airy brass at the beginning. The percussion at :03 is a little overly distorted and “lo-fi” for my tastes, but the rest of the sound design is really cool. The mix might’ve been a bit sharper if you had cut back a bit on the reverb, but otherwise everything blends well together. I really like the unconventional meter of the beat at :28 and the blissful mood of the harmonic instruments. The transition at :54 threw me off of the flow a bit at first, but you quickly got back in the groove with the prominent piano lines during the next section. The mix sounds a bit harsh at 1:26, especially in the treble range of the frequency spectrum, but I like how you tied up the piece with a final climactic section at 1:46. It might even be worth throwing a bit more compression on the snare at 2:03 to add some punchiness. Overall, I really admire the experimental texture and creative sound design work of this one, even if not all of the individual decisions you made in that regard were my cup of tea. The composition is really enjoyable overall, but the production needs a bit of tightening. Still, I’d encourage you to keep working on this. Clean up the mix a bit, and this is approaching banger territory. Keep it up, Silliu! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
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
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7.25/10