TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[90's House]

The old-school groove at the beginning is nice, although the mix sounds really distorted and some of the synths sound a bit unpolished. I can barely make out the orchestral hits at :56. The mid-range pads at 1:17 are really nice, and the rhythmic content here in general is great. Some of the effects are overused and don’t blend into the texture very well - for example, I didn’t really need 15 full seconds of police siren at 1:36 (or another full 15 seconds at 2:14, for that matter).

Still, overall the composition is fine, if a little repetitive, and the sound design is mostly good. My main concern is the mixing. You simply can’t hear all the instruments clearly throughout the piece. To fix that, try adding an equalizer to each instrument in your DAW’s mixer, and then remove the frequencies below 200 Hz for every instrument except the bass and the kick. It might also help add clarity and sharpness to the mix if you put some compression on the drums, especially the snare and clap. Just make sure to turn up the ratio on the compressor to 4:1 or so - that’ll help the drums pop through a dense texture and remain crisp throughout the song.

Overall, you clearly have a good sense of harmony, progression, and rhythm. You just need to cultivate your skills as a producer a bit more, thus the mixing tips above. Love the catchy beats and throwback instrumentation, though. Keep at it, Necromancer8642! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
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
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7/10

Necromancer8642 responds:

To be fair, I made this song before I knew about the mixing tricks you told me but I learned the mixing tricks way before you made this comment. The drums were supposed to sound distorted. And yes the bass is really hard to hear at times. And, like like the siren :(
My regrets: Not making the bass easier to hear, not cutting off the tail of on bass before the next bass pattern plays, not making the orchestral hits easier to hear. And not my fault the 808 kick is so damn weak. ;) My newer songs are better in quality anyway.

[NGUAC2024 - Elimination]

I like the pads and quirky drums at the beginning. Once the main beat comes in at :25, the mix sounds seriously distorted, though. The drums and bass get a lot quieter than they were before, and the whole texture sounds muddy and indistinct. You can fix that by adding an equalizer to each instrument in your DAW’s mixer, and then removing the frequencies below 200 Hz for every instrument except the bass and the kick. It might also help add clarity and sharpness to the mix if you put some compression on the drums.

That said, the lead synth riff at :37 is cute, and I like how you have a built-in “B” melody at :50 too. The chord changes at 1:15 are a bit abrupt, and the faller at 1:40 is just a bit too loud relative to the harmonies, especially since it’s repeated so often for the following 30 seconds. The minimal synth arpeggio bridge at 2:04 was a nice touch, although at some point I would’ve liked to see you shake up the energy level of the piece for an extended period of time. Believe it or not, it’s hard to keep most listeners engaged when the energy level is constantly high for more than a minute or two. The “reset” at 2:48 helped bridge the gap before the new melody comes in at 3:00, and I like the build-up into 3:38. This piece has a ton of bold key changes, which in general you pull off quite well in the context of a given transitory moment, although having so many of them still makes the arrangement seem a tad disjointed.

Overall, the composition is really dynamic and creative, if not as cohesive as it could be. The sound design is good, but the mix could be a lot more polished and sharp. Serious props for submitting such an ambitious project as your NGUAC tryout! Keep at it, MutatedBacon. ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
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?)
.75/1
Composite score
7.5/10

MutatedBacon responds:

Thank you so much for your feedback!

[OXYGENE]

I like the cute, frantic synth riff at the beginning. The bass riff at :13 sounds a bit clunky, with a couple of notes in the lower range that are very close together in pitch (which usually creates a muddy texture). There are a lot of sudden transitions here, and the pace of change is also very fast, making for a bit of a disorienting arrangement. A lot of the individual riffs and compositional details are cool - I think the pattern at :58 is particularly catchy. That said, I wanted to see you flesh out the structure of this piece with some more gradual transitions and maybe some more polished-sounding instruments (the bass in particular sounds like a raw square wave). I’d encourage you to revisit this piece with largely the same structure, but double the length of time between each major section and more elements in common between adjacent sections (it could be the same drum riff, bass line, or otherwise). Crashes, sweeps, and drum fills are also a good way of foreshadowing that a major change in the texture is about to occur before it does, which might make some of these transitions less jarring. All of that said, I really enjoyed the rhythmic content, upbeat mood, and energy of this piece. Keep at it, MorictoMusicia! ^_^

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

MorictoMusicia responds:

ty! ye, i think the 0:58 melody's pretty catchy. Tysm for the constructive critic!

[Llightt]

I like the quirky pads at the beginning. The piece is very slow to progress - at the very least, some mixing effects or automations could help spice it up. I like the added energy at 1:50. It might be advisable to foreshadow the introduction of the new pads there, just like you foreshadowed the melodic contour with the harmonies that start fading in at around 1:15. The bass line at 1:50 is a bit dissonant at times with the pads. The piano line at 2:22 has a nice emotional appeal, but also feels a bit undecorated, with a square rhythm and constant velocities. The higher register of the melody at 2:58 gives the second refrain a bit of a sense of evolution, which is nice. Overall, the composition is pretty minimal and bland. Bare-bones ambient pieces can work well sometimes, but you’ll need to put more effort into phrasing first - little ebbs and flows in the texture to make longer sections more engaging. Try playing more with filtering, automation, volume level changes, velocity changes, etc. It helps if you have a MIDI keyboard and you’re able to record the lines yourself, as opposed to using a mousepad and piano roll, which will almost always give you a more rigid and uniform texture. That said, I like the sound design, and I also enjoyed the airy atmosphere of the piece and a lot of the individual riffs and melodies. Keep at it, MeowMusicStudios! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
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?)
.25/1
Composite score
5.5/10

MeowMusicStudios responds:

Thanks a lot for the feedback!!! :D I really appreciate mentioning all of the things i can improve in!

[Night City Lights]

I like the jazzy hits at the beginning and the bass-y groove shortly thereafter. The filtering starting at around :12 threw me off a bit - kinda disrupts the flow. The reconstituted beat at :18 sounded a bit too busy and even dissonant between the bass, lead, and pads, and also had some rhythmic oddities with some elements of the drums that weren’t perfectly calibrated. You add some cool new elements later on, like the vocals at 1:18 and the brass at 1:24, although the brass is a bit too far back in the mix to be as expressive as it could’ve been. I also think the high-energy section of this piece drags on for way too long without a major change to the texture, like a bridge or breakdown.

Overall, there are a lot of good ideas in here, but you also tried to do too much with this piece, both rhythmically and harmonically. There are a lot of clashing frequencies playing at once during the busier sections, and the vinyl scratches and snare rolls towards the ends of phrases don’t line up very well with the syncopations in the harmonic instruments. I’d challenge you to make a piece with just 5 notes: C, D, E, G, and A (you can repeat these notes any number of times and have multiple playing at the same time in different instruments, but no B, no F#, etc.). The spacing of those 5 notes will make it relatively easy to avoid dissonances. Then, try not to overdo the rhythmic “density” of the piece either - one trick could be to only have rhythmic instruments (bass, drums, and effects) play at the same time as notes are playing in a harmonic instrument (chords, melodies, vocals, etc.).

That said, I really like the sound design and production quality of this piece. There are a lot of good individual ideas in here, like the catchy brass line at 2:12, but taken together the piece just sounds like sensory overload. Happy to leave you another review once you make that 5-note piece - feel free to notify me when it’s done via PM. Until then, keep at it, Lunar48! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.5/2
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?)
.25/1
Composite score
6/10

Lunar48 responds:

Very glad for your inspiration words i know i have to improve my composing skills and i feel really happy cuz u liked my work, im gonna prepare a better piece for the next deathmatch and this helps me to catch my errors at making music, thanks you so much :3

[Tinnitus]

I like the fade-in at the beginning and the quirky mid-range bass instrument. The chord progression and arrangement are a bit cliche, but the rhythmic content here is nice and catchy, and I like crisp drums too. The mix is pretty quiet and also a little bottom-heavy. The main melodies could use a boost in the upper-mids with an equalizer, and you could potentially recalibrate some of the volume levels with a soft, adaptive limiter. Just be careful to avoid clipping. That said, the composition is strong, with some memorable melodies and a thick texture throughout, and I also like the sound design, as the instruments blend together well. Solid work, LeanLean! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
8/10

LeanLean responds:

Thanks for the feedback! It's much appreciated. It seems I've gotten myself onto the next round, so I'll keep these things in mind. Thanks!

[Faraway]

I like the upbeat mood and quirky synths at the beginning. The occasionally dissonant chords are nice, as is the build-up into :35. The production quality is good too, but even better are the melodies starting at :52. Really dynamic and fun lead riff. The rest of the sound design is cool, too - from :35 to 1:27, it almost sounds like there’s a distorted vocal sample on the off-beat. The re-intro at 1:27 was another good idea, and gave you another opportunity to show off a knack you have for cool syncopations. I love how in the second refrain you can hear the full vocal line, although some more variety in the harmonic content there would’ve been welcome. If I had to complain about one thing in this piece, it might be that the arrangement and aspects of the sound design are pretty generic. Still, you’ve put together a well-produced track here that’s both melodic and danceable. Strong work, Klimen3y! ^_^

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?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.75/10

Klimen3y responds:

It's a pure dream to have such a complicated review under your own creation! Thanks)

[Rapid Eye Movement]

I like the relaxed mood at the beginning. The spacing on the chords is a little too tight to maximize the level of expression, though - they end up sounding a tad clunky and indistinct. Still, I like the crisp drums at :20 and the cute synth at :41. The piece is pretty slow to progress, but has a great rhythmic appeal and sound design. The breakdown at 1:15 was a good idea, but also a bit bland - might be a good opportunity to add a “B” melody or other new instrument. The piano at 1:50 is a nice touch, but it could’ve been a bit more creative rhythmically. Towards the end of the piece, it seems like it’s missing a big moment of climax or resolution. Overall, I like the moody atmosphere, instrumentation, and experimental texture of this piece. Also, the production quality holds up well, although the mix is a tad quiet. More importantly, some of the compositional details just need a tad more fleshing out. Keep at it, Katatatatataris! ^_^

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
1/1
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

Katatatatataris responds:

Thank you for the review! I’m very grateful that this contest has such good judges, I could definitely hear what was lacking in this song lol. Next year I’ll make it into knockout

[Call me feat. FL studio]

I like the tranquil mood at the beginning and the transition into the rhythmic club beat at :26. This piece has a good sense of atmosphere and some cool compositional details (like the glitchy effect at :45), but some of the transitions are a bit abrupt. The low-mid-range melody at 1:01 is cool, and really helps play up the ominous mood pervading the bulk of this piece. I also like the build-up into 1:27, and I applaud you for taking such an experimental approach to the rhythm at 1:40, which really helped jazz up an otherwise fairly bland drop. The eerie bells and relaxed pads at 2:20 threw me off a bit - that’s another super sudden transition - but also helped bring the piece full-circle towards the end. Overall, there are a lot of creative twists and turns in this piece that make it stand out among the other house/trance tracks in this competition. The production quality also holds up well, and I like the sound design and rhythmic content as well. The choppy arrangement/rough transitions is the one major item to work on in my view. Keep at it, Justik! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
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
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.5/10

JustikShow responds:

THX! 😊

[kerosene]

I like the sound design at the beginning. It’s a little hard to follow the meter at first, but it gets better once the beat comes in at :15. I’m not a huge fan of the over-processed, vocaloid-sounding voice. The lyrics are pretty dark, but I especially like the first 2 stanzas and the “3 a.m.” one. The mix is definitely a bit rough around the edges, and during some of the busier sections it’s hard to hear the drums. The texture could also use some softening at times, especially at the top end of the frequency spectrum, maybe with some more wet reverb or stricter equalization. There are a lot of cool effects in this piece, though - I especially like the gradual ascension into chipmunk territory at 1:45. Overall, the piece is a tad experimental for my tastes, but it’s still very catchy and creative. Keep at it, jamie-bs! ^_^

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

jamie-bs responds:

thanks for the opinions dude! its one of the first songs ive made in this style and i agree that its pretty rough in general-- i mixed it myself and im still learning how to do a good job on that sort of thing (the demo mixes were WAYYYY worse). i do agree i coulda futzed with the drums a lil more i kinda wrote them and then forgot about them in the chorus.