TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kawaii]

I like the spacey pads at the beginning and the frantic vocals. The vocals could be a bit more up-front in the mix though, and at times the glitch and distortion effects are a little too heavy (like at :29 and, especially, 1:14). Otherwise, the piece sounds pretty repetitive, even though it has two distinct sections. I can’t hear the instruments all clearly in the mix throughout, especially later on. The drums are seriously ducking under the distorted vocals, and the texture is overall way too harsh and grating. I’d like to see more variety in the harmonies and a more fleshed-out structure, but first you need to rein in some of these volume levels. There are some good ideas here in terms of the instrument choices and core harmonic riffs, but you just went way too lo-fi with the production. Keep at it, NotZec! ^_^

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
.25/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.75/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
0/1
Composite score
3.5/10

NotZec responds:

Hella thanks for the tips and respectful criticism, I'll sure be keeping at it with the mixing though (It's fuckin horrible) 😭

[TimeToShine [NewGrounds Version]]

I like the sound effects at the beginning and the cute synth riff at :04. The rhythmic and melodic content alike are great, and the sound design itself is also enjoyable. The transition at :50 is a bit abrupt - at the very least, a crash or sweep would’ve helped smooth it over a tad. Later on, the piece is pretty repetitive, although you have a slightly different contour to the melody the second time around from around 1:15 on. The ending is very abrupt - even a brief outro would’ve been welcome. The production quality is pretty good, but not perfect - the drums at :19 could use a bit of a boost in the mix. Maybe some more compression is in order, or just stricter equalization in the other instruments. Overall, though, this is a cute piece with some neat instrumentation and strong, upbeat melodies. Keep at it, NewGameExplorers! ^_^

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
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
8/10

NewGameExplorers responds:

Big thanks for the review! I am pretty grateful for this.

[||TERM1NATION OF CYB3RNET1C BOUNDARIE2]

I like the bass line at the beginning. It’s a bit hard to follow the rhythm, though, and once the beat comes in it doesn’t get much easier. The rhythm might be just a bit too dense. In general, the piece is very slow to develop, but by 1:25 the texture feels full, if a bit bottom-heavy. The mixing isn’t perfect, and it definitely gets hard to hear the drums during some of the busier sections. It might help to transpose some of the harmonies up an octave or two - crowding a lot of instruments towards the low end of the frequency spectrum can make a piece sound really muddy. By 2:50 or so, the harmonies also sound a bit dissonant. I’d also like to see more variety in the instruments and energy level, which would help keep the piece sounding fresh.

Overall, I’d encourage you to keep working on this piece. Simplifying the rhythms could make the piece a lot more danceable - right now, there’s so much going on that it’s often hard to discern the points of emphasis in the beat. As for the distorted mix, in addition to raising the pitch of the harmonies, I would suggest using an equalizer to remove the low-pitched frequencies (below around 200 Hz) on everything except the bass and kick. That will limit the muddy, indistinct quality of the texture. You could also ensure the drums pop through the mix by adding a compressor onto them and turning up the ratio to 4:1 or so. Lastly, I’d challenge you to add one or two sections with a more mellow or atmospheric quality to them, just for contrast with the gritty club beats.

Thanks for coming out to the NGUAC. Also, I forgot to mention that the final cadence with the drum echo at 5:24 is really cool. Keep at it, NeuralDelverM! ^_^

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
.75/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
4.5/10

NeuralDelverM responds:

I really appreciate the in-depth analysis. This track was recorded straight out of my nintendo switch and sloppily mastered. Now I have some drive to get it fully stemmed out and mixed/mastered properly, and I will see what I can do about the rhythms. The rest of your suggestions should be easy to implement, especially because you provided specific points to improve on. Thank you for taking the time to help me out even though I did not make it past the first round! <3

[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)