TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM-Red Blitz]

---Official AIM review---

I like the riff at the beginning in the piano. The piece throws you right into the middle of the action a bit without a proper intro. The synth bass at the beginning also sounds like a generic Moog synth. You may have gone a little overboard with the reverb, too, especially on the drums. The progression is pretty slow during the first minute, and then the chords at 1:00 sound really dissonant. Most of the second minute is quite repetitive from there, and then you have a build-up at 1:53 that doesn’t really lead anywhere. You have some amusing rhythmic elements at around 2:10, but overall I think the call-and-response that starts at 1:54 gets quite worn out. You use that main riff way too much, and overall the harmonic framework of the piece lacks creativity. I was also rather confused by the transition at 3:17. Sounds like a very different piece all of a sudden. The part at 3:40 was probably my favorite of the piece. Still sounds a bit square and generic with the sound design, but at least it’s more melodic than the rest of the piece. Sounds like you tried to make up for the excessive repetition of the first half of the piece by trying out a lot of different directions in the second half. The result is a rather wonky structure that’s not really effective at creating an overarching narrative for the piece. I think you should try consolidating some of your ideas here. That said, I was impressed by how loud the mix was, even if you could stand to improve some of the reverb issues. You have a lot of good ideas here, but I think you could organize and build on them a lot more effectively. The lack of melodic content was probably my biggest problem with the piece. I’m getting the sense that you rushed making this one a bit because I recall that the previous piece I reviewed of yours was a lot better. Still a lot of potential here, though. Keep at it, man!

5.5/10

J-XVII responds:

At least you were honest, I was certain this song was not gonna go far, because I tried
this kind of idea for a piano based horror song a long time ago, and it was bad. Thanks anyways, I guess sinister joy’ll have to pull me through!

[AIM - DRUGS]

---Official AIM review---

Synths at the beginning have a cool progression, yet feel a bit sharp and dry, with block chords that give them a really closed, clunky feel. Some reverb on them and more careful spacing of the chords might help give them a more open vibe. That said, I like the gradual fade-in of the bass starting at :20 and the build-up into 1:00. I think the kick wasn’t quite as strong as I would’ve liked. Some more compression could help. The quirky instruments are a huge plus. The rhythmic elements of the piece are quite pleasing, and I love the rolls at 2:08 and 2:23. I also thought the stop-start transition at 2:34 worked quite well. The piece was noticeably lacking strong melodic content until 3:02, which is probably my favorite part of the piece. That said, I think the hi-hats get a little buried in the mix there. One thing I think is really strong about this piece is the full texture throughout. Stylistically, it feels almost like a progressive house track, yet you successfully avoid the characteristic minimalism of the genre. Excellent work with the sound design and structuring. The piece feels really climactic by the end, and the vocals help mirror the shape of the piece. Impressive work yet again, ActualElf!

9.25/10

ActualElf responds:

Hey, thank you for taking the time to listen and judge!

Personally I liked the closed feel to the intro chords when I wrote this, having the reverb be really distant and subtle when listening with in-ears and the cluster voicing chords made the opening up of the sound design and harmony around the first drop nicer to my own taste.

I have a lot of issues with my low end in my music, kicks and bass levels/tone, I'm saving up all the money I can to buy monitors, having to make my music on a tiny blue-tooth speaker means my low end mixing is a guessing game half of the time, kicks can sound fairly powerful during writing but then not come across on actual systems. I'm hoping all these aspects of my music will improve drastically when I finally have a suitable setup and can hear what I'm trying to do ahaha.

I see now there was a lack of more melodic ideas, having the sound design being my main focal point I was in more of a production mind with the creative/musical side being on autopilot.

I like the rolls too, I love it when other peoples music has little momentary light hearted breaks.

I learnt a lot writing and producing this track, mainly about focusing on the levels and what can be placed further back in the mix whilst still being present.

Thank you again for the review and the criticism, I now have more things to pay attention to in my future music <3

[~SW~ Entrope]

Woah! Haven't heard from you in a while. I love the bubbly riff at :06 and the rich atmosphere. The melody instrument at :32 is really smooth, and I appreciated the creative rhythmic lead-in to :55. The initial melodic section drags on for quite a while, but I like what you did with the breaks at 1:48 a lot. The progression really comes a long way from the spacey intro, and the piece flows quite smoothly throughout. Great work with the bass, which sits very nicely in the mix. The transition at 2:40 works well. Melodies at 3:05 are really engaging, yet also become rather long-winded by around the 4-minute mark. As always, the production is really strong here. Great balance of frequencies and crystal clear mix. I guess I would've liked to see you do something a little different with the second drop, especially since this is a rather long piece. The melodic touches at around 5:50 really helped give this piece a sense of finality. Solid work, of course. Hope you'll be around more over the summer, Skye! Keep up the great work. :)

SkyeWint responds:

Hey TL! Good to see you too! I plan on putting a lot more stuff on here as I make it. :) I just polished up the melodies a bit on this before actually saying it was finalized.

You know, I actually really intended to have an actual electric guitar playing the melody riffs and doing a solo through the whole section of 3:05-4:35, but it didn't work out that way due to a few... less than respectful messages from the guitarist I asked, so this was how it went. This piece was also an experiment in stretching out sections a little bit longer while keeping it fairly engaging. Glad that it worked out overall, even if the melodic sections dragged on a bit.

Honestly, I thought the second drop was pretty different from the first one - it uses a vocoded bass and has a few separate patterns from the first one, along with an entirely separate section added for some additional flavor. Definitely different than a lot of dubstep that's actually exactly the same lol. Either way, I getcha. I'll see if I can change it up a bit more in the future either way.

Thanks for the review, mate!

[-Floating-]

I like the pads at the beginning. They have a warm, bright vibe, yet seem to be slightly detuned or distorted in some way. The snare is really wide and full-sounding, yet not too heavy. Nailed the mood and atmosphere here. It has a good sense of direction by around the 2-minute mark, but overall there isn't much in the way of distinct structuring here. I also think you overuse the swelling white noise sounds during transitional moments. The groovy bass at 3:07 accompanied by the bouncy piano (as well as the melodies at 3:28) constituted my favorite part of the song. It finally feels like I stepped off the train and into the open air at that point. That said, I did like the thematic elements of the piece, including the train announcer vocals. The fade-out at the end seemed a bit lazy to me, but I suppose this piece is supposed to be about an ongoing period of bliss anyway. Overall great work! This is the sort of track that's really easy to get into. :)

Waterflame responds:

Thanks for the review, as always! Appreciate it :)

[[ GunSlingers ]]

I like the beat and quirky synths. Claps sound really sharp, but a bit too wide in my headphones (might be panning, might be something fancier; I can't tell). There are a lot of really cool riffs going on, and the structure is like a constantly-shifting mold of related ideas fleshed out with different instruments. Basswork and rhythm of the piece are totally on point. Production quality is high, and sound design is killer. There's a lot to like here, but after a time it does feel a bit repetitive/minimalistic. Strangely enough, there aren't a lot of mid-range frequencies for much of the piece. Quirky instrumentation wins the day, though. Keep it up, dude! ^^

G-U-A-R-D-I-O-N responds:

THANK YOU!!! Much love for this awesome review man. Great advice 👍👏🙌

[Sinister Joy (Contest Entry)]

---Official AIM review---

I like the quirky riff at the beginning, even if it is a bit distorted. The bit at :15 is catchy, but I think the kick could’ve come through a bit clearer in the mix. The piece is also harmonically quite repetitive until the sudden change at 1:01. You have a lot of cool riffs here, though. I also liked the re-intro section at 1:32, but I think it dragged on for a bit too long. Overall, you’ve also done a good job of channeling the energy here through the filtering, build-ups, and changes in dynamics. The main problem in this piece, as I’ve already alluded to, is the lack of harmonic depth. There are only a couple of main riffs that form the harmonic framework of this piece and, despite some notable variations (~3:00), it’s not enough to keep the content engaging for 4.5 minutes imo. You clearly have a great sense of harmony and progression, but I’d like to see you try to fill out the texture with a bit more than gritty bass riffs, drums, and flashy pads. Let me cut to the chase: melodic content will serve you well, my friend. There are a lot of top-end frequencies that are missing for a lot of the piece, and structuring your piece around melodies might help give the piece an overarching sense of climax and resolve too. Also, it seems that you have some reverb on your bass instruments at some points in the piece. You should be careful about that - it has the potential to tax the production quality a bit when you put reverb on basses. One element of the piece I actually liked a lot was the instrumentation. The distorted mid-range basses and whatnot blend together pretty well, and have a pretty unique sound overall. Clean up the mix a tad and add some top end (preferably melodic) content, and this piece would really come together well. Keep at it, man!

7.25/10

J-XVII responds:

Thank you for the feedback, I ain’t done with this contest though fam, so keep watch for numero dos, and it’s a special one indeed, as always, thanks for the feedback.
-J17 ;)

[Ji4H3 - Some Lights (Original Mix)[Free Download]]

I like the hushed, cutesy vibe of the beginning. That kick has a LOT of treble, though. Might need a little more filtering work there. The emotional appeal of the piano at :30 is great, and there's a good sense of climax into 1:15. The mix is loud and clear here. The refrain has a really victorious and upbeat feel, and you contrast it well with the re-intro at 2:01. One of my main complaints here is that the second half of the piece doesn't add a ton of content that wasn't in the first half. I wanted to see you vary the main melody a bit to give the piece a stronger sense of direction. That said, I like how the bass is really exposed at 3:45. Overall really solid work here. All of my complaints are minor. Keep up the good work! ^_^

bow1255 responds:

Thanks for the review. That's helpful ^^

[Fopcin1]

I like the smooth, dreamy guitar at the beginning. Progression is pretty nice, too. I like it when the hi-hats roll in at :39, but be careful not to overuse that effect - it feels really transitory (as opposed to being a once-every-4-beats kind of thing). The solo at 1:28 helped give the texture some variety, yet wasn't a very dynamic solo in and of itself. My one main concern with the piece is that it doesn't have a lot of shape or phrasing to it. Kinda sounds like a demo track in that way. The sound design, mixing, and atmosphere are all great. It just needs a little more ebb and flow in the composition. Still, solid work. Really relaxing vibe here.

1zin1 responds:

Thanks for the detailed input. Much appreciated.. as i didn't spend to much time on this but from an outside look at it i do agree with what you've said and will build upon the track when i have time. Thanks again. :)

[Cell of Tut]

The stop-start rhythm of the piano at the beginning is really quirky, and the rest of the sound design really enhances an ominous kind of vibe. Has a bit of an experimental texture. The pause at 1:01 works okay as a transition, but it might've been smoother if you had added some more reverb or something. I wasn't a fan of how you started spamming the hi-hats at around 1:04. The harmonies get a little dissonant at around 1:40, and the piece starts to lack a clear sense of direction towards the end. I'd suggest finding other ways of creating variety and shape to the piece besides adding and subtracting instruments. Some automation, filtering, phrasing, and dynamic contrast would help give this piece a little more ebb and flow, instead of the drone-like quality it has right now. I also would've liked to see you add some more melodic content here. The rhythm of the piece can be hard to follow at times, and some more moving notes might help keep the listener grounded. Overall, I appreciate the compositional risks you took with this one, even if I think you could've done more with it harmonically. Keep at it, man! Definitely a piece worth revisiting imo.

Celudoc responds:

Thanks for the listen! I definitely see what your saying. I was going for a more despondent 'losing your sanity' kinda droney vibe, since I was trying to think of the mindset of wasting away in a cell, but i will definitely consider trying out a form of harmonic dissonance when i revisit this and try out more reverb. Maybe I can try humanizing the percussion a little more when i revisit it. I was also playing with the idea of adding dripping water, but I haven't gotten sampling down yet, so that'll be later. I sincerely appreciate the constructive criticism!