TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Medieval Electronic]

I like the melody at the beginning, but it sounds a little dry. I think you should add some more reverb. The chord at :18 is both too loud and rather dissonant. The bass riff at :36 definitely overpowers the celtic melody. I think you need to think more carefully about how you balance the volumes among different instruments. The transitory material in this piece is pretty cool, though, like the crash/sweep combo at 1:36. I wish you had varied the celtic melody towards the end of the piece a little more. Also, the guitar riff at 2:11 pretty much comes out of nowhere. Usually it's pretty jarring to introduce new instruments into a piece during the last 30 seconds, and this is not exception. Overall, this piece has a unique sound design and some cool melodies. I think you need to be more careful about how the different riffs connect harmonically, though. Keep at it, man. ;)

EatMyDonkey responds:

Thanks man! Love the feedback, I'll look to fixing those things. For the part at :36 was supposed to be bass driven while the Celtic melody is in the background.

Anyways,
Have a good day :)

[Out Of My Zone]

Awesome. This is totally unexpected from you. I love the gritty bass riff and crisp drums. Reminds me a bit of Zircon. It progresses a little slowly, but 1:17 offers some more melodic content, which is good. I think the transition into 1:17 could've been smoother, though. The mood is great, though. I could see this being in a videogame. The ambient bridge at 2:15 came on a little suddenly, too. I love how spacey and atmospheric it is there, though, and I think you transitioned well back into the busy section at 2:35. I love the sensual guitar and hi-hats and how they mesh so well with the gritty bass. It makes for a pretty unique sound design. I think the mixing and mastering might need a bit of work. The bass sounds pretty distorted towards the end, especially at 2:35 and 4:10. That said, I certainly enjoyed the instrumentation, mood, and structure. I'd highly encourage you to continue experimenting "out of your zone." :) Keep it up, Ceevro!

Ceevro responds:

Yeah, I'd love to try my hand at dubstep, but I no clue at all how to mess with the sounds like that. I'd also like to do some stuff like this with vocals...kinda want a hook. Thanks for the feedback! I'll take it to heart!

[Cling On Like Klingons (Acapella)]

This is great! I love the lyrics. Your tone gets more intense as the piece goes on, which is quite musical. I'm not sure if it's the mic quality or what, but sometimes the consonants don't sound as distinct as they could. For example, when you say "rake," the k sound doesn't come through so much, which makes it hard to discern the lyrics there. Same thing with "lake" a couple of seconds later. It might just be that you need to push the air through a little faster to emphasize the consonant sounds. Anyway, that's a pretty small detail. Keep up the good work, Cyberdevil! Happy 2017. ^^

Cyberdevil responds:

Hmm might be unpolished annunciation more than recording quality, shall try to better myself there. Lyrical clarity's probably the thing I need most practice with.

Glad you liked it overall; thanks for the good feedback! Happy 2017!

[We are number one but it's a fat beat]

Catchy and fun piece, if with a cliché chord progression. I love the vocals and the sort of confidential, gothic tone of it. Sounds like I'm a curious kid who snuck behind the curtain in a circus, and the ringmaster started giving me a lecture. XD The mixing and mastering are solid, too. I can hear all the instruments clearly throughout. This is a well-structured and smooth-flowing piece. You may have overused the "we are #1" vocal riff by the end, though. Nice job with the panning and melodic content. Like I said, the mood is what really sells this piece. Keep up the good work, man. ;)

CANDYdisturber responds:

Awesome review; thanks for the critiques!

[Tailout]

Sounds like a preset from "Plucked" at the beginning. :) The rhythm doesn't sound completely in sync at :09. It sounds like you recorded each instrument separately on a MIDI, but the riffs didn't change notes at the same time. Even if I'm wrong, something sounds indistinct there that makes the texture a little jarring. I liked the drums, but I thought the bass at :20 was a little too muddy and really overwhelmed the other instruments too much. May I ask what DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) you use? Those glitchy effects towards the end were cool, though. It doesn't make a bad loop, either, but otherwise it's a structurally incomplete piece. The quantizing problems (if that is in fact what's causing the problems) are my main concern with this piece. Otherwise, keep at it, man. ;)

jdogisbest responds:

I used GarageBand, very hard to sync it well, but I got it as close as possible. Thanks for the feedback! (^^)

[Watching the Trees Go By]

I like the bouncy strings and sense of climax into :14. Some percussion would've helped channel the energy a lot more. I think you need a crash or other transitory element at :14. The main riff is pretty repetitive, so :57 was a nice moment of structural relief. I love the emotion at 1:10, and you transition back into the main theme at 1:30 well. Well-structured piece. The instrumentation and harmonies are both great, but I would've liked to see this thing fleshed out a little more in order to maximize the cinematic appeal it has. Right now, it's a little too fast-paced to fully display its potential for drama and emotion IMO. But that's pretty picky. This is a great composition, my friend. Keep up the good work! ;D

Columbers responds:

I actually paid attention to the musical form in this song, and it paid off. I was running out of ways to repeat it, so that's why it's so short. Also, I struggle with writing percussion parts, but I don't try very hard to add percussion so I can't complain much. Maybe next time I can use more than a snare drum. Thanks for your review though!

[[F12] Briefing (Action Menu)]

I like the suspense and dramatic string part. Even for a game menu, it has very little sense of direction or progression, though. The sound design and mixing are good, but I think you could've done a lot more with this. It doesn't even make that great of a loop because of the little riser effect you have at the beginning. I want to see this turn into a 4-minute thriller! Keep at it, man. ;)

F0R3ST12 responds:

Thanks for the review! I realized after the fact that I had that riser in the beginning (oops). A quick slice and I'll fix that up.

EDIT: Fixed, my bad!

[Sempiternal Rhapsody]

I like the slow pace at the beginning. It definitely seems like a complex mixture of emotions - at times, bright, melancholy, anticipatory, and even danceable (Pride-and-Prejudice style, if you will). It has a consistent flow throughout, though. I love the transition at 2:20. There are some really interesting chord progressions in there too, like at 2:30. The riff at 2:57 with the high-pitched pitter-pattering arpeggios is highly amusing. Reminds me of rain that's making fun of me as it falls: "HA! You thought you'd spend the day outside, didn't you? Nice try, fool!" Same thing at 4:06. But what I really admire about this piece (and your work in general) is that you then rapidly transition into the section at 4:12, at which you also have a lot of rapid, high-pitched notes, yet the mood has completely changed into a majestic, gentle tone. That majestic tone finally gets broken by the chord at 6:13 - back to melancholy. I think you also added just the right amount of reverb to this piece. The atmosphere feels spacious enough, yet doesn't detract from the distinctness of the notes at the busier sections. Excellent piece, Ale! I'd agree that it's probably your best piano composition of 2016. Onwards and upwards, my friend! Happy new year, and let's Skype sometime, yes?

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

From the start, I knew I wanted to have a fairly slow pace at the start, along with the end. I ended up not having many slower middle sections, but it all kinda worked out like it is :)

I think that regrettably, I haven't seen Pride and Prejudice yet! I'm glad that the different emotions and atmospheres are noticable though! Especially in a Rhapsody, it'd be a shame if it came across as stale.

I think that the parts between 2:20 and 4:10 are possibly my favorite section, aside from the main theme which started it all, and repeats here and there (mostly in the beginning and the ending).
I'm glad you like the thingy at 2:57! That's quite an amusing mental image you're drawing there xD
4:12 is probably my least favorite section, but that's because I knew I needed to have something like that there, but I didn't know exactly where to go. So it's atually one of the very last parts I completed, after having played around with like 50 different ideas. So at this point, I honestly can't tell if the section sounds good, bad, jarring or not xD

I actually think I didn't add any reverb! Not even the internal one, within the vst. I think I just managed to use a fairly apt amount of the sustain pedal, while playing. The good thing about pianos, is that a lot of the reverb is kind of controlled "LIVE". You can still hear a couple of places where I messe up a bit, like the note at 1:46, which almost breaks off slightly.
Ther VST, ofc, accounts for the pedal as well (it's one of the MIDI values one can adjust). For a farily fast paced piano piece like this, with a lot of highs and lows, I wanted to be careful with reverb, and decided not to add any. I also went for a fairly generic Concert Grand piano sound, as opposed to some other uploads, where I've used different piano sounds. It's a safer route for complex and varied pieces. I'm glad the end result sounds good though!

Thank you for your long and fun-to-read review! We should Skype indeed. I've been thinking of messaging you a couple of times, but you've happened to be offline! Different time zones and all :p
It's a bit late, but Happy New Year, and may 2017 be a good one ;)

[~SW~ Thoughtspark]

As always, I love the atmosphere and synths. The pitch on the lead at :27 sounds heavily altered - I like it! At the same time, though, I think the melody there is a bit too loud there. I'd prefer the atmosphere to be a little further forward in the mix. I definitely like the progression here, though. I like how you restart with the bare-bones beat at 1:45. The production quality is really high. I can hear all of the elements of the texture very clearly throughout. You did a great job of channeling the energy through the section from around 2:30 to 4:00. There are a lot of cool dissonances and chord progressions here, though. I love the slow pace of the melody at 3:25. The transition at 4:07 didn't quite work for me tbh. It seemed like you were building up to something, and then the beat fell away and the mood was very tranquil all of a sudden. You spammed the crash/hi-hats at 5:24, which I found to be a bit excessive. I thought the transition into 6:30 was better than the one at 4:07. While still not exactly gradual, it seems more directional and less jarring. I like the ominous ending a lot, too. Overall, excellent piece, though. You clearly put a momentous amount of effort into this thing, and it shows. Fave and DL! ^_~

SkyeWint responds:

Hey!

Not sure what you mean about the pitch on the lead in the first part - I agree that it might be a bit too loud, but not entirely sure. I definitely get wanting the background atmosphere to come out a bit more! Fortunately, the pad is the same throughout the whole thing, lol.

The beat at 1:45 was the part that was really inspired, and led on to make the entire rest of the piece (as you can hear).

3:25 is one of my favorite sections melody-wise, I really liked the atmosphere there, so I kept it. Right before that with the cymbals is one that I liked making as well. :) Glad to hear it shows through!

With 4:07... that was a hard choice. I actually tried keeping things flowing and going back up in tension there, but it just didn't work. I thought I would take a page out of the book of @Step and make an unexpected transition there, to bring back some elements of the very beginning.

5:24 onwards is just like about 3:00 - the cymbals are synced up to the kick drum for a hard DnB effect. The intro leading up to it is similar to around 3:00 as well, with the spamming of the high hats. I guess there are a few more kicks, and by extension crashes (kinda). It's a different, slightly more frantic beat.

6:30 is probably the transition I am the most proud of in the entire piece, so I'm really glad that you like it! It took a huge amount of listening, tweaking, and effort to put it in. Because of some oddities with the way that instruments react to tempo changes, I had to manually slow down and stretch out the individual notes along with gradually slowing the tempo back down to the original temp for the ending.

Glad you do like the ending, by the way! I wasn't 100% sure on that one, so I'm glad it fit!