TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[G4CE'sz - Monsoon]

I like the atmospheric intro. The piano and string samples weren’t my favorite, although I like the progression of the piece. It’s interesting how the most mobile part of the texture is in the bass. Unfortunately, that means there isn’t a lot of high-frequency content in there for a lot of the track. And when you do have some high-frequency melodic content, like at 2:37, it gets overwhelmed a bit by the pads. I think you need to reconsider the tonal balance in this piece, giving more space to the treble tones. I liked how you stripped away the beat at 3:17. The jazzy, dissonant chords worked well with this piece stylistically. One of the major qualms I have with this track is that you don’t really vary the melody. As background music, this music would be great for giving some character to a restaurant or club, but as a stand-alone piece it’s hard to keep my attention after a certain point with this little variety. I liked how you returned to the spacey vibes at the end, but I’m not convinced this piece needed to be 7 minutes long. It’s an enormously catchy and feel-good sort of track, but I think you need a stronger sense of development over the course of the entire piece, especially if it’s going to be this long. Overall, this piece has a lot of potential. Clean up the frequency balance issues, add some melodic variety, and maybe switch out a couple of those samples and this would be a really solid piece. Keep at it, man. ;)

6.75/10

KayJay-Artique responds:

Thank you for the advice, I'll look to improve upon balance in future tracks :D

[/Defiled\]

This is a catchy piece, and I like the somewhat apprehensive vibe at the beginning. It has a good sense of climax into :58. The texture is nice and full, and I appreciated the structural variety you offered at 1:30. The piece is pretty smooth-flowing and well-structured overall, and I appreciated the contrast that 2:14 offered. This piece has a great atmosphere about it too. If I had to critique one thing, it might be that the piece never really returns to the recognizable refrain at :57. You have another emotional height at 2:58, but there it sounds like a completely different melody. I would suggest fleshing out the last climax by using 2:58 as a sort of “transitional melody” after which you build off of the melody at :57. I think that would help the piece achieve an overarching sense of conclusivity and development. I also think you didn’t do anything particularly interesting or unique with the sound design and chord progressions. That said, the mixing and mastering are both very solid and, overall, I’m thoroughly impressed with this piece. Keep up the good work! ;)

8.75/10

AED4 responds:

Thank you!

Actually I was really thinking about returning once more to the main melody at 3:43, but decided against that because I didn't find a proper way of transitioning to it and also to give this track a little sense of 'evolution'.

With the sound design I basically went with what felt good, though I agree that it is quite typical for a genre/style like this. Chord progression is my eternal caveat but I'm working on it :)! This is actually the first time when I try to make something else than a four chord song :O

Thank you for the in-depth review (and score ^^)!

[Second Steps for Guitar]

I love the tremolos. This piece is really soothing and flowy. I thought you could’ve done more with the piece rhythmically, however. It sounds more like an etude than a structurally complete piece. It has this pensive continuity to it that enhances the atmosphere a lot, yet you do little to add to that atmosphere or otherwise strip it away over the course of the track. It lacks the sort of structural ebb and flow that I usually look for in a piece, which makes it hard to judge because you’ve clearly put a lot of effort into it. Mixing and mastering aren’t really relevant here. Admittedly, this piece doesn’t really fit a lot of my compositional criteria at all, but there’s a great atmosphere and majesty to it. This is an enjoyable piece, but I’d like to see you flesh out the structure a bit more next time. Keep it up, man!

7/10

Daveisgr81 responds:

Thanks for the positive review!

It is an etude! As for mixing and mastering, it took quite a while to get it properly balanced, the low-end is always a real issue on classical guitars.

I'll put in something a bit more... in your face for the final :D

[One night away]

I like the pensive mood at the beginning. The piece has a lot of bass and reverb that give it a great sense of atmosphere. The strings and piano mesh really well together, and it’s very melodic throughout. Sometimes I thought your melodies were a little overly convoluted, such as the piano one that ends at around 2:00. I love how you created some breathing room for the piece at 2:15. That section contributed a lot to the structural variety and space for contrast and climax you’ve provided here. The section before the second “emotional height” of the piece was a bit drawn-out, meaning there wasn’t much of a sense of direction within the phrase from 2:44 to 3:32 or so. Overall, I thought the mixing and mastering was really clean and you used the entire frequency range really well. You’ve kept a full texture throughout, and you’ve clearly thought through the harmonic direction of the piece very well. Perhaps you could’ve used some more interesting or unique sound design, but in general I think your instruments fit the mood they convey. This is impressive work. My nitpicks here don’t amount to much. If anything, I might caution you against making your melodies quite so intricate, as after a while it can detract from their memorability. Solid effort, though. Keep it up, man! ;D

8.75/10

BlastBeats responds:

I've never read, that was so well structured. I agree with everything you said. I have to say that this was more to pracise music theory than sound design. I did sound design in my first NGAUC entry. However, what you say about the melody hits me a bit. I know memorable melodies are a thing in modern music, but I think it'd be weird not to look further than those. There is a lot of interesting harmonies you can work with (but I'll try not to go too far from becoming memorable next time)! Nevertheless, I'm incredibly happy that this piece received some love. And I really appreciate the review.

[Sky Streaks]

I like the blissful mood at the beginning. The piece is pretty slow to progress. I would recommend varying your dynamics more to create a sense of buildup during the first minute or so. I think you needed a sweep or crash at 1:30 to smooth over that transition. The kick sounds a little indistinct at 2:29. I think you should’ve equalized and compressed it more carefully. You do very little to preempt several of your major transitory moments, such as 2:58 and 3:57. That probably means you need to do more with the phrasing and automations. I think you needed to incorporate some more dynamic contrast in here, too. Overall, this is a pretty underwhelming piece. The only moment when the melody felt as exposed as it should’ve been was 3:57. I think it would help if you went for a more legato style in your melodies that matched the atmospheric nature of this piece. Your piece also lacks an overarching sense of development. Instead, your melodies follow a very formulaic 4-bar dance pattern with little variation in the melodies themselves. I also thought your instruments sounded pretty generic and that you could’ve made the harmonies come through the mix a lot clearer at times (such as the bass at 3:13). I think you could’ve done a lot more to maximize the emotion here in general. I’d say the clarity of the low frequencies, the lack of melodic and dynamic variety, and the instrumentation need work. Otherwise, it has a lot of potential. Keep at it, man. ;)

5.5/10

BeeFef responds:

Well, it disappoints me that I didn't make it into the final round, but I know this can help me for what I can do next time. Thanks for the review and pointing things out! Hopefully I'll do better next year.

[pür]

It’s a catchy piece. You kind of launch right into the action without much of a sense of introduction. Even a sweep or crash at the beginning might’ve helped release some tension and allowed you to draw the most emotion possible out of the ensuing buildup. The buildup itself was really drawn out, and only resolves at around the 1-minute mark, ⅓ of the way through the piece. That said, you don’t really have much strong melodic content in there, even during the “refrain” at 1:00. You essentially just added the 5th into the chord with an instrument I thought sounded a little thin. Then, by around 1:45 the rhythm was a little hard-to-follow and some of the notes became indistinct, which might be because of an excess of reverb. I thought the drums were mastered well throughout the track, although after a while the track gets very repetitive and never really has a second climax. The ending was not very conclusive at all, and in fact I thought the transition at 3:00 was going to lead to another “emotional height.” Having only one peak of energy in your track is a risky move compositionally, and so the drawn-out last minute or so of the piece subsequently failed to keep me engaged. Overall, I think you need more structural variety, including a proper breakdown or bridge section and some more fleshed out melodies later in the piece. The mixing is good, the transitions are solid, and you have a good sense of harmony. Otherwise, you have some work to do on the structural and melodic content. Keep at it, man. ;)

6/10

AwesomeAri responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I wasn't able to finish it :c by the time I knew that time was given until 30th I was already on vacation :c but nvm at least I know what to learn!

[Asau]

I'm not responsible for judging your piece in the competition, but I like this track a lot. The mood is quirky yet blissful. The melodies are so amazingly cathartic. I might've liked the drums to have a bit more presence during the chorus, but that's basically my only mixing complaint. The instrumentation here is nice. I especially like the percussion at around 2 minutes in. This track is really spacey and atmospheric. Sometimes I feel like it changes moods a little too fast, like the relatively sudden infusion of energy at 2:33, but overall it's a really fun piece. I think you could've brought out those awesome descending harmonies at 3:30 more. Overall, this piece is well-structured and smooth-flowing. Excellent use of harmony and texture. The ambiguous ending works well here too. Nice work! ;D

Onefin responds:

Hey, TL! Thanks a million for dropping by! Glad you liked it!

"Quirky" doesn't have the exact connotation I was looking for, but close enough. That was the goal!

I tried to give the drums more presence, but it seems it wasn't enough. :/ Eh, at least it lets the melodies ring through the space.

Aurgentin below me said the bongos at 2:00 are "awkward" XD I guess that really is just a personal pet peeve for him

Let's see, 2:33... oh yes, that part. I tried to do a sort of callback to the beginning to sort of guide the listener as to where the track would go next so that the energy didn't hit so hard, and I also did a slow tempo boost there. Maybe if the tempo ramped back up more quickly, it would have been less sudden. Take notes, me.

Yeah, I do love that melody at 3:30. Bring it out more? I thought that's why I wrote 3:45, but I guess not :/ How could I have done that? Maybe I could have had more layers backing it, but more layers means more mud... hm

Harmony and texture are two things I love and use a lot! :D

Ambiguous ending? Not quite was I was going for, but I guess that's what ambiguous means, right?

One last time, thanks so much for the review! It means a lot coming from a pro like you! I'll be sure to keep these words in mind in the future!

[-Toil-]

This is a very catchy track with a lot of engaging content throughout. I also enjoyed the vocal samples. I think it was very bass-heavy overall, so much so that the more melodic riffs get drowned out at times, like at 2:11. I also think the drums could've been mastered a lot louder. Perhaps the ending could've been more climactic or interesting. It's well-structured and smooth-flowing nevertheless. I like the filtering and distortion at around 4:10 and, despite being a little long, the piece maintains my attention throughout. Keep at it, Waterflame. ;)

Waterflame responds:

Thank you for the constructive feedback and nice words! I kind of wanted to hear something like this. The mix was the one thing that made me a bit skeptic about calling this song done.
And I can hear that you are def. right about that. I could have cut into the bass a bit and made some more room for the drums.
As far as the ending goes tho, I like it like this. I felt the song is climactic and intense almost throughout the track, so the ending is more like a wind-down.

[MAI]

This is a catchy piece. The beat was especially creative and dynamic. I like the atmosphere with the chimes and vocal samples too. During the refrain (:44), the kick got a little lost in the mix. I would suggest some more compression and/or sidechaining. Nice job with the funky rhythms at 1:06. The instruments mesh well together, and I enjoyed when you offered some structural relief from all the energetic content at 1:50. Compositionally, this is a really solid piece. You also used reverb well here. Nice work!

Bobeo responds:

Thanks for the feedback man
Its funny because like immediately after I uploaded this and listened to it in it's entirety a couple of times I went back and changed a lot of the things you said to fix- before you even said them. Good ear. If you're genuinely interested in hearing the updated version i updated this uploaded and put it on my soundcloud.

[Rituals Of Sin]

I like the apprehensive mood at the beginning. The instruments mesh well together. It has a good sense of climax into :30. It’s a bit slow to develop after that, although I like the melodies with the piano, even if you could’ve used some more creative rhythms there. It has a sort of continuous flow to it, whereas I would’ve liked to see some dynamic contrast at some point, possibly in the form of a breakdown or bridge section. After the first minute or so, you offer very little new content in the piece. Therefore, it fails to keep my attention after a while and is in fact quite repetitive. It doesn’t really have any sort of meaningful conclusion either. Perhaps it would’ve served better as a loop anyway. With this little structural variety, though, it doesn’t really function as a complete piece IMO. You have the skeleton of a piece here, but it needs more variation. I wanted to see you develop those melodies more during the 2nd and 3rd times you repeated them. Otherwise, this song sounds like directionless background music. Giving your piece a structural ebb and flow will help bring out more emotion, drama, or whatever feeling you’re trying to convey. The mixing and mastering were solid, but compositionally this piece was flat, dry, and dull. Some of the percussion could’ve been compressed more to contribute more to the energy and drive of the piece as well. This has potential, but I’d like to see you build off of it a low more. Until then, keep at it, man! ;)

5.5/10

Zodiax responds:

Thanks for the constructive review! I really appreciate it.