TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[HadenTheCreeper] -Surge-]

I like the beginning. It’s atmospheric and pensive, if a little square rhythmically. Luckily, :32 adds some rhythmic spice to this thing. You’ve used the frequency range really well here. If anything, it’s a little bass-heavy. It’s pretty slow to develop, though. I kept waiting for a build-up into a more climactic melodic section that never really came. The mixing and mastering are solid in general, and I love the unique sound design and atmosphere in this piece. The problem is that you don’t really have enough structural ebb and flow to keep it interesting. I wanted to see more dynamic contrast and overarching development to the piece. Right now, it has a sense of continuity that’s fitting for a spacey club, but as a stand-alone piece it fails to keep my attention. If you add some more careful structuring here, it could be top-tier content. Right now, I think you’re limiting yourself compositionally. I wanted to see you build off of those groovy synth patterns later in the piece, instead of setting up the structure so that you barely introduce anything new after the first minute or so. You even seemed like you were taking it in a new direction with the chord changes at 2:12, but ultimately it didn’t lead anywhere. The atmosphere and mood are huge pluses, though. Hope that helped! Keep at it, man. ;)

6.75/10

MrCreeperGeometryDas responds:

Thanks for the review. :) I am really big in the ambience part of the audio, but the bigger beats are harder to get into for me. Some of my other tracks did well with it, but sometimes things like that don't go well with some styles in my opinion.

[Colored Sky]

I like how you left yourself a lot of space for climax and contrast at the beginning. I enjoyed the filtering at around :10, and the part at :15 had a nice, spacey yet groovy vibe about it. I would’ve liked to see a clearer transition into :45 before that roaring melody, just to lead up to it more. The instruments here mesh really well together, though. I loved the transition into the re-intro section at 1:15, and 1:30 made the piece sound much brighter and upbeat. This piece has a great sense of melodic development. It clearly progresses to a more victorious and empowering mood by the end of the piece, with the melodies at 2:00 serving serving as an excellent manifestation of that mood. I thought you shouldn’t have introduced a new instrument 30 seconds from the end of the piece, though (2:30). The spaciness of the outro was awesome, but it’s usually a good idea to aim for coherence with an instrument in the intro or breakdown as a coda instead of varying the piece further. I think the mixing and mastering are both really solid. I can hear all the instruments clearly throughout, and the drums are super crisp and up-front in the mix. I might interject that the chord progression is a little generic, and while I see a lot of upbeat EDM in this competition and around NG, I like this piece a lot overall. The race to get into the Final Round is going to be really tight, but if it were solely up to me you’d be there in a heartbeat. Keep up the good work, man. ;D

9/10

littlelamp100 responds:

thanks for the feedback :) can't wait for to see the final round results once i finish :D

[Lost Ones]

I like the vocal samples at the beginning. The heavy breaks at :30 were pretty good, although I thought the bass completely overwhelmed the drums. It’s generally a good rule-of-thumb that the drums should be the loudest instrument in the mix, and here they were a tad underwhelming. I would suggest compressing and equalizing them more carefully. I like the frantic, fast-paced nature of this piece. I think you’ve overused the vocal samples after a while, though. There’s another good sense of build into 1:30. The breaks definitely seem well-varied across the various drops. I wish you had some stronger melodic content in there, especially some that wasn’t solely transitional (for example, you have some harmonically mobile content at 2:15, but its intensity really only functions as set-up for the build at 2:30 instead of being an emotional height in its own right. I like how you had those atmospheric arpeggios in the background during the final drop (2:45), but they got pretty buried in the mix after a while, as did the claps during some of the bass fills (3:09, other places). I think the piece had a good sense of ebb and flow over time, but I still would’ve liked the see an extended section that offered some dynamic contrast, as this piece has a lot of energy that can easily become trivialized through repetition.

7/10

Leelius responds:

Thank you for taking the time to write such detailed review. I will be definitely taking advantage of your points in future projects. It was a fun experiment to be part of the contest and it really let me understand where I currently stand in my craft.

[The Turnip Brothers]

Interesting use of tremelos at the beginning. The first 20 seconds or so had a great sense of suspense and apprehension. The mood changes a little suddenly at :24. I would’ve suggested incorporating more of a buildup instead of a stop-start transition there. Also, your samples aren’t the most realistic, unfortunately, especially the strings, although the instruments still blend pretty well together for a refreshing soundscape. I liked the transition with the piano at 1:04. The rhythm in a lot of parts of the piece is pretty square, though. There are significant chunks of this piece (1:50 - 2:13, for example) that don’t have a lot of mobile content melodically. The ending of the piece is really sudden, and one of my major concerns is that there isn’t much of an overarching sense of direction here. The part at :45 is vaguely reminiscent of a refrain, yet it needs some stronger melodic content. I think part of the problem is that most of the instruments are very staccato and contained. The track never really opens up to release the tension you’ve established throughout. The result is that the piece lacks an “emotional height” that’s used to contrast the somewhat uptight vibe of the rest of the piece. It’s a cool beat, but as a standalone piece I think you needed more of a sense of structural ebb and flow, dynamic contrast, phrasing, and the like. Otherwise, it has a sense of continuity that’s fitting for background music at a trendy restaurant or something, yet it fails to keep my attention as a stand-alone piece. You also don’t really vary the string or brass riffs later in the piece, adding to the lack of a sense of direction. I think the frequencies are well-balanced here, though, and I have no complaints with the mastering. Perhaps the song is a little minimalistic for the mastering to be that important, however. Overall, the composition is what’s really dragging you down IMO. You need stronger melodies, more variety later in the piece, and some fuller texture at some points. I’d say my favorite part of the piece was the drums - they’re very crisp and dynamic. This is a pretty unique track in the way it shifts between moods and instruments, but you need to capitalize more on that by giving it more melodic development and conclusivity. Hope this helped! Keep at it, man. ;)

5.75/10

JourneyJaybeats responds:

Thank you for your input. My instrumental is intended as a backing track. I did not understand your intent on having instrumentals which are exclusively designed for foreground playback entered in your competition. I only really make backing tracks, so that interpretation would, unfortunately, leave me unfit for this type of event.

I find your advice helpful, and appreciate it. I do not contest your review, or your ratings. :)

[Omikron]

I like the atmospheric intro and synths. I think you should’ve done more to preempt the part at :30, as it came on pretty suddenly. Filtering, drum fill, sweeps, and crashes are all effective ways of doing that. That said, I enjoyed the melodies at :47. The texture is nice and full. I enjoyed the structural relief offered at 1:47, and I like how you returned to the spacey vibes of the intro. That said, I don’t think this is a structurally complete piece. I thought you needed a second buildup-drop cycle to give this piece a sense of overarching development and conclusivity. Right now, 1:47 sounds more like a breakdown than a coda to me. The mixing and mastering are generally good, although I think the clap is fighting for attention a bit at :45. Some more compression and equalizing might help. Overall, I like this piece a lot, but I think fleshing out the structure could really bring it to the next level. Keep up the good work, man. ;)

8/10

ggaero responds:

Thx alot c:

[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.