TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Spectrum-X]

I’m enjoying the melodies a lot. The piece sort of launches right into the action without much sense of introduction, though. It’s almost as if :17 was meant to be the intro and :00 was meant to be the refrain. You have an excellent sense of harmony and tonality, though. I thought the drums were a bit too far back in the mix, especially the kick and snare. You also could’ve used some more prominent drum fills and/or crashes to help you transition between sections of the piece, such as at :59. The piece doesn’t have a whole lot of coherence, which probably isn’t helped by the lack of dynamic contrast and overarching sense of development. There’s some repetition, but overall the structure is very hard to follow because the melodies are so intricate and fast-paced. I would suggest simplifying the melodic content more, or otherwise creating a little more breathing room with a few more low-energy sections/verses between the melodic/energetic parts. After all, this piece is only 3 minutes long as is. I understand that you want to show off your excellent melody-crafting abilities, but after a point it’s a little over-stimulating. Also, I really hope you intended this piece to loop, because otherwise the piece cuts off very suddenly at the end. In general, there are quite a few positives here. The harmonies are well-balanced and create a nice, full texture. The instrumentation seems fitting, if not entirely unique. Overall solid work! ;)

7.75/10

Teckmo-X responds:

Thank you so much for the review! I'm glad you liked it!

[The Journey Begins (Remastered)]

I like the sense of excitement and adventure. The powerful melodies at :18 have a victorious tone to them that’s very engaging. I think there are some slight mixing and mastering issues. For example, there was some sort of percussion hidden under there at :31, yet I could barely hear it and overall it didn’t add anything to the piece. Also, the strings seem to be fighting for attention a bit at :11. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t regard this as a structurally complete piece. The mood and atmosphere are great. It’s has a full texture and some strong melodic content...but in order to maximize the emotion here you simply needed to flesh out this track more. I wanted to see you draw some structural contrast by offering the listener a low-energy section, after which you would build to a final refrain that gave the piece an overarching sense of direction. Right now, this piece lacks a sort of structural ebb and flow that makes music - but especially cinematic music - so enjoyable. I was really divided about how to score you here because, despite the structural flaws, you nailed the atmosphere, tonality, and harmonies. I can FEEL the potential oozing off of this song. So I think you’re going to make it to the next round (I’m writing this review on 7/15/16). You just need to promise me that your piece for that round is going to communicate to the listener every last detail of the story behind the track, including all the twists and turns it deserves. Keep at it, man. ;)

7.75/10

SteveSyz responds:

Hey thanks for the awesome feedback! I definitely agree with your points, I probably should have mentioned this track was for orchestration practice two years ago! I'll definitely have a more complete musical form next round; I'm always composing to impress ;D Also thank you for taking your time for such an awesome musical analysis, most people just say 'this string part was cool but that flute was meh'.
Looking forward to knock some people out (musically) haha!

[Aiearih (Piano)]

I like the tranquil mood at the beginning. It has great emotional depth to it. This piece is very flowing and majestic, although there were a couple of small moments when you interrupted that flow by not holding out notes long enough, such as 1:03, 1:55, etc. You did a great job of creating structural contrast here, too, as exemplified by 3:04, which followed a much more energetic section. Perhaps on a less serious note, I’m very curious about the title of this piece. It evokes a person’s name, although I was unable to find its meaning on the internet. Does it hold some special significance for you? I’ve always admired improv in general, though. It’s captivating to me that people can come up with such beautiful music as they play it. I thought this piece had a lot of space to it as well. For example, 5:29 and other little moments that let the piece breathe a lot between some very smooth-flowing sections. The piece also has a great narrative feel to it. If I had to complain about something, it might be that at times you seem to use block chords or excessively muddy notes (9:53, 11:43, 1:27, etc.) that make the piece a bit crunchy and disallow you to use the entire harmonic space that you could’ve to give this piece a nice, full texture all the time. Perhaps it’s just that you need to think more carefully about which notes you’re giving the most emphasis to. For example, the bass notes are a little overpowering at 12:46, even though it’s clear you were going for some drama there to contrast with the tranquil section that follows at 13:15. Also, even though this is an improv, I would’ve liked to see you try to maintain at least some common sense of theme. Coherence is just as relevant to 17-minute-long tracks as it is to 3-minute-long ones, although you do tie the various themes of this piece together very well in general. The piece doesn’t have much sense of climax at the end, but perhaps you make up for that with the emotion at 16:05. Overall, this is very enjoyable work. You’ve exemplified how to use minimalism and simple instrumentation right, my friend. Keep up the good work. ;D

9/10

pftq responds:

Thanks! Appreciate the in depth review. My live playing with chords is not as proficient as I'd want it to be, but much of what occurred in the piece compositionally is intentional and how you end up feeling as a result of them is what I was going for, including the interruptions in flow. The lack of repetition of some theme is more or less exactly what the traveler feels on the journey (and this song can be said to be written from that first person perspective rather than a third person observer) - that as you go further and further, you never really quite find a single identity, becoming a different person with every new place you encounter with no real linkage to the last, with only yourself ever really knowing the full journey and having few occasions to reflect (which is represented by the very rare occasions a theme does resurface). The only commonality is the feel, which remains largely the same, a bit reversed in that rather than a single theme being changed it's many themes over the course of the song with a hint of familiarity. It's like a person changing over time but upon meeting them you can't help feeling you still know that person amidst all the change they went through. Aiearih is just Hiraeia backwards.

[Scenic Ride]

I like the groovy synth patterns and upbeat mood. The song is mastered very loudly and has a great atmosphere about it. I enjoyed the melodies at :28, but I thought you could’ve done more with the rhythm there. The section at :51 offers a good sense of structural relief, and you do a great job of building back up to a full texture from there. The melodies were a little too quiet at 1:14, though, and the bass is perhaps too loud throughout the piece. The piece has an amazing smoothness and flow to it, and the echo at the end seemed more than appropriate. I supposed I would’ve liked to see more of a memorable melody in there, though. The melodies as they are a bit too frantic and arpeggiated to stick in my mind as they are, I think. Perhaps you could have emphasized such a melody by playing the dreamy pad at 1:26 by itself during some sort of breakdown section. Even so, I suppose the fast pace of this piece renders your melodic decisions fitting. The moodiness of this piece is definitely my favorite part. It’s catchy and energetic, yet has a breathtaking atmosphere. Keep up the great work, Noisysundae! :D

9.5/10

Noisysundae responds:

Can't say that much about the bass. Some prefer it at this amount, others don't. And possibly because it's mostly constant notes, opposite of those complex bass melodies I usually make. Another bad thing is that I can't trust my ears when listening to the bass. If you have time to listen to 'Bittersweet', you'll see that the bass there is a lot lighter. :P

Perhaps it's the detuned saw that makes this piece too frantic as you described. That's also why I don't consider this a liquid DnB.

Other than that, I agree to every point you've made. It's quite a dilemma for me when I'm gonna make atmospheric music but not sure if some parts should have more melodies in it. Glad to see you loved this sundae. You faved it, yay!

[Tidal Man]

It was a good idea to start the piece out with these frantic synth patterns, although I think the rhythm is very hard-to-follow, and the piece in general is a bit overstimulating. The pacing is very fast, and I think you would’ve needed some more prominent percussion here to tie the various sections of this piece together seamlessly. You don’t even employ any crashes, sweeps, or other cues that allow the listener to come with you when you move on to a new section. The loop is smooth, although it’s not immediately clear to me how you tried to connect the progression of the ending and the beginning. Those sections just didn’t seem to match up well to me, so that you probably would’ve been better off coming up with an appropriate conclusion for the piece without looping it. Also, the piece is extremely structurally flat. It’s constantly hectic and energetic, with no sort of breakdown, bridge, re-intro, or otherwise low-energy section to keep the listener grounded and create space for contrast. You also fail to vary the melodies at all later in the piece, and you missed out on some big opportunities throughout the piece to create dynamic contrast. Also, the instruments were pretty generic. The sub-bass is uncharacteristically loud for a piece like this. And the mastering needs work. For example, the lead clearly gets distorted between 2:25 and 2:32. In general, I can hear everything pretty clearly and the balance is good, though. Overall, this piece has some strong melodic components, and you did a good job of making the texture full throughout. It’s catchy and fun, too. I think you should focus on the mastering, instrumentation, and broad-scale sense of structural ebb and flow. Keep working at it, man. ;)

6.5/10

TheNGVirus responds:

Thank you for the review! I will work on my mastering indeed! I appreciate the criticism!

[The Ballad of Joey Domino]

I like the feel-good indie vibes at the beginning. The vocals are smooth, sit well in the mix, and have great intonation. The lyrics themselves are also pretty great. They fit the tone of the piece very well. The pacing is a bit fast here, though. For example, you transition back into the refrain at 2:04 from the badass solos at 1:52 without so much as a drum fill. This piece also lacks a proper breakdown or re-intro section, which could’ve really helped provide some much-needed structural relief and flesh out this piece more. As for the mixing and mastering, the drums are seriously underpowered and I can’t always hear all of the background instruments clearly (such as the chords during the solo). However, I did enjoy the instruments, mood, and soulful character of the piece. Overall solid work! Keep it up, guys. ;D

8/10

MistyE responds:

Thank you so much for your great review - I'm glad you liked it! I'll try to keep your feedback about the transitioning and structure in mind.

[Death's Whisper]

Really interesting atmosphere and mood here. This song is missing a lot of high-range frequencies and is very slow to progress, however. There was very little sense of build into 1:01. I liked the breaks there, but you could’ve done a lot more to channel the energy. Right now, this piece lacks strong melodic content and structural contrast. You didn’t really do anything new or interesting with the long section between the drops, which detracts significantly from the sense of progression this piece has. Also, to touch on a smaller detail, I don’t think the last “whisper” was necessary at the end, and the portamento there seemed a bit cheesy. Your drum samples are also a bit generic. The mixing and mastering is pretty strong, although I’d once again caution you about not using the whole frequency range for large swaths of the piece. You definitely have not maximized the melodic and harmonic potential of this piece, and you could’ve done a lot more to polarize the intense drops and the more mellow sections (using dynamic contrast, phrasing, etc.). Do this, and you have a really solid track here. Otherwise, it’s not very memorable or engaging. Keep working at it, man! ;)

6/10

Lone-X responds:

Thank you very much for the critique! It is much appreciated.

Peace and love,
Lone X