TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Jumbo Jungle]

Ooo...it's something quite different! I thought the texture was a little busy, especially when you have two very melodic contrapuntal lines going at once from around :18 to :41. Still, an interesting and catchy experiment. I wish it looped - I think that could've worked well. The percussion is really fun, though, and I think your mixing is improving. I should really go searching some old contest threads for more of these submissions. Keep it up, man! ;)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

You know, I thought about making this loop. But I didn't in the end! Which is quite unusual a decision, considering I am the one who made it. I guess I figured people probably didn't want more of this xD

I made the percussion first, from scratch, with a surprisingly basic plugin which came with my former version of Cubase. I think the mix here works surprisingly well, but this is a pretty simple piece. I hope I've improved a bit since I made this too, though! :D

[If I Were a Bird (Cover)]

I could see this as being sad (with context, of course). But your work here leaves so much up to the listener to decide, which I love. I probably would've determined that this was a happy piece (except for the last 20-30 seconds, perhaps), had I not read the description. Nice progression and use of colors. I'm not sure exactly how much of this is original, but it's definitely a creative idea to use only major chords for what was originally such a melancholic piece. Also, I'd love to hear how your semester is going and whatnot if you have the time to shoot me a PM this weekend. And if you don't well, at least keep making this beautiful music! :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yeah. I agree that this arangement is very ambiguous in how one is supposed to interpret it. I think that is a nice quality too! Either way, it has a feel of sentimentality to it, whether it be of a good or bad nature.

I'd say that a fair amount of the arrangement is original, as I even change some of the melody. A ton of the chords are of course changed, in their own right :)

As for semester, I'm not sure if I've told you or you're already aware (I think I did tell you, so I'm sure you know about it), but semester is a funny word for me, as it actually means "vacation" in Swedish. Coincidentally, now that I am finally responding to this, I am enjoying the "Swedish kind" of semester :D

And that at least, is going nicely so far! :3
I hope you're doing well too :)

[BRUCE: The Chase]

Hauntingly beautiful. When the dissonance resolves at :12, it just brings me immense euphoria. I love the dark, thick texture and instrument selection. I didn't so much as envision a chase seen but a Gothic church...at night...in a thunderstorm. But if this is going to be a chase seen, it's going to have to be in slow-motion. I would expect some sharper, more distinct and staccato-y sounds for such a chase scene, but I also trust you to make it work. I also have no idea what the BRUCE project is, but if you're involved I'll probably be paying close attention in the near future. Keep it up, LSD! ;)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Arigato!

I actually like the compositional aspect here. But I have instruments (same type, just better) that would fit way better here now :O
And the mix could be fixed a bit too (which would also be easier with the better isntrument).

This is definitely not your normal kind of chase scene! It's just the name that the organizer of the project wanted for the piece to have, as the name has a relation to the scene it's supposed to be used in. The project seems to be in a bit of a halt, but we'll see if it picks up sooner or later! :)

I just recently finished 4 tracks which will be used in a different animation though, which we can hope to see on Robot Day! I think I won't upload them until then? But we'll see!

[unshatter]

I like the smooth, floaty vibe at the beginning. Reminds me of falling snow. :') It's mastered so loudly that I'm listening to this on the lowest possible volume my laptop can produce with headphones. The pizzicato-y bridge at 1:22 was a nice bout of structural relief. Excellent melodies and mixing as usual. It's very flowy, and I enjoyed the panning with the cutesy melodic riffs at around 2:30 onwards. Seriously, how does this song now have "snow" in the title? It just perfectly encapsulates an afternoon of wintry mix. Either way, the music is top-notch. :D Keep up the good work, Johnfn!

johnfn responds:

> Seriously, how does this song not have "snow" in the title?

This really really cracks me up, because I have since enhanced this song and renamed it to "summer snowball". YOU KNOW ME TOO WELL ANDREW. Too well...

Also it's funny you say mastering because my mastering process is really just uh... doing nothing. This song literally has nothing on the master channel. I just make sure all my instruments EQ well together I guess? I don't even know how I mix. It's a subconscious process at this point. o_O

[Metal Loop]

It has a very gritty, distorted sound that a like. On the surface, it's a little simplistic, but I like what you did with the drums and progression. A loopable version would be nice, since the piece isn't really structurally complete as it is. I also wasn't a huge fan of the snare sample - a few too many treble tones that made it sound a bit inauthentic. Otherwise, not a bad track, man. Keep at it! ;)

n00bitron responds:

Thank you, I'll work on it :D

[Seamless Void]

Overall, I like this a lot. The mood and melodies were my favorite part. Stylistically, it's a bit cliche. I've heard a lot of pieces like this on NG. There also may have been some balance issues at some points. For example, the harmonies at around the 2-minute mark were a little too loud when compared to the melody IMO. I appreciated the structural relief you offered at around 3:15 though. The piece is a little long too. It's well-structured, smooth-flowing, and the mixing and mastering is good. The ending was a little lack-luster, but that's a pretty small detail. I'll also say that your instrument selection was good, although some of the instruments seemed a bit simple. Like I said, I like it a lot overall. Keep up the good work man. ;)

balderdact responds:

Awesome! Thanks for providing a little more detailed review :D
That's interesting that it sounds a lot like other songs on NG since I don't listen to other pieces on NG too much. xD
Ohh okay for the 2 min mark I just thought it sounded better if I made the harmony a bit louder - I wonder if there's any standard for stuff like that.
Nice I'm glad you liked the 3:15 part that's also one of my fav parts about this song.
Danngg I actually got the idea for making this song from trance songs that are around 6-7 mins long and I thought I had shortened it down too lmaoo
Oh good! I'm glad that you say it's all smooth and mixed properly and that I have a good instrument selection because I usually worry about that the most.
I would also say the ending is kinda just whatever - I definitely need to work on my openings and endings sometimes.
Anyways I'm glad you liked it :D

[Illuminated Tree]

I love the atmosphere, percussion, and melodies in this piece. I thought the melody instruments were better than in the last piece I reviewed, but I use 3xOsc a lot so I'm kinda biased. I really like that you decided to include a sub-bass this time, or at least I'm hearing more sound in the sub-bass range than usual with you. That's a great way of making the texture of your piece sound nice and full. However, I did think that the bass line in this track was a bit cliche. The mixing and mastering is great as always, and I particularly liked your hi-hat sample in this piece. I also thought your risers were pretty cool throughout this piece, and you didn't overuse them (which I see a lot). My favorite part might've been around 2:30 when you really highlighted the delay effects you've been using. Also, despite its suddenness, I liked the transition at 2:45 a lot. It just seemed fitting somehow. Overall, nice work! Keep at it, BO. :D

Everratic responds:

I did use a sub bass in this song :D I agree that the bassline is cliche, but I couldn't create something better so I stuck with it. I don't think I master my songs the way most people do. I try to make sure the volume levels for each instrument are perfect, and then I compress the entire song. It's effective, but I don't think it's the best method because the lows and mids don't sound separated. I made the riser effects years ago and I still use them. Sometimes I reverse them so they sound new. I also made the white noise effects years ago. I think the reason why 2:45's transition worked is because a new key was just introduced, so the listener wants to hear more of it. Thank you!

[Fever Dream]

Very emotional! I love the slow pacing at the beginning. You use the range of the piano really well - I love your slow climb up to :35 both emotionally and pitch-wise. :D I've also got to point out how much I admire your ability to turn your real-life experiences into music, btw. The piece is extremely flowing and majestic (you've pretty much nailed flowiness and majesty in all 112-and-counting tracks of yours). I especially love the rather desperate mood at 3:35 and how you then transition into this sort of floaty calmness, as if you awoke to fully realize the pains of your illness, only to drift off to sleep again. I also like the pensive and anticipatory mood at around 5:10. How do you possible manage to string all these moods together in one coherent piece? Actually, I have a challenge for you: I want you to try to achieve the same level of "flowiness and majesty" with not one but FOUR instruments that are simultaneously playing melodic parts. Aaaaannnndd GO! BWA-HA-HA!!!

The dissonant jazzy chords at 6:23 pulled me back down to earth after my maniacal scheming for this challenge. I love them too! I was also drawn to the power and spacey-ness of the part at 9:05 or so, as well as the dark vibe at 9:30. You then sort of descend into a tumultuous calm at around 10:45, and then of course 11:30 has all the light gracefulness of the beginning. I also appreciated the scale at 12:17, although the ensuing jarring chords offered a bit of a strange way to end the piece. Still, I kind of regard you as a genius. I thought you should know.

Overall, fantastic work as always. Turns out I can't get enough of this "weird background music." ;)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yeah. I was definitely in a weird place when I improvised this. Whenever something unusual is going on with me, I tend to either turn it into music, or write. Unless I just have a headache or something, in which case I take a pill and go to sleep. Now that I think about it, headaches are unfortunately not that unusual xD

As for the range of the piano, it's something I've always used automatically. I guess that I just like variation, and work from there :D

Another thing with turning real life experiences into music, is that it can give great emotional value to a piece, if you do it right. I think that a good sense of empathy, and understanding of any situation, is good if you want to capture a certain feel in music. This is especially important if you're composing music for a particular purpose, or scene.

As for the flow, it's just something I've learned to do. Here's the thing. Barely anyone will notice if you screw up, if you keep going as if you intended to do whatever you did, and just keep going. If you make a mistake, you shouldn't just stop and try to think of what to do next, or what chord to use. You just keep going. This is very important for live performances of almost any kind, at least if you're playing solo :)

At 4:23, my flow clearly broke though. But I went back to do a retake of a similar theme I used earlier in the improv, to catch the flow again (I don't remember any of this, but I'm listening to it again, and I'm fairly certain that it was intentional).

I like 5:10 as well. It reminds me of Kyle Landry's 2008 version of Dearly Beloved.

"How do you possible manage to string all these moods together in one coherent piece? "

=> Well, I guess it's arguable whether it is coherent or not. It's a bit weird, but then again, I like weird. If you practice playing every day with any intrument, I'd say that anyone can easily become as good as and better than me at improvising. What I am wondering, if how the hell I pulled off 7:09-7:17. I need to check the MIDI file for that!

Hmm, that challenge sounds fun! I can make anything flow. But majesty... I can't improvise four things and keep the same rhythm and tempo. I'd have to take a more classical route, and have like a piano, a violin, a cello, and a flute or something. That, I think I could manage! When time and motication strikes :)

Ooh, it would look like 9:05 returns to the main theme of this piece, for a while. I have no idea how I managed to keep a kind of main theme, with the fever and all?
9:30 is a weird kind of "trope" that tends to happen in my improvisations if they near 10 minutes. I suddenly go for a rhythmic section, using mostly darker keys. I wonder why? probably because I get tired of the flow, and go for a big change, for the sake of variation.

10:45 is just really experimental. This is one of my more experimental improvisations in general.

"Still, I kind of regard you as a genius. I thought you should know."

That's very nice of you, thank you. But honestly, I have no idea what I am doing when improvising. I think many people with better pitch hearing go for melodies and chords they think in their heads. I just do completely random stuff; I credit my subconscious. And trust me. You can do it too! You just need to practice 1 hour a day, for like 5 years. Yup...

Now, you've inspired me to go and improvise some more. Maybe we'll soon hear some more random background music from me?

Thanks a lot for once again listening through such a long track, and reviewing it in detail! It means a lot :3

[Bloody Valentine (Cover)]

Well, it certainly seems more fitting for Valentine's Day than Halloween. ;) It's catchy, humorous, well-structured, and smooth-flowing. I enjoyed the vocal harmonies a lot, as that gives the piece a pretty nice, full texture. I suppose at some point I would like to see you take some more stylistic risks (you do the bare-bones guitar, vocals, and body percs thing a lot). The piece was also a little long, especially compared to most of your other work. Still, you did a good job of telling a story with the lyrics. Keep it up, Ceevro. ;)

Ceevro responds:

Well, this was a cover, so they lyrics were already set for me. I know I've got a certain style to my methods of composing, but it you look back at my REALLY old stuff, you'll find out that recording with real instruments and my own voice actually IS the risk! I'm trying very hard to perfect a certain more real style. What I ultimately want is a method of doing these types of pieces live, at this quality. I'm getting better at it, though I still have a long way to go before I can call this method mastered!

Personally, I am not at all satisfied with this cover. It felt rushed, and not crisp enough for me. I also really hate the sound of my own voice...