TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[groovin while breaking laws]

I love the rapid, flowy arpeggios at the beginning. The bass is roaring (which probably means it's too loud)! Otherwise, really catchy stuff. Classic Johnfn-style track, melodramatic crashes and all. ;) This is well-structured, smooth-flowing, and overall a really fun track. I thought you did a good job of making it coherent, yet with enough variety to keep my attention. It loops really well, and I loved how the synth roll starts at 2:45 and finishes at :02! ^_^ Your tracks seem simple on the surface, yet have this really complex and full-sounding texture to them that's just delicious! I love it! Keep up the inspiring work, Johnfn. ;D

johnfn responds:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO LOUD BASS THEDOOR. Unless it makes the drums quieter, then it's probably too loud, I GUESS.

Well whatever. I'm still glad you liked it :P

[Mrs. Robinson (Singalong)]

I love the natural, old-fashioned country vibe here. Given the title, I'm not sure if this is a cover or what, but I loved the lyrics and general mood/themes. It's mellow and flowy, yet very engaging and fun. Almost seems like an audio recording of one of those people who come in and entertain during kids' birthdays by singing silly, feel-good songs. :) Not sure what else to add...it may be a tad dry, but to solve that "issue" would be to take away from the natural campfire-like atmosphere of it. Also, Step, the mix is so clear that it's like I'm right there at the campfire playing shakers along to the beat! XD Nice work everyone. Keep up the good work. ;D

Step responds:

You are making it your mission to review all my recent uploads haha. Always love your reviews.

Super glad you liked this. It is indeed a cover. The dryness might be an issue... I'm not very good at calculating reverb on real-life instruments. I did add some reverb but I never really liked the wishy-washy sound that reverb gave to vocals. We'll be submitting a Summer of 69 cover very very soon - maybe I fixed the reverb in that one. That said, I'm super relieved you think the mix is clear!

Thanks again for the review. c:

[Quirky Stroll]

Definitely quirky...and videogame-y! I like the cute synths and melodies. In fact, the melody at :16 probably almost had too much reverb given the genre. However, structurally speaking, it doesn't change that much until :47. Especially since this is such a short piece, I think the drums and bass should've come in much earlier. Still, I admire your sense of harmony here, and, admittedly, when the drums and bass DID come in, it sounded pretty cool. ;) Nice job with the melody at 1:18, too, but I thought that instrument was a bit too loud and/or in-your-face. Maybe you should've EQ'd out some of the high-toned end of the Equalizer? Idk...it's hard to pinpoint exactly what I didn't like about the synth. Maybe it was the instrument itself, in fact. Overall, though, I love the moods and rhythms and melodies here. Loops flawlessly. Well done, LunacyEcho! ^^

LunacyEcho responds:

=> melody at :16 =>

If any melody were to be complained about for having too much reverb, I would've thought it'd be the one at 1:02! I can see what you mean, though. In hindsight, I should've picked a better synth - the muted-ness gets old after a while.

=> structurally short =>

But if the drums come in earlier, the piece would be even shorter! Although to be honest, I'm surprised it cracked 2:00 in the way it did. Yeah, the drums should've come earlier, but I really liked where I was going with the solo!

=> 1:18 =>

You know, that's the same synth as 0:16. It really is getting old, isn't it? :P

=> loops flawlessly =>

Interestingly, different softwares have different looping mechanisms, so a song that loops flawlessly on Newgrounds might not do so on iTunes or some other website. There are two solutions: only write ambient music, or upload to as few websites as possible. :D

Thanks for the review! And thanks so much for spending such a long time reviewing everything after your exams! Have fun in college!

[Mad Microphone Test]

Lovely piano-playing, as always! :D Don't worry - I'm not going to leave. Not even close. It's kind of funny how when most people sing in English, even if they're from the U.K., Australia, etc., I usually can't tell the difference between their voice and that of an American, yet I can sort of tell you're a European by your singing voice, which is cool. Anyway, I don't think the singing was nearly as bad as you made it out to be in the description. As a pianist, you naturally have a superb since of pitch accuracy. The main thing that made the vocals sound less-than-superb for me was that they wavered a lot, especially whenever you changed notes. Maybe some breathing exercises would help? Another thing is that you might've just been nervous when you recorded this, or you just didn't warm up. Still, I think your voice wouldn't waver as much if you were more confident in your singing ability. Did you practice at all? It helps to hear that you can sing it well before you record it. :) Anyway, I definitely admire your ability to play the piano and sing at the same time. I could not play the cello and sing at the same time...ever. XD I'd love to hear more songs with vocals from you, LSD! Keep it up! ^^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I chose this song because the piano playing is actually pretty easy, luckily. I just can't play something complicated while trying to sing :p

Yeah, in this song it's pretty easy to tell that I'm European. But I can sing just like your avarage American too, if I want to :p I wasn't aiming for any specific accent here, which is probably why it gets a bit messed up in such regards. The redneck version that I didn't upload though!

Well, you say I've got good pitch, but then you notice that I'm actually playing the melody with the piano as well, in order not to stray away XD
Partly, that's so that I can play the rhythm more easily, of course.
My pitch hearing is unusually bad for a pianist though, probably because I barely ever practice that :(

I DID waver a lot. Partly, it's because I had the microphone pretty close both times, so I couldn't sing too loudly, or it'd clip. But I needed to have the microphono on a high volume-receiving (whatever) level, so that it'd catch the piano too :/

And I definitely would need breathing excersises too! I have a weird form of asthma, which may or may not impact, but either way, I've got pretty weak lungs :p
I didn't really warm up either though, and this is definitely not the song that I know best. The problem is, I'm horrible when it comes to remembering lyrics D:
So I only know like 10 songs or so by heart, while I know snippets of thousands XD

I wish I could play much more complicated things on the piano while singing. And you shouldn't worry! I can't play the Cello at all ;)
I aslo wish that I'd find a time and place to practice singing... By myself and online tutorials, like I learn most things. But we have paper thin walls here :/

You'll probably have to wait a while before hearing more songs with vocals though!

And wow, you're really wuick at this! You almost caught up already, somehow 0.o
Only three tracks more to go.

Thank you, a lot. Reading your reviews fills me with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside :3

[A Song for Someone Else]

Very pretty! I truly believe that personal loss is one of the greatest and most noble inspirations to make music...even if the loss is one of, well, anime...Still, as always, this piece has an excellent progression. I love the sense of emotion and the recurring theme at 1:53. I appreciate all the compositional risks you took around 2:40, but I think they paid off. They made the piece seem conclusive...so conclusive, in fact, that you could've easily ended the piece at 2:53. It actually sounded like more of a proper ending to me than the actual ending. Besides that minor complaint (if that is an actual complaint, that is), I think this is a beautiful piece! Over the course of the 15 months or so I've known you, the concentration of piano solos on my iPod has drastically increased. :D Keep up the great work, LSD! ^^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I agree with you there! I don't think it necessarily has to be a loss, really, but I believe there's a lot more power in a track if it holds some kind of personal meaning to the artist.
I tried to pretty much dumb down on all the fancy stuff I occasionally do in this track, and focus on simple progression and a beautiful melody.
And as I stated in the description, I tried to use more repetitiveness than usually, so there are actually several parts that I repeat in one way or another throughout the piece.

Good catch at 2:40! I wasn't sure if people would notice that, hehhe :p

"2:53"

=> No. NO! You don't get to do that! First people tell me that I'm not repetitive enough, and now, with just a little bit of added repetition, I am to refrain from repeating the intro at 2:53? THIS IS MADNESS.
But really, I was planning on adding that final part far before I came up with 2:40, as 2:40 is actually the final thing I actually thought out for this track. Without having the ending planned on beforehand, 2:40 probably wouldn't even have happened, as I made it in order to tie the current place I was in the composition, to the ending!
Also, I think that 2:53 would leave some kind of inconclusive atmosphere behind, as the tempo suddenly increases at 2:40, so ending there, would be a bit of a anti-climax!

Thanks a lot for another review, and for listening to my songs! I should reply to your PM tomorrow, as I am now done with the concert and such things XD

[Parlor Time]

Ooo...this is a fun piece. I'd recognize that Garageband acoustic bass sample anywhere. XD You used the drums really well in this piece, especially during the first 15 seconds or so. If you wanted it to sound really jazzy, you might work on swinging the rhythms (or just using as few on-the-beat quarter and eighth notes as possible). After all, now that you're not on the project, you can work on plenty of other things besides expanding the genres of music you feel comfortable making. :D Keep at it, man!

LunacyEcho responds:

=> bass =>

:D Yup. The GarageBand and Logic acoustic basses are literally the same, so I can't escape!

=> drums =>

Thanks! My drum work in electronic songs has started to become a bit boring, so one of the goals with this song was to spice the drums up a bit.

=> swinging the rhythms =>

Didn't I do that? With basically every instrument? :/

Thanks for the review! I'll definitely be working on stuff I'm better at, and you can look forward to some quality stuff in the next few days! ...or at least when exams finish, anyways.

[everyday life]

Ah, good message for a good song. :) I like the instrument at the beginning. It does take a while to get going - you were right - and, given that it's already 7.5 minutes long, you could stand to cut out some of the intro a bit. Still, I love the bass harmonies that start popping in at around :45. It's very atmospheric, moody, and intellectual. That bass kind of reminds me of the one in Elton John's "Rocket Man," strange as it is to say...Classic Johnfn melody instruments showing up for the party at 2:10. ;) I love the pensive mood here. I thought that the drums' sudden incorporation of energy into the piece at 1:36 could've been done a bit more gradually. Have you ever tried fading them in? The structural relief at 3:15 was much-appreciated btw, although the voices/FX in the background didn't add much IMO. I think it would've been more effective dynamic contrast-wise to simply let the reverb do the work in transitioning to the breakdown. I love the chill atmosphere from around 3:30 to 5:00. I think you channeled the energy with the drums much better during the second climax. I barely noticed them sneaking up until about 5:10, although they were a little loud at 5:20 and beyond. Drum-related grievances aside, this is a cool piece with a lot to capture my attention until the end (or to just chill to...idk which). I thought the start-stop-transition at 6:20 was a good idea, but you didn't need another crash leading into 6:30 once you already had one to transition into the silence 10 seconds earlier...It just seemed a bit redundant to me. Also, what's with the fade-out ending? T_T It's okay. I understand you like them. Perhaps this was a more appropriate piece to use a fade-out ending on than a lot of other pieces. I've nitpicked a lot in this review, but overall nice job! Love the consistent upload schedule you seem to be sticking to recently. Keep up the good work! ;D

johnfn responds:

FADE OUT ENDING
F.DE OUT ENDING
F.DE OUT EN.ING
F.DE OUT .N.ING
F.DE .UT .N.ING
F.DE ..T .N.ING
F.DE .UT .N.ING
F.DE .UT .N.I.G
F.DE ..T .N.I.G
F.D. ..T .N.I.G
F.D. ..T .N.I...
F.D. ... .N.I...
F... ... .N.I...
.... ... .N.I...
.... ... ...I...
.... ... .......
..............

[Overarching Medley]

Hmm...I like the instruments and blissful moods and melodies. The key change at :27 was a bit sudden IMO. Also, I thought the chord progression at the beginning was a little cliché. Somehow the beginning of the piece made me think you were going to loop it...It just seemed like a good strong beginning to loop back to. Otherwise, this song lacks coherence. I understand that it's supposed to be a mash-up of all the songs you've made as part of your "one-song-of-every-genre-in-a-year" project, but I think if you're going to go for a medley that ambitious you should spread it out and really try to make it epic, i.e. tons of ups and downs in a 5-minute roarin' masterpiece!!! Instead, the harmonies came off as extremely forced at times, like at 2:28. The ending was sudden, and overall, it simply lacks flow. It sounds just like what it is: a mash-up of a ridiculous number of songs. I don't remember a lot of the songs you wrote in the past year (there've been a lot), so I think it would be better if this wasn't so confusing to listen to. Sorry LE. I've been tough on you, and I know this was a huge project for you. I love a lot of the individual riffs, but, as you and I both know, they're part of their own specific songs. If you want to give this whole "epic medley of all the genres on NG" thing another go, I would suggest making several dozen more songs of all different genres once more, and then attempting this medley again next year using your newest songs! Haha, now there's a project for you! See you next year! ...I'm kidding. However, I'd say it is quite an accomplishment that you were so willing to explore your genre-making capabilities, and I'm sure you learned a lot throughout the process. Keep up the good work, LunacyEcho! :D

LunacyEcho responds:

=> cliché chord progression =>

Yeah, I get it. But that was back when I wrote Energy Flux, and wasn't thinking at all about original chord progressions, just finding stuff that I liked.

=> loop =>

Now that you mention it, that does sound like a loop-y beginning. :P

=> spread it out and really try to make it epic =>

I'd originally planned it basically just as you said, but eventually, it became more work than fun after trying to fit everything in. :/

=> 2:28 =>

Huh? I'm having a hard time seeing how that sounded forced. I mean, it was a riff directly taken from 'All the Raps'. Unless you meant the transition? Then, yeah, I can kinda see it.

=> lacks flow =>

Well, I was thoroughly debating with myself when I started this whether I should keep the same beat and instruments and just change around the melody, or change a bunch of stuff every few songs. In the end, I decided to sacrifice the flow of the song to create a more interesting piece to listen to, and also to show how much my production has improved over the year through a bunch of different styles of music. :P

=> attempting this medley again =>

*commits suicide*

Thanks for the review, and thanks for reviewing nearly every single piece I've done! You and LSD are some of the most consistent people whose feedback I can count on, and I really have to thank you so much for helping support me throughout this project. You keep up the good work too!

[Light Up]

YES!! It's really exciting to see another full-length track from you, Johnfn. :D The melodies are awesome. This piece is full of climaxes, gooey synth lines and counter-melodies. It's definitely upbeat enough for the "chiptune dance club," that's for sure. ;) I especially love the solo that starts around 2:20. It's extremely smooth-flowing, catchy and engaging. It's the perfect balance of energetic and atmospheric if you ask me. The modulation at 3:05 was a little sudden, but other than that the transitions in this piece are solid. The ending felt conclusive, there was a significant amount of melodic development and dynamic contrast, and, overall, you hit the jackpot again, Johnfn! Hopefully you'll have more time to make music this summer (?). Keep it up, man! ^^

johnfn responds:

Woohoo! Thanks! I work a job now so THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SUMMER. JUST ENDLESS WORK FOREVER. Unless I get fired.

[Equilibria - Unsustainable (Entropy VIP)]

I like the emotion at the beginning. Well-timed entry of the synths and drums. Love the sense of climax. Seems strangely blissful (I don't recall that the first version was...). Still, I definitely see the resemblance and I'm glad you came back to this track because your mixing has improved a lot since then. I love how you start incorporating darker elements and heavier basses at 1:15. The drop at around 1:25 wasn't as hard-hitting as in the original, as I recall, but that's okay. I don't know if this was intentional, but there's an open hat that cuts off really suddenly at 2:01. Also, the melody at 2:02 gets drowned out, although I understand this must've been really tough to mix and master. I also appreciated that you added new melodies that weren't in the original, like at 3:29. I thought that, overall, this track had a greater sense of longing to it than the first one did. That's generally a good thing, but I'm not sure it's what you were going for. The guitar synth at 5:13 was cool. The coda was strangely emotional. I greatly admire your ability to combine some hard-hitting electro/dubstep breaks with the smooth, trance-ish and emotional sections of this piece. I thought the fade-out ending could've been more creative, but that's a tiny detail. Overall, great work! Keep it up, DylnMatrix. ;D

Dylnmatrix responds:

"I like the emotion at the beginning. Well-timed entry of the synths and drums. Love the sense of climax. Seems strangely blissful (I don't recall that the first version was...)"
Thanks man! We actually wanted to make this a little more "blissful" as you put it, making contrast to the harshness of the original.

"The drop at around 1:25 wasn't as hard-hitting as in the original, as I recall, but that's okay."
I agree. It was hard to get this drop to hit as hard as it does, and we know that we won't get it to hit as hard as Entropy did.

"I don't know if this was intentional, but there's an open hat that cuts off really suddenly at 2:01."
That open reverse hat cutting off was actually intentional, it was a lead into the kick hitting the break.

"Also, the melody at 2:02 gets drowned out, although I understand this must've been really tough to mix and master."
It was, but it was also slightly intentional. We wanted to incorporate melodies from the original, but we didn't want them to feel overused, so we chose to keep the original Dylnmatrix signature a little quieter than the rest of the track. Though we made it a little too quiet there ahaha.

"I also appreciated that you added new melodies that weren't in the original, like at 3:29."
Of course we're going to add new melodies ;) With the guitar line, I wanted to use the original piano melody and then I tweaked it to both fit the guitar and changed it up in some places to make it fresh. Kept a lot of the original melody in it though.

"I thought that, overall, this track had a greater sense of longing to it than the first one did. That's generally a good thing, but I'm not sure it's what you were going for."
We weren't really, but then again, we let the track more or less write itself. We wanted to make an epic, emotional tribute to the original, so I guess that's where the longing feeling comes from?

"The guitar synth at 5:13 was cool."
It's an actual guitar sample with Shreddage with Guitar Rig 5, with a quiet Sylenth lead supporting it, but yes, it is very cool. You should have seen me when I was writing it haha

"The coda was strangely emotional. I greatly admire your ability to combine some hard-hitting electro/dubstep breaks with the smooth, trance-ish and emotional sections of this piece."
It's what we're best at :D The original was emotional too, but with all the compression crushing the melodic content, it wasn't as noticeable as this track's emotional melodies.

"I thought the fade-out ending could've been more creative, but that's a tiny detail. Overall, great work! Keep it up, DylnMatrix. ;D"
Yeah, but we couldn't think of anything else to do for the outro haha. We're still personal fans of fade-outs when they're in good taste, so that's why we went with it.

Thanks for the reviews man! I'll be sure to let you be the first to know when the EP comes out, as there's another Equilibria track (which we're currently in the middle of making right now) that's totally different than anything else we've done.