TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[~Fire~]

I love the instruments, especially the one at :09. The melodies and moods are cool and intricate. I've always admired your sense of harmony. That said, I think the fade-in intro to the piece was done a bit lazily and could've been more creative. The ending is much of the same story. It's just a little inconclusive. If you wanted to end with that energetic synth at 3:02, I would've filtered it away while simultaneously decreasing the tempo, just to channel the energy a bit more. Still, I appreciated the structural relief at 1:15 and the following piano melody. You use a lot of cool and diverse sounds in your tracks that keep them engaging and refreshing, yet they're still very coherent. This is one major thing that a lot of NG musicians have not mastered IMO - sound quality and coherence. Yet you have! The next step now is the mixing. Mixing will help casual listeners hear your diverse sound set more clearly and, while I understand that there is a basic level of mixing achieved in this piece, I think you should put some serious effort into improving it. There are tons of good YouTube tutorials, or otherwise just PM me when you need advice about specific things. Also, I don't think your composing abilities are faltering at all. Have confidence in yourself! :D Keep up the good work, Larrynachos. ;)

larrynachos responds:

Thanks so much, TL! I'll take your pointers into account when composing my next piece :) I'm so glad you see potential in me, and I'll keep trying my hardest to be the best I can be!

[Stuck in California]

Dude, it's been a while. I love the chill mood at the beginning and how you gradually create this climax, although the intro lasted for quite a long time. Those pads and the drums were pretty much the only things going on for the first 1+ minutes of the song. I'd cut it down to 30 seconds max if I were you. Loved your melodies around 1:15 - 1:45, though. The drums themselves were also really good. You may know from my own music that I'm a big fan of crash samples like the ones at :37 (and other places). I also appreciated the melodic development you used around 2:30. The "shake it" vocal sample at 2:54 didn't add much, in my opinion. This seems more like VGM than EDM to me for some reason, and the vocal sample sort of confused the roles/themes of this piece IMO. Still, that's a tiny detail. I want you to work on varying the harmonies and chord progressions a little more in the future, but other than that this is really solid work my friend. You deserved the 1,000+ plays and 100+ DLs. ;D

TeraVex responds:

Thanks for the review! Haha, the reason I put that sample there was to call back to my old song Shake It, I know it didn't sound right but I couldn't resist XD

[stage clear]

Ah, Johnfn! So good to hear some of your stuff again. :D First of all, I love the groovy sound you've got in this one. That flowy melody at :15 is really melody, and I love what you did with the filtering on it. Mixing was really solid, and I love that little "texture-booster" synth that fades in at 1:24 and other places to help with the transitions. Loops really well, good job with the structure/mood/transitions/instruments, and yeah...not much else to say. PLEASE MAKE MORE MUSIC FOR YOUR OL' PAL ANDREW. XD Keep up the great work, man! ^^

johnfn responds:

> "That flowy melody at :15 is really melody"

> "is really melody"

Uh huh ok then TheDoor.

[Alien Onboard]

Cool effects at the beginning. I appreciate that you're trying to switch up your style a bit. Breaks at :26 are awesome. Love the sense of climax you have here, and the drum fills (like at :38) were also cool. The drums are really engaging and energizing. I love the little stutter it has at 1:07 (and other places). The section at around 1:30 started getting a little repetitive after a while, but I love the drum fills around 2:15, again. Nice use of effects throughout the breakdown section, but I still think you at least needed a drum in there to keep the beat going. Your rhythms and sense of progression are much more creative than in the last piece I reviewed, though. I also loved what you did with that "decelerating riser" from around 3:30 to 3:45. It felt conclusive by the end, and you really stayed loyal to your theme throughout. Nice work! You've earned yourself a fave, my friend.

BoomKitty responds:

Thanks for the honest reviews! I'm hoping out break out of my formula more. This DnB stuff is pretty fun.

[Scazon]

I like the dark cinematic mood at the beginning. The piano with the echo effect works really well to supplement the mood too. It has a lot of emotion, which I recall you didn't go for as much in the past. I love the sense of climax into 1:05, and how you channel that into the chill section at 1:10. I thought it was pretty haunting when the reverb just drops, like at 1:29. That kick comes in a little suddenly at 1:37 IMO. You could've at least used filters to "fade it in," if you know what I mean. Same thing with the sweep at 1:45. I think your drums are a little loud, but that's true of a lot of your tracks and is probably appropriate for the genre. I enjoyed the breakdown at 3:15 and that little riff with the transition synth at 3:27. Again with the reverb cutoffs at 3:50! :D It is quite repetitive, as usual, but I enjoyed the flowiness and constant ups-and-downs, which gave it the illusion of being fast-paced in a way, even when the mood itself was wicked chill. I would've appreciated a little more melodic development later on, but I think you accomplished what you set out to accomplish, my friend. Sounds hella good for something you made when you were "just screwing around." That bass and pulsing pad at the end added a lot to the sense of "release" at the very end of the song. It didn't seem as conclusive as some of your other tracks, but you also evaded the fade-out method, which I appreciated. Overall, great work man! Hope to hear more from you soon. ;)

SynchroSpectre responds:

Oooh, thanks :o, What I meant by screwing around is that I was just reversing some of the hats in the drums and using some stuttering in that Chinese synth thing. But yea, regarding the genre... I have no idea what I'm making; lol, it's my own unique style that just came up. I was always trying hard to make it like those mainstream EDM tracks out there but I never really succeeded - here, I decided, "oh well, I'll just make what I wanna make" and voila, some random deep house piece.

In house, usually repetition isn't a problem, 'cause it's mainly for dancing, but in this song... yea, there isn't supposed to be any repetition; this is supposed to be a piano piece with drums in the background, but laziness got me :l. Oh well, I'll just try to FX harder XD

Anyways man, I enjoy your reviews and thanks for listening :D

[Cave of Mysteries]

Oooo...it certainly is....mysterious! :O I loved the ominous drums and echo-y synths. The (violin?) that comes in at around :57 doesn't sound great, tbh. That's either because of the mixing or the sampling, but I can't tell which. I'm serious about that whole get-rid-of-all-the-tones-under-200-hertz thing, though, although I guess when this was made I hadn't told you about that yet...Still, it is difficult to pick out some of the individual instruments in this track because of the mixing, and fixing that on at least a basic level takes only 5 minutes. Still, I'm glad you're exploring orchestral/cinematic genres a bit more recently. It loops well, and the progression and harmonies are (as always with you) quite enjoyable. Keep at it, LSD! ;D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yay for mystery! :D

I think I made the percussion pretty much like this: Place a few drums (in the piano roll), add some multi delay, done (well, apart from the quick and not so good mixing of course).

I really like that violin tho! It's heeeeavily modified, and doesn't sound even remotely like that from the start. I was trying to recreate something from something I don't remember at the moment, but I remember succeeding surprisingly well in the mimicking, which might be why I like it.

Oh, I don't really disagree with the whole 200 hz thing. I was just trying to say that I believe that's way too radical to generalize (as we all know, only siths deal in absolutes, DARTH LOGIC). Especially as so many music genres sound so different from each other. There are several guitars, for example, that can and will benefit from the 200hz area, while there are some that sound horrible there. A solo piano should definitely not have everything removed from there, and same goes for some vocals, which sound more full if a bit is left down there. I, personally, probably don't remove enough from that area, but there's definitely people who make it work.
I do however remove everything from everything below 20hz, as should always be done.
I think you'd understand what I mean better if you could listen to the solo intruments in EWQL, while doing EQ sweeps, which is when you'll easily notice that some intruments definitely benefit from not being silenced in low frequencies. Also, as I said, a kick and bass don't even exist in every genre, but a song would sound awfully empty if you removed all the sound below 200hz!
What I said is backed up by not only my piano teacher, but in mixing-tips articles you can easily find online ;)

I can easily pick out all the intruments, but maybe that's because I made it. It's supposed to be a bit muddy though; remember, we're in a cave. IRL, the echo and sound would be much muddier than this! That said, this kind of sounds just as much like an underwater track, I suppose.

The harmonies I used in this song are very unusual ones for me. I couldn't even have made them work on a piano, I think. This too, was however, also a very short project. It takes sooo much time to make something well thought out and good :(

Thanks for yet another interesting review! You're very fast in catching up, I must say!

[Twenty Years]

I didn't even recognize it as "happy birthday" at first. It's quite solemn and even regal in a way. Makes me think of a desolate, snow-covered kingdom with an ancient castle looming oppressively overhead. I understand this was a quick thing, but I'm not sure I like the instruments too much (or maybe it's just the way you balanced/mastered them, idk). Still, interesting mood here. Congrats on finding a way of making a song that literally has the word "happy" in its title...well...extremely depressing! :O

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

You're not really meant to recognize the melody at first! That's what makes this interesting, you know XD
The regal is surely because of all the brass. I can kinda see the snow thingy. Interestingly enough, the brass is pretty warm in a way though, and the harp is very similar to the one track that made you think about a more tropical landscape! :p

I don't like the instruments that much either. That said, it's kind if the point. I wanted this to feel heavy, and perhaps a bit unpleasant too. Bu I should've used something else than a harp for the melody; that's for sure.
Thanks!

[Conquest of the Uncharted]

First of all, I like the mood a lot. I think the strings should've been EQ'd more, though, especially towards the high end, because it sounds a little harsh up there, which is most notable towards the beginning of the piece IMO. Also, the section from around 1:00 to 1:23 is pretty muddy. SINGLE MOST HELPFUL MIXING TIP EVER: get rid of all of the tones below 200 Hertz in everything except the bass and kick (and, in fact, most of your pieces don't seem to have a bass and kick). Otherwise, I admired the structure and progression (as usual), and I think orchestral music could suit your compositional abilities quite nicely. Until you become the lead conductor of a major symphonic orchestra, though, you might need to focus on your mixing. ;) Keep at it, LSD! ^^

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Oh, another one already? Cool!
Yeah, the mixing in this one sucks pretty badly XD It was just a project for fun though. I'm actually releasing a new full orchestral piece this week, and it has slightly improved mixing (still pretty bad though)! If I keep this up, I'll be able to mix properly in about 5 years or so ;)

Well, I think the strings should've been EQ'd differently, but not more (and I'm pretty sure that it should be lessened in the high end if it is harsh, though I might be wrong of course).

"1:00-1:23"

=> Yup. It's super muddy, but actually, the entire piece is pretty muddy; it's waaaayyy too wet!

Heh, I have an even greater mixing tip though: EQ sweeps. Nuff said. I'm pretty sure I didn't use it enough when mixing this. Also, I think that it's very relative whether you should remove everything below 200 hertz, as several string instruments have their very nice sounds around those frequencies (a cello, as an example you might be familiar with, can sound pretty nice down there. Perhaps you count that as bass, but there are strings that play in higher octaves that have a nice sound surprisingly low on the scale too). Most of my issues lies in horrible percussion mixing, and way too unrestricted reverb/wetness. For the next orchestral track (as apart from the one I will soon upload), I will probably try to look more at that! :D

I think that Orchestral music is actually a pretty suiting genre for me indeed, as I listen to it quite a lot, due to movies, games, classical music and such :)

Thanks again! I will definitely focus on my mixing, as it is perhaps my weakest area!

[Neo-Metry Medley]

I like the idea a lot! The melody at :22 seemed really out of place when it first came in. I think you needed a clearer transition when it first came in. Other than that, you mesh all these tracks (many of which I love, btw) together quite well. I liked the instruments throughout. One tiny thing that bothered me is that the brass synth pad at 2:30 was a little too loud IMO. There were some other minor balance issues too, for example the drowned-out melody at 2:50. Other than that, I love all the synths, and you kept up the intensity and mood throughout. The ending felt a bit inconclusive, but I imagine it was hard to end it given all the various songs you crammed in here! Love the idea, and it helps that I'm familiar with about half of these songs. :) Keep up the good work, LunacyEcho! ;D

LunacyEcho responds:

=> 0:22 =>

Yeah, I've been getting that a lot. But that's what you get for not listening to feedback! :P

=> 2:30 =>

But.. but... the wubs! Yeah, I see what you mean. :P In my defense, it sounds AWESOME when played out of my Mac speakers (which are definitely renowned for being the best speakers in the world obviously)

=> 2:50 =>

You mean the Electroman Adventures melody was drowned out? I can see what you mean, but I sort of just wanted some more high mids in there to keep up the balance. The Club Step melody was the focus of that part!

=> ending =>

Yeah, seriously. None of the songs in the game have proper endings, since they're all cut at ~1:30. So, I had to work with what I could. :P Glad you can sympathize!

=> familiar with about half =>

The Waterflame half? :P

Thanks for the review! And man, going through all your missed work must be long and arduous. Thanks so much for going through all the trouble!

[Ikuisen talven maa]

Oooo...instruments make it sound like some sort of shadowy tropical evening. XD I like the progression and atmosphere/mood. It loops really well, and I admire your sense of structuring, even in such a short piece. The only downfall of this piece IMO is that it's so short! Funny how you put "winter" in the tags. Makes me think of just the opposite season for some reason...Anyway, keep it up LSD! ;D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Ugh, relistening to this, the tremolo strings stand out waaay too much; dem0lecule was totally right.

I guess this makes you think of the opposite season, as the strings I used are actually pretty warm. The most indicating intrument that this is winter themed, is that bell-ish thingy that plays every measure, and the fact that the harp is a bit colder (but it should be even more cold!) than it would normally be, along with that other violin that's playing softly in the background, which is much colder than the warm strings.
So I totally get what you mean with this sounding tropical as well!

This is pretty short, yeah. Not the shortest one I've made, but certainly not the longest XD
The strength of this piece, imo, is its progressions that seem to almost constantly move upwards, even though it actually loops at one point.

Oh, are you doing reviews in order? If you're going to review many of the other pieces I've uploaded, that's really cool!

Thanks for this one as well :D

I'll reply to your PM relatively soon, hopefully by the end of this week, but I have a concert, so you know XD