TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ambient Hell (Chill step)]

I love the atmosphere at the beginning and the instruments. It has a great sense of climax throughout the first minute or so, and you really keep up the ominous and apprehensive mood throughout. I loved the vocals and the drop at 1:18. They fit together really well. It's a little minimalistic at times, but still an amusing piece. I think the clap was a little loud. I would suggest lowering the volume and letting the reverb keep it up-front in the mix. I liked the variations at 2:53 as well. One thing I think you could work on in this piece is adding some dynamic contrast. A breakdown with some pads and some sort of filler synth arpeggios would go well with the content you have here, even though it's already a fairly long piece. I like how you put in a less punchy clap later on in the piece. That really aids the transition to the outro, which I also thought was pretty well thought out. Overall, I like this piece a lot more than the last one I reviewed. I think one of the things that really sells this piece is the breathy synth at 1:48 (and other places). It might be considered to be a small detail by some, but it really adds a lot of atmosphere and enhances the mood of this piece really well. Keep up the great work, RandomDanceOfHappy! ;D

RandomDanceOfHappy responds:

theres lots of little details that i put in songs that people never notice but i do and it makes them that much better :p
thanks for the awesome review n.n

[Gone (For Now)]

Cool! I like the gruff bass at the beginning. The drums were pretty good, although I think you went a little overboard on the crashes. XD Also, the kick starts playing some bizarre rhythms around :45 that make this piece a little confusing to listen to sometimes. I liked the progression and the creepy vibe, though. That melody at 1:43 is just haunting! :O The percussion after around 2:00 was creative, albeit a bit loud and very up-front in the mix. It's repetitive, yet you manage to keep my attention pretty well. There are a lot of subtle changes, which I like about this piece. Nice use of reverb and effects, and I liked that synth at 3:05. I think you captured the old-school hip-hop vibe pretty well (based on my extremely limited knowledge of hip-hop), but I'm not sure this would classify "modern hip-hop." I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but it might even be good for a videogame...I really don't think that's what you were going for though. Also, the ending was done a bit lazily. It could've at least looped. I've been tough on you in this review, though. It's a really interesting, catchy, and unique piece. Keep at it, LunacyEcho. ;D

LunacyEcho responds:

=> gruff bass =>

Wow, that's a pretty cool term!

=> crashes =>

:D

In the original file, they had heavy reverb. Then, I realized the whole piece would benefit from higher reverb, so now the crashes have double reverb. Whoops.

=> bizarre rhythms =>

Yeah, it's not my normal style of music, but I was really trying to emulate the song linked in the description.

=> synth at 3:05 =>

Thanks! I think it's actually one of my better custom synths.

=> limited knowledge of hip-hop =>

I assure you, my knowledge is probably as limited, if not more. For genres like these (ones I'm not familiar with), I either base it off of a song in that genre or do a cover of a song in that genre. It's not the best solution, but it's probably all I can do. :/

=> ENDING =>

Yeah, I really should've done a better ending. But, my friend wanted a song that was 3:20, and the original song ended in a similar fashion, so... Yup.

Thanks for the review in your busy schedule! :)

[Duality]

Okay, I love the melodies and the energy of this piece. It has a great full sound to it, and your mixing and mastering is top notch. It did get a little repetitive by the end - I didn't think it needed to be quite this long - but overall amazing work! I've heard your stuff before, and I'm glad to see that you've kept up this quality of work since then. Hope I'll be hearing more soon! ^^

Geoplex responds:

Thanks! I went with repetitive because I wanted a more consistent feel with this one, and I was also following what I saw as something of a standard when it comes to the overall structure of the genre (as this song was based off a number of tritonal's songs.)

[Gray Future]

I love the chords at the beginning. The instruments are really cool, and the percussion adds a lot. That mid-range bass that really comes out around :30 adds a ton to the establishment of this piece's funky mood. It progresses a little slowly, but the atmosphere is really cool. It's smooth-flowing and well-structured, but is also pretty repetitive. I would've gone for a little more melodic development, although admittedly I like the dynamic contrast that 1:57 creates. I also enjoyed the electric piano that comes in at 2:14. Sounds like late-night music in a spacey club or something. I can just picture the disco ball trying to reflect light through a huge cloud of cigarette smoke. 0_O Another complaint I have is the ending: seemed a bit lazily done to me. Still, this is really cool work, man. Keep it up! ;D

Alph4TG responds:

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!

[Unbroken]

Haha, I love the instruments, especially that grouchy, pulsing bass. It's ominous yet funky. I thought it might've gotten a little distorted at some points, but maybe that's just because of all the stops and starts going on. Couldn't hurt to check the EQ anyway, though - mixing and mastering with all those low frequencies has got to be tough. ;( It loops well, though, and is probably good for some sort of puzzle/arcade game or something. Thanks for taking me back to the days when breakbeat was trendy. ;P Keep up the good work, bro!

ADR3-N responds:

Actually, the bass was distorted a little bit for a little extra crunch. Your ears aren't lying, haha. I did have some trouble with the EQ though. Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you liked!

[:RoXas -Onto the oasis]

I like the climactic nature of it at the beginning, and the instruments worked well together. It does progress a little slowly, but I thought the drop at 1:05 was really cool. The kick is a little too loud IMO (even for dubstep), but I liked how you were going for something a little less heavy-hitting. Throughout that whole mid-section from around 1:30-2:30, I felt like it was a bit bare. You may have needed another harmony part or something, just to keep it engaging. Also, I thought it was a bit bizarre that you used the kick so abundantly at 3:15 (as well as other places) in order to transition into the drop. The snare is usually used to make smooth transition more so than the kick. It does get a little repetitive, but I still thought it was pretty cool overall. Nice instruments and mood. Maybe a little more melodic development and dynamic contrast would have added something. Anyway, keep at it, man! ;)

RandomDanceOfHappy responds:

ive been working on this alot trying to make the violin have a harmony with a different melody but i couldent get the flow how i wanted x/x
kick is strong but so is the sub bass was watching the sub bass lvs more then the punch part of the snare and yea i agree to much punch c.c
can agree with it being bare but lazy ness was kicking in
standerd risers in old dance use both a soft kick and snare to work up i just was lazy and only did a short kick ill look in to fixing it to sound more proper :3
thanks for the awesome review n.n in all honistly im really burnt out of makeing this song so i decided to put it on ng before its really finished cos im going to work on other projects till i can come back to this n.n
once agen thanks for the review
:Roxas

[The Empire Falls]

I like the climax at the beginning. The distorted sound really adds to the mood I think you were trying to create - it's very dark and ominous. It is very electronic, but I can still see why you called it "cinematic." I really like how the drums stop-and-start around 1:20. It's well-structured and smooth-flowing, and I love the instruments and moods here. Nice job with the filters and mixing too. This is a really cool piece, bro. I have a few small complaints though: the ending was a little anticlimactic and sudden, for starters. If you wanted to make it sound more cinematic, you should really aim for some more dynamic contrast, probably at least with some melodic content towards the end. I could picture perfectly some dark strings added in there...maybe some sort of punchy lead to add to the drama, too. Also, after a certain point it started sounding a bit dry without the drums, and I think that's one of the reasons the ending didn't appeal to me so much. A simple crash can go a long way. Still, interesting work here. Keep it up, man! ^_^

Ikerion responds:

First helpful reivew i have seen in a while! like thanks!! :D

[Climbing Blade]

I like the instruments and mood. I think you need to work on your mixing a bit, though. The drums could sound clearer, and they will if you EQ the instruments more. Especially make sure you get rid of the low tones on all of the instruments except the bass and kick - it can get really muddy and distorted down there. This track is pretty repetitive, but my main problem with it is that there are almost no transitions. You might even be able to get away with just sticking a simple crash in there occasionally, but some more work with the drums or (if you'd prefer) sweeps and risers would be much appreciated. I do like a lot of the riffs and stuff in this piece, though. It has a lot of potential. Hope this review was helpful and keep at it, man. ;)

Draith-Vicious responds:

Thanks for your feedback. I listened to everything again on my Logitec 5.1 Surround system and my Razer Kraken pro headset and I can't really notice any of this muddy sound that you're talking about. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up all of the instruments and sounds and everything sounded pretty clear to me. I didn't do any transitions because I wanted to keep it close to the original just with more modern sounding instruments. Maybe I'm just not hearing these things but if you would like to take this track and clean it up a bit or fix up the drums like you're talking about I would love to hear it but as it stands I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.