TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Loss]

I love the emotion and instruments. It definitely encapsulates sadness/grief very well. It also feels very cinematic and climactic. It's pretty minimalistic throughout, but in its simplicity is also its beauty. That string sample is rather good as well. I like the variations in style you start using at 2:09 by introducing more staccato elements. These variations really highlight the contrasting high-point in emotion at around 2:45. Despite its incessant beauty, however, I feel like it was a bit long-winded for a stand-alone piece (without the accompanying movie, that is). The transition with the crash at 4:17 was nice, although the slight delay you had on the second crash threw me off a bit...it didn't seem completely natural that way IMO. I also would've perhaps liked to see you do something a bit riskier and grander (add some horn solo or something, perhaps), but as it is it's beautiful nevertheless. In the future, it'd be good to vary the chord progression a little more, although I might make an exception for this piece which utilizes its simplicity so well. Good job!

8.5/10

Bardash responds:

Thank you for your review!

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. The string sample I am using is Rich StringsSoft from Nexus2-Hollywood Expansion 2. It is by far in my opinion so pleasant to listen to after having been subject to violins that sounded like saxaphones when listening to midi instruments play my compositions throughout most of my life. For one of my next possible challenges, I will see if I can seamlessly tie together two completely different themes.

Anyway, thank you again for the review!

[Cloudburst]

I love the dreamy synths at the beginning, and you incorporated the vocals rather well. I think it gets a little repetitive by about the 1.5-minute mark, even if you do start to incorporate new themes. It's pretty minimalistic, and, while there are a lot of transitory moments, the piece is overly long-winded and lacks direction at times IMO. One of the things that REALLY bothered me about this piece was the mixing, though. I think you really took a risk with the harmonies, which is good (I'll come back to that later), but I also think a lot of them buried each other, especially around 3:00. When the drums get noticeably quieter, it probably means you have to think more carefully about what tones to bring out in each instrument in the EQ and what is interfering with what. That said, it's structurally a sound piece. I love the breakdown at around 3:45 and how you use it to transition into that melody at 4:30. It was all very gradually done, though, and, like I said before, I didn't think this piece needed to be 6+ minutes long. At 4:33, the bass sort of comes out of nowhere. I think it's way too loud in the mix. If you really wanted to keep it that loud, at least gradually turn up the volume on it to give it a less disorienting feel. I think the melodic and harmonic content overall is good, although I think some of the harmonic content around 3:00 is a bit too complex to work all that well. I'm also not sure I like some of your instrument choices. For example, the strings at around 3:15. You can really tell that they're fake - they especially sound fake when they hit those higher notes. The sample simply isn't of the best quality. Also, I thought the part at 4:53 was completely irrelevant to the rest of the piece. It didn't really fit in all that well with the atmospheric and spacey vibe established by the rest of the piece. I think you should probably just cut it out entirely and skip to the part at 5:01. After all, you'll have to cut something out because 6 minutes is just too long for a piece like this, my friend! The ending of this piece wasn't that bad, though. I think this has a lot of potential; I've just been very tough on you because I regard you as a friend. You have a lot of good ideas here, but please clean up the mixing/balance and make some more careful decisions about the progression. Overall, pretty good! Keep at it, Adieuwinter! ;D

6/10

adieuwinter responds:

Thanks for the review!

I certainly agree with your concerns about this track's length, I'll remedy that in accordance with your other suggestions. I often do excessively put melodies over each other, and in the future I'll make an attempt to avoid that. The part at 4:53 was my attempt of an interesting transition, but next time I'll write something more appropriate for the style of the rest of the song.

Thanks for all the comments! I'll make some modifications and perhaps reupload it.

[NGAUC Submission]

I like the instruments and mood, although the intro was a little short and disorienting. You should've fleshed out the ideas you had with the choir a lot more. 5 seconds is not a sufficient amount of time to introduce the major themes of a track, however short. I'd suggest slowing the pace way down in the choir, and then that'll create some valuable contrast when the strings come in. I did enjoy the cinematic mood and intensity of the strings, but structurally this is not a complete piece at all. Treating :06 as the intro, you have a moment of climax (into :28), then perhaps what can be likened to a bridge, and a post-chorus/verse at :48. The percussion at the very end does a pitiful job of tying up and concluding this piece. I just need MORE, SilverPoyozo. I'm sorry. I can tell you have talent. The moods and instruments are beautifully done, and harmonically it's well done as well, but I simply can't get past the rather rushed and disorienting vibe I'm getting from this. It's too fast-paced - I can sense how rushed you were in creating this based on the mood of the piece (which, strangely, may even be a good thing that the piece can communicate that to me). Anyhow, I'm afraid this won't earn a very high score. I KNOW that this is not your maximum potential, though, so I'd encourage you to continue working on this. Best of luck at the NGADM. ;)

6/10

SilverPoyozo responds:

It was expected, it was very hastily put together and I was already spent from another recent composition. I can't defend this track much, but it was my intention to make it a loopable boss-like theme for game soundtrack, so the short introduction was supposed to do basically that, scare the listener and fill him with adrenaline just before the fast strings consolidated the feeling of intensity and rush.
Other than that, I absolutely agree, thank you for the detailed review.

[Elf's Epitaph]

I like the mood and instruments. I think the plucked stringed instrument gets buried under the legato, bowed ones after a while, though. Couldn't hurt to really make sure you can isolate the tones as much as possible in the EQ. I like the sense of climax it has into 1:13, though, and I did enjoy the percussion and how you used it to transition between the various parts of the song. It has a decent amount of dynamic contrast, and, as always, I admire your sense of harmony and direction in structuring the piece. The ending seems fitting, although it does cut off a little suddenly. You do a good job with melodic development, and the chord progression was also rather pleasing. It couldn't have hurt to add some crashes or something when the strings come in at :12 and some other places, though. Otherwise, I think most of the transitions and structural elements were very effective. This is a short, but engaging piece. I like the somewhat Celtic vibe of the first 30 seconds or so, and I applaud your efforts to push yourself and experiment with different genres. Also, good job with moving away from the 4/4 time signature into 3/4, something I should really do more of myself. ;) Great work, Larrynachos! I think the risks you took with this one were worth it! ^^

8.5/10

larrynachos responds:

I accept both your compliments and your criticism! I tried to keep the harp high up in the mix, but it just wasn't agreeing with me. I wasn't quite sure what to put for the ending, but I thought the triangle would be satisfactory. As to the strings at :12, crashes didn't fit. I wanted to keep a calm progression until the epic climax. As to it being short: I wanted to keep it simple. If I were to extend it, I would have just looped the climax and it would have been monotonous.

I'm glad the risk payed off! I really stepped out of my comfort zone of 4/4, but I really wanted to do a waltz. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece! I'm flattered to receive such a generous score, as you pointed out a lot of flaws that could have cost me the contest ^^;

[Death of a Hero]

Okay, I love the contemplative mood in the piano and later in the strings. You transition into :35 beautifully, and it has the vibe of passing time, like a montage in a movie. The combination of moods is very well done: I picked up on apprehensive, wonder, innocence, and even pensive in there! I love how you transition back into the flow-y piano music at 2:18, and I must admit that your mixing and mastering is near-flawless. One thing that bothered me about it a bit was that is was VERY fast-paced at times, and I think you could stand to flesh some of these ideas out a bit more. For example, I love the moment of haunting beauty from 1:38 - 1:59 amidst all the drama, but it was very short-lived. I would've loved to hear a full 45-second breakdown made out of it. While we're on the subject of drama, I think the fast-paced nature of the piece might even take away from the dramatic effect a little. Why not capitalize on your beautifully established apprehensive mood going into 2:16 and have an eruption in drama! Melodramatic is always good in music, IMO. I think you have a good deal of dynamic contrast in here, but I suppose it couldn't have hurt to have a little bit more of a "relief" dynamically between :35 and 2:18. This is a fantastic piece, don't get me wrong, but all things considered, it's rather short. You're doing some great things here, Bassfiddlejones. I'd encourage you to really go for it in the final round (because, tbh, I think you just landed yourself a spot in the final round), because this piece's perks could be even grander! Amazing work, though. I'm very much looking forward to hearing more of your work. ;D

9.25/10

bassfiddlejones responds:

Thank you again for such a detailed review! Sadly, time constraints kept me from elongating the track, but you're right - I originally had planned on lengthening the dramatic parts that you've mentioned. I actually think I'm going to revisit this piece in the future and will likely use some of the critiques you've brought up here!

So glad you enjoyed the piece. I'm planning on going all out in the next round, using a few live instruments in my arsenal!

[You Ran Outta Time]

I like the climactic nature of it and the synths. It progresses a little slowly throughout, however, and I would've liked to see some more melodic and/or structural development. It kind of just oscillates between that higher-pitched martele-sounding synth and the bass-y, staccato synth. You covered dynamic contrast a bit (at 1:50), but overall, the major problem I have with this piece is that it's lacking a lot of necessary variation. I see no problems with the mixing, mastering, and balance, but overall, this was rather lack-luster. The ending was sudden and didn't really add anything to the piece at all, and it was very minimalistic and dry throughout. This doesn't live up to the expectation set by your tryout piece at all, AnalogByNature. The level of creativity is just simply much, much lower. I understand that you were missing a band member until a few hours before the deadline, but I'm afraid I can't take that into consideration when giving you my score. You only have the skeleton of a piece here: the basic structure, bass riffs and beat. It's SERIOUSLY lacking all the pop and p-zazz I expected in this stage of the competition, though, I'm afraid. Hopefully next time you'll have more time to pull out a more stand-out piece. As for now, this is a 6/10 in my book. Don't get me wrong: it's not bad...it's just it's also not very memorable. Sorry.

6/10

AnalogByNature responds:

Hey, no problem!

[i believe]

I like the quirky and sometimes gritty-sounding synths. It's an interesting mixture of beautiful and angry, perhaps encapsulating your emotions? It does progress a little slowly for the first couple of minutes, but it doesn't lack direction, which is good. I loved the melody around 2:30, and you did a great job of harmonizing there. I like the drums too - I think they add something to the piece. The sense of climax into around 3:00 is great! :D I have no complaints about the mixing or anything, and I love how you got glitchy at 4:11. You really effectively changed the pace around 4:30, and I loved how you brought the "tainted beauty" back in the end. The last few notes were very interesting (to say the least), but still effectively concluded the piece in my opinion. Great work, Johnfn! :D You could potentially go very far in this competition (but everyone already knows that). ;D Best of luck, my friend! ^^

johnfn responds:

Thank you for the review! Yeah, a lot of people got on me for dat slow buildup, hmm :| oh well! thanks! glad you liked it.

[Dark Colors]

I love the creepy mood and the melodies. It loops well. The mixing is not up-to-par, though, LSD. That (harp?) really got buried under the pads and melody instruments. You need to EQ everything more and really dedicate those low-pitched tones to the strings alone. Also, I think the melody instrument was a little harsh-sounding at times...not sure if that's what you were going for or not, though........Overall, pretty good job! These pieces are getting shorter and shorter, though. :'(

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

The mixing is not up to par indeed. As I mentioned in the description, I didn't really put any time into this project at all; I simply felt like making something small after such a long break D:
When you say harp, might you be speaking of the guitar with effects that is going on in the background? It gets a bit buried at least, although it's not meant to be the centre of the song. You're right in that I should EQ things more (I barely did at all)!
I feel like the melody is too harsh in the first few seconds, which I noticed. It was getting so late that I didn't care to fix it though (laziness ftw!) XD

If you want a long piece, don't worry. I don't know when I'll upload them, but I have 2-3 (10 minutes +) improvisations that I intend to upload during my time in the army.

Once again, thanks for all the reviews :')