TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Asylum]

I love the mood at the beginning. It's creepy and even apprehensive, yet also has a strange brightness and beauty to it. I loved it when the strings came in and made everything more cinematic. The structure was very well-done, and while it was very well-varied, it wasn't the most coherent piece I've heard for this competition. I love the sense of direction and climax you have going on throughout the piece though. Epic is an overused term, but I have few other words to describe the piece as a whole. You did an excellent job with the mixing and balance, and I absolutely love the woodwind solo around 2:45 onward. It's simply breathtakingly beautiful. Makes me think of the huge, sweeping images of the Great Plains they have on those big-budget documentaries about nature. Just beautiful instruments, moods, etc. The ending could've been more conclusive imo. I think you should've tried to add a more energetic section toward the end as a way of wrapping it up, but perhaps that's only a personal preference. NOW I know why you've been an NGADM judge for these past couple of years. You clearly know what you're doing - more than that, in fact! ^^ Well, I think it's safe to say that you stand a very good chance in this competition. Bravo, sir Bassfiddlejones, bravo!

9.75/10

bassfiddlejones responds:

Thank you so much for the kind words and taking the time to leave such a thorough review. I hope to do well and will give it my all!

[Medoly]

The mood and instruments at the beginning were cool. You definitely left a lot of room for climax there! ;) :45 was the peak of the climax, as you can imagine. That bass at around 1:10 and on sounds very gritty and distorted. Maybe that's what you were going for, but I thought it couldn't hurt to clean it up a little bit. The part at 1:52 was quite jarring, disorienting, and just had too much going on. The silence at 2:18 didn't really serve as an effective transition. The bass is too loud at 2:45, even if it's pretty much the only thing going on. I want you to think more about balance. You can get an angry mood across without turning up the volume levels all the time. The piece was well-varied (maybe even too much so, as I would've found some more coherence re-orienting). I liked the melody at 4:43 but, again, the bass was way too loud. It was a long-winded piece overall. I liked the ending, and I do like the lead and drums, but the bass could've used some compressing and EQ'ing. The bass shouldn't really carry as much as it did - I would try getting rid of some of those higher-pitched tones there. I like a lot of the riffs, though, as well as the overall structure, but I think some more effective transitions would've greatly helped that structure. I've been tough on you in this review - it's really not that bad. While it is long, it's good to experiment with a lot of different ideas, which I see you doing in this piece. Keep at it, man! ;)

6/10

Voltus responds:

Thanks for the in depth Review. This was intended to be a fairly standard edm tune at least soundwise. So naturally I would use highly distorted bass sounds with a lot of high frequencys. Also this is Drum and Bass so I put a lot of effort in making the bass sounds stand out and carry the overall tune as it is kind of their purpose in this genre in my opinion ;) No harm done in giving it a "bad/tough" score. I see your points but I can justify for myself why I did certain things and I just think we would disagree on principle there.

Thanks again for the review and good luck for the underdogs contest! ;)

[Sundans - Total Hedonsim]

I love the synths and swells/sweeps and atmosphere. It's very punchy and energetic, catchy and intense. I think you have some balance issues. The melody at around 2:00 was a little too loud, and I think you need to do a lot with the mixer as far as compressing/limiting some stuff. It's pretty harsh-sounding and penetrating at times. Maybe that's what you were going for, but I think you can still clean it up a lot. That said, all the effects and breaks were very well done. Complextro is a hard genre to make and master, and you're 80% of the way there. The vocals at around 2:30 added a lot to the piece, btw, and I love the ominous mood throughout. Good job overall! I personally think this is a stand-out piece among dance tracks I've reviewed for this competition. ;) Keep it up, man! ^^

8.5/10

Sundans responds:

Absolutely! Thank you for the review. :) I definitely think that mixing and mastering needs a lot of improvement -- though this track is one of my older ones. I was still grasping the concept of compression and limiting at the time -- and am still learning about that now. However, I think I've come a long way in my more recent tracks, especially in terms of clarity and mixing levels. But thank you for the critiques! It means a lot :)

-Mike

[Suffering Caffeine Nightmare]

I love the ominous mood, and the reverb/delay effects really help to support that mood. The harmonies were good, and the instruments also enjoyably contributed to the mood. It is a little repetitive, but I can vividly imagine this as background music to a montage of a person slowly getting addicted to caffeine. I love music that puts vivid imagery into my head! That one synth melody that comes in at :13 also reminds me of a creepy carnival! XD The distorted drums and contrastingly light piano really add to the mood. You have an excellent sense of harmony and progression. It also loops quite well. You may be in the Underdog group, but there are clearly some advanced compositional qualities here. The fact that you disclose the key in the description already tells me that you know a lot about music, and the reverb, delay, and solid mixing quality tells me that you know your way around your DAW as well. Excellent work. Also, you have just enough structural relief in here (i.e., 1:44) to give this a very pleasing progression and flow, too. Keep up the great work, Stapless! I have a feeling we're going to be hearing some more pieces from you for this competition. ;D

9.25/10

Stapless responds:

Thank you for your review it helps a lot :)

[Time Transcendence]

I like the guitar at the beginning and how it was accompanied by the ambient pads. The balance there was very well done: the pads were just quiet enough to be hauntingly effective! I can imagine a travelling minstrel staying at an inn deep in the wild west (or maybe Scotland, lol). It progressed a little slowly until 2:00, though, at which there was a notable change of pace. It's simplicity and beauty compliment each other wonderfully. This would be perfect for a video game, and I know exactly what this game would be about! I love pieces that can do that! The mood and instruments are fantastic and work very well together. It's well-structured and smooth-flowing, and I was quite pleased with the amount of variation and melodic development as well. Great work, Sovarozum! You have an excellent chance in this competition IMO. Keep it up! ^^

9.5/10

Sovarozum responds:

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. I appreciate the feedback and I'm really happy that you made a story for what you interpreted. That's why I love doing this. Thank you again :D

[MrO- Hurricane(Remastered)]

I like the synths and mood you established at the beginning. The groove at :31 was cool, and you definitely left a lot of room for climax. It flowed nicely, but I think you overused some of the transitions. Also, it's pretty minimalistic and repetitive. You need to harmonize more and vary your riffs more. Repeating the same riffs with different instruments does not count as variation. The beats and transitions are cool, but it needs some degree of verse-chorus sort of play-off. It also ends pretty suddenly. It has great potential with the mood and instruments and all, but you need to keep me entertained a little more. Start thinking about dynamic contrast and complex structural elements like breakdowns, bridges, etc. The mixing isn't bad, though. Also, I understand that you may not have intended for it to be very melodic, but, even so, it's more than worth it to harmonize a little more and add contrast with rhythms, dynamics, etc. Overall, it's a bit lack-luster, but with great potential. Keep up the good work, Mrobeymenow. ;)

6/10

Mrobeymenow responds:

Thanks for the help! I appreciate it. I'll definitely be using your advice with my next song. Thanks a ton!

[Skies of Corneria]

Interesting mood and structure, but those percussion samples weren't very good quality in my opinion. The hits needed some reverb and other effects to make them more effective at channeling the energy, and they were overused a lot, along with that crash sample around 1:40. I didn't like the instruments so much. A good friend of mine once told me that the quality of instruments is one of the most important things in a remix. I'm inclined to disagree, but there wasn't much else going on in this piece that was able to keep my attention, unfortunately. The transition at 1:25 (and some others) was very sudden, although I appreciate the attempt at creating more contrast. Still, I think you needed a crash there to make it more smooth-flowing (you could always move a few (or a LOT) from that one bit at 1:35 that uses them so much that it completely distorts all of the other instruments). Sorry if this seems like a bitterly negative review, but I can't exactly give you points for originality either. Please work on the transitions, mixing, and getting better quality instruments, to start. You never need limiters or compressors on the master channel, which I think may be part of your problem. You could also use some reverb to smooth out the transitions a bit. PM me if you have questions about the previous two sentences. At the very least, I'll compliment you on the harmonizing and melodies, assuming some of that was your original content. I also thought many of the percussion's rhythms were cool, but they often needed to be put in a different context or with different instruments in order to be effective. Sorry to be so negative, again, but you have potential and plenty of time. I'd like to hear some more of your original content, as it's often hard to judge someone based on a remix. If there's another piece of yours you want me to review, shoot me a PM. As for now, a strongly suggest you try to improve this piece if you can. You can only get better, and just how good you get is directly related to how good you want to get! Don't give up, MissVirus. Keep on making music, and you'll be much improved within no time! Also, you're a lot better than I was when I was 15 - believe me. ;)

4/10

TheNGVirus responds:

thank you so much! i get what you're saying about some parts, but i'm not really getting some other parts. i'll PM you about it. also i'll PM you for other songs that need reviews

[Inner Dialog]

I like the ominous mood and distorted drums. It could've progressed faster imo, and it was a bit minimalistic, but nonetheless you kept my attention until it started to pick up around 1:30. It has a very apprehensive mood to it which I like. The structure is interesting. The combination of the mechanical-sounding drums and the very emotional piano and pads actually works hauntingly well. I love the sense of climax throughout the piece, but for the sake of keep the listener's attention, I think you could've done a lot more to heighten the contrast. I think it needs a huge, riveting solo during the last minute or so that just hits it home, y'know? Otherwise, it kind of is just a repetitive ambient track that would be good for the background of a videogame...which, now that I think about it, isn't bad at all! Still, this piece showed a lot of potential with the beautiful instruments and ominous theme, yet it didn't really capitalize on that to its fullest extent. Also, the ending was a little sudden. Some more structuring and dynamic contrast would've helped this piece a LOT. Still, this is solid work. Keep at it, Lexahergon! ;D

7.5/10

LexRodent responds:

Great feedback and useful suggestions man.
This song was made originally as an experiment to add music to a movie scene. That explains some things about this piece's "nature" , I'll try to implement some of this ideas to improve.

[Home of dwarves (NGMTr3)]

The combination of the pads, organ, and drums were really cool. It is a bit simplistic, but the progression is interesting. I like how you make it very climactic using both the drums and the atmospheric instruments. The melodic development is admirable, and you have a good sense of harmonies and structuring. The ending bothers me though. It's not very creative - I'd even go so far as to call it lazy - and it doesn't do the piece justice. I know it's hard to have a conclusive ending to an atmospheric piece, but maybe you could make it loop. Maybe you could play around with the filters so as to tone it down (as in a fade-out), and then end with a big, decisive snare instead (that's also hard to pull off in an atmospheric piece, though, as it's a bit sudden). Overall, though, I like it. Simple, yet satisfying. Keep up the good work, Jernemies. ;D

8/10

Jernemies responds:

Hey, thank you :)
Yes, that ending is likely the laziest by me -just having a simple drum track used earlier in play made a surprising deal of difference! Thank you for the suggestion, but I don't think I'm going to pull it off. Not my style, and also just as jarringly off-theme (though certainly not as lazy!)

[The Night Song]

It's pretty! I feel like you were going for a calm and soothing mood at the beginning, and I don't think the instrument you used helped you that much there. Sorry to nitpick, but it's a little high-pitched and even harsh-sounding at times. That said, the melodic and harmonic content in this piece is excellent. I love the way the parts compliment each other. You've managed to make a coherent piece with few instruments/dynamic contrast, etc. but yet is constantly varied and very entertaining. It takes on a much more energetic vibe later on, but I think you should try to do more with that contrast by making the beginning very soft, delicate, and light. You should play around more with the filters/attack there. The one thing that REALLY bothered me about this piece, though, was the ending. It's simply too sudden and not very conclusive, which is ironic because you kind of dragged out the break-down before the ending a LOT. The coda, in my view, starts at 2:28. Then, there's 30+ seconds of repetition to an otherwise rather fast-paced piece. Doesn't seem fitting if you ask me. I would keep the last part short and sweet, maybe 8 measures tops, and finish it off with a last, triumphant chord that covers all of the parts. I've been tough on you, though. This is good! A lot of these complaints are tiny details, because, if you ask me, the details really stand out in a piece that's so...bare. However, it's bareness also makes it very beautiful. Good job! Keep it up, Bardash! ;D

8.5/10

Bardash responds:

Thank you for taking the time to review my composition. I appreciate your thoughts and comments.