TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[One Step at a Time (2014)]

I like the instruments and mood a lot. It's climactic and catchy and melodic. I agree the kick could've used a little more bass. The mixing and mastering is good, though. The harmonies are really good, and I like the structure a lot, even if it does progress a little slowly at times. One thing you might want to try experimenting with is a little more rhythmic variation within a melody, as a lot of your melodies have the same rhythm in every measure for 16 or 32 measures. That said, I love the syncopations at 4:30. I thought the ending was a little lack-luster, but overall I especially like this track over many of your other recent re-mastered ones. Also, I thought "still posting here from time to time" in your last news post meant every 3-4 months or something, but so far you've posted more in 2014 than me! :o Nice work, Matt, and keep it up! :D

Dylnmatrix responds:

Heh...hehehe. Yeeeeeah. Well, at the moment, I'm having a hard time starting new originals. I'm trying to break out of old niches, find a new "style", experiment, whatever you want to call it, but due to my big releases from around Christmas time, I'm burnt out. Due to this, I've been remastering old tracks and if the original was uploaded here, why not upload the better version? Plus the player here is 1,000,000x better in playback quality. But once I start getting back in the habit of writing more originals, posts will become less and less until my next funk. I'm getting better for now as I've made some cool things for a remix Equilibria's working on.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyways, due to this being my first track ever made, it's got some issues. I really do think Dancing with Death and No Chance of Survival are the songs that pushed me to where I am now in writing, but I do like to look back at the oldies and reminisce at how simple they were. And cringe at some of the bad stuff as well of course.

But yeah, thanks for the review! There may or may not be more remasters in the future but I dunno! Midterms suck! :D

[regrets]

I wasn't a big fan of all the distorted effects in the first thirty seconds, but the piano and string melodies were beautiful. I continue to admire your fusion of electronic and orchestral music genres. I think during the first 2 minutes it progressed a little slowly, and sometimes it felt like the only mobile aspect of the song was the sweep. It goes without saying that 2:09 was a highlight. The emotion and moods are rather impressive, and I think you stayed loyal to your theme of regrets. I liked the ending with the piano a lot, too. I also appreciated how it got glitchy at some parts (i.e. 2:08). Overall, excellent work. The latter 2.5 minutes are rather danceable, btw! :D Keep it up, Johnfn! ;D

johnfn responds:

See this time I was all like "I'm going to put the troll ending at the beginning instead of the end!"

The real rationale for what was going on there was that the first 30 seconds represent something happening, and the rest represents the feelings of regret. So I had to keep it in for the storytelling potential, you see. ;)

It is dancy but it's so moody that I think I would cry if I danced to this. hahah

Thanks for the review :)

[Vehemer]

h-H-HE'S BACK! :D I love the instruments and the mood, but I think the chords changed a little too fast, especially at the beginning. Maybe you could do a gradual tempo automation or something into :46. It's a bit minimalistic at times too (e.g. 1:56 - 2:43), but I like the structure and transitions, especially the one at 3:53. I like the melodies at 3:09 a lot, btw. I think you needed a more gradual way of leading into 4:15, though. I do like how the first half of the piece was more liquid DnB whereas the second half was very trance-ish. The first half reminds me a lot of "Rain State" by Alloud. Despite the changes in style, you did a good job of keeping it coherent, although I do still think it could've used a lot more substance in places. Overall, nice work! Glad your writer's block is over, Teravex! ;D

TeraVex responds:

Thank you for the review, and plus you hit it right on the nail when you said that I was going for more of a liquid DNB in the first half and Trancy type of thing in the 2nd half!
And thank you for your thoughts! It's great hearing from you!

[A Small Box of Music]

It's very mellow and pensive. I love the instrument you used, and I also liked the accents on the downbeats. It seemed like a strange waltz for the dead, but maybe that's just because everything in 3/4 seems like a waltz to me! :) It had looped at least twice before I realized that it was so short! I definitely think you should do more with this. It has a lot of potential to be an awesome ambient track. Nice work as always! Keep it up, LSD! :D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks dude!

Most of the music composed in 3/4 seems like waltzes to me too XD
Well, it certainly pleases me that you didn't notice the loops immediately at least, and yeah, I know it's very short...

I probably won't do much more with this track. I've got a couple of other very short loops as well, but I've got no intention of uploading them; I'm just trying to figure out different ways to use different instruments, and since I don't really have that much time for a bigger project right now, I'm practicing by making these short loops. I really should practice my percussion, and automation too!!
In April I'll try to make some longer tracks :'D

Even so, you'll definitely hear more from me!

[the world passes you by]

The footsteps at the beginning seemed a little irrelevant to me, and once the piano came in they didn't seem to be sounding on the beat. Did you play that live? The piano part is pretty, but the piece progresses very slowly in general. I liked the synths a lot once they came in, though. It does seem a little minimalistic at times, but the melodies are still very beautiful. I could see this being in background music for a short film or something, but otherwise I think it's hard to keep an audience engaged for 8.5 minutes, and this piece is no exception. However, I love how the piece started going in a different direction at 3:27, and how you got glitchy at 4:11. The breakdown at 5:20 was a much-needed structural relief/dynamic contrast. I liked the melodies after that a lot, particularly around 6:53 and on. The ending, I'll admit, was a little disappointing, but I know it's you're style by now. ;) The least you could do is make it a bit more gradual, because I feel like a piece this long needs some sort of grand conclusion. Anyway, this is all-in-all a very good piece. I've been very critical of you in this review for some reason. As always, I look forward to hearing your future tracks, and I bid you a good day, sir! ;D

johnfn responds:

It's kind of funny how you wanted a more gradual ending but also thought the piece was too long =D I was actually worried to stretch the ending any further, because like you said 8.5 minutes is kind of pushing people's attention spans.

For my part, some of my favorite songs are 20-25 minutes long! Obviously not everyone's cup of tea. Still I feel like longer songs have their place because they can tell a bigger story with more parts than smaller songs. Hence the footsteps! To me this tells a definite story, but of course I want to leave it up to interpretation...

The first piano part, as far as I can tell, is on beat. It might be the rhythm of the footsteps that messed you up :) There is definitely some slightly offbeat piano at 3:20 ish but I kinda liked it because it felt a little emotional. In fact, aside from the first piano, pretty much all piano in this piece was recorded improvisationally. Maybe it's some sort of merger of my piano and electronic styles! :D

Anywho thanks for the review dude!

[Desolate Aftermath]

I didn't know you did rock! I like this a lot, especially when the synth comes in at :48. I love the ominous mood and instruments. I love all the structural changes too. I think it progresses a little slowly at times, though, especially in the beginning. Otherwise, however, I like the transitions and atmosphere and mood. I think it's great that you're expanding your palette of genres, so-to-speak! Sorry I didn't review this earlier, btw. I was on college visits in New York. Anyway, keep up the good work, LunacyEcho! ;D

LunacyEcho responds:

Thanks! I'm not very used to rock, but I gave it a shot.

Structure? Really? It literally went intro-chorus-verse-outro. Like, that's it. I guess simplicity is worth more than it seems. :)

The beginning... I'd actually written the chorus first; the beginning was intended to build up to the chorus. That's why it seems dragged out, I guess. Details seem a lot cooler when you're writing them, but if the audience can't hear them, it's futile! Yay!

I try to keep up a wide range of genres. I think it's a great way to learn about different styles of music while keeping my skills sharp.

Don't feel obliged to review everything, dude! Your life is busy enough as it is, what with college and all!

As always, thanks for the review.

[Jumpy]

It does have a light, bouncy sort of mood! :D Reminds me of a child skipping along a sidewalk on a sunny summer day, but by :53 he realizes that he has no one to play with. He goes through a cycle of revelation, and by the end he has found some other child to share his toys with! <3 Yeah, I'm in a weird mood today...Anyway, I like the melodies a lot. It has just the right amount of variation, and was overall a very enjoyable piece! The structure and transitions worked very well, and I appreciate the dynamic contrast introduced at 1:06. Keep up the good work, LSD! :D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Wow thanks!

One cannot help but love all those visuals you're planting in our minds! I really enjoy the pictures you paint, as they also give me insight in what people can think of, when they hear my stuff :D I'm also happy to see that you managed find a story for this song, especially since I couldn't really imagine anything myself, while making this, if I recall correctly :p

Im actually quite pleased with the melodies myself too, even if they might be a bit random :) And imo as well, this composition is definitely full of variation; it doesn't really want to stay in the same place for too long XD

The transitions are pretty odd I'd say, but I guess that doesn't necessarily make them bad. This is not a song that's meant to be bland or something very ordinary. Thus, it's good that you like the transitions!

This might be an old song, but I'll do my best to keep up my good work! (Don't you just love how the abbreviation of my name is the same as that of a drug :D Maybe it's because people get high on music ;D).

Anyway, thanks again!

[still breathing]

I love the emotion and the simplicity. I can really tell you improvised this - it really makes it feel more authentically classical. I love the structural elements, especially the breakdown at 1:30. However, I wish the structure came full-circle a bit more, and you brought back some of the themes of the first half of the piece in a sort of finale. I find A-B-A forms of music effective, and I know you've done that in the past as well! Overall, though, excellent and beautiful work! I'm always looking for more songs for my Classical Playlist, but sometimes they just come to me on their own through my notifications feed! :D Keep up the great work, Johnfn! ;)

johnfn responds:

I think you really hit the nail on the head. Remembering the themes that I used earlier in an improv is actually one of the hardest things for me (though I struggle with a bunch of other stuff like rhythm and just being able to play the piano without making mistakes). I really have to be conscious about it or I just forget.

In fact, bringing back the original theme at 1:00 was pretty good for me because I usually just flat out forget it. (I wonder how I remembered for Snowy Night? lol)