TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[while i live i hope]

I love the melodies and instruments. It gets pretty repetitive after about a minute in, though. At 1:37, that hat didn't really add much more to the piece, even if it did add some energy. The beat is very danceable, but overall it's too atmospheric and mellow to be traditional dance music imo. I'd call it progressive trance or maybe IDM. To be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed with the lack of melodic variation, something you're usually very good at. The emotion is good, but I'm not finding as many ways to stay engaged as in your other tracks, Johnfn. Also, the ending was a little cliché. Although dance music can be very repetitive, it also can have a lot of structural variation and a very complex texture. Maybe the relatively thin texture of tracks like Undersea World is fitting for that genre, but I think dance music should have more substance than this, Johnfn. The melody essentially repeats for the entire length of the track, and after a while it detracts from my enjoyment of the song. No more chill basses in "dance" tracks, either, please! I dare you to use the Ableton equivalent of 3xOsc or Ts404. :D Maybe you could even remake one of your old tracks from, say, 2009 or earlier. Maybe later I'll PM you some examples of modern dance music. I'll make sure you end up on my "Party Mix" playlist eventually, Johnfn! ;D

johnfn responds:

Mmm well some guy told me that dance had repetitive melodies soooooooooo

Eh but really I think that the appreciation of this piece stems from whether you enjoy that one melody or not really. The song was a bit of an experiment in having a single melody last throughout the entire song, which is something I haven't done in a long time because I didn't think any of my melodies were good enough. Songs HAVE been written that are just a single melody the whole time (and they can be amazing), so I know it's possible... just probably outside of my reach right now.

Lol yeah though I really do need to use more interesting basses. I switched up in my latest track because of that. Actually my latest is similar to this song in that it lives off the strength of a single melody, but I thought back to this review and added some variation in there ;-) YAY FOR LEARNING FROM MISTAKES!

[Press A to Jump (WIP)]

Okay, here we go. So, I'm glad you're trying out new plug-ins and all, and trying new things is a great way to improve, but you need to work on your harmonizing skills. The clashing harmonies give the song an overall very harsh and unpleasant sound. My guess is you used a lot of harmonies like major seconds and minor sevenths (your notes were very close together on the piano roll in FL Studio). If you copy and paste notes from one of your patterns into another pattern of an instrument playing at the same time (and maybe move it by an octave or two), you'll find that the notes are very close together. This creates a very rough texture which should only really be used in some classical/jazz pieces. A general rule of thumb for me is that, when your notes are all in the same octave, they should usually be between 3 and 9 piano roll notes apart, including the black keys. Also keep in mind that a chord like C-D#-G#-B may seem like it follows this rule, but B, when transcribed into the same octave as C, is really just 1 note apart, a big no-no in pop music. Instead, C-D#-G#-C is a much more pleasant chord. The notes of these "chords" don't have to be played by the same instruments, btw, but please try to think more about which notes are playing with each other at the same time. Anyway, back to talking about the particulars of your song: despite the dissonant harmonies, I do like the instruments, and the drums would've really added some meaningful flavor to the piece if they were mixed a little better. Otherwise, I'm sorry that this review is so negative, but if you want to improve, I hope it'll help you! ;)

Unfairy responds:

It's quite appreciated frankly.

[snowy night]

I'm thrilled to hear that you continue to push yourself to improve, even though the improvisation you did on "Footsteps Through Freshly Fallen Snow" was amazing. This is clearly an excellent piece. I love the emotion and atmosphere and dynamic contrast, and the melodies are beautiful. It's amazing that you played this live. How long have you been playing the piano? I've been playing the cello for 7 years, and there's no way I could improvise a piece with such complexity and depth and emotion as this. I really feel something when I listen to this music, Johnfn. Amazing. Also, as much as I hate to say this, it's a really easy fix: please make sure the ending doesn't cut off suddenly. This piece deserves and demands all the grace of a proper ending. That is an extremely picky detail, however. This is an incredible piece. I rarely favorite anything immediately, but I'm going to have to make an exception (the last song on NG I favorited immediately, btw: "Ablixa" by Garlagan). Keep up the inspiring work, Johnfn! ;D

johnfn responds:

Thank you! As a matter of fact, "Footsteps" was actually not really an improv piece in the way this one was. When I wrote that piece, my strategy was to fiddle around on the keyboard until I found something I liked, then restart and explore that idea some, then repeat the process a couple of times until I got something interesting.

I've been playing piano for a good deal of my life (but probably not 7 years!). However I started getting a lot better at improv when I started focusing on just improvisation. This last year I've been working at improv practically every day, just fooling around on the piano for like 30 minutes and going wherever I felt like, noodling in a really unstructured way. And this last month I've spent every day writing an actual structured improv piece. All the earlier ones were really bad though so I didn't put them up here :P

I agree with your comment about the ending (I STILL haven't gotten used to how Ableton can't render out the tail like FL Studio can <_>) and I uploaded a fixed version!

P.S. If you like this sort of stuff, go check out BlazingDragon - he does a good deal of it, he's way better than me, and he was actually my inspiration to do improvisational pieces.

[ECHO - Awake]

I love the drama and instruments, especially the percussion. It's very climactic and cinematic, and you communicate the mood very, very well. It flows very smoothly, and I like the structure and transitions. The mixing was excellent. Makes me think of a busy Asian village on a morning in the mountains. The ending cuts off a little suddenly, but it loops pretty well. Overall, excellent work, of course. I'd expect nothing less of one of the NGADM maestros. ;) Keep up the great work, Echo. :D

Echo responds:

Like I told etherealwinds, the ending cut-off was completely unintentional, and should have been fixed with the re-upload. Thanks for mentioning it

I'm happy you liked the track, I'd suggest checking out a couple of the other tracks on the album if you're into this style of music. Thanks for your support!

[All In]

It's very funky and energetic and catchy. Perhaps a little repetitive, and it does progress pretty slowly, but I love the harmonies at :57. Your transitions, like at 1:40, are very interesting and glitch-y, which is cool. I like the structure, and the song in general was pretty climactic. You could stand to add some more dynamic contrast, though. Overall, it's good. Keep at it, Shtriga! ;D

Zodin responds:

I understand :) Thanks for a great response !

[-={Edge of Time}=-]

I like the atmosphere and instruments a lot. I think you overdid the reverb a bit at times, but it does help establish the trance-ish aesthetic. It progresses a little slowly, and doesn't have much dynamic contrast, though. You're good at harmonizing and creating melodies, but I think it needed more ups and downs, y'know? I must say, though, I loved how you transitioned into the more industrial half of the piece. Genius. You might've overused that "distant explosion" sound effect at 2:29, though. I also think you could've done more with drums in the piece. Overall, it's very good, however. I love the mood and instruments, as well as the melodies. A little more structuring might be needed, but other than that it's excellent. Keep at it, DarkMInds! ;D

DarkMInds responds:

Thanks for the review. Genius? :3 I've come a long way in my transitions and overall flow of my music. Though of course structuring is one of my "Average" points. The distant explosion was more to stress the effect of distress. Thinking back, I could have found more instruments to implement, perhaps done a bit more effect work.

[Lex Ellis - Midnight Rave]

I like the melodies and ambience to this track. I'm not sure I like the sample you used for the kick, though, and you could've done more with the drums in general in this track. I also think it lacked substance at times, like around :52-1:56. I liked the instruments, especially that trance-ish lead and the chill bass. I like the melodies, but I think you need to work on harmonizing more and making your tracks sound more full. By the end, it got pretty repetitive, although it does loop pretty well. Overall, it's a good framework for a song, but it needs something more to keep me engaged throughout. Keep it up, AlxEllis! ;D

AlxEllis responds:

Thanks for the review! :)

And it's hard to get a good drum machine so I used the basic one, yes I get what you mean about a bit more variance with the drums and such. I spent a bit of time choosing the instruments to use with this one.

Thanks for the advice man!

-Lex-

[Trouble Makers (Studio)]

Haha, I enjoyed this very much! :D It's very cool and catchy. I love the instruments, especially those vibes at :06 and other places. The solos at :12, :18, and :23 really added a lot to the piece. It's too short, though - it might make a good loop. I've noticed you haven't really been uploading many full-length tracks recently, but that's okay if it's your style. I imagine this on the title screen of a videogame based around mystery/discovery/puzzles, etc. You definitely captured the Pink-Panther mood well. I applaud you for recording it live - it really helps do the genre and time period you based this piece around honor. Excellent work! ;D

deadlyfishes responds:

Thanks for your review! This track actually was for a short film, which is what usually dictates a lot of the work I do in terms of style and as you mentioned; track length. Same with video game music. I don't really write music just for the sake of writing something these days when I have a lot of contract work to do with strict deadlines. If you want, you can check out more of my jazz stuff on my site: http://www.matthewpablo.com/jazz there's also a ton of other stuff as well. Thanks again!

[first flight.]

I love the strings and mood. The crash and the echo effect at the beginning seemed a little irrelevant, but it was certainly very beautiful and climactic. I love the melodies and that chill bass instrument you've used in Substructure, Inside the Machine, and now First Flight! I also liked the ending - it felt very conclusive. That said, I also wish you had brought the piece full circle a bit and ended with the emotional strings once more. But perhaps that's just a personal preference. Your drums samples were cool, too - they added a Southern rock-ish vibe to the electronic second half of the piece, which made for a very unique and interesting sound. Overall, it's an excellent piece. Great job, Johnfn, as always! ;D

johnfn responds:

Thanks for the review! Yeah it's an electric bass and I use it in practically EVERY ONE OF MY SONGS (the only one in the last 10 that I didn't use it was "undersea world") because it fits literally anywhere and is soo versatile. One of these days I'll diversify my bass instruments...

And after reading your point about coming back to the string opening I completely agree. It's an easy thing to do and would make the song sound much more complete. It's something I'll definitely keep in mind in the future.