TaintedLogic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Welcome To The Matrix]

I like the ominous mood at the beginning. Some of the synths sound a bit murky, like the low-mid pad at :05. I can’t tell if that’s just the sample quality or the mix is making it sound watery. There’s a good sense of atmosphere here overall, the drums are a bit dry and could probably use a little more reverb. The progression is pretty bizarre after a while, and the texture remains quite minimal for most of the piece. There are more cheesy synths at 1:01, and the snare at 1:12 sounds way too over-saturated in the mix. The progression here is pretty haphazard, and doesn’t feel like it has a very strong sense of direction. A lot of the individual riffs are catchy and neat, but I’m not getting a strong sense of storytelling or climax and resolve from this piece. It needs a little more harmonic depth, gradual structuring techniques, and tighter mixing. Next time, I think you should try considering the way your piece is arranged - both structurally and harmonically - before you start composing the notes. Try to create richer textures by thinking about several chords that sound good together in a progression, and then constructing riffs and patterns that connect the harmonies in those chords over time. Still, this piece certainly has its merits. I like the mood and atmosphere, as I mentioned before, and on their own, the synth patterns you have here sound good. Keep at it, Kyuki! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.25/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.75/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
4/10

Kyuki responds:

Thank you for giving some detail on the scoring of the piece. This was actually my first piece (song) ever originally created. Thank you for your input!

[Yokai [Sunward Isles]]

I like the dramatic strings at the beginning and the foreboding church bells. The percussion here is great, and the mix is loud and clear. I love all the subtle swells of strings and the variety in the instrumentation. The eastern-sounding instruments during the second half are great, and the melodic content helps heighten the tension of the piece. There are only a few small things I dare complain about here: first, there’s never really either a resolve to the apprehensive mood of the piece, nor is there a great climax of tension towards the end. I think you could’ve really hit this piece home with a final, soaring melodic phrase or influx of intensity that wraps up the storyline of the piece. The ending also cuts off a bit suddenly, although that’s a tiny detail in the grand scheme of things. Lastly, the mix is a bit wide for my tastes, but perhaps that’s just the price one pays for such a sharp and clear production quality. The composition of the piece is also fantastic. There are a lot of good cinematic composers on Newgrounds, but I think you have the Underdogs group won in that genre. Keep up the great work, KrianMusic! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9.5/10

KrianMusic responds:

Thanks a ton! We've known eachother for some time but i deleted my old account, also sorry i COMPLETELY forgot about the entire competition happening.

Mainly it goes nowhere/final climax, because it's intended for in-game looping and heard repeatedly for like god knows how long

[Ricochet]

I like the sassy strings at the beginning. The mix is a bit too loud, though. It might help to lower some of the volume levels here. The murky bass at :16 is a nice addition to the texture, although the mix feels a bit bottom-heavy because of it. I’d recommend adding some high-pass filters or more careful equalization to make the texture sound cleaner and less distorted. The melodic content at :54 is great, though, and you clearly have a great sense of harmony and progression. Sometimes, it felt like the piece needed some sort of percussion to keep it moving along, or at least some reverb or something to make the string melodies sound a tad less dry. Overall, my main problem with the piece is definitely the production quality. Do you hear how muddy the texture sounds at busy places like :32? I think that’s largely because you have several instruments in here that are fighting for attention in the same frequency ranges, resulting in distortion of the audio output. You can fix that by using filters (often called “EQs” or “equalizers” in digital audio workstations) to remove overtones that are shared between different instruments. The range that’s really going to make your track sound muddy if it’s too crowded is any frequency lower than 200 Hertz or so. I’d strongly recommend removing those frequencies in every instrument except the bass here. You might even consider transposing the low string part up an octave to further separate that instrument from the muddy bass tones. After you clean up the distortion with an equalizer, there’ll be more room in your mix for cool effects like reverb and delay, but equalization is a good place to start. Otherwise, I really like the composition and sound design here. You’re clearly a talented composer. I think you just need to use a broader swath of production tools you have at your disposal in your DAW. Keep at it, Joe-Mega! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
6.75/10

Joe-Mega responds:

Dang, this is the most thorough and helpful criticism I've ever seen. Well it's fully noted. Mixing will be my next hill to climb. Thanks for the help man I really appreciate it.

[Metric]

I like the smooth guitars at the beginning and the dreamy atmosphere. The crisp drums are cool too, and when the bass comes in and the intensity increases at :26 the progression really comes together too. The melodic content here is really refreshing, and the descent into a more atmospheric vibe at 1:10 sounds like a daydream in the middle of a hectic workday (i.e., awesome). The breakdown at 1:46 is really pleasant, too, and the melodic content thereafter is so dynamic and cool. You really told a story with this one. Wow. If I had to complain about something, it might be that the plethora of melodic content and constant driving energy of this piece compromises its sense of cohesion and structural contrast a tad. Still, the progression is so smooth that none of those nit-picky structural complaints actually bother me that much. Amazing production quality, sound design, atmosphere, rhythmic and melodic content, and sense of shape and flow. This piece is awesome and you should feel awesome. Keep up the good work, Introverse! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
10/10

Introverse responds:

Thank you for awesome feedback. It's awesome to have some recognition on my childhood's favorite site :D. I really appreciate it. Cheers, hope to see you at the next round.

[On The Prowl]

I like the bouncy synths at the beginning and the blissful vibe. The chord progression is a little simple, and the breaks at :31 are a tad cheesy. The progression of the piece as a whole is also a bit bizarre, with sudden transitions at :52, 1:14, and other places. The piece cycles through a number of riffs without having a strong overarching sense of direction, which worries me from a compositional standpoint. There are certainly some good ideas here, but they just seem stapled together without any broader sense of storytelling or build. The way the piece is arranged is haphazard, in other words. I also think you should’ve varied the harmonic progression a bit more. Despite the different iterations of the riffs, the chords get pretty repetitive after a while. There’s also not a lot of dynamic melodic content in here. That said, I thought one element of the piece that was particularly strong was the mixing. All the instruments sound clear, crisp, and loud throughout. The rhythmic content of the piece is also enjoyable - it’s catchy and danceable, and the instrumentation is pretty good too. The composition just needs a bit more ebb and flow, and the arrangement needs to be smoother - those are the core of my concerns here. Keep at it, Immitis! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
6.25/10

Immitis responds:

The most constructive criticism I've ever received, thanks!

[Industrial tournament]

I like the cute synths at the beginning and the warm chords, but I think the rhythm is a bit overly complicated. I had a hard time finding the beat until the drums came in at :17, and even then there was a bit too much going on rhythmically. By contrast, the texture is very thin, with only 2-3 instruments taking up most of the space in the mix for the entire piece. You have a number of cute riffs here, but the composition just doesn’t sound as fleshed out as it should be. You needed some stronger melodic content here, and also some structural variety. I’d encourage you to add some contrasting sections to this piece that go beyond 1:50 in terms of varying the instrumentation and harmonic structure. The overarching ABA structure was a good idea, but unfortunately the composition here just comes across as too simplistic to be effective as a stand-alone piece. I’d recommend looking into increasing the density of the harmonies by adding a melody on top of the existing chords, or a bass line, or something. There isn’t much to say about the mixing and mastering here - the mix is quiet, but not unclear or distorted.

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.25/1
Composite score
4/10

GameDevWannabe responds:

Thank you for the reply. Very useful advice ! Gonna improve !
:D

[Sytrus Session 2.0]

Cool rhythmic elements of the kick at the beginning. The fade-in at the beginning isn’t the most creative way of starting a piece, but I like the frantic arpeggios at :19 and the sense of climax into :30. The mix is very wet, which sometimes affects the quality. For example, the clap from around :38 onwards sounds very indistinct. The melodic content is nice, even if the synths were a bit cheesy at times. You have a good sense of progression, flow, and harmony, though, and overall the compositional elements of the piece are quite strong. I like the harmonies that come in at 2:24 a lot, and despite all the different melodies and variations this piece maintains its cohesion quite well with a pretty rigid harmonic structure. One thing I think the composition is missing, however, is a proper breakdown. There’s a pretty strong sense of energy and urgency throughout, which gets a little tiresome after a while without some structural contrast. The modulations towards the end were fun, even though the melodic part at 2:43 already sounded like the major climax of the piece. Overall strong work! I think I wanted to hear more drums in the mix, a little more effort on some of the harmonic details, and maybe some more creative instrumentation. Otherwise, great job with the melodic content, atmosphere, rhythmic components, and structuring. Keep it up, Feandesign! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
8.25/10

feandesign responds:

Thank you!! I'm really glad you enjoyed most of it. I usually don't make my tracks fade in out of nowhere, but that was kind of an exception since I used a synth preset that plays right after pressing a key (I'm wondering why didn't I think of using a pad instrument or at least making a simple automation thing instead haha!). You're definitely right about the indistinct clap. The reason is that I actually put a reverb on it and lowered some things in the EQ, so it would sound kinda like the clap sample from Kid2Will's Fire Aura, of which by the way I'm a real fan (and I bet you can even hear some similarities between these two). I used more cheesy sounding synths in there intentionally, to match the feel of NG Audio Portal's mid-late 2000s techno. I guess it would sound way better if I let myself have more VSTs than just Sytrus on this project. I surely agree that the song would be nicer with a deeper breakdown or something, I'd need to work on those in future projects. Absolute thanks for pointing it out! I also have just realized how tiring the drumline is, especially the kick sequence itself. I really should've improved it and maybe made it go faster at some point (I think that's what HJfod actually meant, not the beats per minute stuff because it's pretty rapid already). I believe that mixing/mastering is for now the worst part in most of my songs, especially these from 2018 - I still use headphones when composing new stuff and I know I shouldn't - maybe regular speakers with a subwoofer will do a better job, I'll need to try that. Thank you so much again, I was really pleased reading this review and hopefully I'll come up with something more awesome on NGUAC 2020 hehe :).

[EYW - Heavy Rain]

The rhythmic elements of the piece are pretty good, but overall the texture is very thin and poorly balanced. The piece almost entirely consists of jarring, loud, distorted, and percussive sounds with few moving notes or meaningful progressions. There are also a couple of sudden transitions, like at :48 and 1:29. Besides that, there just isn’t a lot of substantive material in this piece for me to critique. It has very few moving notes and scarce evidence of textural depth or mixing. Let me be frank: this piece sounds like you’re being heavily limited by the production tools you’re using. As @WolfgangMiakoda alluded to, there are plenty of free digital audio workstations that would easily allow you to do more with your talents. I’d recommend GarageBand or LMMS, depending on what type of computer you have. Good luck! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
0/2
Instrumentation and sound design
0/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
0/1
Composite score
1/10

EverythingYouWish responds:

Not one of my good ones.

[Daft_Funk]

Catchy beat at the beginning. The little bass swell at the very start was a bit bizarre, but I like the relaxed vibe of the piece. Some of the panning is a bit extreme. Generally, it’s a good idea to keep rhythmic instruments (like the drums and bass) front and center. A lot of the compositional details here are really nice, though, like the funky riff at 1:48 and the occasional triangle hit and distorted guitar at 2:31 (and other places). While the piece is pretty engaging and fun, it also is missing some more advanced compositional elements, like dynamic melodies and structural variety. The fade-out ending is a testament to the fact that there isn’t a strong sense of direction in the piece. The mix, while clean, is also very quiet, which you can fix with some mastering tools like compression. Overall, there’s a lot to like here - the sound design, mood, rhythmic components, and texture - but the structure doesn’t quite have the ebb and flow that I want it to. It would help if you created a more distinct breakdown in the middle of your piece, or maybe a melodic bridge or something. Either way, it’s only a couple of my compositional parameters that are really holding your score underwater here. The rest - instrumentation, originality, atmosphere, etc. - work really hell in this piece. Keep at it, DjRemedy! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.25/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.25/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
6.25/10

djRemedy responds:

Thanks, TaintedLogic! Best of luck to everyone!