Oooof yes. A bit of chaos with huge house and dance. Oh man you're really coming into the sound now.
Author Comments
Sorry for another mini-hiatus, NG. I hope to upload tracks more frequently before I go to college in late August. Anyway, this track was made in about 12 hours in FL Studio 11, between June and July of 2015. I used a lot of funky samples from TS404 and WaspXT. As for the title, architeuthis is the genus of the giant squid. >:D I hope this will become my NGADM 2015 audition piece, but as of now that's still TBD. Also, this track is dedicated to @Larrynachos. He knows why. Thanks for listening, and I hope you all enjoy! ^^
TaintedLogic responds:
Another personal favorite of mine. Thanks again, KCJSDP!
This song comes across quite like a collection of random patterns over a house beat. There is no real progression, and the melodies are a bit boring and very inconsistent with the rest of the notes being played, which to me, makes it feel quite arbitrary. As if rather than utilising atonality as a technique, it was just a collection of random notes thrown together that dont strictly clash, but certainly don't compliment eachother either. It might be a good idea to broaden your horizons musically, and look in to composition and tonality, so as to avoid making stuff that just follows pre-existing blueprints for vague, generic, four to the floor electro. The mixing isn't bad, if a little bit sterile, but again the sounds don't really compliment each other particularly, they just coexist and it sounds like it was mixed by going through a checklist of things you needed to do, rather than because it was necessary. Almost like the first draft, default mix you get back from an engineer after a session before you start shaping it into what you really want.
TaintedLogic responds:
Thanks for the review! I understand your criticisms about the progression and atonality. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "sterile" mixing, but I certainly identify with the "mixing checklist" thing you mentioned. XD I'll try to create something more tonal...sometime, haha! Thanks again for stopping by. ;)
This is great! I got some serious Thriller vibes at ~1:00. Nice job separating the countermelodies. Everything sits with a lot of space in the mix. The ping ponging of the bass is a cool effect and totally works in this track. As a general rule of thumb, I typically try to keep bass and any meat and potatoes percussion panned dead center, but you make this work.
I kind of want to see an animated music video for this song featuring a giant squid destroying a city. Any New Ground animators up for the challenge?
Great work! 5 stars!
TaintedLogic responds:
Thanks so much, SleepFacingWest! :D This is a really positive review. I totally understand what you mean about keeping the "meat and potatoes" panned in the center, but I kind of broke the unwritten rules with this one (in multiple regards). Love your idea for the animated music video. Thanks again for the review! ^^
A short review here, as johnfn and LunacyEcho have already said a lot of what I would've said.
Personally, I can really enjoy atonal music. This is probably even more atonal than most of your stuff, but nothing clashes in an irritating way, imo.
I like all of the sound design along with many of the melodies that many of the individual intruments play.
For some reason, this track really reminded me of this piece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lFwchGSkes
(Crash Bandicoot - Heavy Machinery, in case the link ever becomes invalid)
Probably because of the way the tracks were built. I think you'll enjoy it ;)
Yep. Actually, the only thing that bothers me about this track, is the suuuuuuuuuper repetitive drums. While I get why you would choose to use them as you do in this track, I would still have made some more changes to them now and then (your changes, in the end, were pretty small), even if you'd keep the same basic rhythm. But in my head, I can already hear several things you could've done to make them more interesting!
Other than that, I think the mixing is really good too. So this track comes very close to a 5 from me. But dem drums say no!
Either way, great job!
I would love to hear you try out something with a more... Melodic and tonal melody sometime too! Something that evokes a particular positive feeling, or a very sad feeling would be nice ;)
Good luck!
TaintedLogic responds:
Thanks so much for the review, LSD! :D I'm glad you didn't think the various clashing parts were particularly repulsive. :) I appreciate your compliments about the sound design, melodies, and mixing. I'm not really that familiar with Crash Bandicoot, but I enjoyed the track nonetheless. I can see how some of the effects and structuring elements of that piece connect with this one. :) I agree about the drums - I didn't put a whole lot of effort into them (although if you listen carefully, you can tell I added a layered snare sample at :52 and increased the reverb). :) Woahwoahwoah...did you just suggest that I try to make TONAL melodies? >:O I'm kidding...I'll see what I can come up with! Thanks again, LSD! ^^
This is without a doubt one of the nicest intros I've ever heard. GREAT job. Did you record your cello and stutter that too? :D
johnfn has a point about NGADM judges and atonality. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the song! Maybe because my music theory isn't as good as his and I didn't spend the entire song brain-spazzing about the unorthodox chords. :D
This seriously has such a nice groove to it. I also love the way you panned a bunch of the glitchy details in the different ears! That was fun. I love the white noise stuff you did too, although as a nitpick, I would've introduced the white noise at 3:12 in a different way, since it starts off the same as the white noise bit at 2:36. Glitches should be anything but repetitive, right? :P
As a stylistic critique... meatier drums? I dunno. Your stuff is generally pretty crisp and thin, and that was changed for this song quite a bit! Your sound design has gotten better, at least. :D
Great work! Hope to see some more stuff of this quality in the future! ;)
TaintedLogic responds:
Aww...thanks so much, LE! ^^ I didn't record my cello for this...but I did stutter the sweeps, that bizzare instrument at :23 from TS404, the bass, and those heavy chords at :54. Interestingly enough, I stuttered them in different ways: some using trans effects, others by automating the LFO, and still others by just packing a bunch of notes in a tiny space in the piano roll. ;)
Everyone has a different taste when it comes to clashing chords - I'm glad you happened to enjoy them! :D
I appreciate your compliments about the panning and the sweeps, and I totally agree about the "repetitive glitchiness" between 2:36 and 3:12. I was running out of ideas. XD
I agree that the drums are pretty bland, but that's not really what I wanted the listener to focus on with this piece. Still, I probably could've done more with them. I'm interested to know what you mean by "crisp and thin" - do you mean I don't use a lot of reverb, or that my textures usually aren't that thick (i.e., complex)?
Thanks a lot again, LunacyEcho! Hopefully I can keep up this quality of stuff. XD
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TaintedLogic 
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