midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Space Invaders Deluxe]

really liking the legit disco stylings, that big meaty bass and sassy lead hnnnnnngh. reminds me of virt's stuff on the mighty switch force osts. everything is really well thought out and consistent, maybe too consistent though? like the drop back into that last chorus was a little disappointing and the ending could've been more dramatic, maybe bring the melody up instead of down and end on giant crash or something idk. really nice use of modulations in the verses and great use of triplet fills, really keeps each section separate but still tied to the same instrumentation.

something virt does which i think would benefit this piece a lot is cutting little rests into everything before going into "drops" or when winding down a big chorus. silence really emphasises everything around it, definitely try using it a little! also maybe dial back that phaser effect in that last little bridge section, feels a bit extreme to me.

anyway good work, keep doing this

TheMightyApple responds:

Thanks for the feedback! :)

[build up with drop]

prxg as fvck

the 505-ey kinda snare is a bit too floppy imo
also i think the drop needs a bit more space, maybe hold off on the siren for a few bars?

its r8 good m8

Sequenced responds:

DONT DISS MY SIRENS M888

[HertogJ]

this is like IDM vs trap haha

i like how you modulate your synths and the kinds of rhythm variations you're using. not really a fan of that bass tone, i think it needs to be either more twangy or super low, at the moment it has this really rubbery feel which i don't think fits the rest of the track.

would've been nice to have a 2nd synth lead in the breakdown or something. as it stands it feels super repetitive as a whole even though there's all these fills and stuff. maybe space those fills out more sparsely and develop that synth riff some more? i dunno!

PrognoiseBIG responds:

Thats a nice review , I have to thank you for your honesty, you just comfirmd what someone else also said. Twice in a Row means Change the show right =).

Good way you described it as Rubbery Feel. Ill Change that Condom Feeling and take that bass to the next Fucking leveling.

Greets ,TFYo Time.

[Beat Streak]

first thing i would do is cut some note envelopes into that melody and bassline, it's kinda just one volume the whole time and it's kinda boring. note envelopes will also help you put accents on the most important rhythmic parts of the melody so that the timing of the melody doesn't get lost (louder drums would help that too though)

also there's a thing that you can do with a lot of different chips called pulsewidth modulation (or just PWM) and it sounds really cool and you should grab a synth that will let you do it. magical 8bit plugin would be good cause it locks you into the 3 basic pulse sounds that most old chips used, although if you used something like synth1 or ts404 if you're using FL you can get that really smooth PWM sound like the commodore SID chip could make and which a million demoscene/cracktro people sampled later on.

anyway keep it up, listen to lots of modern chip music to see what the meta is like at the moment, and hopefully we'll see more from you later!

[My Name]

song of the year 2012

TheBetterAudioPortal responds:

Was the 'Pryda snare' a popular sample back then?

[Critz]

midimachine: so stupid
midimachine: but i like it
sequenced: can i get laid now
midimachine: the brass-ey lead is so ridiculously strident compared to everything else i love that
sequenced: uh
sequenced: the saw?
midimachine: yeah at 0m31s
sequenced: is that a good thing or bad thing
midimachine: the octave selection n filtering makes it feel like a big brass section
midimachine: no its good
sequenced: YAY
midimachine: like it sounds deliberate
sequenced: my soul purpose is to please u
midimachine: like it's a self-aware parody of dubstep
sequenced: i can die now

[337 [System Failure]]

splendidly paced, loving the juxtaposition of that dry filtered snare & the spacious synths and strings. the croaky noises in the first half feel too loud and the initial transition into the 2nd section is probably too dry, maybe soak those phone sounds in reverb at first and then fade the reverb out with that last tone or something?

the climax is stunning, really nice use of complimentary textures. it could be much longer and build more i think, currently the ending feels sorta stunted and rushed.

solid work overall.

Chemiqals responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Some really awesome suggestions here. I'll be sure to go back and mess around with these ideas tonight. =)

I'm glad you enjoyed it overall as well!

[Your Story]

this speaks to me on so many levels

TheBetterAudioPortal responds:

We can all be gay together.

[Contemplation]

i like how you layered those triplet arps over the drums, but it would've been nice to have a bit more swinging and swaying in the beat. with your mixing there's almost a kinda trap feel to it but the instrument selection is kinda indecisive, like the track doesn't really know what it wants to be (e.g. the big heavy kick against those kinda brushed sounding snares). there's also not really a whole lot of development, and even though the change in the middle is nice it's kinda awkward. the fade into the filtered piano and the subsequent reverb increase is a really nice touch, but takes way too long imo

gamefiend64 responds:

thank you sir, the kind of feedback i want. while making this i wanted to add a little bit more to the song, due to it being relatively short, ended up extending it a little too long lol. and thanks for including the genre it relates too, a little unsure myself, just put stuff together and i made this. i still need to "find my sound" if you get me.

[Right or Wrong]

thought this was piratecrab when i first heard it. how did that happen? :v

this kind of sounds like sevendust doing prog. vocals are fantastically delivered, the drums have that perfect groove metal flow and are really thoughtfully programmed and the bass and guitars always sit at a really nice volume. the overall mix is a little too dark though - i think the guitar and snare need a bit more presence around that 5K-8K area and less mids. vocals have been too heavily de-essed, kind of unclear sometimes - also kinda mono sounding even with the reverb so maybe give it some more width cause you want vocals to p-p-POP.

the pre-choruses need a bit more instrumental time to gel into the choruses properly. the thing about consecutive time signature changes and polyrhythms is that they get super messy when vocals are involved. typically when prog bands do vocals over odd-meter stuff it's usually kept relatively simple, and when it gets hairy the instrumental follows the lyrics rather than the opposite, which is what i felt was happening here in those pre-choruses. other than that it's all well composed imo

also, the render cuts off before the ride cymbal rings out properly. this sort of thing has happened a whole lot during this NGADM and it's one of my musical pet peeves haha