midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fading Hope]

there are some really nice musical ideas in this, i actually quite like the psytrance kickbass + orchestral combo. all the string parts are too loud and are fighting to be in the same space in the mix. a lot of the melodies meander about aimlessly and have variation for variation's sake, and for me this makes the piece unmemorable and sometimes annoying. i think for game music you want to be more consistent in the melodies but also the structure, and at the moment parts seem to drop in and out randomly without warning a lot. you can implement little sweeps, drum fills, or aother transitional elements like at 0:46 without necessarily leading into a drop or even a new section. solid effort overall.

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

derp604 responds:

Thanks for the feedback, this was my second ever finished song so hopefully I improve from this

[Walts]

i love a good boom bap beat and i can get into simplistic, yet creative sampling. this definitely falls flat in that respect, since it's just the same sample retriggered for the entire time, with a kick on 1 & 3 and a snare on 2 & 4. no drum fills, filter sweeps, cutaways, and no extra layers of samples. the sample itself is just one chord and some cymbals so you need something else to make the beat interesting. sorry if you're proud of this, but this seems extremely low-effort to me even for an amateur producer.

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

[Vyrus]

there's a nice synthwavey vibe to this, and there's some unique tones in the synths you're using. overall i think the bass sounds you're using are way too loud compared to the drums and peak out at the wrong frequencies - it's like they want to push in the sub bass area but sit in the low-midrange instead. the mix in last section is very messy and far too loud - turn everything down except the drums here and maybe add a sub layer to that metal-guitar-ish synth to thicken the sound, because it sounds very boxed-in and midrange heavy. would be good if there was more melodic/chord variation in the first 2 minutes, it kind of just sits around the same two notes for the most part and gets very boring.

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

[Flight to the Ice Castle]

yea it's epic alright. really enjoy the polymetric parts! the stereo imaging is really nice and while the panning true matches orchestra positioning there's still a feeling that everything is in the same space - however i'd narrow the piano a lot since it's jarring to me that one instrument is taking up the same amount of space as the entire orchestra (a little stereo spread would be fine). felt a bit like background music but still had a lot going on - wish the main theme was more prominent and memorable. those long legato string/flute unisons in the mid section are a bit tiring and it'd be nice to break those up with different articulations or a stronger counterpoint. great work overall!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

[Curse of the Cat-acombs]

ooh, cool basses! the melodic flair in this is unique and dripping with thematic potency, love that you're setting a scene purely through composition and instrumentation. the mix is kinda wacky and seems to have a hard time deciding which elements are the most important though. and i appreciate the dynamics and headroom, but i think you want to pump the percussion and basslines a lot harder than you are currently - the synth leads are not nearly as exciting as their volume would have me believe. bit on the long side too, but i dig the atmospheric ending a lot. good job!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

Darkkit10 responds:

Thanks for your opinion

[Highlight the Clouds]

i'm a sucker for sunvox and odd-meter rhythms. apart from the short buzzy lead, which i think is too loud and a little too harsh on the top end, the cute sound palette comes together really nicely. while i do like the progressive structure and slightly spicy chord progression, i found the melodies to all be meandering and not very memorable. if i was playing a game with this soundtrack i would find it annoying to have a dynamically jarring synth lead and melodies that are trying way too hard to steal my attention. the rhythms and chords are already quite complex - keep the melody simple!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

[What's Next?]

thoughtful composition. the drum fills in that bridge section were awesome, except for the goofy snare retrigger in the first fill. actually the main issue i have is that there's a serious lack of dynamics within each instrument, which is what makes those fast retriggers feel goofy. it doesn't feel overcompressed but it feels very flat, like everything stays the same volume the whole time. some of the virtual instruments sound very brittle and fake, sometimes sampling out of their natural range and doing weird fake vibrato. but the ending sounds comparatively great, and i do really love it when there's no resolution on the last chord. would love to hear this with more dynamics and more delicate software instruments in the intro and mid sections.

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

[can i lose myself]

spicy chord progression! feels like ratatat doing a cover of a c418 song, which is awesome. really enjoyed the composition but i'm not hot on the mix. every element feels dark and smokey, and i'm not sure if it's because you rendered a low bitrate mp3 or if it's because you lowpass filtered everything. that heavy compression on the piano sucks a lot of life out of the track and puts immense pressure in the midrange of the mix, as well as creating these really ugly pops whenever a chord is played. everything is very dry and mostly quite narrow, too. would love to hear a brighter version of this with a little more space and dynamics. great piece of music though!

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text

clefergers responds:

Sorry it took so long to get to this, but you nailed it. Almost everything does have an indiviual lowpass filter of some degree because I did want to have a muted atmosphere. I'm gonna be honest, I don't know much about mixing so forgive me if I sound like I don't know what I'm saying. I had no idea where the pops were coming from. I was probably abusing the compression to make the piano audible to a point where I liked but not peaking.

[High on razor blades]

cool bass tone, phasers are underrated on bass guitar imo. your playing is quite solid too, good timing on your rhythm parts. i think the mix lets this down a lot though. all your guitar parts are centered and at the same volume, so they're all constantly fighting for the same space and clashing with each other. the tone on all your guitars is very boxed-in and midrange heavy - i don't know your recording/playing setup so it's hard to offer pointers but an eq to cut all the low end and scoop out the midrange a little would be a good place to start. the best way to get a heavy guitar sound is to multi-track each of your rhythm parts and pan them left and right to fill the space out, and write your rhythm parts around the bass part.

important notes on my NGUAC review process: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1476427/18#bbspost26965604_post_text