midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[Space Vacuum]

very interesting FM sounds here! i quite like the section at 0:59 where the bass just sits back and drives the beat forward. when the bass is busier it starts to clash with itself so i would turn the release time of that synth down a bunch so it hardly overlaps when you play multiple notes. some of the samples have a click at the end, idk if they're caustic's built in samples but i've never had that issue when i used it, so maybe try making the sample length shorter in beatbox. otherwise there's not a lot really going on and the musical ideas that are here don't really compliment each other well. but i appreciate the unique sounds you used and hope you build on them some more.

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

[Ji4H3 - Nothing will beat us down (Original Mix)[Free Download]]

lots of good ideas in this track. i'm particularly impressed with the way the drops are crafted, i can hear lots of attention to detail on how things build and the timing for when things cut out. there's definitely too much time spent in these buildup sections, and a lot of energy from the main sections fades away immediately. at the very least i think you can keep the kicks and hard bass synth playing over the 8 bars after each current drop, if that makes sense. the main lead tone is very shrill and i would either turn it down or comp that 1k-2k range down harder. and definitely not use it at all in the buildups so it POPS in the drop! lots of potential in this one. make more!

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