midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Investigation]

appreciate the aesthetic goals of this piece and in some ways the execution is great. i don't think the musical ideas come together to form something substantial enough to justify the near ten minute runtime, but none of them are really *bad* in a vacuum. the heavy, fast-release master compression creates unpleasant intermodulation between the bass elements and sucks all the dynamic energy out of the piece, but i like the smokey high end - perfect for the VHS-noire setting.

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

[Fish & Chips]

very nice ravey big beat vibes. some of the synth leads are a little too kooky and the second synth theme coming in at 1:45 is annoying. i think a lot of the leads and synths are just too loud in a lot of parts and the BIG full kick and snare are used too sparingly in the second half, so that makes the structure drag a lot. i would go back and bring the synths and basses down under the kick and snares before hitting the master limiter, probably lower the overall level quite a bit, and also look at scooping the low mids out of a few elements. fun and unique entry overall

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

[Wyoming]

pretty basic but quite pleasant melody & chords! liking the contrast of straight and triplet rhythms. mix is very muddy and messy, would look at the bringing the master limiter level down a little and moving or removing some of the bass elements around so they don't clash as much. way too much reverb on the kick drum. could use some more inspired synth programming instead of the flex preset sounding supersaws and such. good effort though!

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

50Steaks responds:

Note: I made that on the mobile version, limiting my mixing options a ton. The reverb on the kick used to be even worse, but I toned it down once before, I guess it wasn’t enough? The reason I put so much in the first place was to make it sound more open and wide, like an ambient track would. But if it’s really clashing that much with the bass elements then clearly I blundered.

[Sleeping in an Empty Room]

yo, love the initial vibe. i think dropping back the reverb a bit when the beat comes in to bring the piano closer would've been nice, give the beat a more intimate feeling. i like the piano changeup at the halfway point but really not digging the big stadium dubstep drums. appreciate the attempt at an emotional crescendo w/ the filters opening up and the open hihats coming out, but it doesn't really stick the landing. the phasey crunchy drums would be good sound for a top loop over the initial kick/snare but don't really have the gravitas to carry such a big change in the overall feel.

structurally it kinda just starts and then goes and then fizzles out. the change halfway is cool but there's no real breathing space at any point. drop out to that second piano part on it's own for a bit, cut the bass out here and there. idk. on one hand the track doesn't really have a whole lot going on but on the other hand it has this really abrasive drum switch in the midpoint which could be cool but isn't effectively capitalised on. and i think i would prefer a simple idea really well realised to an ambitious gamble that doesn't quite pay off.

i will also say though that i do like the highpass filtery transitions - just needs some other element to really sell the tension and release between sections. the reverb fade on the drums at the end was also really nice. also the flutey synth line in the first half is very nice and it should make a more prominent return.

tl;dr - make the second half more like the first half but keep the cool synthwavey leads and pads, and add more small details in the arrangement and structure. it's most of the way there! thanks for doin' the nguac :)

[hard time keeping up]

hello! big fan of chiptune/8bit sounds and also magical8bitplugin

very authentic feel with the arrangement, absolutely dripping w/ mega man 2 influence. the multi-sampled drums are kinda disappointing though since they sit in this uncanny valley of being "too HQ" for this style of chip music and not realistic/well produced enough to elevate the track on it's own. m8bp is very good at creating chippy percussion, and some of the default fpc kits can sound incredible with detailed mixing and production. could even use famitracker to convert the 505 samples to DPCM and then import them back into fl studio for maximum authenticity (the toms would sound killer imo). but idk, the raw 505 samples ain't it for me.

as far as the instruments go, the sound design is very basic even by 2A03 standards. m8bp can't alter duty cycle midway through a note but there's still stuff you can do with pitch bends and octave switching. hell you can automate the duty cycle anyway and then add more notes in when you want it to change. or use a different VST like triforce or medusa2 when you want to do PWM style leads. imagine the sunsoft DPCM bass on this track, that would be awesome. for sure a subjective point here, but i reckon in the modern age without file size and cpu limitations it's a waste to not delve into everything a sound chip is theoretically capable of.

to clarify: i'm absolutely by no means a chip music purist. authenticity can be writing in a dedicated tracker, emulating the soundset and its limitations in your modern DAW, or going balls deep in MML/ASM programming. but with a DAW once you make too many decisions that compromise the authenticity, you should probably forget about purity and make something modern and start leaning into the chip sound less overall. it'd still be chip music even if it sounded modern imo.

so aside from the chip music philosophy, i had trouble distinguishing any main theme after the cool melody at the start breaks into arpeggios - the fuguey boops are great in solos and in high energy parts but for me i need to hear it breakway into a more "singable" kind of hook. there's always a lot going on at the same volume so i don't get a sense for where the melodies are supposed to sit within those sequences. also the length is perfect when you need to fit a song into 4KB of ram, but i feel like you could've either conveyed more in the same time or expanded upon the idea in a 2nd loop.

i like the flow and progression though. a lot of the individual instruments and melody lines are cool and the transitions are actually very good. couldn't really get into it musically or stylistically though, and it's also quite short.

thanks for doing NGUAC!

[Abstrack - Together]

yo! your track has a nice melody and some very interesting fills and transitions. the chords are simple but fun and effective, and the structure was quite tight, which i appreciate a lot!

overall i think the song was missing detail in the mix and instrumentation - the two main sections didn't have enough differentiation and there weren't any underlying harmonic/rhythmic devices behind the kick-chord-snare wombo combo. i think that line in the breakdown should get another turn towards the end before the slowdown. but the killer is the lack of top-end percussion, to me there's a unhelpful lack of momentum as a result of the very straight, plodding percussion. the drum samples are very stock sounding and don't seem to have any extra layering or width to them. would be good to have an alternating stereo clap layer over the snare or something.

the bottom end of the mix is really bloated and i think it's almost entirely the fault of the kick drum. i'd take a multiband comp to it and slam the sub-80Hz on it with a long release time. currently it takes a long time to bottom out and this robs the bass layer of its own energy. the amount and length of reverb on the snare is also kinda bonkers, the sidechained reverb effect is cool in the bridge but it makes the main sections feel too distant. you want the main sections to feel closer than the breakdowns and buildups so that there's an effective release of tension when the drop happens.

anyway that's my take on this track. congrats on making the cut! excited to hear what you come up with in the next round of the nguac doodad :)

Abstrack responds:

Oh you did it! Thanks again for your time :D I might have learned something right now.

I never really thought about making the drum samples realistic actually, and that's an idea worth trying out I think, along with the tension release by "distanciation" you're talking about.

[are-you-ready]

UK BEAT
WEST COAST

Spogboard responds:

I MADE UK WEST COAST BEAT

[elbisreverri]

i'm into that bassline even if you're not - love the intricacy of everything in this!

Quarl responds:

Aws, thanks midi <3

[Quality Entry To The NGADM That I Spent 60 Hours On I Hope I Do Well]

#freesnakewine

[Hesperax's Pet]

so i like the iron maiden vibes on this, your rhythm guitar playing is really tight and the solos are fantastic. the way the song takes a journey through different tempos is neat. i don't think your vocals have quite the right sound for this kind of song but your tone of voice and inflection still have this cool garage rock feel, and the scream at the end is siiick.

the drum mixing is super weird! the kick and snare are perfect for the 80s fantasy hair metal sound but they dont pop out of the mix as much as they should. the cymbals disappear under the guitars and it sounds like the toms have been muted and we're only hearing the reverb bus. the guitar solos are great but the washy reverb makes the tone feel less vibrant and accentuates the midrange in a weird way. idk if you multi-tracked the vocals or not but they feel like they've been stretched out a bit, like there's been a really fast delay effect added to them. the vocals are also just not loud enough - they need to be as loud as that guitar solo because they are just as important!

as far as the composition goes there isn't too much to complain about. the intro is definitely bloated, could probably just start on the first drum hit at 0:50. the transition from the slower breakdown section is cool but takes way too long to get to the point - like ok i get it the tempo is getting faster haha. the payoff for all that building up is just a weird sounding tom fill straight into the solo and you probably could've gone straight into that 16 bars earlier without the gradual tempo thing. also the fadeout ending seems lazy but it seems like you know that already.

anyway despite the criticisms i think this is a cool song with a lot of potential, and i'm glad you were able to get something in even though you didn't have much time. keep it up!

MercyfulDeath responds:

Thank you for your response man. To start with the vocals, eh, well, I have an idea on how to sing it now, but I was stricken with strep throat for the past fucking week and my bro came to pick up his mic and interface so W E L P. I am going to get me an interface and mic soon, as this experiment has been wholly successful and the improvement over a shitty PC mic for vox recording has been jarring.

To tackle the iffy spots; man, I'll be honest, drum mixing is probably my most troublesome area, partly because EZdrummer doesn't make it easy sometimes. I see the cymbals needed to be boosted along with the snare and kick, cymbals a lot more though. Toms are a different matter entirely, for some godforsaken reason I can't get them to stop reverbrating like crazy. Eh man, idk bout that reverb on the leads, I thought it sounded cool and oldschool, but I'll experiment with different 'verbs to see if I can get a cooler sound, also I'll be honest, I'm very midrange biased, if something boosts the midrange, even if it's weird, I'll keep it, because mids are love, mids are life. The vocals had a very short delay put on 'em, maybe 20ms or 50ms, not sure, gotta check, but I got it once I was doing some vocals for some older song I made and it sounded stupid cool and like Ozzy on the first two Rhoads albums so I've kept it for the rest of my recordings, will note to boost the fuckers too.

As for the composition, well I wanted it to burn in at the start, maybe add some high heel clacks and mischevious female laughter but since I lack females for the latter then that was out of the question, wanted to create a foreboding 'hot' sounding atmosphere see. I'd argue the point of the speed up is for that "FASTER, FASTER, RIDE ME FASTER" kinda feeling, so that's why I put it in, idk my dude, I experimented with it being 16 bars shorter without the speed up and it kinda felt strange and jarring to suddenly shift into overdrive like that. Yes, the fadeout is lazy, I'm sorry, I really am. I thought it would sound 80's as fuck but goddamn yeah it's pretty fucking lazy.

Thank you very much for your input, I really appreciate it man.