midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[My Name]

song of the year 2012

TheBetterAudioPortal responds:

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

[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.

[No Joy Here]

so nice! some of the samples are kinda iffy; harp is super stiff sounding and the strings have really harsh highs, also kinda distorted sounding high notes on the piano. the instrumentation is really great though. love the way the strings swell and subside into the drumming section.

yeah the piano at the end is nice on its own but doesn't really sit right with the rest of the piece imo. i think another string swell towards the end would've helped to link it back to everything else. i feel like, melodically at least, there's this disconnect between the first and second half of the piece - a stronger main theme would help to tie everything together, and dispersing little leitmotifs throughout the later sections would help it feel like a cohesive musical story.

great effort in spite of many setbacks!

[Your Father's Blade]

mmm dat peter satera sound. no complaints on the mixing from me, loving how everything is coming together from a dynamic standpoint. hmm actually the brass in the left speaker is just a little bit too edgy in the climax... some of the eastern winds are a bit on the nose too i think, especially the higher parts with the gigantic glissandos - towards the end the balance seemed really off kilter. would've liked a bit more of a reverb tail on that last note, or maybe have the strings fade a little more gradually. anyway that's all fairly minor stuff.

i like that you've gone for quite a new kind of instrumentation, but it still feels like "just another peter satera track" to me. you've taken these instruments from a very particular setting to tell a story that, in many ways, is culturally specific. the problem is that the writing doesn't place the story anywhere - like, i feel as though you've missed an opportunity to play with some really exotic scales and harmonic content. even if you were going for something more celtic or gaelic it's not really touching on any place other than hollywood. i mean, even in terms of storytelling this feels like it needs more harmonic variation, as it stands it kinda sits on this one brooding emotion and just escalates the level of brooding.

still, really great work as it is. it's AAA trailer material, that's for sure. in retrospect, i was a little too harsh when i scored this a couple weeks ago but at the same time i was quite a bit more impressed with the last two entries. but i don't know, maybe if this was your round entry i'd have given it 11/10 :v

EvilRaccoon responds:

Agree with the points you've made and that the brass is very edgy after a relisten.
Thanks for making the crits. Will take them on board. :)

[404]

really fun composition!
the organs and epianos sound awesome. bass tone is really nice and creamy too. kor's playing is top notch and you layered him in really nicely.
the drums are exceptionally played, but the mono recording is such a let down - really sucks out a lot of the energy and takes away the separation between instruments. render gets cut short at the end, bit of a rookie error there.

i didn't really dig the main theme (i guess it was the main theme?) but the playful little motif in the middle was really cool, albeit a little too drawn out imo.

would've been much nicer with a stereo drum track and a saxophone that didn't sound like a keyboard demo tune.

camoshark responds:

Sup midi, thanks for the review!

You know what, I hadn't even realized up to now that the drums were all centered! They are far from mono, I think there were about six or seven separate tracks total, so I guess that was also overlooked during production...

The rest has already been said to death already, but not pointing it out would be overlooking the elephant in the room.

Thanks again!