midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Into the War]

hi, you're not in my review groups but i wrote this before i decided that i cbf writing everyone a review

intro/outro is kinda dumb and awkward but it's not necessarily a bad idea. it just needed a more posh speaker rather than a noel fielding impression, and a better recording with a decent microphone (clips pretty bad at the end). that really bright electro piano is too muddy to sound nice and not cheesy enough to be properly cheesy, but i guess that's FL keys for ya. having said that, the

composition is nice and typically "classical" sounding - i hope it's original and not ripped from mozart or something, but you get the benefit of the doubt because i'm way too lazy to check haha. drop is ok, needs a little more anticipation though, like a reversed kick into the first beat or something (maybe a speaker sim/bp filter combo on the piano in that last bar would sound nice?). pretty standard FM wubs, would've been nice to hear more unique synth work - the string/piano stabs are a really nice touch though. second section is much more interesting, i LOVE what you did with those cymbals and the space they create for the beat to really smack down (that's the anticipation i mentioned earlier). the syncopation is a nice change but sometimes the downbeat gets totally lost. so if your intent is to change time signatures then emphasize your accented beats more clearly, and if you wanted it to sound like 4/4 throughout then make sure that some other instrument is still driving that rhythm loud and clear.

would've liked a more typical structure. wow, that's gotta be the first time someone has said that in an NGADM review. for real though, another breakdown-buildup-drop into a new variation wouldn't hurt. as it stands the track doesn't really feel completed - like it's been rushed out of the door by the guy at the end :v

6.5

MrStr8face responds:

Thank you so much for your review! And thank you for the constructive criticism. I know what I need to work on now and I will come back stronger and better next year! Thank you for listening! :D

[Glitchy Grindy Stuff]

hi, you're not in my review group but i already wrote this before i decided that i couldn't be bothered reviewing everyone.

so, really cool sound design and use of filters. mix is stupidly bassy in some parts from all the granular ridiculousness so maybe a high pass filter somewhere woulda been good. there's just enough melodic/harmonic progression to carry it through to 2m30s, but there really could've been more instrumentation on top - the fade out ending is a massive cop out and is really poopy in comparison to the nice reverb freak out section before it. great use of a kp, but i would've liked to hear more than a kp jam for the NGADM.

7.0

[Don't Know How To Go On]

sounds like you bit off more than you could chew with the 3-part harmony. you have several distinct sections running back to back when really you could pick one part (the first eight bars are the best imo) and build a whole track around that.

if you need help with picking bass notes you can consult a trusty chord chart, since your "melody" is basically just a chord progression with a gate.

Lethal-Input responds:

Yeah lol I intentionally tried to go for a longer melody than I've ever done before. I guess I'll keep experimenting with it and try a lot of things.

I had no trouble getting the bass melody down, it's just what I was trying to do with it the rhythm of it that was messing me up. Also I couldn't quite get the synth down. I did get the bass to sound decent though, but my main problem was getting the percussion down.

[Hotline]

love your offbeat bass sound! the organ is pretty nice too.

the whole thing is very understated; it always felt like it was gonna build up to a more typical massive sidechained electro thing but it never did. which isn't really a bad thing per se but it ends up being kinda monotonous cause the melody isn't catchy or strong enough to carry everything.

some of the percussion sounds are a bit too dry, but i like your less-is-more approach to things (e.g. the volume of the reverse crash and the sparse hi-hats). a break without the kick drum would've been nice.

decent work overall

Lethal-Input responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

[Huge Monkey]

reminds me of older hardcore like nasenbluten and other bloody fist stuff.
wasn't really feeling it until the amens dropped in, but really liked the glitching and retriggering after that. yeah really has a tracker feeling! cool stuff.

[Former Motive]

way too much compression/reverb on the piano, probably need to compress before the reverb
piano is too loud throughout actually.
usually you should take all the bass out of everything except the kick and the main bass instrument, and then make it so the kick and bass don't play at the same time - either through sidechaining or only playing the offbeats. like that piano and phased saw lead don't need any lows at all, really.

one thing that kinda helps everything sound grrreat is if you turn off the limiter on the master channel, mix with the instruments all at a lower volume than the kick, then turn it back on. usually. depends on genre and stuff!

Lethal-Input responds:

Thanks for the feedback man! This is great info. I knew I couldn't get the volumes/sounds right. everything all most feels like it's blending in with each other too much. That's the main reason why I don't like how it turned out lol. I'll definitely take your advice and try to adjust for my next song!

[Fly, Dammit! (NGS Cut)]

it sounds like you're still learning how to use FL so i'll be gentle (sort of)
the different bass synths that play together are out of key, the crash sample doesn't really fit with the kick/snare basic samples. needs more interesting percussion elements and syncopation (i.e. percussion not just hitting on the beat)

oh, but i like the little lasery sound on the off-beat. maybe you could try to make some more minimal acid/electro style stuff?

Unfairy responds:

I think that's the right amount of cruelty. I really need to read into percussion theory, I'm flying blind on that part.

I got the offbeat idea from reading how a guy does his UK Hardcore. I enjoy playing with offbeats when I'm not overwhelmed.

[the fight]

the first half of this is actually kinda boring and drab (in terms of sound design and development, the melodies are p fresh tho). particularly hating on the drum sounds. if you have access to famitracker then you could've gone to town with DPCM-ing your samples instead of just bitcrushing them.generally when i hear those kinds of percs alongside chippy synths i feel like the artist was like "i want 8-bit drums but i don't really know what 8-bit drums sound like so i guess this will do!"

the second half is off the fucking chain though. literally cannot fault it. maybe more PWM on that lead would be cool, make it more SID-like? i dunno. good stuff!

johnfn responds:

Thanks a lot for dropping by. I have a lot of respect for your opinions, especially about drums since yours are pretty much always faultless.

I take your point about the authenticity of the drum samples. I was lazy and just tossed some redux on some drumbeat I had lying around. But I kinda wish I didn't have to worry about that stuff, you know? I wish the melodies could just speak for themselves. I've actually been thinking about moving towards more organic sounds for that reason. I'm sure there are a whole bunch of other issues involved with organic sounds too though... sigh.

Anyway, thanks for the review and I'm glad you liked it!