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midimachine

432 Audio Reviews

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good standard instrument choices for the genre and consistent/coherent composition at least. but it's the same chord progression for the whole song, not much structural progression, melodies aren't very inspiring and don't stand out. the mix/mastering is overly bassy and too heavily compressed, destroying a lot of the dynamic variation in the track and taking the impact away from the drums. fadeout ending seems lazy.

CielOuvert responds:

"good standard instrument choices for the genre and consistent/coherent composition at least."

That's a fair assessment.

"but it's the same chord progression for the whole song"

Which is bad how exactly? Most songs follow the standard 4 chord progression throughout, I mean, the song is called "the everlasting" and its theme envokes something that literally lasts forever.

"not much structural progression"

It's a downtempo electronica song, that's kinda the point.

"melodies aren't very inspiring and don't stand out"

Oh look, his melody is simplistic and uninspired. The piece "Alpha" by Vangelis has a "simplistic" melody at the start and is lauded as a masterpiece in the electronica/new age world.

"the mix/mastering is overly bassy and too heavily compressed, destroying a lot of the dynamic variation in the track and taking the impact away from the drums"

This is a fair critique, but as you're probably aware, I am, along with 99% of everyone else here, and amateur musician. Mixing and mastering is an entire skill of its own. But I do try to get better at this.

"fadeout ending seems lazy."

I'm at a loss at thinking that you find literally billions of songs in the entire world history to be lazy for their use of fadeout. Again, the theme of this song is that it would last forever, a fadeout holds that idea neatly.

Overall there seems to be some heavy bias here. You yourself stated that you're biased towards good mixing, that's fair since that's kinda what most people need to be good at. But seeing as you were the strictest judge in this competition, your "average" is far less that the rest, and in turn resulted in my track not being judged by its own merit but rather by what you personally thought of its theme, the use of melodies and its structure, which is biased and unfair. If my mix and mastering was LEGENDARY, you'd still only rate my piece above average.

And that is my 2 cents on the matter.

hell yea. rly glad u got thru in ngadm! love this new cutesy IDM/breakcore kick you've been on the last few tracks. super snappy mix with lots of impact and - tho i think the snare transients are too aggressive, maybe bring the comp ratio down or something. so excited for more quarl tbh

Quarl responds:

I asked all my dnb friends how to go about debricking a mix and they are like "make your drums bigger." Bad influence those bass music kids are. Thanks for the good feels midimachine :)

really dig the retro microhouse/chillwave feel! the pitched-down snare is a bop, the swirly pad is beautiful and lush. love the movement in the cute little synth bass too. the way this comes together is so sweet and charming imo. i think the kick could push through a little harder and the second half of the track could use some variation or fills or something because it does get very samey by the end. think the overall stereo image leans a little too far to the right, might be good to pan the fast hats left a bit to offset the snare hits and offbeat hat. cute little track overall. make more!

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

love this lush house sound. the sound design is mostly really simple but it's layered together so nicely. mixing is really solid, good separation between instruments and good levelling. the percussion is far too basic, though. it really needs a shaker or highpassed drum loop to fill out the space in the top and push the rhythm forward more. couple clap fills or snare rolls would be nice to accentuate transitions and break up long sections. it's also about 3 minutes too long for what it is, definitely needs a shift in melody/harmony or some other kind of textural build to justify the runtime. i really appreciate the dj-friendly intro and outro, though. make more!

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

Ziondiac responds:

Thanks for the feedback and vote.

very loud and harsh sounding. missing a solid bassline and effective underlying chord progression. the instruments used all sound cheap and nasty, and aren't utilised in a way that would stop that from being an issue. the structure is all over the place, instruments drop in and out randomly and never come together to form a cohesive whole. there's no melodic theme or hook, it's just a bunch of random lines playing one after the other with no common thread. it's okay to try things that are different, but it'd be good to get a handle on basic composition first before trying to do weird random stuff.

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

great aggressive sound! the sub bass layer being far too loud sucks a lot of energy and space out of the mix, i think if you fixed that it'd be a fantastic mix. the riffs are nice and thick, the jump to compound time at 1:29 is cool as shit, and the halftime section is sick too - the fast bassline parts don't need the sub layer to follow them note-for-note though. the second half of the track sounds a little messy and isn't as interesting as the slower part of the song, but the speedcore ending is a pretty funny way to cap things off. there isn't really a lot going on in the track overall other than the drums and the one bass layer. would be good to have a more diverse instrumentation and soundscape, but it nails the sound it aims for.

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

more synthwave goodness. very thick sound - maybe too thick, could tighten the kick tail or duck the sub out of the bitcrushed bass under the kick to fix that. everything is kinda the same volume throughout so the tension gets sucked out of the slow burn buildup you've tried to create. the simpler melodies are fine but the long solo-ey lead feels very meandering and unfocused, like sometimes like you just placed random notes from the scale together. would be good to get a breakdown without drums or bass for a bit of a breather and to keep the track feeling interesting and fresh. every day is a second chance and i hope you keep trying and improving.

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

loving the fast samba feel and smooth instrumentation. the mix feels a little too chunky overall but i guess that's partly a limitation of the software instruments you're using. still think the bass can come down in volume once it kicks into gear properly. with the two accordions in unison, you should pan them a little differently and move the note triggers on one of them very slightly to avoid that weird phasing sound when they play open 5ths together. it definitely feels a little unfinished and underdeveloped as a composition, but i do like the progression and build it has currently. would be nice to hear a more complete version of this through some higher quality, multi-sampled instruments. make more!

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

always down for a remix of my favourite song from the sonic franchise. wasn't expecting hard house donks but it's an interesting way to go with it! the orchestral intro is cool but i think you leave out bass in the cutaway to the main theme and fade it back in for maximum buildup potential. mixing is mostly solid but i think the kick needs a bit more punch and a little less sub to make room for the plentiful bass synths. apart from the snareclap and the fast trance bass, the stereo image is very narrow and makes the track feel cluttered towards the end. it kind of dragged on a bit so i'd look at either tightening that ending up and/or shortening the intro to tighten up the structure. nice work overall though.

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

not a bad start with FL. the ending section reminds me of chemical brothers a lot, and is definitely the strongest part of the track. love the discordant bass slap as a transition into the more major sounding breakdown. mix wise, the bass guitar needs to come down in relative volume. and the overall volume should proabably come down before the master limiter pushes it back up. really like the big compressed drumkit sound though. would be good to get something built around a more focused idea and thoughtful structure, but i definitely want to hear more from you!

used to put a lot of music on here and then i stopped but maybe i will start doing that again one day hehe

Age 34, Male

australia

Joined on 1/7/08

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