midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Only The Beginning (Extended)]

love the thin pulse leads at the start
really need to hold off the kicks towards the end of those buildups. that first on beat after your buildup has to be immense; the continued kicks through that filter sweep are too predictive of that first kick in the next section so there's not as much anticipation and not much energy once you're out of the build.

not a fan of the really brittle backbeat sound either, got that big kick but hardly any snare.
all the melodic and complextro elements are kinda way too loud and the kick doesn't really seem to cut through it. the super saws are way overpowered!

so it does the whole slow down thing but i feel like it comes in way too soon, like you could've kept the straight dnb rolling for a lot longer. the buildup is nice but not really feeling the transition into the next section, again it doesn't really have that anticipation. as you say, the ending is kind of an afterthought. kinda dumb to do when you can just as easily end on a kick/crash/boom combo - sure it's cheesy but as far as abrupt, undecided endings go it sounds pretty good!

overall, really good sound design on the individual elements but the mix isn't super tight yet. structure is nice and different but needs a few variations in arrangement/dynamics carved in to make the transitions really moving. also maybe some more structural repetition?

Back-From-Purgatory responds:

Yeah, I'm still struggling to really get that big sound after a build up, where when the build up ends, it's like, "Whoa" sort of thing... I've been experimenting a lot with ways of achieving that, and I'll clearly be experimenting a bit longer yet to try get that down.

About the snare, I actually completely forgot to beef that up before I exported it... I had it in mind to add some more punch to it... then completely forgot to. I might go back and fix that and reupload a bit later.
The complextro stuff is completely new to me, I was debating sidechaining it a little bit to help the kick cut through because that's really the only way I could think of to get it to punch through the mix at that part short of a shit load of automated EQing on each and every individual bass patch... But it didn't really sound very good the way I tried sidechaining it, so I ended up leaving it as is. I'm certainly open to suggestions though.

I just wanted to stray away from typical ending sounds with this honestly, that's why I opted to go with an unconventional glitch out.

Mixing this was a nightmare, especially with the amount of variation throughout. I admit I could have spent a bit more time on mixing and EQ, and why I didn't isn't much more than me being lazy to be honest.

Thanks for the review.

[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!

[Powerful Dream]

could benefit from a softer piano sound at the start, i like how you faded it into the synth line

the drums sound funny, like i probably wouldn't have gone with a stadium trance kick haha. but it kinda works with this, maybe cut the decay a bit so it's a bit tighter sounding? i feel like it needs more hi-hat throughout too, even if it's just a soft little shaker-ey thing on every step or something. some fills into new sections would be good too, maybe some variations on the hi-hat pattern. i dunno!

the piano/flute break towards the end was interesting, like mid 90s film score stuff. sup with the ending though? definitely had at least another 90 seconds left in it, like you could've built it back up to the full arrangement with drums and pads but it just kinda coughs and sputters to a finish. killin the vibes!

Everratic responds:

I'm glad to see you reviewed one my my songs because I really liked that album I bought from you. I think it was a combination of chipstep and pop.

"the drums sound funny, like i probably wouldn't have gone with a stadium trance kick haha. but it kinda works with this, maybe cut the decay a bit so it's a bit tighter sounding?"
I never realized this so I'm glad you pointed it out.

"i feel like it needs more hi-hat throughout too, even if it's just a soft little shaker-ey thing on every step or something. some fills into new sections would be good too, maybe some variations on the hi-hat pattern. i dunno!"
I was never too interested in a song's drums so I rarely put a lot of effort into it, but I need to start.

"up with the ending though? definitely had at least another 90 seconds left in it, like you could've built it back up to the full arrangement with drums and pads but it just kinda coughs and sputters to a finish. killin the vibes!"
At first, I did want to go back to the chorus before ending the song, but I thought that would be too repetitive so I just ended the song like this. I realize now that it was a mistake.

Thank you for the review!

[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!

[SS Rebirth]

wasn't really feeling the spoken word stuff and there's some clashing between that rolling bass synth and something... goes all crunchy/clippy. i dunno! generally the synth programming and mix is pretty good so maybe it's just that the master is a bit rough? i guess it's just a "teaser"

there isn't really a catchy hook for the chorus, but i can still see an alt club getting down to this :v

Lich responds:

Thanks for the review.

The Clipping is a side effect of using NI Driver to Distort my kicks to give it a slight hardstyle-like sound to it combined with One-Knob Phatter. It's fixable so when I do a final version it shall be corrected (plus I already have some ideas for improving the dual-layered bass synth).

[substructure]

yeah definitely hearing some of that shpongle influence! less intricate, but more driving and jazzy.
was not expecting those techy breakbeat drums, nice. would fit really snugly in a kid kenobi set i think.

i think 7 minutes is warranted tbh, maybe even necessary. would love to be able to mix this but that sudden ending is a bit disappointing :< (i can see why people didn't like how i ended my round 1 thing now though)

johnfn responds:

Thanks for dropping by! I think the true talent of those Shpongle guys is that they can just have a single melody going for 8 minutes or something and yet the song will never feel boring or repetitive. I struggle with repeating the same melody more than once or twice! When I cut down from 7 I was actually cutting out a bunch of extraneous stuff. I think you're right though, in an ideal world I could get that core idea going for much longer.

Endings seem to be my downfall - I save them until the final day and then botch them, haha. I need to learn not to do that, but apparently round 3 was not the time.

[Coast Totems]

oh man, this is cool! the first half is probably 2 minutes too long imo, but it really picks up after the 4 1/2 minute mark and i quite enjoyed the ending. not your best vocal performance or lyrics either, but i love the production on them and i totally understand time limitations hehe. did you use an exciter or something before the phaser at the end? the little bits of fuzzyness filling out the space between vocal parts are a nice touch, whether or not they were intentional haha.

didn't quite nail the aesthetic, like you said the drums especially need more dirt.
maybe play your drum track back through a cheap speaker in a bathroom and use that as a "room" recording. or a really nasty plate reverb or something. i dunno, i'm not particularly great at lo-fi production either haha

ANYWAY YEAH it was gooooood!

Kor-Rune responds:

yeah I didn't realize how much of an art being nasty is. The noise and fuzziness was unintentional and part of the vocal takes lol. I intend to remove it but working on the next song is my priority, assuming this trash wins. Thanks for the review midi!

[Through the Bamboo]

uhhhhhh
i think some of those .ds instruments are out of tune with each other
mainly the bass. i don't think you meant for it to be like that.
maybe you should explore eastern harmonies and temperaments though!
the transition into un tiss un tiss stuff was pretty nasty and not really thought through i think. really stock sounding drums too, the backbeat sound is nice though.
the growly reese synth was cool as well. the whole thing needs more work though

Solisio responds:

I really appreciate your comment. It seems like you know what you're talking about. Send me a message sometime :)