midimachine's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[(E-E) Locked Submission]

none too shabby

you should whack the default compressor on the master bus and pull the value on the fader to a little under 79% cause there's some mad clipping when you start to lowpass filter everything.

I very rarely use reverb on bass drums or bassey instruments in general, but if you leave it on here then i'd suggest pulling the low cut value to somewhere like 500Hz. reverbing low frequencies can make an otherwise clean mix start to get very messy.

did you had extra treble to those hats? they seem extra thin and toppy.

i really like the warm pads and the wide bassline. could use a fair bit more variation on the whole but this is some nice ambient tech backing music at the moment.

keep it up :)

Everlasting-Elements responds:

Yeah, true.
The hats were a special pack and I added a special FX to them and stuff. A stereo enhancer. Some sort of EQ, I'm sure. I dunno. I toy around with it a lot.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, though.

[Emergenct Room]

hey now

1.62 is a bastard score for this.

the intro is a bit simplistic and almost cheesy sounding with that fl default vocal sound. once that snare fill comes in though it gets consistently better from there. pitched 808 snare fills are HOT.

i think the choir sound is a bit loud. those 808 toms are right on the money... oh synth arrangement is in full force now and this is tre nice. i like it muchly! it makes me feel like uploading some of my hip hop beats... maybe.

S3C responds:

well its 1.95 now, I cant complain :P, hopefully it will get a little higher once (if) it recieves more votes.

i completely agree with you there on your first point, the stock vocal sound at the beginning is pretty lame by itself, but it was just thrown in more or less for filler. I got lazy with the track here and didnt make more usage out of it.

Glad you like the 808 sounds, when I used to make hip hop beats all the time, I always try to throw in a pitched snare fill :P

As for the choir sound, that is a valid criticism, however since theres no vocals or dominant melody in the piece, I dont think its that big of a deal.

Thanks for another review man! And yes, DO upload your hip hop beats, I am interesting in hearing them :)

[In Saturn's Ring]

hrmmmm

interesting composition. intro sounds like it was recorded with a microphone in a different room to all the instruments.

1m12s-ish: i like the dueling guitars and filtering herein. the piece consistently builds interest from this point. little voicey synths and dischordant organs remind me a lot of kwwrr.

sounds like the kickdrum is slightly off center. it starts panning a lot in the outro... very odd but it makes for an interesting listen since it's not painful like hard panned low frequencies can be...

DonaldFletcher responds:

Thanks for the great review. The original version of this had a rougher kick (a 909 drum sample if I remember correctly) that I kept more in the center. For this runthrough I managed to get a better, cleaner one going, so I was able to leave it at least a little off center to help balance out the bass guitar and piano as well as the other drums, plus do its own thing when appropriate. I was actually a little iffy on that, so I ran an EQ over it just in case anyone had the bass up too high on their headphones!

I'm glad you noticed what I was doing with that intro - I pulled an old trick out of my ass for that one. That process actually runs through the whole song but it sounds best there due to the soloed guitar and otherwise minimal instruments. That guitar got the most attention in this regard. I wanted to give the listener the impression that they were standing in a room with the live instruments playing on a stage in front, with the processed sounds coming from speakers sitting 90 degrees to either side. Lots of work, but I think it paid off.

And I'm really happy you liked the 1:12 part. That was probably the most fun to write out of everything in this track. I'm looking for an excuse to do that again. Maybe two tracks from now!

[Snakewalk]

bouncey

i like the way the strings set the scene and then get swept up by the rhythm. sweet beat.

No-SideBoy responds:

Thnx 4 ur comment.

[Lucaspiration]

hrmmmm

i think that main warbley bass could use some subtle blood overdrive. or maybe not a not so subtle blood overdrive with the wet mix turned down a lot. its just a little bit too smooth and needs a bit of a harder edge imo.

Pissomatik responds:

Actually, I was trying to do the opposite. But, that gives my an idea where to go with it. I still need a good smooth low bass though. Like pretty much subwoofer and nothing else. Hey, if anybody has the subwoofer.fst file for FL Studio please send it my way. They killed it in later versions and I'm having trouble tweaking the knobs just right. Thanks for the review and to whomever might have that fst.

[Mustang]

a little gimmicky

the first half of this song is very uninteresting beyond the mustang reese bass sound. the dry use of cheesy fl default drum sounds do the track no favours either and make this sound more like dance music than industrial.

having said that, the concept is quite cool and there are several nice basslines in the second half of the song. for a 6 hour mess-about this is a good result.

pookicker responds:

I appreciate your candor. I wanted originality with the sample and got what I wanted as it progressed. I had originally labeled this in this trance section on the suggestion of a friend. Others here suggested industrial... I'll just throw it in misc. Thanks for the review.

[Corneria (Synthmetal remix)]

bitch yes

the 909 kit is very raw and not arranged the best but everything else is badass.

you should do some originals in this style. i did my tune "Nos Adeo Perago Vos!" with a friend and its so so like this. rock on, dude.

MashedByMachines responds:

Yeah I know, I´m no good at drums :/
I have made some original tunes in this style, for example "Manufacturing unit 101" or "Return to arcade" Check it out if you want :)
Thanks for your review

[Uncontrollable]

who needs a clavinet? ;)

intentionally or not, you've made an amazing tonal comparison between an old instrument and a relatively new one. that alone warrants a good score :)

masterjiji responds:

:) glad you think so

[The Beginning of Chaos]

nice nice nice

interesting choice of arpeggios i must say! reminds me of the japanese minor scale :O

Hard to say what this reminds me of exactly. I'd say something like Dark Cloud 2 or even Ratchet and Clank sans the electronica noodling.

I think the only flaw in this is how it loops... I think a quick brass swell into that first arpeggio or something would help the transition a lot. Even so, that author is a fool! :P

S3C responds:

Yo MM!

Haha, Dark Cloud 2 and Ratchet and Clank? From my memory, cant say it sounds along the lines of those games' OST, due to their cartoony (atleast R&C), light natures. This was pretty much inspired by GoW, I'm afraid I might have made it sound too similar or unpurposely jacked a theme from one of the pieces :(

I think the arpeggios would have to be more pentatonicy to be japanese, this is moreso harmonic minorish with chromatic riffs and modulations ;) (sorry to be pedantic lol)

Yeah, the brass swell would be a good implementation either way- the purpose of this short bit is moreso just an introductory scene moreso than a continuos loop. But for sure, I'll make sure to throw if there was a need for a loopable version of this.

Thanks for the review!

[The Tribal Anthem]

getting there

haven't heard much paragon so i won't draw a comparison. i'm sure that's not what you want either. knowing NG you'll get a low score because people will blindly vote low on things that call out people they like without actually trying to look at things from a neutral perspective... so here we go:

i love the smooth, eastern style! the dry 808 snare was a bit iffy at first but layered with the other hits and different synths and stuff it adds a nice amount of body to the backbeat. i like the use of pitchshifting on it too :)

they could be a sample but... did you record those hand drums from 0:43 to 0:54 yourself? they're a really nice sound but i think they peak too loud so maybe fade them in to a lower volume and *very* lightly compress them.

the 4 floor bit at the end was a bit of let down really. i think mainly because of that cheesy acid bassline which, for me at least, kills the atmosphere. i think you should kill that bassline instead.

good show

DJHarlock responds:

Feedback appreciated Greatly