Mich's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[PdG - Enigma (WiP)]

I like where this is going

Very dark atmosphere at the start. I'm liking the use of bass in ambient, as it's mostly tricky to keep it "chill" enough with a lot of bass, I suppose.

I think the attack on that first pad could be a bit long, so it's more like zwwwhoooaa then bwoaa, if you know what I mean.

I would have kept the drums on a slightly lower volume. Maybe try varying them a little more, simply making your pattern longer will give you some room to play, and you can still keep it to one pattern then. Also, I find that bathing those drums in some reverb can give a wonderful touch to them in the genre. Just make sure to set the low cut high enough or it'll sound messy.

The thin arpeggio is a nice touch. Something to try for the full version is straying from the simple up-down pattern and switching some notes around, it might get you interesting results.

I can definitely hear this is still going somewhere.. bigger, which is part of its progressive nature. I'm curious to see where you'll be going with this. So far I definitely like it.

Keep it up sir!

Prodigal responds:

:D Thanks.

This is probably my most successful piece of work in the last couple of months, and I see it's payed off so far by experimenting all over the place. I'll try the things you suggested and hopefully the full version won't be overlooked like it is now. I could probably click on the song submitted right after mine and see a couple reviews on those, but not on mine :\

I'll be glad to link you when i'm finished with this.

[=Ban On Mondays=]

Bopping around

This track really gets one pretty pumped, with its fast pace.

It sort of gives me that impression of what happens when you've had a good weekend of sleeping and doing nothing particular, then oversleeping on Monday.
You're like "oh shit", get up and start your morning routine, but in a really rushy manner.

I hear a lot of creativity in little melodies, flying all over the place. Riffs everywhere, constantly changing, while still hanging together as a whole. I do like the complexity of it all.

Mostly I can actually form an idea of the layers of instruments in a song, but with this one that's pretty hard, with so much being meshed through each other.

I like the video-gamey feel at the start. Somehow you mix in other sounds that make it no longer sound that much like a video game, in a sudden, yet subtle way. Interesting.

On the first listen, I imagined it was going to be a loop, seeing as it keeps going right up until the end. But you still did end it right there, and it didn't even sound wrong; rather, it fit the established theme.

So yeah, good job on this. I've actually used to this to keep myself going with coding rather than getting distracted. It keeps you going with its energy.

And I'm rambling on randomly. Let's say that's enough. Keep up the good work Hades. :)

Hades responds:

I think it really does call that "overslept monday" feel you mentioned, not that oversleeping on mondays is always a problem in my view. :P

The riffs and melodies are something I really like to doodle with, and I guess that this song was no exception. And the layering was intentionally so over-saturated, I actually wanted it to end up with so many noises it was borderline irritating. Then I realized that would probably be seen as a bad thing, so I kinda scrapped it. XD

The video game-ish feel is because when I actually started working on it, it was intended to be something like that, but eventually it evolved into this. And I think I'm happy with it that way.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to review, man! ;)

[Into The Eclipse]

Thoroughly enjoyed

That was one beautiful piece of art.

I like the recording at the start, but I'm just curious; where did you record that? It sounds like some sort of hallway next to a machine room, somehow. It does sound great as an introduction to the smoother pads etcetera, although I don't really understand how these machine sounds fit in with the story behind the song. Nonetheless, it works.

I really appreciate your recording work here, you've nicely laid out the sounds in the stereo spectrum, and at some points even in another dimension-I got the feeling there were sounds behind me at times. Excellent re-verb work as well, it shows that you've spent time getting those effects set up properly, to achieve the right depth to your sounds. Either that, or you've actually recorded those in a space with that kind of re-verb qualities.

Anyway, the song gives of quite a peaceful feeling throughout the first 5 minutes, the person dying is lying at peace in a bed. Then at 5 minutes into the song, the theme darkens in a scary way. Everything works smoothly, yet somehow, everything gets dark, things pitch down, more raw sounding synthesizers come in (I hear a faint little saw in there), and it gives an overall scary, doomed feeling. You know the end is near.

Then the more bass-y sounds make way for a couple of lighter synthesizers, to indicate that the suffering is pretty much over, we can be at peace again, on the other side of the door. We've walked into the light, and all is, however quite sad, okay.

Here's where the breathing doesn't make too much sense to me, since the person has passed away, they shouldn't be breathing. Then again, it may be one sitting by the deathbed, who has felt what just happened, and is now breathing heavily partly in relief, for the now deceased person is no longer suffering; and partly in sadness, for they are no longer with them.

That about rounds it up. This is not quite a piece I'd like listening to when going to bad, given the story behind it. It does manage to inflict emotions in the listener very well, and I suppose they are the emotions you intended to inflict as well. That makes it a succeeded mission. Great job.

FatKidWitAJetPak responds:

I really do appreciate your extensive review! As I said in the authors comments, this song is about a man dying in its literal sense. It goes through a complex wave of emotions as he lies in bed, perhaps feeling his body lifting into the air as everything around him slows down to a peaceful harmony. Because he is dying, time around him does not make much sense. Therefore, the sounds that come in are not necessarily in time order. He breathes at the end because it is a sort of flashback in time of him breathing, as he closes his eyes for the final time. It is kind of hard to explain, but most of this song digs deep into the subconscious. However, the very ending is him simply staring into nothing, realizing that he is about to die after experiencing that last second of whatever he is experiencing.

Now that all that mumbo jumbo is out of the way, here is some technical information:

I played it all on my mac keyboard in garageband with hand crafted pads.
I recorded many sounds including the inside of a plane flying over arkansas, my fingers popping out of a bottle, me typing on my keyboard, breathing, and talking to people. i wanted it to be a sort of trippy experience with sounds that could be anything, but at the same time the sounds going on around this man as he is dying in his bed.

I mixed the reverb and stuff using a great VST for the mac called "Ambient" and "Kore Player" with the helpful audio units inside Garageband called "Reverb" and "Echo" for an extra dash of background.

Thanks again. :)

[Sois Side Soldier v2]

Terribly awesome or something

As Spikrodd mentioned, you have an incredible ability to make terrible sounding things awesome.

Since this is not a serious submissions, this is not a serious review either, or something.
SOIS SOIS SOIS SOIS

The laughing was so fantastic. I've said it and I'll say it again: Du(m)bstep is ideal for joke songs like this or Bjra's 'The room dubstep'.
This > Mine.

SOIS

Reanu-Keeves responds:

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Tranc(E)Pheonix]

Not bad

Starts off with a kind of laid back feel; the first impression to me is that you sidechain a bit too deep there, but on the second listen that's okay.

You create a nice sort of ambience with reverb effect in there, and I'm digging the smooth drumline.

I'm not much of a fan of what you do around 1:10; the 'extreme' panning and some high-resonance-like effect, it makes me flinch a bit, if that word is appropriate. I must admit that it's creative though, the execution could just be a bit more smooth.

After that effect, the nice ambience comes back with the reverb, nice. I'd like to mention that your bass sounds a bit 'raw' for my liking though, maybe try playing with more sine and triangle waveforms instead of saws; to create a smoother feel to it.

Overall I had the impression that the song didn't really lead anywhere, but maybe that's just part of the style. Where aiming for something 'minimal' -like? If so, good work.

About the outro: I think keeping the hi-hats and such in there would've worked well, as you cut back to simply the kickdrum all of sudden. You could cut a bit of that silence at the end too by the way.

Summarized: good work, but could use some little improvements. I hope my review can help with that. :p

Mans0n responds:

YES! exactly what i needed! real criticism! thanks for the honest helpful review!

[Sweet Dreams - cover]

I'm blown away!

I'm pretty much at loss of words. I'll try anyway.
At the start I already knew it was going to sound totally different to the original.
Your voice may (as has been said) not sound as powerful as the original singer's, but I think you did a rather good job on singing either way.

I hear just a little bit of an accent to your singing, which makes it just a bit better in its own way.

Then those metal guitars in there, simply perfect, powerful. The drums fit in the mix perfectly too, the cymbals shine through just enough, and just not too much.

I'm digging the synth you brought in the mix right after the vocals in there.
Then, whispered singing, I'm not too much of a fan of the "absolute" panning; I think 'mid-left' and 'mid-right' would have been sufficient; but that may just be because I'm currently listening on headphones.

I like how you strayed away from the original melody towards the end, it really works well. And a nice effect too, the doubled vocals.

I instantly added this to my favourites, so I never lose track of it, ha.
In short: outstanding performance, I'm blown away.

[==(Absentminded)==]

Very groovy indeed!

For some reason I feel guilty for liking your msuic so much but never dropping you a single review. So here's to that.

The bass guitar obviously drives this song, I like it a lot. Groovy drums, just a little 'complaint', I think the reverb decay on that clap lasts just a bit long. Just my opinion though.

Overall you really notice your ambient feel throughout the whole piece. I'm digging the vocals in there, they give it an extra nice touch. I like the whistle-like portamento synth you have in there, it really helps setting the feeling of the song.

I think you do a really good job of recreating a familiar feeling in the listeners mind, and you manage to name it very well too. Did you aim for this set emotion while making the song, or did it somehow come by itself?

Another question; is that a real bass guitar? Just out of interest.

Anyway: I really enjoyed listening to this piece, and I'm sure others will too. Oh yeah, the mixing and mastering was as always brilliant. You know what you're doing, and I hope you won't stop doing it any time soon.

[First Musings]

Minimalistic, but a nice vibe.

As the summary states, I like the minimal feel you get there at the start.
It creates some sort of comic feel at first. When the second instrument comes in, you get a nice atmosphere going.

The instruments sound very realistic, you've got a nice plugin there.
At one point the notes seem a bit random, but they're all nice and harmonic (you're way too good at harmonics, lol).

The strongs come in unexpectedly, but very fitting. You get quite some energy going there, I like that.

About that crackle - it actually gives it some sort of lo-fi feel, which I like. Maybe you could experiment around with that effect intentionally a bit.

I hope you're still going to extend this into a full song, it's a really nice song you've got going.

Keep up your stuff man. :)

-Mich

loansindi responds:

Thanks for the review MICH!

Sometime I hope to approach a full orchestration, but minimalism is all that really works out well for me. I really liked this one, starting with the bassoon.

Garritan's sounds are fine, except for the brass. I think the key is a bit of reverb on the individual instrumentation.

I'm curious which point seemed random, there are definitely spots where melody was less driven by the structure of the bassoon.

I think the instrumentation all works together, the clarinet and violin speak together quite well.

I really wish I knew where the crackle came from. But yeah, it does kind of feel like vinyl, now that you mention it.

I want to extend this piece, I think I need to work on increasing orchestration next.

[SN |Pristine| SN]

Nice glitchy and lo-fi

Unlike Supersteph54, I do like me some glitch from time to time.

I like how it started out crackling in a really lo-fi style. You have a nicely set band pass filter there too.

Reverb-y closed hihats are good. Flawless transistion to the full beat.
I think the beat is quite in-your face, perhaps a little too bassy to fit with the rest of the style.

You've got a very nice ambience going in here though. I guess with delayed and reverbed synths.

The glithy effects on your drums are very well done (what did you make that with?) Maybe the climax of the song could've lasted a bit longer, but overall, it's a very nice product.

Keep it up and such!

-Mich

SessileNomad responds:

AWW hey its MICH

thats not a band pass filter, i just EQ'ed them with like very little highs and no lows

the beat being in your face...i dont really know what to say about that, personal taste i guess, i like it though

hmm i could have had a secondary climax right after it, coulda been good

the glitchy effects on the drums are just arpegiations, really simple to do compared to other glitch effects

peace out

SessileNomad

[Ziende Ben Ik Blind Geworden]

Radio friendly song :p

As the summary states, this is pretty much a tuypical radio friendly song.And that doesn't have to be a bad thing at all.

The piano melody was played very well, and you can feel the emotion put in it by the player (you?), because fo the velocity changes.

I like how the piano changes through the song. It gets more character. Then those strings give a bit more melancholy (if that's the word) to it.

The only thing why I'm giving not a ten is the lyrics structure. The song would've been more interesting fi there were different verses instead of just the same verse repeated.

But in all, very nice work by all of you. Try submitting it to some label or so, they might like it ;)

Keep it up!

- side note: I'm from Belgium, Flemish, so I understand the lyrics.

mjattie responds:

hey well, you're right about the lyrics. (but we're lazy :P)

Yes I played the piano and the singer of my band sang the vocals.

Thanks a lot michimself, we appreciate the feedback!