Reviews for inside the machine

[ChronoNomad]

Wow, this is both totally chill and intensely frenetic...somehow at the exact same time. There's almost too much going on to really pin down every cool little nuance of the music in just one play, and that is definitely a good thing. Your track just plain rocks, and if this doesn't have a chance against ZipZipper, then nothing does. Fantastic instrument choices, some of the best transitions I've ever heard, and an obvious wealth of effort and dedication easily earn you five stars from me. Best of luck in Round 2!

P.S. - I totally read all of that.

johnfn responds:

Thanks man. When I'm wrapping up a big project I always get this fear that what I've made isn't any good, so this totally made my day. I'm really glad all my detail work paid off. Though ZipZipper didn't get #4 for nothing.

P.S. Wow, I really am impressed.

[TaintedLogic]

I love the instruments and atmosphere. :D Stylistically, it is a lot like your Round 1 submission. It's very funky and moody, though - I love it! :D The transitions were better than usual, and those melodies are overwhelmingly engrossing! The mixing is fantastic, btw - the part at 2:25 was really cool where it sounded like the frequency was oscillating really fast. It almost sounded like a wobble bass in dubstep, except not with a bass! XD The only thing I was a little disappointed about was the ending - fade-out endings just aren't interesting imo. I have no complaints about structure, instruments, or anything else, though. This is another amazing track, Johnfn! :D Your attitude about ZipZipper reminds me of Kor-Rune's attitude about Camoshark in Round 1 btw, and Kor-Rune made it to Round 2! I'm rooting for you, Johnfn, if you make it to Round 3 or not! ;D

johnfn responds:

Phew thanks! I'm glad that all my work with mixing and so forth paid off - it was really driving me pretty crazy. Haha, the midrange dubstep thing. I discovered that trick a few weeks ago while messing around and I thought it was really cool! So in this song I inserted a break there as an excuse to use it. ;-)

That's true, I do sound a little like Kor-Rune... but then again, Kor-Rune is Kor-Rune xD. ZipZipper is a cool guy though, so I'm looking forward to what he makes, no matter if it destroys me or not.

I knew the ending thing would come up! If I somehow find time, I may upgrade the ending to something slightly more interesting, but honestly a lot of groovy songs end with a fadeout - I feel like it suggests that the groove goes on, even after you've left.

Thanks a lot for the review as always. It's great to have some sort of validation after pouring a lot of hours into a song.

[SoundChris]

Good piece with many details and a good choice of synths and a lot of stuff goin on - hooked me from the beginning. The synth solos are really entertaining - also all the arp action. Gives some kind of 8 bit feeling but sounds better - i had a commodore c-64 when i was i child and am still in love with the sound of SID. This piece was - even in not 8 bit - very nostalgic for me. Thank you :D

The insertion of the piano part worked great. I also appreciate that you tried to use the full spectrum of volume.

You really did a very great job here - dont know why i didnt listen to the track earlyer- one of my favourit submissions of this round.

5/5

johnfn responds:

Haha, you're one of those c64 geeks :D Though that stuff was before my time, I have a lot of respect for the c64 remix culture - those guys make a lot of great stuff.

In fact this song started out VERY chippy, down to chip drums and much more bitty instruments, but eventually seemed to want to go more in the way of electronica. So I guess some of the chippy melodies and sound design remained! I'm glad I could sneak in some piano too - last time, that was a little less successful I think.

I'm really honored you could call it one of your favorites from a round with such great songs in it!

Thanks a lot for the review.

[Step]

This is an NGADM Round 2 review.

--

Oh hell yes. This is fantastic. The sounds you've chosen are just excellent. The lead synth has a spacey texture to it that I just love, and yet most of the time it seemingly forgets all its trippy and spacey qualities and plays the groovy and energetic solos with the badassery of an amazing lead guitar player. Your pad and bass elements are highly fitting, giving this a very deep sound and doing wonders to the atmosphere. Your drums are, as usual, punchy, varied, and absolutely fantastic. And then you mix all those sounds so well! Everything has its own space in the mix, and the production is lovely. Of course, I also turned the volume up to the high amount just to hear how clean your low end is, and I was not surprised to hear that it is as always spick-and-span. You are the unofficial master of clean low ends.

The composition is great too. I don't think anyone can help but smile once they've heard the main riff that instantly plays during your wonderfully understated intro that doesn't waste any time to introduce the track. The track only gets better from there, with a huge variety of melodies and excellent progression between them. I love the moments where your synth just trails off into the low or high register like 1:20 and 1:36. Despite not being very tonally cohesive, it somehow gives your melodies a great tinge of excitement and energy. One little detail I appreciated was how you repeated 2:25's melody at 4:01 except quicker and developing it even more. I laughed at you mentioning that you might've worked extra hard on your transitions because SkyeWintrest is judging. Good thing he's so picky about transitions though because in turn your track has fantastic transitions from beginning to end.

Regarding any issues... well, what can I say? This track has all of the good qualities of your previous one and then some. Not only that, but it improved over all of the bad qualities of the previous one. The compression is tighter and more fitting during the harder-hitting parts (and yet still loose enough for dynamic variation), the intro is great, the piano fits this time... hell, even the reverse cymbal is just the right loudness. Perhaps 2:08 - 2:24's section was a bit unnecessary since it didn't really offer much to the track (apart from the badass transition to the next part which you could've implemented into the part before it). Also, the fade-out ending! It fits for this kind of song, but just barely. I can't help but feel that if you had a more finished ending with the same "boom factor" that your previous track's ending had, then it would've worked better.

Really though, this is absolutely fantastic. Jam-packed with detail, variation, and sweet production to boot. Brilliant job.

Score: 9.5/10

johnfn responds:

Man I'm super psyched that you liked it so much! You even caught the 2:25->4:01, which is something I sneaked in wondering if anyone would notice! Also, holy smokes, your review length doubled from last time. Must be because of 1/2 the number of submissions! I tremble in fear in anticipation of your round 3 review ;-)

Phew, it's going to be tough to improve upon this song for the next round... Still trying to think out a strategy :-) I will definitely be thinking about arrangement more for next time, since that's something I still struggle with (and you called me out with the 2:08 thing).

And finally, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all the work you do with these reviews! I know that this must take a TON of time, and I (and everyone else in NGADM I'm sure) am MASSIVELY appreciative.

P.S. Want to know the secret of how I do my bass? I actually use an electric bass! I know right, seems crazy that an acoustic instrument could fit into such an electronic song, but it actually works pretty well eh?

[gadogry]

You are one of the amazing musicians I discovered during this year's NGADM. I've followed you since your round 1 submission and listened to all 5 of your tracks so far. While they are all great, this remains my favourite.

And I always enjoy your lengthy descriptions. It lets me pick up some things from the song that I might not have otherwise (I'm not a musician by any means and can only "detect" basic/general things without prompt).

And what can I say about this song? it's totally fantastic. I don't want to be the n-th person to bug you about that fadeout ending (well I guess I just did), but nonetheless this went straight into my favourites.

Keep up the great work!

johnfn responds:

Wow, thanks for listening to all my tracks and for the nice review. It's rare that someone will take the time to listen to more than just a single track (aside from the judges, hah!), so I really appreciate you taking the time to do so.

I agree that this is my best track so far (and Step shares your opinion). I've been thinking about why that might be, and I think it's because I've spent the most time on it out of all my NGADM tracks. In fact, I worked on it nearly every day for a full week, which allowed me to cram in a zillion details. Rounds 3, 4 and 5 were all written in 3 or less days. It was also pretty close to my comfort zone (if I even have a comfort zone any more...).

Mwahah fadeout ending. Oh well, too late now. :D

Last thing. This may have been my best track so far, but my final NGADM track will be better. Mark my words! ;-)