Reviews for inside the machine

[alternativesolution]

- NGADM Round 2 Review -

Whoa. Very funky. I like how all your sounds come together very cleanly, with the exception of the bass quietly muddled in the background. Your melodies are great, and I instantly recognized this track as yours. If not dynamic range, originality is definitely something you've got down. It's also the way you randomly incorporated those keys that actually did not sound as random as they should have. The structure of the track is good, and is varied enough to somewhat dismiss the overuse of your main synth; the melodies really are the basis of this song, and help keep the beat from becoming too noticeable in its repetitiveness.

Score: 8.8

johnfn responds:

Thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked it overall and I think you pointed out some good suggestions for improvement. If you think this is repetitive or the synth is slightly overused, I'd hate to see what you think of contemporary edm... haha. But honestly I'm right there with you, I kinda felt the same way about the track and electronic music in general... and I kind of overcompensated for that in my next track... Someday I will find the balance, and it will blow your mind! :D

[haXed]

"I'm gettin' down to this." It's very relaxed, but that's essentially what makes it. Just dunno how this would fit into anything besides being what it is - that makes it awesome.

johnfn responds:

Thanks for the response. I will never understand how people find my tracks relaxing when I find them insanely energetic and frenetic... maybe it's the low bpm I guess? I nonetheless appreciate the comments!

[KrrMaim]

I enjoyed all the panning tricks and the layering that you did to add bulk to the sound but I came to this song expecting some dark electronic. Which may have made me enjoy this less. I'll have to come back to listen to it again later. What kind of machine? Like a furby or something. The crazed mind of a furby perhaps. Also just to be more critical, in my opinion, that bassline didn't shine enough. It obviously isn't the main point of this song but because it's on a completely different part of the sound i'm definitely sure you could have made it stuck out more. This is still me making reviews on my headphones though so I still have skewed perspectives.

The portamento stuff was neat.
I enjoyed the filtering on the drums.
I think the gating at around 2:40 was completely unnecessary though. Since you were reintroducing the beat back into the song filtered I feel that instead of giving me that big break out I would have liked to hear it ended up just keeping the same pace on my ears. So more of a flat and consistent ride instead of having exciting peaks.

johnfn responds:

Hm, maybe I named the track wrong? I couldn't really settle on a good name.

Lol, yes, the evil mind of a Kirby was definitely the inspiration for the track! ;-P

Honestly the bassline sounds pretty great on my headphones. I mean, it's not like, kick-you-in-the-face bass, but it seems pretty present. However I don't have a lot of equipment so I can't really get a feel for how it sounds on other people's stuff. I'll consider making it louder for the benefit of people using other headphones. (Listening again, it's quite low at times, which may be the problem you're running into.)

It kinda sucks that the 2:40 break didn't work for you though, maybe I should have quieted down the gated thing. I really liked that effect though. :X The track could do with a little more dynamic variation I agree.

Thanks for the good tips and review!

[Back-From-Purgatory]

NGADM Round 2 Reviewz0rz

What I liked:
- Funky headbobbing beat to it.
- Excellent synth work.
- Song flowed nicely, nice use of rises and "breaks".

What I didn't:
- Song just sort of starts off with the melody, there's not really any introduction aside from a quick fade in and then it's like, "Hello, we've already been introduced, here I am again!" from the melody.
- Mixing in a couple spots felt a little off, the quieter synth section near the middle in particular, before the drums cut out entirely, they felt quite overpowering.
- And I have to agree with Skye on the fade out ending, I always feel like this is a lazy way out rather than figuring out a clever way to give it a conclusive end, it just sort of fades off as if it should be saying "To Be Continued".

Overall:
Really poppy, jumpy synth work, the fact that it was constantly moving and more or less evolving made it a fun track to listen to. Although there were a couple issues with mixing, and the intro/outro could use a little work, I really enjoyed listening to this.

8/10

johnfn responds:

I mostly agree with your points, though I think its funny that you're upset the intro was too short because previously people were grumbling that the intro was too long! Seems like I'm pretty much hosed either way :p

Dynamics in breaks is one thing I've started paying a lot more attention to after this song, so good spot there.

Thanks for the review!

[XwaynecoltX]

Fantastic

This here was a pretty fantastic piece you have some nice talents and showcase it well in the music so that was nice, but other then that this was actually notbad at all, it was interesting in a few ways as I have mentioned, but anyways hope to see more stuff like this from you and remember keep creating these awsome unique sound.

~X~