Midnights-Ocean's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lopsided]

Very nice sound image with the synth. Mix is good. My only complaint is it has a sharpness in the area round 2350Hz. Very smooth recordings. Well balanced melodies. Melancholy but not too dark. Front page! Very cool. Nice to see you posting again. : )

pitbulljones responds:

Thank you bro! Appreciate it :)

This feels so rough to me, but I really like that rawness.

No synths bro, there's the rhythm, bass, the single note pick and a reversed, mangled harmonic guitar :)

Just string section and horn section via kontakt, harmonized and octave shifted.

Needs that 'extra', hoping vocals push it over the threshold :)

thanks again

[Just Made It]

brah that sound pallet is liquid crazy. Love the melodies. So free but never looses control. Only mixing complaints I have are the lead gets way too forward at 1:41 just for a bit and there also a hat that sticks out a bit every once in a while. The rest is great. I love your choice of instruments. Something so wonderfully appealing about this tune. Love it!

boza44 responds:

duuuude, mixing tips are what I'm after. I'm CLUELESS at mixing.. i just kinda throw stuff together and put it up. I need the help of a PROFESSIONAL lol, no lies. And I know your tracks are really nicely mixed so I appreciate this.

Thank you so so much for the wonderful feedback and stopping by :)

[Forest Mystery]

Nice to see this on the front page. Very nice choices of instruments. Great melodies. Solid progression. I like this one a lot. : )

[Falling Tides]

Really love that intro! Very cool effect. Only on cheap phones today but this sounds good. Lots of room for vocals or something here. Not a fan of the midi sax. Some slow swelling strings or synth with more verb or even a delay would have been better IMO. Considering you mixed half blind this is very well balanced lol. Very tasty bass. : )

[To Each Their Own (Remastered)]

Little bass thin but it's got some beautiful melodic play happening. Personally I'd add a bass line and beef up the kick : )

pitbulljones responds:

Cheers bro. This was made like 11 years ago, all I had was the wav from off here.So I was limited in what I could do. So just a remaster job. Definitely need bass, it's something that I left out fairly often way back.

Thanks

[space]

Those pads remind me of reason. Very nice.

[deep altru [remaster]]

Fantastic. Listening on cheap phones. Hats are too bright IMO. Really sweet pads and vocal loop. The opening and bridge are really nice. I love the ambience you got there. Could have used a bit of melodic variation on the vocal loop personally. Solid piece. I like it. : )

Waidmann responds:

Thanks man,

Yeah it could use a bit more polish

[Jungle Adventure]

Love the organ work. I also like all the retro game sound palettes. Very nice progression. Sounds like it would fit very well in a retro themed game. Like maybe the battle music for an RPG. Melodies are nice but stay interesting. The vocal sample at the end was a bit of a surprise but I like it. Personally I would have added it just a little in the first half on the tune as well. Just so it’s representation in the tune was more balanced over time. : )

LostChronology responds:

Thanks for the review and glad that you liked it! :)

[Echo My Bunny, Man. (Demo/Rough Pass)]

I dig the humanized time <:3. New instruments sound BOSS bro. Great song title. XD I love everything but the sax. Might just be me, but the sax gives it a real cheesy feel. Otherwise I really dig this sketch. Very cool combination of elements. Nice melodies. Has a floaty chill vibe while remaining upbeat. Like a dreamy day at the beach. : ) Mix is good for what it is. I look forward to seeing where this goes.

pitbulljones responds:

Yes bro! Glad to hear you're liking the new tones, very happy to have a fuller sound on hand.

I can appreciate you're not digging the sax, I needed something to tail the vocal stab of into, I did try a couple of things such as strings, piano etc. Maybe another guitar layer will work, start layering into distortion or some back verb tone. I quite like it, maybe need tonal adjustments or a different melody line....i don't know lol.

Liking the atmosphere you're getting from this. I'm trying to go for an 80's indie style, so this could develop a few different ways.

Thanks

pbj

[Ola Horn Boy!]

Hey hey hey, front paged. Very nice mah man! Ooo swirly and creamy textures. Melodies are a little generic but remind me of good old memories, so I like it. Very accessible. Horns can be hard to work with. A hit or miss instrument. These sound very nice though. Great bass sound. Clean but full. Every element is very well behaved yet tonally rich. I might be missing something but I can’t really think of anything to complain about, other than why are you not making more money off of this stuff. Listened on speakers, forgiving phones and expensive not forgiving phones, all sound great. It’s a midrange heavy piece for sure but it’s well controlled. Maybe the piano gets a little overwhelmed by the mix when full orchestration comes in. Don’t know what you have going for reverbs but at the end of the tune, there's a lovely long tail, which is great. It makes me ask though, is that long verb running throughout the dense sections where all instruments are playing at once? If so, you might be able to make a little more room for the piano by automating the verb's wet channel in those areas. Either bringing the volume down or automating an EQ to scoop or low shelf the verb. Just a thought. Wish I could get all my mid heavy pieces to behave this well lol. I really liked this one.

Cheers. : )

pitbulljones responds:

Yes bro! Thank you for the extensive review :)

Humbly agree on the genericness and lack of progression. It's no excuse but this was a fuckaround that kinda gelled quickly, so I thought I would commit it. HORNS ARE BASTARDS. Allday, everyday and twice on Sundays. And it is for that very reason I use them as much as possible. I'd like to think I know my way through a section ha.

Bass is me, finally own a bass after years of winging a 6 string via octave and eq. It makes such a difference to music, having something fill out the rhythm section. It will be on everything going forward.

If you knew why I can't make money from music you would be a rich man too. I guess a combination of style/lack of, infrequency of posting and no longer going all out in promoting stuff. I barely comment here, let alone investing time in promo kits, blog placement, portfolio whoring. There's many better than I, such as yourself, it's nice to be seen from time to time.

Oh yeah there's big reverbs, an addiction to valhalla is my bane. I thinned the mix as best I could, though all that mid range creates a hard to work mix.

I have a new midi controller which maps in cubase, i'm gonna be doing some serious automation passes and dynamic mixing which will only improve.

Love you bro, keep being awesome