pitbulljones's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Buoyant (leveled)]

Zen!

Always appreciate these more ambient, soft breaks tracks. Really into this. I think you done great in continually evolving the track given the short run time. You and I both can let tracks build up to 8 minute epics, but it's good practice to mix 3 minute wonders.

You're not on monitors and my ears are a little tired after mixing 4 tunes earlier but the mix sounds clean, balanced. Stereo balance is fine with all parts ranged well. The gated vocal stab is 'maybe' a bit too upfront and trebley, but it could just be my preference.

I would like to hear an extended mix in the future :)

Congratulations on front page, always deserved.

5/5

pbj

p.s

Funny thing. I have just posted a new work. I would appreciate your feedback.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Hey so good to hear from you!

Heh, yeah. I love many genres but I feel the most mature and satisfied when I make something that just exudes zen. the world needs more peaceful music that gives you those good kinda tingles.

lol that vocal. Yesterday it sounded too loud to me. Now I think it's too soft. I don't know. Fook yeah an extended mix would be very cool. I'm stretched so thin creatively these days
though that I wouldn't hold your breath.

Cool beans. I'll go take a listen right now. <:3

[Good Future]

I don't like the off kick. I find it distracting, takes me out of enjoying the track.

Vocal sample in the 1:40 is lovely, I'd go even more braver and drown it in reverb. Really love your percussive melody, classic pads and so on. Mix is in the lower mids and everything has separation. Again, not an overly wide mix, (are you mixing on cans?).

5 as always

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Yeah the time signature of this one is a little more unique. It's 2 time signatures playing at once. One has a downbeat that shifts back and forth every full cycle. It gives it a wide swinging feel. Very glad to hear the mix has good separation. It can be difficult with so much mid program. For me the first goal of mixing is spectral balance and separation. A muddy cluttered mix will sound shite no matter what. This was originally recorded direct to multi track tape, using less than modern instruments. So I guess it might not be very wide. I will check the image though next time I work on this. Thanks.

[Erxoyl's Boss Theme]

Big waveform ha!

Had to turn the monitors right down. All credit to getting a clean mix so fucking loud but christ on a bike, volume does not equal dynamics.

I'm a fan of dnb and this is a solid take, probably leaning jungle, but yea 160 bassy boom boom i love. Mix is balanced, nothing peaks. I'd love some vocal stabs here and there. I'd just suggest assessing the volume, look at some compression, make a mental note that people will be playing this on home set ups lol

5

LostChronology responds:

Hah, I'll keep it in mind for the future

[Cave Of Lit Cun]

oh this is zen as fuck. I love how even when you diversify you seem to allows come back to this sort of style. Those strings from 1:00. Maaaaaaan. There's echoes of Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Polyphonic Spree. But it's fundamentally your own tone.

The mix is solid, it's as defined as can be considering how much mid to upper mid there is, and that range is the hardest to balance. I feel you could widen the mix a bit. It could potentially help the upper mids. That is just personal preference mind.

Lovely piece of ambient. Right in my wheel house.

5

(btw, i have posted a new ditty,first in 3 months)

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Thanks! So good to find a review from you again. They are always super helpful. Yeah I should look into whether the 2 lead instruments are fighting for the center channel and maybe spread one more to the sides. I do a lot of genres but this type of stuff is my comfort zone. So glad you like. It's rough mixing mid heavy stuff indeed. I'll take a listen to your new track right now <:3

[Natural High]

Nope.

Definitely not for me. Reminds me of happy hardcore ha. I'm sure there is an audience for this but I am not one of them. I actually think it's too fast, 180bpm would be more than enough. Your melodies aren't really defined either. Kicks solid, the female vox are nice, the general mix is correct for the genre. But it's like a musical manifestation of one of my migraines lol.

Onwards and upwards, congrats on FP.

pbj

Midnights-Ocean responds:

lol it's hard to define much at 200bpm. For the sake of my blood pressure I don't think I would make a habit out of this kind of thing.

Thanks all the same! : D

[Mr Meowsworth Dangerbean]

Front page again!

Not on monitors. But this is funky as fuck. It's got that late 90's early 00's funk hop groove. You bang a beastie boys rap or some sampled vocals baby we have a stew going.

I'm gonna put my monitors on one sec......

Right monitors on.

Bassier and less trebles. There's clipping in a beat 0:53-1:07, 2:23-2.37. It's off the retrigger on the bass kick. Not showing on normal speakers but immediately stood out on monitors.

The mix sounds treated to work on speakers rather than monitors, I don't know how you approach the mix down but there's an imbalance.

I love the track. It should be a 10. It's about a 7.5 due to the mix discrepancies.

I want vocals.

Great work as always though.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Thanks bro! Always appreciate the feedback. I didn't think about funk but perhaps I should put this track in the funk portal. I had planed on doing some retro hiphop lyrics but haven't had the time yet. I totally agree this is asking for some vocals. Thanks for the time stamps. It's very useful for when I check back on this for another mixing session. The clipping issue might be a waveform not at zero point when it restarts. It's a common issue in logic that makes a clipping "click". It could also be an over saturation issue if it's on the kick. Regardless, I'll track it down next time I hit this tune. : )

[Archaia]

Getting better and better. I really wish you would dm me to polish up though. Congratulations on front paging again, you deserve to be heard. Anything I have issue with has already been said, please get in touch

ConnorDeVaux responds:

Thanks man I know it, this is an old one I don't even have all the pieces to anymore though

[Path Less Traveled]

Well done on another front page mate, it's always deserved.

Just doing a first pass on my normal speakers. Really digging this. Has something of Tricky about it. Deep bass, tripping percussion with some nice pads. Love your use of foley soundscapes, they lend a level of atmosphere to the track which compliment the progression. You have some beautiful fm synths in play, bright, glassy but full of warmth.

The choice to use a natural kit is absolutely the correct one for me, making the mix retain a naturalist vibe.

On monitors now :)

Bass is full. The panning is great. love once we hit 1:20. Now strangely, the snare sounds lower in the mix, lacking some snap, I'd maybe tighten the envelope as it has a weird of tone drop off in the reverb.

3:40 is beautiful, all of it is. Love to hear a take where we go more indie, get some back verb'd guitars in, ebow. There's places you can go with this and none would be wrong. Again, vocals would be epic.

Enjoyed this thrice on different gear. Excellent work and you deserve to be recognised for it.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Thanks mate! The reviews are always appreciated. This one was the culmination of a lot of nature recordings I had taken at the time. That snare yeah. I’m glad you noticed that. I had a tough call to make, keep the longer reverb on it throughout the entire tune or switch to a shorter verb once the tune got going to save some mud in the mix. I don’t like the inconsistency that made though. I definitely like the longer verb better. Maybe I’ll find a way to better preserve the tone of the long verb while cutting down on mud. A reverb wet side EQ is in order perhaps. Maybe even an automated one. Next time I boot this project up, I’ll tackle that.

There's nothing sweeter than a well balanced FM patch <:3. I always feel like I’ve succeeded when people talk about all the things that could be done with a piece. The places it could go. I want my art to be inspiring and if it writes new things in people’s minds naturally, I’d say that’s inspiring. Glad you like! Cheers. : )

[Jungle Adventure]

Yea man, really liking this. Has a 16 bit vibe, fit well in a futuristic boss battle in an rpg, you know that you got to focus. It's balanced, everything is clear, the glitched bit crush beats great, propels the song on. I want more of that vocal sample you snuck in at the end.

5

PBJ

LostChronology responds:

Thanks, very glad that you liked it! I learned the bit crush of external wav samples from you btw to make it fit more in a 16 or 8 bit track.

[Innocents Regained Summer Forever]

Front Page and no reviews what the hell.

My bro. This jams, so fucking good. Love everything about this track. I have a secret soft spot for Bhangra and anything modern related to it. This is just great head bobbing grooving. Bass is thick! I'm on monitors after submitting a track and my do monitors bring the best of this out.

I would love a proper vocal on this, manc drawls like Primal Scream.

one personal difference there's some squares 2:00-2:30, just off, the distorted filter immediately after is epic.

10's every day and twice on Sundays. This is real music and deserves a wider audience.

Midnights-Ocean responds:

Lol I am still trying to figure out why some things get them and some don’t. Overall I seem to be making more music that’s popular, so I’m quite happy my hard work is showing in that regard.

Thanks mate! I know! I would SO love to have a full vocal track by someone who can pull off that style of vibrato-less singing. At the very least I wish I could find a good sampler pack of that style, so I can make more/more complex stuff like this.

Yeah those squares are the kind of thing I didn’t like at first but grew on me. I don't know if it's just me or maybe the high frequency harmonics of the instrument make them sound different on my system compared to others. I'll take another listen on speakers once my ears have a good rest from the tune. I might just need to tweak the balance here and there.

I agree. Hopefully I don't sound arrogant but this came out so happy and sweet while staying energetic, I was REALLY pleased that this got the FP and not my more angry/snarky dub-step tune. It was a bit of a surprise to me but a good one. I want to make music that genuinely lifts people’s spirits and not just superficially. Music that leaves listeners with something solidly positive.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and review bro. Best wishes to you. : )