Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
NativeNiles, Escape!: 9,7,9,8
An awesome orchestration, loved the classic sound. I got a few suggestions and they're gonna focus on maxing out that stereo field to your advantage. The mix itself is needlessly quiet. Though it might sound nice and full on a PA system, I maxed out my headphones momentarily to get a better idea of what everything sounded like. I don't like being able to max out my headphones for the sake of ear damage but even at full volume, I'm hearing more space available. Sounds can be very deceptive, you can boost your instruments much more before you get anywhere near bricking. Maybe you have a limiter on the master out you could bypass? It's such a nuance of an opinion, I could forgive it but I'm going to also suggest automation lanes for instrument volumes. Though I can hear you playing with dynamics I feel like you could have turned the contrast up more with deeper crescendos and decrescendos. Automation lanes give you complete control over your orchestra. You can dip and tremolo like a live virtuoso, instruments can arrive on the scene via panning automations as if running onto a stage. There is a human element missing from the dynamics and I'd love to hear something like this hit harder AND softer. There is something robotic about the way everything hits.
I can hear you playing with panning data but I think you could have entertained us more with something to balance every panned force. There was a long section starting at 2:12 where I'm constantly assaulted on the left, a bell rhythm or glistening chime of some kind could have counter balanced that but after a while that volume coming from the left got unbearable. At a slightly louder volume, my left ear got fatigued. I'd have automated the following string instrument to the right just to put it somewhere more interesting. There could have been an entire heated conversation from left to right in the orchestra as strings battled each other but the mix stayed lukewarm. Though it would not have been more "realistic," I'd have personally panned the violin jabs at 00:19, 00:21, and 00:22 strobed against each other via automation to give off a sense of conflict. I like my action music to be a little jumpy and surprising. Doesn't have to be too crazy but I can admire a little bit of daring panning.
More bass please. I'm not sure how many people can make out sub sonic frequencies with their equipment but do yourself a huge favor and find an apparatus or means to get some more bass. While you play with pan data finding a location for every texture, those bass tones can really gloat in the middle. I'm not sure if you've heard this before but panning a sound can create the illusion that something is louder than it actually is allowing you to turn down the volume on that instrument a little. A benefit of that is making room on the opposite side for something to contrast it with.
Though the orchestration wonderfully conveys suspense, I think you could have masterfully delivered us into the scene with some sound effects, sampled or engineered. There are laser beams, glass is crashing, we got a wolf looking lady that could be howling or panting, there might be footsteps running at full speed, an alarm could be going off... you get the picture. There are a lot of orchestral artists in this contest but the best have learned a thing or two about building cinematic atmosphere from dubstep and hip hop artists. I'm not sure when this idea became common place but hip-hop groups like NWA would incorporate entire tracks of just soundscapes divorced from music. It turned a music album into something cinematic. John Cage is a popular reference when talking about soundscapes as he popularized making atmospheric sound tracks with found objects and improvisation. You went full orchestra but missed an opportunity to have a conceptual laser fight back and forth. If you don't have the ability to program some wild synth patches, I'll direct you to another classic hip-hop technique called "sampling."
Many artists are afraid to sample sounds for fear of breaking community rules and guidelines but most the mods here will turn a blind eye to it situationally. You just have to be aware of what your doing and why, meter risk vs reward. So long as a sample doesn't become the primary focus of the song they can usually act to pad things a little. I doubt anyone is going to chase you down over sampling some fighting game footsteps or a "1 hour beach meditation" video. Not everyone on Newgrounds has access to top quality field recorders or can travel to the ocean to nab waves crashing. I usually link back to things I've sampled in the author's comments as a means to look the mods in the eyes while saying "this is my dirty laundry." So long as the sound comes across as substantially altered, short enough, and your not financially harming someone else's investment you can claim fair use. The main thing they are looking for is copywritten music that belongs to someone else or music that was made entirely from loop packages. Sampling is a massive grey area and if it really bothers you, synthesize some lasers. I'm tiny mad that you missed an opportunity to make use of atonal atmospheric sounds and instruments, hit me with a waterphone.
I'm not sure I could find more to say at the moment but I do hope your proud of your work. I got on a lot of people's cases for not wanting to say more about their music. I think you could have said more, but you wrote the bare minimum I was looking for. I have to take everything into account if I want to judge a contest fairly, even the possibility that artists are being "unauthentic." Tagging your gear was a very smart choice, but don't be afraid to gush some more! The judges have to shuffle through many works and writing a little extra will never hurt your cause. I was asked to judge competitors for "emotion" and as a fellow artist I like knowing I'm giving high scores out to the people that really care about authenticity. Unless a song unquestionably takes us to a scene, you can't expect the song to speak for itself. I could picture this song going with the imagery but I could also imagine it going with many other genres or locations. The soundtrack you wrote would make sense alongside Indiana Jones, Conan The Barbarian, Adventure Time, the list goes on forever and having an artist's statement will always make it harder for us to deny the composer's intentions. My ability to remove your song from the illustration and put it somewhere else in combination with that lack of atmosphere is why I justified taking off two relevancy points. It all comes together in this contest and one issue can affect the next. Those atmospheric soundscapes can benefit composition/structure, production, emotion, and relevancy all at the same time.
Please forgive me for writing a review so long but everyone has been awesome and I want to give every competitor something to think about. Even the top-tier winners I see as peers and I have no problem telling them what I think is wrong with their tunes. There is always room for improvement but a perfect soundtrack should always be the end goal. You could be god-tier, I hear the potential. NativeNiles, enjoy your day! I wish you the best :D
NativeNiles 
