NGADM 2022, Round 2 - U S E D T O F E E L

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NGADM 2022, Round 2 - U S E D T O F E E L

Author Comments

"Global capitalism is nearly there. At the end of the world there will only be liquid advertisement and gaseous desire. Sublimated from our bodies, our untethered senses will endlessly ride escalators through pristine artificial environments, more and less than human, drugged-up and drugged down, catalysed, consuming and consumed by a relentlessly rich economy of sensory information, valued by the pixel. The Virtual Plaza welcomes you, and you will welcome it too."

~ Adam Harper in his initial Dummy Magazine article on Vaporwave

Entry for Round 2 of the NGADM 2022.

Enjoy folks. ♥ :3

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X3LL3N

2022-09-09 13:38:38

Official Review for NGADM Round 2 :

This was honestly the hardest piece to judge by far, honestly.
In a way, it is my greatest disappointment, because it could have been so much more.

The songs start of with a piano in the background (which I love). You slowly introduce the instruments while fading the background noise away (a bit too fast imo).
I'm not sure if the jazzy instrument is a saxophone but I absolutely love it, especially when it goes in the highs. The pad is also super cool !

You also used some kind of effect on your sounds at 0:47, which makes them super crispy. While it could annoy some people, I really like this :D

At 1:11 you add a synthwave-type bass which I do like, but I think the pattern is a little bit weird and the sweeps are a bit too loud.
In this part, I do like the drums and wobbly/funny lead quite a bit. There's a mysterious but interesting vibe going on. The part does stretch out too much for me though.

The part at 1:58 is quite interesting. It can be a bit weird and experimental, but it's not bad. It just feels "kinda wrong" in some parts, almost out of key.

I much prefer the next segment at 3:02, outside of the weird vocals at 3:26, it feels much more coherent. I guess I prefer the melodic parts of the song.

I think the outro could have been better, especially at 4:38 where the vocals are kinda pissing me a bit.

So, on a technical standpoint, the song could have been much better. The mixing is a mess sometimes, the song can be clippy and have some extremely annoying resonances here and there, and some of the vocals just do not work imo.

No matter what the final result is, I MUST point this out. The intro is probably the one piece of audio that stood out to me the most OUT OF ANY SONG in the contest so far.

Sure, it's not perfect, but the idea and the emotions it transmitted are out of this world. Really. I could actually just listen to it on loop non-stop. Oh wait, I have actually been doing that for the past 30 MINUTES !

If the song stood out as much as the first minute did and was better production-wise, you'd probably have been my top contestant. One of the most creative NGADM entries by far.

I beg of you, one day, please rework this song. It really is worth it.

TheVodouQueen responds:

Hi there, and thank you so much for going out of your way with such a busy schedule and all to review my song. :) I'm very sorry if it (beyond the minute mark) was disappointing and the mixing a mess. I've tried over the course of this whole year to refine that technique, but seems a lot more work needs to be done there...and I'm unsure how to pull it off any better ATM.

Also apologies if the vocals didn't mesh as well this time around. I was experimenting with the vaporwave usage and techniques with weirdly FXed vocal chops... Also, that bit that was pissing you off towards the end was actually me singing and giving it a vocoder effect, before it was just my voice unvocoded. ...Guess that was rather hit and miss... Was trying a couple of new frontiers with this one (including my singing), to obviously mixed results.

I'll have to figure out how to get better at both that and mixing, I guess. Everything is EQed, got compressors, side-chains, etc. But I'm unsure.

I digress... Thanks again for your critique. :) I'm probably going to fall short of making it to Round 3 this year, but at least the attempt was made... xD I also very much appreciate how much you liked the song nonetheless, despite its shortcomings. I do try my best to put a lot of heart, soul and emotions behind every piece I make... :D

CryNN

2022-09-05 10:40:25

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL NGADM REVIEW

VodouQueen! Was super excited to hear your submission. Last years finalist bringing his revenge upon the next contest hahaha.
The outrunny mood and mysterious synth patterns are a classic combination in this genre. Id say youve definitely mastered the ways of synthwave when it comes to picking your sounds and creating an atmosphere. Very good! The vocals are super cheesy, but in the best way possible. I dig them, but they could be less harsh on the ears, especially if a sound hits the 1 - 4khz region.
I miss a powerful euphoric drop on this track, which i think its a shame when the entire track plays a bit too far in the back in terms of arrangement. Might be a bit cliche to create it in this style of music so im welcoming the fact that you made it less predictable. The intro is nicely put in terms of structure, the progression is amazing.
The main problem of this submission is the mixing. Id overlook the kick being a bit less powerful when you have a huge bass playing in the track. Atleast sidechain it. And i feel the kick has a way too loud transient, careful with the Transpire tool! If id generalize the entire mix, its super phasy and resonant. The super wide, reverbed-out bass and the flangy FX are a not healthy combination for the mix. Always make the bass under 120hz mono. Thatll fix the muddy lows. Turn down the width of the reverb and unison on the elements and avoid using flanger and phaser effects. They cause phasing issues and are a complete hell for the mix ;-;
Last but not least, i hear some clipping in the intro. Its tough to balance a panned guitar with a piano that are hitting frequencies super hard. Notch them on the EQ to fix the problem, and turn the reverb down ;)

EDIT: Ahh, then it might be other elements clashing and causing mischief to each other. The FX definitely can cause phasing, and try to look at some high end sounds alone with the phase correlation meter to see if theyre phasing as well. Thanks for the response ;)

I wish you the best of luck in this contest!
-CRY

TheVodouQueen responds:

Thank you so much for taking precious time out of your busy schedule(s) to write this review. :) I very much appreciate it, and am glad you were super excited to hear this latest submission!

I am unsure really how to fix some of the issues you mention. I can hear what you mean--even before I made the decision to post it with some of the reverb and effects--however, a good majority of the critique I did hone in on for this. I did a lot of EQ of both the vocals and bass/low-ends. The kick & drums are side-chained to the basses when they appear in the latter sections of the song. The low-ends (including the kicks) are all in mono, as well. So I'm not sure if its just the phasy resonance that's interfering with the mixing work I've done (so, basically, I counteracted my own efforts to curtail some of the issues you've pointed out), or what, but I am assuming it's just too much FX going on in the low-ends.

*Sigh*...I really need help when it comes to mixing and melody variation. xD I've spent all this year, for days and hours on end between SkillShare and YT trying to learn the art of post-production, but issues still crop up. Unsure if it's me being too experimental...

Regardless, thank you so much for the review! o/ Don't think I'm going to make it to Round 3 (on the Winners' Side), but if I don't, I'll try to implement better judgement for the song on the Losers' Side.