So I promised you an official NGADM judge review and by gods will I stick to my promise - but having read through the reviews below, you're not going appreciate what I have to say. So I'll run with this:

I can't deny your track is very well made. I could go into technical details on this, but everything's already been said and it appears my skills in this respect mark me as the last person in this merry band to say something sensible about this.

But with all the feedback you're getting, all you do is complain and deny whatever criticism is thrown your way. You're basically bringing a knife to a gunfight to then start telling the judges they're doing it wrong and the competition is flawed. The music you choose to make is great for the dance floor, but in just about any competition you're doing yourself an enormous disservice by submitting something long and monotonous (compared to 99% of the other submissions). That's not the competition's fault.

Congratulations on your place in the finals - which you have definitely earned. A little self-reflection would suit you.

Aw man did I vibe to this, you got some incredibly catchy melodies, amazing buildups and overall a great song.

Compositionally you kept it pretty simple but not in a bad way, you didn't overdo it by putting in crazy synths and conserved the tone that you were aiming to, but that's not all, you did put some details in there, what I like to call "sprinkles", pads, changes on the arpeggio synth in the background, your compositional changes weren't up in your face but more so relegated to the background, kept the track from being something completely different than just looping 4 bars over and over, fantastic job man.

Sound design wise, I'm in love with the choices you picked, specially the synth that plays arpeggios in the background, may have been something I've heard before of course, but it really fit the track well.

A nitpick I do have is on the buildup, which you were building and building for about two minutes only to stop it flat and introduce something different that doesn't follow the energy of the buildup, the thing you introduced is great, but I feel like the transition could've been handled better!.

Mix wise, no complaints.

You did a phenomenal job, I'll continue vibing to the song.

Sequenced, lost winter
1]Technicality 2]Production 3]Composition 4]Emotion 5]BonusPoints
9,10,7,10,10 x2 = [92/100]

What happened to that nuerofunk you were gonna floor us all with? You said on Facebook you were going to nuero the fuck out of us. "i just get so bored" BOO THIS MAN AND HIS DECEPTION D:<

Gotta do what makes you happy and stick to your guns, I get it. It's working for you in the house scene so go hard and get that house DJ street cred. I can totally relate to getting bored outside of your preferences, I honestly got a little bored just now. Eight minutes is a long ass time to keep the energy levels the same, despite that break down halfway through which didn't do anything to wake me up. I think you could have pushed the tempo harder which would have added some energy, suspense, and cut the length down just a little bit. One of the harder aspects I have with up tempo genres is keeping things interesting the entire time. A loop happens so quickly at 180+ BPM, DNB is perfect for people with ADD but eventually it gets hard to introduce switch ups. You seem to go in the opposite direction entirely with a track that just climbs for eight minutes but kind of goes nowhere.

I give out high scores, no one needs to tell me that I'm easy with tens. I still respect the mix down, the focus on what you love, and the epic length of the production but I came down kind of hard on composition because I've told you before that going extra long isn't the flex you think it is. If there were 64-100 extra competitors it would be a little insulting to force judges to spend that extra time nit picking a genre that they don't listen to regularly, but this is the final round. You're the only person who regularly pumped out the maximum length.

I've mentioned in private conversation that I'd love to hear you blend in some of your other music skills. Despite playing some mean guitar and piano you stick to classic "progressive house", a genre that honestly stopped being progressive in the 90s. You could eventually become the slick house guy that fuses rad acoustic guitar licks into his tracks but you stick to old school sounds and styles that don't vibe as fresh as genres like future or color bass. It's cool that it is working for you elsewhere, but Newgrounds has always featured eclectic artists that absorb new ideas and styles.

I was really hoping you'd go outside of your box a little but I'm also happy to see that you made it to the final round. Growth can happen in an instant, but it can also take decades. Every year is a chance to reinvent yourself. I think I know a little too much about you and that might have came down in how I scored composition, but that insight also affected technicality. My least favorite metric I choose to judge was "technicality" because I have no idea what people are doing on the other end of their computers, but I know you're hiding technical skills you haven't even begun to tap into. I sheepishly gave most people tens on technicality based on how much of a factor my ADD became. You were fighting my fiancé's network group meeting for my attention, sad times. If you had slipped in a quick guitar riff my attention would have snapped back into your track like-"HE DID IT. HE ACTUALLY DID IT. THE CRAZY SON OF A BITCH DID IT."

I respect the desire to try writing some nuerofunk for the final round, that's a detail none of the other judges had. Would have loved to hear it. I wish you the best with the other judges but I will bring up the electro-acoustics one last time because I think your signed work would also benefit from it. Mix in some of your live sounds and play on top of tracks for fun. You're an incredibly clean house artist but some live recordings could breathe new life to your work! Sit in front of your computer with a guitar, wear some headphones when you have your DAW open, and try recording with your phone for a start. You can upgrade a mic later, just think about it. Do me a huge favor and look up French Kiwi Juice's live stuff, I'd love to hear you do something similar! Shame us all with rad technical skills!

Cheers Wild Keizer <3

This is an official NGADM review!

Ohhh boyy look at you steaming through the NGADM with prog house! This one in particular is probably one of your better submissions so far and I really enjoyed listening to it. You’re giving me a tough one to compare progressive house yet again with other submissions that are completely diff lawl.

The track starts with an already complex groove that might be introduced later in my opinion, the hats are rolling, the shakers shaking, but a more bare intro might be a better move since it could bring more life to the progression with the other elements starting later. The first mixing details, that could be improved, came to my mind as soon as I heard the groove. One of them being the bell/triangle percussion that is resonant at 8.7 and 14.6 kHz (which isn't that big of a deal when you think about it at first since it should sound resonant, but it’s way too much and it's really noticeable.) The second one being the space around 3khz, which I think could be filled with a nice, deeper shaker. Not a big deal though.

Another subtle mixing issue is the bassline masking the kickdrum around 200hz. I think the acid could be more colorful, and less boxy around that area. That would bring more space to the kickdrum, and more variation to the synthwork. The kick could be more subby, but that might be my personal preference. The bass will sound alright on big systems.

Further into the track I noticed that it has more variation than your semi-finals entry. The break that comes around 01:35 is just at the right moment and the breakdown is really nicely arranged as well. Apart from that, I think the section before the breakdown comes in should have more automation for the listener to expect that a big break is coming. Other than that you did a great job.

Another thing which I want to mention is how nicely you’ve put the background elements such as the FMmy rising and the reverberated offbeat pads. They are carrying most of the atmospheric part of the track just nicely. Also those plucks? Sheesh!

Summa summarum. The track is really clean apart from the details I mentioned above. The loudness is just at the right spot. The synthwork is really well done. I just wish there was more movement on them to create more emotion and feelz (filter automation, reverb, delay), especially on the bassline. And the structure is a bit better than in your previous track. GJ!

-CRY

It's rare to have a long progressive house style make it to the finals. Congrats, and I definitely enjoyed this.