AIM 2024 Judge Review

For both of your entries, I really like that you picked art inspirations where you could zero in on a specific aspect of the art to incorporate in the sound design. In this case, this entry focuses on using DS sounds because the moon in the corner appears to be operating a GameBoy or Nintendo device of some sort. I'm not super familiar with DS sounds, but I think the sound design here really helps to set the atmosphere and tone of this art. So many of the sounds are very warm sounding and for the most part, I love the composition that goes along with it. The main hook is super catchy and encapsulates this feeling of a nighttime outdoor scene. It's cute and cozy - even the DJ-sounding scratches work well to add a bit of a cartoonish vibe, which also seems directly inspired from the art.

As much as I love the composition, I was really surprised at the decision to have a pad in final third of this piece completely overwhelm the melody. I'm not sure if it was a deliberate choice, considering the rest of this entry does seem to be mixed fine, but the super loud pad is quite distracting and feels like it should have been part of the background, not the foreground. If you wanted the pad to get overwhelming, it would have made more sense to have it start in the background then gradually make its way forward instead of having it overtake the return of the main melody (which the piece had already taken a break from with its middle section).

But overall, I enjoyed the chill vibes and the beautiful main hook that gets stuck in my head. I hope you'll remember to share some pictures of the setup, as I find it interesting to see how recording processes are done, and it's something I don't know very much about at all. Wonderful entry!

DAMN, thats cool. Id really like to see the images of the setup you had for the soudns. Thats very swag. Glad you liked the peice.