Hi, looks as though I found this a couple days after release so that's good.

You stayed nice and true to the source in my ears.

I'm no music expert ofc so apart from saying it's going on my playlist and it sounds nice to me I can only pick on the stuff that I don't feel is as good as the rest.

I'm going to start right off with the drums they feel just a bit too crashy to my ears. I know it's supposed to sound snowy and stuff but the sound is almost so snowy that I can't find the melody as easily as I feel I should be able to, and I think that it is because of the drums.

I love when the melody comes in with force around :50 and in the other places as well. However I feel that it could give me chills if it had even a bit more weight behind it (places like 1:25~ as well). As long as you have soft areas to work from (like 2:30) I think you can swing in with a lot of weight in the melody.

You could even try the reverse -- making the parts before the melody comes in even softer. After turning my system volume up (as you said it is quite quiet)...

...I thought I'd feel like the melody was loud enough and everything else could soften down, but I still think the melody is just too quiet to come in after a drop (or whatever you call it) with enough impact.

Ah. More to do with general collaborative volume variation, it sounds as though this song would be a very good place to use portions where all sound drops out for a bit, and then the melody comes in strong. You kind of do it but you never go to complete silence when I think you could quite effectively do so.

An example of this would be 2:35 I think. Rather than stepping right down into the melody, you could have everything cut out for a moment and then create impact with the melody.

And I think that's enough to think about from me =P

I like where you're going, and if you keep working hard you'll get there for sure!

-Dright

I feel bound to review this for some unfathomable reason. Either way, whether the unfathomably unfathomable reason is unfathomable or not, it is unfathomably forcing me to review this.

Okay, I probably used the word "unfathomable" wrong a few times, but. Whatever.

THE GOOD:
-Okay, those sound effects you used are awesome. I particularly liked the one at 0:28 onward, especially the accidental sound-effect-like-thing from the pad at 0:58. It reminded me of an eagle's cry. Ironic considering your profile picture, no?
-The choir starting at 1:11 is pretty darn cool.
-Can't give you credit for the tune, but I did like how you used the bass for the melody as well as the other synths.
-I like the slight panning in the synth on my left ear at around 1:24-1:39, where it comes slightly back into the middle and out again.
-PITCH BENDS. YES. Very well executed in this song, they sound really cool. ESPECIALLY the rise from 2:14-2:36, I love how it pauses before rising really quickly at 2:33. Speaking of which, it makes one damn awesome transition, kudos for that (I love transitions).

THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-For some reason, I didn't really like the kick very much. It was nice and punchy without being overpowering, as well as having a deep bass feel. I guess it was a bit too... "gravelly" would be the word for it. (Ironically, I used a similar bass kick in one of my songs - just not as the main kick, but as an additive for a kick without a bass factor that was quite so deep and gravelly)
-The bells at 0:57, 1:09-1:10, 2:49, 3:01-3:03, 3:14-3:16, 3:28-3:29, 3:35-3:36, 3:40-3:42, 3:46-3:47, and 3:52-3:53 sound off-key to me.
-Similarly, so does the main pad that pans back and forth with the white-noise sound while the bass has the melody.
-The transition at 0:32 where the drums fade in doesn't sound that good. Try having a drum fill in there to bring them in rather than just fading them in, it might work a little better.
-...you have a fadeout ending. Please tell me you're joking about that and have the real song at the ready. Unless songs are looped or WIPs, they should *never* have fadeout endings. Honestly. Otherwise, it ALWAYS sounds as if the artist was lazy with the end to me. (Note: If the song has an "ending" sound with a very slight fadeout of the melody in the background dying away, that's perfectly fine.)

Yeah, alright, this is pretty good. I've DEFINITELY heard much better from you though, even though I haven't reviewed it. So I suppose I might give you a pass on this for the NGADM. I'll have to think about it though, and at the very least, you'd have to promise me that you won't give a fadeout ending for your submissions in the contest if I do vote for you, kay? ;)

Hopefully that was helpful.

-Swint

Volume sounds good to me. Remember, it's better to have something that's a little quiet than to have a song that's too loud and has audible distortion. I don't know what you use for mixing and all that but Audacity is a great and simple tool for finalizing up tracks.

One thing I think you could improve is getting that melody to stand out a bit more. Although it depends what this song could be intended for. For example, a song that has a steady beat like this with nothing that particularly stands out in the song would be great for an action game where you have a lot of other sounds going on. But just listening to the song exclusively it is slightly boring. I hope I wasn't too vague with that lol.