I like this a lot. It's like 90's video game synths with some funky jazz (unfortunately that's all I can think up for genres). That's besides the point though. I like what you're doing with this. It definitely highlights your abilities with composition and it's a bit farther than where you've come from. The mixing is quite solid too. I'd say with this piece you have a good fighting chance to continue on. I wouldn't say it's a solid chance, I'm not going to pick this apart like the judges will, but at least be proud of this piece. Not many people will be able to put something like this together on their own.
Another year, another NGADM! Glad to see you again :D
=> 90's video game synths =>
Haha, figures you'd like that :P
=> + jazz =>
Thanks for the genre suggestion! That sounds about right.
=> mixing is quite solid =>
Yay! Mixing is something I haven't been *quite* up to par with in comparison to my competition.
=> a chance =>
Thanks! It means a lot to hear that from you. :D To be honest though, I think even saying that I have a good fighting chance is stretching it when you listen to my competition T.T I honestly wouldn't be surprised if JacobCadmus, JustinOfSuburbia, and Jabicho (am I encroaching upon the J group?) take the top three spots in any order. My personal goal is to beat a score of 7.5, since that's the score I got for my piece in the NGAUC. :P
=> Keep life jazzy! =>
You know it ;)
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a review! It's a shame you couldn't compete this year, I was looking forward to those new-wave game vibes :P But hey, now that you're here, why not stick around and enjoy the rest of the competition while you can? :D
I feel like I have heard part of this before. I woooonder whyy? XD
No but seriously. As I said, those melodies are wonderful! And this feels way better mixed now that it's finished. Also, thank bass is sooo good! But I wish it was louder, especially between 0:21 and 0:42 (like in the previous mix).
Also, I could swear that you made this faster. It was a good decision! Turns out that your instrument choice actually works okay at 0:42 in the end. Still not the one I would have picked, but it sounds much better now that it's mixed properly and doesn't sound as dry.
That transition at 1:25! o.O
Wonderful. Splendid uh... Something change? I guess it's still technically the same rhythm and tempo, but the way you use the percussion and such makes it feel like it isn't, if that makes sense? Are you proud XD?
The glitchiness in the melody is super cool as well.
Ahh, new wonderful melodies indeed.
As usual, you know what you're doing in terms of percussion.
In general, I like the sound design too. I get a lot of energy from listening to this track.
It's great how you bring back/keep going with the same melody near the end, but in a different way than in the beginning. More jumpy notes, instead of flat/straight on? Now we know how good my music theory is. Does this count as a different rhythm or not? Or does it just count as a different way of playing in the same rhythm? AAAGHH!?!
Either way. You cut off the edning, instead of letting it blead out. Big mistake (tsk, tsk, and you're part of the "harass johnfn's endings club". You ought to know better).
Also, I feel like you could've had a more interesting ending to this. You end this track with a breakdownish-slower feel part, with the melodies going down at the very end. As this track has so much energy, I would like this to end with something going up, and pretty fast!
Kinda like 3:34-3:36, but longer!
Anywho... That's just my small input.
Overall, great job. You've definitely improved a lot lately! If only you wouldn't have such insane competition, I would've thought you'd have a good whot at making it through with this :)
Keep it up, dude ;)
FUNNY STORY so I typed up some huge response to this where I thanked you for everything and broke down my song section by section and mentioned johnfn four times and then I accidentally deleted it when I went back to edit something so...
thanks so much for everything! :D Sorry this response sucks. But good luck in the NGADM! :D You're up against some fierce competition, but then again, your song is absolutely amazing. :)
I love the dreamy, pensive synths at the beginning and the drums. This track has a really cool energetic and engaging vibe about it. The funky instruments and melodic content help it a lot too. It kind of threw me off at :44 when you seemed to creating a re-intro only a fifth of the way through the piece. Typically, I’ll only let things like that slide if its purpose is to create contrast for an epic, impending climax, which wasn’t really the case here. That said, I really like the direction this piece is going in by around 1:30. This piece is smooth-flowing and well-structured and overall has a great, upbeat, and feel-good vibe about it. You create a sufficient amount of variation for your melodies while also keeping it coherent. I also liked the way you wound the piece down at the end. It made it feel very conclusive. I think the drums should’ve been a lot more up-front and prominent in the mix, though. I also think that the last refrain wasn’t the most climactic instance of melodic content here. I would encourage you to really go all out at 3:15 next time, just to make sure you maintain that sense of direction and emotional height. Still, overall this is really solid work. Keep it up, LunacyEcho! ;D
8.5/10
This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.
That's definitely the feeling I wanted to create! :D
=> 0:44 =>
Personally, I prefer a song that has a lot of ups and downs in its structure, as opposed to just gradual development. :P Perhaps I should have a breakdown, but make it less variant maybe?
=> variation for your melodies =>
After all the repetition in the last piece I put out (which was for the NGAUC!), I really wanted to make a song that could maintain melodic interest!
=> drums in the mix =>
I think johnfn once said that novices in mixing almost always mix the drums in too quietly, and I guess I've shown my novice-ness through my drum mixing here! I definitely have a lot to learn in terms of production. :P
=> last refrain =>
Really? It had the most instrumentation, but I guess it didn't have the most melodic variation within the tracks. I think I can see what you mean, and in hindsight, I definitely should've put more effects onto the synth at 3:15! It sounded interesting at first, but now when I hear it it sounds a little simple. :P
Thanks so much for the review, and thanks for all the judging you did for the NGADM! :D
NOT a NGADM review... So I can be as biased as I want.
Holy shit this made me happy. We talked about this one for hours in the judge Skype chat, globally loved is what I'd call it. It's a shame you were against other hard hitters.
The rhythm that starts a third in makes me smile every time, the lead is awesome too and just over all. LOVE IT.
LOVE IT.
LOVE IT.
That melody is so awesome dude. I was smiling the entire time for this track. It’s a really nice change of pace to hear something as happy as this in these reviews. And I’m really glad I was assigned to review this one! One thing that I find very difficult to do in music, as well as what I hear in other peoples music, is to make really complex and quickly played melody sound good like it does in your track. Not only sounding good, but memorable as well.
This whole track has an awesome personality. I do have to say that the synths used are fairly generic and I feel like I’ve heard them a lot before. And usually the instrumentation in a track can really be a huge prediction in the general atmosphere and personality of a track. However, your rhythmic and melodic elements really overshadow the generic synths and by this you have created a super unique personality for the track. It really reminds me of something from the later Megaman games.
Right from the start, that melody kicks in at 0:22 and I feel like I’m being pushed against the back of my seat from the G-force on a rollercoaster or something while this song plays. The first melody caught me off guard honestly and was a pleasant surprise. You have really nice structure throughout this track. You keep it all really diverse and the fact that most of this track is a solo is pretty badass as well. It’s a pretty cool feeling to look at the time of the track and realize that only 1 minute has gone by and SO much has happened, and then I have almost 3 more minutes of awesomeness! You nicely incorporate more instrumentation appropriately to make the track more enjoyable and immersive during certain points as well.
The mixing is pretty solid too. Everything sounds really clean. I think that the mastering could use some work though. It sounds really nice on all speakers, however I noticed that on certain sets of speakers and headphones it sounded way better than others. I won’t take off points for this, but it’s something I thought I should mention. It’s really that it’s way more enjoyable when I listen with my computer speakers as opposed to my mixing headphones. The drums… which some other people have commented on, I’m a little indecisive about. I actually don’t think it took away from the track that they were at this volume, but the sound of them was totally fine and fit the track. I think it was fine whether you left them at this volume or raised it.
Also, the triplet section that you went into at 1:29 is SO awesome. You had such a seamless transition into an entirely rhythmic section that still fit really well with the rest of the track. Also, what taintedlogic said about winding the piece down at the end was REALLY awesome too, which I overlooked. Each part is super unique from one another, and presents a new rhythmic and melodic element all of the time, and each part still flows with eachother so well. You really did a great job on the compositional structure for this.
So I keep coming back this track while I’m doing these reviews over a course of a few days. There isn’t a single point in the track where I get bored or feel like I want it to be over. The judge skype chat was loving this song so much man, including myself.
Thanks for this track, I had a ton of fun listening to it and reviewing it. This is definitely my favorite from round 1. Sorry you didn’t make it to the next round :/ I’m not familiar with your other work, but the judges all said that this is a huge step from your previous work, so congrats on that. Seriously, great work! And favorited.
Aha, funny thing about the melody. When I first came up with it, it was really slow and somber, and I thought about doing some epic orchestral theme to go along with it. The thing at 0:31-0:41 was actually my original melody, and in my head, it was originally much slower and played on strings. I fiddled around with it in Logic until I remembered I don't know how to orchestral, then sped it up and made it electronic. Turns out, it was an awesome melody!
The "chorus" melodies at 1:06, 1:52, and 3:15 all come from me misremembering and misplaying the first melody, lol. Funnily enough, they turned out to be more interesting and memorable! Go figure. :D
=> fairly generic =>
I'm pretty bad at sound design. I guess I sort of get used to hearing certain instrumentations in my melodies, then I get so fond of them that I don't bother changing them post-composition! :D johnfn's right. I should do chiptune.
=> later Megaman games =>
Ooh, I need to check this out! :D
=> SO much has happened =>
I actually took a few tips from johnfn about maintaining listener interest. :P According to him, if you switch something up every eight bars, the listener won't get very bored, and I tried to do that here!
=> most of this track is a solo =>
Solos are badass, aren't they? ;)
=> mixing/mastering =>
...aaand here's the moment when I admit I know very little about production. :D Interesting how it turned out to sound different on different speakers. I mean, I only used my computer speakers and headphones to mix this, so I didn't have that many points of reference! I'll try to do something about that for future music :P
=> drums =>
I feel like my drum mixing is notoriously bad, since in my headphones, I tend to hear drums louder than what most other speakers display. Maybe that's why I always mix them too quietly. Glad you liked them at this volume, though! Gives me hope that maybe I'm getting better. :D
=> judge skype chat =>
You guys keep mentioning this mysterious Skype chat! It's really piquing my curiosity. ;)
=> favorite from round 1 =>
:O Thank you for such high praise!
I guess I'll just sit here, hoping that someone from the group of 16 drops out. :P But even if they don't (which will probably happen lol), I'm still completely satisfied with what I've accomplished. I'm also slightly scared of this being a one-hit wonder and all my music going downhill from here!
=> huge step =>
haha step
But actually, I'd agree with them on this account. :P Personally, I'm pretty blown away at how far I've come in just a year. I was in the NGADM last year, but I completely bombed with a piece called 'Dawnglide'. I thought the judges were being harsh at the time, but when I listen to this and listen back to that, I can really see what the judges were saying and I'm just glad I could improve this much. :P
Thank you for the insanely positive and huge review! And thanks for all your work in the NGADM. Have fun in the rest of the rounds, and I hope to be a part of this again next year! :D:D
