00:00
00:00
AED-4

Filters may affect review visibility.

Recent Audio Reviews

44 Audio Reviews

(this ended up becoming a bit rambly but hopefully there's something useful dx)

Composition: High marks all around. Especially the melody starting at around 1:20, while containing only half notes, caught my attention quite effectively. The drum patterns are also nice, if not a bit simple. Composition is definitely the strongest suit of this song.

Structure: Likewise, good stuff. Good usage of percussions in transitions such as around 1:06 and 1:19. The song doesn’t linger on any single moment for too long, and there’s a good sense of direction, and there’s plenty of contrast between the sections, so the listener doesn’t get tired.

Instrumentation: I can see that it’s meant to be a duet, so I won’t complain about the sparseness of the instrumentation :p However, in these cases the need for the instruments to pull their entire weight becomes even more apparent, and I think here they are slacking off a bit. While as mentioned the things that are played are quite good, the things that are playing could use some refinement.

For example, everything sounds a bit “dry”, as in, the elements don’t seem to have much reverb in them. Especially for a song this sparse, having enough reverb to provide a roomier sound can be very beneficial. And this indeed also suffers from lack of humanization, but because that was comprehensively talked about in the NGMT reviews, I’ll skip over this. Percussions are OK, but the clap especially could punch through the mix a better, as of now it falls a bit too much into the background at some points.

Mixing: Mixing is OK here, nothing sounds like it clashes with the other elements, though this is of course helped by the light instrumentation. The stereo field could maybe be used a bit more though, meaning that some elements could be panned to the left or right more. For example, if you had 2 pianos (which it sounds like), you could pan the other a bit to the left, and the other to the right. Same with the cymbals, they could be panned around a bit, but I’m not sure if that’s possible in MuseScore.

However, one definite shortcoming is that I do think there’s a lack of low-end frequencies, and I think that harms the otherwise upbeat and bouncy vibe this song has. I’d ensure that the low notes of the piano are playing loudly enough, and maybe fiddle with equalization if that’s and option. Honestly, introducing a third instrument and having some sort of dedicated bass could probably help with that as well.

But yeah, overall, a very good song you got here, especially when it comes to the arrangement. Some improvements are to be found in mixing and especially sound design / instrumentation, but you are standing on a very strong basis already :) Lastly, I do think I should mention that “acoustic” music is not my strength, so take the things I have to say with a healthy dose of scepticism :p

I’ll also link this comprehensive orchestral mixing tips news post made by Everratic: https://everratic.newgrounds.com/news/post/1329330. Granted, much of it is useful only for higher-end stuff (doubt you have access to mic positions :p), but it still might give you some ideas.

(Leaving a review here as well, after all this is sort of a honorary entry to the first phase :p)

Mix and sound design / instrumentation are very well done, that much I can tell immediately. Quite interesting choice to mix these glitchy / lo-fi percussions with well-defined acoustic instruments and clean synths, but I think does work well, gives a touch of sci-fi to it. Balance is good, everything has its own place and elements utilize the stereo field well.

I’m not entirely certain if that piano is the best fit to the song however, especially considering that other sounds are a fair bit brighter. Also at some points, such as 3:13 it kind of feels like it could use some additional clarity, because now it sounds like it gets a bit “entangled” on itself.

Structurally everything is in condition. The transitions between sections feel very natural, especially the one at around 1:30 leading into the calm break. That and the latter 2:41 breaks do indeed provide some fine contrast to the rest of the song, which is otherwise quite busy with all the melodies going on.

And speaking of the melodies, those are simply amazing. I don’t think there was a single moment in there where I didn’t vibe with the melodies, especially since they constantly keep evolving ever-so-slightly and get complemented with new selections of instruments.

Theme-wise this also perfectly achieves what it sought out to do, I can perfectly picture a pair of cats making their way through the overgrown ruins of a once great metropolis :) Nails that sense of playful wonder, while retaining bittersweet undertones.

In conclusion, good stuff all around, a true treat for the ears :)

(BlueCheeseCult really gave an excellent review, so I’ll be using that as a base)

Let’s start from the composition, and I’ve gotta admit, it’s quite repetitive. In fact, it’s 1 track looped 4 times over. This is not ideal, as it’s quite wasteful making the file take up 4 times the space than if it just looped once (naturally), and the listener will very likely stop listening before the track has had a chance to finish even once. Looping the first part twice and adding some modifications to the latter part in the form of alternate instrumentation or melodies would help tremendously.

Generally, you always want your song to be ‘moving’ somewhere, and thus just repeating the same thing over and over will lead to, well, nowhere. Now there are some good ideas going on at times, but as BlueCheeseCult stated, they all stop prematurely before they have an opportunity to flourish. Overall, the composition seems really hectic, with little to no consistency from section to section.

Regarding the sounds/synths themselves, there’s really not a problem, clearly lending to a pseudo-chiptune motif. And I think that there lies potential for a good track to be extracted.

Still, the downsides mentioned do negatively affect the song in more ways than one. In the end my advice would be to spend some time figuring out how to construct coherent melodies, chord progressions and drum patterns, first working with a simple 4-bar section and then trying to expand that into a structurally sound song. Also spend some time analyzing songs that you fancy, and study how they are structured.

Recent Art Reviews

2 Art Reviews

Out of your recent submissions this was definitely my favorite (not biased in terms of color choices whatsoever...) but really all of your concepts are amazing, perfectly encapsulates the sleek optimistic futurism I adore in this kind of turn-of-the-millennia era design :)

Man if I ever made an album's worth of psytrance I'd know who to commission for the cover art for sure ;D

gmcosmicart responds:

Thanks. No drugs required GN

Used to be known as EverReverb back in the day. I lurk around and upload music once in a blue moon.

Age 23, Male

Software Dev ☕

Manse, Finland

Joined on 9/12/15

Level:
6
Exp Points:
341 / 400
Exp Rank:
> 100,000
Vote Power:
4.69 votes
Rank:
Civilian
Global Rank:
> 100,000
Blams:
1
Saves:
10
B/P Bonus:
0%
Whistle:
Normal
Trophies:
2
Medals:
133
Supporter:
2m 26d