Love all these ideas, they're all very evocative! It's a shame it's just a first draft, though I can tell you've gotten good at speed mixing because I can barely tell :) The transition in the middle is a quite abrupt and the rest could use some tweaking, but I wouldn't say any are bad.
Very awesome!
Thank you for the review! I feel like I've studied orchestral mixing long enough to know what to do in most situations, but every song comes with its unique challenges. In this case it was mixing the dry solo double bass and tenor saxophone with an orchestra recorded stereo in a hall. I spent more time mixing these two instruments than on composing.
I love all the beautiful sounds here! The intro, the moment at 2:01, 3:06, 3:54, aaaa
I also loved your percussion (though it's too hidden in the mix at times), 1:33 is a cool moment that showcases that.
It's a bit challenging to listen to this piece (i think mostly due to mixing), but putting in the effort was worth it in the end. Love it!
Thanks, yeah this was pretty rushed so mixing is a problem indeed, I was completely aware of it but I ran out of time. The arrangement is pretty crap as well (at least imo). That's how I ended up losing in round 3 sadly haha
Love your sound design! However, the weird stereo artifact that persists throughout the song (left channel is ~8 samples ahead) sounds really bad with headphones. I removed it in audacity and it sounds beautiful!
Thank you! I'll try to keep that in mind next time! x3
I know you sent me a wip of this before it was finished, but I still think it turned out super well !
My favourite section is 0:27, where the slow ambient part starts developing and the melodies work really well with the harmony.
As the piece develops towards 1:25 some of the melodies feel a bit stale and possibly out of key, and the rhythm gets a bit bland. I'd love to see you play with dynamics a bit more in the future, dynamics referring to the contrast between high intensity & low intensity sections. However it's really nice when the bass kicks in again at 2:03.
Your sound design in this piece really stood out as being awesome, however I think some eq touchups on the high & mid end could help make your synths extra sparkley & cut away the boring sounding frequencies! (which were pretty minimal tbh)
thanks, it's been a while since i got such a detailed review :)
i'll use some of these tips in the future especially since you've now brought to the forefront some stuff i've had at the back of my mind for awhile (namely dynamic stuff and learning how to eq good)
thanks for the feedback and it was a pleasure working with you in this compo!
a little painful, but very cool nonetheless!
Let me guess, Audio Technica?
Aaaa, I wanted these to be done a lot sooner, but at long last it's finally here:
Official VGMC'21 Review~!
======================
Hiya, it looks like this is your track intended for Fathomless Caverns, not “Extraterrestrial Life”. Let me know if that's wrong. Also, it's a bit unfortunate you only submitted one song for this prompt, but oh well, the review continues!
Right away, I like the atmosphere you're going for, with the very icy and brittle texture. Your mix is a bit busy at times, with long reverberations intersecting with other instruments. I would've liked it if your instruments each had their own space, in order to emphasize the interactions between their textures. One example is the bass pad you have at the bottom of your arrangement which clashes with your piano.
My biggest gripe is that you only have a single level of intensity throughout the entire song. Given the longer nature of your track, this gets tiring near the end. I would love to see more dynamics in your piece. There are tons of interesting things you could try out to mix up your dynamics, such as having a slow, quieter section with an icy timbre, or throwing in a transition to a section designed around waves of intensity.
A few smaller notes:
- I think the section around 2:52 feels a bit bland, as the main melody there is relatively uniform. I would've loved a melody that had some high energy & low energy moments, even if its just a little bit.
- Some of your synths feel a little flat. A small amount of layering instruments could add some nice details to them.
- Effects like 3:08 help to give the track momentum, however there's no progression leading up to this moment, and it doesn't lead to a very significant change, so I'm left a bit disappointed.
- I think the melodies in your piece could benefit from some more space, rather than trying to fill every moment with something. One example of this is your main melody around 1:43, which sounds somewhat directionless at times.
- I would've loved it if you came up with a more creative way to end your song than to simply fade out, such as reducing energy by transitioning to a more atmospheric texture, for example.
Despite my focus on all the negative aspects, there were a lot of things you did right, and I really liked how you approached this concept. Well done! I rate this song 1 endless cave.
ps: feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions (discord or ng) & we can chat more about your song!
Hello! Thanks for the review. I sent both songs. This one is for bottomless caves, and that one is for survival on an unknown planet. However, I didn't know how to process it then, and I would have been happy to update this track, adding spaces, equalization, etc. To it. If I understood the recommendations correctly, then there should be a similar ambient. But this is not accurate. As for the emotional plan, it was all planned. Yes, it can be tiring. Honestly, if I had released the track "Rogue" earlier, and edited it a little, then it would probably have been even more suitable. But alas, this will not happen.
OK, maybe we'll talk about it, but I can't say much about this work. :)
Aaaa, I wanted these to be done a lot sooner, but at long last it's finally here:
Official VGMC'21 Review~!
======================
It's a bit unfortunate you only submitted one song, but oh well, the review continues!
What you excel at the most here is creating very compelling melodies & textures, so you'd stand to gain a lot by working on your piece's structure. It's true that your transitions aren't perfect, however I'm not that bothered by them. Moreso, your piece never feels like it has a direction its moving in. Songs commonly make use of harmonic progressions that guide the listener and have quiet & strong sections, with all sorts of ways to transition between them. However, each of your sections feel like they either don't go anywhere, or hint that they'll go in a direction then don’t follow through. The transition at 1:19 is a good example of this.
I think your track doesn’t really take advantage of melodic progression, as it feels like a bunch of unrelated ideas, with some moments not really having a direction. I think with a bit of tweaking however, you could aim for the kind of purposeful aimlessness that c418 achieves in the various Minecraft OSTs. In many of his tracks, he'll design various harmonies progressions to trail off and for others to come back in. This would make it so that despite being extremely varied, the piece sounds cohesive and each of the sections flow into each other.
The mix is pretty well done, though your overuse of reverb tends to muddy the mid frequencies. I would see if you could shorten the reverb, but delay the early reflections a bit more (somewhere between 60-100ms), to maintain the airy & open feeling. I also think you could use some more layering in general to give your flatter instruments more detail. This could also be automated in whatever DAW you use & abused to help control the energy of the track.
A few smaller notes:
- I like how your track introduces a lot of cool concepts that each paint a fitting mood for a massive open underground area.
- One of your track's main strengths is how well your instruments work together. I personally really like the guitar/strumstick sound at 2:12, as it has one of my favourite kinds of timbre. And then you layer it with the chords at 2:39, just wow.
- I like how you play around with stereo separation around ~0:58. However, I would've loved to for your mix to be wider in general. The bulk of your instruments sound close to the middle, with only the reverb dancing around the ears. 1:41 is a good example of this.
- Wow, that bendy bass at 1:13 sounds really nice, I wish you had developed it a bit more.
All in all, I really enjoyed it! I'd love to listen again if you're able to reorganize all your cool ideas in a more united way.
ps: feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions (discord or ng) & we can chat more about your song!
Thank you for your advice, I will be sure to work on it :)
Aaaa, I wanted these to be done a lot sooner, but at long last it's finally here:
Official VGMC'21 Review~!
======================
I really love your sound design if I didn't make it clear from your last piece. The crinkly sounds at 3:19 add a beautiful texture to the orchestra, and the resonant sounds around 0:18 set the tone well. Honestly, I could list off many more moments that sound similarly great.
I would have really loved if the piece had some percussion, but that's kind of a weird thing to request without any context. What's special about percussion? So specifically, this piece needs something to give it movement. It makes good use of very long and sustained sounds to make a detailed atmosphere, however that makes it difficult to feel what's happening at times, which makes following the piece challenging.
In addition, there are a few moments where I can't quite tell what's happening as you have a lot of instruments that clash. 1:22 is a good example of this, where the dissonance produced isn't very pleasant. I think you would get a much cooler dissonant effect by giving each instrument its own space in the mix and making better use of harmony. Orchestral mixing is really hard however, and I don't have deep expertise in this area, so I'd recommend doing some research as there are quite a few resources for learning. If you don't quite know where to look, a good place to start is watching the videos that Joel Dollie makes, as they've helped me a lot in the past.
For a game, this track is a bit full, with the main culprit being length. Long sustained periods with high loudness can make your ears tired quickly. I do like the moments which are intense & full, however during actual gameplay I'd love them to be in short bursts of about a bar. This would also help set the pace of the song.
I think you did a really good job at connecting the two pieces. They both give me the same feeling yet the second is evolved a bit. I also pick up a few melodic elements that sneak their way in. They aren't very easy to spot (which is okay, especially for this style of piece), however they still give the listener some intuition as to what's going on. It's debatable whether it’s a good thing, but this piece has a deathly similar feeling compared to your last one. I think in certain situations it's okay to have different tracks be very similar, however I would've loved a bit more of a spin on your last piece in this one.
Don't be too concerned though, just like your last track, this was a beautiful piece. Keep up the good work!
ps: feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions (discord or ng) & we can chat more about your song!
thank you for both of the reviews ;) i definitely also feel like these songs could've used a bit more time in the oven, especially the mixes; i agree with a lot of the points you made, i also think the masters contributed to them being a bit harsh, i've had a bit of a rough time figuring out my masters
Aaaa, I wanted these to be done a lot sooner, but at long last it's finally here:
Official VGMC'21 Review~!
======================
You did a really good job creating a shiny, yet terrifying atmosphere. I love how your textures are very full and dramatic; I would die to see an area in a Dark Souls game designed around this piece. The mood is especially fitting for the final area. However, the main attraction is your sound design. There are so many beautiful subtle details you introduce, such as the grainy sounds at 0:16 or the little bitcrushed crunch at 1:38, that all help build this very meticulous atmosphere.
I think one quality your piece is missing out on is dynamics. The loudness and timbre of your soundscape feels mostly the same from ~1:20 onwards, which makes it difficult to pick out the changes, despite the fact the sound does evolve. This makes the texture a bit tolling on the ears, and also ends up wearing out the shiny concept near the end, making it feel a bit mundane. One thing I would have loved to see would be if you had interleaved short, softer sections of the "resonant bells" from the intro (or other new instruments / textures if you want!) into the stronger sections, such as around 2:50, in order to give these stronger sections more power via contrast. You want your sections to be like little waves where the lulls help build the peaks to be stronger and stronger, as opposed to a single wave where you can't really feel the moment to moment changes and eventually end up somewhere new.
As I said before, I really like the resonant bell sounds in the first section, however they feel a bit too piercing such that they're a bit painful. I think a bit of compression with a very light threshold to ease the edge would do wonders here. Aside from that, the mixing feels really good; I don't hear any instruments clashing or fighting for space.
All in all this is an awesome piece, I'd give it a rating of 3 crystal pillars!
ps: feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions (discord or ng) & we can chat more about your song!
thank you for your review, i also felt like the song was a bit dull at times, and you are right; best course of action wouldve been to create tension in waves :')
Aaaa, I wanted these to be done a lot sooner, but at long last it's finally here:
Official VGMC'21 Review~!
======================
Wow, what a feeling. Definitely very connected to the last piece. I love your choice of timbre in sounds, in particular that the samples around the beginning of the piece really feel like they're coming through a labyrinth of tunnels.
Similar to your first song, despite your sound effects being really cool sounding, I can't help but feel like the arrangement is missing a bit of detail. This time I think a good example is your synth sounds, which are a bit too pure. They feel like they're taking up too much space as well and become tiring to the ear. I liked the space that 0:41 gave and would've loved to see more of it around the middle of the piece. However, a change in timbre of this synth might also be something to consider.
In general your mixing in this piece was well done, except for moments like 2:41 which kinda wash over the rest of the sounds which results in some clashing. Sidechain compression or eq in this situation would help preserve the synth's details and make the mix cleaner.
And again, you did a really good job with the prompt. Love it!
ps: feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions (discord or ng) & we can chat more about your song!
Thanks again for the critiques. While I'm not sure I would describe the sounds I used as being pure, your point about dynamics is valid: I've always struggled with that balance, no thanks to starting out in the synthwave genre where people kept saying music is never loud enough. :P
Thanks again for the opportunity!
I fight a constant battle to make music on a monthly basis. Use my songs for whatever, just pm me first! (^ w ^)
Age 23
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Joined on 6/23/15
A Bedtime Story 
Rite of the Woods - NGADM ROUND 3 (2021) 
AIM - Fusion Energy 
Skeuomorph 
The Drum Machine Is Possesed 
The Rise Of Darkness 
a sharp intake of breath 
2 - Calendar - VGMC 2021 
1 - Advent - VGMC 2021 
The Temple of Ri 
