round 2 review m8

it sux

nah its ok

love love love how the percussion rolls along all footwork like, great intricate programming on those 808s. the constant development is awesome, top notch writing. kick gets kinda lost when everything comes together and the bass has a little too much low-mid in it for my taste, would've liked a bit more ducking on that airy pad just to emphasize the downbeats a little more. not super keen on that last reprise of the chorus either, makes the song drag on too much. you also cut the render off before everything faded out properly, not a big deal but it's one of those little details that bothers me sometimes.

good shit!

m9.0/10

Great intro. Very Alan Parsons Project, actually – I enjoy how you implement everything together very well here, and that one driving synth that comes in around 0:50 is an awesome path to the main rhythm.
However, my main problem is with that particular beat overall. The random backbeat (with the toms and hat) just doesn’t make rhythmic sense to me and it seemed like it was struggling to find a place to fit in.
You have some really good buildups in this song as well that lead to some nice driving riffs, like at 2:25. Nice, chill rhythm here and a very full mix (you always have awesome mixing!). I would have enjoyed it more had it been sped up, but I realize it’s more of a chillstep/trance piece so that doesn’t factor into the scoring.
At 3:25 we’re taken once again to that interesting rhythm that seems like it’s trying to catch up to your main track, and as much as I want it to be a part of the song, it just doesn’t seem right for it.
I also found that the frequencies in the background become a bit noisy after a while, and there are irregular frequencies that might have been better off not being there. You have some nice delay going on towards the end – melodically, it all works wonderfully together and the filter that takes off the roundness of everything is a perfect final mix.
Conclusively I enjoyed this piece, but it felt very repetitive and the frequencies got to me after a bit. However, your mixing, as always, is on point and the idea behind the song is great.

NGADM Round 2 Score: 8.3

Even with the repetition this track held my interest. The sounds play well together and I really like the distribution of frequencies being channeled into my ears.

This is my only negative comment: In some places random percussion (like 'john's door') jumps in momentarily and it doesn't really fit into the track well, sounding like it is in a different 'layer' than most of the other instruments. It actually makes me feel panicked as my attention jumps between them, the same feeling I get when two people are talking to me at the same time.

Anyway, very intredasting track! Good work!

Beautiful job! This track screams nothing but win! :)

This is an NGADM Round 2 Review.

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Wow, you definitely upped your game for this round. This is an incredibly developed and best of all cohesive listening experience spanning over six minutes of earcandy. I'm really glad that the ADHD kind of feeling I got from your Round 1 track is all but gone here, because everything indeed flows well and is structured masterfully. Little motifs (like johnfn's door knocking samples at 1:25) being repeated more than once made all the difference, and of course your tried-and-true structure of building up to a climax, building down, and swelling up again for the ending leaves the listener very satisfied by the end.

Your sound design is simply fantastic man. Some of my favourite things would be how you morphed the synth at the beginning from a pluck to a bright saw synth, the pitch rising in the buildups which hit the sweet spot of sounding exciting without sounding overbearing, and your absolutely glorious bass synth. Really great stuff. I should also commend you on making something that sounds very well-thought-out and non-generic, something which your opponent could have worked more on. This has a very identifiable and unique style, which is great.

I have two issues with the track. For starters, I think that the high frequencies are a bit much. I like the airy soundscape your heavy use of white noise sweeps and high-end-heavy open hats creates, but it unfortunately does get a bit hard to bear with for six minutes. Secondly, the climax you have in the middle and the climax at the end are roughly the same, except the second one is longer. Even the respective buildups to each climax are approached in somewhat of the same manner. I feel like this kind of cheapens the introduction of the second buildup a little.

But damn, excellent job with this. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

SCORE: 9.2/10