When coming up with the title of this song, I kept picturing an evening scene -- the sun about to set, a little surreal I guess. Then, at 1:33, instead of disappearing beneath the horizon, it slowly rises back up again, but the sky around it continues to darken. Sort of like a reverse solar eclipse, I think...
Look, the sun would be bright and the sky would be dark, ok?!?!
Of course, light would burst back in at 1:48. The second half of the piece feels so triumphant (and admittedly disjointed from the first half) -- maybe the sun then just keeps going up and up and up and oh boy is cold out here or is it just all seven billion of us?
Like my previous NGAUC submission, this is a headphones mix, save for a few references on some different speakers than my usual. I think it sounds pretty clean; tried not to overdo the reverb and delay, as one judge pointed out on my previous track.
Almost burned out on this one, but I found a way...
This is my submission for the final round of the Official Newgrounds Audio Underdogs Competition.
CRAP, SORRY! I haven't been able to check out your stuff in so long. Man, is this a pleasant sound to hear now.
You have such a unique sound and are using some sounds I remember using back in the day. Probably not the exact instruments, but similar enough to bring me back on that level.
This took a really weird turn, but I love really weird turns. Keep it up. Please.
No sweat, broski! Glad you like it! Always nice to have a nostalgia boost, eh?
I'm not sure if I really wanted this song to go in the direction it did, but it's all in the past now. I've got more ideas! More on the way in time.
I'll drop you a review later today as thanks!
(Apologies for the very late review. Broken computer + moving into new apartment = QQ)
Oh mai goodness.
The little silence in the beginning - do you use FL Studio? ;D
I love the intro feel. You like dem major sevenths, and I like dem too. Great poppy drums, especially that snare! I would have given it slightly more reverb decay though so the snare has a nice longer tail but nice work nevertheless. Love the little bongo drums, very snappy. In general, the section up till :29 ish when it gets quiet is very concisely mixed and sounds great. Bass isn't too heavy and supports it nicely.
I love the chords around :35, really unique feel that reminds me of chrono trigger and such games for some reason! The rolling toms around :40 really help to push it into the next section, but I do think they're a bit loud and don't have enough reverb to fit in the mix as well as they should. The pitch down at :46 is awesome, I love it.
When the drums pick up again after that, the gentle arp really reminds me of Final Fantasy or other fantasy games. Great feel here. I can really imagine that reverse solar eclipse. You have a great structure to the song - when it drops off to that transition section before 1:30, I love those gentle plucks - and nice sudden square pad! I love how that is almost sounds like when the sunset is apparent, and finally disappears!
Great chords as always at 1:47, I like the gentle lead and the chord change up along with that triplet rhythm in the pulsing tom drum in the back behind the beat! That tom is bothering me a bit, it's almost a bit too loud and bouncy. I think if you had lowered the volume of it when your kick comes in on every beat it would have sounded better and not as crowded in the kick freqs.
Nice wrapup with the plucks! In general you've got a really unique and smooth track that transitions nicely between two different themes and I really enjoyed it. Good luck with your future works! I hope you continue this way :)
NGAUC Finals review: 8.5/10
Apologies for the late reply! Let's get to it!
I use Mixcraft 6, but that little silence at the beginning was my fault, not the program's :) Forgot to fix it.
I agree about that snare reverb; needs a little more. Glad you liked the first section, though. Snappy!
I wasn't too happy with that tom when I put it in, but I thought that the filter fade at the end would save it, haha. Yeah, more 'verb, maybe.
I'm pleased that the instrumentation is doing something for you! It's always cool to remind people of certain games they've played -- happens more often than I would expect.
The bouncy tom does not play at the same time as the kick drum, however, maybe the tail end of it is overlapping a bit with the kick's frequencies. The kick, I find, is too loud in retrospect. Maybe it's so loud, it sounds like that tom is playing on top of it? Maybe. Could be the side-chaining bass, too. Ah, I'll figure it out.
Thanks for the kind words, although I disagree about the transition (ech). I'm not happy with my stuff structurally yet. More practice is needed, but in the meantime, I've got cool reviews like this to keep me going!
Cheers!
I like the blissful, quirky mood at the beginning and the 80s dance vibe you have going on here. The portamentos around :45 were a nice touch. I love all the synths, and that one that comes in at 1:02 was especially cool. The mix is clean and clear. I'm personally a huge fan of sub-basses, as I think they really help go that extra mile as far as adding fill. It's also very hard to get the volume levels on them right, and I think you did a great job of that here. I think you could've found a more effective transition at 1:32 than the sort of echo-and-start-again thing you did. The variations in the second half were appreciated, and I love the relaxed vibe throughout. The ending was a bit lazy, though, and I think you could've done a bit more with it, despite the full mix (aided a lot by the reverb) and relaxed vibe. All things considered, it's an appropriate length, and I think you've done an excellent job of establishing moods/emotions in your tracks, Birdinator99. Good work! Perhaps I was expecting something a bit riskier for the final round, but the unique vibe of your tracks does help you in the long run, as evidenced by the fact that you're in the final round! Anyway, keep up the good work! ;D
8.5/10
I'm glad you liked the pitch bends. They're a favourite of mine!
The synth at 1:02 was one I knew I was going to use if there were wubs involved at some point. I ended up putting a bitcrusher on it and turned out lovely!
Also glad you agree with me on the mix -- sub-basses are rad!
Transition at 1:32 is rough for sure. I think next time I make something, I'm going to draw a little diagram so I can visualize the structure of the song beforehand, and maybe get some ideas from there.
Honestly, the whole second half is lazy, so I guess I got off easy when you only mentioned the ending, heh.
A lot of the reverb you thought you were hearing is actually a delay! Especially on that square synth -- atleast it was working for me this time. The ride cymbal has a lot of reverb though.
There's that word again! Unique! Yay!
Thanks again TheDoor6 -- I'm surprised you liked this more than my knockout round submission, but I can't say no to an 8.5 haha
It does sound very, very clean, and the drums were superb. The wubs around 1 minute in were great. However as you admitted the "triumphant" part of the song does feel disjointed from the first half. To be honest I loved the first half, and when the wubs came in I thought "this is going to be great!"
And then the song changed gears completely. For me the lead felt too repetitive, it really feels like one of those energy songs with great production but where the structure that has been built up just doesn't change to a great enough degree to continue being interesting. I mean, the instruments are constantly making little changes to the way they do their parts, but the parts themselves feel as though they've been caught in a rut. Well, different people prefer different levels of repetition, and I do prefer less of it when possible, so it might just be me.
I guess all in all the first half was good. Then the second half came in, and it was also good for the first bit, but it never did anything to confirm that it was part of the same song as the first half, and continued repeating itself for longer than I was comfortable with.
But I was quite impressed with this piece from a production point of view. I think this is the first time I've heard any wubs from you, so that was fun, and all of the instruments sounded very precise and real. When I listen to individual instruments I can hear that you've given each of them a great amount of care, which is really cool.
Well good luck in NGAUC and I hope to hear from you again soon!
Note to self: more wubs.
Yeah, this is the kind of song that makes sense when you're writing it, and then once you're done it's like, "fuck me I did it again". I tried to bring in instruments from the first part into the second part, but most of them glitched out on me, and weren't cooperating, so I had to pick replacements. I'm glad I still got that pad in...oh well.
The second half was admittedly rushed, and while I'm happy with the sound I got out of it, it really doesn't connect with rest of the song enough to matter. Something I didn't mention in the author comments was that I had a lot of writer's block when making this, effectively halving the time I had to work on it. My music theory is weak, so I had pretty much no idea what keys I was using in the (haphazard) beginning, which made it hard to decide where to go at...well you pretty much know the part (the one that's different, haha). I was also just into a cold, and had some school to get through, so much of this piece was done in a five hour rush at the end. I hate making excuses, but I think that maybe the pressure of the deadline got to me a bit...
Glad you liked the mixing and the drums! I legitimately laughed out loud when you said "this is going to be great!" and then you slowly realized...
...oh no.
hahahaha
Anyway, yeah, nobody'll put this in their "Greatest Hits" collection, but I like getting the experience, and now that I know the wubwubs are a hit with the kids, I'll make millions! huehuehue
Thanks for stopping by!
just UGH-MAZING. Not much to say after you've heard The Best.
Thanks brah.
Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.
Birdinator99 
