This is an NGADM Round 3 Review.

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First off, I want to apologise for the tardiness! Onto the review.

So, what initially impressed me a lot about this track would be the atmosphere you created right from the get-go. That intro is nothing short of film-worthy, with the subtle electronic elements, soft staccato string passage in the background, and those awesome swelling strings. You've created, as always, a wonderfully cinematic experience. Another thing I particularly liked over here is how airy the track is! It's something I've noticed in nearly all of your music. I think it's somewhat of a temptation to make orchestral/film music very warm and thick, but it's a temptation you don't fall into. Your tracks have a certain sense of airiness without sounding empty, and yet you still craft such excellent atmospheres. It shows a sense of restraint and control that's valuable for any musician to have.

While I do think this is extremely high-quality stuff, I'm also going to echo what those below me said. It doesn't really venture anywhere. As you probably guessed, the lack of dynamics is killing this track, from the perspective of an NGADM judge. It would fit beautifully in some long, tense scene in a film, but as a listening experience it's a mere exercise in subtlety, and nothing more. It doesn't tell a story or have much movement. Your last round's track suffered from this to an extent, but I liked the emotion and composition of that one a lot, whereas over here the focus seems to be on atmosphere. Atmosphere alone won't get you the sky-high scores you need at this point in the competition!

While I adore all the subtleties and atmosphere, I was hoping for a bit more of an experience! That said, this is, like always, professional-level stuff from you. I hope to see you in any future NGADMs, and it's been a pleasure!

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SCORE: 8.3/10

NGADM Review:

So basically, you have always had a really solid atmosphere in all of your tracks. I just feel that it doesn't have a direction. It doesn't really have a melody to follow, and it lacks in dynamics. I can't really define anything by parts, nor did I feel much of an emotional connection to them. The realism of the track is really nice, and the overall emotion is nice, but it's the change in emotions that I was looking for. That's really the only thing that I dislike about this track, but I think it definitely affected your score from me quite a bit. I've heard your other stuff, and I know you can do a lot better than this. You're very talented, and I hope to see you next year :)

8.6/10

-Ryan

This is an NGADM 2015 Review.

Man, I loooove your slow, dark, low strings and ominous intro. This track would be right at home in a dark, snowy setting. You have some fantastic FX and subtleties and you use your dynamic space well! The tiny piano chords closer to the start of the song are fantastic! I think the only unfortunate aspect of this track is that it doesn’t really go anywhere, despite clearly holding the potential to do so.

You’ve got this great atmosphere, dark and foreboding, and it fosters a build in tension, a dramatic rise… but it never really comes. I was really expecting (or hoping for) an emotional crescendo or something into a big powerful chorus, with orchestral percussion and big brass, but the song didn’t quite deliver the release it promised. This is alright, in some ways, and your song is definitely still really strong - it just feels a little anti-climactic as a result.

There are still plenty of strong aspects to your song, especially the subtleties (which haven’t stopped blowing me away on every listen, honestly.) This would be pretty awesome as a soundtrack to a game, where the nature of the medium necessitates the relatively stagnant structure. The melodies are also pretty good, I like the cello arps and I love the panning on the strings! This song is so incredibly rich at some parts, and I suppose that’s part of why I was a little disappointed; because it promised so much. The production quality is quite high and the parts you do have sound fantastic on their own.

I suppose it isn’t even the lack of climax that I’m uneasy about, but more that your song isn’t very dynamic from a structural perspective. In a levels sense, it’s incredibly dynamic, but it doesn’t go from soft to loud, if you understand what I mean. At least, not very dramatically, and not very much - it stays in the same place for most of its duration. You do have some percussion later into the second half, but you don’t add much new to this section, and it kind of feels as though it’s there for the sake of it.

One other minor problem is that, although your track sounds awesome; it’s very quiet, at around -25RMS. This is extremely low compared to most songs, and you’ve got a huge amount of space up there you should be using, since your song doesn’t have any overwhelmingly loud parts.

All of that said, this is a lovely dramatic piece and I really enjoyed how well constructed some of it is, especially the subtleties! Seriously, they’re fantastic. Great work!

Great atmosphere at the beginning with the reverb in the pianos and the probably-a-celeste-or-something doing the main background undertone.

Honestly, overall, this track is a really really cool background atmosphere that doesn't really do anything. There are some cool ideas but it's a RPG background. Oh, it also loops at about 1:45 with some minor changes like the drumset. Don't tell me you didn't expect nobody to notice that everything but the drumset is almost exactly the same. (though admittedly it does add something to the copied section unlike your last track which literally copy/pasted the second half except for a few minor things).

Other than that, the mastering could use a bit of work. The quiet parts are quiet, which is nice - but it doesn't really have any part which comes out. It's all just background. You could easily put a limiter on with a very basic setting - no brickwalling or even significant compression at all - and bring up the presence of the track by miles.

That said, great atmosphere! I do really like the atmospheres your tracks have. Did at the start, still do now.