An original idea, but maybe too original?
It's a really nice song overall. The production of the song was very, very good, as usual. Not only that, but mixing the three different genres of electro house, chiptune and orchestral, some of which have nothing to do with each other, was a very original idea, and each of the three genres played an important role in the song. Nice work.
Probably, the main trait of this submission would be the genre mix, so I'll comment about that first. Like I said above, it was an original idea. That being said, I don't think the orchestral parts fit as well as they could've fit. The orchestral parts almost sounded extra, and when the song almost randomly switched to another genre (like from the intro to 0:22), it took me by surprise and made me feel that the song is a bit random. Sure, the orchestral parts on their own were great, and there were some decent transitions from electro house/chiptune to orchestral and vice versa (such as 1:14 which was abrupt and takes the listener by surprise, but still a good transition), but the problem is that adding orchestral elements made the song almost lose its identity and start sounding a tad bit random.
On to the production, I can't say I wasn't impressed. The mix was well balanced, and the mastering and mixing overall was sublime. I think you could have added a bit more bass to the saw lead that came in around 0:22 - 0:24, but that's probably just me. I heard no noticeable clipping, and everything was heard clearly. Nice, nice :D.
The melodies weren't exactly the strong point of this submission, but then again they're not supposed to be so I won't comment about them. Like in your other songs, though, the rhythms are varied and very interesting, especially the rhythms of the chiptune elements. While at times the song can get uninteresting, it's the variety of rhythms and sounds which'll probably keep a listener 1enjoying it till the end. Oh, and even though orchestral didn't fit that well in the song, the part at 1:14 was really nice, and the subtle entrance of the strings really did it for me. On to the next paragraph.
The percussion was very good, and got you a few points. The transitions from one percussion style to another were pretty smooth. I'm hearing orchestral drums (0:07), electro house drums (0:22) and chiptune drums (0:29). The chiptune and electro house drums were mixed together particularly well, so good job over there. The occasional use of crash cymbals and reverse cymbals worked out rather well too, and helped a lot in the transitions. I have no complaints with the percussion.
Lastly, I'll talk about the intro and outro. The intro, while not being anything special, built up to the main theme rather well. While I think you could have made the very beginning of the intro a bit more interesting instead of just piano and a random brass staccato, it's still a good intro which does the song justice. As for the ending, you mixed electro house with chiptune quite well before ending it in a trancy manner with sidechaining on a crash cymbal. Pretty good ending, if not a bit abrupt.
All in all, I enjoyed this song. The randomness of the genres is a bit of the shame, and I did mention a few nitpicks such as the slightly uninteresting intro, slightly abrupt outro, etc... but that's not to say it's a bad song. Keep it up.
9/10
4/5
-Review Request Club-
Note: This is your NGADM competition Round 4 review, which I took ages to post on here.