haha, this is really good man, I also like how the tag high comes before the word in the title :P
Reviews for "Floating Through Reality"
td6d responds:
Thanks! :]
I love the pulsating electric piano(?) sound. This piece has a very organic quality due to the breath noises and such. I also dig the effect at the end around 1:52.
This piece is very floaty and ethereal, but it feels undeveloped. It seems awfully short for an ambient track. I'd be more inclined to give it a full five stars if it spent more time evolving. It just feels incomplete as is. Pretty cool overall though.
td6d responds:
Thanks man, I might make it longer one day.
This is an NGADM Round 1 Review.
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You've got a solid ambient track here. Very minimal and soothing. In that light, you've pretty much nailed it. However, this track isn't that developed and doesn't seem to go anywhere new for the whole time that it plays, which is also quite short.
What I liked about this would undoubtedly be the atmosphere and mood you managed to convey. It's all REALLY chill and the smooth, buttery lead synth is quite catchy, although I do feel that its sound could've been a bit more interesting (maybe automating some effects on it and whatnot would've been a good idea). Still, it's all very relaxing. Composition-wise, you've got a solid, catchy melody playing. I don't agree with some of the plucked synth chords in the background but that's probably personal preference. Cool transitions and great ending too.
The main problem with this track is, in my opinion, the fact that it doesn't really go anywhere. It serves only the purpose of setting the mood and creating an atmosphere. The fact that it's just two minutes long and keeps to a pretty consistent mood, style and sound set throughout makes it not a very satisfying listen at all. It's also very minimalistic, and while this can be good in some occasions, I feel that it makes the track sound fairly empty and dull.
Moreover, the melodies are far too underdeveloped. The melody doesn't change in pace or rhythm much, and gets fairly repetitive. I would've been overjoyed to hear some changes in pace. Even the drums were very underdeveloped. They stayed nearly exactly the same for the whole track, and adding some more drum layers would've been a great idea. However, I do like how you mixed the drums. I would've put some more high-end reverb on the clap/snap things, but otherwise I think they're great. The kick in particular is wonderfully bassy.
Overall, this is a great ambient track but the fact that you don't develop it much makes for an unfortunately unsatisfying listen, I'm afraid.
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SCORE:
6.5/10
Here is your personal review for your round 1 submission! Remember that the score might be a little lower than I would normally give, I'm being a tad harsher than I'd normally be for the NGADM.
The Good:
-Holy crap this is REALLY chilled and minimalistic. I love all the different SFX and percussion you have in this (particularly the breathing sounds), as well as all the instruments.
-The different effects you have on all the instruments are really nice.
-The mix is good, though with so few sounds in it, that's probably not very difficult.
-Your outro is sweeeeeeeeet. ^_^
The Not-So-Good:
-There's really not much I can say other than this: This song is waaaaaaaaaay too underdeveloped. There's pretty much nothing other than FX, and not really any variation at all either.
Overall: This is really chill. I'd have loved to listen to this even more if it were longer and more varied. Sadly though, it's not, so I'll have to give it a 6.3/10.
You've definitely got some of the freshest and chilliest sounds in this round, and I can really enjoy that. Percussion sounds brilliant and detailed, the chord-pad-synth-thing is really sweet, the reverb is just glorious, the mix is open and airy throughout, it's got a really neat atmosphere, the kick gives it a bassy pulse to round off the mix - if you were to tone down that sine-ish main melody synth a bit, I could listen to this for ages... in the background.
Listening to it analytically gives me no joy at all, because not only is it very repetitive and low on content, the sequencing/programming is a bit banal too. Beyond the chord-pad-synth-thing and the lead melody, you've kinda just placed percussion sounds in sensible places but you're not doing anything impressive rhythmically or melodically or anything. The tune ends before anything really interesting happens, but at least the ending with the flanged pad sounds good.
8 points for sounds and instrumentation.
4 points for composition and melody/harmony.
6 points for theme/originality/other things that might impress.
Overall impression: 6.5