Reviews for Sinking Island

[SkyeWint]

Here is your personal review for round 2 of the NGADM! Keep in mind, this review will be harsher than the round 1 review! I will be poking at songs more in each consecutive round, because it will naturally be more difficult to advance.

The Good:
-I LOVE the percussion you introduce at the beginning.
-I really like the sliding swoopy synth at about 1:17.
-Mixing is alright by me.
-The chord progression is different from what I normally hear. It sounds pretty nice.
-The main synth sounds pretty nice, I like how it bounces all over the place - except at the beginning where it makes the whole song sound like it's vibrating.

The Not-So-Good:
-There's a weird sound toward the beginning that makes me feel like the song overall is "vibrating". And no, I'm not going to just put that down to a progressive mixing choice. It shows up later but isn't as much of a problem.
-You might want to change the drums a little bit more than you did. They're fairly repetitive.
-Transition at about 1:44 is a tad iffy. Could have been improved quite a bit.
-You may have wanted a bass in the song. If you did have one, I can't hear it.
-Chord change at around 2:35 is fairly ew. It would have been better if you changed the melody rather than just moving the chord sequence to a different base key.
-This is fairly repetitive overall. It doesn't change in feel or really much at all for most of the song - 1:45-1:50 is the only break, and it's pretty short.

Overall: This is a pretty nice song. I have to say, I like it a lot - though there are a lot of 'samey' sounds throught it and it doesn't change much. I think you should really work more on variation in your music. This is deserving of a 6.6/10 from me.

OpenLight responds:

I agree with the variation...

The problem is, last round I was told that I needed more consistency and there needed to be catchy repeated melodies. I tried that, though I don't like repeating stuff in my songs ever, and I agree with your review in the respect that it had some repetitive parts. Of course, I'm not saying that the recommendation that I should have more consistency was a bad recommendation, but it was something that it would take me a while to master with my composition style.

The sound at the beginning is the delay on the melody synth. For whatever reason, it gave me the same feel. I thought it might give it a more ethereal feel to the piece, but it wasn't intentional. I decided to keep it because the delay worked a lot better in the end and because of the whole "potentially-ethereal" feel I felt it could give.

I'm really glad you liked this song, and I honestly wish I hadn't decided to try the consistency thing on this song, but regardless, thanks for the review!

[BrokenDeck]

There's a clash of leading synths at the beginning that the additional drums just further help distract the listener.
However I like the song better once it's past the intro. The mixing is a bit off however, and the song stops unexpectedly.

OpenLight responds:

I got a lot of reviews from last round that told me to do things that are getting scrutinized this round ha. But I agree about the intro. The intro sounded a lot different before I uploaded it here and I'm not sure why. I'm looking into the possibility that my file didn't save under the same name or I used an old file when submitting this track, but either way I agree that the intro could use some tweaks.

As for the unexpected ending, I did that for impact since I don't like having all of my songs drop out or fade out. But, since you brought up the ending, I'll take that as it doing what it was meant to do haha. Though it is all preference when it comes to this and other aspects of my piece, and I knew before I submitted this track that it wouldn't necessarily fit in with the dubstep-heavy audio traditionally all over Newgrounds.com.

As long as my track was original in some aspect, I feel happy with the piece.

Thank you for your concise review! I appreciate it.

[Step]

This is an NGADM Round 2 Review.

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Damn, this is some interesting stuff right here. It certainly goes outside the box and offers something new while still retaining an enjoyable experience. Nice work!

The composition is impressive. Even in your Round 1 submission, your composition was pretty awesome, and it's showing again here in Round 2. Even though your composition does have its own issues, you have a knack of making melodies that grab your attention and are instantly likeable. And I really like how that melody at 0:39 is repeated occasionally in the track, with one of its rhythms being highlighted by drum hits at parts like 0:55. It's a great melody with a fun rhythm and works well with the drums.

Your instrumentation is pretty good. You've got some decent chiptune-like sounds in there that give a good first impression. Your drums are fairly punchy and fit pretty well, although they aren't anything special. Your EQing is pretty good too. On top of all that, you've got a great introduction which I'll admit is one of my favourites this round. The ending however, is terrible. Sorry man, it's just too abrupt; you play quick notes and then out of nowhere you play the root chord. It's just not right.

The largest issue I have with this track is the fact that unfortunately this can get tiring to listen to after a while. You very rarely allow any other instrument to carry the main melody and it's almost always played by that high-pitched saxophone-like instrument. The part where that instrument exits in the middle of the song is highly welcomed but even then, that part isn't anything special, and soon afterwards the main instrument comes back in. What doesn't help is that you've got some fairly repetitive drums, melodies that have inherently quick notes and a very excessive amount of delay/reverb that just jumbles everything up.

Speaking of which, your mixing unfortunately still needs work. Your mixing isn't bad, since you've got some good EQing, but the first order of business is to tone down on the delay/reverb since it's making one part blur into the next. I'd also suggest throwing some more bass tones into that mix because right now other than a bit of a bass thump from the kick, we're left with a pretty understated low end. That being said, I love your filter automation.

So, recap; work on your mixing, your ending and the fact that this gets tiring to listen to. Despite that, this is still enjoyable, gives a good first impression and as is the case in Round 1 you showcase some really catchy and likeable composition.

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SCORE:
7/10

[Back-From-Purgatory]

NGADM 2 and stuff.

Fairly dynamic, some cool themes, pretty synths, decent mixing, although I found the entire track sounded a little... back there... Dunno how to explain, it all sounded slightly muffled to me. I like the overall theme of the track, but it didn't really seem to go anywhere, and was perpetually stuck in the mood it started in, which I think was due in no small part to the repetitive drum part, which IMO had a huge impact on the feeling of repetitiveness.

Decent theme, easy on the ears, although fairly forgettable IMHO. 7/10.

[Echo]

NGADM Review:

I'm not going to write in length here. This is a very good piece in most regards, particularly orchestration wise. The melodies, harmonies and chord progressions you use are very very good. They're catchy, upbeat and very well implemented. The instruments that play them are also very good, and of a pretty decent quality. These two aspects come together to create an overall very high quality piece

Unfortunately, this is kinda ruined by the mixing, which isn't that great. In some cases, the instruments tend to overpower each other rather than come together as a whole. EQing is pretty decent, but could also use some work.

Also, the piece tended to get a bit repetitive and boring as it progressed, which made for a pretty tedious experience towards the end.

So overall, a good piece, with some minor drawbacks which you could fix quite easily.

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SCORE:
7.3/10