This is an NGADM Round 3 Review.
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It's such a massive shame that you lost your CCC samples because YET AGAIN you present us with a skilfully composed submission that has HEAPS of potential.
You know I actually think this is quite an audible improvement over Etude. As much as I liked that, and despite the fact that this track isn't as sophisticated melodically, I feel that this delivered a much more satisfying experience, and it also doesn't feel nearly as MIDI-like as Etude does. Lovely piano passages; very expressive and powerful. Oh and man, that melody is incredible. You showed it to me on MSN a few days ago and despite me saying that I won't give you any feedback on it I felt like bursting out with 'THIS IS AMAZING' the whole time. Amazing chords as usual, too, and cool bass drum/timpani rolls. Additionally I love that little tremolo thing you did with the guitar in the section at 1:05.
And hey your sounds aren't really that bad this time. They're very clearly not the East/West samples you had a few weeks ago but your mixing is pretty good and your amazing composition still makes everything sound very good. And sound-wise your samples aren't TOO bad either. If you listen closely you'll notice that the strings and flute (strings especially) are clearly low-quality samples, but the overall sound is good and I like that you're still able to be so resourceful despite your lack of samples.
Unfortunately, this does have its issues. I'll start with the minor ones; I think you over-use the reverb. There's especially too much reverb on the piano and flute. Secondly, I think you over-use the cymbal roll. It kinda lost its touch after a while since you used it so much. Now that I've gotten rid of those, here's the first major issue; I think you hold on to the main melody too much. As much as I love all the background elements you've got going on, and the fact that they keep things interesting, you stick to the same melody throughout except for a different melody (that still isn't that different) at 1:05 and a subtle change in your main melody at the very end. This made the track pretty predictable.
Also, towards the end I felt that it went... downhill. At around 1:23 it started to feel pretty uninspired, since all you do there is repeat the melody you played before, and then stop it suddenly for an admittedly beautiful piano solo. The piano solo was nice but it just came out of nowhere and felt like it was tacked on to the song rather than synchronised with the flow of the song. I know you had problems finishing this on time so maybe that's why? That being said, I absolutely love your ending... even if the wind chimes were a bit clichÃfffffÃfff'Ãff'Ãf'Ã'© haha.
In a nutshell this is a great track with some issues. I very much enjoyed it despite your lack of samples and I think you did a great job!
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SCORE: 8/10