Reviews for ~SW~ City of the Clouds

[Warhector]

Here I need some digestion. There is a lot of genres going on for you here. I hear orchestral, Asian culture, ambient and electro rock. And you pulled it off quite well.

The length is not to long or to short. I thought that in the length of the description would correspond to a way to long song. (I've never been so wrong, *hug*).

The art fits very well, as went to follow your story while I listened to the song. I like that you out a organ in the mix. As a organ player, I prefer it to sound less robotic/quantized. But it suits the song well. Check my entries, you will hear organs in 2/3 of them.

Do not worry for the mix. It sounds about right now. At this point it is just personal preference for what you want it to sound. That means, as long levels sounds great, and no instruments shivers or is to muddy and all instruments sounds presence in the mix, you are safe.

I listened to all the entries and your song in my opinion is within the top 10 at least! Keep it up, and good luck!

SkyeWint responds:

Hey there!

Guess I can see what you mean about the digestion, I tend to put so much variation into my music that it takes people a few listens to really... "get" it. Guess you certainly noticed the variation thing, lol.

The length is always debated in almost all of my music, since I generally try to keep the music going and doing something different. A lot of people don't like that - I guess they're more used to genres such as techno, rock, or pop, so they appreciate repetition more. I've tried doing it, but it's just not my cup of tea. Glad you think the length is appropriate. ^_^ If it's going to be longer than about 3-4 minutes, I'm definitely going to have multiple shifts of the entire mood of the song or make it do something totally wacky which tells people "HEY. I'm not done being interesting yet!".

Yeah, the organ playing isn't exactly realistic, but I didn't quite intend it to be so. After all, in the picture the city is really mechanized! I guess that's personal preference though. I'll listen to some of your music and see how you play the organ though - always good to know how to make an organ more realistic. I'm actually a piano player of something like 9 years, so I can tell a robotic/quantized keyboard from a real one. :)

Mixing is something I've been working on for awhile. First it was clipping, then it was muddy, then it was muddy AND clipping, then it was clean, then muddy again, then clean but didn't let instruments breathe, and now... this. Been a crazy wacky long road, but I think I'm almost at the end of figuring out how to do it!

Glad you like the song so much! :D Here's hoping it does end up being one of the top entries!

Thanks for the review!

[alternativesolution]

Wow, I can really hear the effort in this one! Yes, your mix is not bad at all! It's great!
I like how the moods change within the song while still sounding like it's part of the same piece. I enjoy these cinematic-type/movie/game pieces because of this reason. And it helps to maintain interest!

So, your instrument choice works out very well. Nothing really clashes at all. The part at 1:41 sounds a little random while at the same time dancey, but the randomness doesn't last for too long, and after another listen, it begins to grow on you. Funky :D The soundtrack to "Moonview Highway" of Mario Kart immediately came to mind. And that guitar in the final segment...I found myself bobbing my head a little :)

You let the song calm down fantastically after all the energy, which is very, very good (transitions are superb!) However, what I think would work well for this song would be to extend the ending by a few extra seconds. I feel like the sort of ending you've made merits a longer fadeout; let it decay, even for just a bit. It sounds like it suffocated instead of leaving you with that floaty yet earthy feeling from before.

Which brings me to my next point - the atmosphere you created has a very earthy-feel to it, with just the right amount of airiness to it. You get it right from the introduction. It's terrific, and I can see how the art inspired you! I think my favorite sections were definitely the first two. The build-up to the third part - Starlight City - is just amazing, and I can't get over it.

Great description, by the way. It's nice to hear what listeners think after hearing a song, but I can't give you much else, since the art, along with what you've written, does a pretty amazing job at describing what you're going for -- which happens to be exactly what I hear.

Just...very well done. 5/5.

SkyeWint responds:

I HAVE ANOTHER 22 HOURS I CAN FIX THE PROBLEMS YOU MENTIONED! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA xD

Seriously though thanks for the review! ^_^

First of all, the effort in this is, surprisingly, less than in some of my other music (most notably Dimethyltriptamine and Birth of an Astral Nation) - at least, when it comes to hours spent in-program. I only spent 31 on this as opposed to something like 87 on BoaAN and 99 on DMT. There is a lot in this that I put a lot of effort into though, time isn't the only way to figure out effort.

The instruments took a long time to decide on, but fortunately Omnisphere has just about everything I could possibly want. Those organ solos were probably the most fun to make, to be honest. xD The 'guitar' at the end is, surprisingly, another synth that has SO much wack on it that it's totally insane.

When it comes to transitions, I don't know. I guess I've always been good at that, to be honest. People have always commented on those as being super-smooth and good. I definitely agree about the ending, I think I'll edit it a little bit along with a few tiny things about the mixing that I noticed upon the export.

All the airiness was a thing that I really wanted to do. To be honest, considering I had made a lot more down-to-earth and spacey themes, I thought doing something involving the sky would be nice. Also, since you're judging in the NGADM, if I get into it (tempted to use this as my audition instead of the one i had originally submitted), I'm definitely going to be trying out some different and cool stuff.

About buildups: I actually consider buildups and their reverse to be extremely important in transitions. Here's how I think of it. Music has a flow - as a musician it's my job to find that flow and follow it, nudging it in the direction I want it to go to and trying to herd it a bit so that it can grow, but in the direction I want it to grow. If you can figure out the flow, making transitions takes almost no effort at all. :) I'm glad you liked the buildups, those were some of the best parts to make. If I were to pick a favorite part, it'd probably be 1:54-2:56. Sound effects feel so nice to put into a piece, lol.

The description was just there for people who were having a hard time figuring things out. I'm always happy to hear if someone can hear a story in my music though, even if it's not mine! After all, I try to make my music have some kind of story behind it as well, so that people can close their eyes and just "see" things because of it. It's always a cool thing to hear about that.

Anyway, now that I've made a response about as long as your review, thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thank you thank you thank ye kindly muchos gracias and gesundheit. Your review was really helpful and awesome. Looking forward to the NGADM! :D

[Souldran]

Might as well consider a spot saved on the compilation album for this one...

SkyeWint responds:

Oh man I certainly hope so. ^_^ That would be awesome.

Of course, it would be super-awesome if I managed to get first or second place, then I might be able to get something from EWQL or something like that.