Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
HiddenVris, Red Dawn: 7,6,6,4 (23/40)

Probably my most common issue while judging this contest is that artists didn't take advantage of the author's comments section to mention their intentions or what might have inspired them. Though I can sit here and make guesses at how the song relates to the image, as the artist you can draw your own connections and guide the judges a little. It's a lot harder for me to take off points for "relevancy" or "emotion" if I can see that you took the time to really try reflecting the image. Personally, words can guilt me into handing out better scores because I know what it's like to have a vision. Conveying what it was about the art that inspired you isn't always easy with music alone. Were your instruments supposed to represent something physical like machines, clouds, or animals? Did the image seem relaxing and therefor you wrote relaxing music? I'm in the dark over here trying to figure out how the music you wrote reflects an image of a sunrise behind a city on the ocean front.

This is the perfect scenery for samples of gulls cawing and waves gently crashing. You could even have used a synthesizer to generate the white noise necessary to emulate those waves. I notice some of the flags are blowing in the wind, you could have sampled some windchimes. Though I felt the relaxing nature of the track was ideal, I don't necessarily feel like the song and the image are inseparable from each other. That synth/drum section in particular confused me to death. The song might have been better with those percussive elements muted. You wrote such lovely piano and pad melodies, you wouldn't have been shooting yourself in the foot if you just replaced those pseudo aggressive sections with more of that melodic genius. As a drummer myself it always hurts to tell people "mute the drums" but it's a valid critique. In the future, you can defend these kinds of musical devices in the authors comments by drawing direct parallels and that would make it harder on us to give out lower scores. Use every tool you got.

You wrote a very quiet mix. It would have worked with this scenery but I like to tell people "you can maximize your spectrum and still write relaxing music or soundscapes." You could have used panning data to emulate the space in the image, a wave crashing SFX can move from left to right and put us directly in the path of the water as if we're standing in it. Gull samples could be "far away" and biased to the left or right to emulate location. This song could have been amazing, you have some of the right elements in place that would have worked very well with some of the other ideas mentioned above. I feel bad giving you a relatively low score that I didn't want to keep taking points off but the more I wrote, the more I did. I'm sorry if this comes across as rude or hurtful. I only want to see the Newgrounds audio community make the best music they can possibly make. You've got some ideas to wrestle with but I know you'll be a very strong contender in the future if you keep up with it. Hopefully I'll see some more from you in the future, live long and prosper HiddenVris! Always upwards :3

Cool sounds & cool harmonic ideas! Connection to art is there, but somewhat weak.

You have a lot of interesting ideas, but they aren't executed very well. Mixing is okay, but there are a few places where sounds are too loud / quiet. Pacing is a bit repetitive, and many sections stop being engaging after a while. Your transitions are also relatively minimal, and so don't do a great job building/releasing tension. However, I'd love to see your take on this idea again in a few years!

As for how to improve, I suggest spending some time analyzing your favourite songs. I like to writing down what I do & don't like about them.

Good luck & solid entry!

Its a song that remind me to a videogame scenario where you go seeying the urbano