Oh wow now this was really nice the saxophone was very nice wish there was more of that in there it's a nice tune here good vibes all around

~X~

Disclaimer: without the score sheet in front of me I may review this a little differently than I did in the fever pitch of trying to score everyone else fairly in two weeks. This review is just an elaboration of why I may have scored the way I did and everyone I'm reviewing today will receive this little disclaimer, kisses.

Woot, loved the technicality on this. I could easily hear this track as the menu music for some video game like The Sims or an old television game show. If I took a point off for that metric (which I doubt I did) forgive me. I'd be surprised if I took points off for composition either. Perfect little progressive jazz ditty. I might have taken a point off for production, you could have pushed the bass a little harder. Sounds are just a little thin. Nothing in this mix save the kick drum is really low enough to battle the bass for the lows, go louder. You might have been able to get a little braver with your pan data but sounds are crisp despite relatively static field locations. Great dynamics from everything. I'm genuinely getting curious how I scored this...

TO HELP GIVE YOU THE FEEDBACK YOU DESERVE I HAVE OPENED THE SCORE SHEET only to realize that you got a near perfect score from me. You're making me work here, I just spent half the day writing two reviews, you really wanted to know what my score was about? Your music is amazing but to be brutally honest it's not quite perfect nor totally unique. I don't like handing out perfect scores. In the spirit of that while trying to be fair I may have been a little too harsh? Something that would have helped net you gain my last "spunk/personality" point may have been to include some kind of introductory studio recording atmosphere? Someone else introduced their track with the sound of an exhale into their microphone. You could have recorded a small conversation in the background to make it sound like a band was coming to an agreement about when to start the beat. Trying to emulate that live gig sound would have gave this just an extra inch of spunk in my eye. This track is so perfect, it's almost "too perfect." A one off vocal sample coming from the background is something that can happen in a live studio. Sometimes the drummer will give a small woot and their voice will get picked up off a drum microphone. It's so fucking extra to even mention that you should have done something like that but I'm trying so hard to give you some helpful feedback.

While looking at the scores I'm quick to notice that it was the other judges that were more critical. I was very kind to your track but IMO, it was deserved. You went really hard and killed it with something I can totally appreciate. I'm sorry that the other judges didn't hear what I heard but being aware of their production habits, I will tell you that they are all EDM nerds. Like the metal heads, EDM nerds go extra hard nailing production quality and fidelity, eking out sounds that paint the entire spectrum. That's going to result in a bias against genres that don't take full advantage of sub sonic frequencies. I can almost guarantee that is what happened. Don't take that personally, last year there was a judge with literally zero music qualifications or music written. When it comes to Newgrounds you have to be the change you want to see and volunteer to judge when contests roll around. It sucks not getting to participate but I think it's more rewarding to have to listen to what else everyone is doing, taking note of the community in its entirety. There is so much diversity in music here but Newgrounds raises some blood thirsty hard style advocates. You felt torn to write a metal song, I'm going to advocate you do that next round. If there were some more jazz heads on the judge panel this year you'd probably have done better, I've seen perfectly written bebop get voted down in the past. In 2013 camoshark wrote "SuperCollide" and I still listen to that track from time to time. If I remember correctly, he was eliminated from round 1 of the deathmatch with some low scores BUT IT WAS FUCKING PERFECT JAZZ IN EVERYWAY. I will never forget that song nor how much I loved it. I will always look to it as an example of why you got to play to "cliche" Newgrounds genres if you want to get past round one of the deathmatch. In the future, Dubstep and Metal it is. Don't tell Sequenced I said that, or he'll throw a fit. Know your audience, know your judges, play to their favorites, win more often. It's just a theory I'm working on, DON'T TELL ANYONE I SAID THIS.

Regardless of what I'm telling you, the other judges may have had perfectly legitimate reasons for their scores. I wish I could take the time to leave a review for everyone in the contest because everyone deserves some genuine feedback. It's always going to be an incredibly diverse community here but if you want to help your jazz peers you have to join the judge brackets and promote them a little. I doubt the other judges are as familiar with jazz as I am. I love jazz, it's one of my favorite genres. You may have brought a knife to a gun fight. Whip out your heavy metal dick in the next round, wave it around a little, slap someone with it, make them beg for it :0

For context I'm linking to that camoshark track. Note the waveshape in the visualizer, his bass frequencies are filling up all that extra space. There is a lot of warmth to their production. Take my initial critisism for mix and compare your audio to this track:

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/545364

OH, ONE LAST PARTING THOUGHT: I'm wearing Sennheiser HD 650s which push better bass frequencies and drown out thinner sounds a little. If any of the judges are using Audio Technicas you may have tickled their ears a little with this mix leading to harsher production crits. I got a pair of Audio Technicas because they were very highly recommended by the Newgrounds community and I wanted to know what they were hearing. The headphones offer a flat response, useful in their own right when mastering against monitors with subs but I fucking hate them. Powerful genres like dubstep or metal are so flat on them that they punch ear drums out without the subs to balence them. Mixing entirely on certain Audio Technicas would lead to completely different mix down choices. I'm willing to bet all the EDM judges have headphones that hear differently than yours which led to harsher production scores. I'm like... 50% certain?

I hope this was helpful and you don't lose sleep thinking about mastering issues. I know I do sometimes. Have a good one Teffy <3

This is very fun to listen to!

Hermosoo

when the electric guitar came in- whooh

nice stuff