This is an NGADM Round 1 Review

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Now here's an interesting track. Sure, I do have some qualms with your mixing and sound choices, but there's a certain spacey and unique characteristic to this track's overall sound that makes it a pretty unforgettable listening experience. That's a very precious thing to have in a track, and something which I certainly commend you for. I enjoyed listening to the atmosphere you crafted and the lovely chord progression.

Unfortunately, your mix leaves a lot to improve on. It sounds cluttered, and by the time the drums come in my ears don't know what to focus on. I also feel like the buildup to the "drop" (for lack of a better word, but I hate using that word lol) could have been more exciting. A generic dance-music-style snare roll buildup does not do it justice. One more composition-related point I want to make is that this could have done with a more clear, definable melody.

Finally, on a smaller note, the song is way too quiet. I took a peep at the waveform and saw 8 decibels of headroom on an otherwise fairly compressed waveform, and I'm just left wondering why that's the case haha. Normalising it would've taken all of a second and you'd have a louder and more eye-catching (ear-catching?) track straight away.

While this isn't a perfect track by any means, I feel like it's one of the most unique in this round, and I still enjoyed it. Bravo, and I hope to hear more of your music in the future!

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SCORE: 7.0/10

NGADM Review

So this definitely feels like Pluto… you meant Mickey Mouse’s pet right? Because I can totally see him walking in slow motion down the street while slowly putting on sunglasses to this song. So I felt the track is pretty immersive and fun to listen to. It definitely had an atmosphere to it. I felt that it could have been a bit more engaging though. There isn’t a whole lot of musical or melodic variety to it unfortunately and as a result makes the track sound bland. If the song changed up more in it’s dynamics, melodic content, and general arrangement, it could have a lot more going for it!
The drop itself is pretty cool too! The build up to the drop could have used some work because it felt like it came out of nowhere. This is where better composition comes into play. If it was lead more to that drop. Adding something like another synth to build up to the snare drum build up, or a bouncing synth could have been nice. You even could have used a melody to build that up. Also the snare drum build up was very out of sync to the rest of the music from a rhythmic standpoint.
So overall, the track was okay. I just felt it was lacking in most compositional sides of it. As a result of this it turned out to be pretty bland and didn’t give the track a lot of personality. Keep it up!

6/10

-Ryan

I like the distortion at the beginning. However, the chord progression was warm and soothing in a way, and that kind of made the really harsh-sounding instruments you chose seem odd. This piece also progresses really slowly. The sudden entrance of the snare at 1:43 seemed pretty bizarre. Not only did you not lead up to it at all, but it also didn’t seem to be playing on the downbeat. That said, I liked the drop at 1:58 a lot. Quirky, bass-y and cool, it had this really funky and creative mood about it between the somewhat solemn melodies and punchy mid-range basses. I think you could’ve equalized some of your instruments a lot more carefully, though. When that melodic synth comes in at 2:34, it sort of hijacks the mix and buries a lot of the other instruments beneath itself. Also, when it comes back in at 3:19 it’s not only way too loud but also cuts off way too suddenly. The ending was extremely underwhelming too. It was abrupt, inconclusive, and to be honest a bit lazy and cliché. Bass slides are awesome, but they should be used conservatively. You have a lot of great ideas here, but you seem to have taken some mixing and/or structural/compositional shortcuts here which I think will hurt you. I suggest you try and fix these things (after the competition, of course) because this piece is worth it, trust me! Good luck, man, and keep working at it. ;)

6/10

This review was written for the Newgrounds Audio Death Match 2015.

I really enjoyed this.

I think the melodies are lively and vivid and beautiful.
The rhythms sustain it well.

There's a lot of feeling here. The "shy" ending wraps up everything very nicely.

If there's one critique I'd mention is that the intro takes a bit too long, but it's not enough to demote a star.

5/5.

I won't say what others have said, but there is something they haven't said.

I've heard it another one of your songs Don't. Your mixing has room for improvement and some of your composition based thoughts could be better, but you have emotion. It's not something other Dubstep artists manage to slip into their music, and that's why I'm excited. Good mixing brings the house down, and good composition will wow the world on top of excellent mixing, but having emotion is where music hits home especially for people who can get over imperfect mixing (imperfect mixing, not bad mixing).

Keep composing, you'll get it.
-Spadezer-