This is an NGADM Round 1 Review

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I have been itching to review this one. God, you really outdid yourself. I liked your other music but admittedly never regarded it as music that could win a whole contest. On 24th August, 2015, the day I listened to this track for the first time, you, my friend, blew me away, and I'm happy to say that you totally changed that mindset of mine. This is one of the strongest tracks of this round and it's a damn shame you didn't make it through, but I'm going to leave a nice, juicy, long review to make up for it, and explain exactly what I loved and didn't quite like. Here we go.

So, what I absolutely must commend you on is your brilliant creativity. This is boldly unique, catchy and chock full of really neat ideas that find a cosy place in the listener's head and stick right there for weeks to come (can confirm). There are so many cool things here, and I certainly can't even begin to list them all.

My definite favourite, and a crowd favourite as it would seem, is 1:29's switch to triplet time. And man, you don't even instantly play your main hook, despite making such a drastic rhythmic change. That's a temptation I would've probably fallen for, but nope, you play it cool and throw in a sweet synth solo. THEN, at 1:52, after teasing us for about half a minute, you finally treat us to your primary tune, adapted to your newfound triplet tempo of course, and it sounds so good. Brilliant!

Then you decide to explore half time, playing your hook in yet another new rhythmic setting and with some likeable synth noodling. That's another clear sign of solid musicianship and great ideas. Finally, at the end, you bring us back to 1:52's pace, but adding more synths and melodies on top of everything to emphasise the climactic nature of the ending, and wrapping everything up with a nice bow (or velcro, even).

I could spend all day praising this track, but I think explaining why I gave you a 9 and not a 10 will be of more use than you. So, basically, while I love your composition and ideas, your sounds and overall sound design... eh, they could use some work. Some of the synths are really cheesy, especially the ones in the intro (which REALLY didn't give me a good impression of the track at the start). You have some really cool lead synths with an enjoyable VGM style to them, though, so it's not all bad. Plus, crystal clear mixing with punchy drums and decent levelling!

So really, what deducted a point was some of the sounds you used. Oh, and I also feel like you could've had a stronger, more hyped-up buildup to the last part, but that's a small thing. Otherwise, this is incredulously catchy, fun, and universally likeable. Thanks for such a killer track, and you absolutely must keep it up!

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SCORE: 9.0/10

NGADM review

That melody is so awesome dude. I was smiling the entire time for this track. It’s a really nice change of pace to hear something as happy as this in these reviews. And I’m really glad I was assigned to review this one! One thing that I find very difficult to do in music, as well as what I hear in other peoples music, is to make really complex and quickly played melody sound good like it does in your track. Not only sounding good, but memorable as well.
This whole track has an awesome personality. I do have to say that the synths used are fairly generic and I feel like I’ve heard them a lot before. And usually the instrumentation in a track can really be a huge prediction in the general atmosphere and personality of a track. However, your rhythmic and melodic elements really overshadow the generic synths and by this you have created a super unique personality for the track. It really reminds me of something from the later Megaman games.
Right from the start, that melody kicks in at 0:22 and I feel like I’m being pushed against the back of my seat from the G-force on a rollercoaster or something while this song plays. The first melody caught me off guard honestly and was a pleasant surprise. You have really nice structure throughout this track. You keep it all really diverse and the fact that most of this track is a solo is pretty badass as well. It’s a pretty cool feeling to look at the time of the track and realize that only 1 minute has gone by and SO much has happened, and then I have almost 3 more minutes of awesomeness! You nicely incorporate more instrumentation appropriately to make the track more enjoyable and immersive during certain points as well.
The mixing is pretty solid too. Everything sounds really clean. I think that the mastering could use some work though. It sounds really nice on all speakers, however I noticed that on certain sets of speakers and headphones it sounded way better than others. I won’t take off points for this, but it’s something I thought I should mention. It’s really that it’s way more enjoyable when I listen with my computer speakers as opposed to my mixing headphones. The drums… which some other people have commented on, I’m a little indecisive about. I actually don’t think it took away from the track that they were at this volume, but the sound of them was totally fine and fit the track. I think it was fine whether you left them at this volume or raised it.
Also, the triplet section that you went into at 1:29 is SO awesome. You had such a seamless transition into an entirely rhythmic section that still fit really well with the rest of the track. Also, what taintedlogic said about winding the piece down at the end was REALLY awesome too, which I overlooked. Each part is super unique from one another, and presents a new rhythmic and melodic element all of the time, and each part still flows with eachother so well. You really did a great job on the compositional structure for this.
So I keep coming back this track while I’m doing these reviews over a course of a few days. There isn’t a single point in the track where I get bored or feel like I want it to be over. The judge skype chat was loving this song so much man, including myself.
Thanks for this track, I had a ton of fun listening to it and reviewing it. This is definitely my favorite from round 1. Sorry you didn’t make it to the next round :/ I’m not familiar with your other work, but the judges all said that this is a huge step from your previous work, so congrats on that. Seriously, great work! And favorited.

9.2/10

-Ryan

NOT a NGADM review... So I can be as biased as I want.
Holy shit this made me happy. We talked about this one for hours in the judge Skype chat, globally loved is what I'd call it. It's a shame you were against other hard hitters.
The rhythm that starts a third in makes me smile every time, the lead is awesome too and just over all. LOVE IT.
LOVE IT.
LOVE IT.

I love the dreamy, pensive synths at the beginning and the drums. This track has a really cool energetic and engaging vibe about it. The funky instruments and melodic content help it a lot too. It kind of threw me off at :44 when you seemed to creating a re-intro only a fifth of the way through the piece. Typically, I’ll only let things like that slide if its purpose is to create contrast for an epic, impending climax, which wasn’t really the case here. That said, I really like the direction this piece is going in by around 1:30. This piece is smooth-flowing and well-structured and overall has a great, upbeat, and feel-good vibe about it. You create a sufficient amount of variation for your melodies while also keeping it coherent. I also liked the way you wound the piece down at the end. It made it feel very conclusive. I think the drums should’ve been a lot more up-front and prominent in the mix, though. I also think that the last refrain wasn’t the most climactic instance of melodic content here. I would encourage you to really go all out at 3:15 next time, just to make sure you maintain that sense of direction and emotional height. Still, overall this is really solid work. Keep it up, LunacyEcho! ;D

8.5/10

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

This is really fun. :>

> You're a lot kinder than johnfn when it comes to judging sound design, it seems. :P

YEP. I still don't like the sound design at all. That's my biggest complaint. Seriously, just write a chiptune song. I would be soo happy :>

Also, I want to take a comb to some of your melodies and tighten them up a little. Sometimes, particularly at the ends of little melodies, you use a few too many notes. It seems redundant, like you're over-explaining the melody. It might be a fun exercise for you to try to take off a couple of notes on the end of random melodies, to see if the point still gets across (or is improved).

This is one heck of a step up, though. The 1:30 transition and then the triplet section is so good :3 Kind of reminds me of Waterflame actually, he used triplets all over the place lolz.