00:00
00:00
Newgrounds Background Image Theme

sound-sakura just joined the crew!

We need you on the team, too.

Support Newgrounds and get tons of perks for just $2.99!

Create a Free Account and then..

Become a Supporter!

~SW~ Annar

Share Download this song

Author Comments

So. Just about everyone on the goddamn planet was getting on me for my melodic content. So everything turned on its head and I came up with this idea then ended up making 90% of it over 24 hours. Here's what I had as of this time last night. Not even that, in fact. https://instaud.io/ck5


So I made this extremely fast, and focused on the melodies and stuff instead of atmosphere like I normally do (though I indulged myself a bit in the longer-than-usual breakdown with a solo).


You people had better be happy. >:(


That said, I did really enjoy making this. A lot. It was fun. It was cool. I originally intended to do something with slap bass and dubstep vocoding, but that might wait until next round.


So I hope you enjoy it. And dear god I need to eat now, I've eaten a hot pocket and a breakfast bar today because I was so busy working on this all day long. For over 10 hours straight. Not including last night after midnight EST.


fml


Also I am releasing this piece as pwyw on bandcamp, please get it from there if you don't mind.


Also also, Step and Echo, sorry for not having the special characters in the title. Newgrounds no likey unicode.


Morning edit: I'm well aware of flaws in the mixing like the first lead to come in being quiet. I mixed and mastered this in a total of less than 60 minutes, and I think it came out great for spending that little amount of time. ;_; Clarity was my #1 priority. That and mastering volume without it being muddy.

Log in / sign up to vote & review!

I realized going through your profile that I won't make it through your entire discography anytime soon :/. Anyways, this is the first track from you in which I'm not a huge fan of your bass work. I really love the composition of this piece not entirely sold on the sounds. I think in general you need more in the sub frequencies. There's some cool stuff going on, but that really detracted from the track for me.

SkyeWint responds:

You know what, you're right. I had literally no bass in this track - the bass drum is the only thing there. Couldn't fit that in the two weeks that I had to make this. (or realistically, closer to about 3 days)

:(

I like the powerful, variable percussion and funky synths. The melodies have a pretty weird pacing. At times they bring this sort of relaxed vibe, but at others they stop-start and jitter a lot and that makes it a little hard to follow the rhythm. Despite my love of the creative drums in this piece, I wish there was something a little more straight-forward in the piece just to keep the listener grounded a bit more. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about the sensual guitar solo at 1:48 when contrasted with the more energetic, spurt-y synths. In theory, it would've created a nice breakdown, but I think you need to flesh out some of these melodies more and pace it a little more modestly in order to tie some things together (by which I mean: it comes across as a pretty incoherent). This isn't one of your better tracks IMO, unfortunately, but I do still like the instruments, and the mix is clear as always. :) Hope to hear more from you soon, man! ;)

This is an NGADM Round 3 Review

--

SKYE. Holy crap I'm late for this review. Sorry about that! I forgot I hadn't sorted out all of my Round 3 reviews.

So, here's what I think about this track. First off, I need to commend you on those absolutely insane drums. It's times like this when your whole "write a whole song in one pattern" method shines, because the amount of variety, subtleties, and rhythmic changes in your percussion is beyond ridiculous, in a good way. Your drums are pleasantly stimulating and rewarding to follow, and even sound great, samples-wise! That extent of technicality and intricacy also carried over to your melodic stuff, which is, for all intents and purposes, an astoundingly enjoyable concoction of organised chaos. I especially love the melodic content you threw in during that acoustic guitar solo, which was an unexpected but welcomed veer into some surprisingly emotional and touching composition.

So this is definitely a fun listen, but I do have my issues with it, issues that were summed up pretty nicely by my fellow judges. I feel like there was more of a focus on technical appeal, and less focus on sonic/musical appeal. I'm not a fan of your leads, and I'm missing the crazy sound design that your other tracks excelled at. The melodies were certainly an engaging listen, but aside from that one acoustic guitar solo, none were all that memorable, and didn't communicate much to me beyond "look how technical I can be". This isn't as much of an issue as I make it sound, but certainly something worth mentioning.

Overall, you have a killer track here, as always. It's obviously a shame to see you go, but you put up one hell of a fight. Bravo, and thanks for all the awesome music!

Good sir, I do believe I owe you a review.

You start things off pretty nicely with an interesting drum track. Sounds a little chaotic but has enough consistency to move the piece forward, at least for an intro. Drum sounds you're getting are good, they're mixed well for sure. What is the beginning of this piece, 12/8?

The synth you use as the underlying chordal basis for your melodic stuff sounds a little muddy to me, and a tad out of place. Also, while this piece has a main melody that weaves in and out, it doesn't feel coherent to me. Part of a good melodic structure, to me at least, is something that you can hum when you're done. That usually means that it has a repeatable rhythmic element to it. You sort of took the prog-ish route here with your approach to the melody and drums. While that can be impressive for a time, it becomes difficult for the listener after awhile. Also, as an aside, that last synth note at 1:43 sounds way too loud.

I really like the idea of the guitar solo, but the patch used just isn't doing it for me. I've always had this bias against midi guitars though, something about them just feels misplaced. What you have written hear doesn't sound playable, though I don't think you were going for a realistic sound. That said, this section gives piece a little bit of what I think it lacks - an aural break for the listener to recoup. The relentless drum/lead combo you have going on is cool for a little while, but without some kind of relief it becomes a little bit cumbersome. Even still, you have the arps running in the background to give it the running sort of chaotic sense you employ in the beginning of the piece. This adds a little bit of consistency but I think it detracts from the break you expect to hear (it still sounds kind of busy). The strings in the background here are really nice. I think you could do a lot more with this section.

This is an interesting track. There are a few things I think that could use some work. Firstly, I think this thing needs a heavy section that's a little bit more melodic and less chaotic (bring in your main melody and move from off-beat drums to something a little more driving). Don't think of this as something negative, think of it as emphasizing your point to the listener. Additionally, I would nix the guitar patch for something else, but that's personal taste for me.

Sorry for the nitpicks, but I know you like to get specific with your reviews so I thought I'd return with the same attention to detail. This really is a neat piece and it has a lot going for it. You didn't use too many instruments here which helps with mixing clarity, and it helps for each instrument to shine. The mix is good for sure, I don't get the sense that anything is overpowering in the regard to EQ and placement. You also do a great job getting a good drum sound. The problem I have with it is a little more basic and might sound base to you, but when I'm finished I don't have the sense of "man, I want to listen to that again" - it's more the sense of "ah, my ears can rest a little bit now". Intellectually and theoretically I'm interested in this song, but it's a little bit too non-stop melodically and rhythmically to conjure up a high replay value, for me at least. I think that you can keep the spirit of what you're going for here and still accomplish that. For instance, your previous track "Thurm ins_wa_" I find myself going back to and listening to from time to time, and it definitely employs some of the same elements you have here, the difference being you know when to hit the brakes. (Also the consistent bass in that track helps pull it together)

I hope this was at least mildly helpful/coherent, and that it helps you in the future when writing. I know songs aren't supposed to be all about the listener, but these are just some thoughts from the listener's perspective!

SkyeWint responds:

Yaaaaay review!

Absolutely!

This song was more oriented towards the musicians interested in the technical amount of it, which is definitely why this piece didn't continue on in the contest IMO.

I can understand about it feeling busy. That makes sense. I don't like this piece quite as much as my other ones either, tbh. Oh well.

I can't disagree with anything you've said, so I don't have much to say. Thanks!

I have no idea what to call this kind of music, but I like it. A lot.

That's really all I have to say.

SkyeWint responds:

Perhaps we can just call it "music of some description".

Credits & Info

Listens
2,263
Faves:
9
Downloads
35
Votes
17
Score
4.49 / 5.00

Uploaded
Sep 28, 2015
12:04 AM EDT
Genre
Fusion
File Info
Song
7.2 MB
3 min 9 sec
Tags

Licensing Terms

You are free to copy, distribute and transmit this work under the following conditions:

Attribution:
You must give credit to the artist.
Noncommercial:
You may not use this work for commercial purposes. *
Share Alike:
If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting creation only under a license identical to this one.

*Please contact me if you would like to use this in a commercial project. We can discuss the details.