AIM - DRUGS

Author Comments

"This is your Brain. This is drugs. Any questions?!"

My second submission for AIM 2018 - <3

Check out the inspiration here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/kvishious/drugs-and-dreams

(It's so light and pretty)

Also check Kvishious' page for more art:

https://kvishious.newgrounds.com

Edit: Gave the master some polish.

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Cyberdevil

2018-07-01 11:51:20

Well this was definitely a more positive twist to that artwork than I'd expected. :) Didn't think it felt as wholly positive as this does, like an open and airy and awesome experience... but more so a disillusioning and degrading one. With the image I felt her consciousness was crumbling away, while here the clarity comes across so well. Total clarity. Don't relate to the drugs so much as a sense of: flying. Total euphoria. Running. Setting something in motion. But relatability to the image disconsidered this was awesome. An energetic and really pumped-up trance/dance/house track. Never gets dull. The wavy sound's a bit much sometimes, and bit high on the loudness, but otherwise all great! The sound's refreshingly sharp compared to most of the bass-heavy tracks of the type lately.

-cd-

ActualElf responds:

Hey Cyber!

Aye I did have a really uplifting and positive take on this, I saw the artwork as being really light-hearted and a little romanticized. I wanted to try and capture that feeling of a moment being so good you wanna freeze it, which is what the last drop/solo is all about.

The overly wavy sound is something I also really liked about this track myself, it could have been honed in but I'm fond of it, maybe because of the memories attached to the song and sentimentality rather than a critical thinking approach ahaha

This is one of the sounds I want to elaborate on in future, trying to achieve a really polished, pretty and glossy sound. Thanks a lot for another honest and critical review. Pointers, opinions and directions are invaluable - <3

Quarl

2018-05-28 21:59:13

I loved those juicy synths. Super fly melodies. This track bounces. It's hard not to envy how cool it is. I think it's fair to say the drum could use a little extra kick but I'm also a snooty drummer.

ActualElf responds:

Thank you Quarl <3

I agree that the drums could use a bit more punch and weight, I started the track quite small and cute to follow with the art inspiration but somewhere along the way it became bigger and fuller and I never thought to adjust the percussion to compensate, thank you again for popping in every now and again, it really means a lot!

TaintedLogic

2018-05-19 14:12:55

---Official AIM review---

Synths at the beginning have a cool progression, yet feel a bit sharp and dry, with block chords that give them a really closed, clunky feel. Some reverb on them and more careful spacing of the chords might help give them a more open vibe. That said, I like the gradual fade-in of the bass starting at :20 and the build-up into 1:00. I think the kick wasn’t quite as strong as I would’ve liked. Some more compression could help. The quirky instruments are a huge plus. The rhythmic elements of the piece are quite pleasing, and I love the rolls at 2:08 and 2:23. I also thought the stop-start transition at 2:34 worked quite well. The piece was noticeably lacking strong melodic content until 3:02, which is probably my favorite part of the piece. That said, I think the hi-hats get a little buried in the mix there. One thing I think is really strong about this piece is the full texture throughout. Stylistically, it feels almost like a progressive house track, yet you successfully avoid the characteristic minimalism of the genre. Excellent work with the sound design and structuring. The piece feels really climactic by the end, and the vocals help mirror the shape of the piece. Impressive work yet again, ActualElf!

9.25/10

ActualElf responds:

Hey, thank you for taking the time to listen and judge!

Personally I liked the closed feel to the intro chords when I wrote this, having the reverb be really distant and subtle when listening with in-ears and the cluster voicing chords made the opening up of the sound design and harmony around the first drop nicer to my own taste.

I have a lot of issues with my low end in my music, kicks and bass levels/tone, I'm saving up all the money I can to buy monitors, having to make my music on a tiny blue-tooth speaker means my low end mixing is a guessing game half of the time, kicks can sound fairly powerful during writing but then not come across on actual systems. I'm hoping all these aspects of my music will improve drastically when I finally have a suitable setup and can hear what I'm trying to do ahaha.

I see now there was a lack of more melodic ideas, having the sound design being my main focal point I was in more of a production mind with the creative/musical side being on autopilot.

I like the rolls too, I love it when other peoples music has little momentary light hearted breaks.

I learnt a lot writing and producing this track, mainly about focusing on the levels and what can be placed further back in the mix whilst still being present.

Thank you again for the review and the criticism, I now have more things to pay attention to in my future music <3

Lot7even