Beautiful...

NGADM Review

You created a calm and reflective atmosphere from the get-go with this track which immediately puts the listener into the story you are telling. The context comes to life as it would on a screen. It’s beautifully put together and works on its own. It evolves into a question and a quest for something more but the whole while the progression is natural and the transitions don’t leave the listener behind.
This is masterful work.

Maybe this style of music has been done before, it’s difficult to reinvent the wheel. Maybe I was being mean taking a point away from composition for this, I don’t know. I still feel you managed to make something meaningful and heartfelt, the most poignant moment for me was around 1:40 where it swells and falls again after. From this moment I could tell it was going somewhere beyond this little world you had created and I was satisfied when it picked up at the end.

What else can I say?

Scores:
Composition: 4
Production: 5
Sound Design: 4
Instrumentation and Performance: 5
JeNeSaisQuoi - genre and case specific, also synergy: 5

I like the pensive mood at the beginning and the tasteful instrumentation. The flute melodies at the beginning are beautiful, and the texture has a rich atmosphere that feed the emotional appeal wonderfully. The warm strings at 1:32 deepen that emotional quality, although I wish the flute came through the mix a bit more strongly over the strings at 1:41. The final climax at 2:42 is beautiful. There could be a little more distinction among the notes in the texture there, but the percussion is still mixed well, and the likely culprit is merely an excess of reverb or relatively loose equalization. I also like the tranquil outro at 3:41, brief though it was. Overall, the composition of this piece is top-notch, and most of my complaints are in the balance of frequencies/mixing. Keep up the great work, Papkee! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9.25/10

Awesome song, especially with the drop at 2:40. Has sort of an Asian feel to it, but that's probably because of the erhu-sounding melodic voice. Seems easily divisible into either a 3/4 or a slow 6/8, which is used to maintain both slow and relatively upbeat melodic lines.

Well done!