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Dark Rarity

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iu_158731_6312269.jpgAt first glance, she is merely a fashion buff who wields magical abilities, but upon a deeper dive into her personality, there is something living there which is better off forgotten. A twisted secret that could bring doom upon our world, hers, and the ones beyond. Rarity, element of generosity, wields not only her own power but the power opposite. The power of greed. A black hole that can suck in all forms of good nature and prevent them from ever coming back. It is this secret that she must keep in the dark until the end of her days. But all secrets must come out eventually... I present: Dark Rarity.


A sort of experimental approach on house music. It has two drops and such, but I also stuck a bit of classical timbre in there to represent her fancy English facade. This is my submission for the Knockout Round of NGUAC.


Might make this into an EP, with dark versions of all the characters.


Yes, this is a reference to Equestria Girls. I'm a superpower junky.


That's about it for this one. Enjoy!


Video Link (don't know why you'd need this though):

https://youtu.be/cLjJmetMn2c


Edit: made some changes based on critique from a friend. YouTube video doesn't include these changes.

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Beautiful :D

We're pretty low mid heavy in our intro, with lots of reverb throughout the whole track, which sort of gives the feeling of having the whole top of the EQ lopped off the track. However, I do like your writing, and your transitions are solid.

One area I wish I heard more of, your drums, overall they're much quieter than the rest of the mix, especially the snare. I would turn everything else down until they're clearly heard. Believe me, those chords aren't going to go missing -- they're the only instrument in the space :)

Musically you've written quite a journey, with lots of interesting twists to follow. Sometimes I am not a fan of the chords in the low mids chunked together. Other times I think they work. Maybe some theoretical study on inversions and chord voicing will be helpful to you, but that's not hurting your presentation so much as just not being able to hear what's going on.

Overall I enjoyed the piece. My biggest recommendation would be just to study mixing, particularly as we try to get this big spacious vibe. There are great shows to watch such as Kush After Hours where mixers talk shop. I would start there, maybe try some of the tricks you learn on an old project you like. My main gripes in mixing is making sure to low cut reverbs up to 250 hz, and turning down the reverb lower than you think it should be, for the sake of cleanliness. Reverb is nasty and muddy if you let it be, and takes away from the clarity of a track.

But anyway, interesting piece. It was fun to listen to. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TheSentiment responds:

Thank you for your insight! I'll definitely make the drums more prominent. I also put a book of advanced theory topics on my wishlist, so I hope to learn more very soon.

Im loving this creepy intro a lot, it IS very low heavy until the piano comes in. Good strings at :33, creating a lot of tension. All of your instruments are sitting way above your drums in the whole song. I cant hear your kick much at all except for the very low end, some sidechain compression and overall compression on the kick can help this, even turning it up.

Biggest piece of advice is to mix your whole to song to be balanced, but never hitting a threshhold above -6db, THEN, form there, you can master and add compression, multiband compression, or your choice of mastering plugin and bring the piece to life. The drums are just very quiet for me, i can only hear your snares and kick in the fills when nothing is happening at all.

I love the effects and feeling youve created at the end of your piece, and a huge part of me nerded out when i heard the picardy third at the last chord of your piece, because you talked about the characters english facade, I'm just going to assume you did that on purpose because it is SO on par for this old english facade you mentioned haha.

Over all i love the idea of this piece! It had a hard time feeling like it sat in minor major without properly transitioning from minor to major using borrowed chords or more advanced theory techniques. But i love your transitions, and i love the vibe you've created! Love the begginning of the second drop a lot!

All of your melodies dont seem to sit in a reckognizeable area for me. They dont follow a consistent rhythmic structure and i just wanted something to latch onto the whole piece, and only found myself attempting to do so on your chords.

Love your ideas and i think this piece is wonderful! thanks for the usbmission to the NGUAC(amole)

TheSentiment responds:

Thank you for this in-depth review! It's extremely helpful, I'll try my best to make some fixes, but I am new to the whole mixing and mastering thing. I did do that picardy third at the end on purpose, but for a different reason. I love it when people give super helpful reviews like this, it helps me improve. After this round of the contest is over, I'll upload some fixes if I can remember to. Thanks again!

I ain't no brony but I'd say this is very sinister with great leads and progressions.

TheSentiment responds:

Thanks! Glad you liked it! (and glad I can make a good impression on a non-brony audience) :P

Credits & Info


Listens
718
Downloads
10
Votes
8
Score
3.64 / 5.00

Uploaded
Aug 21, 2020
1:27 PM EDT
Genre
House
File Info
Song
4.3 MB
3 min 9 sec
Software
  • FL Studio 20

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