NGMT '24 - Phase I Voting!

[AED-4]

Phase I has drawn to a close, and the time to judge the mettle of your fellow contestants has came!

If you haven't already, make your way to the Newgrounds Audio Pub Discord server (link in the rules news post), and there you will find the submissions in the #ngmt24-submissions channel.

Remember to follow & read the voting guidelines, which are as follows:

• Be open to varying interpretations of the themes, they are designed to allow for multiple ways to tackle them.
• With the above in mind, when voting think how well the submission fits the theme, how well it is executed in context of the challenge, and how well made it is overall.
• If a submission was accepted, It means that I did not find it to break the rules of the challenge, and I most likely clarified the track with the entrant if it sounds teetering at the edge of the rules.
• Send your votes to me (AED-4) using Newgrounds private messages. Votes sent using Discord, WhatsApp, SMS, by telegraph or any other communication method will be ignored.
• You must vote on three entries. No more, no less.
• If you do not vote, you will not receive points either.
• You cannot vote on your own submission.
• To avoid misunderstandings, clearly indicate the order of your votes, preferably explicitly stating which is your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice.
• Remember, 1st choice = most points given.

In addition to casting votes, I do encourage you to write a short review of each track (including your own to not give yourself away), perhaps a paragraph long, as the secretive nature of this contest means that interaction will remain for the most parts rather... limited :p I will be contributing this much aswell.

Here are the users who entered: @aedr @carboluka @name @Darklion0 @Gothorlagee @Jernemies @Kz-N @MYYA @NikoN1nja @ObeseChihuahua1 @Paint2Acetone @quintiviummusic @RetroCarrot

If you you submitted something but don't see your name there, please message me as soon as possible, and I'll seek to fix the situation. Otherwise, you have time until Feb 13 05:59 PM EST to cast your votes. Phase II will begin 6 hours after that on Feb 14 00:00 AM EST.

[name]

At 2/7/24 12:40 AM, AED-4 wrote: Phase I has drawn to a close, and the time to judge the mettle of your fellow contestants has came!

If you haven't already, make your way to the Newgrounds Audio Pub Discord server (link in the rules news post), and there you will find the submissions in the #ngmt24-submissions channel.

Remember to follow & read the voting guidelines, which are as follows:

In addition to casting votes, I do encourage you to write a short review of each track (including your own to not give yourself away), perhaps a paragraph long, as the secretive nature of this contest means that interaction will remain for the most parts rather... limited :p I will be contributing this much aswell.

Here are the users who entered: @aedr @carboluka @name @Darklion0 @Gothorlagee @Jernemies @Kz-N @MYYA @NikoN1nja @ObeseChihuahua1 @Paint2Acetone @quintiviummusic @RetroCarrot

If you you submitted something but don't see your name there, please message me as soon as possible, and I'll seek to fix the situation. Otherwise, you have time until Feb 13 05:59 PM EST to cast your votes. Phase II will begin 6 hours after that on Feb 14 00:00 AM EST.

How do I vote?

[AED-4]

At 2/7/24 12:48 AM, name wrote: How do I vote?

Send me a PM like:

First choice - TrackX

Second choice - TrackY

Third choice - TrackZ

[Jernemies]

Thought I’d open the reviews :). I gave points up to 3 per aspect (So many atmosphere W’s), all of which are arbitrary and made up on the spot if I felt like I had to. I didn’t rank my votes based on these point values (which are, once again, arbitrary), but they are pretty good indicators of things to note about the track.

 

 

00: Starts with a very nice atmosphere, nice bells. Composition has a nice light horror/halloween vibe. Unfortunately runs out of steam and begins to meander, for way too long. Arrangement and composition desperately needs variety if this wants to be 6 mins long, could very easily stop at 2 as is. +3 atmosphere, +2 composition -1 pacing/structure

 

01: Nice atmosphere, ambient synth noises create space. The synths sound piercing, very much need EQ on them. Glitchy, dark, which is nice, and evolves over time, well paced for 3 mins. +2 sound design, +2 atmosphere&space, +1 pacing, -2 mixing for the piercing synths

 

02: Atmosphere and ambient sound design on point. Quite cinematic or horror gamey, melancholic. I normally don’t give L’s for mastering, but there was plenty of room if it wasn’t for literally *one* stray peak pushing the peak like 4dB higher than the rest. I like hearing the thing so it’s unfortunate I have to fiddle with the volume knob. Nicely paced tho, doesn’t meander or overstay its welcome. +3 sound design, +3 atmosphere, +1 melancholy, +1 pacing, -1 mastering

 

03: Ambient noises combined with piano for a very nice effect to start. Over time the MIDI-ness of the instruments becomes more apparent, especially when the staccato strings come in and the piano starts trading 8th notes. At 5ish minutes it’s almost like another track starts, don’t think the pause was good for the pacing of a *9 minute* track. Do like what comes after, but it still feels like you picked up the toys and went home already. Apart from that, it does *somewhat* feel like it earned its 9 minutes, but I still think you could trim a couple of minutes off it and not lose anything. Still, always love surprise doom metal. +1 ambience at the start, -1 humanization, +3 atmosphere, +1 melancholy, +1 metal

 

04: Oo, this tubby, dusty music box doesn’t spark joy. For some reason this feels quite polytonal, like the accompanying music box and the melody are in two different keys. Honestly even though the melodic parts are nice and singable, the static accompaniment on this music box just doesn't work for me. Would love to see this thing move somewhere, but it never does (apart from instrumental changes, which do help a bit) so unfortunately that’s all I have to say about this. -2 accompaniment, +2 for a (singular) nice melody, +1 for variation in instruments

 

05: Like the synth tickling my ears. There are some very pleasing modulations in synths in this piece. The chords in the intro and outro do a lot of heavy lifting for the atmosphere. The middle part I could honestly give or take. It was just kind of a section of electronic music that almost felt unrelated to the sense of space that the synthesizers otherwise created. Shame, because I think this had the ingredients for more. +2 sound design, +3 for tickling my ears, +2 atmosphere -1 middle

 

06: Ah, NES chiptune, makes sense someone would do this. Unfortunately it kinda lays bare which voices are on at which point, and I’m not going to ignore the drums, bass, lead and (what I'll call) arp playing at the same time – they’re not staggered like a ska or waltz accompaniment, so they all start on beat! Otherwise the tune is nice and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Brevity is nice and there’s plenty that happens in these 55 seconds, which in my mind makes the pacing of this track impeccable. Other than that, it’s a NES chiptune, it doesn’t awaken any specific thoughts in me as far as arrangement, atmosphere goes. I kinda miss cool shit that you can do on the NES soundchip, as this tune is kinda standard far as that goes. +3 pacing, +3 brevity, +1 melodic content, -3 for challenge

 

07: Like the instrumentation, like the piano accompaniment, like the guitar and instrumentation in general. Although I think the lead synths could use some sculpting, especially the brassy sounding one I didn’t care that much for. I love this kind of vamp though. Oh no, the ending just kinda peters out, that’s unfortunate. +2 instrumentation, +3 composition/atmosphere, +2 melodies, +1 humanization, +1 melancholy, -1 ending

 

08: Atmosphere, ear tickling, started out very strong on those fronts. Sound design needs to be given props just because the beginning is very strong on that front, and I’ll put a point in mixing (something I haven’t done so far) because of how this does actually manage to sound full while balancing the challenge. Oh no, this also peters out. It could have very easily ended on the high of the last chord, instead of weakly limping around for like 4 bars of percussion. Overall the track is technically well executed. Even the synths, though growly and harsh, were EQ’d nicely to not torture any ears. +3 sound design, +1 mixing, +1 atmosphere, +1 pacing, +1 technical execution, -1 ending

 

09: Atmosphere, the tinkly synth tickles my ears nicely. Very nice melody. I do love a bit of surprise metal and the transition into that is smooth. The transition at 2ish minutes is a little bit weird though. The electric piano sounds fantastic and crystalline, but I feel like an opportunity for motivic development was missed. The preceding section has a very strong and obvious motif on the lead, and it’s a shame it wasn’t utilized for the electric piano section. Would have helped cohesion. Still, I have a soft spot for this kind of deranged song structure. +3 atmosphere, +2 sound design, +-0 transitions, +3 composition, -1 for missed motivic development, +1 for progressive song structure

10: From second 1 establishes the tone for this thing and starts building, and what a fantastically gradual buildup it is. Unfortunately it kinda fumbles the bag by not dropping into it after the buildup was done. Still, this track operates almost entirely on building and releasing tension, so I’m going to give it 2 points. Unfortunately that also means that’s the only interesting thing about this track. The only evolution happens in instrumentation and timbre, which is not my cup of tea at all. 6½ minutes of the same chord progression and largely the same melodic material is just way too much for me, though I will say it does manage to keep the interest up for like 3-4 minutes, which is pretty good for a track like this. I’ll also give it a point for atmosphere, though it’s clear this kind of track is very limited by the challenge. Harmless, pleasant to listen to, but inoffensive in the worst sense. +3 tension via timbre/instrumentation, +2 timbre, +1 atmosphere

 

11: Something went wrong with mastering. Jesus, I didn’t think I would be giving out mastering L’s since I value it so little, but there is no excuse for -14dB true peak. Aside from that, the piano could do with humanization, as it’s a bit machine gun-like in the way it hammers in the beginning. After the piano intro the orchestra comes in and the track begins to sound very pleasant indeed. It’s just a shame this section lasts for like 30 seconds total in a 2:15 minute track, and then it peters back down. It kinda just feels like it showed what’s about to come up, then stopped, leaving us with musical blue balls. Overall I wish I could rate this track higher, but potential alone doesn’t a good track make. -1 mastering, +3 for the orchestral section, -1 structure

 

12: Immediate start, the babbling synths are very nice and the crystalline quality of the synths is a plus. Though not a fan of the the way it clips, holy moly that’s a lot of red. Torn on the duration. On one hand it doesn’t overstay its welcome, on the other hand it feels like it could have gone on to do a little bit more instead of ending like it did (abruptly). +1 beginning +3 sound design, +1 glitchiness, +2 pacing -1 clipping, -1 abrupt end

 

[ObeseChihuahua1]

This'll just be things I noticed about the tracks, what I liked, what I disliked, and how well it fits the theme overall. One thing to keep in mind is that I'm in no way an expert at sound design or sound design terminology, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Track 0 :The song has a creepy, uneasy, haunting tone to it. The beginning in particular is hauntingly beautiful. I do think that there should be a tad more development, as it gets kind of repetitive, especially since the song is six minutes long.

Track 1: This song gives off a sci-fi vibe, like you're travelling through the vastness of space. The beat drop also goes absolutely hard. Not sure if it fits the theme the best, though.

Track 2: I kind of had a hard time believing that this song only used three tracks. It has a mysterious, whimsical, somber, yet also hopeful tone to it, and it sounds very orchestral. 04:50 in particular sounds a lot like a Legend of Zelda boss battle. Overall, this one not only slaps, but I feel it fits the theme excellently.

Track 3: I like the first half of this song, as it feels (God, I'm going to be using this phrase a lot) somber, yet hopeful. In particular, it reminds me of that one song in Undertale's soundtrack where you're travelling through New Home. I also like the ambience, particularly at 04:40. It gives it a found footage kind of vibe. However, I'm not really a fan of the heavy metal section near the end of the song. It feels empty. I feel like the percussion could have been enhanced some. Maybe with cymbals?

Track 4: I love the kalimba, and the song sounds dissonant (but in a good way), with the kalimba clashing with the melody. However, the strings don't fit very well, though it does get a bit better as the song progresses.

Track 5: This song sounds more like an EDM song, with a mystical, sci-fi-esque beginning. I do think that it was great that the beginning is reprised at the end of the song, though I would have liked to see the drums come back after the chords started playing at around 01:23.

Track 6: This song sounds incredibly groovy, and it sounds like a song that would play in a forest level in a Genesis game. I think that the only issue is just that it's incredibly short, so there isn't much time to really enjoy it. Still, what little length it has is incredibly sweet.

Track 7: The running water ambience as well as the piano remind me of the Waterfall BGM from Undertale. It sounds much more peaceful than any of the tracks before it. I'm really, really not a fan of the trombone used for the melody at 00:50, though. It is replaced by what seems to be a French horn soon enough, so that gets rectified. The guitar melody that comes in, as well as the piano countermelody that comes in after it, are incredibly catchy. I feel that this song was one of the ones that fit the theme very well.

Track 8: Okay, this one didn't really fit the theme at all, IMO. I'm just not sure dubstep is the right genre to capture the essence of the theme. It could probably work, but I'm just not sure about it. That being said, this song is still an absolute banger. I think my favourite part of the song is the buildup starting at 03:10, and the melody in the final beat drop is very catchy. This is still probably in my top three favourite songs that were submitted, non-adherence to the theme notwithstanding.

Track 9: Terraria. Especially when the beat kicks in, Terraria. It's groovy and mysterious, and it sounds scarily similar to something that you would find in Terraria. The song takes on a much more peaceful tone at around 02:45, and the string chords near the end are no joke.

Track 10: I shall put aside my deep, deep obsessi- I mean, bias towards the key that this song is in in the service of a fair review. It reminds me of classic Newgrounds songs, in particular Blue Sky by ParagonX9. The build-up is incredible, but then it doesn't really go anywhere for a while. The piano melody at 02:15 is beautiful, as is the fade-out at the end. The main thing working against this song is its repetitiveness. I would say add some variations and countermelodies in order to decrease the repetitive nature of it. Still, solid track.

Track 11: This song is probably the most somber sounding out of all of them, yet with a hopeful tone (God, I said it again). The (I believe) claves add a lot to the song, and the beginning is reprised at the end, just like Track 5. The main issue with this song is that it is just so. Dang. Quiet. It would definitely do well if the volume of the track was just increased. With that being said, still a good song overall.

Track 12: Again, I shall put aside my deep, deep bias towards the key that this song is in. I love the song's intense chords at the beginning, and the beat drop at 00:25. The arpeggio melody that's playing under the chords is beautiful. I do feel that it ends a bit too abruptly, though. The final chords just cut out suddenly, and it's jarring. In my opinion, they should have faded out naturally. Despite that, this is still an incredible song.

[AED-4]

Track 00

First, the sound design is very good, the clear bells and that high pitched but mellowed choir stand out very well and the sound quality is excellent. The chords and melodies also synergize well with the instruments present giving this a very haunting and cold feeling. I can picture a forlorn arctic scene with only the stars as my company quite well. Overall, the balance of the mix is also good, nothing stood out to me or took me out of the experience.

There is one aspect this falls flat in in my opinion however, and that is its structure. While those two elements - choir and bells - are executed well, they are the only things going on, and while it works well enough as is, introducing a third element (maybe something with some more low end) at some point could do wonders to give the song some forwards momentum. Another thing is that the melodies played sound very similar the entire way, switching that up would provide some nice additional flavour for the listener.

Also, if I’m not mistaken, the track is in actuality only about 3 minutes long, but it is looped once. I at least could not notice anything different from the second part of the song. I think you could remove the entirety of the second part, because as it stands now, it really doesn’t add anything to it.

If you had only included the first part of the song (so 3 minutes) and introduced some new ideas somewhere in the middle of it, that alone would have improved the song tremendously in my opinion. As it stands, it falls into the background rather easily, which while not being that big of an issue for say a videogame soundtrack, does become a pitfall when judging its merits only by itself.

In conclusion, this was a very pleasant song to listen through, but it could use some more excitement in it :)

Track 01

Structurally this is a solid entry, the beginning sets the stage well, or so to say, and the transform into the first “breakdown”, while seemingly quick, is done excellently, with the subtly increasing intensity letting one know that there is something more to come. Also, I really like that demonic text-to-speech FX as the transition from the second section to the third, fits in perfectly.

Regarding the first breakdown, I think it’s the weakest point of this song. Sound design wise I think it gives a bit too much into the harshness, as at times it becomes a bit difficult to make out certain elements. Take the percussions at the section staring at around the one-minute mark. They are really competing with the bass from their space in the mix, and it kind of becomes er a sort of low-end porridge :p Also, that harsh sustain lead was kind of hard to listen at times.

Speaking of leads, I am not a big fan of many the melodies here. It’s always kind of awkward for me to criticize melodies because I usually can’t tell exactly what problem I have with them, but I don’t think that they fit in with the rest of the track. The melody starting at around 1:40 is quite good though, reminds me of Half Life 2 soundtrack.

The last section also improves on all fronts. The mix becomes a lot more balanced when the bass changes to a bit clearer sounding one, and the distortion is eased from the kick drum. The percussion work in general is much better here, providing some chill big/breakbeat vibes. Also, the lead synths sound much better here while retaining harshness, and I’m glad you kept the 1:40 melody vibes going on here as well.

All in all, while the middle of the track especially could use some more refinement and in general the mix could use some reining in, this is a fine industrial take on the theme :)

Track 02

This one’s definitely the most difficult for me to review, as not only is it exquisitely executed, it’s most certainly not a genre I find myself listening to often :p

Mix & sound design are quite good. I do think it might not be as roomy as orchestral music often is, but it certainly doesn’t reduce my ability to enjoy it. Elements are still spaced around the mix well, and even with the sparse instrumentation it has a very grandiose feel.

Structurally I got nothing bay to say about it, there’s tons of interesting ideas present, and they are present just for the correct amount of time. They are also arranged in a way that truly gives this song a grand sense of evolution and progress. Definitely a song that has a story to tell, and that story aligns perfectly with the theme of the challenge as well, I can perfectly imagine a journey among intimidating ruins, possibly still storing the very thing that led their abandonment in the first place…

Melodic content is also very nice. I often find orchestral music to have a bit “hard to get” melodies, which while not a shortcoming necessarily, are not to my tastes. This one does nail them though, and I found myself humming to them now and again :p

I’ll leave this a short one as indeed, there’s not much for me to critically analyse. Only thing I can say for certain is that this is going into my favourites :)

Track 03

Sound design and mix balance are executed well, all instruments sound clear and they have their own place. The instrument choices are a bit basic (mostly piano, strings, drumkit, guitar), but they do fulfil their roles well. Also really liked how you faded in that synth to accompany the piano for a while during the first section. That provided some excitement to the track, and I do wish you had done more of that further down the track, would have been a good way to provide additional counterweight to the otherwise fairly limited selection of instruments.

I’m not entirely sure what to think of the “intermission”, but at least it provided some variation to the quite long 9 minutes runtime :p Which brings us to the structure and composition itself. And first, yeah 9 minutes is indeed very long, but I think you made it work. The track doesn’t linger on a single idea for too long but keeps moving in one way or another. It was a good idea to keep the drums and guitar relegated completely to the second half of the song, so there’s some new additional energy to be presented there. The melodies are well done and supplement the naturally solemn feeling the sparse instrumentation implies.

I got to say that I think you underutilized the challenge a bit, as for most of the song I could hear only two instruments going on at once, that being strings and piano / drums and guitar. Including some additional background elements, such as a pad could provide even more depth to the composition. Especially during the last part of the song, where you only have the drums and guitar going on. Either keeping the sweeping strings or introducing a pad would do wonders, now it sounds a bit too dry for my liking.

But still, a very good entry indeed. Not many ideas for improvement here, except for maybe including some more layering with synths, and in general spicing up the instrument selection a bit.

[AED-4]

Track 04

Hmm immediately I can tell that the sound design could use some additional refining. For example, it sounds like there is not even reverb present at all, and everything is very mono. Indeed, trying to increase stereo width has no effect whatsoever. Unless this has a technical reason, such as trying to emulate older hardware, this should be remedied by panning the elements around a bit and adding reverb / delay to the elements to give them a bit more roominess. In general, the sounds are a bit low quality, but I wont hold that against the song too much.

Besides those points the mix is okay, though the bass drum does sound a bit buried. That might be partially fixed by panning other elements around, but also, it’s volume could be simply increased a bit.

Structurally it’s fine, except for the outro. Just fading out is a tried and tested method, but it’s not going to add to the song’s memorability. Also, it sounds like there’s basically only one melody playing here for the entire duration of the song, with some variation dispersed in at times. It is a fine melody, but I think switching things up a bit more drastically at some point would be a welcome source of excitement.

So, I’d recommend finding ways to improve the quality of the sounds and the mix, as that alone would improve the quality quite a bit. And regardless of its shortcomings, it was still a nice listening experience :)

Track 05

Sound design is stellar here, lots of interesting and well-crafted synths present. In the first section with the percussions, it did take me some time to make sure that it was adhering to the challenge, but it indeed is, which is quite an achievement considering all the things going on. The mix overall is crystal clear, and despite the business of everything, it doesn’t become muddy.

In general, the first part of the song is very strong, the spacious and frantic composition of the synths perfectly synergises with the sound design and complement the forlorn yet hopeful sci-fi like feeling well, and the leadup to the first breakdown is excellent.

Regarding the breakdowns, they aren’t bad either, but I do think they’re the weaker part of the song. The “vox” like lead playing on top of the chords doesn’t really fit the rest of the elements in my opinion, and something brighter could have helped it feel more cohesive with the first half. Also, I would have really loved to hear some heavy hitting drums being introduced for the last breakdown section, as of now it feels like it’s building up some proper energy going into 1:50, but I don’t think it ever fully releases it. What sacrifices this would have required though, I’m not sure.

The outro is also good, and does tie the song up nicely, so that even after the kind of “disconnected” breakdowns, it feels like one complete package.

Don’t have much to say here, as overall everything is sounding very good. Regardless of the potential for some minor structural improvement, you’ve got some fine stuff here, and a strong addition to my favourites list :)

Track 06

Proper chiptune, love to hear that. Though I got to say that’s probably the most difficult genre for me to analyse, as it’s very near and dear to my heart, but I do not produce it, so some more technical details get lost on me.

Sound design wise not much to say naturally, but you put the NES capabilities in quite good use to my ears when it comes to the leads. The percussions are alright, a bit plain perhaps and would have preferred maybe a bit more oomph to them, especially the bass drum, that’s a bit hard to make out of the song.

50 seconds is indeed quite short length, and I do think it does hurt it. Especially since the section leading to the outro sounds like it would be leading to something more. If this was a clearer loop, that would be resolved, and the short length would also not be as big of a problem.

But what it has in store is pretty good, especially for the first half. The second half I do not feel is as strong, I think having only the very high triangle(?) carrying the melody makes it sound a bit too “sparse”, I’m not sure but bringing it down an octave could be a fix, but I could also see it competing with the square blips for space. And I got to say, I especially love that melody from around 0:20 to 0:30, just perfectly hits that certain NES / C64 era vibe in my mind. Reminds me a bit of the Wild ARMs intro as well :p

In any case, a fine chiptune bop. A bit short, and perhaps lacking some punch, but still got that old-school grooviness :)

Track 07

Very good mix quality, that much I can tell immediately. Balance is good and everything sits comfortably in their own spots. Sound design and instrumentation are also superb, besides one exception I’ll get later. Especially the acoustic sounds, guitar and piano, are excellent, and very realistic sounding.

But yeah, about that exception, have to agree that the saw synth emulating a horn instrument in the beginning is not perhaps the best fit :p Though it gets better when it goes up an octave. I think using a square wave to make it more clearly a synth could have been a better choice.

Moving on to structure, things are changing and evolving at a good pace. This one’s got a particularly good cohesion I feel, and every section feels like it naturally belongs to the song. Good contrast is also provided between different sections by changing the elements and the melodic content.

And speaking of melodic content, that is simply beautiful here, what else can I say? Very evocative and interesting, listening this multiple times made me appreciate a new aspect of them each time. This also reminds me strongly of some older videogame OST, but for the life of me I can’t recall which one.

Honestly, not much to say about this, other than that this one’s a very well-made chill piece all around, which perfectly manages to evoke the feelings of wandering through an abandoned but peaceful land :)

Track 08

If I had to describe this track with one word, it’d be “crisp”. And for a good reason, as that is exactly what the mix quality is and no less. Really got nothing negative to say about that, it’s loud, clear, and balanced, everything you’d want out of a high energy electronic banger. Sound design is also excellent, we got some tried and tested growls and supersaws, but also some more unusual choices to spice things up.

Structure & composition wise it’s also very strong. The ending is maybe a bit drawn out, I think forgoing the last section starting at 4:08 would make it a more coherent and compact package. Besides that, things are good. The breakdowns have some good variation in them, and the downtime maintains things interesting. The transition out from the last breakdown could perhaps be a bit better articulated, as while it is smooth, it’s sudden. Same is kind of true for the end of first breakdown, but the vocal sample helps with that.

However, I must admit it is stretching the interpretation of the specified theme quite far, and even I as an avid fan of Drum & Bass am having some difficulties to fit it into a scene of abandonment. But the theme it is trying to convey - that being clearly some shenanigans with time - it does perfectly, love the usage of clock ticks as part of the percussions!

High marks all around, don’t got much to say since I generally prefer to point out things that I think could be improved, but those are honestly in short supply here. I do see this losing points from theme adherence, but that doesn’t change the fact that this one’s for sure going straight into my favourites :p

[AED-4]

Track 09

Some nice spacey pseudo-chiptune vibes in the beginning, and lovely complex textures. Immediately I can tell that the mix & sound quality is going to be good, and that is indeed true. Mix is clear, and sound design wise there’s lots of interest generated by a varied troupe of sounds making an appearance.

I’m not sure what to think of the structure as a whole. For the first half we got a fairly conventional progression from intro to introducing beat and transforming into a heavier breakdown. Then we enter the second half, and for the remainder of the song it becomes this more jazzy, “freeform” song, as I would describe it. While it’s not bad if not sounding a bit directionless perhaps, I think the song would have benefited from a short return into the style of the first segment with the beat going on to tie itself up into a more coherent package. The outro does connect itself into the intro very well though.

Don’t got much to say about the individual sections themselves, as they are well made in general. But I would have used the seemingly free spot from 1:31 to 1:47 to put some background pad/choir element there. As it stands it’s a bit too empty compared to the rest of the track, which sounds very roomy otherwise. Then again it does provide some nice contrast.

As mentioned, the moment-to-moment composition of the song is good, and the melodic elements especially are supremely evocative. Got the main melody at 0:54 stuck into my head for some time :p

In conclusion, and as aptly described by others, a very Terraria-esq groovy bop indeed. A bit unusual in structure, but that’s what makes it memorable :)

Track 10

Mastering wise I think it’s a bit too loud, seeing as it peaks at 0 dB. This can cause some problems when encoding, and it is generally suggested to keep the peak at around -1 dB. This also helps to avoid clipping in general. Another odd thing about the master is that for some reason it seems that all the high frequencies past around 16KHz are cut off? The MP3 bitrate seems to be only 192kbps, so perhaps it’s because of that, in which case, I do recommend rendering with higher bitrate.

The mixing while not bad, could also be a better in my opinion. For example, in the beginning with just the synth strings playing, them being panned so drastically to the side is a bit distracting. Also, I think - perhaps because of the loudness - that the elements lose a bit of clarity, like they are mushed together. Besides the drums, those stand out well.

When it comes to sound design, I think you could really benefit from using a bit better VST than FL Keys :p There’s some good free piano VSTs available on the net, such as Spitfire LABS Autograph Grand (though that one might not be er EDM-y enough for your liking). The synth strings also are not perhaps the highest of quality, but they’re not that bad.

Also, a little thing, but I hear a small click at around 0:54.9 (and around same point in the latter half) I’m pretty sure that happens because you start the drums’ lowpass automation filter at the same time the drums begin playing. This can be fixed by simply starting the automation a bit before the drums, like in this picture:

Structure wise this track has the same problem as Track 00, it has the same selection of instruments playing for the entirety of the song, and it is seemingly looped twice, albeit with some minor changes at the end. I’d recommend the same fix for this as well, simply removing the second half of the song, and putting the outro at the end of the first section. Besides that, it’s also quite repetitive, as there’s only one chord progression present, and there’s little to no change in the elements present, except for the change in melody. Introducing a more drastic change, kind of like this now has between the sections, could help break the monotony even further.

But moving on from the structure, and into the melodic composition of the song, things are looking much better. They are bit of basic maybe, but still very evocative, and I would be lying if I didn’t say they tuck my nostalgic heartstrings :p I simply love the melody that begins at around 2:17. Definitely the melodic content is the strong suit of this song.

All in all, there’s good things happening, and it’s still very pleasurable to listen to :) Improving the structure to be less repetitive would be my first tip, and after that, improving the master and the mixing to be a bit clearer.

Track 11

So first, this is indeed very quiet, but as it’s been mentioned before, I’m not going to get stuck on that. Mixing and instrumentation wise things are fine, though the selection of instruments is rather narrow (piano, strings, woodwinds, percussions). Swapping out or complementing the piano at some point with another instrument could provide some additional pizazz to the song, but also, I don’t think it’s necessary.

Structurally things are sounding good, it doesn’t linger on any single idea for too long, and there’s an excellent sense of forwards motion going on. Really like how it’s charging up for almost the entire duration of the song, but I think it should properly release all that built up energy at 1:36, now it kind of wanes out slowly.

The melodic content is also good, though the melody starting at 1:04 could benefit from having something else dispersed in than just whole notes. At first, I was also thinking that this song could use some more prevalent percussion such as bass-drums or timpani, but on further pondering I think it’s better this way. The moment-to-moment composition perfectly synergises with the sombre feeling of the instrumentation as is.

And yeah, the lack of humanization is a problem. Simply randomizing how loud the individual notes are played should go a long way in alleviating that, and if you wanted to go for a more advanced route, figuring a way to fiddle with small note duration changes / offsets. There might be some inbuilt tools in your DAW of choice, I’d recommend combing the internet for some documentation / tutorials.

In conclusion a compositionally competent piece with a healthy amount of additional potential, which happens to suffer from some technical shortcomings. Ironing those out is a surefire way to improve the quality of your songs :)

Track 12

When it comes to the mix itself, despite being very loud, I think this one is executed well I can hear all the elements clearly without them muddying together, so clearly care was taken to reserve a space in the mix for them. But yeah, there’s quite a bit clipping going on that I can notice audibly, even though it’s kind of masked by the glitch effects going on.

Speaking of which, this one has super nice sound design, everything fits together perfectly, and they complement the overall feeling of the song well. Percussion work is something to particularly note here, they perfectly complement the glitchy vibes going on in the track, and despite being very dense, the sounds are still discrete, which is something I always prefer. Also, I really love how you used the pad element as a riser FX by utilizing that LFO, very clever!

Melodies are also nice, a bit lowkey but they work well for the song and help maintain that bittersweet feeling I get from this one. I don’t know why but I almost get an end-credits feeling here :p

Structurally the biggest shortcoming is the outro, or the lack of it. It kind of sounds like there was an error in the rendering and the song got cut short, because there is clearly a beginning of the song’s tail present. But even if it didn’t cut off, there really wasn’t anything to end the song, the breakdown kind of just ends. Besides that, the structure is very good. The song is the perfect length for what it contains, and there’s enough dynamics despite the loudness.

In conclusion, I think if you fixed the ending – maybe by turning it into a loop - and refined the mastering so there’s no clipping present, I think this would be a fantastic song indeed, not to say that this isn’t a very good one already :)