I love the ominous atmosphere at the beginning. The calming guitars really add an interesting dynamic to the once-apprehensive mood. I also enjoyed the subtle tempo automations, and the melody at 1:05 is just beautiful. Excellent mixing and mastering as always. I don't know if you did this on purpose or not, but I loved the slight separation of each note in the string solo at around 1:35. The transition at 2:15 was a little sudden, but your music does tend to progress relatively quickly. The vocals didn't feel as powerful as they should've been IMO. I think they could've stood to be further up-front in the mix, possibly with more reverb too. I liked the structural relief offered by the relatively tranquil section at 4:10. I also enjoyed the uplifting melody at the end. It was a fitting conclusion. Overall, amazing work. Well worth the 35 hours if I say so myself. Good luck with your studies, and keep it up, Step! ^^
Reviews for "The City of Gold"
Hey man! Thank you very much for dropping by. I always enjoy reading your reviews.
The slight separation of each note is likely due to the legato transitions between the notes, which is something that the East/West Hollywood libraries do. Instead of just playing each note after the previous one, there's a tiny period of time dedicated to making a smooth transition to the next note, simulating a real string player moving his finger to another note.
2:15 was definitely quite sudden. On the one hand I enjoy that sudden change in mood, but on the other hand it makes more sense story-wise than it does music-wise.
The vocals had me torn. They introduced this really weird phasing with the violins, and I couldn't for the life of me get rid of it. This was the volume level I was happy with which wasn't too quiet that you can't hear them but too loud that the phasing becomes noticeable.
Really glad you enjoyed this! Thank you.
This is a really nice song that flows well from one part to another. The only thing I noticed was the infamous part at 2:14 which changed the mood completely. It feels like the parts before and after that point could be 2 separate songs. But that's just a nitpick.
Great job!
Sorry for the super late reply!
Thank you very much for this review. Yeah, those two parts do sound quite disconnected, but I did have a reason for putting that there, which is based on what actually happens in the game whose soundtrack this arranges.
Thanks again!
My favorite theme from my favorite online game has been remixed by my favorite Step. FML.
My heart beat brightly and softly at the long intro. The first crash startled me tho. The second half was fantastic.
5/5 lumps of aurillium.
Ah geez, sorry for taking FOREVER to reply to this.
Sorry about that sudden transition hahaha. I spent a while trying to get it to sound smooth but at one point I was just like "you know what? Screw it, let's make it all sudden and scary".
Thanks for dropping by. I give this review 10/10 auric dust.
Ahh, Guild Wars 2 music, still as nice as ever. By chance, could you do remixes of the Super Adventure Box songs, if you could find them? Or the old Lion's Arch song, that still plays in some personal story instances?
Hey! Thanks for reviewing and sorry for the late reply.
I actually went ahead with your suggestion and made an arrangement of a SAB song (the Shortcut Wurm theme in W1Z2). I'll be releasing it very soon!
Thanks again.
I'm just wondering why this song is so epic?