Oh wow! This is incredible in pretty much every way. I imagine a ton of work was put into it, but from what it sounds like, it was all worth it :O
Brilliant job, all of you!
A very fitting way to celebrate the anniversary :3
*Hits play for the fourth time*
Hey man! Sorry for taking ages to reply.
Super glad you like it. Lots of work was indeed put into it; I'd say close to 40 hours of work.
Thanks for the review ^_^.
Sup! It's been awhile since I've reviewed your music, and I saw this came out. So, why not?
THE GOOD:
-Excellent arpeggios at the start, and a fantastic intro overall in general.
-Good percussion and excellent use of background instruments.
-Good progression with the shift to a darker idea around 1:40, particularly with the tempo changes shortly afterwards.
-Your bitcrushing and FX processing is actually quite fantastic.
THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
-The singing is excellent, but the solo voice seems a bit out of place for this music (if not your music in general). I think part of it is that it feels very weak here. It also has some mixing issues towards the end of the track.
-Overall composition organization-wise, this might have benefited from a harkening back to the beginning arps towards the end.
-The arpeggios at around 0:43 seem to be dissonant and out of tune with the rest of the piece at that point, though it's a background issue.
-2:12 seems like an awkward transition, though I get that it would be a hard transition to make considering the different chord progressions and moods. I just think it could have been done better there is all! :)
THE RESULT: 9.7/10
A fantastic medley, good sir. Your music never fails to impress. As always, I could only find smaller nitpicky issues in the piece. A good solid download for most anyone, particularly people who like metroid.
Take care, man!
Hey Skye! I almost forgot how much I enjoy your review.
I'm happy with all the good stuff you mentioned, but especially pleased that you like the FX processing. It's a big deal coming from someone who morphs sounds like playdough hahaha. I definitely had a lot of fun playing around with the synths here. Passing them through guitar amp distortion gave some of them some really nice grit.
I'm gonna swap to a blow-by-blow format for the criticisms because I have something to say for each of them.
"-The singing is excellent, but the solo voice seems a bit out of place for this music"
I know what you mean. It's something Darren (the singer) and I both agree on. I think he definitely did a great job on the vocals here, but even he was a bit disappointed that he didn't sing with more power. These are actually a separate set of takes that you hear in the song; the first set came out a bit too weak and he redid everything. They're better now, but I agree that the singing style could be a bit more powerful.
"-Overall composition organization-wise, this might have benefited from a harkening back to the beginning arps towards the end."
That was actually the original plan, but I had such a hard time transitioning from the first half to the second half that I had no idea how on earth I could smoothly get it back to the first half haha.
"-The arpeggios at around 0:43 seem to be dissonant and out of tune with the rest of the piece at that point, though it's a background issue."
Hm... possibly. Come to think of it I am hearing a few weird major 2nd clashes between the arpeggios and the melody. However, those arpeggios and chords are copied pretty much verbatim from the original track, so I think that dissonance is probably present in the original track too! Might check it out properly.
"-2:12 seems like an awkward transition, though I get that it would be a hard transition to make considering the different chord progressions and moods. I just think it could have been done better there is all! :)"
Argh, 2:12. You're not the first to point it out. I didn't know what else I could do to smoothly transition those two sections. They're in a different key, different time signature, different chord progression, and different mood :(. I figured that the buildup would accumulate a bunch of tension which I could then release with the bit at 2:12, which would justify the transition, but I definitely agree it's not smooth.
Anyhow, it was great getting a review from you again! Thanks a million for dropping by.
This is quite lighthearted for being a Metroid tribute, surely wasn't expecting the bubbly vibes :)
01:35, oh I see you're also a fan of movie-like brass rises, I see. Honestly, what else can I say, after all these detailed reviews down below.
It sounds sharp, as expected, no complaints about the mastering. It's very melodic, I gotta say, I was expecting something more atmospheric and dark, but you ultimately went for a more "standard" I guess cinematic/electronic sort of style, which I guess is still fine within the context, but how about a little more oomph next time? Just a bit more punch, something that goes straight into your guts and catches you off guard. I've been listening to many tracks with a similar style, honestly, and my general impression is that authors sometimes sound like they're afraid to go full throttle, preferring to settle for a sound that is already well-established and known, but it's still too clean, a little too sterile. It's undoubtedly good, but I think it lacks that spark that makes you say "Oh yeah, it's that guy right? Oh man, I love that feeling!" as if it's too "politically correct", too polished. It sounds weird, right? How can an audio track be too polished?
At the end of the day, perhaps I'm rambling, but I guess my only real advice here is to follow your guts more. Strive for your own individual style and perfect it, bring the best out of your own imaginary because it's YOUR imagination. Experiment, expand, explore. Don't be afraid to leap in the dark sometimes, it's always good to try new things and bring new feelings, new emotions, sounds that you wouldn't probably dare imagine, let alone utilize. :)
Sexy orchestra you have there. Only complaint is that I dont like the lack of transition into the vocals. It's jarring, and they interrupt some badass strings. When the orchestra comes back and joins the vocals, then the song becomes truly amazing again, so you are forgiven. 9.5/10
This is the best!