Reviews for Further Suns Inc. [VGM]

[stardew]

VGMC, 8-Bit Wandering: "Further Suns Inc." Review

There are two things about this piece that really stood out to me: its evolution and its atmosphere. Starting with evolution, you managed to make an intriguing and detailed song consistent throughout its almost 4 minute span. This is largely due to the song's fluctuating dynamics, which you kindled by fading in and out its many moving parts at satisfying intervals. While the song's emotional highs aren't astronomical, I think the mellow nature of the song suits it well, and you operate well under the low dynamic ceiling you set for yourself. The atmosphere of your entry works hand in hand with its dynamics, the delay and reverb helping the song feel open and enveloping, and the bitcrushed timbre of everything curating a unique, Disasterpeace-ish world for the song to exist in. I'm impressed by how different every synth sounds, while working under the umbrella of bitcrush; you've utilized volume envelopes and whatever bitcrush plugin you used masterfully.

I guess if I had to critique something, it would be the production. While your track is produced better than most entries to my theme, there are still a few problems I'm able to hear with compression and balance. A lot of the low frequencies throughout this tune tend to bleed together in a subtle but dissonant way, probably due to the reverb you put on the sub. I also don't think the drums at 2:22 hit hard enough; I would love to hear a sharper transient on everything here, and more of the snare's fundamental. I also think the synth at 2:07 is way too high passed.

Aside from that, though, I really loved your entry! Definitely one of my favorites. Keep it up! :)

[ian-booms]

Really cool track, love the cool usage of bit crush such as at 0:55, gave me some Disasterpeace vibes!

Liked the sound design too! I am pretty new to synthesis but here are a couple things a like to do to add a little more variation to my pad sounds! I love adding some random modulation to help every note sound a little bit different from each other, especially adding "NoteOn Rand" modulation to the panning and attack settings (I'm not familiar with Vital, but it seems to be a pretty robust synth so I imagine it has a similar function) that way every note in a chord will be a little different from each other, adding a little more organic of a feel to the pad. (I would love to hear any synthesis tips and tricks you've picked up too!)

Overall, very satisfying ambient listen, great work!

Chepaki responds:

Thx a lot for your feedback!

As someone else already pointed out: yeah I'm still not very good with panning and rarely push/modulate a pan knob too far, and now that you mention it I notice I have the same problem with randomness in general... Always trying to add just a little and then undoing it almost immediately haha

I don't think I can give good synthesis tips, but here's one thing I've seen someone else do that I ended up doing multiple times: https://youtu.be/7qQX6YGBQEA?t=793
Basically cutting more of the high-end when playing higher notes, I feel like it works very well with harsh sounding waveforms like square/saw, and I'm pretty sure it can be done on most synths by linking the note value (inverted) to the filter's cutoff

[Rafdows]

Hello Chepaki,

There is a lot of good things in your song, synth are goods and the sound in general... But : The kind of arpeggio is almost always present and all the time in the same key/chord and the tonality does not change enough and all theses details make your song boring and we only listen to this arpeggio without taking attention at the rest, so... Just take a second regard to this and your song will be ok :-)

Rafdows

[JensVide]

Nice song, captures the atmosphere well!

One thing I think would make the track a little better is too pan the drums that come in at 02:20 to center, to give the drums more impact and make the track feel more stable at that point.

Lastly, I think you created a good looping point.

Good work!

[OliRO]

As an 8-bit challenger myself, I'm telling you that your song definitely fits the profile. I makes me feel like I'm exploring the calm void of space in a spaceship looking for resources. The loop is well made, it transition smoothly.

I'm trying to find a constructive comment but I find it hard to, I wouldn't change much to it, it already sounds very good. If I really had to change something, I'd play with the reverb of some tracks, maybe the bass, to let the reverb of the melody shine more.

Well done! :)