Beautifully done!
Hey man! Sorry for all that inactivity, with me being in Australia right now, but I finally found some time to borrow my dad's headphones and listen to this. I have a limited connection right now so my review's going to come out pretty half-arsed, but I can't help but review this masterpiece right now :D.
So I'll start by saying, well, wow. This song seamlessly walks the line between Ambient and Trance and has such an awesome vibe to it. I don't have many bad things to say about it, it sounds pretty much like something I'd expect from you, i.e. something epic and amazing.
I'll split my review into a pros and cons section.
-PROS-
- That intro is just amazing. Not perfect (you'll see why in the cons section :P) but the instant I heard that intro I knew I was going to like this song. The pad which fades in and abruptly stops to play a delayed saw pluck made a very cool effect to start the song with.
I must say that the intro sounded really awesome with headphones on, even if they're crappy mobile headphones (or maybe I'm just too used to speakers). The cool sweep and noise filtering effects after that were just icing to the cake.
- The composition, as usual, is pristine. The melodies are very catchy and each melody flows beautifully to the next. I love the chord progression you used, it's not often you hear such awesome chord progressions in NG Trance music. Seriously, it's melodies like these which I look for in Trance songs, and I'm glad I've finally found them. Good job!
- The atmosphere you managed to evoke with the plucked sounds, awesome melodies, and amazing pads, was out of this world. I never knew something like this could be so atmospheric.
All I'd wish for would be a few more bass sounds in the backgrounds to make the atmosphere deeper, but that's probably personal preference and it's such a minor nitpick that I didn't even bother to put it in the cons section.
- The sounds you used all left me amazed. Not only do you have some cool plucked sounds with the perfect amount of echo/delay to them, but also an awesome-sounding pad. Like I said above, the noise-filtering effects, such as that powerful hit at 0:47 and the various sweeps throughout the song, were all brilliant. You probably know by now that I'm a fan of sweeps, so my opinion may be a bit biased, but what the heck, the sweeps sound amazing.
- Transitions were perfectly executed. The filter automating with the drums was a great way to introduce and exit the drums from the song, and all of the transitions were great. I especially liked the transition from the ambient intro to the busier part at 0:40.
- Finally, the ending to the song was fantastic. It was a satisfying way to end the song and worked really well. Maybe you could have made the final note a bit more powerful with a more epic hit, instead of just a clap, but other than that nitpick, ending was flawless.
-CONS-
- Percussion. This might come out as slightly annoying and nitpicky, but to be honest I think the percussion was a little on the rough side for an ambient-ish song like this, namely the snare which sounds too distorted or dry to fit in with the song in my opinion...
Don't get me wrong, the rhythms your used for the percussion were really good, and the filtering, like I said, was great, my only problem is that the percussion themselves cut too much into the atmosphere if you get what I mean. I doubt it would be easy to get the percussion to fit with the atmosphere while keeping them trancey like they are right now though, but heck, worth a try right?
- I think the intro could have a bit more to it like some reverse effects, for example a reverse kick on every louder part of the intro when the pad reaches its loudest volume. Just a random idea I'm bringing up, might improve this already awesome intro.
-OVERALL-
That's pretty much it. This song truly sounds brilliant, especially for a 5-hour work. I'm probably never going to get that melody out of my head. Just work on those 2 tiny things I mentioned, but keep up the AMAZING work!
10/10
5/5
Download.
Fav'd
-Review Request Club-