NGADM Round 2 and more!

It looks like I'm moving to round two of the 2012 Newgrounds Audio Death Match! This means that out of around 200 entries, I am in at least the top sixteen. I don't know HOW that one happened, but I'm thankful nonetheless. :)

My round one entry

In other news, a piece of mine called Mural OST - Drifting made it to the NG front page earlier this week. That was an awesome surprise. This evening, my younger sister pointed out that another piece of mine made it to the front page! I'm really surprised about this as the piece was just released yesterday. It is only about 50% done, unpolished, and apparently has really sucky drums according to reviews. -_- Not only that, but it didn't get a particularly high score or anything. Who chooses what goes on the front page anyway? Or is it automated? Oh, and the piece is an arrangement of the Gerudo Valley theme from Zelda.

Anywho, I'm pretty excited about the NGADM. I'll definitely need to step up my game to keep in the competition. I'm also pretty excited, albeit nervous, to be going back to community college tomorrow. Yep.

By the way, can anyone help me with those drums? I don't know what I need to do to make them better. Perhaps you have a tutorial you could point me to, suggested listening, or advice from personal experience? Please? :)

Comments

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KrisKrosNL 2012-08-19 23:54:42

Why are you always so lucky?

BlazingDragon 2012-08-19 23:54:42 (Updated 2012-08-20 00:14:13)

I've been posting music here since 2007. Trust me, there have been plenty of unlucky "periods" since then. Zero bombers, bouts with writers-block, having general crapiness in the real world, the list goes on. The trick is to always bounce back until good things start to happen, which is right now for me. That's making your own "luck." :p

KrisKrosNL 2012-08-20 08:55:02

Seems legitimate that you would have over 600 fans...

BlazingDragon 2012-08-20 08:55:02 (Updated 2012-08-20 13:33:41)

For the longest time, I had hardly any fans at all. In 2008, a Newgrounds user by the name of Daniel Sun used one of my pieces in his flash animation 'Power Star 4' that was based on the Mario series. Fans began to accumulate at that point. Further, I made it a goal to leave several in-depth audio reviews each week, especially for music by people I admired here on NG. I often found that they'd return the favor and review my pieces or even favorite me.

My music from Power Star was put on Youtube by a fan and one piece accumulated around 200k views. Then other people started using it. Someone wrote lyrics to that piece and Katethegreat19, a fairly popular youtube vocalist, did a cover singing those lyrics. Then some of her fans uploaded that song to their youtube pages with artwork, etc.

My music since found its way into some decent flash games, animations, and youtube videos, most all linking back to my newgrounds page. I offered to compose music for free on a number of projects like Mural. That helped me get credit and exposure. I also put my music on here, Soundcloud, Youtube, and got a facebook fan page that I actively updated.

600 fans is still pretty modest compared to some of the bigger names around here. Waterflame has fans numbering close to 6,000. Still, I've achieved decent success in this part of the internet. I write all this to demonstrate a point; you've got to actively market your own work and create connections. Make friends all around the audio portal. Respond to each review and make the reviewers feel appreciated. Seek out advice from musicians that inspire you. Make yourself a known presence on the forums and in competitions. Hopefully along the way you'll get a piece featured in a game or at least on the main audio page.

As for me, I still haven't made my presence known much outside of NG. Now that I have some credits under my name, I'm seeking to open up more opportunities. Hopefully professional ones as I hone my craft.

KrisKrosNL 2012-08-20 20:40:52

Wow, what a reply. o_O

You can obviously see that I respond to all reviews, and I write detailed reviews occasionally. I just don't bother to review since a lot of authors do not reply. (at least I had received 39 responses out of 82 reviews)

Seeing at my post count, you can tell that I frequent the Forums. I'm just not fond of all the adults around (and seeming that I'm the youngest teenager in the Audio Portal). I don't want to make a dumb step and appear stupid.

You might have noticed that my latest song (that you reviewed) is being used by a movie or game, but it isn't published yet. I'm just hoping that it would expose my name once and for all. Above all, I have this sort of 'self-made stuff sounds bad' policy; it means that I always feel that, whatever I do, isn't good enough, even if it's amazing and superb. I can't ever tell whether my stuff is worthy of exposure or just hidden in the dust.

Looks like I can only make music and hope that it somehow gets into a front-paged flash movie/game and then on YT or something...

BlazingDragon 2012-08-20 20:40:52

The song of yours that got on the audio page nearly has 2,000 views now. Congrats!

Keep improving your craft and I think recognition will come your way.

KrisKrosNL 2012-08-20 20:42:19

*youngest teenager in the Audio Forum.

BlazingDragon 2012-08-20 20:42:19

In the audio forum? Maybe. Even then, I've seen a lot of young users. Mostly in the general forum though.

Sequenced 2012-08-21 13:07:26

You're welcome. :)

BlazingDragon 2012-08-21 13:07:26

Thank you!