by

Alexandr Fast Shadow
(Fast Shadow)

During the intro, the chords arrangement is nice. Too long intro (strings chords). At 3:00 the music really begins. A too simple piano melody with a too fast rythm (bassdrum/hithat).

First of all, "Back to Nowhere" was a pretty good title for this peice. The first 16 seconds of very quiet falling watter was a bit too much. In fact, it was only around 2:10 that it started to bring some depth to the peice. When sample 2 is introduced it was harsh and cut at the serene mood at the time, but other places it blended well. Most of the backgound channels could have enifitted from some note slides or NNA fades as they tended to be too abrupt. The samples themselves were very clear and free of static, even when blasted through my pro-logic. However, this was not enough to carry the peice. Also, in the future, please observe the 4 minute rule as I choose to cut my listening at that time.

*File Specs* [Additional vote] ... [Filename]m6i-back.it [Title]Back to nowhere [General comment]This started neat...nice sfx, nice arrangement, nice sketch and then you start to turn it into some kind of Mc-Music burger with a default commercial beat, some fancy artificial string jam-session, some instruments you have arranged and use in a good depth and some are even so surfacial that you almost have the idea that you ran out of voices to bring in some depth into your instrument-depth arrangements. Though this song has a reasonable repetoire but the second part of this song is a bit too predictable and actually not fitting in the whole story you started, besides your songs gets more monaural in the second part. Round two is next year.

Creativity-wise, this song has possibilities. But, it suffers from overall tracking skill and length. The actual run-time of the song probably should have been about 2x as much---it gets going near the end and then just stops. Just leaves you hanging. No reprisal. No fade. Just stops and throws you out into the rain. The style of the tracking was also somewhat interesting in that it would appear that this was at one time an S3M that was quickly converted to IT. There are virtually no volume/panning controls set, and as a result extra channels were consumed to simulate the effect. For instance, the strings were alternated between 3 different channels, and the bass drum held 2 channels about halfway through. There were also some minor tuning problems which became rather unsettling in the first half of the song. What would help most (besides playing more with the volume/panning controls) is adding some kind of light lead to it like a clarinet or soft horn. The piano is played way too high to be able to really be the bearer of the melody. So, overall, a good attempt but probably a premature effort.

Sample set is mostly bright-sounding and contemporary. Good use of surround along with regular stereo. The intro could have been shorter, I almost fell asleep. Piano is tracked poorly and the strings don't sound like strings - they sound like pads. This tune seems to lack the idea to make it memorable. Some good ideas now and then, but nothing very consistent. It actually gets worse when the beat starts - at last. You try to give something to everyone, but you end up giving no one everything. This song didn't give me a clear impression. It lacks character, which a memorable theme and an effective structure would give it.

When this track starts, it starts well... but then there is (what seems to me) a three minute introduction sequence that happens before you get to the "meat and potatoes" of the song. What earns all the points I gave this song is the beautifull and awsome section of music that goes from about 3:30 to the end of the song... what takes some points away is the whole 3 minutes I had to wait for it. The author has all the technical and musical knowledge/talent down, but their experience in "song progression" could use some work. The things that would make this song better are to: 1-cut to the chase, and make that first three minutes either a lot shorter or more interesting and 2-take those great ideas you presented *after* the 3:30 mark and grace the entire song with them. Alltogether it's a pretty neat song.