by

Richard Yaz
(Yaz)

The beginning is a bit weak compared to the rest of the tune. The author needs to spend more effort on post production ie Panning, and Execution. The panning was very centered restricting the appreciation of a powerful theme. There is no rest/bridge and the tune seems to drone on at a constant volume. The melody and chords were too static giving a feeling of wanting to hit the fast forward button and knowing that nothing much will change. Also try experimenting using more than one lead. The guitar has been overused in so many other tunes. Perhaps try turning off some channels like the chords, or arpeggios, or bass and see what ideas they give you. Apart from these faults, the piece was orchestrated well and none of the instruments stuck out except perhaps the arpeggiated koto/guitar sounded a little tinny. Instruments had too much high end giving it 'sharp' tone. Perhaps try EQ'ing the strings and chip samples so that they sound more rounded. ie remove more high range, and increase bottom frequencies.

Despite the low quality samples, the artist did a decent job of creating a nice job of creating a nice theme. However, the lead was a bit repetative and was being cycled over again if at a higher chord progression. If you plan to repeat the lead try to make it vary from the one before.. perhaps a peak in the notes or some sort of effect would be nice. Also the song was missing, (for the lack of a better term), "personality". Try creating a change from the usual, make certain that your listener is giving your song their full attention.

hmm.. all 8-bit samples.. your sound was very clean, but not very original. form: excellent, although i was tempted to hit the ol' fast-forward a few times due to the fact the song doesn't change much. a little repetitive. well thought out and "musical" leads. technique: you have a very good tracking style. samples: nice. good use of filtered samples. i didn't like the drums though, they were a little static and weak.

The piano in the beginning of this song could easily be replaced with a guitar or other sample which is smaller with a more realistic and convincing sound. The song goes an awful long time using the same chord progression before anything happens, although I didn't entirely lose interest. When the key does change the song becomes interesting again. You didn't take many risks with the lead, and you managed to make a pleasant, though not really memorable melody. The low resonatix sample sounds nice used as a bass as you've done here. The use of the high string each beat of the song seems to be a Radix trademark, but I won't knock your score for using that. In summary, I really do like the feel of this song, it mixes well and is very pleasant. I didn't find myself wanting to fast-forward as I often do when rating MC songs. In the sample department, you managed to get a nice collection of samples, with exception of the low piano sample which you played very high. I see this song having some trouble in the area of originality if it makes it to round 2 (though I really think you have a fighting chance to get there) since this song has a very generic chord progression. Nice work.

The song starts out with the clean harpsichord samples, which would have been helped by a bit of stereo panning, but was overall a nice effect. The song then started in with the main portion of the song, at which point I began thinking, "This song might be able to make the second round of the veteran category, much less intermediate." But then I was sorely disappointed, because the song never really changed. ...There were three noticable changes in the song, one in the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end, with the middle one not being all that apparent, and seeming to fall back into what it changed from. Also, before I said that the harpsichord beginning sounded rather nice. That is true, but having it play over and over again for the entire length of the song was not a plus....The samples sounded clean, and of high quality....The technique was not bad, especially if you look at the song one pattern at a time. There is a lot of volume movement, stereo movement, and generally everything that keeps my eyes and ears excited, assuming we're just looking at a single pattern....Originality was average, as it didn't really reach to any strange or new heights, it just tried to have a good quality, strong song,without wowing the audience....Overall, the song is enjoyable to listen to. Unfortunatly, there was only about a minute of material, and about four minutes of the lead playing with itself. 5:13 is way too much time for this song, as it could easily have been fit into the judge-friendly four minutes, if not the radio-friendly three.