by

Erica Erise
(Erise)

The intro really sets the "mystical" mood. The buildup to the main body of the song was done very effectively. Nice panning effect with the panflute at the beginning. The strings sounded a little fuzzy at times. The main theme played by instrument 03 is not bad, but could have more variations like using some of the effects that the tracker has to offer. Nice harmonys throughout the song, especially the flute instruments.

The first few seconds of this song sound excellent.. Although, one thing I have to comment on is your use of portamentos on the panflute riff.. They don't sound all that real.. What I would suggest is the use of 1) duplicating the instrument in the Instrument Menu, then edit the duplicate's volume envelope so that it has an attack.. Then use offsets (Oxx in Impulse Tracker) to offset the panflute so its on the second note, and replace your porta'd notes with that. The panflute could also benefit from a few echoes.. The bass you have in there is great also. A little while after, when you come in with those chords, you don't cut the bass fast enough that you had going before and it clashes with the chords. It sounds pretty bad. I do really like the toms you have going here though.. You might want to spice them up a little with some retrig's (Q03 or so in IT). Nice echoes on these toms. Later on you come in with some pianos (in order), I noticed you are only using one piano sample.. And as for that, you go way out of its sweet range (the range that it was originally sampled at.. the range that it sounds most realistic at).. I suggest you replace that piano sample with an instrument that uses multiple piano samples (for a more realistic sound). While I'm on the subject of samples, I might as well mention that your chord samples are majorlly overdriven, and so is your saxophone (horn?) sample. These all take away from the overall quality of the song. Aren't these SoundWave samples? In which case, I think they come pre-overdriven (yuck) .. Time to draw from a new source. The flute line you throw in there in order 4 is nice.. However I think, for a better transition, you could throw in about 8 notes at the end of the pattern prior to the one in order 4, and fade in the flute line so it doesn't just 'appear.' Later on you come in with what I think is one of those SoundWave saxophone samples. I play sax myself and can say that this does not sound like a saxophone at all :). Even if you were aiming for the sound of some other instrument, you may want to have not only used the short instrument hit, but also a longer sustained, for some interesting variations. I'm not noticing much highend, and you could perhaps use a bit more bass. Maybe some highend percussion, like hihats, a ride cymbal, or a tambourine.. You do an excellent job at order 7. There wasn't much of a transition into it, but once it starts it isn't that bad. I don't know if you did a key change or a whole new chord progression but it sounds great--almost like a 'relief' from the sax part (the sax part wasn't BAD.. but variation is obviously always good :) The bell melody here is pretty nice. My only complaint is that either the bell melody is not loud enough, or those chords are too loud (although those sweeping crescendos are quite nice). Order 9 you come back with a sax melody. Here I think you should've switched to some other new instrument. You *do* do a great job at building it up, and there's a very nice release when you change keys again in order 11. The return of your original panflute sample is nice, also. About the ending.. A fadeout ending is almost never neccessary. What I think I would've done, is solo the panflute, and then after a pattern of a nice solo (with maybe some very soft strings in the back), fade in a chord to bring 'closure'. Overall, the song isn't that bad. Besides your overdriven, generic samples, it has some very nice aspects. You made good usage of the panflute riff sample, and good usage of the tom drums, as well as other things mentioned. The song doesn't get overly boring, and in fact, keeps my interest quite well. My only major complaint is the fadeout ending. And although the song wasn't terribly original, it is not one big cliche. Nice job.

This one had a little rhythm and harmony. It was, in general, good. However, there were a number of things which could have been done better. The 16-bit instruments are probably unnecessary as 16-bit. They consumed a lot of space and didn't enhance quality---a 16-bit 65K cymbal crash sounds just as good as an 8-bit one and takes half the space. The last few orders are overly repetitive (alternating between pattern 4 and 5?). Even minor changes in the percussion would have been welcome. The opening flute was a difficult thing to do to make it sound "right" with equal amounts of reverb. It seemed choppy, maybe because of the quick pitch porta (G5F). The high-pitched saxophone also collides with the flute at times. Overall, it's good but needs more polish.

Very nicely done patterns were good and nice samples.

Nice mood. It's a shame it seemed like 1 pattern extended for 30 or so. More melody would have been nice. The chords fit. The samples were good and in tune. Good luck on your next song!

Definately a good song, though there are several things that could have made it much better. Right away the song hurts my ears with the flute thing, it's too loud and I feel it is not a good instrument for this song. The strings come in along with the piano which sounds very nice. Not a big thing, but the strings have sort of a wind(?) static sound to them which hurts the song a bit. The melody that comes in is cool, but, again, a different instrument would sound better, and it is a bit repetetive. My main problem with the song, though, is that for me it failed to gain energy. The drums remain the same throughout, and the panning strings that come in sound a little too staticy. Also, channel 16 sounds a bit random.