by

Dmitry ZyZ
(ZyZ)

There are some tuning problems in this song, or it just the selection of instruments that puts it "off". The piano work is also way too busy---there seem to be few discernable pauses in the phrases and as a result sounds very rushed. A melody is probably buried in there, but I couldn't detect it. I noticed that out of the 13 instruments, only 1 was a piano. If you could reduce the sample quality of that piano and add another for a higher pitch, that would help give you more realism. The chorus padding in the background also is rather muddled. Not a bad effort.

Long intro, good drumline. Too little lead instruments. Unopened bassline (my personal feeling) at ord 9. Too-mid, but well-defined panning. Volumes are ok. Nice, but messy theme, repetitive throughout the tune. Samples are ok. Overally - a good rookie tune, with some potential shown. Work to do though.

Now it's weird. It's just a plain song, but I just plain like it. The piano synths almost sounded too much like pianos at order 05 and following -- they should have been more synthetic. Good key changes. Chord changes are weird but not unexplorable. Nice creative use of the sequenced drum at order 16h at the end. Nice drum tracking throughout, actually. Samples were pretty good but effects seemed a bit minimal. I'm pretty impressed with those piano synths (though they sounded kinda noisy) and I liked those hi-hats and jingles. This song definitely does a good show with 14 channels as far as thickness goes but there were lots of empty spectral bands that could have been filled out a bit better to start with. The ending was too abrupt and unsatisfying -- letting us down gently with a bit more piano would have been the Right Thing To Do. Other than that the song was very well laid-out.

One of the better songs in the rookie division that I've heard thus far. The samples are of excellent quality. I can only assume that some of the were created by the author (is that a sample from an Orb CD that I hear in there?). Anyhow...the percussion is quite amazing. Definately one of the strong points of the song. Just to emphasize this, the transition from order 22 to order 23 is perfectly balanced simply because of how well the percussion carries it. The closing is plain, but effective. As a whole, the song lacks a definate climax. The music is original, and I find the piano part catchy. But there isn't a whole lot of fluctuation in the mood -- this song could've benefited from that.

I found this song a bit dull, I'm afraid. Most of the samples were good, except for the piano which was a bit lifeless - unfortunately that was the lead instrument for the whole song. The orchestral/choir sound seemed to be out of tune, but the drums were quite good sounds. Technically this was not the best. There was a lack of effects used, and the drums could have used some volume commands to add some variation. Otherwise the drum track was quite well done. Panning was used quite well in places. This song's main problem was in the form category - it was a bit too repetitive, and there seemed to be a lack of musical ideas. The piano lead didn't go anywhere, and just seemed to go up and down a bit instead of making any memorable melodies. The chord progression wasn't too great either. Perhaps it would have been improved by a more varied sample set, with a few more instruments in, and in particular the addition of a bass, which appeared to be completely lacking. Some more lead instruments would have added to the variety, and I'd suggest that the orchestral/choir sound was not the best sound to use as a chord instrument. A song like this really needs a good, memorable melody, or it will just pass over the listener, in one ear and out the other. That was, unfortunately, how it was for me. The lack of a bass line was not a good idea either. And remember, if you want to make something melodic, you do need a strong melody, which you just didn't have, I'm afraid.