by

Okko Lifer
(Lifer)

Someone needs to tune their samples they use in that intro part. The tympani is way flat, the strings are a bit sharp, and the other synth is a touch flat. Ear soup. :-( In order 17 the strings come back in far too quickly and overwhelm the listener (just after starving the ears with the emptiness of just before that). The bass line needs a bit of going over as it sometimes plays sour notes and interacts poorly with that tympani. The drums are well-tracked and sound appropriate to the song -- in fact, they make the rest of the song sound a bit plain. I think this song could use a trip back to the shop for some more tweaking, more polish, and more critical listening.

pleasent and ambient tune; excellent usage of volume control, even with so many high-frequency samples, the song still sounds controlled and smooth. Bassline (sample 10) might need to be a little louder(?). Sample #1 & #2 are superb, perfect for this song. The kettle drum (sample 8) may not need to be so prevelent, turning the volume down a little may help, but it does add a nice touch to the song. Knowledege of panning to make the samples get their groove on displays the expertise of the trackers know-how of impulse tracker.

First off I think I should explain that timpani drums (sample 5) are meant to be in tune with the song that they are being used in. This means that they require tuning, and can not be placed into a tune it. Your timpani is out of tune, so they really just add dissonance to your song instead of a powerful orchestral reinforcement. Rip Skaven's marcato strings, did you? bad.. Overall your samples are of decent quality, but the sampleset as a whole is pretty generic. This tune does seem to have some variations in the main theme, but I suggest you add some variances to things like the volume in the tambourine, etc. The mixing is pretty bad: your strings are overpowering in some parts, and there is not all that much highend. Order 24 you have that synth sample going on top of a little piano lead that you had written, and they clash and the mix sounds very muddy. The percussion in this song is decent sounding. Order 12 is nice since it's like a start over from what you'd been building up from, although I think that the flutes you throw in could use a little more spicing up. Shortly after that, you throw in strings, which totally overpower the fluteline.. That is bad. This song is pretty original. I haven't heard too many songs with this type of sound tracked, honestly, and it is quite nice. The note you end on does not really add closure to your song. You end on a C, I recommend ending on a D. One last suggestion: Lower the pitch of your toms.

This song would have fit in nicely in intermediate, at least this year. This is a pretty good song, brought down by only a few problems that are probably repairable with some work. At parts it seemed a little too chaotic, so that the overall mood/melody was lost. I didn't care much for the final note, but being only ONE note, it didn't really hurt the song. Some of the samples didn't seem to fit in all that well with the tune. With some work on the melody, and maybe the samples, this would be more enjoyable.

A good attempt which is overshadowed by some common problems. Tuning: the bass, flute, and strings are just slightly off, but enough to notice. Percussion: the same thing over and over; try to vary the tambourine in particular. Volumes: strings crowd out the piano melody and the kettle drum is a bit too forceful. Panning: more variation of the lead would be nice to create more depth---the panning on the strings was nice. Samples: you have two copies of the same string instrument (4 and 12)? Orders: again, more variation would have been nice as you seem to have taken patterns 5, 6, and 7 and repeated them several times---maybe you were too rushed to get this piece in? Keep practicing!

Definately a good rookie entry. I don't see any major flaws in this song, and in my opinion, only requires more polish to make it shine even further. As for specifics, the bassddrum's tone around row 40 in the first couple of orders was off, and the same type of problem showed up when the order was in the low teens. I'm guessing that this problem may only be solved by having another sample. Secondly, the last note is too loud, and doesn't follow the rest of the ending. Generally I'd say that this was caused by some bug in the playing, but seeing as I was in IT, it doesn't seem likely....Technique was good, as some effects were used, and volume and panning were used well.