by

Andreas Marauder
(Marauder)

INSTRUMENTATION/SAMPLES: That bass drum was just too quiet. I barely heard/felt it at all---I even played the song back through ModPlug to re-equalize the bass section to no avail. Otherwise, nice clear samples. -=-=-=- TECHNIQUE: One of the most mono-panned songs in the compo, I wished for more variety. Actually, I also thought it was kinda interesting that you actually did have one panning envelope but turned the envelope control to "off". :P The leads all really do need breaks as they each are very long phrases. Especially the flute---I've never known anyone with enough lung power to maintain constant tones for more than 30 seconds. The opening sequence (except for 1 break) is like 50-55 seconds long! Adding brief pauses also adds "grouping" to the overall sound so you can tell when a melody repeats, for example. -=-=-=- ORIGINALITY: A pretty standard guitar/lead piece. I didn't see much innovation here. -=-=-=- FORM: Pretty much the same chords throughout, same flowing flute/guitar stuff, same plucked accoustic guitar in the background, and similar percussion. It's just "okay". -=-=-=- OVERALL: A reworking of the leads is definitely a priority. -=-=-=-

[my comments from round 1] [That acoustic guitar melody in channels 0-3 is the same all over the song, but transposed... that's a bit boring. The samples are good, their quality is fine too, but You totaly forgot to use stereo panning, that reduces Your score for the technical side. You should used more effects on the acoustic guitar so it could become more realistic. Lower volume is not enough, try to set a slight sample offset and vibrato around. Your song is one of those betters in Your division, but You will have to make Your songs more interesting, variable and stereo in the future.]

Not particularly attractive song. Pannings are completely static, while moving at least the battery around the hearing sphere could have helped a lot. The electric guitars don't fit very well, and BTW, they aren't used too much in that particular patterns.

Overall it's a relatively decent song. It has some grating points in it that detracted from it (see below) but was pleasant to listen to. The concept of this particular song hasn't struck my ears yet so I will definitely have to give some good scores for originality. Each of the parts are things that have been similarly tried in the past, but the mix isn't something often used. Well done in that respect. The song flows well into each of its parts with the exception of the very ending. A little too abrupt. There are some samples that come out extremely loud in places where they could be much quieter to let more subtle elements come out. The constant tambourine comes to mind as the most obvious use of a sample that was way too loud. The porting of some of the notes is definitely something that gives me some concern. It is a good idea but it isn't done very clean-like. The samples had some interesting clicks to them. Clean for the most part. The Drum kit could have used a little more power, particularly the snare and bass drums. The heavy guitar is always hard to use in a tracked song beacuse of the way the frequencies are handled. The samples blend relatively well.

- nice intro - beautiful flute - nice sonic balance (frequency-wise and panning) - powerful chorus - clean, appropriate samples - slightly abrupt ending - Ack!, I wanted more - Great song.. best I've hear din a while... made me in tune emotionally

Seriously - I don't like this tune at all! And why is that? Well, the basics of this tune is ok. It's form is ok aswell - none of it is "bad", but there are too many things, which I dislike. First of all there's way too much sliding on the flute-melody - the harmonica-sample sounds harsh and the distorted guitar doesn't fit into the tune. The melody in general I think is too messy and without holding points, meaning there's no theme in it - just a bunch of notes that happen to be in tune with the chords. Ofcourse there are some things in this tune, that I _do_ like - such as the arabian influence on the flute-lead around order #16 - nice!

Originality: Classic rock-tune. Which isn't very original, but a nice job is done with the leads and background gitar. Form: It feels like i'm listening to the same things over and over. Variate more! The ending was nice, but the intro was not so good (fade-in) Technique: The leads are ok, but you use the g and h effects a little too much sometimes. And instr. 14 could be done much better(it doesn't sound 'real') Samples: Nothing to complain about. Mostly ripped i think. Overall Appeal: A 'rock' tune like this won't reach the recordsbook of most original tune. But anyway it is a totaly ok tune, without the greates chords, leads and drums.

Some tips: 1. Next time use more panning effects. For example the echo effect on flute you tracked would sound much better with off-the-center panning; 2. Imitating a muted distorted guitar with volume jumps doesn't make it sound like the real thing; 3. The percussion isn't the most important. Play it at a lower volume; 4. Think more when writing solos.

The flute is badly used in places. Firstly, you need to put some immediate to-note portamentos in there instead of new notes. Flutes don't just cut off like that in real life, and I can tell you're going for a realistic sound. You can't slide a flute up/down in real life either, it sounds too unrealistic. The acoustic guitar sounds very good. Pretty decent work, tho, overall.

The synth lead, 0B, is the most glaring error: the sample is too weird... It's like a synth harmonica, or something, and the pitch slides sound horrible on it. Another gripe I had with this song (and, unfortunately, most of the other songs) was the lack of volume control on the leads--doesn't -anybody- vary the volumes on their leads?!? Anyway... Aside from those major problems, this was really a very cool piece... It's got a nice lead that you walk away humming... It's very moody, it's got a nice atmosphere (oh, the opening needs some work... Weird volume changes), and so on... Quite enjoyable. Some minor problems (that don't really effect your score much, but are worth pointing out) are the over-use of aharmonics in the flute lead toward the end of the song (orders 15-18)... They sound cool once or twice, but shouldn't have been stretched over four patterns. And the rhythm gets a little redundant once you've listened to the song a few times.

The idea of this modul is ok. Perhaps it would have been more interesting if the ground structure of it have more accords. It´s a very interesting modul at least and worth listening it. Tough that there were some really better modules in the ´intermediate´ choice. The nicest in the modul was the main melodie!!! The other voices need some more modulation!!! Most of them were only straight changes to the tonality to accord to the melody. :-)