by

Tuukka Lark
(Lark)

Cool song... half of it made me think of ancient england and the other half made me think of some other world (J.R.R. Tolkien probably) filled with elves. Real talent went into the tune, and although its simple, it carries nicely and conveys unmistakable feelings of happyness and joy. Not your run of the mill '3>

Takes me back to some carefree medieval time. Almost an innocent sound. Kinda like Enya - especially the harp. Suprising what 6 good samples can do :) Nice swing song. It's gentle, sweet, and pleasently simple. A nice change from the complicated heavy songs in the scene. You successfully show the beauty of this song's simplicity. Yet, the variations and development show that it is also a very involved song. It keeps interest through to the end. The flute is well tracked. The song is very enjoyable. Good job!

This is a nice try at doing something off the mainstream. You have good ideas, but I think you could have used them to a fuller extent.. A multilayered guitar would have created much more depth in the tune, and you could also well have introduced a new lead instrument (preferably somewhere around order 13, where the tune becomes somewhat tedious). "Milk" would have been better with more variation in the lead; it's too bad that you ruin the song by recommencing the same theme at order 16 (or so). More percussion could also have been added (a splashy tambourine, for instance). I get the feeling that this is a work of haste, hopefully you'll have more time on your hands next year.

Wonder how this one made it to round two? Sorry, I guess I'm just not a flute-fan :). The percussion did not match the harmony in orders 2-7. I could swear the melody in order 8 sounds familiar. Orders 12-15 are better. Could stand to be a little more intricate.

Cutey minstrels-in-Ireland type track that uses only 6 samples. Flute lead a little too loud, but melody is catchy enough. Well mixed, in tune and and interesting in form, the tune stops just at the right time before it starts to annoy. Technically sound, good use of volume envelopes and NNA's. Good samples, and the tune as a whole is a refreshing break from some of the other banging tunes in the pack. This might have done well at a demoparty. Good work - I can't really fault it, although the style will certainly not be to everyone's taste.

NNAs strike again. Thanks to your complete inability to use them properly and carefully, this song reaches ridiculous numbers of channels for no apparent good reason. You used them on the flute, which is in reality a monophonic instrument. You echoed the flute in some places, but not all. It would have been better to track this much more carefully and echo it, and remove the NNAs from it. You even used NNAs on the tambourine, which is a complete waste of channels on what is meant to be a monophonic instrument. Use two channels for it and alternate between them if you really have to, but don't use NNAs for it. Think about it a bit more before you use them, because I had the channel limit set to 40 and this song hit that on plenty of occasions - but you probably could have done it in about half that, with no noticable loss in sound quality (it might have sounded better in fact). At least you used panning, and it sounds reasonably OK although the tracking on the percussion could have been better (more variation with volumes, it sounds dull, flat and unrealistic as it is). You relied a lot on NNAs and note offs in the song. The number of channels used was probably the most notable thing about this very cliched song, a variant on something that has been done many times. At least you managed to do it with some skill, and it has quite a nice melody in places, with a decent, reasonably flowing structure. The progression is unexciting, but works. The percussion is not very good, although it plays a small part. The sample used for the tambourine is too harsh and intrusive, and it needs to be quieter, with perhaps a bit more use of reverb. The sample set as a whole is unimpressive, with a cheap guitar sound. The flute is quite a good sample however. Despite the lack of originality, this still manages to be a decent song, thanks mainly to the reasonably catchy melody and a structure which keeps it flowing quite well, although it seems to run out of ideas in the final quarter. But it still sounds like the composer said "lets make one of those RPGish, elf-ballad, quasi-medieval-sounding songs" and then just stuck in all the usual things you'd expect someone to put in if they were doing a generic song in that style. Fortunately it has a few bright sparks here and there to make it rise above the merely generic, and a reasonably good melody to make it a bit more enjoyable.

m6i-mild.it - Milk -------------------- Overall: This song reminds me of "Lady Starlight" of the veteran category of this song. The main theme played by a flute and accompanied by guitars and percussion instruments. The song is an average tune, because it is lacking a real highlight. Originality: Always good for a fresh appeal of music is the 3/4 waltz beat. But after one minute the listener got the main idea of the song and nothing new is introduced. The same melody with the same harmony is repeated throughout the last 3 minutes. Form: Technique: Sample: Point: 40

This is a very original piece as far as I am concerned. I have never heard anything like it. The flute in the song seemed to be slightly loud, but the song still flowed nicely. Nothing was really choppy, but the transitions seemed slightly abrupt, hence lowering the form score slightly. I felt that the technique was superb and was neither used too little or too much. The quality of the samples themselves were not too good, but when placed into the song, the bad samples turned out to sound really well. Good choice of samples and a nice song.

Quite a good middle-age song but not as original as it could be. It's not enough rich. The reason ? For me, there are not enough samples in your song and you don't use enough effect. Nevertheless, you use a lot of channel for nothing. The same result could be achieved with half of them. Anyway, your song has a good mood but maybe it's not enough to compete in an Intermediate level.