The Good:
-Cool percussion and atmosphere in this.
-I like the effect at 0:11, though it doesn't have nearly as much "oomph" as it could.
The Not-So-Good:
-The mixing feels sloppy and pretty unclear.
-Unfortunately, the polymeter fell flat on its face for me.
-Intro and outro aren't too good.
-This gets pretty boring without much of a driving force behind it. There's nothing really making me want to keep listening to it.
Overall: Score of 6.3/10. I don't think I really need to provide many comments on this, you know more than enough about why it doesn't make the cut.
The Good:
-The instant I hear this I know it's yours. Classic Kor-Rune with those crowd-pleaser arpeggios and then your voice.
-Great break at about 1:07, and even better transition at 1:34. I really like the break there.
-Wonderful vocal work! I love some of the chorus sounds and harmonic lines.
-I like your motifs and ostinatos in this, they're very nice.
The Not-So-Good:
-Alright, nitpick time. Be warned, I'm going harsh as hell on you from here on out in the entire contest. The transition at 0:22 is something you use far too often, to be honest. It's not the best transition either, you could have gotten a lot more creative with it.
-Some seriously off-key parts, such as at 2:22.
-The atmosphere is fairly inferior to that of your last piece, except at 3:34 which has an excellent and eerie atmosphere. Speaking of atmosphere, it barely changes at all until then.
-The transition at 4:00 is a bit excessive and sudden.
-Overall it feels like you're relying far too much on overall chords and distortion.
-It'd be cool to hear you using a different drumset. Hearing the same one over and over again is getting tiring, however good it is.
-The ending is a bit sudden, though I love the final effects.
Overall: Score of 8.8/10. Eh. Definitely not your best piece. This could have been much better in a lot of ways. That said, this is still pretty good. Luck to you next round!
The Good:
-Dear lord, everything you make is so weird. This is almost cute, but at the same time really strange and almost disturbing.
-Thanks for using our Zither! <3
-You have some really creative melodies and great effects in this. Props for the panning. I love panning.
-The music box at the end is a wonderful touch, and I absolutely love it.
-Transitions are lovely.
The Not-So-Good:
-I guess I do have to agree with Wolftacular that this doesn't really depict the scene as well as it could. Not taking off anything for it though.
-...and I have to agree with johnfn that some of your melodies don't really seem to have any direction to them but rather just aimlessness.
-Overall thing: This does start getting repetitive in the constant waltz feel, the only time it really takes a break is at the end, which is just awesome.
Overall: Score of 9.6/10. What can I say? I think this is great. Often the aimlessness doesn't really cause a problem, but instead is just kinda cute. Don't really have too many problems to talk about. Great work!
The Good:
-Oh god those glitches again. Ahahahahaha, you always have the weirdest sounds in your music from what I've heard. It's pretty impressive, actually.
-This has some of the best Edirol usage I've ever heard. Great effects on it! I'm still having to use Edirol for most of my orchestral stuff right now, unfortunately.
-Composition is far better than last round's piece.
-Cool vocal-ish bassy growls.
The Not-So-Good:
-Similar to your last piece, the composition still suffers from the repetition issue. I've noticed you focus a lot on the bassline and glitches, and then not so much on other things. Glitches are cool and all, so are basslines, but they're not the substance of the piece.
-Transition at 1:54 has a great chord, but doesn't really transition to much of anything different aside from a change in chord progression.
-What did you do with the ending. Just, what. It was fine until the weird backwards effect. :(
Overall: Score of 7.0. Not much of a change in your normal style, and still many of the same issues. Also on a side note, you're using the same bass synth - I'm curious about why.
The Good:
-Okay, you definitely have some really nice singing. Going to comment further on this a little bit more since the vocal solo is the main focus.
-Wonderful chords overall. Very well-constructed, nice progressions.
-Transitions are fine.
-Mixing's good, there's nowhere which feels too empty this time.
The Not-So-Good:
-Remember, with singing you typically need to articulate a bit more so that people can understand the lyrics. With this solo singing it was a bit more of an issue. Some of the words seemed a bit slurred. There's another issue which is simple tremelo off the note - that happens sometimes as well.
-Alright, nitpicky thing regarding the piano/voice combo. It would have been great if, since the voice were centered, the piano were as well. Center the actual instrument some more, then let the reverb fill out the sides. The reason is because then it sounds more like the singer is actually PLAYING the piano - and that gives a stronger "wow this person is skilled" effect IMO.
-I personally did not like the other orchestral instruments. They seemed a bit over-the-top for a 'solo instrument' singing piece. The only one which *could* have fit IMO was the backing strings, and even then: They probably should have been more subtle. ...oh, also the break at 1:45 was definitely the cheesiest part of the piece, not to mention the weakest part. Similar to last round, actually.
-Eh, the piano being almost entirely background chords doesn't sit well with me. Could be because I'm a pianist, but it would have been very nice if the piano had a bit more to do and more of an active role. There are plenty of arpeggios, basslines, trills, ornaments... plenty for a pianist to do over the top.
-More cheesy in the outro, dangit.
Overall: Score of 8.8/10. Ay. I feel mean giving this and all the nitpicks, it's the lowest score I've written down so far. DEFINITELY not going to be the lowest one this round though, the first three pieces have just been so good! In any case, sorry if the nitpicks seem to be a bit much, but I can see a lot of room for improvement in this piece. I think that you can do much better than this!
The Good:
-I like the introduction and the echoes on most things. They sound very pretty. There's a little reverb on some of the voice which makes quite a satisfying hiss.
-God damn all the melodic material so far, it's very pretty.
-Erhus are good. Did you use the free VST for them?
-I absolutely LOVE that buzzing percussion at about 1:11. Do tell, what is it?
-Using Chinese for lyrics DOES get you extra points from me, methinks. '-'
-You obviously put in a lot of time on this one.
The Not-So-Good:
-This piece often sits on a single chord like a brooding mother hen. Seriously, you don't need to have the same chord for the first minute and a half.
-This often reminds me of Runescape. That can be good, but in other respects not, such as good. One such would be repetition, another would be instrument quality. As much as I'd like to discount that, it IS a factor.
Overall: Score of 9.5/10. Well, I have to say, there's not a ton to nitpick on in this. That said, I didn't try as hard as I could... but you'll get that next round. <3 You know how some songs are just made really well but don't quite "click"? That's what it was with this for me.
Thank you for your review! The buzzing percussion sound is from Gladiator and is one of the drum loops under the vocoder section! I thought it added a little bit of depth to this otherwise potentially airy fairy piece. I've not played Runescape since I was about 11 ha, I used to be so bad at it. I mean what kinda person would play Runescape but be afraid to actually go into the wilderness incase you lost all of your items? Hahaha. Thanks again!
The Good:
-Aw man, the piano sound is really nice, I like the syncopation in the bassline. The velocity layering really helps a lot for it.
-Overall melodic content in this is some of the best I've heard in a long time.
-The other instruments are really used to great effect in this piece. The opening at 3:12 is absolutely amazing.
-Good on you for trying to go in a different direction rather than JUST pushing to win.
-Oh yes, since I've been picking on you for transitions recently, I just thought I'd say: Good work on them here! (though the outro can still use some work)
The Not-So-Good:
-More realism in the piano please. <3 If it's going to solo, then having it be less quantized would be wonderful. For an idea on how, try listening to the piece "Drowning Into the Heavens" by MarkySpark on here. That has some fantastic realism along with even more excellent velocity changes.
-Not sure I like the raw white noise sweeps. Try adding a light phaser/flanger. There should be a good phaser in the Fruity Love Filter (can't be bothered to find the technical name while writing this review - you know what I'm talking about), subtle phaser and flanger settings. A chorus could also help.
-This is more of a personal thing, but it might have been nice to have some kind of background effect to really put me in the place for the footsteps. Where are the footsteps? Where is the snow? I can't really hear anything like this until the white noise.
-There's a lot of good melodic material, and I don't want you to cut down the length at all, but what would have been good is giving some kind of motif. It's all about the melody, right? There's not really much that's a clear motif here.
-Overall composition thing: The entire piece moves more like a single crescendo with a teeny-tiny decrescendo at the end - the ending still feels far more climactic than the first two minutes.
Overall: Score of 9/10. This is fantastic. Only some issues which keep me from putting it higher, as you can see. Good job!
Thanks for all the good points and the great review! I went in a different direction just for you~ (that's actually not true - I would have gone insane if I had done the same style again - but let's just say it's true).
> More realism in the piano please
This is funny because almost all the piano was played by me. However I did quantize it a lot, and adhered to the metronome pretty closely. I think what you really are asking for - judging by the piece you sent me - is rubato, like Step mentioned (let me know if I'm wrong, or there is something I'm missing). I'll definitely be keeping that in mind if I dive into more solo piano stuff in the future.
> Fruity Love Filter
Yeah, great idea. Though I use Ableton now ;-)
> some kind of background effect
This is a neat idea too. I felt like my last song was almost too story based so I wanted to ratchet that down a little.
> some sort of motif
Actually the intended motif was :24 - :29, shows up again at :44, :57, 1:31, and then at 4:38 (!). I took your critique from my last song to heart about motifs, I think you're right in that they're an easy way to tie the song together. But actually, even writing this out, I see the problem - it disappears for 3 minutes, lol. So I'll have to keep that in mind in the future...
> The entire piece moves more like a single crescendo
Is that bad? :P You might have to explain this to me more. I mean, a lot of great music functions as a single crescendo. The whole genre of post rock, for example haha.
Anyway thanks for the review! You have a really interesting way of listening to music and assigning scores.
Hi. You asked! I think I might still be in judge-mode though, so the feedback might be a bit harsh again. Sorry. ^_^`
The Good:
-The introduction is good, I like the delays on the synth.
-I'm liking your pitch sliding in the synth that comes in at around 0:40. Reminds me a lot of a SNES game that nobody seems to have ever heard of - Brain Lord.
-Good sliding effect at 1:34.
-Liking the little break at 1:57, good little section without
The Not-So-Good:
-Okay, your mixing definitely does need work. I'd suggest letting the bass have more bass frequencies, as it's more in the lower mid right now as far as I can hear. I mean come on, this is drum and BASS, after all, not drum and mid!
-The drums are... eh. The kick feels like it needs a little bit more in the higher frequencies to give it an initial hit, and the snares are a bit loose. At the very least, they're drowning out the high hat that's panned to the left. Frequencies could be edited to let it breathe more.
-As I said in Skype, this is pretty clogged with mids overall. They can take a lot, but try expanding the spectrum, using panning and stereo separation a bit more to achieve a full stereo sound.
-Hm. For some reason at around 2:34, the bass sounds as if it's off-key. It could be an overtone from another instrument, but it also appears at about 2:44 when the bass plays again.
-Would be nice if the drums had some kind of fill or something to transition out of them at 0:59 and 1:56 rather than just a final kick, wouldn't it?
-I don't need to do anything more other than say "outro" for you to know what I mean, do I?
Overall: 's alright for a first attempt. Feels kinda unfinished, but it's definitely decent. I think you can do better, definitely. The mixing would be a solid first step (speaking of which, good job at having no clipping).
I don't want it to look like I've ignored your review, which obviously I haven't since I've been working on this throughout the day and even gotten some fantastic help straight from you! Once I get those filter effects back in there and finalize an outro, I will definitely be replacing this with the new and improved version! Thank you so much for all of your assistance on this, Skye. It is truly a pleasure to watch you work. :D
The Good:
-Well, this is more cohesive than your second round piece. I particularly like the guitar in my left ear.
-I like the pizzicato arpeggios quite a bit. They're definitely well-done.
-No clipping in the mixing, which is a good thing.
-When the synths come in at about 4:30, that provides some much-needed variation, though the new feeling doesn't last long.
The Not-So-Good:
-That drumset is so weak, the kick and snare are almost completely buried under just the piano and guitar. Some compression would do wonders here, or just turning up the volume period.
-This definitely feels incomplete. While there are a few chordal motifs and ostinatos, there isn't really a specific motif for the entire piece tying it together as a main melody or main rhythm even.
-Alright, this is repeating quite a bit and barely changes the feel at all throughout the entire piece. It feels a lot like a pop song, actually. A lot of the individual phrases repeat note-for-note, which brings down the overall quality of a repeating phrase.
Overall: Score of 6.4/10. Some good ideas here, but not very good execution - it really does feel unfinished to me. Even if you had used an instrument other than voice to make a main melody, it would have been significantly better than it is now.
Pleased to hear about the good, ready to fight the not so good as always, albeit a little late.
The drumset thing, yeah, I definitely agree. It's one of those things I failed to notice because of listening to the song over and over. The guitar is also quite low in this mix.
I WOULD argue this second point, but yeah, it IS incomplete, so I guess I half agree. It's not that there isn't a motif, it's just not as sugar coated or obvious without a lead instrument.
I definitely will argue this last point. For starters, it sounds like you might be contradicting your previous point by saying that there's a lot of repetition in that these repetitions obviously mark the main rhythm. Disregarding this, though, I think all you should've criticized is that it follows a pop structure. If the song was cut down in half, keeping the ending and intro alike, and basically avoiding the repetition of the entire thing, there is barely any repetition at all. I'm even inclined to think you agree with me here, given that your conclusion states I had good "ideas", plural.
I worked with three different sections, each with their own feeling (which goes hand in hand with the missing lead). I can understand if you think the first [0:00-1:18] and second [1:18-1:58] sections sound similar. The only way I can think of explaining it is that they're sort of "neighbor" feelings. If you listen closely, though, the second section doesn't sound nearly as "happy" as the first section, and I doubt I need to compare the third section. Placing what I said earlier in repetition (lol), I think the only part I agree with about this last point is that the song follows a pop-oriented structure, and I'm not sure that's bad at all.
Overall, and like last time, I agree with your technical feedback, but not so much with the writing stuff. It could be that we simply differ in styles and taste, or the fact that I don't yet have the production expertise to bring everything that's in my head into my music, or both. Either way, I can't help but feel that 6.4 is maybe a little too low of a score for the things you pointed out, even assuming I agreed with them all, but that's just my opinion. You nearly failed me, and I handed most of my work in D: lol
Last, but not least, thank you for taking the time to listen and review my shit. Contest or not, judge or not, agree or not, I always appreciate it. Both your reviews specifically caught my attention, so thanks!
Electronic/ambient artist. I started making music more than random scribblings in the fall of 2010, around the end of November. I think I've come a long way since then!
GM - I Surrender(NGADM13) 
Psychodynamo 
She Was Picking Flowers 
Everything is Broken 
Ascension 
Mystic's Shore 
footsteps 
Expression of Freedom 
Wolftacular NGADM Round 3 
