Score: 7

"Guitar"

submission: F-Zero: Death Wind (loopable)

date: January 16, 2007

This is kinda an extension of my review of "Big Blue," but this thought just occurred to me:

If you have the capability to record your own guitar samples, why not just record the guitar parts themselves? It would sound much better in my opinion. ;)

Anywho, just wanted to amend that to the last review. Keep at it, you can only get better!

Score: 7

"Hmm ... Not bad"

submission: F-Zero: Big Blue (PM2k6 Edit)

date: January 16, 2007

Well, this wasn't all that bad of a piece. But of course, there's always room for improvement. ;)

Samples: I admire your using your own samples, but to tell you the truth, they sound pretty fake and it makes the overall song very lifeless.

I really liked the arpeggiating line right after the intro when everything started going ... I don't recall hearing that in the original song, so if you came up with that, kudos for you.

Drums: The drums also need LOTS of work ... Again, the fakeness just sucks the life out of everything else. Try listening very closely to real drums in all sorts of recordings and see how closely you can emulate them in your program. I know how it can be trying to sequence drums, but with some extra work, you can get it there.

Sequencing: Along with the "Samples" and "Drums" sections, a big part of how "real" a sequenced song sounds is ... how it is sequenced, lol. The quality of the samples are about half the job, and then realistic sequencing is the other half. A lot of the parts sounded "monotonous" and overbearing, especially the organ and guitar at times. I kinda get where you were trying to go with the "pushing" or "driving" feeling at the climax of the song, but it was a bit too much. You want balance between all the parts in your song.

Originality: Well ... it sounds just like the original, and that's it. When you do a video game cover, just changing the instrumentation around doesn't really do much. I mean, you might as well just have imported MIDIs from VGMusic.com and just changed the instruments (I'm not saying that's what you did ... but either way, the result is the same). Try to add your own flavor to it in one way or another via changing up the composition. I'm not saying to do an overrated techno "R3M1X" like everyone else *cough, HouseMasta, cough* but do something to make the song your own.

Overall, not too bad, but not quite there. 3/5 and a download. Good luck in the future!

Score: 8

"Nice"

submission: BitCrunched

date: December 25, 2006

This is nice, quite nice. It sounds VERY classy, like something you'd actually hear in an 16-bit arcade game. I'd really like to see you develop this into a full-fledged tune. 4/5 and a download from me! Good job!

Score: 10

"Catchy."

submission: Flashburn - Enigma

date: July 29, 2006

Hey, great job on this tune! And piggybacking off what the one guy said below me, I do hear a bit of distortion in certain parts of the song. It sounds like a limiter clipping, or something of the like. Listen to it on studio headphones and you'll hear it.

What program do you use? I might be going crazy, but I hear some distinct Reason stuff in there in the nature of some of the synths. If it's not Reason, you can just affirm my craziness, hahaha. And if it is Reason, well ... I guess I got lucky, haha.

You lost points on Clarity for the distortion, and on Diversity because ... well, it's trance, hahaha. You actually did do a great job of varying it more than the average trance piece.

Overall, really good job!

Score: 10

"Great!"

submission: Defcon Zero [Orch] -MrMaestro-

date: July 29, 2006

You have great realism in your pieces. What software do you use? I have yet to get the hang of producing orchestral sounds in this manner. Great job!

What I would've liked to hear was for it to go from the ballad into a fast march. The Defcon Zero melody would sound awesome in a film-score-style orchestral march. Have you heard 'Fountain of Dreams' from Super Smash Bros. Melee? That's sort of what I'm talking about. It starts out with a ballad intro, and then goes into a Russian-style march with the main Kirby melody. Something like that would've been really cool for this piece.

But that's just a preference thing. You get no less points from me for that. 10/10, 5/5. Awesome work.

Score: 10

"Great!"

submission: WC > Cocaine

date: July 26, 2006

I hear the Reason samples! Muhahaha, very prominently in the glitchy sounds ... very nice. Reason users unite!!!

Okay, enough of that ...

Great diversity in this piece.

Perhaps the only place where I could suggest improvement is where the pads fell out and it was just drums. That part lacked depth and felt a little empty. To me, it felt like the drums were trying to take control of the soundstage, but couldn't do it. I would've made the drums come on stronger there, almost a little hardcore, to give it a drum break feel, or added some hard compression to make everything in-your-face-sounding, which would've worked nicely with the flippy sounds you got in there. The kick sound on that part was somewhat weak also. I would pick a different one.

Haha, sorry to tear that drum break apart ... Again, the piece is great, and if I absolutely had to pick something bad about it, it would be that. The way I see it, it's more preference than anything else.

I'll be competing with you in the MAC6 this month with a VG piece. Look out for me, 'cause I'll be on your ass, hahaha jk. ; ) Good luck!

P.S. Loved the little "off switch" click at the end. Genius.

Score: 10

"Long time no see."

submission: Star Stealing Girl CC

date: July 25, 2006

Remember me? Probably not ... ;)

Yours is definitely BETTER than Chronomut's (no offense Chronomut ... really, nothing personal). I am dying to ask a question: Did you use LFO envelopes to control vibrato? Because, either the woodwinds/strings patches you used were REALLY good, or you did a good job at manually controlling the vibrato.

And if you didn't use envelopes, that's a hint there for you. Using LFO envelopes to control vibrato on strings and such will make them sound much more real. If you have Aftertouch on your MIDI controller, then it makes it even easier. Of course (and again, this is assuming you didn't use envelopes), it would probably be easier to keep using whatever kickass patches you got there. ;)

Overall, the balance, the realism, and the feel of this piece is much better than Chronomut's ... I'd have to say that those zero voters you mentioned are the only reason this one isn't rated higher than his. Good job.

Score: 8

"Well . . ."

submission: Khuskan - Generic Menu Music

date: March 13, 2006

I like the feel of the piece . . . but quite frankly, the "Groovemaster's Rock 1" Redrum Reason patch is pissing me off hahaha. (I tried to say that in a good way . . . )

You have great originality in all your work . . . but the drums in almost all your songs sound way too sequenced and fake. You CAN make sequenced drums sound like a real studio kit, it just takes a bit more work.

If you output each drum seperately and put custom effects on each of them, you can get a much more original and realistic sounding kit that's taylored to your own style. Also try creating the beat right from scratch in the sequencer track using the pencil tool, rather than using the step sequencer on the Redrum. It tends to open up your sequencing and make your beats more fluid, rather than rigid.

For the most part, great work, but your drums are the greatest area in which you can improve. Cheers.

-Ted

Score: 9

"Nice Twist"

submission: Fleets (4min38sec)

date: January 18, 2006

If you take out the repetitive stringy things and give the piece more of a flowing, ominous feel, this could work really well as an Ambient piece. And you know how much I like Ambient. ;)

Otherwise, as a trance piece, this is a nice variation on the original. I like the breaks, and the rolling glitchy things are really cool. The little half-time thing could've used maybe some more work . . . maybe some more variation on the background stuff? Not sure . . .

I still think the original Fleets is the best song you've ever done. ;)

I know it's been a while, haha. Myself? Well, I've got some BIG projects coming up soon . . . If you want to stay updated on my music, add http://myspace.com/tedjohnston to your list of bookmarks, and if you have Myspace, add me!

Cheers.

-tedJohnston

Score: 8

"everyone can remix mario..."

submission: Super Mario Bros. - Overworld

date: September 13, 2005

very nicely done...the fast part was the best part of this song (and probably the most worked on, am i right?) the beginning part of the song could've used alot of cleaning up...it just didn't "sparkle" like the rest of it did.

anyone can remix game songs (i've had a fair share of my own)...you should really try some original compositions, i'm sure they would sound awesome.

good job. cheers an g'day.

-Ted Johnston