Dang dude, you made this sound really good. The violin and guitar sound pretty much real now, and the whole piece is composed really well.
Just one thing: I noticed something going on with the electronic bit (which is also WAY nicer to the ears now): there was some sort of echo after the note ends, where it kinda cuts off then comes back. It may just be a compression issue, but its distracting.
8/8 m8 would play again
btw when's once upon a time (better edition) coming out?
Oh, yeah, that was actually an intentional level automation + bitcrusher thing that I thought was aesthetically pleasing. Fair enough but I'm probably not going to change it honestly, glad the other changes worked though
april 1st?????
Damn that part at 2:05 was so good. There's a lot that I can learn from your approach to your own music that would help me in mine. That subtle keydrop at 2:31 that is almost unnoticeable was a really nice touch too. The guitar could do with sounding a little more humanised. The velocity of the notes all seems a bit too even. The music box sample is really nice. The violin... viola??? could do with being a lot more humanised too. :) I love your composition style though. Something really special about your work.
Yeah, totally agree about the humanization on this one... I need to do some revisions but I keep forgetting. Glad you enjoyed though!
* This is an official 2017 NGUAC review *
Oh yeah, one of my favourites! Really cool, innovative piece of music. On to specifics...
Mixing, mastering and production: The most impressive thing to me with Market Day is the number of sounds you weave together successfully. I've commented on some other submissions how they have an 'everything but the kitchen sink' syndrome, where they attempt to use tons of different instruments, but it ends up sounding like a mish mash blend. You've used an eclectic but very effective group of instruments and made them work together.
From a production standpoint, having many different types is tricky and mixing them together is no small challenge. There are some issues here, particularly in the synths. The tricky part is that most of Market Day is grounded in real instruments (or real-sounding instruments) which means the obvious synths are always going to be the odd man out. Therefore, they have to be mixed really masterfully in order to fit in (as opposed to just another orchestral instrument, which you could plop in and it would fit more effortlessly)
The synth bells at 2:05 are pretty tinny and cut a little painfully through the mix. The bells at 3:18 are much better, but of course they're not TRYING to be a synth effect so much, so they fit in better.
There are some other points where I can tell pretty obviously I'm listening to a virtual instrument. Some of the violin lines, the acoustic guitar, and some piano bits especially. The best answer here is to actually record those instruments, but in lieu, one thing you can do is pay very close attention to editing the velocity of the MIDI files that the instruments are playing. When a pianist plays a piece, they're not going to press every key with the exact same amount of force. They sweep, certain notes are louder, and perhaps just as important they ARE NOT ALWAYS ON TIME (I wish I could italicize). If you're aiming for a 'real' instrument feel with a virtual instrument, know this: nearly zero musicians have perfect rhythm. So a 'real' instrument recording would reflect that. Just little tiny 'errors' here and there would improve the realism of an instrument line.
Good use of EQ, good use of panning, and for the most part good volume balancing. Very clean mastering as well - I only feel like it could have used a bit more umph. The kick drum and the orchestral bass drum were sort of underwhelming. There could have been a little more bass overall.
Composition: Awesome. Great chords progressions and very smooth changes between keys, not to mentioned tempos. Heck, if you had switched through time signatures as well you could have had the trifecta! I have very little to say except for very minor things. I enjoyed the structure and progression, but at the same time it wasn't inherently catchy, which is as valuable as a well-thought structure. The lack of distinct repeated main sections (there are two distinct instances of the chorus, but as they're in different keys there's still a degree of difference between them) docked half a point or so from the structure.
My same critique would extend to the melody. There are lots of interesting, well-thought out melodies in Market Day. But sometimes, all you want to hear is one really solid one repeated a few times so the listener can appreciate it. A little bit of structural repetition would solve this.
Overall, really great piece. I'm super looking forward to what you'll come up with in the finals.
Thanks for the help, Finn! I appreciate the tips on humanizing the instruments (you're not the only person to note the pure mechanical-ness of my writing), and yes, structure structure structure, I've had so many notes on it that it would be pretty shameful of me to not have that in the front of my mind for next round.
I liked the pensive mood at the beginning, and the percussion was a nice touch. Good use of reverb and progression. The texture is rich and has a great sense of drive about it, even without much in the way of drums or bass. The sound design is really strong. I think the melodies at 1:12 are a little too loud, and it’s also easy to tell that the string sample there is fake because of it’s slow attack. Overall, the production quality here is really strong, and I liked the tempo automations at 1:50. The bell sound at 2:06 was a little harsh-sounding - you may want to take some treble off of it in an equalizer. Still, I appreciated the tranquility, which offered some great structural relief from the earlier energetic section. The texture changes drastically at 2:32 and again at 2:55 - the piece doesn’t have a ton of structural cohesion, so I’d be careful about trying to cram too many melodic ideas into one piece. That said, the piece comes together nicely with the return of the powerful string solos. Overall, the composition here is absolutely fantastic. The slight balance issues during the string sections were the only things that actively bothered me. Keep up the great work, Miyolophone! ;)
9.75/10
(ahhhhh the attack was all the way down stupid viola sample)
Thanks TL for the feedback and obscenely high score! Like I said to johnfn, I'll make sure to treat my melodies and textures with respect and dignity instead of just tossing them around next time ;)
== This is an official NGUAC Review ==
Jesus, this is not an easy track to review. It's like, 6 tracks in one or something lord almighty
Can we just talk about your composition a little bit? Because every time I start thinking that the composition is faltering, you hit me with a jawdropping progression or melody line, but right when I get into it it's gone and it'll probably never appear again. Like, let's just listen to the first 30 seconds. We start out with a little piano arp idea, and then this music box which is playing a really nice progression but the melody line itself doesn't really do anything all that interesting and kind of goes around aimlessly... until suddenly HOLY F- that chromatic descent thingy at 0:24 is out of this world!... and then it goes away and isn't repeated or anything. (At least you brought it back later in the song.) And this is basically how I feel about the entire track, like you have a bunch of melodically OK stuff and then suddenly BOOM when you least expect it an amazing idea hits.
Or like the idea at 2:24, which is totally beautiful, but then instead of sitting there for a while and fleshing it out, you just speed up the tempo and go onto another section instead. WHY??? Let your good ideas play themselves out!
A bunch of people mention 1f1n1ty in the reviews, so may as well address the elephant in the room. You two definitely have very similar styles, basically sounding like you both just glued multiple songs together with snazzy transitions ;-) I certainly am not opposed to it, and it's definitely preferable to the opposite thing where people will just write a single pattern and loop it for 5 minutes and submit it to the NGUAC. ;-) However, the multi-part song glued together is a hard balance to strike for anyone, because IMO songs just can't transition between ideas endlessly: they actually have to feel like the individual sections can stand on their own rather than moving between place to place so fast. And that's what I feel like the biggest problem of this song is - it's so many different ideas that are each great but you move between them so quickly that I can never properly sink my teeth into any one.
While I'm griping, I figure I should briefly mention the mix and sound design. While obviously the focus of this track is on the excellent compositional work, other judges will probably hammer you for these two things. First, a number of the instruments just sound flat out fake, with the guitar at 0:55 being a prime offender, especially on the trills - try varying the loudness of it. The violins in faster sections are also a large problem - try to use legato if possible. Furthermore, the mix often threatens to go into a 'large' section, such as the rapid violin idea leading into 1:13, but the mix never really backs it up, so it's kind of a letdown.
So overall, excellent work that is unfortunately let down by a rapidly shifting arrangement.
Mini-scores (not used to calculate final score in any way - just so you know what needs improvement):
Arrangement: 3/4
Composition: 3+/4
Sound Design: 2+/4
Production: 2+/4
Overall: 8.4
Thanks for the detailed review, johnfn! I'll try to make my final round entry less frantic and dismissive with its melodic material, and I'll do what I can to work around the fake-sounding instruments.