Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
supermelon-creations, Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay: 10,9,9,10 (38/40)
It's not the most amazing production but you managed to do several key things I griped on everyone else for missing. You included some atmospheric samples, waves crashing. So many people failed to tie the music to the illustration and atmospheric samples are powerful tools to help exactly that. The only problem with crashing waves being that I grew up on an island and I know my waves. These waves are oceanic and clearly don't fit in at a lake or pond. It's such a stupid criticism though because you still managed to convey the location with that sample. You wrote a very relaxing, minimalist track that conveys the image nicely and would fit in many commercial setting like a video game or podcast. I'm not sure how well the percussion fit into the scenery but it was a very gentle drum kit. I'm hearing so many dubstep drums in this contest for scenery that doesn't call for dubstep at all. A little chalk clap or snap snare, some unobtrusive shakers, an off beat tambourine rhythm, all of it works with this sunset by the water. The art and the music both convey a surprising amount of depth using very few techniques. This is perfect minimalism.
I'm trying not to give out too many perfect scores so to justify the two points I'm taking off from "production" and "emotion" I'm going to nitpick that aux percussion being a little too loud compared to some of the surrounding percussion. A good example is that percussion I hear at 00:51. You could turn it down but I also want to suggest experimenting with a little reverb on it. I get stupid nutty with my percussion, you can fake dynamics with an automation lane on your drum volume knobs. Drums of all types benefit from evolving dynamics, volume is one of the few tools a percussionist has to convey emotion with. The static dynamics still suit the image nicely but I'd have a much harder time allowing myself to take points off if they were "perfect." You could have squeezed some orchestral percussion sounds into this, cymbal swells, booming bass drums, a gong, chimes... I wouldn't be taken off guard by windchimes quietly adding their twinkle once in a while. You could even argue that something gentle like chimes echoes the glittering of the stars seen in the illustration.
Thank you for writing something about the art, too many musicians missed the point of the contest and wrote nothing at all. Saying literally anything about the art makes it harder for the judges to ignore your hard work or assume there wasn't an attempt to participate fairly with the art that was chosen. I took it on myself to write something for everyone in the contest, language barriers might come into play for many of them but I actually like seeing languages that I can't understand because I love this community and I love knowing we're a global family. Hello Netherlands
I will admit that I wasn't expecting much when I saw the name "supermelon-creations" but I've learned to never judge a book by it's cover when talking about music. You wrote an incredible song and I really do love it. The competition this year is fierce with some undeniably amazing tracks. I nit-picked two points off your score but if this wasn't a contest, and if I didn't put my own money into the prize pool, you'd have got a perfect 40/40. I hope to hear some more music from you in the future melon :3
