You have a full end piece of sound here and it's like this epic movie of sound and the talent really comes out really well so awesome job on this one

~X~

AIM 2023 Judge Review

This entry does a great job at capturing both the creepiness and the innocence present in the art inspiration. I love the use of the piano playing in the lower register with a lot of release in the tails. The use of the jazzy instruments was also well done, particularly in the transition leading up to when the music box comes back at 2:12. I love the use of the horns at 1:53 followed by the weird sort of metallic attacked sound at 2:03. It really conveys the mystery and cuteness in the character and the environment.

The one thing that didn't work for me here is the decision of keeping the music box in the background while the oboe plays. The music box has a very strong sort of pluck to it that remains prevalent even when its volume is turned down, especially when it's accompanying a lower melody being played by a woodwind, so it ends up becoming a distraction at 2:22 specifically. The way the composition was set up, it felt like these ideas from the oboe melody and the rest of the accompaniment already connected well enough that the music box didn't really need to keep playing.

Overall, this piece excels at depicting this character and that sense of wandering forward down an endless dark corridor. I like how you even took into account the kind of music Mizore listens to and working it into the track in a way that enhances the atmosphere and gives an edge that is more specific to the art inspiration.

(disclaimer: AIM judge review here! these are just my opinions and thoughts, you can take from them whatever you like! music is subjective and all that. <3)

ooh, lots of familiar spooky tropes in your instrumentation... i like a lot of those choices, especially the music box in the opening section. there's some nice touches in the sound design too like the reversed bell and the low, growly rumbling. i like how you went for different degrees of fullness in the arrangement as the piece went by, too; the first part is more intimate but heavier strings, drums and brass make their way in towards the end. sounds like you had a lot of fun playing off the art you chose, which has that somewhat cartoonish spooky horror vibe that your music hits its target on.

a few things could be mixed a little more carefully i feel; a lot of the percussion is quite loud and you can even see where it's used in the overall waveform: bass drum, cymbal, tambourine. the oboe, too, even though it is meant to be the focus of its highlighted section, seems to stick out a bit. the release or reverb on the harp was also something i noticed near the beginning - since it's playing a lot of quick notes that are close by one another while the notes continue to ring, it comes across as a little bit muddy overall, maybe exacerbated by the harp sound itself not having a lot of attack to it.

with all that said though, there's a lot to love about this song and the mood feels just right to me. quirky, spooky, adventurous in the arranging, and with a good amount of playing towards established tropes (while still exploring new territory)!

This is insanely good on every level. The vibe is so damn on point, the song is well composed and produced, hell, I'm actively forcing myself to find things that could be better in order to keep myself from giving it a full score xD
I'll be straight, for me personally, you're the biggest AIM contender so far !

This is so cool I can hardly explain how much I love it.