Plazmataz

Pulled this one out of the mothballs, again. Brought production values up to date, I guess, and remixed a few things around to make it all gel better. Maybe I would be naive if I considered this ready for submission? Even if it's not, I have put way too much time into this.

I used the phaser to differentiate the synth from the bass. Even if it does sound cheesy, it does its job. I'll play around with some effects and see if there's a better way to do that. Perhaps the choir was a bad choice... I already have the flutes playing notes in the final recap there, and I used the choir because I wanted to emphasize the major key tonality that dominates the section. I'll try to find a better way to do that than with a classical choir singing 4-part harmony, which honestly does sound a little ridiculous now that I've said that. Trust me, there are no wrong notes. The flute solo is in E Phrygian dominant, so if you're referring to the augmented second jump, that is by no means a mistake. And the track isn't a hip-hop track, but I suppose the piece overall had some hip-hop influence, now that I look at it. I don't really know what you mean by empty, but I think adding the sitar earlier is a great idea.

A hundred and eight people took the time to listen, but no one cares to say anything? Does this mean it's terrible, or what? See, now I'm all worried about it. So is it submission-worthy or not? Need to keep working?

So I came back to this the other day and powered through until the song was finished. I need to sleep on it for a while, but if it still sounds good after that, I might just submit what I have. Any feedback would be awesome, by the way. So as the song went on, I decided that I needed to bring out the key's major tonic, which I'd been neglecting up until now. So now the song, which stays in E Phrygian dominant throughout, concludes on the major chord. Also, synth flute solo.

Eeeeh quality. Also, I'm not sure if the talking and laughing at random intervals are there on purpose or not. It's an excellent arrangement with top-notch execution, but I'm afraid it needs to be rerecorded.

Ah, Runescape music is so unappreciated. Sure, the quality of the ingame tracks are retardedly low (straight MIDI), but I always thought the composition work in the game was pretty top-notch regardless of the final quality of the tracks. This is a well-rounded, ambient, chill mix. I love the way your synths mesh, they work very well. The melodies could stand to be changed up from the originals every once in a while, but I don't think it's a big deal if they're left as-is; the soundscape more than makes up for the similarity of the melody to the original. My only real advice is this: make the track go somewhere. Build up to something bigger, give us a big honkin' climax to look forward to.

Your samples are really bothering me, but I think with some higher-quality tools this song would really shine. The arrangement is terrific, but it needs a better vessel. Right now it feels like barely a step up from MIDI.

Sure thing. I think once it's properly finished, I guarantee you it'll be accepted. The quality of what you've got so far is through the roof, and the simple fact that you can turn an eight note motif into a coherent musical marvel is a feat in and of itself. Keep going!

I really like this; good work, soldier. It's pretty laid back in its dissonance, and I'm really feeling the ambience in the first section of the song. Then things tie off as if the song ends sort of prematurely, but right at 3:45 the song steps up and tells me, "That ambience is a thing of the past; this is the beginning of the end." The song steps dramatically into the foreground and makes itself known. I love this part. Now the only thing I didn't really get was an end. When the cello starts its grinding at the 3:45 mark, it's almost as if its promising me a badass climax where all the instruments just take off and peak. The section with piano hitting those low notes feels abrupt and empty to me. It felt like you were building up to something big with the harps and strings and piano, but it never went there.

First of all, this song is really kicking ass. I was really getting into the interplay between the harp, the strings, and the drums are working for 100%. However, I thought that nearer to the end the transitions were kind of lacking, and that the polish and flow you'd built up to that point kind of broke down. The section where the instruments drop out altogether and leave that weird whispering effect (around 2:45 I think) seemed a little out of place, but when the moving strings and the drums came back I felt like it was set right. Maybe that's what you were going for. At any rate, the beginning of the end at 3:45 seems very abrupt. I think this part would be much more effective if it sort of grew out of the phrase preceding it, rather picking up right when the old textures cut out. I hope that makes sense.

This has nothing to do with... anything really. At any rate, thanks for all the advice to the one person who gave me any. At least Arcana was paying attention.

No one else has anything to say? Advice... please?

I had no "story" in mind. The confusion only stems from the fact that I don't think things through when I put songs together. How would you recommend this be repaired? And unfortunately, the source only gave me one theme to work with as far as a second melody goes. That would leave me having to compose a new one, and I can't compose anything original worth a damn.

I don't think it needs much explaining. Feedback would be super delicious.

I probably will use ethnic percussion, for the simple reason that I've never been able to do electronic drum sequencing.