MadTracker - "Josh - Journey to the past" by josh

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Josh - Journey to the past

by josh

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Ogg Vorbis version

Inge

Originality:	8/10	Technical:	7/10
Theme:	9/10	Quality:	8/10
Arrangement:	5/10	Global:	7/10

Genre: soundtrack / game music
A more than seven minutes long theatrical soundtrack that brings visions of medieval times along. The corresponding scenario's seem to be
1: Danger at the Castle
2: Run into the dark and scary Forest
3: Chase in the cave of perpetual Darkness
4: Back at the Castle (where everyone is dead - ed)
5: Credits
The transitions between parts are somewhat forced. I'm feeling like I'm missing the movie that comes with this song, since I'm apparently missing some sort of point here.

The atmosphere per section is very well crafted: it's not often that I know this sure which scenario's should accompany the individual segments. The production is okay, although nothing special. The instruments are very well chosen. The lack of coherence makes this track less suitable for a compo though.

QBical

Originality:	5/10	Technical:	4/10
Theme:	7/10	Quality:	4/10
Arrangement:	7/10	Global:	6/10

Josh realy had a ball in creating this 'soundtrack' track.
You realy succeeded in bringing emotion into the track, I realy liked the melody's and stuff. Also the chords and arrangement are at the level where they keep intresting at all times.
The only minor flaws I found are some of the samples and the usage of them, in the beginning you have a very high violin playing, it's a bit to high because violins don't make it that high, or you need to break it and make it smaller. Also you have some pan-flutes wich play to low, but some other times you play that sample pan-flute extremely low, wich gives a great sound effect!

So try to get your hands on a good orchestral sample library to brush up your sound pallet!

keep it up!

Sunbuster

Originality:	9/10	Technical:	7/10
Theme:	9/10	Quality:	7/10
Arrangement:	9/10	Global:	9/10

hmm, seems to be an effort in creating a journey (duh, that's what the title says). No, but what I mean is this track is separated into clearly defined subsections and I can really sence the artist is trying to convey an atmoshpere that tells a story at the same time. We begin with a somewhat cheerfull intro (think of it as the smurfs going on a field trip, the sun is shining and the birds are singing). Suddenly the troops have to pass through a dark and scary canyon. Dangers lurk everywhere (Gargamel, or whatever the smurfs nemesis was called, awaits with another evil plan). After the canyon is passed and Gargamel is defeated once again, the sun shines again, the smurfs come back to their village where Smurfette (the village, uhm, registered companion) awaits them. Everyones happy again.

Yes, this track does a very good work in creating an atmoshpere and telling a story. To fully understand it though you have to really listen to it, find all the small details (which the track is full of). It's not easy listening in other words.

From a technical point of view the song sounds a bit boxy at times, especially in the beginning. This could be due to a somewhat eager use of reverbs and a slight lack of clarity or high frequencies in the instruments. There are some instance where some instruments are a bit loud compared to others also which kind of throws things off balance sort of.

A small tip as far as MT goes. I noticed most of the reverbs had the same settings. These could thus have been routed to one channel to save some processing power.

Overall, a nice piece of storytelling. Filmscores, here you come! :)

TNK / ATK project

Originality:	10/10	Technical:	9/10
Theme:	6/10	Quality:	8/10
Arrangement:	9/10	Global:	8/10

Originality: 10/10
Theme: 6/10 (thanks to the last parts, 3/10 else)
Arrangement: 9/10
Technical: 9/10
Quality: 8/10
Global: 8/10

Josh's Journey to the past brings us back to the middle ages, or rather to middle earth : Obviously, the mood it sets is more likely to bring back memories of hobbits, trolls, gobelins and that horrible spider that has it's lair somewhere in the mountains of Mordor than memories from our history books.

The whole stuff is very original, especially in the tracking scene which is dominated by electronic styles, the mood is perfectly set. Technically I have nothing to say. Add just some mastering to the whole stuff and you have the main theme of your next fantasy movie. I don't know if Josh has a future as a pop composer, but in film music he has it all to make it. Great works.

The mixing is excellent, the mood is well set. Great !

The melodies could however be a bit more catchy. Awesome (Victor Vergara Lujan, a Spanish tracker) did such kind of music a few years back (remember his "Ancient stories" tracks), but had much catchier and much more expressive melodies. That's probably the issue you'll have the most work on to become a really awesome composer too.

But this entry is already promising. A great moodsetter anyway. Will keep it on my "Middle earth" playlist (the one I play when writing Heroic fantasy novels).

bigandymac

Originality:	10/10	Technical:	5/10
Theme:	7/10	Quality:	4/10
Arrangement:	7/10	Global:	6/10

a medieval sounding intro to the track then evolves into a dark breakbeat, then back to a medieval sounding part, then to a (i assume) jurassic park inspired outro.

originality - an initially insane sounding combination of themes in this track flow together very well to create a convincing (albeit movie inspired) timeline. im not sure ive ever heard a track which flows from medieval sounds to evil breakbeat before. top marks for originality.
theme - there are 4 distinct themes i picked up, the medieval, the stone age (possibly) sound starting at patt13, the breakbeat part (no idea what time that is meant to be) then the jurassic park part to finish with. all the themes are executed well, the stone age and medieval sections in particular evoke good imagery. the breakbeat is quite sinister sounding and with some better hihats and dropping the crash cymbal is very convincing. the jurassic park theme is less well executed but this could easily be improved with better samples.
arrangement - the overall track flows well, the transitions work well from one section to the next. within each section the arrangement is also good with (in the breakbeat) a good buildup of beat and atmosphere. the medieval part does seem to repeat for quite a while without much discernible variation, but the composer has created some good melodies which carry it nonetheless. for a track as original as this structure and arrangement are at the discretion of the artist anyway.
technical - liberal use of the built in mt effects and a good use of the sample selection on the whole make this a passable track from a technical point of view. The percussion samples are low quality, however in context actually work quite well (a sign of good drum programming). in a competition where vsts could be used and none have been it seems a shame to have wasted this opportunity. reverb and compression on the pads would have given them a fuller sound, and in a track like this use of stereo fx and enhancement would have improved the atmosphere (ie using an auto panner on the bird noise, or stereo enhancer on the pads).
also try a compressor on the drum tracks.
quality - low sample quality, and at times slightly busy sound have affected the score here.

summary - overall an inspired and convincing soundtrack that would work well on a game if the production were better executed.