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"SoulEye - Embrace" by SoulEye

SoulEye - Embrace

by SoulEye

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

Genre: game music

Amazingly strong track that has an outstanding flow throughout various pieces. Beautiful melodies, uplifting main theme, variety in samples and good overall balance of sound.

Downside is some sort of dullness that is radiated by the track. The lack of (clearly appearing) effects, vocals, or sharp sounds prohibits the track to really be the punch-in-your-face-entry it has the potential to be. A stronger main synth, coarser drums or more little gimmicks like the sometimes-appearing chip sample would therefore give Embrace that tiny little bit extra to make it even better.
Sunbuster
Originality: 6/10Technical: 9/10
Theme: 7/10Quality: 9/10
Arrangement: 7/10Global: 8/10

Well, this track should be familiar to anyone working with MT, since it's one of the demo songs that ship with MT :) This poses a bit of a problem as far as originality goes though. When listening to compotracks I always assume they're tracks I haven't heard before. This now is a track that has been in the public for several months already. On one hand I know it's an original, on the other hand the same song has been in cirulation for a while already. I know the rules don't say anything about entering a previously made song, yet I can't help but feel the author took the easy way out and used a track he had gotten good feedback on earlier.

The track in general creates a good atmosphere imo. I imagine RPG's or adventure games when I listen to this track. It has a sort of medieval feeling to it. There's a lot going on in the track, yet it feels minimalistic somehow. Probably because the drums are relatively weak in volume. I like it this way though. The mix in general is good also.

In the end I get a bit irritated at the sharpness of the lead. It's somehow a bit too penetrating. The other thing that bothers me a bit with this track is that it's a bit colorless. It's somehow a bit too even. What I mean is there's always something going on (duh), the listener newer gets a break from the melodies and I think in this case it's particulary the background melodies and the drums that create this even bed of sound. The track looses in dymamics due to this, even though the lead melodies are variating.
TNK / ATK project
Originality: 9/10Technical: 9/10
Theme: 8/10Quality: 9/10
Arrangement: 10/10Global: 9/10

Originality: 9
Theme: 8 (could have been 9 or 10 if the whole piece had been as good as it's best parts)
Arrangement: 10
Technical: 9
Quality: 9
Global: 9

Pro sounding synth intro, a chippy bass (what a surprise with Souleye !), (voluntarly) lo-fi drumset, and melodies, melodies, melodies... Souleye entered once again one of his tributes to the golden ages of demomusic while adapting it to the modern age. Towards the middle, he even manages to mix the top edge softsynths with chip melodies, creating a nice effect. The best of our childhood memories mixed with the best of today's technology... this is good !

While sometimes the theme seems a bit messy, the main themes and even many secondary themes are very catchy. Way to go Souleye, and an exemple to follow for many entrants.

The arrangement and mix work very well. Everything sounds pro here, despite the very lo-fi drumset. An exemple to follow.
The whole sound could have been made a bit more impressive, more powerful, but it's already very good as is.

So I guess I won't have much more to say except maybe that Souleye is - like Oldbrian or C-frog - really building his very own style, which is always a good sign for an artist. You may like it or not, and having "been there" during the golden amstrad CPC / C64 / Atari ST / Amiga era sure helps loving that style, and as I've been there...

One of this year's best entries I think. Superb stuff !
I'll smash a SID chip in a sacrificial ritual if this one does not make it in the top 10, invocating the vintage digital powers by spelling the following magic formula : "**** commodore 64 basic v2 **** 64k ram system 38911 basic bytes free ready." !

Also something that I'll probably copy-paste 3 billion times within this reviewing process : NAME YOUR TRACKS ! This would give your audiance and us judges a better view of how your track is built, will help newbies to learn how to use MT and to beat you in next year's compo :)
bigandymac
Originality: 8/10Technical: 9/10
Theme: 8/10Quality: 9/10
Arrangement: 7/10Global: 8/10

an extremely well executed chip tune with some great melodies and clean, crisp production.

originality - its a chiptune, but not as we know it. for a start a lot of thought has gone into producing over the top of classically chiptune melodies.
theme - the composer has got the chip sound perfect and this is a very good example of a chiptune. the extra production that has gone in makes it very listenable.
arrangement - intro, bridge, chorus, outro, simple but effective.
technical - well defined instruments and sounds. i thought the drums were too much in the background and the main lead too bright but other than that the bass is very smooth, the resonant filtering on the arp is superb, softening the sound and giving the track a nice flow. all the elements of a class track are here, good use of built in fx, vste's and i's, and fastracker commands.
quality - excellent, very crisp sounding, no excess lows or highs. perhaps the track is a little too clean sounding but that is more symptomatic of the genre than a fault of the track.

overall - really nicely executed start to finish, only suggestion for improvement would be to alter slightly the volume of drums and lead in the mix.

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