MadTracker - "Optimistical Sonata" by VAMJAD

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Optimistical Sonata

by VAMJAD

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Ogg Vorbis version

Inge

Originality:	3/10	Technical:	2/10
Theme:	5/10	Quality:	5/10
Arrangement:	5/10	Global:	4/10

Genre: epic trance
Introduction is average. The production turns out to be pretty much horrible due to unbalanced volumes of individual samples. Because of that the bassdrum lacks power (is there one anyway?), the hihats get lost somewhere far away, and a main sawsynth pushes most other elements away. The samples are furthermore unoriginal (a piano! a sawsynth!). The main melody/theme is okay'ish, but nothing more than that. The song structure is good, with occassional variations through the patterns. A distinct bridge is lacking though.

I get the idea that Vamjad lacks the basic knowledge of mixing, technique and composition to start working on such genre-specific material. Some investigation of genre-specific tracks might help you understand what the fundamentals are to hold on to while creating your tunes.

Sunbuster

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

The kick in this track is way too low. It needs to be boosted with 6dB or something like that at least. The problem might also be in my speakers not reproducing the low frequencies this kick goes to, because it does have some characteristics that would suggest it's going in the subregions. Either way, the kick needs some work. The drumprogramming in general is a bit mediocre also. Not much variation and I think I'm not lying much if I say it follows the basic kick-hihat-kick+clap-hihat pattern. The bassline is simple also, but works pretty well anyway. The track sports the powersynth, or trance string. Not going over the top with it though, which is good.
I like the lead melody when it's played by the piano(?) and I like the choice in instrument there. The instrument is perhaps a bit screetchy at times, you might want to experiment with taking it down an octave.

In the end, I've heard worse, but I've heard better also. The biggest problem this track has is in the mixing and the simplicity of the background instrument patterns.

TNK / ATK project

Originality:	7/10	Technical:	6/10
Theme:	8/10	Quality:	7/10
Arrangement:	8/10	Global:	7/10

Originality: 7/10
Theme: 8/10 (6/10 at the beginning, 8/10 from the middle on)
Arrangement: 8/10
Technical: 6/10
Quality: 7/10
Global: 7/10

Demosounding dance music this time...
Starts too slowly, and uses some too simplistic instruments (especially considering the set of allowed plugins that suited perfectly to this kind of music, allowing musicians who choose your musical style to go beyond their wildest dreams in terms in sound design), is quite poorly mixed (the level of the different instruments is not well set, the bassdrum is way too low!).

However, despite all those downsides, this song is a nice piece of demosounding music, a bit outdated but still very nice. From the middle on, some very catchy melodies appear, making the theme grade rise fastly. Some original sounds here & there spice up the whole stuff, altough you could have been much more creative on this issue even within this (quite overdone but always cool) musical genre.

My hints :
- Start faster ! Don't let your audiance wait.
- Use softsynths if you want to make it in this kind of music. There are great softsynths around (incl. in the allowed synths list) for that ! Your music could have been much better with a pro production, something that nowadays goes through softsynths except for some very rare cases.
- Great melodies is a good thing, but there are many great melodist around. Your melodies have to be extremely great, or innovative, or sustained by cool FXs & a rock hard production to make it nowadays.

Anyway, keep up the good work. I like your entry quite much, even if I'm not raving about it.

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 :)