MadTracker - "Vokalyze" by 708

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Vokalyze

by 708

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Ogg Vorbis version

Inge

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

Genre: dub / drum 'n bass

Very clever and interesting track that changes from dub to the type of drum 'n bass that Lamb used to make. A crafty vocodered vocal is dubbed on top of the track to give a distinct character to the track. Excellent beat programming and technical usage of MadTracker. Samples, vocodered voice, beats and normal voice over blend together very nicely.

It's a pity that the possibilities of using vst plugins have been neglected, but this is not something that can be heard. The beats could furthermore use some more depth (deeper bassdrum, snappier snare). Last, and most importantly, there's a sort of shalow feeling in the song. It seems to me that something really standing out is missing or lacks the proper emphasis to hook the song into the mind of the listener longer than while the song is played.

Sunbuster

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

Really like the vocoder usage in this track. Nice usage of an fx sound to create an atmoshpere. The vocal snippet at around 4:50 is wicked also. Too bad the rest of the track doesn't quite know where it should be.

The mix seems to be ok. It is perhaps a bit quiet overall.
I'm not too fond of the track starting off with a downtempoish beat and then moving over to a more breakbeatish beat. I would have prefered the downtempo beat throughout the track. The drumprogramming as such is good though, has some good variations.
The track is variating, yet I can't help but feel a bit bored in the end. I believe the reason for this is that more or less all instruments follow the same melodyline, and that melodyline isn't that complex in the end. The same vocoded snippet is used a bit too much also. With this in the bag, the track isn't able to keep up interest for the 6 minutes it's running.

Overall, a nice atmoshperic track, but a bit too long for it's own good.

TNK / ATK project

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

Originality: 10
Theme: 9
Arrangement: 10
Technical: 8 <-- 10 if everything had been tracked...
Quality: 9
Global: 9

Synth lo-fi bass & drum loop (why did you use presampled stuff here, couldn't you track this down in MT ? ... technical note will drop because of that...), and then it builds into a nice piece of d&b with nice ambiant parts, vocoded voices, a wonderful use of the audio spectrum, original elements, like the ATB alike portamented synths (instrument A, channel 3) in the middle of the track. Really a great entry.

Besides this "big sample" issue, I have nothing to complain here really, wonderful pianos here and there, beautiful soundscape. Arrangement is wonderful, everything sounds very pro there. Could be a track from Madonna's latest album.

Excellent entry that will stay on my playlist for quite a long time I guess. Congrats !

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 :)

Name your samples too !!!!

bigandymac

Originality:	8/10	Technical:	6/10
Theme:	8/10	Quality:	7/10
Arrangement:	9/10	Global:	8/10

dubby electro triphop track that evolves into chilled d&b.

originality - creative use of vocals, nice evolution from triphop to d&b, interesting sounds used, and nice melodies. so pretty original.
theme - really chilled out but very interesting throughout. the vocal is used very nicely and the reverbed voice sample is a great choice.
arrangement - the switches in pace throughout the track, the use of the vocal to bridge and the different themes keep it very interesting and a good flow all the way through.
technical - good use of madtracker fx, the sampled drum loop is cheating a bit (maybe the artist made in a different program?) some compression on the drums and and exciting the drum track would give it a bit more impact. but the track hasnt suffered at all from not using vsts, the mt fx (as always) do a great job.
quality - really clean sound throughout, it is a fairly minimal track but is executed well (especially the vocal).

overall - nicely done, cheating on the drums is a shame as some original drum programming would be great, but im not above using loops myself so its no reason to dock points from this superb track.