MadTracker - "Red_BennY: Underfly" by Red

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Red_BennY: Underfly

by Red_BennY

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Ogg Vorbis version

Inge

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

Genre: game music

A very nice, varied, classically influenced piece of listening pleasure. Crisp-clear, transparent production, although sometimes a bit too muddy due to the influence of the (huge!) bassdrum. The instruments are further plain beautiful. The main tune has a great vibe & atmosphere. Excellent point&click-adventure tune for endless looping. There's a very nice overall eastern vibe going on with some enjoyable Prince of Persia-soundtrack associations.

Somewhat strange is the melody at the end of the tune: suddenly the first few bars from the final solo of Guns 'n Roses 'November Rain' are used (2.45 and forth). It works well and blends nicely in, but isn't complete authentic.

Sunbuster

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

The first couple of seconds of this track got me thinking of DJ Shadow's track "Why Hip Hop sucks in '96". I don't know why, because upon comparison the tracks don't start off the same way at all. Perhaps because the drums and bass have a similar sort of mutual understanding. Perhaps because the atmospheres are wery similar.
I like the drums. They have a nice flow to them, and even though they're more or less following the same pattern throughout, they're still one of the main reasons I find this track interesting. The basskick lacks some punch though, more on that next.

Technically the biggest problem this track has is the exaggerated use of reverb. Especially the drums suffer from this, because they loose their real punch in the process. Other than that, the mix is good.

I would have been happier had the track not introduced at least parts of a very familiar and often used melody. You can hear it starting at 2:45 for instance.

Even though the track is very repetitive, it manages to stay interesting and create a good atmoshpere all the way through.

TNK / ATK project

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

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

Interesting & innovative synthpop piece, This entry has a clear and distinct theme which, while being repetitive is brought with such a diversity of sounds and arrangement that it's never quite the same, killing all possible boredom (I like this). Plus it uses interesting sounds (the mix of electronic, sometimes even lo-fiized and some orchestral sounds is great).

The arrangement is in constant evolution, which makes you discover something new almost at every pattern. Besides this all is professionnal here : the mixing, the sounds choice (could have been improved with the use of some VST softsynths but it's already way above many entries even without those tech wonders). One of the most interesting arrangements in this compo.

All this track lacks is a vocal part, because else it's all good to my ears. Nothing to complain really. A very good entry. My 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 :)

bigandymac

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

a sort of breaks/chilled/triphop/pirates (ill explain that) track that is very interesting sounding.

originality - well its a lot of genres and ideas all thrown together into a mix that works very well. also it reminds me of pirates.
theme - right the pirates thing, the bell melody, the low plucked string make a dramatic "sailing the seven sees and pillaging unsuspecting trading ships" mood. its great and fits very well with the rest of the track. the drums are also very nicely put together, played solo there is way too much reverb, but when the whole track is playing it sounds fine.
arrangement - quite a few variations both in the drums, melodies and instruments keep it interesting. the bell melody works very well as the background in the track.
technical - pretty much every track has mt reverb, and it sounds good. other than that, no vsts are used, nor track automation, but the track has not suffered for it.
quality - overall is very good, the samples are of good quality and any samples which lacked quality are masked by liberal sprinlings of reverb. the drums are excellent and probably the 2nd best part of the track (after the pirateyness).

in summary - pirates rule.