Since I felt the (unnecessary) need to be brief with my entry description, I'll take this opportunity to give my full thoughts on each submission: Nite Shadow:Starting out in major, stepping back into minor, and then switching between both throughout the song - overall giving the song a dissonant edge was something I found very interesting! The slightly unsettling intro definitely amplified this, though I think the fade-in was a bit stronger than necessary, somewhat working against what you'd managed to set up at the intro. The dissonance of the melody (although tasteful) might be working against itself in terms of memorability, though. It, combined with the length of the song, makes the song harder to catch onto listeners. It's not to the point where I can't recognize looped sections while listening, which is relieving - but for such a rhythmically simple melody, it's taking quite a while to actually remember it. The biggest blemish, however, is mixing - instrument volume is simply not balanced enough. Looking at the waveform, things like the guitars at 2:19 (and 4:04) are simply overpowered and cause a huge shift in volume. The cymbals often have the same problem, as well. Even some basic equalization of frequencies could have given more balance in terms of volume, while allowing everything you want standing out to stand out, and vice versa. Sample quality isn't exactly the best (especially the guitars), which brings the song down slightly as well (I personally wouldn't use sampled guitars like this unless for the sake of sounding unrealistic on purpose), too, though it's not nearly as big a problem as mixing. Overall, it's a very interesting song, brought down mostly by problems that have nothing to do with the base composition. I wouldn't exactly think of it as 'epic', however - It sounds like a blend between an unsettling prelude of sorts and an action theme, which honestly feels like a slightly awkward mixture. Aivenstruz_:Ahh, Mixcraft. It's funny how easy it is to tell if someone's using its default instruments once you've used it for a while. That aside, though, for someone who hasn't made much music before, this sounds very good! The introductory section in particular reminds me of Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme, which makes diverging from there in future sections all the more interesting. You seem to have a very good grasp on things like rhythm and basic music theory, as well as having some brilliant ideas in terms of arranging articulation - with better instrument libraries, more practice in articulation and exploring the various MIDI control options (like Volume and Pitch-bending), I'm convinced you could come up with some very impressive things. The straight rhythm, coupled with the overall jazz influence makes for an interesting contrast, as does the blend of "acoustic" and synth instruments - the former of which even amplified with some of your subtle rhythmic diversions (as done with the ride cymbal, for example) here and there. I definitely like this one. Mocgames998:I just threw this together in a few hours. First off, I don't believe you. Secondly, most of the articulation, arrangement (especially on the drums!) and instrumental quality is superb - If we were evaluating those alone, you'd have won by a landslide. The active and driving drums help to keep the song going all the way through, and the opening guitar riff (as well as, again, the drums) is fantastic. Sadly, the song takes a slight change for the worse from there, in my (subjective) opinion; the orchestra hit and brass don't really add anything significant to the song, making it not a particularly acceptable substitute for a solid melody, or however else you would've kept things interesting. The noticeably low-quality orchestra hit works against the otherwise fantastic instrumentation, and orchestral instrumentation seem to do nothing but feel awkward with genres such as rock or metal, at least when it's just flowing, and dropping in and out like this. (I'd had a similar problem when starting out with my song; I tried going for a rockestral direction very briefly at first, only to decide that was a terrible idea.) It disappoints me slightly overall that you chose to use the orchestral hit and brass - I figured they were a way to add 'epic' flair onto your song, but it just comes off as uncreative and shoehorned, especially in contrast to how everything else is fantastic by comparison. I know I'm being very negative about that, but it's because of just how positive everything else is, really. Can of Nothing:Ever since I'd gotten into Deep Purple from researching about Koji Kondo's musical influences, I'd been goofing around on my keyboard, coming up with riffs inspired by that of their most famous songs. It wasn't until this competition that I had a real reason to make an actual song in their likeness, however. I'd also discovered a rock cover of a Shin Onigashima song, arranged (he was the original composer as well) and performed by Koji Kondo himself, not too long before I found out about this competition; it was a big factor in convincing me to go with 60s'~70s' progressive rock for this. The compositional process was relatively smooth, considering I practically rewrote the song a few times - each time, coming up with something better than the last was almost instantaneous. I'd managed to come up with a simple melody without too much hassle, as well, which was more than satisfactory. The real trouble in making this song was in mixing, really. The original mix had an overly muddy bass, which made me go and revise it, where every time I tried to iron something out, something else would be undone. This took me a couple of days, and really frustrated me - eventually I took a break from it for a day, and went back to it fresh, leading to this... relatively better mix. I'm not entirely sure if votes from participants really count, but as for my vote... This is a tough one. Nite Shadow's song is the most interesting, but suffers from bad mixing and low-quality instrumentation, and works with the given theme in a somewhat awkward way. Aivenstruz_'s, while also low-quality in instrumentation and not as good as it can be, shows excellent potential and is compositionally solid. Mocgames998's song is fancy, impressive and fits the theme to a T, but is dragged down by its less ambitious elements. I'd have to go with Aivenstruz_. Mocgames998's may have much more flair, but I like the style and ideas Aivenstruz expressed in his song, while also exploring the ideas of an 'epic' 'boss battle' in interesting ways.
Since I felt the (unnecessary) need to be brief with my entry description, I'll take this opportunity to give my full thoughts on each submission:
[b]Nite Shadow:[/b]
Starting out in major, stepping back into minor, and then switching between both throughout the song - overall giving the song a dissonant edge was something I found very interesting! The slightly unsettling intro definitely amplified this, though I think the fade-in was a bit stronger than necessary, somewhat working against what you'd managed to set up at the intro.
The dissonance of the melody (although tasteful) might be working against itself in terms of memorability, though. It, combined with the length of the song, makes the song harder to catch onto listeners. It's not to the point where I can't recognize looped sections while listening, which is relieving - but for such a rhythmically simple melody, it's taking quite a while to actually remember it.
The biggest blemish, however, is mixing - instrument volume is simply not balanced enough. Looking at the waveform, things like the guitars at 2:19 (and 4:04) are simply overpowered and cause a huge shift in volume. The cymbals often have the same problem, as well. Even some basic equalization of frequencies could have given more balance in terms of volume, while allowing everything you want standing out to stand out, and vice versa. Sample quality isn't exactly the best (especially the guitars), which brings the song down slightly as well (I personally wouldn't use sampled guitars like this unless for the sake of sounding unrealistic on purpose), too, though it's not nearly as big a problem as mixing.
Overall, it's a very interesting song, brought down mostly by problems that have nothing to do with the base composition. I wouldn't [i]exactly[/i] think of it as 'epic', however - It sounds like a blend between an unsettling prelude of sorts and an action theme, which honestly feels like a slightly awkward mixture.
[b]Aivenstruz_:[/b]
Ahh, Mixcraft. It's funny how easy it is to tell if someone's using its default instruments once you've used it for a while. That aside, though, for someone who hasn't made much music before, this sounds very good! The introductory section in particular reminds me of Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme, which makes diverging from there in future sections all the more interesting. You seem to have a very good grasp on things like rhythm and basic music theory, as well as having some brilliant ideas in terms of arranging articulation - with better instrument libraries, more practice in articulation and exploring the various MIDI control options (like Volume and Pitch-bending), I'm convinced you could come up with some very impressive things. The straight rhythm, coupled with the overall jazz influence makes for an interesting contrast, as does the blend of "acoustic" and synth instruments - the former of which even amplified with some of your subtle rhythmic diversions (as done with the ride cymbal, for example) here and there. I definitely like this one.
[b]Mocgames998:[/b]
[quote="[url=http://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?p=462414#p462414]Mocgames998[/url]"]I just threw this together in a few hours.[/quote]
First off, I don't believe you.
Secondly, most of the articulation, arrangement (especially on the drums!) and instrumental quality is [i]superb[/i] - If we were evaluating those alone, you'd have won by a landslide. The active and driving drums help to keep the song going all the way through, and the opening guitar riff (as well as, again, the drums) is fantastic.
Sadly, the song takes a slight change for the worse from there, in my (subjective) opinion; the orchestra hit and brass don't really add anything significant to the song, making it not a particularly acceptable substitute for a solid melody, or however else you would've kept things interesting. The noticeably low-quality orchestra hit works against the otherwise fantastic instrumentation, and orchestral instrumentation seem to do nothing but feel awkward with genres such as rock or metal, at least when it's just flowing, and dropping in and out like this. (I'd had a similar problem when starting out with my song; I tried going for a rockestral direction very briefly at first, only to decide that was a terrible idea.)
It disappoints me slightly overall that you chose to use the orchestral hit and brass - I figured they were a way to add 'epic' flair onto your song, but it just comes off as uncreative and shoehorned, especially in contrast to how everything else is fantastic by comparison. I know I'm being very negative about that, but it's because of just how positive everything else is, really.
[b]Can of Nothing:[/b]
Ever since I'd gotten into Deep Purple from researching about Koji Kondo's musical influences, I'd been goofing around on my keyboard, coming up with riffs inspired by that of their most famous songs. It wasn't until this competition that I had a real reason to make an actual song in their likeness, however. I'd also discovered [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAkEapms0og]a rock cover of a Shin Onigashima song, arranged (he was the original composer as well) and performed by Koji Kondo himself[/url], not too long before I found out about this competition; it was a big factor in convincing me to go with 60s'~70s' progressive rock for this.
The compositional process was relatively smooth, considering I practically rewrote the song a few times - each time, coming up with something better than the last was almost instantaneous. I'd managed to come up with a simple melody without too much hassle, as well, which was more than satisfactory.
The real trouble in making this song was in mixing, really. The original mix had an overly muddy bass, which made me go and revise it, where every time I tried to iron something out, something else would be undone. This took me a couple of days, and really frustrated me - eventually I took a break from it for a day, and went back to it fresh, leading to this... [i]relatively[/i] better mix.
I'm not entirely sure if votes from participants really count, but as for my vote... This is a tough one. Nite Shadow's song is the most interesting, but suffers from bad mixing and low-quality instrumentation, and works with the given theme in a somewhat awkward way. Aivenstruz_'s, while also low-quality in instrumentation and not as good as it can be, shows excellent potential and is compositionally solid. Mocgames998's song is fancy, impressive and fits the theme to a T, but is dragged down by its less ambitious elements.
I'd have to go with [b]Aivenstruz_[/b]. Mocgames998's may have much more flair, but I like the style and ideas Aivenstruz expressed in his song, while also exploring the ideas of an 'epic' 'boss battle' in interesting ways.
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