LONG DISTANCE
Nice pad tracers on the intro. Really nice rich bass sound. Combines perfectly with the pad following it. Solid percussion. Maybe melody progression didn't go as far as it could, but there are some really nice variants on the main theme. Very transparent sounding, good tonal range and good mixing throughout, maybe a break could have improved the arrangement, but since its a 3 min piece, oh well. All in all one of may top favorites
THE SHOODY SHAKEDOWN
Nice intro, BUT, 30 seconds in and that brass sample sound comes in out of tune! Maybe that was experimental? Maybe it was just the wrong tone and it seems more like the 2nd one. Then a very cool 2-stepy percussion comes in and then the bass the harmonies are a bit all over the place. This happens after with some other samples as well. There are some good ideas and the arrangement is not bad. This tune has potential but needs a lot of work on the harmonies.
SAMPLE RIDDIM
Good tempo and walking rhythm, but again some harmonies don't really seem to work on my ear: there are samples here and there that don't really match with the bass line. Maybe this was going for a more acid feel but a bit more classical harmonies would be an improvement in my view.
DISPERSION
Brilliant drop and awesome sound design on the vibrating liquidy-bassy sort of instrument! (would love to know how it's been done) Really cool ambient spacey background and nice mysterious synth theme. The reggae stabbs help it a lot. Could have improved the last 20 seconds and go off with a bit more class but a good one over all. One of my fabs as well.
AFTER MIDNIGHT
Cool dub but seems to be missing a bit on the lower end! Could have also done with a few more spacey ambient delayed/reverrbed hits and stabs here and there, like in DISPERSION, or maybe accenting the ones here a bit more but in general is a very nice ambient tune. Good work on the percussion.
FOOTSTEPS
Nice soundscape. Missing a bit the lower end as well. A bit more work on the percussion would help, in general is very good but giving a bit of velocity to the shakers to make it swing a bit would make things a bit more interesting.
THE WAY YOU ARE
After this long intro the drop (if there was such intention) feels a bit week but then there is a cool crescedo towards the second break. Hopefully at 1.50 a very cool percussion comes to the rescue and the tune suddenly becomes interesting. Maybe a bit too much use of the constant brass soundscape, moving it a bit like you do at the end would have made the tune more interesting.
WET DESERT
Digging the intro and drop, very powerful, really cool digitized synth sound but a shame some stuff seems slightly out of tune as well! Maybe overuse as well of the frikin brass sound! In the second half seems like there's a bit of lack of melody ideas until the nice riff of the digi-synth comes to the rescue. Nice one over all.
HAERDKOA
Very clever use of digitizers and filters on the intro and one of the best drops here! Nice harmony effects with the glissando and really cool wobbling effects on the synth. The fall to the break could be improved. In general very impressed with the all the sounds and moods, Nice seconds rhythm coming at 2/3rds of the song, it gives it so much more live! The End could have been smoothed out a bit as well but really cool tune in general. One of my fabs as well.
NO CIGAR
First 30 seconds are brilliant. Then it kind of goes in different directions and i get a bit lost but its got a good mood in general. Some sample fx are also a bit out there but. I would have explored the melody of the sort of accordeon sounding sound and gone a bit further with the reggae vibe. But very original.
BLAZING SUMMER
Brilliant start. A bit more accenting/velocity tweaking on the DnB percussion would prob make it a more powerful. Very nice arrangement. Bass sounds a bit too clean to be noticeable, maybe a detuned reese sound coul have filled a bit more the space but but nice use of samples here and there to create the mood and soundscape.
CONTOUR SINE
Cool intriguing intro but maybe still a bit too similar to the start at 0:40ish, so the start seems to miss a bit of the punch. The pads set a very nice mood and cool use of the crying synth sounds, very summery as well
WHEN SNAILS WHISPER
Intro seems a bit too long. Percussion maybe a bit to loud on the intro, specially that cymbal. Good mysterious dark mood on the main part of the tune and very interesting short chord progression. This high end of percussion is a bit too much, though. Sound is a bit over-saturated and too aggressive on the mid-high end for my test.
WHILE GOOD MEN SLEEP
Nice quite tune. Intro maybe lacks a bit more variety. Interesting "talking" bass, would maybe add some other frase on it, and maybe add some other base to allow for a kind of dialog.
AMORPHUS
Liking that aerial kind of 2stepy dub. The break in the middle its perhaps just a bit two long but the rests is very nice. Love what you did with the synths and the arpegiated notes towards the end, i would probably have explored that a bit more. The "ah shit" sample there seems a bit lost. Very good in general.
MORGAN POLTERGAIST
Nice ambient drone and spacey mood. The quiet drums fit very well with the mood. Some movement on the drone tone maybe would help specially towards the end.
DRAGON FLY
Cool IDM sort of drums at the start and throughout, and interesting melodies on the reverbed tones. The bass seems a bit shy slow on the long riff, maybe a bit of distortion get a bit more harmonics out of it could make it more interesting. The DNB is lacking a bit of energy i would say, maximize/compress the drums a bit , get the levels right and add some wooshing to get into it and it might sound a bit more aggressive.
DRINKING DIRTY WATER
Nice calmed intro with good melodies, feeling very IDM-like a bit like the previous. The bell sort of sounds are nice and the saturated synth feet well but the overall sound seems a bit over-compressed and muddy. Loving the melody and the arpeggios on the synths. Again, one of my fabs.
IKON
Good start, maybe feels a bit too loopy. I would add a bit of spice to it, feels a bit repetitive until around 1:30 where there are nice variations and the different synth voices create a nice mix of harmonies and sense of movement.
LUST
This one is harmonically complex, not out of tune like in some of my other comments, but in the good way, sounding a bit acidic if you want
Nice feelings there. Maybe the snare sound is a bit overused, some velocity would probably help? I like the arrangement and timing of things.YOCKSHIT
I like how the drop came about but still not convinced with the levels throughout the tune, at high volume the deep subbass sounds quite powerfull. Not sure about the ziping kind of taking think at 0:40 (and again at 2:00). The wobble sounds are not the best, totally agree with other's comments, could do with a bit more sound design on them.. actually a lot. There is something with the brass sample that could be fixed. Decent arrangement but could be improved, some of the breaks come in well some others maybe not so well. The overall sound could be improved, EQs here and there would probably fix some problems. Sounds a bit saturated as well...
BEST SHOT
Interesting intro, cool sound of the soft bass on it, and cool use of the speeding up loop, then the drop comes. Nice! Good powerful bass sound here! Would like to know how it was designed from the samples. I like the arpeggiated melody but when the same notes kind of reverse the melody im no t so conviced about it. Maybe the fraseing could be improved. In general sound very good could do with a few sweeteners here and there to add variety and colors, like the noise-wash-like sound towards the end. And the fade out.. mmm a bit unoriginal but all in all a very good tune! Also a fab.
Good quality in general!! Congrats to all that entered!! And thanks the others that have taken the time comment. Lets see what the rest of you guys think about the tunes
Just so many great ones in there!
Keep them reviews coming!
What's with all the time limit overages, people... WTF?! Look, you can call me anal or anything you like, but if you're not gonna play by the rules why the fuck should we pay any attention to you? I was tempted to skip songs that went well over the 3 minute mark, but I'll just call attention to them. I mean, one or three seconds over happens with silence in the beginning or fade-outs - fine. But seriously, PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE CONTEST RULES folks. Call attention to yourself with your tunes and not your cavalier disregard for the guidelines we've set up to level the playing field for all. I have yet to hear a tune in one of these whose amazing-ness warranted the run-over. Thank you for listening to my bullshit rant.
) - Liking your riddim, liking the bass weight, but there seems like a bit of a melodic disconnect between the atmo/lead stuff and the b-line. Sometimes atonality works; not sure it does here. Maybe give them more breathing room apart from each other with a stronger melodic hook of some sort, doesn't matter if it's the bass or the other stuff. Another one that could stand to be worked on further.
Just kiddin'. Another one with a long build that could've been shortened, especially given how HUGE your drums are. That waveform is a straight brick starting around 1:10 and I can hear clipping in your bass. This can sometimes be used as an effect unto itself but I don't get that that's what your intention was. There's a conflict between the space suggested by the reverb on the drum mix and the lack of mix headroom; IMHO maybe favoring the latter is the way to go. I think you sound like an imaginative type whose production skills haven't quite caught up to the size of your imagination or ambition, but that's OK - at least you have those parts of the equation already. Keep it up.
) and I think many other people have as well making them not vote at all instead.
