Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
wobwobrob, Zone Zero: 8,7,8,8 (31/40)
I only started listening to the song but I already feel like going with these gentle vocal pads was a bold decision for what looks like a hellish dystopian metropolis. The image reminds me of Midgar from Final Fantasy 7, thought you might try to Nobou it up. Since you managed to write a fair bit about your inspirations and ideas I'm being friendly with my "relevance to art" points. Too many competitors missed an opportunity to say something nice about the illustrations. Literally saying anything helps draw judges in and endears you to us. We're trapped here listening to hours and hours of music, people need to take advantage of that human aspect. I feel like you missed an opportunity to use atmospheric sounds or samples to relate back to the image. Sounds such as space craft flying from left to right could be emulated with saw synths and panning data. A shooting star could be referenced via sinewave or slide whistle and could also use panning data to help create depth or illusion of movement. Glittering stars or lights could be brought about with chimes. I've promoted the idea that musicians can use a free program like Audacity to sample sounds, edit them enough and you could claim fair use and the mods won't mind. You wrote a very inspired song but with the addition of atmospheric samples and instruments you could have really turned your song into a work that effortlessly related to the image. Instead I have to try and make connections on my own. I can agree with you that minimal sounds could relate to space in that sound doesn't travel through space at all. The vacuum of outer space has essentially zero air. Sound is just vibrating air and space has no air to vibrate and therefore no sound. If you are sitting in a space ship and another space ship explodes you would hear nothing but that would make for a very boring "John Cage" sound track. However I don't immediately relate this image to an outer space scene, it could very well be an industrial refinery underground. You could have sampled power tools or hydraulic presses, traffic moving. When I see this image I imagine the sounds of metal scraping and machines working. The drums were industrial enough to give me some of that mood but those melodies were gentle and soft. You can be proud of the fact that you put some serious emotion into things but I'm not sure if I agree with the emotions you chose to use, sorry my dear.
I love the description you chose to write to symbolize space travel, that you created "a sense of arriving on a spacecraft, isolated and free to absorb the sheer scale of the place you are approaching". I respect that you "wanted to create an optimistic vibe, as you calmly float into the unknown delights of the planet below you." Looking to the left of the image I can see that this industrial space is still being constructed which implies grating machinery. I think you managed to perfectly convey your aims but I'm in too much disagreement that it was the right feeling for what I was expecting, personal bias to be honest. You could have mentioned that the light pollution from the structure obfuscates the stars that would be present in a space setting? I'm sorry if it feels like I'm coming down hard on you but you did a great job. I love this but I have to feel like I've justified the scores and to be totally honest other composers came through much stronger. The last person I judged engineered a synth to emulate the sounds of racecars. An image with waves crashing could feature the sounds of literal waves crashing. You did a good job conveying what you aimed for but there's always room for improvement and I would love to hear sounds that echo the sci-fi soundscape I was anticipating. I'm justifying that "production" score by pointing to that pan data. Everything in space is constantly moving, even if technically without sound. Pan data via automation is the best way for a composer to convey motion.
I have to keep moving with my reviews to get this work done in a reasonable time frame but I hope I was able to illuminate some new ideas or inspirations. I hope to hear more from you in the future, salutations wobwobrob :3