Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - VIOLETSYSTEMx64]

VIOLETSYSTEMx64, AnxietySewer
Composition/Structure:8 Production:9 Emotion/Atmosphere:9 Art Relevance:6

Tough to judge, you've given me no catalogue to look into. I've developed a habit of listening to the other competitor's catalouges to try and weed out people that are just sticking to their polished genres without demonstrating any actual inspiration. The arguement that could always be made is "it's subjective." I'm so glad I majored in art though because it really isnt, there is always a conceptual way to tie a song to a visual work. Really wish I could hear some more of your work because your technique is polished but how do I know you didn't just pick a random work that kind of vibes with your music style?

I said this to another competitor that dropped awesome DNB: sounds fucking amazing. It's a really good mix, hits too hard in a few spots though and gets muddy. Samples are great, sometimes they're a little too random, that sporadic ending in particular might have benefit if you moved it to the beginning? The sliced up girl noises sort of ties the song to the art but I wish there was more than just a vauge connection to the girl. You're leaving it up to me to assume that the bold energy in your song conforms to the bold energy of the art but I could just as easily look at violet 4.0 and imagine house or electro. It's a very colorful piece of art, why did you choose dnb in particular? Is it just a genre you need to make? Don't be afraid to share your feelings or ideas, everyone here is your peer and we'll respect what you have to say about your work. It was very fun to listen to, one of my favorites but I'm only half convinced that it was written in the spirit of the contest. Thank you so much and please have a wonderful day!

AnxietySewer responds:

helloaa,thank you very much,I chose to do dnb because it is one of the genres that I really like,I don't know how to do many things in the house style to be honest,besides when I got into aim24 I was experimenting my style,I wanted to do something that was energetic and fast with a futuristic touch,I really appreciate the rating you gave me,I'm really happy and I will surely participate again next year,it was fun.

[AIM - Yeah, something like that.]

Yeah, something like that; Aalasteir
Composition/Structure:5 Production:4 Emotion/Atmosphere:5 Art Relevance:10

I won't lie, I had trouble listening to the song. There was a very creative, almost fluxist spirit to it. The work of art you choose was incredibly technical so I might have been anticipating something a little more technical? The lyrics very heavily allude to some of the elements from the drawing so I have to give you some massive relevance points.

Having spent a few days coming back to this song and not entirely certain what to say about it I finally gave your catalogue a check just for context into your style and habits. Question, do you run full speed at a different genre every day? I heard some incredible stuff in your catalogue. This song in comparison seems very lack luster, monotone, and droning. I think you managed to evoke the image while simultaneously doing it in a very unflattering way.

I wanted to take off a lot of emotion/atmosphere points for only hitting me with one droning energy the entire time but you used your voice which I have a lot of respect for. Voice is an instrument so many people overlook. Other's don't trust their voices enough to tune it up in the first place. This song kind of sounds like a tune up in that respect, not pro but moving in the right direction. I'm too wuss to consider using my own voice and I love singing, respect Aalasteir.

Production scored low, drums and pads were so retro it hurt. We skipped synthwave and went full Gregorian chant. This song definitely conforms to the spirit of the contest but I'm craving more from your skills. Listening to your other songs was the right move, you have incredible talent. I think you went a little too experimental with this one but thank you so much for genuinely going at the spirit of the contest. Have a nice one and goodluck Aalasteir <3

Aalasteir responds:

When I don’t have a workday, I sometimes create a lot of music—up to 7 songs. Speed is the primary focus of my workflow. I don’t make music every day, and I try do different genres. This particular song was different because I aimed to capture the sound of new wave songs, which I’ve listened to a lot and really enjoy.

I like Joy Division’s “Disorder” and The Cure; my favorite song is “Disintegration.”

The unusual side effect sounds were created using the Roli Seaboard Rise 2.

Thank you Quarl, I am grateful for your thoughtful review. I really appreciate you sharing your expectations, as well as your positivity and respect. Your great attention to detail is evident.

[AIM - Failure of a Fanatic]

Kalviter, Failure of a Fanatic
Composition/Structure:9 Production:7 Emotion/Atmosphere:9 Art Relevance:6

You picked a hard image to convey, there's not a lot of low hanging fruit in the visual to "Foley" around. At the time I judged this you had wrote "lyrics pending," and I kind of needed that visual information to understand what you're saying. I can only pick out phrases here and there. I'm not particularly good at mixing hip hop with vocals, I overcomplicate the back track which muddies the vocals and I think you're suffering from that same problem more than a little. Having the lyrics typed up would of helped me understand but if the lyrics don't obviously reference the art that might have actually hurt your cause?

The vocal pad sounded kind of fem and demonic, I'll count that towards the relevance score. At this point your score is looking pretty good compared to some of the other entries but I'll try to come back to this and rejudge if you post the lyrics (edit: you didn't). I'll probably hold onto this copy of my review until the day we release results so you won't know my thought process until later but I wish there was a more obvious connection to the art. Written lyrics might have helped or they might have revealed even less of a connection but I love the effort you put into your sound. I'm dead afraid of my own voice and never use it musically other than around the house when I'm harmonizing with music I'm jamming to. Just wish I could make out the vocals better but I loved the demonic vocal processing. Not a lot more to say about it, wish I could. I spend a lot of time on these reviews and the more I have to say the more I listen to a song. I've spent an hour or so on most my reviews, give me more to write about and I'll get to enjoy your music longer!

Thank you and good luck Kalviter :)

[AIM - Punk Frog]

Morpherence, Punk Frog
Composition/Structure:8 Production:4 Emotion/Atmosphere:8 Art Relevance:9

My review needed an introduction so I added this sentence, for structure.

Lol, I'm glad you snuck some frog noises in so I can't take too many points from relevance. In fact, I'll only steal one point for not addressing the water/wind features in the art. The artist wrote "did you know it can rain frogs during tornadoes?" I'm going to lose my mind one of these years when someone whips out rainstick samples. The instrument was literally made to emulate rain noises and no one ever uses it. I'm such a depressed person because I just want one composer to take my rainstick request seriously. Ignoring my weird rainstick fetish, there are plenty of ways to convey rain or tornado wind noises that I can only wish you went in that direction a little more. At least the choice of genre conveyed chaos well and good, possibly too much chaos though. Even storms have a calm "eye." There was a short breakdown @ 3:12 before going right back into the chaos but the energy didn't dip too much.

From a song writing perspective the track really starts to drone after a while, just wish there was a little more dynamic range through-out the track. Also wish there was some pro panning, the stereo data got very static. Not sure if you're familiar with your program's fidelity units and how to maximize their potential. If I wasn't in such a rush today I'd go on and on about the benefits of panning and how to make the most out of your compressors/limiters/EQ units. It's especially unfortunate because the category I can most easily take points from is production, a lot of the instruments are very one dimensional and lack pro fidelity. You can make things sound a little more alive if you play with the note velocities but if you don't want to individually do that for each note you can kind of fake dynamics with automation lanes on the volume knobs. I don't hear a lot of copy/paste in the melodies so I'd just do the automation/volume trick instead of getting too crazy with each individual note's velocity data. Save time, automate the dynamics :p

Gotta keep going but I'm really happy you participated in the spirit of the competition honestly, so many people enter the competition and I can't discern any connection to the art and their music. Wish you said just a little bit more about how the work inspired you but since the effort was obvious via frog samples I don't need it. Gotta realize that the people that judge these competitions are your peers, we love to know more about your creative process and every bit of data only helps. Writing about your work can be therapeutic and lead to fun interactions with your peers. Don't be afraid to have a voice!

The melodies and rhythms were inspired, the drums in particular had a very punk rock vibe. Had some fun listening to this, just got to aspire to a higher plateau in regards to mix and fidelity. Good luck Morpherence!

[AIM 24 - BROWHOTFAREYOU]

BROWHOTFAREYOU, adamisiah
Composition/Structure:7 Production:10 Emotion/Atmosphere:5 Art Relevance:1

This really hurt to judge because I can't tie this dance-floor-killing roller back to the art and I fucking love dnb. Grew up on DieselBoy, Evol Intent, Pendulum, and Squarepusher. In that realm the song is great but what does that have to do with the show Smiling Friends? Did you think to reference the original melody of the theme song? Did you think to sample a character from the show to literally tie the sound to it? Have you ever watched the show? I spent a few minutes watching Smiling Friends and the theme song just to try to understand the connection and there literally is none. You grabbed a random image to try to vibe with a somewhat obscure EDM genre. Pick fan art for GTA III or Sonic next time and I'll more readily believe the connection.

I went through your catalogue, you have talent for making bass music but I'd recommend studying past AIM winners. Every year this contest gets music that perfectly encapsulates the art it's paired with. This contest is a Foley artist's wet dream. Pick some art that actually conveys certain kinds of sounds like running water, animals, or scenery such as a bustling metropolis or a rain forest. I call that kind of sample "low hanging fruit" and so many artists seem to avoid thinking about it. You can always make chiptune and pair it with pixel art. Instruments I could reasonably tie back to a comedic kids cartoon are clown horns, slide whistles, mouth harps, and kazoos; none of which you seem to have considered. The only real musical aspect of the art is the parental advisory warning. I was alive when the explicit content policy was introduced and as an adult I laugh at the fact that the warning label only helped artists sell records to kids that wanted to hear the explicit shit. Certainly, it's one of the best examples of the Streisand Effect for it's time.

On that note, what does dnb have to do with explicit content? Most of the genre is electronic, very rarely you get an MC. Had you have snuck in one good "fuck" sample at the beginning or end, I'd have considered it relevant. I just double checked the rules, we allow profanity. From the rule list: Your entry may contain explicit content suitable for up to the M content rating, i.e. E, T and M. No A-rated entries are allowed. WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT? Give me the explicit content I was promised >:V

You have talent for writing good EDM, rolled through your catalogue real quick. I'm averaging about an hour or so per review which is another reason I'm bothered by this song. I'd love to sit her for an hour or so listening to this but I have to move on to judge other tracks. You took one of my favorite genres and turned it into a small waste of my time and this is why I'm giving you a relatively low score. Try tossing your work at a label, it's still a great song.

Good luck adamisiah. Sick tune, 10/10 roller. Inspired though? Beats me.

[AIM - Hope's Memory]

Hope's Memory, wobwobrob
Composition/Structure:8 Production:10 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:10

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from that wave shape. Loved those bass tones, they got a little muddy around 00:53 but that's where I'd have expected a crescendo. That spot would have been brighter with a cymbal swell into a vibraslap (I have a vibraslap fetish and literally no one takes advantage of that). I guess you used up your one cymbal swell at 1:44... never mind, 2:11. I pitch bend my swells to create something new out of them every so often, one cymbal suddenly becomes an army of cymbals with pitch automations.

You didn't say much about your work but I paid attention to that "isolated and alone... weight-of-tragedy" feeling. I suppose you don't want to over encumber the mix with too many harmonies or sounds but some more cymbal diversity could have helped along the orchestration. Some rattling percussion might of portrayed dry emptiness? I've developed a love affair with güiros, again you could vibraslap a rattle snake into the imagery. Chimes are great when you want to create some atmosphere and don't want to use one of your cymbal swells. The fidelity of your mix sounds pro but some more aux percussion would have helped the composition a little...

I'm focusing on the things I'd have done differently but you did a lot of great things with this piece. I'm only 11 songs into judging but this is so far my favorite. I really feel like the image and the song work perfectly together.

Since I say it to everyone, you could have spent a little more time talking about the art but this is one of the rare pieces that kind of speaks for itself (most don't). I gave your catalogue a quick check to see if you regurgitate one style over and over but you have a nice field of diversity and breadth. Your catalogue adds authenticity to the idea that you didn't just pick a random image. I wish more artists would explore outside their comfort zones to pad up their sounds, thank you for having a diverse catalogue.

I took one point off composition/structure because that intro kind of comes out of nowhere and another for just lack of percussive diversity. That intro is your space to "Foley" up a soundscape, "John Cage" some wind noises. Missed opportunity, you clearly have the skills for it! Sample a waterphone. Mood instrument, $300 on it's own without the recording apparatus and necessary skills... or just... cop a sample like a true 80's hip-hop enthusiast. I'm a relatively chaotic judge in that I encourage sampling but other competitors will sample stuff and we will have zero evidence they did it. I like to level the playing field a little. Pros in the music world sample all the time, why can't we? All the modding Newgrounds does around samples is to avoid getting slapped by copyright holders. I saw the other judges getting antsy because a song used a bunch of Microsoft sounds, meanwhile all these other subs with bird noises and running water sounds... how many people do you think have decent field recorders? How many people pay out the ass to have sample folders provided to them? I'm very lax on sampling because of all that, just thought I'd mention it. Sample a vibraslap TODAY :p

Great track wob, good luck!

wobwobrob responds:

Thanks for taking the time to leave such a great review, and thanks for noticing that this is very much out my comfort zone! That's the beauty of AIM, if you play correctly it pushes you to do something you wouldn't normally.

Also I have a waterphone in my library so I will play around with it on your recommendation!

Great judging, well done to you all :)

[Chocnoon - Falling Night ~AIM~ (DLVII)]

Falling Night, Chocnoon
Composition/Structure:10 Production:5 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:4

Classic sound, pretty sure I heard that opening launch sample like 20 years ago on an old reg's song, couldn't find it after looking though. The trance melodies sound like they were written or inspired by a young BOUNC3 or Cornandbeans. Even the mix-down has a younger trance sound in that you really should focus on mixing and mastering techniques to get the sound quality up to snuff. This genre and style really sings when the fidelity starts sounding pro. You very clearly wanted the sound you were going for but I wish you said more about the art and how it inspired you. Way too many people get this idea that their work will speak for itself but I never know whether or not the work is truly being inspired or if it was a randomly chosen image. Anything said about the work helps alleviate that fear and leaves me without the ability to even claim something so preposterous.

...and people still get upset when I point that out like "just judge the music." I'M AN ART MAJOR, SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT THE ART D:<

The image is emulating a photography trick, an extra long exposure to create those trailing stars. Looking at a blue night sky, I might have stuck to a blues scale. You started the track out by referencing that night sky with the launch sample but what's next? Did you think to use glittering chimes to try and create an audible representation of those stars? Did you think to maybe include some arps panning across the spectrum to symbolically represent a meteor shower? Space theme: sine waves produce the same sound as a theremin, an instrument known to be a sci-fi classic. You could have used that to your advantage. This next crit might sound kind of lame but why sample a launch sequence when there isn't a single space ship in the image? If you had spent a few seconds to write HOW the work inspired you I'd have less trouble relating the art to your work but it sounds like you stuck to a genre you're comfortable with and picked an image that you thought would jive with that. I could just as easily look at the image and imagine any other genre though.

It's a really cool piece of art you choose, full screen is awesome. I can really pick out the fine details on the art but in comparison your mix sounds flat and muddy. That snare sounds like a washed out tin foil pan hiding behind all the bass tones, I'd have liked more presence from the snare. I think I've heard some trance forgo the snare all together but I suppose that's a creative decision. A trance snare hitting the high frequencies should be able to fly over the mix, why such a washed out sound? Are you sidechaining? It's hard to tell, that bass drum is so much of the mix but if it's doing any side chaining it doesn't necessarily sound like it. I always sidechain my leads, if a lead is getting stereo panned and split into two signals most won't notice the sidechain controlling stuff. The sub bass instrument sounds like it's hitting the up beats, a sidechain signal usually creates that illusion well enough that you don't need to worry about it and you can just place all your data on the whole notes. Pads are also a good thing to sidechain... again I can't tell if your sidechaining or just relying on the instrument's inherent qualities to mix well together on their own but I suspect your fidelity would sound a tad better if you nailed some profesional techniques. Sometimes I sidechain an instrument really hard, other times just a little but it's one of those game changing techniques that just leads into a better understanding of signal flow and fidelity.

That hi-hat goes harder than that snare, just saying. In what genre does the hi-hat get so much mix real estate? Sounds like it's coming from the center too, aux percussion is one of my favorite things to pan off. You can counter those panned hi-hats with a tamb rhythm in the opposite ear, you can play with their note velocities to get more dynamic range out of them. Shakers could help fill up that rhythm a little too. It's not easy to get creative with drums, it's a very straight forward instrument but given how important the drums are to dance genres you need to master every fidelity trick you can to polish up. You have those bass tones perfect, now crisp up your mix a little. Maybe a clap snare layered on top would have been helpful? Do you layer your drums much or at all? Good samples are just the beginning to a good dance track but good drum modeling takes work and practice. Layer drum samples, change pitch, send the sounds to each their own fidelity units to polish, EQ, compress, filter, and whatever else you may do to get the end result: drums that sound full and unique. It might have been Nav that told me ages ago, drums are the most important element in any dance genre and I totally agree with his feelings. Your bass drum sounds nice but the highs help make the mix snap.

Got a lot of AIM stuff to move on to, I didn't listen to your song as much as I could have. Takes me about an hour to write these reviews but I felt like I've listened to you song a thousand times already because it sounds just like my childhood on Newgrounds. As I was writing this review I'd pause the music because it was getting distracting. The song doesn't really do the image justice, it sounds more like an ode to Paradise on E than the image itself. The genre can be amazing to listen to when it's pro so just to clarify, it's probably the static mix that had me so bored. I'm not taking any points from Composition/Structure or Emotion/Atmosphere because I'm hitting the other two categories with fury. I felt like you nailed those other categories. You could spend some more time fixating on how to convey imagery via sound, you could spend ANY TIME AT ALL describing your work, as I just did. The community revolves around itself, peers will listen to your work and we know what it all feels like. Don't be afraid to say something about your work, especially in a contest when the judges are paying attention.

Seriously, what was your old alt? Is that Ocon? Sorry, bad guess from rearranging the letters in Chocnoon. I swear you're an old reg with this 2000's high school trance style...

name responds:

I'm actually Ocon lol (nah jk)

But seriously, I'm glad you liked the song!

[AIM - Madonna del Laco]

Morpherence, Madonna del Laco
Composition/Structure:7 Production:7 Emotion/Atmosphere:7 Art Relevance:5

I really wish people would learn the importance of at least saying HOW the art inspired them. A couple sentences will never hurt your score unless you say something like "I sampled this entire song from a cool Youtube video." Everyone assumes that their work speaks for itself but it often doesn't. People enter the contest and fail to realize that the judges are literally their peers and we want to know more about you, your creative process, the choice of instrumentation, conceptual ideas... or at least I do. I've discovered some of my favorite Newgrounds musicians from judging AIM in the past. I love knowing more about my peers and what drives them, what motivates them, and what inspires them. I'll agree that the visual art you chose is inspiring, I'll also admit that I like your music but I'm left wondering how it really matches the art.

From a composition/structural point of view a lot of the sections could use crescendos and decrescendos to connect them together. The drums just kind of come out of nowhere initially. Orchestral drum swells might not come in the same folder as the "ethnic drums" you found but you can always progressively layer genres, time periods, and techniques to work with the fantasy imagery that you chose. Even talking about the drums you used: some 16th/32nd drum notes could be introduced via volume automation or the velocity progressively increased to make a swell. In regards to European orchestral drums, no one is going to hear a cymbal swell or a bass drum swell and think "damn, this doesn't match the medieval fantasy time period in my D&D dungeon master's guide book. Time to take points off." You can kind of go anywhere you think works in the fantasy genre but I'd love to know WHY. Looking at composition/structure and emotion/atmosphere simultaneously; this song kind of drones along in one place the entire time. You could argue the music isn't going to change much when fighting a monster in a lake but I would disagree. I'd expect a boss fight in a lake to sound intense and fast, potentially it would come in phases. The music you wrote sounds like it would better fit in a Punjabi market place with vendors wearing turbans trying to sell me rugs or butter chicken. Looking at that armor, I went down a rabbit hole looking at different kinds of tabard patterns to try and place the region and time period but found nothing... already I'm wondering if I've done more research than you to try and understand the art.

Another thing to consider is what cultures have feminine lake monsters. A quick search brought me to the Swedish Sjörå. The Scott's have their Loch Ness monster, why not use bagpipes? The Germans have their mythological Nixe... did you do any research or planning before writing this song? I'm averaging between one to two hours on each review I write, do us both a favor next time and say literally ANYTHING to help guide the listener on the journey you experienced when you analyzed the art. I'll point to the fact that I have a visual arts degree, taking apart visual art is something I paid money to learn how to do but anyone can do it. Your work is good but there are going to be entries in this contest that are perfect. I could imagine this song matching the energy of Age of Empires or the N64 era LoZ water temple... which has nothing to do with the art other than the fact that I'm not thinking of the art you choose when I hear it.

This contest is a foley artist's dream. Look at the art and think like a foley artist, how will you audibly reference everything in the drawing. I'd have sampled a waterphone for this drawing but the prices for a waterphone range about $250-450. It's a little chaotic for a judge to recommend sampling in an song writing contest but percussion instruments usually come with the DAW you purchased and no one is going to cross reference your percussion samples to a Youtube video to disqualify you for nabbing a vibraslap or a drum swell. I did notice others talking on Discord about a contest entry that sampled Microsoft sounds and some other copy-written stuff... but who is going to spend their time on Youtube listening to one-hour-long relaxing running water meditation videos to see if someone nabbed a running water sound from there? I have a field recorder to try and nab what I find in the wild. One ironic thing keeping me from buying sample packs is that sometimes companies regurgitate sample packs with sounds they acquired questionably themselves. Sampling is an art, hip-hop artists would fight tooth and nail to defend the craft. I bring this all up to give you more range and ferocity as a creative person. From using a field recorder, to buying the instruments, to the ethical quandary of sampling: these are techniques that you could employ to deliver a better final product. How does one convey the dissonant sounds of a monster in a lake fighting a figure wearing a suit of armor? Think like a Foley artist.

The production fidelity was fair and good but not mouth droppingly good. At this point I really don't want to spend much more time on this review because I have so many entries to get to but I hope it was eye opening or thought provoking. Like so many other musicians in this contest you have big potential, and I'd love to see you around: I'd love to hear more from you. I'm not trying to discourage or uninspire you when it's actually the opposite. Come back around next year spurned and ready to kick ass. Good luck with the contest, hopefully the other judges hear the things I didn't and you get a fair shake... never be afraid to share a little about your creative process. Peace and love Morpherence.

[AIM - Rampage of The Dark Paladin]

Scorched Rain, Rampage Of The Dark Paladin
Composition/Structure:7 Production:2 Emotion/Atmosphere:8 Art Relevance:9

Right off the bat I feel like this is undeniably inspired by the art. Inspiration can be very subjective so I focus on it to try and bridge whether or not the musician is legitimately inspired by the work. I like to do a little extra footwork to check out the musician's catalog to see if they're just competing to their own strengths but you have a very diverse albeit brief catalog. Wish there was more of your music I could dig into but I understand, Newgrounds is always inspiring new talent and you're competing with everything you currently got. Without getting into too much detail about the competition, AIM always delivers top tier music. I'll beg that you spend some time listening to and checking out some of the winning competitors for inspiration, there's always a higher plateau to aim for.

There is a Castlevania vibe to the work, I noticed the tower in the background of the art which helps you out for that Gothic feeling you were going for. Good choice of instrumentation. Drums go hard which arguably fits the intensity of... fighting monsters? The mix is driving me crazy though, too much reverb is making things kind of muddy. I'd ditch the reverb on the drum kit and study-up how to sidechain the melodic instruments using the kick drum or a combination of the kick drum and the snare drum. Sidechaining will allow you to control the levels of one instrument with the levels of another, in other words you can use the signal from a kick drum to momentarily push aside instruments like bass and strings to help clarify the mix. Sidechaining is easy when you learn how to, I just looked up BitWig tutorials on how to sidechain in that program. Learning how to use a compressor to sidechain will push you in the direction of learning to use your fidelity units to their fullest potential.

It feels like you fell asleep on the sustain peddle, that organ grates and doesn't relent. A feeling I've always agreed with is that good music builds up tension, then releases it, then builds it again, then releases it, as many times as necessary. Often it happens within a measure or two. That organ is just constantly overpowering in the wrong way. I'd have given it a rest every now and then to let other instruments breath. Between the organ and the drum kit there is no room. The art relies on a lot of negative space to create tension (via the black spaces), or contrast. I'm not hearing a whole lot of contrast so much as I'm hearing a constant drone. A harpsichord or a dulcimer might have punched through your mix, some of those organ melodies deserved to be transposed. That intro would have been far more inviting if the separate melodies stood out more...

...which leads me to panning and layering. I'm not certain there are two separate organs rather the first melody sounds like your just writing different parts on the same instrument. I'd take the different melodic zones and transpose the high melody to a string instrument I mentioned earlier (dulcimer/harpsichord), the low end would get it's own instrument (mixed towards the center but it can stay on an organ), then the highs and mids could offset each other with some nuanced panning. Mids might like a string section or choir. That melody deserves three different instruments but it all sounds like it's coming from one sustained organ and it's not beneficial. Splitting that melody up intro three instruments would create more contrast, give you more space to mix, hit new textures in different sonic spaces, and you could pan them to make room in the stereo field. Every instrument deserves it's own "space."

Compared to the organs, the drums are very contemporary. I would never take points off for choosing contemporary drum rhythms but where are the orchestral sounds? They'd have fit the mood of the art. You can build tension and release it with orchestral drum swells; crescendos and decrescendos. Cymbal swells and bass drum swells usually come with orchestral sample packs and since Bitwig seems to make a big deal of it's internal samples and instruments I'd spend some time getting to know all of your orchestral options that came with the program out of box. They also sell lots of extra goodies as far as that's concerned but I've been using Reason for 20 years without buying new instruments or tools. As a DAW that contends with all the best, it will come with proprietary orchestral sounds, find them and make use of them!

Hopefully this review doesn't hurt, you have a lot of potential and I'd love to hear you grow into that potential. I took a lot of points from production because your sound is "young" and seemingly uninformed. I'd recommend looking up classical composers such as Vivaldi or Bach to emulate or inspire a more authentic/classic gothic sound. I'd also recommend spending some time on Bitwig tutorials to learn all your fidelity and mix tools proper. Would also look up some information on panning so that you're not going too wild with it but instead are making informed decisions on where to put instruments in the stereo field. I'm giving a high score for art relevance because it's obvious to me that you put in the effort but took one point from it because I felt like there was more you could have done. That also kind-of offsets the production score which I went super critical on to drive my perspective home. You got some great potential scorch, let's live up to it next year! Good luck with the other judges, by the time I post this the competition will likely be over but I'm serious when I say "next year," AIM is consistently annual thanks to Annette. You can improve a lot in one year, time flies. Cheers ScorchedRain!

ScorchedRain responds:

Thanks for reviewing!!

[AIM - Nurture]

Latadenata, Nurture
Composition/Structure:7 Production:8 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:7

Respectably unique, loved the song. Unfortunately the inspiration could be brought into question. It's always a little dangerous to pick a piece of art that is predominantly lone figure surrounded with negative space because you're essentially writing a theme song for the character. The image can convey all sorts of ideas to you: the musician, but you're banking on the idea that the judges will hear the things you saw and feel the same things you felt. I'm glad you wrote about what you did because I can't say you weren't "inspired," that was brave and respectable, but this music might as well work with a lot of other works of art: it's interchangeable. I want to hear music that is so unquestionably inspired by the music that I can't separate the audio from the visual. I'm not tasting fruit in my mouth from this song. That is the one immutable feeling this art provided: fruit in mouth.

Subjectivity is always a tough cookie but this contest is going to put a ton of serious contenders in front of me and I focus very heavily on subjectivity. You've kind of shot your shot with a very specific character drawing. Aside from how well drawn the image is (it's beautiful), it doesn't convey a lot of musical ideas past putting a mango in my mouth. You could have just as easily wrote reggae, calypso, ska, salsa, or some other world genre and claimed that the image inspired you.

I'm going to focus on the yellow background because it's obviously a picture of a forest ran through a filter and the colors were all changed to yellow. You didn't seem very confident in what the background was (again, thank you for sharing your feelings). I can see ferns, a tree trunk, and vines hanging from the top of the yellow square to the bottom. It's not a "(kind of?) nature background," the background is very obviously a rain forest. Given that, you probably could have included more samples from nature? I gave you one extra inspiration point for that babbling brook sound towards the beginning but the score sat at 5 for a while because I just couldn't tie the work to the character in an indisputable manner. Though a babbling brook conveys a rain forest nicely, the image has no discernable moving water in it. Samples of birds singing are a very popular means of conveying a natural setting in a musical composition, they live in trees. Might seem cliched though, no one wants to sample birds for the umpteenth time but it might have helped you? I never hear anyone sample a rain-stick, an instrument literally invented to convey the sound of falling rain. That white noise towards the end almost hit that vibe, there were some percussive sounds that may have expressed the character eating fruit? It took me two to three hours of listening to this song on repeat to actually pick up on that though.

There is a lot I can say about the art and there is a lot I could say about this song but almost none of those thoughts happen simultaneously. We have a great song, a great piece of art, and they feel somewhat smashed together via questionably subjective ideas. I do love this song, it's very well done. tbh, mix is a little thin. There was plenty of room to boost some sub bass. I noticed that the song doesn't really climax either, it's one energy level the whole time. In a way, it's very plain and repetitive. Maybe the art is kind of plain too? I don't know, I've now listened to this song enough times that I'm starting to judge whether or not the image is even remotely inspiring in of itself.

I didn't volunteer to be a judge to have to nitpick the art that people choose but you picked a very plain piece of work and delivered a very plain piece of music. Coming to that conclusion hurts to say, so I'll toss in that I'm very sorry for saying it. No one wants their work to be called "plain." I gave some of your catalog a listen to see if your style changed to suit the art and I think it did. Maybe next year pick a work of art that has more going on in it so I can't sit still; typing up a confusing review for three hours. I tried my absolute best honey, I think you have a lot of talent and I'd love to keep hearing from you. Your style is beautiful. Force judges to hear the connections you hear, force us to feel what you feel. Eliminate "maybes" and deliver a work so confidently inspired that no one can question anything. That might mean that you have to pick a different kind of visual next year but you now understand some of the pitfalls better.

I think I've said everything I wanted to say so thank you for keeping me very busy today. I was averaging one hour per review, you just destroyed that record several times over. Stay unique Latadenata <3

EDIT: this was added at the moment I posted this, I've started calling certain sounds "low hanging fruit." The imagery didn't provide you a lot of low hanging fruit, you were banking on "a vibe" instead of finding the sound effects and conceptual ideas that would have compelled a higher score. Comparatively, this is still a good score but it was also one of the first songs I judged and one of the first reviews I wrote. Hope it doesn't hit any nerves, best wishes Latadenata.

Latadenata responds:

Please take no worries on how your review made me feel, because I found it FANTASTIC!!

I'm so glad and happy you took so much time on listening to my song (I don't think even myself could be put through listening it to THREE hours repeatedly!) and it means a lot to me.

I'm also really glad you focused on the things that could have improven and not the ones you could have felt were already "done right", since what I always seek is for improvement and criticisms like yours are definitely a big help on making me improve!

It is very fair indeed to say the original art wasnt really inspiring, but personally I just fell in love with it and wanted to dedicate it a song.

I felt a lot of love and attention coming from your review, and I think the part I appreciated the most besides just the fact of taking so much time to review the song is telling me how unique you find my music! It is really one of the compliments as an artist that I have recieved that have made me most happy!

Thank you so much for this and I hope you will find my next submission even a lot better!

Best regards!