by

Corrado Ghedo
(Ghedo)

Nice use of stereo. I like the drum pulse but it eventually gets boring. Even in techno, you can add interest to the drums. Use more effects that mix with the drums (like toms, low bells, bass, and so forth). The Enigma opening vocal was ok, but didn't really add too much to the song. You could have achieved better results with a falanged chorus sample with tracked effects on it. There was enough variation to keep me listening. But, there's no excuse for more variation just because it's techno. If you want a simple answer: just use more special effects... that's what techno people usually do to make repeated patterns sound interesting.

Sample set could be better, some samples, especially the 808 snare sound weak. Mixing is very good, but it is almost the only element in this song. Sampled chords are something best forgotten in the multichannel days. Not enough happened in there to keep it interesting, but technically it is good for an intermediate entry. I just couldn't help feeling that after two or three patterns I had already heard everything this one has to offer. And if you wan't to play with two or three different patterns they need to be way better.

A quite straightforward dancetechno song. For this kind of tune to be enjoyable the theme/main bassline/etc. should be very cool/catchy/otherwise good. This song didn't have any of them and so it didn't keep me interested enough. Sample quality should have also been a little better.

Hehh, a GOA style tune! Technically smooth, good mixing, panning. I cannot rate the harmonic content ;) because it isn't a "musical" piece, but the whole arrangement is well done, complex enough, samples well chosen. Not my favourite style, so I yield the floor for some devoted...

very repetative, nothing special. it doesn't vary enough at all. Just the same thing over and over again.

Quite frankly, I still don't understand what this track is doing in round two, there were better tracks that ended up in block 2. This is only a fairly standard techno tune which doesn't have much to offer. Typical samples (which are not of particular good quality nor are they properly tuned), typical beats, it is pretty predictable, and doesn't leave much behind. Everything about it is pretty much mediocre. Overall, nothing to write much about :(

This tune could have been so much more than just another mediocre dance tune. The hi hats sounded a little strange, perhaps they were too low in frequency. Hi Hat Sample 6 could have had less decay and been cut off earlier. Hi Hat sample 12 if moved up about 9 semitones sounds much better. The drum track sounds a lot clearer and stronger with these two changes. You had some good ideas with volume envelopes especially with the kick drum, however you left sustain loop on so it was never used thus the kick sample sounded too long and not snappy enough. Other envelopes didn't seem to be used to the best , and a lot of the envelopes were wasted as they were too long and the actual sample only used a very small part of it. The change at sequence 24 was a welcome change from the droning of the tune up to there. It almost sounds like two different people tracked this. There was not much in the way of music with this tune, it was mainly rhythm and groove. The bass line was almost catchy , but not quite. Some sections of the string lead clash with the rest of the backing in section 2. There could have been some slight chord variation as the constant 1 chord used through out the whole tune got boring. Anyway, not too bad a tune overall.

Nice work! The beat and groove throughout the song is great. The opening bass is very nicely done and the following orchestration is aprropriate and quite sophisticated in places. The tune at order 8 needs something extra, or reworking - it doesn't quite hit the spot. The transition at order 18 is nice and the work in order 1A is very good. The song form is okay but I think a little more variation to distinguish sections would have been good. The technique is excellent and the samples are clean and well used. I like the voice part from Enigma! What this song loses in originality and form is balanced by excellent groove created from good samples and tracked well. An nice song!

Samples: 8bit, noisy, bad loops. Some good choices however. This style is VERY common in the scene (not in MC though). Your melodies/layers are chaotic and too hectic/unbalanced/random. Very loud mix, very effective tracking, very few FX. Sorry for not going more in-depth.

This type of techno/trance progressive music is really not a new style of music at all on the tracking scene. That is not to say that it is a bad piece of music, but it has been done many times before. Your bassline is good as are your drums. The standard techno/house beat could be spiced up a bit to add distiction, perhaps a clap or two or a distictive drum sample. To really write a good piece of music in this genre you must really set to make everything about the song slightly differnt to the norm. Too many things in the XM are really very standard. Try listening to some old-style trance progressions, they use the same principle of adding channels to a piece as it progresses. The really good ones mezmorise the listner with the attention constantly shifting from what seems the lead instrument, to other more subtle melodies playing in the background. Your song does this in some parts, but not really enough. It was good how you had a very distictive sample that you used well in the middle section.

Standard techno. Needs a lot more variation. Not so good sample quality. Not very original. The technique is about average for this sort of tunes, and could improve quite a bit.

*File Specs* [Filename]m6r-redm.xxx [Title]Red Monk [Total playing time]4:15 *Musical Values* [Creativity]On surfacial level:fair to good, musical:low [Story]Abstractive dance-atmosphere [Structure]I missed variety in the percussion line, there was no real distinguishable style within and the percussion was a bit overpowering, surpressing other elements within the song, on surfacial level there can be found variety in timbre and sound-expression, meaning the use of instruments at various points in the song is changing, effects are added or being removed here and there keeping the song intresting on at least one level however no keychange will be found within this song it has one abstract wire-line from which it doesn't change course.[Harmony]Fair to reasonable, the percussion could have been brought down a bit...[Realness/Fantasy factors]Either a bit more melody or keychanges could have made your song a bit more vivid. *Technical Values* [Instruments]Ok.[Samples]Some bad loops, wav-info bytes found or a nasty click in sample/inst. one, no post loop-cuts (pieces of sample after a loop which will not be played anyway is a waste of memory) [Arrangements]Your way of mixing seemed to be a bit monaural with exception of the Sfx used but no serious flaws noticed here. [Use of...]N/A [Sample Quality]Fair to good *Sounding Techniques* [Depth]Unsufficient to fair,most instruments were used surfacial. [Width]Ok. [Headphones]Ok.[Speakers]Ok.