Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
JoMoMusic, Cosmic: 8,7,6,3 (24/40)
You'll have to excuse me, I write a lot to justify my scores. Your approach was novel and unique, very "Shoegaze." I've played percussion in a fair share of experimental noise bands, I got some respect for this as a result. Thank you for including those hardware tags, I like to look that stuff up. I got a few PRS guitars recently but it's the Squire bass I'm really loving on right now. I have a lot of respect for people that work to mix a few live elements and recordings into their music. I'm seeing a lot of elements in the visual you choose but not necessarily hearing the connections you could have made via the music. With 12 reviews left to write, by far the single most irritating issue in this competition was the fact that so many musicians chose to assume their work spoke for itself. The author's comments is just another chance to stand out and explain your intentions. You are surrounded by peers on this website that love their creations just as much as you love yours. I like to know how an artist is feeling, I like to share in their inspirations. By giving us some insight into how you think your music reflected the art, you can at the very least guilt some of us into giving you higher relevancy scores via an emotional connection. There were musicians that I didn't agree with in regards to the connections they tried to describe but I respected the visions that many of them had based on their commentary. I'm also going to point out that I'm over here writing far more than the majority of the people I'm reviewing did. No one had to go overboard with their commentary but some people choose to write nothing at all. Around ten years ago an original theme of this contest was to build bonds, develop social skills, and have Newgrounds users reaching across creative portals to work together. It's not a rule anymore but the original contest required composers to reach out to the artists. I only noticed a handful of artists mentioned reaching out and speaking to graphic artists. It's certainly extra but I respect any amount of insight into the creative process so I can better gauge whether a work honestly reflects the art and that the artist truly deserves the victories.
Many users took advantage of lax sample policing and included atmospheric samples to draw connections. There were many animals in the stars and those cries could have been nabbed from YouTube animal documentary videos. Though many DAWs can now record sound straight from the hard drive, a free program like Audacity can also rip sounds and requires almost zero skills to use. A sample can be modulated until it's indistinguishable from the original sound and that makes it fair use. Length of samples can also play into that kind of risk. Not making money off your work is another legal safety feature. Aside from using samples, I wanted to mention that there a huge rocks flying about in this illustration. A program like Mixcraft might have orchestral percussion sounds, I've never used it so forgive me if I'm wrong. A booming orchestral bass drum could resemble an earthquake. Chimes could twinkle like stars. You have the outlines of animals in the sky, I'd have made use of some nature documentary sound effects. Given how laid back this contest generally is, no one would have criticized you for tracking down some whale calls or fox screams from a YouTube video. I generally use the author's comments section to link back to videos for samples like that to avoid confusion and controversy. Not everyone can afford a good field recorder, nor can they travel the world to track down a whale so feel free to get a little experimental with your auxiliary sound and where they're sourced from. You could also have made use of synths to engineer some decent whale calls. I'm not terribly familiar with Mixcraft but it looks like a complete DAW from what google images I'm looking at.
Despite the challenge you brought upon yourself by composing with the true tools of a rock-and-roller, I felt the music was a little flat and unsurprising. You managed to use a lot of your stereo field via volume but it's probably time to start playing with panning data more creatively. Panning has been a major criticism of mine in this competition. Masterful panning can provide all sorts of fidelity boons. While bass tones sound best in the middle gluing the mix together, anything thin or high can find happy little locations biased to the left or right field. Panning creates the illusion of depth and space, you can do a surprising amount with only two channels. There's a reason surround sound never really caught on, a good stereo mix is typically all you need. Strobing left to right or right to left with panning automations can create the illusion of movement. Arguably there isn't a lot of movement in the illustration aside from those giant rock chunks as most of the movement seems celestial. In that sense strobing a sound from left to right makes no sense but you could have employed nature samples panned slightly to good effect. Drums benefit massively from pan data with bass drums and snares to the middle, everything else gets biased and balanced. Auxiliary percussion like chimes, hi hats, bells, shakers, or tambourines can all benefit from a left or right bias. Panning makes a mix more interesting.
Panning also creates the illusion that a sound is louder than it actually is so you can pan a sound then turn the levels down a little. This also creates space on the opposite side, always try to balance your stereo field. If things get too loud in one ear the brain will notice it. You can make use of automation lanes on panning knobs to move sounds out of the way while introducing new ones. Think of an automation lane on a knob like a "recording of movement," many keyboards come with physical mod wheels that can be programmed to a virtual knob. When you play with the mod wheel a program can sense that movement and record it. I don't think I've ever set a mod wheel to a panning knob, between the two of us you could be the first!
I feel like I've said enough to justify those scores, I'm sorry if they feel low or disappointing. I felt like the genre you chose was the wrong energy for an image like this while coming off as more psychedelic than celestial or earth moving. I suppose there were elements I could have tried tying to the art but you'd have benefit massively by writing just a little more about your own work to guide me. Do have a nice day JoMo, and keep jamming. I'm only looking to give people things to think about, everyone deserves good feedback :)
JoMoMusic 
