The art:
So this is my first year in the A.I.M. contest, and this is my first entry this year. I know they're judging more on skill rather than matching the artwork, but I was more concerned with creating an atmosphere that matches the art because I originally started making music to match certain themes and settings, and I like having a purpose for going back to doing just that.
This was made with pretty much just Sytrus, presets and custom made ones, synths (and that one lonely Autogun synth). I used two instances of Fruity WaveShaper (one on Bitmunch and the other on Full wave rectify) and automations to get those short bursts of distortion.
I think Elitistinen or MetroPiano is going to win this contest as of what's up there now. I'm also very curious to hear what LichLord is going to put up too.
A really nice soundscape, though I'm not sure if this actually can be called music though.
Isn't a really a proper melody throughout the song at all.
Still was a pretty nice soundscape though. It's something I can imagine being in a game or a movie, but it isn't something I would listen to alone for pleasure.
3.5 stars
It's quite a textural track, for sure, and it relies heavily on sound design, something that has been rarely explored in this contest yet. I don't think it necessarily needs a melody here because the track does have a solid structure and it does set a visual that is quite vivid and intense.
Without going again through what has already been said, I think the mastering is pretty spot-on, with the sudden bitcrush bursts probably being a bit too loud and disorienting -- In fact, I would have used them twice or three times at best and then switched to some other kind of noise/effect in order to keep things more interesting and fresh. We don't want our listeners to be deaf, and this track does have a great flow throughout the sections, so I'd suggest you to lower the mix just a tad bit in order to keep things listenable and at an acceptable level. The length of the piece itself doesn't lead me to any particular complaint, although you had a great base to build something even darker and mysterious, in my opinion.
Props for mastering Sytrus which is pretty resource-free and for ultimately experimenting with something that manages to be somewhat varied and interesting to listen to.
//FD
Pretty much displaying a near-mastery of sound design using Sytrus. You are probably the only person I know who actually uses WaveShaper efficiently.
I do agree with Rahmemhotep below, this would be very fitting in either Earthbound or even Mother 3 but for some very strange reason it does remind me in it's atmosphere of the Cave before fighting The Pain in MGS3: Snake Eater.
Mastering-wise, it's spot on. Sounds beautiful coming through my ADAM A5X's and even on my cheapo headphones it sounds pretty damn decent aswell. Can't really fault it composition-wise although I do slightly question some of the notation which is introduced just after 0:54 in, it sounds inappropriately off-key compared to the rest of the elements going on but then it might be done like that on purpose?
Oh I do have something special cooking up, it's just now down to cutting it down to uploadable lengths (It's like 11mins long cut down), not killing my vocal-chords and getting some Dialogue sorted out by either myself or a special voice-actor ;)
There's still quite a bit I need to learn with Sytrus, though. WaveShaper's an easy one, however I usually use it just for distortion - and even just a little bit of it can give any synth more "oomph," which is especially great for basses (there's one just for that purpose on the droning bass).
Sadly, I haven't played any Metal Gear Solid either :(
The only game I can think of that may have had some influence on the way I wrote this would be The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (it was something of an influence on my writing style when I first started writing music using computer software/DAW's - and when I first got FL Studio and pulled up Autogun, I really loved how some of the synths reminded me of some of the instruments in the game), but it's been years since I last played it, or even listened to any of the soundtrack.
About half of the layers I used in this song are detuned to some degree; I made the custom bell/chime synth at ~0:53 in Sytrus using frequency ratios of 3 on the first operator, 8 on the second, and 8.1 on the third, which is why it sounds off-key. There are quite a few dissonances in the song, all of which were intentional - I really love the use of dissonances at appropriate times as they can really make a song sound even more interesting and dynamic.
11 minutes? I remember the days when it was difficult to get 6 minute songs up on here without reducing the quality.
Oh man, don't make any changes to this! It's right where it should be.
I use sytrus as well. You can make your own sounds pretty easy with that thing.
Funny enough, I was just thinking how it reminded me a little of EarthBound when I read that review below. :P
The mix is great. No outlandish frequencies. I'd say you got this song in the bag.
It takes a bit of practice to make great synths in Sytrus, though. For simple leads and arpeggiators, it's pretty easy, but really good sounding pads can be tough to make.
I've never played any games from the Earthbound series, so I have absolutely no idea which game in the series it's from, or even which song - a rather odd coincidence that two people would get an Earthbound vibe from this.
This is Cool
This is Joy and great as well
This is catchy
This Audio Rocks
Keep it up
Peace
Food123
Thanks
Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.
JRob 
