put here your reviews and comments about the compo tracks!
come on i wanna see a lot of reviews this time

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OK, since no-one else has commented here, I will at least say I dl'd them, or nearly all, and listened to them all last wknd. I thought they were nearly all very good, and I have not decided on a favorite. Some were just displaying proficiency rather than being a full-fledged composition, but even as such were very nice. I woud cast a vote or review in greater detail if that were required.

I'm with frog_jr I've been listening to all the entries and like most of them but I have yet to make my mind up about anything. There are some front runners but not decisions yet. I'll try to post some critiques soon.

I decided to review the track in the order they ended up in my songs folder so here we go...

First Review - KarLKoX Melancholics Bells

For starters when I opened this song up I could have sworn the compo had been sponsered by Ichiro Toda and Green Oak with 12 instances of Synth1 and 5 of Crystal but that is beside the point. On to the song itself.

I like the way each instrument comes in one by one, a classic approch. The pad tracks I think are a little are somewhat monotonous and as there was at least one that was up in the mid-range frequencies they detracted somewhat from the leads. I also felt myself wanting the Crystal texture beds to come up in the mix a little sooner.

As for the sounds I like the metallic patches coming out of the Synth1s and Crystal sounds great as usual. There was a buzzy pad (Synth1 #3 I think same one I talked about above) that I didn't really dig. It wasn't bad it just didn't add anything to the track.

All in all I feel this is a pretty solid track. It sounds a little bit static and I think that stems in part from using only two different synths for most of the track. Still thumbs up.

Review Two - rolemusic Sonaita

I think this is one of the highlights of compo 8. I really like the idea of making a song that is decidedly not electronic with Psycle.

First off terrific selection of samples, they make for a great percussion track. With the use of the Lazy Snake and the Blitz however this track manages to avoid one of the main pitfalls of track that utilize a lot of samples which is monotony and a sense of sameness throughout a track.

I think that the link in feel between the sampled guitar and the synth 'guitar' tracks in both style and sound is great. I love the Lazy Snake track in particluar. This whole song makes me want to go hang out on a beach somewhere.

This track sounds like a jam between Santana and Dick Dale and in my book that's pretty damn cool.

yeah,i'm happy to see reviews....as soon as possible i want to add mine!

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thank you polite company taking the time making reviews!

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musique

Your welcome, I'll try to post some more tonight.

Thank you for the review, i take note of your comments

Still listening to the entries.

When I was studing painting at the university, we used to have a weekly critique, where everybody brought in whatever they had, and teachers and students could say whatever they wanted. Of course, the objective was to bring in a complete work, but if all you had was a sketch, you could pin it on the wall next to the finished works, and it would be discussed. That is how this feels to me. (Except I was a bad student and didn't enter the compo myself!)

More later, Tad

okay it's my turn : such a good contest: all of you guys have shown your universe and I like it a lot for most of you, and makes me want discover more; Don't be surprised If my comments are only positive; I'm not a man to criticise or judge , and I think good comments are the best way to evoluate ; so let's go for the first part of my reviews:
#Spaceturner -Swimming as a Mermaid: beautiful title; very nice tune with enjoyable drum part; good variation in the middle
#Role Music Sonaita: Excellent; like polite company said, the percussive arrangments are excellent, and the guitar sample greats; moreover the solo part is excellent.
#Dragon unearthed - the lightning brought darkness: Again very good title and very nice tune I enjoy the rain sound behind; the whole sounds are excellent; this song sounds a bit asiatic to me, not common, very good choice for the sounds (especially disto)
#Drutis -Wailing Times: Nice tune, very hypnotic song with excellent choice of sounds; sounds like relaxation music to me
#12 ATu-Maikaferahoi: Again excellent choice for the sounds, ecstatic song with excellent melody and arrangment; I enjoyed the game boy sound (it was?) in the middle
#Lakser U - Revision: good sounds here; not my kind of music but i think in it it's nice.
#MFM - Waiting for a dream : Very impressive song; with excellent arrangment and sounds (especially the percussive sounds); I enjoyed the gregorian voices; very professional mix and very good use of reverb.

Well, that's it, next later

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musique

After listening and reviewing all of the entries, my overall impression of this compo is success! As I am fairly new to Psycle (7-8 months maybe), the thing about this compo that I found to be great is how much I have learned, with how others use generators and effects, to create such wonderful tunes. I have great admiration and respect for each tune for their unique sounds and impressive imaginations.

A few of the songs that really stood out to me are:

1)Druttis-Wailing Times
2)Oursvince-Bells, Bells
3)Alk-Eep
4)Rolemusic-Sonaita
5)MfM-Waiting for a Dream
6)Scuba-Rotate Anti-Clockwise

Well done, everyone, well done!

....with special thanks to MfM for the organization of this compo!

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Original by Dragon_Unearthed
....with special thanks to MfM for the organization of this compo!

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thanks to you all guys !

..oh i'm preparing my reviews too...

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This compo thing is so brilliant! I am learning a little bit from you all. But one thing I learned: I thought I used a lot of plugs! Now I know better.

OK, I spent a couple hours or so drinking Italian wine, listening to the tunes, and writing reviews and then changing them again and again. And now I just have to say that the more I listen the more I like them. I am really blown away with the skills and talents I am seeing here! I burnt the tunes to a single music cd so I can listen to it in the car, and made one for my girlfriend.

I listened to both the audio file and the .psy for every song I could. But I am having some kind of problem with blitz, a plug I have never used before. It will not load for several of these songs.

so far:

dw-e^(ipi)+1 -- elegance, pure and simple. This little piece has one of my votes. I certainly wish it were longer, but what there is I think is perfect. I don' t mean to be rude, but you could use this to advertise anything from ISP service to toothpaste, if you desire. Don't take that the wrong way, Crystal Method is advertising American automobiles, yes?

Meloncholic Bells -- Awesome, well-done tune, it sounded almost gothic. This .psy came very close to crashing my computer, pretty resource hungry I guess. I liked the tune. I felt like I should be watching Blade Vampire Hunter 4 or something.

combination -- this took me back to the 80's (in a good way!) Art of Noise, look out! This was fun!

forest -- I don't know what game this was designed for, but it feels right for some game with little creatures jumping around on lilly pads or something. I think Psycle must be a perfect program for making game music.

snowy days -- has a real feeling about it, and so I say it is a successful tune. Kind of a pensive feeling, does remind me of snowy days. Again, don't be offended, but I can easily imagine this as part of a soundtrack to an animated drama.

As you can see, I am also dispensing with negative criticism, for better or worse. Maybe this is not a good idea, but people can get pretty upset sometimes on BBs, and this board has generally been a wonderfully positive place.

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Original by frog_jr
OK, I spent a couple hours or so drinking Italian wine

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..oh so you were drunk after a couple hours

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Original by frog_jr
As you can see, I am also dispensing with negative criticism, for better or worse. Maybe this is not a good idea, but people can get pretty upset sometimes on BBs, and this board has generally been a wonderfully positive place.

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well,personally i think that criticism are good if you want to learn things and i also think that nobody will get offense by some well said words about his own tracks.
i learned a lot of things from criticism....

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quote:

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..oh so you were drunk after a couple hours

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You're leaving out the possibility that I was drunk to start with. But I will say this: the longer I listened while drinking that lovely wine, the better I liked everybody's songs.

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i also think that nobody will get offense by some well said words about his own tracks.

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Then you are an optimist. But seriously, I was just seeing that everybody so far has been focusing on the things they liked rather than those they didn't. That is actually a natural thing to do. A lot of criticism is bad, or not helpful. The same is true for praise, but consider:

What if I'm wrong with my praise/criticism?

What if I am drinking and all the songs start sounding better and better, and I start telephoning the Pope's offfice demanding sainthood for everybody in the compo? (Don't do this if you live in Vatican City.) If I am wrong with praise, maybe some poor schlemeil mistakenly thinks he is talented. What is the worst possible result of this? I may have created another Andrew Lloyd Weber. Or they get nominated for sainthood, and have to start studying for those sainthood exams.

OTOH What if I were drinking wine and fired away with negative criticism, but really because my wife is hitting me with a shoe? If I am wrong with a criticism, I just might discourage somebody from trying. the up side of that is I have one less person to compete with in the next compo, so maybe I can become great by strategically placed ill comments. The down side is that they will not be there to shower me with praise when I win the compo by default after driving everybody else away.

I did offer criticism while I was drinking the wine and my wife was throwing the CD cases (and she was offering criticism pretty good too, I'll tell you that) but the following morning few of my criticisms stood up to the pleasure of listening to even the worst of these 22 songs, and so I erased what I thought might be discouraging, and left a few encouraging remarks about my favorites. Truly, I have downloaded some pretty bad .psy files in the past year or 2, but not a single one of these 22 was bad. I liked every one I listened to, at least a little.

oh oh,i dont wanna be misunderstood ...i just say that criticism must be well said so that he become an help.
you can't say"this song is bad or orrible",that is the kind of things i hate but you have to say just the real thing and try to advise what you think to improve that song,say "this song is good"when he isn't is not helpful ihmo...hope you will understand what i mean

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Let's go for the second part

#Sampler - Under Pressure : great effets on bass and drums; good choice in the instruments and very good sounds in the whole.
#Sergos - down : Interesting sounds here; with good mechanical sounds behind
#voskomo and Alk - Psytreisende : Good vibe with nice rythm song; excellent balancment of the synth behind; I specially enjoyed the rising of the synth melody in some moment of the sound (excellent!)
#Outsider - Fer : Very alleviated and pretty song; reminds me a bit Phil collins in the intro.
# Alk - Eep :Shiny song which could take place in a video game, with forest
# Karl Kox - Melancholic Bells : Starts as a little child music that suddenly becomes frightening; very good use of reverb!
# Rhino - Combination : Excellent ecstatic song! Very good mix and sounds; the second part with scratches is unbelievable

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musique

The third and last part:

#Voskomo -Snowy Days : Nice alleviated tune where I specially enjoyed the lead sound.
#Ampul - Dot 2: The Piano play and the disto sound behind are great; moreover the effects on the whole are very nice; congrats for the variation in the second part!
#Scuba - Rotate Anti-Clockwise: i like the way the percussive part is arranged; and it's nice hearing some guitar (especially the variation).
# Polite company - To the moon Alice: Excellent experimental song! the idea of making atmosphere sounds with synths is excellent, I could not believe we could do this with psycle!
#Quantinuity (Aka Trancemyriad) - Last minute Drum with a little bit of bass : You've done it in the last minute? Congrats! I enjoyed the drums balancments and the voices, moreover the effects are great.
#dw - e^(i pi) + 1: very nice tune which could take place in a Bells album with Bells Bells and Melancholic Bells

Well that's all guys, that's an excellent contest (the better I have taken part) ; hey guys! It would be great if you were putting your reviews too : it's nice exchange opinions and advices between musicians from differents countries and universes

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musique

i want to thank MfM for the compo and as page said and a special thanks goes to DJMirage for the good banner , Trancemyriad for help in page construction and JosepMa for random award idea. and bohad for rename and upload songs to psycle.fr, and the people who submit.
So my coments, of what i heard (i didnt check the .psy´s), what i liked and what i didnt about the songs, it repesent just my opinions and my taste in music

12atu -maikaeferahoi

This one is awesome, it is full of details. I love howdiferents sounds are mixing so well together and with a good dynamics and a nice song structure, specially like the chippy sounds mixing with 303 alike thingy, talking about music i can say that melodies are wonderfull and the chords are really nice choosen. As production i think it needs a better compression but definitley is one of my favourites. I can see taika influences.

Alk - eep

Alk is becoming the chip master, able to do every chip style, this one is in the happy way. The drums are more
rock than chip, that make this a kewl chiptune, nice melodes and arpeggios, specially like what starts at 00:40,
again short. what about lastfuture singin and doing a pop structure? , im talking serously

ampul - dot2

This one has nice ideas, some notes sound strange and remember me mike olfield tubulars bells, good
experimental things, but i think it needs a little more work on harmony.

dragon unearthed - the lightning brought darkness

This one is full of imagination and ideas, that is a good thing, but i think i needs to improve the sounds and harmonies

druttis - wailing times

I love the drum and the bass background, the orchestra hits and the "high tension" atmosphere. Nice structured song, i thin it needs more mixing or something..

dw - exp j pi plus one

That equal to = 0 is said to be the most beautiful ecuation XD. Nice calm chiptune

karlkox - melancholics bells

Another high tension song, the kind of vocodered voice is really nice and the works with the drums is also nice, at the ends it gets too full

lakser - u revision

The 90´s are back, i love the entrance of the drums, and the chords, sounds like retro sounds that i love, what about trying to add voices?

mfm - waiting for a dream

This one has the best production in the compo imo, the change and the melody in 2:12 is really nice,
as i already said i dont like the way voices enter in 1:44 is a little fast and sudenly, but after that the voices fits perfectly inside the song

oursvince -bells bells

That one sounds like a casio 100 tone bank beyboard, i love that sounds

oursvince -forest


Wonderfull flute melodies and overall rythm, this one will rock on real instruments. I love how the bass and the chromatic melodies gives diferent feeling in the end. Some strange guitar in 0:12 i think must be removed or softened.

oursvince - metaloid

Third by you, is nice to see much entries in the compo, this one is a little stressing, i thnk the leads are too loud and they dont fit the rest

outsider -fer

Some nices melodies inside, imho i think this kind of chords needs a bass otherway the sound is too treble

polite company -to the moon alice

The bass is really nice and adictive and the drums-noise and leads sounds, , hehe and speed up..., nice experiment with 8 bits feeling

quantinuity -last minute drum with a little bit of bass

Main melody is awesome and adictive, the works with the filters is also wonderfull, and the drums, and the production, and the song structure...other of my highlights for this compo

rhino - combination

Awesome scratching and drum n´bass, i liked it

sampler - under pressure

The lead melody is really nice, that is the demostration that a good melody can do a nice song, I love also how the drum is so break, nice work at perscussions, and great change in 3:02. There is some notes in the bass that i dont like at all, like doesnt do the harmony

scuba - rotate anti clockwise

The begining guitar melody is really nice and what the kind of pad doing in a break way in the background, really nice composition and rythm, i dont like what guitar do at the end starting on 3:20, the rest is really nice, i think i will try to play with my guitar, it somehow has a western feeling and rythm atmosphere that i enjoy

sergos -down

Enjoyable melodies, and hypnoctic song, i love the pads strange harmonies like jarre ones, the song is full of nice details like the filtereds pads or the vocal sounds that starts at 00:52, good work

spaceturner - swimming as a mermaid

I thik this one needs more dynamics the song is allmost the same over 4 minutes

voskomo - snowy day

Totally 80´s cop story mixed with scene feelings, nice election of sounds

voskomo and alk - psytreisende

The chords are nice and the "amiga sax" also, but the melodies doesnt say much to me


And im glad to see so many new people here, you are all wellcome and hope to heard more of you

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