1:10 and on caught my main attention, not that i dont appreciate fast compositions but i just didnt feel the theme in that part (probably because it felt more like a breeze than a storm), the slow part felt a bit like waking up and opening your front door and meeting a empty street filled with leaves.
:)
Gotcha, some people like it fast and some like it slower. :P
I cant remember much music from the original legend of zelda, i was still like 10-12 years old back then or so.
But regardless of that, the atmosphere in this piece is sublime. I love the instrument choices, they sound so crisp and natural. Your voice is also very natural.
Most people try to hard to emitt a 'perfect, faultless voice', wich makes it sound artificial. You do not, you just sing wich befits the universe of zelda :)
Ill listen to this again sometime so ill fav it.
greets.
-cal.
Cheers, thanks a lot for listening! <3 The instrument choices were the closest I could get to match the Eight Instruments of the Sirens in Link's Awakening. I missed out the Conch Horn, unfortunately, but I got the rest of them in. My bodhran seems to be the "Thunder Drum" of this piece, which I'm grateful for.
I'm glad that you love the voice too... while it was painful for me to get the mic to work half the time, I do know that I did enjoy producing it. ^_^
This all >feels< (doesnt sound' dont worry :p ) very retro in the positive sense, as in early 90 summer.
Beats me how you create all those effects, then again i only compose in a pianoroll and have to make all effects manually so im not very aware of all the options.
Anyway, very calming and serene, also very summery like i said before.
Sitting on a chair in the neighbourhood with people spraying water everywhere to cool things down, drinking some coffee like. Thats what i can imagine listening to this.
Greets and good luck. :)
-cal.
thanks for the kind words man.
and yes, the summer time inspired me to write something like this. looks like I got it spot on. :)
Im no fan of autotune wich i heard a bit at the start but that aside, this is very original and immersive.
Im not going to say where i could see it in but instead let me say i could simply lose myself in the atmosphere and im sure those are more fitting words.
I also take it you wrote the text yourself,
If i win round 1 i hope im not put against you or ill have to compose a 6 minute long 8bit opera xD
good job and good luck :)
-cal
There's absolutely no pitch correction or autotune used ^^ I've practised vocal breaks from chest to head and other techniques such as yodels which could be confused as autotune effects. I did indeed, I like to write poetry in my spare time which helps when writing story-like lyrics. You're very kind, thank you and good luck!
Its a bit generic, but very clean and proper aswell, good job :)
I suppose that everything is basically generic because it's all been done before. Nothing new under the Sun, and all that. Looking forward to your generic entry for this fantastically generic contest! Let's get...generic. :P
Better generic than geriatric, I suppose.
Anyway, thanks for the generic review. Clean and proper seems legit--in a generic sort of way. Without some explanation about what you think is so 'generic' about it, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. :)
I like how you use the exact same plugins as i do xD
Anyway i think this is a pretty nice track, perhaps because its both atmospheric and engulfing.
-cal.
I have different ones now; I needed some variation :D Thanks for your review!
I dont even care that it sounds pretty off, that you like paprika to begin with, and like this track in particular makes me throw you a thumb up xD
I did that on purpose.. at least the terrible recorder playing. :D Paprika is great! Like Inception in good..
the only actual 8bit track in the whole contest, go figure.
but did you take the style from my tracks? cause its very recogniceable, just curious.
(apart from the drumset i still need one of those, never found a proper vst)
Sadly i do have some criticism for you, there is never anything interesting going on, to me this track sounds like canvas, there is to much space that has potential to add something into, also the two halves dont fit together.
regards.
-cal.
Thank-you for your candid review. The criticism is understood, I wrote it in more than one session and the parts are rather distinct - The space your referring to is supposed to be filled by animation- which was the point of the contest. I wanted to make several atmospheres to advance the story. I am glad it kept the judges interest more than yours!
As far as your perception of its likeness your style, I'm sorry you feel that way but my influences for this track are much older than my knowledge of you. Im sorry but you had no influence on this track at all.
sorry but first off this has way to much reverb to it wich ruins the atmosphere, the melody itself is fairly original, the drums arent 8bit either but 32, and the triangles used for bass are hifi even.
Such a shame because this couldve been a pretty good 8bit piece if you had only made it with actual 8bit instrumentation.
-cal.
Thanks for your thoughts. In retrospect, I think you've got a point about the reverb. You're also correct about the drums and the "triangles" (although I'm not sure exactly what you're hearing there), but this mixture of 8-bit and other samples does not bother me. If this piece was "purely" 8-bit, I would have had to cut several melodic lines out of the mix because of voice limitations. That would have been an interesting challenge, and maybe the track would have been better as a result of these restrictions.
Original progressions, soundbits, just very enjoyable to listen to man.
Listening to these things make me more proud on that i make 8bit myself.
Especially the two progressions at 0:11 are nice.
I remember bucky o hare, used to watch a good friend of me play it on nes when i was younger.
Also loved the show heh, even had actionfigures of it.
Glad you dig the song man, Bucky O'hare is my shit.
Extensive freelance classical and retro videogame music composer, currently retired from the internet.
Age 40, Male
composing and things
when i was still a little cal
Netherlands
Joined on 8/11/09
A Storm Over Lavender Lane 
Chant de l'Eveil 
Glitched 
Blind Maiden 
8bit Going Up 
Paprika OST - Parade rmx 
The Cycle (Mac13) 
Goodbye Maru Mari 
Dystopian East Coast (8-bit) 
