SoftLight /AaRD/ (aard_sftlite.it)

Posted by Rikimbo on Sun 14th Nov 2004, rated 8 / 10.

This is an easy, laid back soft rock tune. The artist also classifies it at Gothic. I suppose that works too. To be honest, I really have no idea what that style implies, but I assume it involves use of an accoustic or classical guitar. Speaking of which, the work done with the accoustic/classical guitar is suberb. It sounds crisp, easy on the ears, and very convincing. The piece goes off with a rather weak start, involving some simple string patterns. Then the aforementioned guitar eases its way in there, bringing along with it a steady, at times a bit overwhelming percussion. The piece goes through a set of musical ideas, the transitions between them being very well done. I really like the way the drums stop and start up again, I think it brings so much more realism to the piece (as opposed to the drumbeat being copied and pasted from pattern to pattern). I also makes it harder to spot repitition, which this piece has quite a bit of. In terms of the musical themes themselves, I have little to complain about. Each idea has it's own mood, it's own pace, and it all fits beautifully as a whole. I love the way the artist brought out the background guitar every now and then to create kind of a countermelody to the whole thing. One thing I can find problems with is the ending. Though those cadences may be a proper way to end the piece, it still sounds abrupt. It seams to come unexpectedly, like a slap in the face. Ok, maybe it's not as bad as a slap in the face, but you get the idea. As a whole, this si a very soothing and quite enjoyable piece of music. Great for either the ambiant, soft rock, or I guess gothic fan's playlist. Though I'm sure that almost everyone can get something out of this one. As I mentionned above, the guitar sounds beautiful, convincing, and whatever else I said up there. Taking a closer look at it, it's actually fashioned out of four 16-bit samples, and one 8-bit sample. The 8-bit sample is for the lead guitar, and the four others form a single instrument for the backup guitar. Aside from those 16-bit samples, there is one more, a panflute. Funny, I didn't hear it anywhere in there, but it's probably somewhere amonst the underlying harmony. I'm not going to go hunting for it in the patterns, I'll just assume it's in there somewhere. Ok, the song has 20 tracks, which is fine. File size is reasonable. You know, unless something's been done terribly wrong, it's hard to find things to say here... um... aha! No message! There's my major technical complaint. No message. Yeah, that's it. Good work, AaRD! Write us some more! :)