The Dink Network

UltimateMidiCollection - The Second Volume

June 30th, 2002
v1.00
Score : 6.6 fair
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Ultimate MIDI Pack Volume 2 is a collection of 7 original MIDI files created by the author. I will run down the general information of each piece and then give an overall summary.

VOL2-01:

Patches used: standard drum kit, electric guitar(muted), distortion guitar, and guitar harmonics.
4/4 time. 96 beats per minute(bpm).

VOL2-02:

Patches used: Standard drum kit, viola, electric bass(fingered), pizzicato strings

4/4 time. 96 bpm.

VOL2-03:

Patches used: Standard drum kit, violin, acoustic guitar(steel), electric bass(fingered), and reverse cymbal

4/4 time 96 bpm.

VOL2-04:

Patches used: Standard drum kit, rock organ, tango accordian, trumpet, orchestral harp

4/4 time 96 bpm.

VOL2-05:

Patches used: Applause, gunshot, shamisen, banjo, whistle.

4/4 time 96 bpm.

This minimalistic piece was my favorite, though it is 4/4 time at 96 bpm, the composer does not use a drum loop, nor any perrcussion at all really, unless you count the gunshot. This piece is the most imaginative of the 7, it is the only one to make use of dynamics.

VOL2-06:

Patches used: Standard drum kit, marimba, and dulcimer.

Hey, 3/4 time!! still 96 bpm though.

This piece is 1200 measures long, but it only has about 3 measure worth of material, the other 1197 measures are simple restatements of the the material, always in the same voices, but varying the entrance points.

VOL2-07:

Patches used: Standard drum kit, electric bass(fingered), electric bass(picked), Synth bass, harmonica, clavi, electric guitar(muted).

4/4 time 96 bpm.

Overall...

Weakness: Six out of the seven pieces use 4/4 time at 96 beats per minute. All the pieces are subjected to continually "square" rhythms with steady 8th notes in one voice, steady 16th notes in other, and an accompaniment voice playing steady whole notes with parallel, root postion triads.

Except for VOL2-05, none of these pieces make use of dynamics, meaning, they are all at one steady volume with no rise and fall. It seems to me there is a general lack of emotion in these pieces, probably due to the excessive use of drum loops in the background and the lack of interesting rhythms.

The harmonic and melodic material used at times seems to be quite random, though at other times there is an obvious harmonic progression, this is not necessarily a bad thing, I just didn't feel the composer developed and balanced the two aspects as fully or strongly as he could have.
Finally, several of these pieces seem to just stop. The composer states an idea, then plays it a few times and we're done. There is no development of the idea, it doesn't go anywhere. Its just, "here I am, love me, please".

Strength: I have to give kudos for the effort. Writing music isn't easy, and though most of these tracks are rather bland, I really felt VOL2-05 had a lot of imagination and creativity. I think the composer should consider developing this into a larger piece.