Pencils

I like the fact that you used the sound of a pencil scratching. Were you trying to follow the rhythm of the bass (before it dropped out of the piece) or did you have a different rhythm in mind? On an unrelated note, I think only using a bass as a background was wise. The foreground noise of the pencil is already very loud and demands the attention of the listener. If there were a full band in the background or something, it would become too busy and detract from the pencil noises.

I like how you let the sound of pencil writing follow the tempo, it sounds like the pencil is dancing following the beat. Also, it is very interesting that you choose the change the background music and let the foreground sound to be repetitive. It intrigues me. And as a listener, I want to listen it to the end since this piece is not predictable.

I really enjoyed the contrast between the the section when the bass is playing, and the section when it's only the pencil sounds. However, I believe the piece was supposed to be between 50-70 seconds.

I will say that the bass is a good choice for the purpose of providing a rhythmic backdrop, but I question its use - perhaps something more frenetic might be appropriate? Especially given the nature of the piece (mimicking a test), something more ominous or frantic might be better. On the other hand, I really like the use of the pencil! It sounds much nicer when I'm paying attention to it. Finally, I think the ending could use a touch more of the chaos as well - the pencil might be more frantic or disorganized at the end of a test.

Overall though, this is a really cool piece! There's a lot to say about it, which indicates the amount of effort and detail.

Original piece, good work! Some comments: it is true that the limit was 50-70 sec. Take care of the durations in the following projects, since in any composition for visuals following the duration specification is crucial. You could have given a little bit of variety changing the pitch of the samples a little more. The contrast is not very much felt, since you used a "gradual offsetting", gradual changes create continuity instead of contrast. Here the concept would be more flow and continuity. The last part with only the pencil sounds is a bit too long: after having used the bass, guitar and the pencil sounds the sound of only the pencil for so long time is not enough interesting by itself. You could have made it shorter or made and accumulation or a crescendo, or in a revers way, a decrescendo or ritardando (slowing down tempo), to make it more interesting to the listener.

This is pretty good, I thought that the bass and pencils complemented each other as they were both very rhythmic and how you made your main melody out of something so rhythmic which is not a traditional way of doing things.

I commented on Ominous Chillout, Smash Choir and Sample/Sequence.