So, was a tough decision as always, but I picked the 3 I felt best conquered the challenge. The feedback I gave on all the tracks was me forcing myself to find something wrong with all the tracks so treat it with as much salt as you want. Overall the turnout was great and I enjoyed listening to every piece... always a treat to hear how someone goes about doing things when presented with limitations such as these. But who cares what I think... it's up to you now! Now
VOTE. 
For quick reference here are your four finalists' tracks:https://soundcloud.com/michaelmarhal/symbioticcasting/s-M2M5Bhttps://soundcloud.com/pgil-1/stuccohttps://soundcloud.com/asavary/tailpipe-heroesFEEDBACK(Take it with some salt):Nathan Cleary - "March of the Kalimbas"https://soundcloud.com/nathan-cleary-123/march-of-the-kalimbasThe mix seems a bit heavy in the mid range, which is a wonderful side effect of using marimbas. Harmonically it's nice, a pleasant sounding progression and a melody to accompany it from the start. The melody sounds nice at the intro but is difficult to hear when everything else comes in later in the track. Seems like you were trying to make the mix loud instead of
trying to balance it. Volume is great but not at the expense of drowning out the focus point of the track(one would assume that's the melody in this case).
Python Blue - "Arrival of the Natives"https://soundcloud.com/pythonblue/arrival-of-the-natives/s-O4zOnI like how daunting it starts out, definitely has a tribal feel from the start to the finish. The shaker that plays throughout is a tad loud to me, or perhaps too 'present' in the mix. You could deaden it a tad with EQ and it would still be
find at it's current volume. It could also be because I have a headache while I'm listening to it... so who knows(not the songs fault, just a long day at work). I also enjoyed the progressive nature of the track, gradually adding pieces to the mix
and increasing the 'tension', constantly building to a climax. I felt like the 'climax' could've had a bit more of a sudden buildup just before it hits though. It's hard to explain in words, but think of how an orchestra has a suspended cymbal and timpani roll JUST before the climax... that kind of build up right at the end there. Helps bring the listener into the peak more naturally. As it is now, on first listen I was taken aback by the sudden cease of rhythmic delite because I didn't feel like it wanted to end at that particular point in time(nothing drove me there mentally).
Felx325 - "Loug Tig Samba"
Your link is dead...Kyle Preston - "Se´ance Of The Moon Rabbit"https://kylepreston.bandcamp.com/track/se-ance-of-the-moon-rabbitI like how it starts, interesting rhythm and choice of percussive instruments. All the parts accent each other well, and the humanization of the parts was well done... sounds believeable as a real ensemble. The addition of parts over time was nice, but they felt too similar to the instrumentation that was already established in the rhythm, and choosing something a bit more contrasted in terms of timbre would've helped the newer parts stand out more, especially when the metallic hits/drones were becoming louder and more frequent. The end of it was okay, was kind of dull compared to everything else but still worked. I disliked how quickly it cut out after the last hit though, since the natural decay of the instrument wasn't there and was prematurely cut... with no real noticeable reason to me. For having the bulk of it sound so natural, having such a forced and unnatural fade at the end wasn't so great.
Pearl Pixel - "Missing Summer"https://soundcloud.com/pearl_pixel/missing-summer-tigsource-mc-xxxivPiece as a whole is charming, follows a nice direction with the harmony and melody. The mix was pretty heavy on the mids. Curse of marimbas, and really any wooden malleted instrument. Cutting the midrange with EQ can help push the presence of those nuissance instruments back. The rhythmic parts are pretty robotic and have no dynamic variance from what I can tell. They could use some difference in velocity between individual notes, particularly to accent certain beats/offbeats. Also feel like the stereo separation of the parts could've been handled better. A piece with so many similarly ranged instruments it can be difficult to get a balanced sound in regards to panning, but it's also imperative that when you do pan things they still make sense aurally.
LeoJ - "Banzai!!!"https://soundcloud.com/joelmclean/banzaiThis piece was definitely interesting to say the least. The mixing on it was pretty rough though, and the volume was excessively loud. I kept hearing pops/clicks in the mix as well... not sure if that was intentional but going out on a whim here and assuming it was buffering issues with your DAW. The most interesting part is the part a little over a minute into it, which only last for about 15-20 seconds before it makes a 180 and does some weird vocal thing. Experimental is one word that comes to mind when listening to this, but so does the concept that you have crafted schizophrenia with audio. There was no apparent direction in the track, so if chaos was your intention you nailed it. It had it's moments but overall it felt way too disjointed.
Michael Marhal - "Symbiotic Casting"https://soundcloud.com/michaelmarhal/symbioticcasting/s-M2M5BGreat job on the mixing, no complaints there. Everything sounds balanced, panning was pretty solid, etc. You did well on keep the same basic rhythm throughout while also evolving the parts so that it didn't FEEL like it was the same.Normally I'd gripe about robotic sounding use of percussion but seeing as it's written with robots in mind... it makes more sense. It's also heavy with synthetic percussion which is more believable to be robotic.My biggest beef was the end of the track... wasn't terrible but it just didn't feel right. Kind of like going to a fast food joint, ordering a sprite, drinking the sprite, and you notice quickly that it clearly lacks the syrup and you are basically drinking carbonated water. It was going where I wanted it to go but never quite made it. That probably didn't make sense but I'm tired.
Andrew Mushel - "Percussive Sojourn"https://soundcloud.com/andrewmushel/percussive-sojournI feel like the beginning could've used more variation in the velocity of the notes, particularly when it repeats the same note back to back. The beginning of the piece is kind of weird harmonically but quickly makes up for it when you start bringing in more parts and expanding things. Not necessarily weird in a bad way, just kind of made me cock my head sideways at first because it was unclear what direction you were going, then you kept going. The second half was great, kept getting better and better toward the end, and you mixed all the varying timbres together quite well. The way it ended was a bit of a disappointment... because it just ends. Nothing lead me to that finish naturally, and so when I get to that point I am left wanting. It's like you kept waving this bag of reese's cups in front of me and saying how good they are, and when you finally hand me the bag it's empty. There is nothing more to be had. Needs a proper ending to round it out, that or make it loop and fade it out.
pgil - "Stucco"https://soundcloud.com/pgil-1/stuccoVery well done on the humanization of the different parts. Sounds very natural. The mixing is well done as well, everything is balanced, the panning is nice. Even the steel drums feel like they belong. The steel drum part sounds a bit random at times and unstructured, and I had a hard time really following it melodically. I like the syncopation throughout, makes the track stay interesting to listen to and nothing ever sounds out of place to me. My only real complaint is the track never really goes anywhere and is just kind of 'chill', which isn't a bad thing... just a preference.
Arnold Savary - "Tailpipe Heroes"https://soundcloud.com/asavary/tailpipe-heroesI like the beginning of this, the melody on the xylophone was nice. The rhythm was nice, but when you get to the runs on it, as well as the following section I'm not as excited anymore. The intro was really nice and then it goes on a kind of uninspired tantrum. The part that progresses after that section ends is nice, especially when you get to around 2:25 into the track and bring a lot more parts together. The fusion of electronic and acoustic sounds in that part was well mixed / balanced. With the exception of the 'runs' section you kept my attention rather well with the piece, definitely taking advantage of the many timbres available with percussive sounds. I felt like you could've kept the 'climax' at the end going just one more time through to really drive it home before going to the outro, especially with how long the build up to that part was.
Matt Beckett - "Matti's Island"https://soundcloud.com/mattimeatball/mattis-islandHarmonically this is quite a pleasant piece of music. The melody is also well done and enjoyable to listen to. It doesn't really do anything for my rhythymically, and the hihat(or shaker), kick, and snare become a bit tiring after a while. You also have a lot of stuff in the center of the mix so things like the hand clap, while still there through out... are kind of hard to hear underneath the hat/shaker, the snare, kick, and glisses on the mallet instruments. I think if you had panned the rhythmic parts away from the center more, and also kept the melody and counter melodies pushed away from the center a tad the mix as a whole would've come together better, while keeping most if not all the parts clearly audible. The piece doesn't ever really go anywhere, just kind of stays the same throughout and then ends on a single chord. That last chord just felt like a 'whatever' kind of end.
Developer
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