Bold Little Airwave: +|+| (2) Ouberion: +++|+++|+|+| (8) ziniz: ++|+| (3) quia: +| (1) Ross Birdsall: ++|+++|+|+|+|+++|+++|+| (15) Blue.Nocturne: +|+|+++|+++|+|+|+++| (13) Numegil: ++|+|+++|+| (6) ------- Abadoss ------- Bold Little Airwave - I think your piece begins very well. It builds and grows strongly. It has the right feel, especially with the addition of the darbuka around 1:30. However, by 2:00 the novelty of the piece wears off a little. It doesn't seem to go very far beyond that point. I tested what it would sound like if you had ended just shortly after 2:00. It's didn't work as well as I thought it might, but the novelty of the piece was maintained. My composition professor taught me a little thing called the "length:content ratio". Basically, if you have two minutes worth of material, don't try to stretch it out to four minutes. If you have four minutes of material don't compact it into two. It's a delicate balance, but it makes all the difference. Ouberion - A little too long in my opinion. What I don't mean by that is that seven minutes is too long. I also don't mean that you don't have seven minutes worth of material (a la "length:content ratio"). What I mean is that I was not particularly convinced of what I was listening to. I liked many of the directions you took your piece, but I couldn't see it connected to the theme of the competition. The write-up helped slightly in that regard, but it's far too easy to simply rely on a write-up. The write-up should say what the music itself is already saying, just in literary form. There is a disconnect between what you've written for the write-up and what you've written in your piece. The piece itself is lovely. It's just not working for the theme, though. ziniz - I like the brooding atmosphere you created. There definitely a good feel here. In that regard, I think you've been very successful in achieving the theme. On the compositional end, I think you could have taken this a lot farther. Right now, it's a great ambience track. I can actually see this working really well in Zelda: Twillight Princess. You clearly make variations throughout and I can hear the different elements that come in and out. What's missing is build. I didn't really feel like the piece was progressing anywhere. Even within its variety, it seemed stagnant. quia - Very good atmosphere. I think the voice samples you used helped achieve that "temple" feel well. I liked what you did, but I didn't really feel it going anywhere or moving toward something for most of the piece. Ross Birdsall - You achieved the jungle feel, pretty much from square one. Your arrangement skills are to be envied on many levels. However, I kind of felt that a lot of the piece was technical showing off, a little, which detracted from the piece. 2:13 and after felt really nice and I like what you did there. It felt like a strong push toward the end. I think what I had the most trouble with was with all the cadences. I think there should have been more elision. I think the tension of each section should have been resolved with the tension of the next section. I think that would have helped your piece a great deal. It seemed like each section was episodic and detached from the rest of the sections. Overall, though, I think you did a very good job. Blue.Nocturne - I really like what you've done with your piece. It has a very strong epic quality to it that I like very much. However, I must consider that my voting should reflect the premise of the competition, which is the concept or theme. In that regard, I think that I had difficulty hearing it. It sounded much more like a very grand city... still active, however. Like I said, I really like the piece, but I don't think it fits the theme. I am not convinced that this is a ruined place or something uncovered. I feel more like I'd expect to see several garrisons marching about the place. Numegil - To be honest, I'm not sure what to make of your piece. I like it. That much is for sure. It kind of reminds me of Final Fantasy (no specific one), which lends itself well to ancient ruins. The chord changes at 1:40 particularly help. I could do without the snare drum. That mad eit seem a little too militaristic. Strangely, the electric piano(s) worked really well for what you were going for. What troubles me is that it is sitting on the margin. In terms of theme and feel, I can almost see it, but it's just not coming into focus. Please don't get me wrong, it's very good, but it just seems to be missing something that would otherwise help me connect the theme and the music. I'm not sure how else to explain it. First place: Ross Birdsall Honerable mentions: ziniz, Numegil, and Blue.Nocturne ------- Bundeslang ------- Bold Little Airwave - Good start. The song isn't variating, but the samples are nice. The variation on the background is too minimal to add something. Ouberion - The song starts slow. I like the strings you used. Not much is happening in the first part. The following parts aren't much different. I like the 'The Temple responds' part. The lead is too loud. ziniz - Good start. There are a few 'time errors', like at 0:51. The 'lightning' at 2:23 is weird, but it fits in the song. It didn't change the song much, it misses variation. quia - I like the vocals you used, part around 1:30 is a bit boring, the drums are too dominative. I don't like the way you ended a vocal part (like around 2:50). Ross Birdsall - Haha, good piano. There's not much else in the song, but I really like the way you variated in the piano. Blue.Nocturne - I like the samples, but it's a bit too short. The ending isn't bad. Numegil - Sweet intro. The samples are almost the same during the song. First place: Ouberion Honerable mentions: Ross Birdsall ------- HoboKa ------- Bold Little Airwave - got to a certain point 3/4 into it then just sort plodded around until it finished. The build up process was cool though. Ouberion - It's interesting, but not engaging to me, I'm sorry, but it's not my cup of tea for whatever weird reason my eccentric brain feels like. This IS composed nicely though, although it could use more melody in the early parts. ziniz - Interesting but not the style of music for this theme IMO, and a little bit on the generic side ><. quia - nice vox effects/choirs, this is OK, but isn't quite up to par with Blue.Nocturne and Numegil I hate to admit - it's better than my compositional skills insofar lol. But yeah, nice try. Ross Birdsall - cool shakers and xylophone(??), but it didn't feel very foreboding as the competition demanded. Read the descriptions a bit more thoroughly before you compose eh :P Blue.Nocturne - God of War-esque, awesome brass samples (I want those damnit) and the 2nd most interesting over-all melody/rhythm etc. honorary mention. Numegil - The best out of the batch IMO, awesome ambient feel, good chord progression, changes a lot and keeps me interested. 1st place. First place: Numegil Honerable mentions: Blue.Nocturne ------- 4MalletCapricorn (Ross Birdsall) ++ ------- Bold Little Airwave - Kind of repetitive, but I quite liked the rythmic structure. Ouberion - Very musical and I enjoyed it a lot, but I might suggest adding a slightly faster more moving section at some point. ziniz - Interesting music. The drumbeat sounded a little weird to me in some places, like it was kind of off from the melody, but otherwise good. quia - The piece grew quite well and I liked the beat, it fit very well, but the melodic part was also a bit repetitive. Blue.Nocturne - I really liked your piece. The percussion was excellent and I loved the introduction especially. The entire piece sounded great and I can't really think of anything that I would change. Numegil - Very emotional and I really loved the melody throughout the entire piece. I could almost see people wandering through the rooms of this ancient temple. First place: Blue.Nocturne Honorable mentions: Numegil and quia ------- Chiwalker ------- Blue.Nocturne - I thought this piece did a great job of picturing an ancient temple deep in the forest, as well as some small parts that sounded like what would have been going on in the explorers' minds. I wish there was a story to go along with it, which is why... First place: Blue.Nocturne Honerable mentions: Bold Little Airwave and Ross Birdsall ------- Leo Hutchinson ------- Bold Little Airwave - I enjoyed the feel of the song, however I was saddened that it was so repetitive. I would have liked a little more change to it. Ouberion - I find with the CMC, as opposed to remixes of songs that I know, it is difficult to get a point of reference. What I mean is, when I hear a new remix of a theme I am familiar with, I know how it is supposed to go, and so I already have an appreciation and understanding of it, and I feel more confident in judging such a song. With a completely original piece, everything is new, and I don't know what is going to happen, and I feel a little lost. The story that Ouberion submitted alongside his piece gave me that direction, told me what to listen for, and made me more comfortable. I read the story as the piece unfolded, waiting until the appropriate markers to read forward. I enjoyed how the piece moved with the story. While the song is seven and a half minutes long, I was anxious to finish listening to all seven songs, I couldn't bring myself to skip ahead at any point. I wanted to hear the next transition, read the next part of the story along with the piece, I wanted to hear how it ended, it was very well done. Ross Birdsall - I felt like I could see the jungle, however I didn't really get a feel of the temple until the very end when the heavier drums joined in. Blue.Nocturne - I felt this could have used a little more polish, perhaps in the velocity of some notes, but I still enjoyed the song. It felt as if something important were happening RIGHT NOW, but it could have been any of a thousand things. It would have been nice to have some sort of story to go with it, to give it some direction. First place: Ouberion Honerable mentions: Ross Birdsall and Blue.Nocturne ------- ziniz ++ ------- Bold Little Airwave - Careful with the drums, feels repetitive (specifically the snare). Actually, I liked the percussion on this... hmm. Panning would help out with some atmospheric noises. Not much motion in melodic/harmonic elements through the song, though I guess you can argue it's because the song is stuck in a dream. Ouberion - Rather sophisticated composing. Love the opening chords, why not reiterate the amount of tension you created there later in the song? Some fairly static voicing in the instruments, though I assume you were somewhat limited there by your software(?). Why not more interaction between dynamics of the strings and the brass? More exaggerated dynamics would push this song a long way. Ending kinda abrupt. quia - Hey, this sorta reminds me of Metroid! Pads totally overpowering a lot of things in the mix. Bring some moving lines up front. Bassy drone not working for me. Percussionwork most interesting in the beginning, with the offbeat snare stick. Why not more like that? Crash seems pointless sometimes, though I'm not a crash kinda guy, so may be personal bias there. Ross Birdsall - Dig the limitation to concert percussion, and your ability to pull it together quite nicely. This got style. That shaker's a minor complaint for me, but only because all your other percussion lines have so much more life and purpose. Hehe, haven't we outgrown that unfinished sort of ending? :P Blue.Nocturne - Oh yeah! Fond memories of Chrono Trigger. Lots of cool moments in this song, but they're all too fleeting. I, and I suspect many others too, would like for this to be longer. The extra timpani at the end seems gratuitous. Numegil - Compound time signatures always cool with me, haha. Nice subtle lil' accelerando when piano comes in. Just the snare? Nothing else? And why the constant high chimes? Your bass = delish. First place: Ross Birdsall Honerable mentions: Ouberion ------- Gimgak ------- Bold Little Airwave - Your song has some cool ethnic druming, stringwork, and atmospheric stuff. It fits the theme decently enough, but in my opinion the main thing wrong with it is it's really repetitive. I would have liked to see a little bit more variety. Ouberion - Cool perspective of the theme. Nice wide-sounds at the beginning, gives the feeling that something is coming. Neat woodwind part at 1:35. It's pretty awesome when the strings are added to this part. Overall, good orchestral piece. It's a little more "ballad" like than I would expect for this theme, but it's pretty well done. ziniz - The opening feels mysterious. Nice drum-work at 1:17. This makes me feel like I'm in some sort of void, a "nowhere zone". Very interesting (good) drums at 3:35. quia - The beginning sets up a good atmosphere. Interesting syncopation at 1:00. The Choirs sound a little cheap. Not the most interesting piece in the world, but it fits the theme pretty well. Ross Birdsall - Percussion ensemble, cool. Really nice arrangment. The song flows smoothly. This song really sets up the feeling that a bunch of people are racing through a labyrinth of some sort. Pretty epic build-up at the end. Good job! Blue.Nocturne - Okay, the opening nails the theme right in the bull's eye. The rest of the piece is not exactly as "epic" as I thought it might be, after hearing the opening. Good instrumentation throughout the piece. Numegil - The first half of your piece is good, but nothing amazing. The concert-piano sounding part halfway through is really cool. The piano kinda sounds out of place among the other instruments though. In my opinion, I don't think this fit the theme as well as some of the others. First place: Ross Birdsall Honerable mentions: Blue.Nocturne, Bold Little Airwave, and Ourberion ------- Numegil ++ ------- Bold Little Airwave - I like the general mood you keep throughout this song, but you can add some more melodic content and variety throughout the song. Ouberion - I like your sampling, but the song seems to be too constant in a sense. You should add some more variety, and some more moving lines to make it somewhat more exciting. More percussion / sound effects would be great too! ziniz - I like the mood set by the beginning (1st minute) of the song, but then it really doesn't seem to get anywhere from there. Some sort of unifying theme or motive would also help your song. quia - Great sampling quality! I like the percussion sounds in particular. In my opinion, this song needs to have more melodic content. Ross Birdsall - I must say that I am probably biased by my percussion background, but I really like this song. It fits the theme well, and keeps my interest throughout the song. However, it seems rather spontaneous and different throughout, and doesn't seem to have any sort of unifying theme or motive. Blue.Nocturne - I like your use of percussion in the song, and the piano too. The epic kind of feel throughout seems to fit well with this theme. First place: Blue.Nocturne Honerable mentions: Ross Birdsall