Abadoss: +++++++++++++++++++ (19) Xerol: ++++++++++++++++ (16) ------- Abadoss ------- Xerol: I like how you incorporated the sound effects into the piece. Very gloomy and dreary, so it fits the theme pretty well. The sound effects really give the apocolyptic feel of a raid. My only concern is that it seems a little sparce and relies very heavily on the English horn. Other than that, good stuff. First place: Xerol ------- Salty ------- Xerol: Xerol needs to find less muddy samples. Also - It sounded like something straight out of a SNES RPG. Abadoss: I like the fact that you actually gave a rundown storyline of what your piece was about. Complete with timestamps. First place: Abadoss ------- Tanaric ------- Xerol: I didn't particularily like the helicopter samples -- they shouted "sample stuck on top." Abadoss: Whatever instrument was at 0:53 doing mini-crescendos(hope that's the right term) sounded incredibly harsh, and it soured my perception of the rest of the piece. First place: Xerol Honorable mention: Abadoss ------- The Orichalcon ------- Xerol: I dunno, Xerol's started good by didn't do anything beyond the intro. Didn't go anywhere. Abadoss: Yours was good because it actually went to different plateau's for different moments in your description. First place: Abadoss Honorable mention: Xerol ------- Keimu ------- Xerol: The fall of sarburg seemd just kinda futuristic. Maybe it was cuz of the hellicopter beginning Abadoss: Well I liked the honorable one best because it gave me more of an RPG feel and I'm a big RPG fan. I love songs that put me in the mood. Especially because the horoaable betrayal one, it puts it back to old school. If that makes sense. First place: Abadoss Honorable mentions: Xerol ------- gcnmaster16 ------- Xerol: Gave a real feeling of a lost cause battle, despair on the part of the good guys, general hoplessness. Abadoss: Felt like the battle was still being fought and lost, with great vistas of destruction, but didn't quite capture the true despair of such a situation. First place: Xerol Honorable mention: Abadoss ------- Less Ashamed of Self ------- Xerol: Yeah, I don't know why I even thought they were in the same league... it must've been the effects and the enchanting Clarinet line nearing the end... Yeah, I recognize the helicopter sfx and the pitch bends as pretty gimmicky... Abadoss: The arrangement was there, the feeling of the theme was there, it was well orchestrated, samples were high enough in quality. My one gripe would be the fast fadeout at 2:32-2:34. That bothered me a little the first time I noticed it. I know it's reaching the 'we've escaped' movement of the piece, but I think it could've felt more natural. And one more thing: the fast constant 8th or 16th notes on the main violins through from 2:00ish to 2:30ish. While the arrangment is fine to include that, the soundfonts don't do it very effectively. It really highlights how each note has the exact same attack sound and it comes off sounding pretty synthetic. My only recommendation would have been to try mixing up the velocity of the notes some, but that wouldn't have made a huge difference either. The bells at the very beginning remind me a lot of a Terranigma piece, but that's not an issue since it's still building. First place: Abadoss Honorable mention: Xerol ------- Ramaniscence ------- First place: Xerol "That that was the hardest voting on any OCR contest that I've ever had to do o.o Because they're all (V_Gasm included) good songs" ------- V___ ------- Xerol: MUSIC: The opening effects put me off initially, but the sounds were clean and it built up well. The sounds didnt seem to consistant: until 0:40 I had no idea what type of style to expect. Sound quality was good, the structure seemed slightly sparse, but the layering with the effects late in the peice worked very well. VALIDITY: I got more of an image of a prison camp as a result of the raid, rather than of the raid itself. I couldnt really see this fitting the theme too much. Abadoss: MUSIC: Sound quality was good. I got into this peice strait away (the discription was a good touch, yeh i copied it) and although the orchestration seemed sparse in the busy sections, I thought the sample control wasnt too bad and production values were fine. VALIDITY: I liked the story line style of the song, and given your discription I could see the raid. The violent parts lacked a bit of power in my opinion, but the mood and idea was set well. First place: Abadoss Honorable mention: Xerol