Stanley Cupid: +| (1) HoboKa: (0) just64helpin: ++|+|+++| (6) Blue.Nocturne: ++|+|+|+|+| (6) Sean Gilleece: ++| (2) xRisingForce: ++|+++|+|+|+|+|+++| (12) Alex Smith: +++|+| (4) Ross Birdsall: ++|+++|+++| (8) Numegil: +|+++|+++|+++|+| (11) ------- Abadoss ------- First place: xRisingForce Honorable mentions: Blue.Nocturne ------- Sean Gilleece ++ ------- Ross Birdsall - I think your piece is great, I love the texture and instrumentation and how you work them together, great stuff. First place: Ross Birdsall Honorable mentions: xRisingForce, Numegil, and Blue.Nocturne ------- xRisingForce ++ ------- First place: Ross Birdsall ------- Blue.Nocturne ++ ------- Stanley Cupid - Great production quality, top notch... however it is offset by the repetitive, extremely repetitive nature of your song. Without something like rap or full on singing, this song is way too dry. HoboKa - Production quality is decent, melodic focus needs to be improved. What I recommend is doing a bassline, then melody, then harmony, and before you start new sections consider how the new sections work with the old sections. When mapping out, consider doing a map of at least 8-16 bars. I think you tend to just add chords and chords and before you realize it you don't remember what you were doing. just64helpin - It's a little too mellow, I would find cities way more active and crowded. It sounds like a police station drama type of piece, it's pretty good. It just feels really "smooth" and not jaggedy enough, that may have happened because of the mellow feel. Sean Gilleece - I'm not really feeling the city vibe at all. You sorta did too much of your own thing. Some parts were too loud, and when it's too loud, it will destroy the waveform and cause clipping, unless you add compression. EWQLSO is a very powerful synth, so be sure to master it, I feel you need a lot more balance practice. However, do not be discouraged, I feel this competition is about practice, yet also watching yourself improve. xRisingForce - Very cliche'd anime-esque type of song, but it has a strong melody and a very strong progression. I feel it has the strongest chords and melodic focus out of all the entries, but the production quality is lacking. It sounds like this was made with the Cakewalk synth or maybe Yamaha XG, and despite that, I feel the balance could be a little better. However, it is a well thought out song, so good job. Alex Smith - You have the best overall production quality, one of the better progressions and you keep it interesting. Great job. Ross Birdsall - You have really complex and great full on percussion work, but it really is not appropriate for the setting. I really feel it lacks the depth that pads and/or held notes could provide for this kind of setting. Also, it is quite far from the maximum amplitude for the waveform. Most commercial songs are near or at the maximum amplitude of the waveform, so try to boost up that volume, but of course don't make it so loud that quality is distorted. Numegil - Lovely pads and atmosphere, but it's too calm for a big city. Also its form is a tad bit too "smooth," which is due to the choice of synths and pads. I feel it could have been produced a lot better, because some of your past works were much nicer in overall quality. First place: Alex Smith Honorable mentions: xRisingForce and Stanley Cupid ------- Bundeslang ------- Stanley Cupid - The beat in the beginning is playing too long, in the whole song. I like the little variation around 1:40, but after that the same beat's playing. The little variating at 3:30 doesn't make it better. It's all the same. HoboKa - The bass is too strong during almost the whole song. I like the piano and the sample coming in after a minute. The song is really chaotic, like you described, for the rest it's not bad. Only the balance isn't very nice. just64helpin - Chaotic beginning, it's a bit long. I don't like the background sound. For the rest, I like the middle section a lot. The song has a nice built up around 2:14. Blue.Nocturne - I like the start, I recognize it from something. The bassline is nice and the variation is good. I don't like the weird lead. I like the way you ended it. Sean Gilleece - Slow start. The string fits very well in the song, but there's not much else in the song. The ending is more than 10 seconds before the end, because of the 2 minutes limit??. If so, Very clever :) xRisingForce - Not a bad intro, I like more what you're doing after that. The lead is good and the balance as well. The part after that (2:00) is nice. After that, I don't like the 'falling dead' around 3:20. After that, the song continues very nice. The end comes in too soon. Alex Smith - Dominating drums. I like the sampling of the song. There are a lot of noisy parts in the song, not much else is in it. So is the end. Ross Birdsall - The piano samples are a good combination. I like the song, it only misses some variation behind the piano's. Numegil - I like the starting string. I like the incoming piano, it's good. There's enough variation and speed up at the end is awesome. Great job. First place: Numegil Honorable mentions: just64helpin, Blue.Nocturne, and xRisingForce ------- 4MalletCapricorn (Ross Birdsall) ++ ------- First place: Numegil Honorable mentions: xRisingForce and Blue.Nocturne ------- just64helpin ++ ------- Numegil - It just FEELS like it fits the concept perfectly. Incidentally, the piece sounds like a Daft Punk record fell inside a grand piano... First place: Numegil ------- Zephyr Tread ------- First place: xRisingForce Honorable mentions: Numegil and Alex Smith ------- Doulifée ------- just64helpin - I like a lot how you slowly set up the mood of your song here First place: just64helpin