HoboKa: ++|+| (3) Robert Anderson: +++|+| (4) Diego Cohen: ++|+| (3) Blue.Nocturne: ++|+|+| (4) Abadoss: ++|+|+++| (6) Ubernym: ++|+++|+|+++|+++| (12) ------- Abadoss ++ ------- First place: Ubernym Honorable mentions: Blue.Nocturne and HoboKa ------- HoboKa ++ ------- Robert Anderson - Wow very dark, ambient, well sampled and abstract as hell. My favorite kind of combination :D. Crazy lead melody with the (pan flute??) flute there. Makes me green with envy, but here goes. First place. Diego Cohen - This is composed well, but the lead violin sample is terrible. It grates the ears and is pretty fakey. Nonetheless, I am impressed by the support melodies and the progression. Blue.Nocturne - Oh noes you pulled a Hoboka – except better!!! Abadoss - Wow, crazy harp arpreggios going on, I love the C-bass detaches too. Nice flute melody wow. Very well interpreted Kenny boy :D Ubernym - Craaaazy good. That plucked instrument (sorry I suck at Chinese classical instrument knowledge) is sexy. Great orchestration here bud, I could really picture myself in the ancient time zone, sitting before this emperor. Honorary mention, second place IMO. Sorry, but Robert’s was more my thing, cuz I like abstract pieces the most. First place: Robert Anderson Honorable mentions: Abadoss and Ubernym ------- Ubernym ++ ------- HoboKa - I've listened to this several times, and I'm still unclear as to what the actual magical instrument is. Based on the title, I'm assuming it has something to do with "PercVoxx"...or in other words you have two magical instruments, percussion and vox synth. But if that is the case, I didn't feel that these instruments were presented in any magical or special way. Any thematic footholds the perc or vox may have established were overwhelmed by the "HoboKatmosphere." The piece felt more at home with a darkened alley theme than with the present theme. Robert Anderson - I liked the beginning a lot, especially with the filmstrip effect, and the subject instrument was easily identifiable. For a brief moment the piece reminded me of Neil Gaiman's miniseries Neverwhere, which is a GOOD thing. Then the drums came in and I thought that they totally robbed all the good things you had going. The drums were very distracting. The pipe's movements were still interesting, and I think they would have been interesting enough on their own without the (in my opinion) out-of-place percussion. Diego Cohen - This piece brought back a lot of memories for me. It reminds me of when I first started writing music several years ago while taking an introductory theory class. At the time I was using Cakewalk 7, and later I moved on to Finale software. All that time, however, I never had very good samples and there was always a disparity between what I heard in my head and what the computer produced. I tried to listen to this piece with that same mentality, and I'm impressed with the arrangement of the piece. I don't agree that the music fits your description, but that's beside the point that this is a pretty well written piece with only a few hiccups here and there. I liked it a lot. Blue.Nocturne - I loved the beginning. Loved your choice of pad, and I think it fit the theme well. I enjoyed the drum-less parts the most. I don't want to sound like I'm hating on drums with this theme. I used drums in my piece so it's not like I thought drums wouldn't fit in the theme. It's just that I haven't felt the drum tracks on any of these so far have been helpful to the thematic intentions of the composers. That being said, I thought your percs were less distracting than some of the other entries. Again, I liked the piece and I'm glad you took the synth approach and I think you handled it very well. Abadoss - This is my favorite piece of the competition. I was able to visualize well the accompanying poem. The second theme was the best part of the piece. A nice, subtle and well written piece. Good job! First place: Abadoss Honorable mentions: Blue.Nocturne and Diego Cohen ------- diegocmr (Diego Cohen) ++ ------- First place: Ubernym ------- Blue.Nocturne ++ ------- HoboKa - It's improving from before, but of course I can tell a mile away that you composed this since it has your distinitctive style. Pretty organized and makes decent sense, but the biggest issue that it does not really fit the thematic categories at all. It has a sense of grandeur at the begininng, but it feels more creepy and foreboding rather than magical. There is no emphasis on the "instrument" part of the theme too. Robert Anderson - Interesting take on the theme, it does sound sort of magical in a strange way. Not so much emphasis but the instrument is definitely satisfied. Good job with the flute and interesting variations. Biggest complaint is the repetitiveness, but it deserves an honorable mention for being trying to be unique, yet with high quality standards. Diego Cohen - Would have gotten an honorable mention, but I believe for orchestral pieces, expression and emphasis are the biggest components. Very good ideas and overall musical sense, but I don't feel a sense of magic or even with an instrument that has a dominating presence. The violin seems to be the lead, but it does not feel like it's the focus due to the structure of the song. Also suffers from being very mechanical sounding, however I do compliment you putting this together. Abadoss - I definitely feel the magical-ness. It feels very whimsical, yet more of a semi-serious kind. The piece is overall pretty nice, however my main concern is that no expression is used, so that it feel mechanical (which is what sucks about GPO since there is no such thing as velocity for most instruments). Ubernym - Fantastic job, extremely well balanced, compressed, and mastered. Best song done by you so far. A lot of realism in the Zither, probably the only downside is the lack of expression in the orchestral instruments, as they sound mechanical. First place: Ubernym Honorable mentions: Rebort Anderson