sillythewilly: ++|+++|+++|+++|+|+++|+++| (18) Zephyr Tread: ++|+|+| (4) Binweasel: +|+++| (4) just64helpin: (0) Flik: ++|+|+++|+|+| (8) ------- Abadoss ------- First place: sillythewilly Honorable mentions: Flik ------- ikqdrum ------- First place: sillythewilly ------- fjaoaoaoao ------- sillythewilly - Nice opening - proud music! :D Strings really helped add lushness! Fade out felt a little weird, though not in the context of the description. heheh he lies on the couch during medieval times... doesn't really make sense next to the SNES sounding opening... getting the picture of a knight dressed in armor sitting down in his korean/japanese white apartment. the strings during the "sitting down on the couch part" add some great texture and emotion to the piece. The flute part (flute as lead) became really pensive and romantic. Overall, I felt like the piece did a great job of describing scenes (so it would be great as a movie soundtrack), though from a musical standpoint, the three major sections didn't really connect together, nor make sense to be together. But nothing problematic to the sections individually. Great work! Zephyr Tread - 80s yeahhh. The opening helps set the mood of the song. The harmonic transitions in the celesta part didn't always seem to be the best choices. Somewhat redundant song -- could have been circumvented with minor volume changes within each part (instrument). The strings, though they helped to push the song forward more, they kind of made the song feel a little bit like an epic battle which i feel like wasn't the mood you were going for. Perhaps if the strings were instead sweeping/swelling and not beats/marcato we would have a different situation. However, on a second listen, the strings in combination with the other parts seemed more welcoming on this piece. Harmonically the strings helped texturize the piece. If the mood was made more mellow throughout (more mellow strings, sustained notes), slightly different instrument choices // modified instruments, and there was more varied harmony, I feel like the end result would have been more compelling. Very cleanly crafted song. Good work. :) Binweasel - Beautiful opening. The dissonance between the two guitars really helped provide that unsettling feeling. Add the mildly harrowing voice of the female... eventually though (about 1/3 of the way through), the song started to feel like it wasn't going anywhere.... no more lead // too many things to listen to simultaneously, and not enough harmonic variety. This changes when the initial guitar becomes solo again. But then reverts back again a little bit after the girl starts singing again. I really wanted something dramatic happen (especially because the description tempted me to believe that would happen) and I felt the girls vocals the beginning lent itself to become that kind of song. Great job on creating a mood though and keeping the mood consistent throughout though. Other than the sense of drama, I really felt like was in outer space, far far away! just64helpin - Pensive sad song. Interesting melodic lines half way through (starting with...F Db Gb Bb Ab). Not enough expression in the song.... I felt the piece was played very straightforward, except for the beginning line and the trill part 2/3 of the way through. Many of the notes were also played relatively too harshly and abruptly among smooth lines, so connect notes and phrases together better. I didn't feel like the description was entirely represented in the song. While Daisy definitely had a mixture of emotions, and I could feel the ceremonial band being covered over her eyes, I didn't get a feeling of reflection as described in the second sentence. Perhaps if the non-angry sections were extended and developed longer, Daisy would seem like she was reflecting, wondering about better times. Harmonically or melodically, while phrases seemed to have direction, phrase sections didn't seem to be too have much of a point so the piece often felt directionless. Very interesting ideas in the piece, I just didn't feel like many of them were as developed as they could be. Good job. Flik - Stealth game in the beginning. :) Definitely got the feeling that the protagonist must make a choice that he cannot make, and that he is not sure what is going to happen. Great simple little piece, great work. Not much to criticize here. I just wish there was more and that it went deeper into the protagonist's soul! :D First place: sillythewilly ------- Hoboka ------- sillythewilly - wow i like the door closing, and the song changes focus to a very dramatic and sad song. The long notes and delay between them is very effective imo. However, I easily predicted the strings coming when it went all quiet, which kinda bummed me out, cuz I like to be surprised - but oh well. I could picture this scene in a video game moreso a movie or tv show, funilly enough. The piano played a very awesome rhythm/chords whilst the flute was a very good lead. Oooh, that down pitch effect was awesome too. Shoulda done that a lot more though :( BUT the song didn't really resolve, it just faded out. Zephyr Tread - hmmm well it IS pretty nicely composed, but it's not really ear-grabbing imo. BUT when the pizzicatos and the fast strings come in the song does pick up, albeit a little too late imo. Hmm and I didn't really get the feeling of sacrifice, more like a feeling of wonderment or uncertainty. It needs to be more dramatic - moar wah-wah - emo let's cut our wrists-ish :P However, Composition and production wise, it's very solid. Binweasel - I don't know about any one else...but the voice isn't on the right key for a lot of this...points for using vocals though. Is this mostly played live??? Cuz the instruments are very convincing. That ambient-background guitar is nice too and I did definately get a feeling of sacrifice...but unfortunately the singer doesn't quite do the trick (I think a big problem is that the mastering is off, cuz her voice gets too loud at points and almost clips - Moreover, how does a voice get too loud but manage to sound inaudible??? Cuz I can't understand a word she's saying...unless its in another language and I'm too dense to discern that) Man I hate sounding like an OCR J, but if I sugar coat this I'd be doing you a disservice. just64helpin - Hehe this is def. the right source for a piano solo. The mastering is kinda x_x,...HEY U CHEATED lol. It's supposed to be 2:00 long, yet u made a bunch of silence at the "end", because the song officialy ends at around 1:32 or so. Bad boy >:P /slap on the wrist Flik - Wow...the bassline is mmm mmm sexy. The pads are good too, the drum snare is awesome, and I love the echo effects on your percussion. Nice guitars too, excellent choir. However, Abadoss stated...er...somewhere I believe, that the tracks must at least be 2:00 long. It's definately hidden well, I'll admit, cuz I remember reading it somewhere....maybe I'm on crack. In either case, I pick you for the #1 competitor this round :D First place: Flik Honorable mentions: Binweasel and sillythewilly ------- Zephyr Tread ++ ------- sillythewilly - Haha, you don't take much time to get started, nice fanatacal victory march it has a strong melody even just for a short portion of the song, just like I'd imagine. I love the switch to the piano, has a lot of dynamic flair. You did a great job on the piano solo, good progression and chords. I actually love the strings fading in then cutting out, very nice. Piano continues nicely through the rest, however the ending could be considered a little lengthy. Great job, first prize! Binweasel - Make sure you tune your guitar well before playing a performance, it sounds quite off in a lot of spots. 3 or 4 guitars at one time doing completely different things at a time in this manner can be too much, try to use some discretion, often less is more. Song kinda sounds like it ended at 1:54, it's good for dynamic flow, but I feel it probably should have climaxed a little more before that. As for the vocals, I have a really hard time understanding any of them, they could have been brought out in the mix a bit more as vocals are generally the focus of the mix. She could have probably sung an octave lower too, it's a little high and weak in the mix as it is, as if she was at the tip of her vocal range. Props for doing some live stuff though! just64helpin - Well, I can't say I understand the story too much, but you have a good mix. It keeps moving along well, something I'd have trouble with in a solo mix. It would be nice to have something tying the whole piece together. Nice try cheating the system, but a 1:28 mix is still a 1:28 mix even with half a minute of silence on the end, longer would have been better. Good job. Flik - Starts out nice and groovy, the piano coming in is nicely done and processed, very bright. The bass might move around a bit too much, however it does help keep it interesting. Sadly there isn't a whole lot of meat to the song, being only 1:44. Ending just kinda drops in and fades away. Very nice melodic elements and harmonies involved and the production is fairly good though. Keep it up. First place: sillythewilly Honorable mentions: Flik ------- sillythewilly ++ ------- Zephyr Tread - Indeed, you have unexpectedly unexpected me with your different style. Although I'm not sure whether your song matches the theme well .. it doesn't seem to evoke the seriousness of making a sacrifice. I really like the orchestral bit in the middle, though. I like your song title too :D Binweasel - The off-tune-ness is unsettling ... nice. I like how it conflicts with the optimistic-sounding title, "Heading Home." It's so hard to make out the lyrics, but that's usually my own problem. The music itself doesn't match the theme as well, in my opinion ... But I like the idea of your concept, and how the song matches it well :D just64helpin - It certainly seems to go along with your story. In the first half, I noticed you like to play the same broken chords for left hand arpeggios; maybe you can change it up a bit. Sometimes, the flow and ebb of the song seemed sorta strange to me. Flik - I like the vibe throughout the song. It matches the theme pretty well; I can certainly envision your hero at that moment of truth. Seems like it ended too quickly, but ah well. First place: Binweasel Honorable mentions: Flik and Zephyr Tread ------- Flik ++ ------- sillythewilly - I think this piece very much shows the theme of sacrifice. You can feel the sadness in it, and overall it's a good sounding composition. I feel this is worthy of first place. Zephyr Tread - Pretty good sounding piece, but I think it would have really stood out had there been a good bit of percussion in certain areas to liven it up more. Binweasel - I don't want this to sound like bashing, but I could not get myself to finish listening to your track. Everything sounded so out of tune, and the singing voice just clashed so bad that I was actually cringing. I tried listening at two different occasions and both times had to stop. There were some good elements in there that would have made the track sound good had they been more in tune. Again, don't take this as me saying "Your track sucks!" I'm just suggesting that you review your track and see if you can make improvements to it. First place: sillythewilly Honorable mentions: Zephyr Tread