Omri Lahav: ++|+|+++|+|+++|+++| (13) knoguud: ++| (2) Lucas LaVoy: ++|+|+|+++| (7) Sebastian: ++|+|+++|+| (7) Hieran_Del8: ++|+++|+|+|+| (8) ------- Abadoss ------- First place: Hieran_Del8 Honorable mentions: Omri Lahav, Lucas LaVoy, and Sebastian ------- sepal (Sebastian) ++ ------- Omri Lahav - A very cool song with a great melody. The only thing that i realy didn't liked is when the orchestra plays those short, fast Notes(right before the part with the guitar starts), they sounded a little bit strange. Variing with the Volume could help. Lucas LaVoy - Some parts are realy cool, but other parts doesn't seem to fit (like 1:56). Hieran_Del8 - It didn't get the feeling of beeing in a fight between to carriers (maybe my imagination is to low :P), but overall a real great song (especially if it was recorded while playing - then I wish I could play piano like that :D) First place: Omri Lahav Honorable mentions: Lucas LaVoy and Hieran_Del8 ------- Omri Lahav ++ ------- knoguud - I found your piece to be very good, musically. Nice use of good themes, but especially in contests... there has to be a bit more emphasis on the production value. The extensive use of MIDI sounds does little to contribute to a piece's enjoyability, and in today's internet world it's so easy to do a much, much better job with just a PC. Even soundfonts, or basic synth plugins would be a HUGE improvement over the MIDI Mapper. Lucas LaVoy - I found that it has not fallen too often, to the many possible cliches of the genre, and still retained it's relevance and the proper mood. Plus I thought the story was very nice, and well presented in the music. Sebastian - Your piece is also very good as far as the musical ideas go, my only problem was that the story seemed to change radically - from a small, two fighter shoot-out... to a massive, epic battle! And the music didn't reflect that. The mood of the piece didn't change more then a texture here and a loop there... My point is, given the story, I was expecting a surprise, a twist, atleast a mood shift... but the piece was quite static. Hieran_Del8 - Your piece demonstrates very well that when you have strong, thematic material - you don't need a large production to tell a story and maintain tension. In other words - I love the piano solo. The only reason it's coming second is because I found it a bit too long in it's context, meaning the story is too general to carry you through a 6:15 minutes piece. Kudos for the lovely piano performance. First place: Lucas LaVoy Honorable mentions: Hieran_Del8 ------- llavoy (Lucas LaVoy) ++ ------- Omri Lahav - This is also a really solid piece: good melodies, well orchestrated, especially the insertion of the drum loop near the end, I thought that was especially effective. My only problem with it was the melody was perhaps too clearly stated too often without much melodic variation; doing that tends to make the piece the focus of attention like an aria, rather than supporting the gameplay like a soundtrack. Sebastian - This piece gets my vote because it's thematic material textures are the most appropriate to the theme of the contest, and its structure is the most consistent with a gaming format. Melodies are not overpowering and the percussion base would really allow it support, rather than distract from, the gameplay. Hieran_Del8 - This piece was noticeably more sophisticated than the others. The solo piano gives it a great organic feel as a standalone piece, but I would really like to see it orchestrated up, as right now the instrumentation doesn't really support the theme. First place: Sebastian Honorable mentions: Hieran_Del8 and Omri Lahav ------- knoguud ++ ------- Omri Lahav - I was so impressed by the fullness of sound of the piece. First place: Omri Lahav ------- Hieran_Del8 ++ ------- Omri Lahav - I especially enjoyed the variation of the themes, the very contrasting sections. Good transition into the second theme, and nice dogfight sequence. The ending was a bit sparse, as I suppose the story was open-ended. Overall excellent job! knoguud - Brought me back to playing old time video games on the atari 2600. Good days! The song felt a little too simple. For instance, the song was quite repetitive, the cruise theme was rather dry (though that may be fitting), the dogfight scene was just an arpeggio that didn't have much drive. You could probably use the motifs, but it'd take a little more variation, including a wider range of note selection. Overall, could use some work. Lucas LaVoy - Very nice piece. It sounded big. Ominously big. Nice work. The song felt almost like a battle between giant marshmallows. Or as my sister put it, the conflict was between two balloons that were heading towards each other, accidentally. They slowly collide, and bounce off like pillows. You conveyed "big" really well. But the piece had too much reverberation, due in part to instrumentation. I recommend having staccato involved in a dogfight sequence. Overall, nice job. Sebastian - Very exciting piece. I could hear the tension building as "the approach" of the ships developed. Nice work with those extra guitar sounds, etc. Did very good work, though to me it lacked variation. The whole song felt like "an approach", and it was hard to distinguish an actual battle moment. It was harder to figure the retreat, as there was barely any variation in the theme. I recommend taking this piece with many strong parts and varying it. It would be awesome then. Overall, very nice. First place: Omri Lahav Honorable mentions: Sebastian