snake5: ++|+|+| (4) Rich Douglas: +++|+++|+|+| (8) Lars Dobbertin-King: ++|+| (3) SkyLynx: ++|+| (3) Joshua Taylor: +++|+|+++| (7) Chris Spencer and Tom Prather: +|+| (2) The J: +|+|+++|+| (7) ------- Abadoss ------- First place: Rich Douglas Honorable mentions: snake5, SkyLynx, and The J ------- Doulifée ------- Rich Douglas - Orchestral make that first travel sound epic. Lars Dobbertin-King - That style of song make me think a lot of the Hexen soundtrack. The J - I can easily imagine crossing an unknown territory may it be space or a small road in the forest. First place: Rich Douglas Honorable mentions: The J and Chris Spencer and Tom Prather ------- Lars Dobbertin-King ++ ------- Overall, every piece had one brilliant "main tune," and then an extra two minutes or so of music built around that. Just out of personal taste, I'd rather listen to 3 minutes of good music than 2:30 of crap and 0:30 of awesome (not that my pieces obey this rule, but I expect more of you professionals...). The three songs I awarded points to were also the three that grabbed my attention at the start. All three of them made a mistake in the middle, only one managed to pull of a good finish - that's why I placed songs as I did. snake5 - If your drum beat is the loudest and most prominent part of your song, it should not repeat throughout it. Listening to this piece for the third time, it is difficult to think of anything other than the annoying repetitive drum beat (OK, there is a little 10 second change about 1:30, but it really isn't enough for me). This problem is made worse by the fact that the bass line repeats too. What I love about this piece is the really subtle instruments and serious-sounding orchestra. It's got a brilliant tune, and all the elements for an excellent piece are there. Even a slight shift in the volume of the drum beat would have won my vote for first place. If I could award a second place, it would be yours. Honorable mention it is. Rich Douglas - I've always loved your style. I like the opening, the synth-orchestra crossover, and the excitement of the opening - really you should have built on this. Just before 1:17 (the start of the first playing of the main theme), you toned the music down to give some tension before you launch into a totally new section. Unfortunately I felt that your main theme was just too exciting for the tension, and it made me wonder for a while whether I was listening to the same music, given that the music at 0:30 sounds like a main theme. Also the repetition of the main theme at the end (with different instruments) makes the ending sound a tad too quick. Luckily it's a brilliant main theme so it doesn't sound repetitive, but the opening is so far removed that I find myself always fast-forwarding to the best 20 seconds of the song. Great 20 seconds though, clear honorable mention. SkyLynx - Your first 30 seconds is a brilliant tension setup, then it gets resolved with a single short note at :37. Then another long tension segment, and no resolution, ending awkwardly at 1:22. What follows after these two let downs is actually a really good piece of music. I like the ending, although the build up is perhaps a little too quick (because of the two long segments at the start which seem to serve no purpose). One of the big reasons I like the ending is because I can actually hear a tune, rather than a collection of instruments making beautiful sounds. This would have easily won an honorable mention, though, if you had tweaked the opening a bit. Joshua Taylor - I liked the soft opening, and I liked the return of the soft opening melody at the end. Some of the other instruments in the middle were good for adding to the the chaotic atmosphere of that part, but I didn't like the total exclusion of the piano during this part - you were on to something with the two low note hits at about 1:40. Somehow the piece lost the heartfelt urgency that you conveyed so brilliantly at the start during the most critical portion. Nonetheless I think you deserve first place (although it's very close). I guess my only criticism is a minor, trivial matter of personal taste, and the opening totally knocked my socks off, so I say you win. It would have been a much more convincing win if you had also filled up the middle section with some "dangerous" chords, it just wasn't enough of a contrast. Chris Spencer and Tom Prather - After about 1:25 of mellow strings, the tone changes as more harsh horns take the lead. Adding a little pizzicato string section between the two parts does not make for a smooth transition as it sounds out of place within the song. I loved the ending (perhaps could have used a bit less abruptness), but I didn't feel the piece led up to it. So I guess out of your whole song, 20 seconds was terrific, the rest was unimpressive and, while it sounded like it was going somewhere, actually went somewhere else in the end. Very close to getting an honorable mention from me. The J - I like the opening, it's amazing. I don't like the ending, a piece that fades out that quickly really needs to have had a powerful closure (yours doesn't). The middle is good for the most part, although I feel that the horns that come in at half-way drag on for too long. I also don't like the singing voice at the end, it isn't there for long enough to have an impact and feels like (though it probably isn't) a last-minute addition to make the piece sound complete. Unfortunately, the piece still sounds unfinished. A bit more of an ending next time will secure my vote. First place: Joshua Taylor Honorable mentions: Rich Douglas and snake5 ------- snake5 ++ ------- Rich Douglas - The piece itself was quite good but the second part somehow didn't want to connect in my head with the story from your description. I guess there were too many surprising parts which both added to repetition and made me wonder about what could be that amazing on a craft. There's also the thing I'll call "the pop snare dilemma" - on one hand, it saved the day and made the piece more peaceful. On another, it makes the piece feel less serious. Lars Dobbertin-King - The first theme seemed really original (at least to me) and nice. Perhaps there was a bit too much repetition but it certainly wasn't easy to notice. The drum beat felt a bit too chilled out for the theme in description but I can't also imagine the piece with a different beat so maybe that's how it should be. SkyLynx - I liked this one because it was mostly humble (didn't try to bang the emotions in the head all the time), the first and third part definitely added to the right feelings. The second one and the fourth(last) in my opinion fell off the theme - second somehow jumped straight to a really stealthy theme and the last one was too mysterious and I couldn't get the point of this theme (perhaps it was just me). Joshua Taylor - The start was very promising but it felt a bit worse when I heard the part around 2:00. The ending fixed the feeling but that part sounded like it needed more attention and work. Chris Spencer and Tom Prather - A very nice piece, I liked the harmony and playing techniques used, however I'd like to hear the notes flowing smoother in the first part. Like a breeze. :) The J - This one promised a lot in the description and gave it all. The only thing I could wish for is a more gentle transition to the loud part. The piece unfortunately is less than 2:00 long but I hope that won't throw it out because I really like this one. :) First place: The J Honorable mentions: Lars Dobbertin-King, Joshua Taylor, and Chris Spencer and Tom Prather ------- SkyLynx ++ ------- The rest of entries were good, I have nothing bad to tell about them in technical aspect really, but they didn’t catch me like those above did. I’m also honestly a bit biased against beat driven pieces, I thought the theme of competition was more in fantasy world rather than in real world or science fiction, for which those beats would be good. Just my two cents. Rich Douglas - I shall say this in advance. I'm having a weakness for adventure pieces. Especially good ones. And this one was composed on such a high level that I couldn’t resist. Maybe it’s samples delivering quality here, but the overall feel of this piece is great. Everything seems to be on the right place, all perfectly harmonized, tempo changes right where it should. Melody becomes huge and subtle when it needs to be so. Again, quality of sound is astounding, but so is the idea of adventure. A lot of variation here, you never become bored. Zimmerific. But I still sort of liked “Sorry to See You Go” more. That composition had something that I struggle to achieve very often myself – a theme, a chord progression that catches an ear and rises emotions. Perhaps it’s not that bombastic, but I felt I should give my 3 point to it. Joshua Taylor - I liked the piano theme very very much. The rest of the piece sounded very appropriate to me. A great example of solid composition and maybe even improvisation. Very subtle, yet very sensitive and smart. That’s what I would expect for this competition and its theme. Almost all choices made here looked very solid. Very classical sound and very sensitive piano theme. The J - The piece is very close to the feel I got from the concept myself. I liked the orchestration very much, composition was also very solid. Giving a mention because of technical composition and approach. First place: Joshua Taylor Honorable mentions: Rich Douglas and The J