by

Anton Treks
(Treks)

The sample set sounds partially like someone fiddled around with Korg X5 presets. When the intro rolls on I can almost see forest scenery rolling across the screen with credit text for some medieval adventure movie. Great chord progression, amazing how some chord changes never get old, especially major 4th in minor scales and minor 5th in major scales. You have so much potential I'd really enjoy telling you all my tracking secrets here, but alas, the space is limited. :-) I suppose you can't really call this piece very original, but it just rocks and some good progressive ideas too. Some very minor harmonic errors, but they didn't even bother me overmuch. Must be my favourite of the rookie entrants I have heard so far..

Hey, it's orchestral, and I don't mind it! :) Parts like orders 33-34 are above rookie skill - they show that the artist can balance their sample volume and arrangement well. Much Skaven/PM influence I reckon? In the first part, the timpani at every 16 rows gets a little annoying. Music Contest entries should not have multiple parts, especially when they make it run far beyond 4 minutes. Overall, the assets outnumber the flaws, which for a rookie is commendable.

Now in this song I could really tell a story was being told here. You had plenty of different ideas, moods, and movements that just made this song really good. The second movement hade a good bass section (i think they were cellos...) The third movement introduced another "chapter in the story" (kind of a freaky one). Well, the samples were good quality and a perfect pick for this song. I think that making your song 5:30 minutes long was kind of brave, but to me it showed how much time you spent on your song. Now, I think that the only reason why this song could have been better, is that the ideas were not that sophisticated (the ideas were a little to simple and almost not interesting). I don't think the ideas sounded good by themselves. All the parts in the song really had to rely on each other. But still, I really liked it. Great job.

Something different here, a motion picture soundtrack ;). Nothing seriously wrong in this song, but the overall feeling of it was a little 'thin'. Difficult to explain, but there just wasn't enough music in it. Sample quality was actually quite good, most samples were clear and of good quality, but for some reason the whole soundscape seemed less than the sum of the individual samples.

You are a rookie tracker but a skilled composer. You scored with this song. Your instruments are good, but You have to choose some cleaner ones the next time. The synth lead does not fit to the orchestra well, please choose the instruments more carefully. The harp sounds good, but the bass trumpet is kindda strange. Now about the song itself. The accompaniment is a bit simple, but very strong for a rookie. Dark opening, nice build-up and interesting themes. The second part is like a Celtic dance, very catchy, maybe needs some percussion. The last part is a very dark background music. I like these mood changes, making Your song more interesting. Overally I like it very much, good work.

Oooh! I liked that introduction! I could almost see little lights on a massive "Battle of Honor" logo. So far throughout the introduction of the song I'm getting a really good feeling out of it. Very subtle, not abrasive at all. It's like watching the beginning credits of a Harrison Ford movie. The only exception is that we get to the part where the brass instruments come in at the major chord. More on that in a bit. Wow long song. Gads if I could have tracked this in my heyday. It has all the elements of many things I have wanted to get out of my system over the years as far as the concept of the song. I'm really enjoying this and it has great elements of originality. The flow of this song, however, has a few things that could be improved. With the understanding that this is a contest and you have limited time to deal with as far as song length, it's still a better idea to make sure that ideas flow into each other with as little abrasiveness as possible. Buildups, settle downs, etc. The second part of this song doesn't seem to fit too well with the mood of the rest of the song, but it fits in eventually of its own accord. There isn't a whole lot of technique involved here, as the samples are pretty straight forward. I've always been a stickler for use of a bass drum that goes up and down in pitch. Not the timpani, but a bass drum (the future crew one). Bass drums in real life are one pitch throughout a song. They don't change much. That's just the reality of things. Other than that, good volumes and echoes throughout. The portas were a little abrasive tho. As much as the samples weren't all that great, they fit in very well. They did what they needed to do. Their quality wasn't too hot, but they worked.

I recognize some of the samples, and they're not always clean. Orchestral movie soundtrack scores are not original anymore. Form: songs with few percussion tend to sound emotional, but first, you have to find fitting chords. No major technical flaws, this amount of technique should be considered minimum for a good song. This tune is three songs in one. Not always firm in key.Sorry for not going more in-depth.

Your orchestral FC style is well covered. Musical sentences are reallistic, synth bridges give more freedom to your sound. Your second part would need some heavy drums. Your third part has no sense. The listener would like to hear some must-have parts like : beginning, progression, apogee, smoothing, end. You only put a begin in your 3rd part. Your samples are great, except some well-known ripped ones, that discredit a bit the tracker's samples-making habilities. Your stereo is fair, it gives much space. Good song, but let the listener on his hunger.

I feel the best thing about this piece is the beginning. It is built up and held my interest nicely. The middle section is what did me in, and I hope to explain why. The originality of this song: It used various patterns, especially the melody towards the middle-end of the song, was unique and well done. The rest of the song's theme, however seemed to be done before, although most that I have heard were not this well done. Form, why did I grade lower than the rest? Transitions and interest lowered the score there. I seemed to loose interest in the middle of the song, sure all good songs of that type have a good 'down time' on excitement, but it doesn't last until the end. I lost interest, and wondered when it would pick back up again. The transitions between segments of the song were also a little choppy...not smooth. A good song that all it would need is a little editing.

Interesting first half. I'd love to sit down and analyze the progression sometime, 'cause it's very cool. The effect it gives is ethereal, phantasmal (is that a word?)... Dare I say "dreamy"? The same is not true of the second section (movement?) of this song, which I found ineffectual, and a bit redundant. The third section, however, was the kind of music I love to listen to: dark, mysterious, moody, tense. I totally see an armor-clad adventurer creeping through a dark cavern here, torch in hand, brushing away spider webs and anticpating an ambush any second... It's too bad the 'ambush' never comes in a fourth "movement" which really would have rounded off this piece well. But I realize you'd already overextended you welcome with 5:30 of music, and a full-sized file. Still, it's too bad--I'd have liked to hear it. There are some real gems burried in this song. It's not polished very well, and it could use a nice once-over by a veteran tracker, but this is incredibly impressive music for a rookie. Well done.

It is always hard to put a score on a piece of music like this. Theme music is not particularly original, but good theme music is hard to write. This piece isn't a bad effort, (especially for a rookie) but it lacks the complete mood changing quality that the really great theme music produces. I think some of the reasons why it doesn't achive this is because of the techical aspects of the song as well as the lead. Firstly some of the drums are too loud at times and the strings need to be brough in far more gradually with smoother (finer) volume slides. The lead isn't bad, but is not great and therefor doesn't really keep the listener involved. However your choice of lead instrument is a good one. Having the break in the middle to a different piece of music is a good idea, but since the song doesn't go back to the original style in the first part, it looses any mood that was being built. This is still a good try and has plenty of potential so keep at it.

Nice atmosphere. Good introduction but gets a bit boring after a while. Quite ordinary sample quality. The ending is a bit abrupt. Could need some more melodies.