Yes, a picture of Lavos. For sometimes the reviewers of the world can be as heartless and cruel as even this being. You probably won't see their reviews of my songs here, though.
Music Review
Yes, a picture of Lavos. For sometimes the reviewers of
the world can be as heartless and cruel as even this being. You probably
won't see their reviews of my songs here, though.
In this section I'll place the various reviews and things my songs receive in the midi contests around the 'net (mainly the TOS BBS, as I actually participate in that one). Also, if one of my songs scores a one or something... you may miss that review in here, for obvious reasons.
Anyway, not much in the way of reviews here right now... I've only got one at the moment, of the song Aragorn I composed for my friend Mox Jet. But there are a fairly wide variety of them, and scores will all be posted.
Oh, and the harshest review (and one I find most unmerited) shall be granted the "Lavos Award". This gives no prize, or stigma, and no personal offense is meant to said reviewer who gains the reward. It's just the reviews that annoy me sometimes, not the reviewer.
Aragorn
Sonicblade - 8.0
Ah...Planeswalkers..what a great story. So you have a lot to
live up to, man.
I like the introduction. The sound is very nice, and the drums are dramatic. It
probably sounds better (instrumentation wise) than the other songs I`ve heard
because I made you download my own Yamaha synth... Good when it slows down. Very
dramatic. Try giving the timpani more velocity and dynamic difference (real
timpani go from very quiet to BAM SMACK.) The piano solo gives it nice contrast,
but it could be more complex. Most of it is on-beat notes. The song centers
around one idea and follows it through all the way, something I like in the
piece. This is probably the best classical one I`ve heard from you.
Peter Gill - 8.0
I wish I had thought of this song. (Note from Night: MWA HA HA!!!!) This was powerful and moving. Everything sounded just right with all of the instruments together. The piano and string part was awesome. It might do well to make the strings louder, but other than that, this is a great song.
Stephen Holly - 8.0
I quite liked this piece. You represent the subject matter very well. I think you need to use slightly more adventurous melody lines though - at the moment they sound good but are not memorable. A few other things to consider: I think you use the timpani a bit too much, so I would suggests quietening it or using it less; the piano section is a bit *too* contrasting to the rest - it could have come from a completely different piece. I actually really liked that section, but perhaps try to make it more relevant to the rest of the piece; one last minor thing - I would make that last chord about twice as long. Overall though the story is portrayed rather well.
Jim Mcintyre - 7.25 (NOO!!! The circle of eights is broken!!)
This was another very dramatic piece . I very much liked your
Typmani lines and Horn Parts , they moved this piece along very nicely and added
a lot of excitement to it . I also enjoyed the mood they created . In your notes
section , you added a subtitle " Aragorn: Knight of the Square Table "
. I must say you have been quite successful in establishing a musical world of
knights and sorcerors .... Well done . I do have some points to consider for
improvement :
- in regards to orchestration , there was ( I felt ) too many bass and tenor
instruments .... it made the file bottom heavy . A contrasting Flute or Oboe
would`ve really added some much needed relief in orchestral colour .
- track 12 , was not indentified and had no patch ....... and played out as a
Harmonica solo ( surely not what you intended ? )
- work on your velocities more to create some dynamic excitement .
Louise Missen - 8.5
A very impressive start, which conveyed the theme well. I liked the drum rolls but they were a bit frequent. This piece also made good use of dynamics. The backing instruments behind the harp were too quiet to hear properly, and the harp could maybe have been slightly softer. Other than that, Aragorn is a really enjoyable piece. (Note from Night: When he says 'harp', I assume he is referring to the piano solo in the piece, which did not play properly when the song was opened in Cakewalk)
David Rubenstein - 5
(I realize this looks rather harsh next to the rest of the scores... but
Rubenstein seems to judge on a much looser scale than most of the reviewers I've
seen on the site. Most songs either get 9's to 10's, or they get... well,
5 or below. I don't agree with this way of reviewing, but to each his
own. My main gripe with his reviews are some of the comments made that
don't really explain his scoring).
This piece has some pleasant contrasts in tempo, dynamics and
instrumentation. Contrasting chord progressions and keys would have made it
sound less repetitive. It is clearly not correctly categorized (should be
cinematic, not classical)
(Night: this last comment was my main problem with the review. I'm
not certain exactly how that factors into his decision, not to mention the fact
that I disagree with him... and isn't the writer of the song the one who knows
what category to place it into?)
Average Score: 7.4 or so, but only because of the final review. Overall, by TOS standards, this is a very good score (especially for me).