5/5 10/10

I liked the central thematic coda that you used. Do you have a story behind this song ?

I wish you would have changed the chord sequence.

The beginning is wayyyy too slow. It dulls interest. THe sudden change to the plucked instrument didn't seem to fit in well. Also, the chords are way too loud, they block out everything else. But it stays true to the theme of the Mac08. That said, I will enjoy taking 1st place from you hahahaha! Shouldn't have done a classical piece, you just entered my world! And it's a very dark and scary world!

But don't think that my entry into the Mac08 affected the actual reviewing part of my review. I like this song, it's pretty good. It just needs more variety.

Some good ideas, but needs MAJOR tweaking

First off, let me say I cringe at your choice of chord progression. You couldn't have used ANY others? This whole idea of transitioning to the fifth that is constantly used in dance songs is overrated and abused beyond belief.

That being said, while this isn't a dance song in the slightest, I still can't say I enjoy hearing the same musical idea in a different genre.

Secondly, the orchestral voices you are using are painful to listen to. Obviously i'm going to be biased since i'm using a relatively similar VSTi (unless you are using Edirol as well, as I noticed several familiar sample stock sounds like the drumroll, gong, et al) but seriously. They sound shrill and synthetic.

Thirdly, your melodies have NO dynamic range. They do not convey crescendos or decrescendos and anyone with a musical background will notice that these lines sound static and plain when they should sound dynamic and flexible. The tuba hits in the slow section are particularly out of place. They have too hard of an attack and take away from the plucks.

On a final note, you should realize that i'm going to criticize you as harshly as possible, as you are my competition. Please take what i'm saying as a way to improve. That being said, this is a fairly good piece of work, but at the same time needs a great deal of improvement.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to critique my work and the other contestants'! :]

Really Great Piece!

Wow, dude...this is spectacular! I really like this one, it really captures what this MAC is looking for in terms of emotion and feeling. The classical approach was a good choice in my opinion, and you've pulled it off really well. The thing that appealed to me most about this song was the raw emotion in it. Its really got that "Adventure" kinda feel to it, which is really nice.

The opening was great because you started off strong, and captured the audience's attention, the powerfull strings were a great way to start. The percussion was a nice touch too! You basically had a whole assortment of instruments blaring right from the beggining which was good, as the listener didn't need to wait for the good stuff to be introduced, it was simply there right from the start.

I really liked the sudden drop of volume, and then the introduction of the harp pluck. It added a really nice kinda 'reflection' part to the song, and gave the listener a break from all the epic strings. The tuba going in the background was really neat too, because it kept that determination flowing throughout.

The sad, emotional strings that you brought in soon after were amazing. It linked the song back to beggining, and also gave the song a really sad feel to it, which was a good thing. It could easily represent the resentment towords having not done well previously, and further showed the objective of succes and completion of goals. Once again, the percussion going on throughout this part was well done, if a bit loud... ;D

After the quiet section, it was really cool to see (or rather, to hear) you bring in all the original strings, woodwinds, and brasses in a really harmonic bit that really captured my interest. I always think its good to repeat, or come back to different parts of the song, to not only make sure that the song changes throuhout, but to also make the song sound like an actuall song, and not a changing mess.

Something that caught me totally by suprise, but was in no way a bad mood, was the heavily modified drum loop. You are now the second contestant in this competition to use a Mixed-to-hell drum kit loop inside of a traditional classical piece, and I am loving it more and more every time I hear it! Your ones sound really cool, because they are layed to shit with effects and stuff, and sound totally out of this world! They really give the song some rythem and flow, and to me, helped drive home that real sense of determination and striving towords a goal.

The high strings that played during this part were really effective too, as they kinda gave me the impression of going hard, through the good times and the bad, no matter what happens. These made the piece really, REALLY moving, and I think they were a great touch.

I also noticed that you used heaps of phased, weird effects at the end, that panned all over my speakers, and were really funky. I have no idea what they were supposed to be, but they sounded epic man, so nice!

Overall, this is a really tight piece. I can tell you've put in shitloads of effort and emotion into this, and it has really payed off! You should be extreemly proud of this one, and I wish you all the best in the competition. Good Luck!

Mack

Nice composition

Very nice and well-orchestrated composition. You should, however, look into some VSTi plugins with more realistic orchestral samples (like Edirol Orchestral or EastWest Symphonic Orchestra), because while your composing talent is phenominal, the instruments sound very "tinny" and synthed, which is okay, but could sound more real and genuine.

Keep up the good work.