by

Vesa Warder
(Warder)

A very professional-sounding tune with a great "medieval" theme melody. It's a critic's job to find flaws from other's works of art, but this time I must confess that I didn't find _anything_ to nag about (well, maybe the theme melody was just a little bit too familiar-sounding, but probably not). Very nice use of tempo and superb melody variations with good-quality samples. Technical and musical skills used with good taste. A really nice piece of music indeed.

THAT CYMBAL. (sample 18) It's just *crap*. A different sample would have helped *so much* here. That open hihat too! (sample 10) Too loud. These two things damage what I feel could be a great song. Hell, it IS a great song, and the fact that these two things hurt it so much really annoys me. I have to try to ignore them to really get the most out of the tune, and I shouldn't have to do that. The ending is a bit flat too, it kinda just rolls to a stop without any warning. Aside of these clear flaws, I can't really find anything wrong with it. I love the melody, it seems well mixed, the samples are all in tune, the harmonies are well suited... this deserves to qualify, in my opinion, despite the aforementioned flaws.

The style reminds me of irish ballads. It it nice to notice that not all composers use the 4 quaters style. The waltz rythm of the song is refreshing and new in this contest. The melody and harmony are crystal clear and friendly. To the end the composer tries to make the song more dramatic, but as many other songs this one lacks a bit of variety too. After the first minute the listener has heard every melody, intrument and harmony.

A great sense of melody here. With the softer/harder variations on the main theme and great volume control,this makes for pleasant listening. The rhythm change (order 13) is really cool,this composer knows how to do drums. But in pattern order 35 the song is dangerously close to falling apart, but is picked up and headed back on track just in time not to ruin it all. Could it be me,not understanding that rhythm? By soloing different channels,one can see how good care was taken when tracking this.Nice pitch slides and portas on the bass.It provides for a solid layer under the flute and violin.The clean guitars in the first pattern sound little...spastic,though.I don't know how to put it,really. They should blend in with each other little more,but if that can be done is beyond my knowledge. Still,i like the fact that everything is tracked, not sampled. No prerecorded stuff in sight. The ending could have been smoother,now it just drops dead. All in all,a very professional song. This will stay on my harddrive.

Awesome song, blew me away! Seemless transitions, high quality samples, very good origianlity, good complementing form. It has a great melody as well and everything just fits perfectly together, quite nice. Though the only thing that buged me was the very short ending, talk about putting the e-brake on, other than that this song is Great it truly is, most Excellent job!!

I enjoyed this song it was cool it had a nice flow to the song.

This tune sounds like it has an irish influence. I would have liked to hear more fiddle with this instead of the synth leads. Also you could try doubling up on the melody played by the whistle more with the violin/fiddle. The drums didn't seem to fit too well, and were too much in the background. They need to be louder, and clearer. The tom drums don't sound like they fit at all (ie from another drum kit). The chord panning could have been better instead of just using ping pong enveloping. The violin when playing counter melody in sequence 8 - 12 would have sounded nicer with either a doubled up instrument with an opposite pan. It just sounded too far to one side. You did well by combining it with the whistle which was panned to the opposite side, but more towards center. That works well. At some points the drums don't work well with the rest of the tune (ie sequence 35-39). However there's some good variation in the drums. Kick drum sounds like it was from Metalica. The theme repeats a little too often, try to extend the bridge a little more.

Awesome! Encore! Brilliant! Werd! Yes, it's really really really good. My heart sings for you. It is just real pleasure to listen to :)