by

Victor Awesome
(Awesome)

Welcome to the Utopia News Network! The Milky way's fully automated News service! We are glad to bring you news that the Terran colony in the Ve93-3 system is doing well. Along with that, the FR-galatic stock market has gone up 143.23 points, while the UED stock market dropped 212.12 to close at 39,432,322. Oh wait ! Just in! The Zeeboo race has been entirely wiped out by the Sp000rk aliens. How sad, we will gravely miss them for the eons to come. They were such a cute species. But on the brighter side, galatic solar winds will be at a record high, allowing travel to greatly speed up. This has been a UNN broadcast. Thank you for Listening. ======== That is the story that the song told to me. Very very *very* original. Flawless as far as I could hear. The samples are ok. Sounds like the news broadcast of the future! Great job.

I'll stand by my previous comments ;) It's a great masterpiece that takes the listener with it on an adventure (just like ctgoblin). But, this time, it's with a full classic symphony orchestra. I haven't heard an orchestra sounding this good in the scene or even outside of the scene. So, this means, IMHO, you're outdoing masters like Mozart and Bach (maybe because I have a modern ear). If only this song wasn't just mostly key changes - *sigh*. Why do simple things sound so good? :) I'd give you a higher score, but I'm not ready to be a monk ;)

Sounds like movie theme with full of covering strings. Maybe 30 channels are too much for few samples used. The strings are not in bad quality.

Samples: As a set they're almost tinny. Heavily chorused samples don't go out of range too well (see sample 12). Sample 9 has a clipped-sounding attack. You really wanted some 16-bit samples for things with lots of high end, like strings. Effects: Well-considered instrument envelopes. Not too much effects column work necessary for this type of song. Composition: Very good imagery, okay transitions (if a few too many gratuitous key changes). This is among the best symphonic works I've heard in the past year or two, despite the few points that needed to hurry up (right around order 27 seemed overly ponderous, for example). Subtlety: One originality point subtracted for use of STuDLyCaPS. :-) Also pay closer attention to attacks getting squashed on samples played too high (instrument 2). Echo could have been more consistent throughout the song. Balance: Panning is just a bit left of center but otherwise competent. Strong points: Good harmonies, fitting title. Weak points: A bit thin. Could improve: Transitions. Maybe one or two fewer.

some of the chord changes in this song were spectacular mainly because the instrumentation (the way the voices were layered and choice of voices) was superb.. unfortunately, what it achieved in confined earcandy it lacked in structure.. up until about 1:04 everything is fine.. but just going up a step with the progression at that point disappointed me.. i wanted more of the song to develop and it certainly didnt with the ascending riff at 1:19->~1:30.. this is where some of those beautiful chord changes are but there's minimal correlation to the previous opening of the song... the transition back to the 'opening' progressions is very nice but there's still little as far as musical form development or correlation.. samples were great.. technique was top-notch...all in all, a really beautiful piece but missing an image or a form to carry...

This is my favourite track of the contest, but it still have some minor flaws. Maybe it would have been better with a catchy melody, but that stacatto strings are memorable enough. The changes from slow to fast parts fails a little. But the excellent 'Vangelis' orchestral sound and the great technique showed here make this song a great one.

Well, it almost sounds like the beginning of a national broadcast television network's latest Miniseries introduction, complete with who made the thing, the intro credits, and a medley of all the things that are to come. This miniseries, of course, would have to take place in the late 80's or the early 90's based on the style of music. Quite a fascinating feel that comes out of it, but this song certainly hit a few "happy" nerves with me, especially with the chimes/bells. So the medley continues. I'm serious, I can see the credits for this show unfolding before my eyes. (: The camera is flowing over a large body of water with a sun setting. In other words, we have quite the original song happening here with a great feel to boot. Can't say a lot of this has been done in the tracker scene. The parts of the song are linked very nicely together and the whole song just goes through and rocks the party without bothering to stop and think about it. Oh how I love the chord changes throughout the vast majority of this song. Musically I just adore this song. The only thing that gets me is the percussion instruments, particular the lowest drum that you are using. It's a little too busy, and one of my pet peeves is the use of a bass drum with changing pitch. It just doesn't settle well for me for some reason. Other than that, beautiful. While some of the samples sound a bit on the muddy side, they are offset nicely by some of the bells and chimes. That muddiness sometimes can take away from a song in certain ways. I don't think most people would notice it, but it's definitely there. Clear out some of that muddiness and it'll be a masterpiece.

Your song uses space the best way I've heard in a module. Very professional sound. The song would be great for the news-at-six, but here it lacks a solo, a melody that would lead the listener through the song. Even incredible chord progression can't fix that.

Annoying leads, but interesting material. pieces fit together nicely. could use some more diverse panning though.

This is one of the entries that really stands out. This is top 5, I'm convinced. =) The name indicates the intention of the author - "I'm gonna track a tune which you might hear on a news channel". And it fits. It IS a news-programme-opening-sequence tune. It is *absolutely* what the author set out to accomplish. You have every right to be proud of this. The feel of reverb in it is awesome. I wish I could attain that level of mixing talent. =) This really deserves to do well. Perhaps, dare I say it, top three. =)

This song has very good sound. But, altough this could work very well as a news banner, its form is inadequate for a stand-alone song. I like almost all your ideas pretty much, and the mixing is near perfect. However, it still is an overlong fanfare, no matter how perfectly executed.

The title is quite fitting. An excellent symphonic piece that never gets boring.

Appropriate title. Nice tracking. *Great* texture. Wonderful samples. Well-composed. The whole song flows very well, never stagnates, and firmly keeps the listener's interest. All of these things warrant a high score. However, I have given you all zeroes, because you used mixed caps in "NEwS-o-TRonIK". So there! Alright, so I'm kidding. :D In all seriousness, I only gave you one zero. And it that's only because it was the second digit in a score that was a multiple of ten. :) (A -high- multiple of ten.) I gave you excellent scores across the board, since I only found ONE thing to gripe about in this song: the ending. Way too abrupt; very disappointing. But this is a great song, and you should be very proud to have written it. WoRD uP, yO! (Or something like that.) :D Good luck.

I like very much the introduction of your song (the rest too :)). I reminds me some kind of Vangelis thing. But i have a few remarks that prevent your song from being nearly perfect. Your transition between patterns 22-23 is a bit abrupt. You should have soften it. I think there is not enough variation on your song. You have a good melody unfortunately, it stays in the same chords. Last, the sample volume a too high. While listening to the music, my ears couldn't distinguish every sample (except the strings on channels 10 to 12).