Score: 10

"The very best"

submission: Orchestral Dance in G minor

date: May 27, 2007

Simon, I love your music. I could listen to it for hours. Unfortunately, I'm not female, else I figure you'd have it made. ;)

But be that as it may,
I think that you're one of the top 3 composers on Newgrounds. You switch between different styles in your compositions - in this piece, for example, you use a number of harmonies and techniques that I've heard used by Tchaikovsky - but somehow, there's something recognizable in them that marks them as your work.

In this case, I wish to thank you for crafting a piece that brings me back to the early 20th century in Russia. The piece itself is in ABA format, and it uses the Russian folk style of repeating the same melody over and over again, yet adding so many variations that the piece is kept interesting nevertheless. I haven't yet succeeded in doing this... it'd not as easy as it seemed.

So I salute your accomplishment.

Score: 9

"Excellent"

submission: Erebus

date: May 23, 2007

Simon, I find your pieces so hard to review. On the one hand, I feel bad that so many of them have so few reviews, and really want to say something about them - on the other hand, they're such excellent pieces that I would need to spend at least a good half-hour analysing one to even begin to do it justice in a review. And once I write a review, it's done - I can't comment on them in more detail later, so too often I refrain from writing ANYTHING, hoping to come back to it eventually and do the piece justice. That rarely happens, unfortunately.

Anyway, I just want to express my high appreciation for this piece. There are many things that it does right. It is only marred, I feel, by a somewhat inconclusive and unconvincing ending. I like the bassoons as well.

Sorry for not going into more detail - this piece deserves it! - but I figure it's better to leave an unworthy review than to leave nothing at all (especially after that other review based on the first 30 seconds).

You're one of the highest-quality composers here on Newgrounds, and listening to your pieces makes me realise the inexperienced errors that penetrate my own. Thank you so much.

Score: 9

"Just about perfect."

submission: Nocturne no 8 Adagietto mesto

date: May 15, 2007

When I last went to your page here on Newgrounds, 2007 had not yet arrived. Am I ever glad I remembered to come back here!

This is just a wonderful piece. The melodies are great, the harmonies complement them extremely well, and the accents are hit very well. I have no idea how you manage to do it with GPO... is there any way to get such humanlike playback with Finale 2007 (which has a reduced GPO)?

I'm not quite sure why I'm giving a "9" instead of a "10"... for some reason, I feel that the piece is extremely good, but not quite a perfect 10. It doesn't quite grab me the way some of your pieces do. Sorry about being a bit vague. It might have to do with a slight lack of variety, though perhaps that was unavoidable.

Oh, and yes, I would love to have the score. Please send me an email at i_esn_i (at) yahoo.ca

Score: 7

"Well..."

submission: Tears of Time

date: April 27, 2007

I really loved the melodies. The simpleness of using just a marimba for most of piece really worked most of the time.

I somehow felt that somewhere around the half-way point it should have... become more expansive, I guess. It didn't, so it felt to me like the piece didn't really try to go anywhere.

Also, the piano texture didn't really sound very nice with the marimba here, in contrast to the other instruments - maybe adding another marimba might have been better.

But as I said, I really do love your melodies. My score is a mix between the first part which I quite liked, and the second part which I felt should have been a little more than it was.

Check out some of my pieces, by the way. I use marimba a lot. :)

Score: 6

"Shows promise"

submission: The Clock of Inevitability

date: April 27, 2007

The good bits - I like your long progressions (an ability to think in phrases is always a good thing), and some of your melodies. Unfortunately, it's obvious that you're just beginning to do this, since the piece is rather simple. This isn't a bad thing, though; everyone starts somewhere.

One thing I'd definitely suggest is using better instrumental sounds. I'm not sure what you use now, but the piece sounds very harsh, and that makes it somewhat difficult to listen to or use in a flash.

Score: 7

"Honestly, it's fairly good."

submission: NN - Orion's Symphony

date: April 27, 2007

I'm a bit surprised at the low score that it has - it's a minimalist piece to be sure, but it sounds pleasant enough and I can imagine it being usefull to someone in some flash. It's very simplicity makes it kinda nice to listen to.

Later on there are some dissonances - maybe a bit too many of them. I can tell that this isn't your usual category, but it's pretty nice, overall.

Score: 8

"Fascinating effort."

submission: A World Uknown

date: April 20, 2007

Excellent range of styles, and really wonderful playing! I especially liked the section right after it gets loud (the descending low notes).

It's unfortunate that there seems to be some kind of hiss behind the sound. As far as I can make out, it's actually chords played on synthetic strings, but they only seem to make the piece less clear. I'm not sure, but I think just the piano might've been good enough; otherwise, you should try to make those chords have a cleaner sound somehow.

Did you also compose this yourself? If so, excellent job! I think you're a more accomplished composer than I am, and definitely a better player. :)

Score: 10

"Fantastic imagery"

submission: A New King

date: April 20, 2007

This is one of the most pictorial things I've ever heard on Newgrounds. The imagery I get from this is fantastic, though it's more like what the second reviewer described than what you intended.

This piece has great variety and it would be a great one for someone to "put to film" - the images already come to your head.

Damn zero voters got this one too, I see... odd that they aren't such a huge problem on the flash portal, isn't it? You'd think someone would take notice and find out why...

Anyway, this gets a solid 10/10 from me, in all categories. It's simply a fantastic piece.

Score: 9

"Excellent feel"

submission: Siege of Red Mountain

date: April 20, 2007

I really love the harmonies that you used here. They were quite complex, or at least seemed to be.

The first half of the piece was just a great progression, upping the ante with each phrase. The one thing I think you really could have used was a strong low brass section - two tubas playing loud long notes way down below would only improve things, especially when it gets really intense. Possibly some bass trombones too, for that really brassy sound (maybe you know what I'm talking about if you've ever heard a brass band play). Try it out sometime.

Unfortunately, the second half slightly disappointed me because I felt that I had already heard it before. It would've been nice if you'd moved onto something quite different. Nevertheless, a very nice piece.

And yes, zero voters suck. I've been hit by them as well - sometimes when my submissions already have scores over 4.50, other times before anyone else has even rated them (in which case the next person who votes 5 moves the overall score to 2.50, and nobody will listen to it). Check out my recent two pieces, eh? :) I'd love to get a comment or two from someone of your experience.

Score: 8

"It is indeed the only river :)"

submission: The Only River

date: April 13, 2007

It starts out as a nice new-agey, weightless piece... this part is generally pleasant, but I would've liked to see just a little more harmonic progression here - it gets a touch too monotonous.

I like the various industrial noises that intrude from time to time, and the one that intrudes at the end was a wonderfull surprise and a great thematic development. It gets trully scary here. How did you make that throbbing sound?

The file seems to end in mid-sound, which I thought was a bit odd - was that intended?

Anyway, it's quite a good piece overall. If it hadn't had that new section at the end, I would've given it a "7".