Posted
As always, I find it difficult to evaluate music samples objectively because my personal feelings get in the way. So what could be more obvious than to ask our trusted user community what they think of it?
This piano study is already a few years old and lives at the bottom of the sample page. I renamed it Jealousy today because I think it captures the mood very well. I'm imagining a jealous Kazakh steppe rider who is wondering whether his wife is cheating on him and what he should do about it. It's a very progressive steppe rider, of course, who's on his way to the big city of Astana to buy a laptop sleeve made of Saiga antelope leather.
Ok, enough of that.
Does this thing suck? I like it a lot, but it's so not mainstream that maybe it should be removed from the list altogether. Or should it?
Wed, 2025-04-30 - 20:13 Permalink
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh's "Character" (Sony Music 1991) is still a favorite of mine. A unique and very distinctive blend of oriental, jazz and classical music and sooo energetic. She was barely 20 at the time and composed and played like mad, as if in trance, that girl from Azerbaijan (my family hates her music). Later she composed more pleasant and mainstream stuff, which is nice but ... not that authentic. Her more current pieces, check out "New Baku" (Jazziza Records 2020), sound like she's back on track.
I didn't think of her when I made this track. The association occurred to me later. It's not doing her justice of course. Not even remotely.
Wed, 2025-04-30 - 20:37 Permalink
Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm totally psyched that the more non-mainstream we go with examples, the more it might drive away potential users. I have listened to so much different music in my life that I can appreciate almost anything made on this planet. The only thing I detest is the millionth repetition of an overused cliché.
We are currently advertising on vi-control and I've already had some nice conversations with people there. I am not sure how our examples are perceived. It probably depends on each individual. I'm now looking for a media composer within 1 hour distance from Hamburg who I can sit down with and create some more examples that broaden the range of styles.
Thu, 2025-05-01 - 14:38 Permalink
the more non-mainstream we go with examples, the more it might drive away potential users
I am no marketing guy, but I would feel that supporting diversity is only a strength of a composition system. Perhaps all that is needed is some clear sign-posting (e.g., somehow marking different categories of examples instead of an unordered list), to guide the expectation of potential new users?
I like it a lot
I like it too :) Though I agree with blacksun that perhaps so far it does not really have a clear ending? Also, perhaps a few more piano pedal changes could be helpful to have the harmonic changes less blurred?
Thanks for sharing.
Fri, 2025-05-02 - 11:51 Permalink
Andre, I love it! I don't care how it was composed, or about your story about it, it's just good. And since you mention Aziza, short story: almost 3 decades ago I was in Nuremberg for work and one of my colleagues/boss invited me to his home. He did not have a TV but had a piano (and 5 kids :) )
He came from a family of piano builders, but was not in that trade himself. He showed me a CD of Aziza. I was hooked. She's amazing!