Not bad, really, considering we've only posted two tracks and especially considering the fine offerings by the competition; it's worth a little self-backpats to know May and I can hit the Top 100 in Contemporary Folk at Download.com.

Unfortunately, my symphonic Allegretto for Orchestra, when rendered in their required 192k-bitstream MP3 weighed in at 150% of their filesize limit; what they allow translates to barely 35 minutes, and any musical archiving system should obey the Sony CD Rule of "enough space for Beethoven's 9th".

I've sent a gentle plea out to download.com on behalf of those of us with longer projects. Just as well, really, because until I can muster 19 musicians for a real recording, best I can do is rendering via MIDI through TiMidity++ using the FluidR3 soundfonts, and while, apart from the listless conductor the overall sound effect isn't bad, the many pops and cracks make the opening sections sound like old vinyl -- if anyone knows a better way to render orchestral MIDI in Linux, I'm all ears.