| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #3 | 4.133 | 4.133 |
| Impression | #4 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Composition | #4 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Sound quality | #5 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Creativity | #9 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Credibility | #12 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
Ranked from 27 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Streaming link
https://on.soundcloud.com/45Y54hLyU4V9oZhL9
Track description | Creative process
Everything I explain on this visual board in Miro for easier readability (no account needed!)
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVKvNgVNI=/
The compositional ideas in this piece are lovely, it's a refreshing listen - nice work.
I would say, I think you've this from others already, that the mix is pretty in your face which is definitely taking away a bit from the more chill Animal Crossing vibe this could have, but I am 100% behind the instrumentation and the style.
Gorgeous bass line. I am so loving the entrance and the buildup you created to prepare for the lead voices. Bridge with tropical instrument also on point, and head bobbing all along with positive vibes. Let's go to the beach, furry friends, for it's a beautiful day!
And a million kudos for your Miro board. Man, you are such an inspiration. Learning so much from your notes already! A ton of valuable info there.
Great track, good vibe. I think it does capture the game really wel. The choice of instruments are good and wel composed. I love how you the focus of the instruments flow in terms of focus in the writing.
I do think the mix and sound of the instruments feel a bit aggresive especially in the higher parts of the spectrum/instruments. Which givese it a bit of a busy feel, instead of a more relaxed vibe. Everything feels a bit to much in the front of the speakers.
Amazing thank you!! Like I said to another guy here, I learned to mix essentially the week of the jam (two courses) but I still can’t spot properly what is right or wrong (even though I could tell the guitar was too aggressive but was not able to tone down the brightness properly yet) the rest felt okay to me personally on my Beyerdynamics DT 1990 PRO + Sonarworks to flatten the response to apparently professional standard.
Soooooo…
TLDR; My ears are super bad xDDDD
Anyways I appreciate it, it really echoes what most people have said to me and I look forward to gain in experience so the mixes become more “competitive”.
I’m also thinking of getting maybe two more pairs of headphones to try and have some more feedback on different material, so thanks for the great detail on your setup!
So,. I could talk for hours on setup and gear, I work as a sound engineer.
I would say.. and not everyone might agree with this.. but if you want to learn to mix.. its far more important to learn how things sound on your setup. An approach to perfect neutral audio is a long and complicated journey. You're headphone are a good set of headphones.. I would go for studio monitors next. And mostly.. listen, listen, listen. Get to know your favorite songs really well and use them as reference.
There's not really rights or wrongs, experience is important in this.. to know your ears and the system and goal your working with. Offcourse neutral is good.. but you can train your ears to make decisions when mixing without a perfectly neutral setup.
Learn how the digital instruments you use, would sound accoustically as a real instruments and where they fit wel inside the mix. Technique and tricks can be learned, but experience and workflow in how you approach the topic is what I've always found more important
All ears are different and mixengineers always make different decision on their opinion or the artists they are working with. So there's no right or wrong. Criticism is constructive and an opinion of where I, or someone else would make a different decision. (I also am never happy with my entries and keep hearing things I'd like to change!)
If you need help or struggle with a certain feel free to ask for help or insight from different composers or engineers!
Sorry for the long reply, but I hope that that helps, feel free to hit me up if you struggle with some technical aspects 😉
I'm super grateful for the long reply!
I didn't catch your discord but a sound engineer dm-reachable YES PLS! xD
A lot of good points, thanks for all the context!
When I meant doing right or wrong, it's mostly in the context of like you said lack of experience. The setup is all new and I'm new to mixing, so there's definitely a lot of listening like you said that needs to be done to become just better at knowing how to make the right decisions (even though like you said, there will always be subjective choices).
Thanks for the great write up and recommendations, I really appreciate it!
I found this track to be a ton a fun to listen to! The composition and the choice of instruments mesh really well for this type of game!
My only real criticism, as others have mentioned, is that the synth feels just a little too intense. Maybe bringing it down slightly in the mix would help balance that out, imo.
It's really cool to see how much thought goes into your work, and it definitely continues to show. I cannot wait to hear what comes next. Thanks for sharing this! :)
Could also ask with what hardware you listened to the song? I’m starting to think I might have to buy a few other things to listen through.
Right now I’m mixing with a Beyerdynamics DT 1990 PRO and with Sonarworks to have the best neutral reference sound possible, but I think it might be dentrimental for me to only listen through this for my mixes.
Thanks a ton!!
For these jams I've been primarily listening through a pair of Sony MDR-V6 Headphones, which I also typically use for mixing. They should be pretty similar to yours in terms of having minimal frequency enhancements.
I would also agree with you that listening to mixes from different sources will help you achieve the sound you're looking for. Personally, I didn't find my (very minor) critique to be as prominent when I listened again through speakers.
Also, I just read in your Miro board that you're relatively new to mixing, and honestly I felt this was solid work if that's the case. I think as you start to get more comfortable with mixing, and thinking a little more critically about where different instruments sit in the frequency spectrum, you'll start to get a better ear for how to balance instruments in a mix. I still feel I'm learning new things about the mixing process several years later. Keep on practicing and doing your thing!
Hopefully this helps!
it helps a ton thank you. I learned to mix this week with two concurrent courses. The goal of this jam was really to make a simple enough piece so I could focus all the work on learning and executing a mix from A to Z.
I think like you’re saying having a few other devices might help but yours is definitely not a problem.
But one thing that is as important or even more than that though is developing my ears and getting experience. I can learn to mix all I want, I need to mix more things and start developing a ear for what’s good or not, the foundations work well enough so that’s good, now only time and more work will help, and I think that’s still obvious considering how many people gave me great feedback on the current mix overall.
Thanks a ton again for all the great feedback, I’m spoiled to have access to people like you in the community so willing to help a noob ❤️
This sounds really good, especially for someone so new to music, thank you for sharing your detailed breakdown on Miro. love all the sounds you used and the composition.
Instrument/Chords wise this is AMAZING. Love the acoustic guitar to the standup bass. Keys on my end are a little loud. Love the slide on 0:50. Great song!
Another favourite :D All the instruments you use work well with each other. I'm also surprised that you are new to music, by the looks of your visual board you have a great grasp of things!
Turns out my agent's a CIA music agent? O.o Amazing read & growth! Heard about that VST sheet from Stevin Melin - so cool how you tailor resources.
Huge mixing gains! So clean and separated. Quick tip to pan first, then route to single channel reverb for room cohesion (Moukala's xy mod video). Noticed it only on the synth and minorly - super canon motif with it btw. Agree on guitar brightness, maybe mild EQ nudge, but def pref it to a softer bossa vst (AGM's great!)
Love the counter-melodic bass (0:30), syncopated percussion, and that 👌-alert pattern break (1:28). Xylo before final section's wondeful. Neat you vary the background around foreground, and impressive variety from structure.
Still fools me for game's OST - both goals checked! >:)
EDIT: Good!
Almost thought I’d get away without a good but that couldn’t happen xD
Thank you bro all the wonderful feedback, I’ll make sure to check AGM and thanks for taking the time to read that awefully long Miro board lol.
Thanks for the precise YouTube ref, I’ll check that out, I’ve yet to take Moulaka’s course but that will happen after vacation!
Also thanks for teaching me what an alert break pattern is ahahah, it just felt right at the time after feedback by Pixcele to make sure that nothing starts or stops abruptly during a song, that’s where I got the idea of continuing some percussion after the first break and adding the little bass jam as a transition to the big part :)
Super happy you feel like I got some of it right at least and welcome your encouragement with happiness!
LOL trajedy averted 😭
Not a problem! They're fun to read and I learn a lot from your approach
Oh my bad xD, I meant '👌 alert' - full support from a variation lover to keep looking for those moments!
With the learning you're doing already, you may or may not need the course. It can serve fleshing gaps, accountability, and a roadmap. If you do, writing mini variations is SUCH a fast way to internalize the lessons, or any videos, songs (me-verified moukala tip here hehe)
My brain can tell me I'm a lot for people honestly, so knowing the recs, feedback, encouragement are landing makes me happy ^^ it's what I like to do, so any time you need it. Oh and finally catching up ^^' but will leave another comment on your tsyua post too when I can get to it!
Meanwhile am awaiting the return >:)!!
I listened to the song carefully, especially because it was just instrumental. It started with low tones, then it suddenly switched to high tones (with one calm moment), then it went back to low tones but while it was fading out it again went to be high-toned. I can picture animals crossing a river that way. I gave to all categories 5 / 5 rating.
Bro, thank you for not scolding me for making AI song. The text is purely my work. Feel free to rate my song according to the principle of fair play.
Nice job! I wanna start by saying that for somebody who is only a month and a half this is amazing! You've got an ear for musical ideas and are clearly figuring out how to get sounds out of your brain and into the DAW. I can't wait to see where you are at in a year dude!
On to honest feedback:
Got the right vibes for the genre :) Fits the 1pm slot quite well for me. I love the upright bass (a staple in such soundtracks for me) and the synth lead was a fantastic choice for this!
The guitar sounds a little fried/over processed like all the dynamics have been squashed out of it. The charm of guitar strings is that each one has a slightly different level every strum. It could be the KClip squashing it a little too much. I'm curious what guitar VST you used for it? (couldn't see it listed in your frankly phenomenal document!)
All in all, feels like an ACNH track, and your in depth research and documentation has blown me away!
Thank you so much for the great review and the kind words!
The guitar was a problem for the whole week, I ended up with this as a compromise but of course it lost dynamics, it’s just that it was overwhelmingly bright and couldn’t find a way to make it sound rounder properly. It’s a shitty basic VST from NI, but it had one feature that was nice, as it played chords with one or 2 keys combined. I don’t know how to write for guitar with midi yet so that was helpful. Had done some guitar playing by ear 15 years ago, I kind wished I could have access to one now with the right recording setup, I feel I would have been more free with my writing that way :)
But yeah couldn’t tone down that big brightness but it was an awesome learning experience, I’m more gearing towards orchestral so this was a nice curveball and a good opportunity to learn the basics of mixing. I was somewhat successful with that and credibility so I’m happy 😊
Thanks again for the kind words!
Sup bro ! So i had the chance of listening to the track at different stages, and yeah the improvements on the production end are really amazing in such short amount of time ! Good work ! On the composition front, i'd like to have more development. I already told you but i really love the synth sound !
This is cool, I especially like the middle section, reminds me a lot of the older, drum-machine esc. animal crossing titles which is a nice touch!
I see what you went for composition wise, but I think the mixing is too aggressive, too treble and dry, "in your face" so to speak. The timbres feels angry. Take a walk on the wild side! Du du du du du....
Oh, interesting shaker pan) Nice composition. Guitar is a bit too loud along with lead synth, need bit more work with volume balance, but overall track is great!
Great job, I found a nice balance between fitting the game and also doing something a bit more structured, composed, more enjoyable as it is rather than just background music...sadly that -12 LUFS ruins it for me...
Mixing studies seems to have payed off nicely 😄, sounds really great! The track itself is great, so I can only mention a couple of probably pretty subjective things that i felt on my first listen:
Like Prospero mentioned, the guitar feels a slight bit too upfront/overpowering the melody parts, felt ok at the beginning with just alongside the bass, but after the synth lead comes, it felt like the guitar is fighting for my attention from the lead synth (not totally sure if just lowering the volume of the guitar might help or EQ).
One other thing I felt that might have been cool, was that if the marimba was on the left instead of the right, since the lead synth already plays there, so it would have given a nice change to have the melody "change" ears and give the marimba its own spot in the "stereo field".
From what I've listened to the soundtrack, you nailed the vibes on this!
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