Play soundtrack
Calm's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall Uniqueness | #5 | 4.556 | 4.556 |
| Mixing Quality | #8 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #11 | 3.931 | 3.931 |
| Listenability | #14 | 3.722 | 3.722 |
| Composing Quality | #16 | 3.444 | 3.444 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW5InpEGMOY
Description
I recommend reading the journal I've been keeping during the jam, since I wrote everything below there + some more daily thoughts:
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVKrJv8Mo=/
My original intention for this jam was to try and use an old electric organ from probably around the 70's that I snagged for free, and if possible try to do some vocal stuff too for practice.
But as time went on, things started to veer off to a more ambient/experimental direction, so the end result is a bit... "out of character" for what I usually do, but I usually take jams as a place to try new stuff.
Feedback and critique is very much welcomed as always, especially since this was a bit of an experiment.
Thanks for listening!
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Comments
Very interesting ambient piece! Feels like I'm drifting through space...
During the opening I imagined this taking place deep in the mines. Then the vocals kicked in and now I'm wondering why we're deep in the mines. Motivational speech from corporate overlords in a dystopian hellscape? Or perhaps digging up to freedom towards the light?
Great atmosphere :D awesome stuff!
Thanks!
I can see how you got the mine vibes, the digging up to freedom towards the light is actually kind of close to what I had in mind writing the lyrics: A really mentally unstable person in an asylum staring at the skylight/window, talking to himself (and the voices inside his head), in an effort to try and keep their sanity.
I honestly think this just works so well. The vibe works really well.
While it was an ambient track that kind of droned, I must note the fact that I enjoyed every second of it, which is not easy to achieve. That is to say, this specific track doesn't need to "go anywhere" else in the right setting.
I could absolutely hear something like this in Dune.
Constructive feedback: I think to bring it to the next level, there are some mixing things that are perhaps beyond my capabilities. But, what my ear wants to hear to bring it to that next level would be for it to have more of a sense of space.
I could also imagine just building on the main sound, adding more volume and intensity, keeping the main drone. I imagine flying through a technologically advanced, industrial civilization, sort of dystopian.
This is really just very, very cool.
Never noticed how "bagpipey" the drone sounds until now with the Dune mention 😄.
I get what you mean with the sense of space, placing things in a virtual room is something I've been trying to understand for a while, but it's still a bit trial and error for me to achieve it without "damaging" the base sounds themselves. I really should've tried that, but somehow didn't cross my mind while making this.
I still need a bit more practice on automating effects and stuff to learn how to add intensity tastefully and not overdo it.
Glad you liked it!
One of the things that creates a sense of space is the way our ears hear sound, given that we have two of them.
If you think about how our ears locate sound, there's a delay between one ear and the other - that is, the sound doesn't arrive at exactly the same time, especially depending on where something is placed.
I've been recording with a stereo microphone setup (two SM57s), though I honestly could be doing a better job with varying my location when singing into the microphones.
I know another more basic thing is just to vary the pan of each track. What I've done in the past is actually record two tracks, put a delay on one, and then adjust the volume until it sounds like it's realistically coming from a direction. There are some spatial audio plugins as well.
What I'm trying to personally get better at is thinking about this in the context of having stereo speakers, rather than headphones.
Will probably have to take 1 jam just as practice for this, and get to grips with this stuff. Feels like it will take some tinkering/studying until it finally clicks in for me😅.
Oh! Don't worry! It's a fairly complex subject. There are some good videos breaking it down.
I think with this in mind, I think for September's jam, I'll make the focus on production quality.
This is a restless composition
First of all: I felt an incredibly cool industrial atmosphere... I'm a fan of this!
The vocals perfectly complement the overall creepy composition... Fire!
Definitely one of my favorites of this jam)
🙏
Your OST Jam tracks might've influenced the style and direction this took a bit😉(also too much re4 i guess...😅).
Oh... Thanks)
LOVEEE the metallic/industrial percussion on this--such a great way to add percussion without having more traditional drumsets involved, and it adds a lot of creepiness b/c it evokes an abandoned building. this is a really great ambient track, fantastic job
Thanks so much!
Had a lot of fun trying different effects to make those! Most of the rhythmic/percussive stuff is actually an acoustic piano (NI Noire) + some Breath noises and Nylon guitar plucks I recorded and mangled through some effects😄.
I'm not sure if you use/know the Reapack extension and the community made plugins for reaper, but for most of the rhythmic stuff I used Saike's SEQS effect plugin which is great for this type of fun sound mangling + Saike's Dusk reverb (a reverb great for this kind of ambient stuff). Can recommend them both and Saike's other stuff!
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=222750
Oooo this was creepy, that booming percussion in the background was really interesting, I think it would have been cool if you had a bit more dynamic changes in the non vocal elements, like maybe having that percussion slowly build or the character of the pads change to get more vibrant to introduce some elements of variation, but other then that I think the vocal stuff was super cool and I did really enjoy this
Yeah, the different parts ended up pretty monotone, just stacking new things on top. Will have to try some automation stuff, which I'm usually pretty lazy with using 😅.
Glad you liked it!
Unique atmosphere, liked the sound design and the voice. Good mixing and production overall, very ambient, would've like to move maybe a little bit more but for an ambient track I think its fine to stay modal all the way.
Thanks!
Agree with you on moving more.
Used mostly live recorded stuff for this (usually only work in midi), so was a bit overwhelmed with actually recording stuff and trying to work on from those recordings later down the line 😅.
Firstly - welcome to Reaper=)
Secondly - great industrial ambient, great work!
Glad you liked it!
Been on and off with learning Reaper, but still a bit bound by muscle memory from Cubase 😂. Every jam I use Reaper, I learn new stuff to change/add to make it work more to my liking, hoping to fully make the switch from Cubase after I've tweaked it to my liking.
So so nice! Nice contrast between major and unsettling/mysterious. Sounds somewhat industrial too with the rhythm. Critique-wise maybe more variation to the texture besides pitch, at moments the drums hit, maybe 'scuttling' or quicker lighter sounds if that makes sense. But the vibe's so nice as is, and reminds me of Umami on YT.
I get what you mean! Didn't cross my mind at the time, but will have to try recording/adding some fast textural stuff to this, if i can get myself to work on this without the "jam motivation boost" 😂
Hadn't seen any of umami's stuff before, but really thought provoking stuff for the lack of a better word, the art style in combination with the music has a real mood of it's own.
Haven't done much in this sort of atmospheric style, so thanks so much for the feedback!
No yea, that’s totally fair, it is impressive work for the time, especially after reading through the Miro part! You mentioned it’s a new style for you, and definitely seems like a lot of potential. I’d be curious to see where you'd take it.
Umami's does! It’s been years since watching it, so it was nice to be reminded of it through your work! ^^
I watched umami's interface part 1 and that was a trip to put it mildly, will have to try doing more stuff on later jams to some day reach the level of sound design that Twitchywalez has on their stuff!
Very sinister sound. Really like the rhythmic ostinato sounds throughout. Cool vocals. I also enjoyed reading the journal. Great work!
Glad you liked it!
Keeping a sort of journal is actually surprisingly fun when you get in to it.
All credits for the idea goes to IndieKev who i kinda nicked the miro board devlog thing.
what an unsettling and ethereal ambience!! the vocals added another layer of complexity to the track that wouldn't have existed without them. really tells a story and i can imagine it put in an opening cutscene for a game. great work!!!
🙏
This style is so cool! I could totally listen to an entire album of music in this style, the vocals are great!
The drone is also awesome, great work!
Thanks so much!
I can happily say that some your stuff on the earlier OST jams, alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto's Async were a big inspiration for how I ended up going for this more "grungy/bitcrushed" style in the sounds.
Wow, glad I could serve as inspiration! That’s definitely a style I want to try going back to sometime, I kind of miss it. You did a really good job with it!
This reminded me of the pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland with the robotic voice!
Thanks!
Haven't been to Disneyland, so I think that's a positive thing? 🤣
yes it is a positive