I actually listened to this quite frequently before the submission ratings even started - easily one of the most detailed and extensive tracks in this jam! I remember you from the palindrome jam and was disappointed that you didn't rank higher - you definitely deserve to be seen.
Play soundtrack
Far Reaches - Impressions Composing Jam #2's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Execution | #4 | 4.086 | 4.086 |
| Overall | #5 | 3.867 | 3.867 |
| Overall Uniqueness/Creativity | #8 | 4.029 | 4.029 |
| Overall Uniqueness/Creativity (double field for weight) | #9 | 3.657 | 3.657 |
| Listenability | #11 | 3.943 | 3.943 |
| Correlation to Theme | #14 | 3.714 | 3.714 |
| Composing Quality | #15 | 3.771 | 3.771 |
Ranked from 35 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service
https://turtlebox.bandcamp.com/album/far-reaches-impressions-composing-jam
Description
"Far Reaches" - an OST inspired by the artwork of Katsushika Hokusai. Six tracks composed with a mix of Analog Synths to create lush pads and waveforms and live instrumental to create a sense of immersion and space.
Six full tracks created in just under 24 hours, an experiment in recording and mixing live audio in single takes by creating looping ambience and melodies and layering them to create an OST bordering on light-noise and acoustic ambience.
Music Visualizer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GheikdaEQtM
Please feel free to provide comments and feedback.
Synths(Analog / FM) used
- Poly D
- Korg Trident
- DW8000
- Moog One
- Korg MS-20
Physical Instruments used
- Andon Shamisen ( Shamiko )
- Fiddlerman OB1 ( Violin )
- Baldwin B-52 Professional (Piano)
- Fender Paranormal Gold (Guitar / Feedback)
Amps and Pedals Used
- Fender Ultimate Chrous (Amp)
- Walrus Audio Melee (Feedback + Reverb)
- Strymon Bigsky (Ambience)
- Suhr Analog Delay (...Delay, lol)
Screenshot of DAW (required, but it can be uploaded shortly afterwards)
https://theturtlebox.itch.io/far-reaches-impressions-composing-jam
Comments
The Palindrome jam still haunts me. I believe I was the most voted on submission something like 73 votes, but a lot of people didn't really understand the challenges and it made voting really awkward.
I think it was cool that a lot of people got super mad that I released a 40 track sample CD an hour before the Jam started and then exclusively used that sample CD to compose the tracks for my Jam submission too, lol.
I had a lot of fun with that jam, creating a workflow to compose symmetrically was most of the work too, sucks that people didn't quite understand the challenge levels.
I like the scope of these Impression jams, the composing aspect. It encourages people to do more than just open up a software and click "generate random song". It encourages the study of art and the grow as producers and composers.
I appreciate you listening to this often.
"pain and warning" almost sounds like a remix or homage to re1 save room theme haha (which is a very good thing)
Submitted
PRIMORDIALI hadn't noticed that, about half way through it has the same sort of vibe. I just did a whole sample CD inspired by Save Room music earlier in the month, I probably had Save Room on the minds for this release, lol.
I think it's just also the scales used, as well as everything being in 3/4.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
24 hours for 6 tracks is insane! You should be proud of yourself. Love some textures and sound design, and thank you for detailing the equipment used.
Submitted
What Some Will Never WitnessA lot of great ideas and nice sounds, giving a very peaceful vibe !! Thanks for sharing :) <3
Submitted
EveLuna - The Moonit seem to me very clean overhall, and so emotional in minimalism. I can't tell why but I fall in love with the first track, my favorite. All tracks has a kind of magic, humble but very powerfull in intentions. Thanks for that.
Submitted
far reaches but from inside a busStrong meditation vibes with this one, very pleasant and incredibly flavored harmonies!
The mix is very professional, I felt the space completely filled, mostly listening with headphones, almost transported to another place and the textures you got on this are top :D
Take care!
Submitted
The Far Reaches - Impressions Jam#2Very nice use of different instruments and sounds to create 6 distinct environments and atmospheres. The mixing is done excellently (something I have a lot of trouble with) and gives off a really good meditative vibe. It was very listenable and gave a strong sense of calm that I really appreciated.
I love the small melodic sections within the tracks though I find myself wanting a bit more concrete melodies when I’m actively listening but that’s purely subjective.
As an immersive OST focused on ambience, I think it achieves the goal really well. I can see this being used as the OST for virtual/immersive art exhibits.
Submitted
A Different SpaceLots of tracks pretty impressive. I like that you kept your leitmotiv on all the tracks or a least a glimpse or reference of it but not played exactly the same its a nice touch. Very calm and peaceful I enjoyed listening.
Submitted
Forever's EdgeThanks, everything is rooted in F Minor. The feedback / harmonics washing out in one solid Root (F or C# for each track) really helps me explore the actual harmonics within both scales. It was a cool experiment in seeing how quickly I could find these harmonics and tones on a bunch of different instruments and make them sound well in a mix, lol.
Nice work, very experimental and ambient music, along with sounds of Japanese folklore
Submitted
Then, Now at the same timeThank you, I took a lot of influence from the Japanese Ambient composer, Hiroshi Yoshimura (
)
I wanted to buy some of the same instruments he used off this record but couldn't quite find accurate list.
I'm very glad you enjoyed it. I hope you can enjoy "Green" too if you care to listen, I highly recommend it.
Great sounds! I love the blend of acoustic guitar and synths. Very nice work
Submitted
The Hand Reaches, GraspingIntro sound is very trippy. I love the guitar/synth melody with its somewhat offbeat melody. You understood the assignment! :)
The big thing I'm liking here is that it sounds fresh. For constructive feedback, I think maybe some of the composition itself is maybe a little more straightforward, but overall it's very good.
Solid work!
I'm in love with all the textures, spaces and environments you've created. The music feels full and alive, the frequency spectrum is dancing with all sorts of different luscious sounds. Each song seems to define a certain mood, or thought pattern to me, like I'm stuck in some sort of auditory rumination. The mood improves as the songs progress. There is melody, but it all blurs together a bit. I wish I could hear "Sword and Ice" where the guitar stops to catch it's breath and lets the bass play a bit. I want to hear the instruments vying for the listener's attention. I want to hear distinctive motifs, but it all tends towards meditative. But that's purely subjective and based on what I like to listen to. This is an excellent work of music and you've shown you know how to bring complex, warm timbres together into a cohesive whole.
Submitted
Pilgrimage to Amida FallsIt's actually really funny you bring up Sword and Ice. I initially had it as a bonus track, something recorded with the Violin, Harmonics, and a 12 string acoustic running through my Fender twin's clean and a pedal called the CP-508, an ambient "wonderland" style pedalby the company Caline.
This version of the track also has some Mendini Glockenspiel which I mic'd up and ran through the same CP-508 pedal, right in the pre-bridge sections.
The difference in the tracks is the mixing mostly, but the version in the OST has the overall guitar feedback sound I wanted to experiment with and went for. That's what inspired the restructure of the track, adding a third segment to let the feedback have more space to loop.
You can listen to it here - https://turtlebox.bandcamp.com/track/sword-and-ice-isolated-strings It's a lot more straight forward and doesn't trip over itself by trying to have a ton of different tonal sounds coming in and through. I hope you enjoy this one a bit more, but regardless I would love to know what you think of this version.
EDIT: Here's a demo of the pedal on amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Caline-Wonderland-Ambient-Modulated-Aluminum/dp/B0B2BXG7B... Caline is a weird brand, not really known for anything but knock-offs, clones, and cheaper pedals. I like the CP-508 because it's decay is insanely aggressive and in mixes like this it really just kind of sits back and gives that Supermasive type of wash without being super up front in the mix.
You just nailed it. Each track is on point in my opinion.
When you said you did this in 24 hours, do you mean in one litteral day? If it is the case that's really impressive, well done!
Submitted
Take me beyond what I can seeYeah, I've done all of these composing jams with a 24 hour limit to sort of challenge myself. I'll usually take a day off from everything, spend the day before setting up everything in my studio so when I wake up I can just get right to composing, and then kinda just start going.
Each track gets recorded back to back and I try to mix as I do, or do as much mixing as possible. This session was especially fun because it let me just run analog synths through obnoxiously wide reverbs and then swap cables and run guitars / pickup'd stringed instruments through those same pedals.
Every track here uses feedback from a smaller amp, I didn't finish listing my equipment but I ran the strings (guitar, violin, ect) through a Fender Ultimate Chrous, and faced that into a Fender Champion 100 with just it's preset Delay and Reverb, both amps on the clean channel, both EQ'd with the Para-EQ, the Ultimate Chorus the classic original Para-EQ Empress, and the Champ-100 ran through a clone called the Para-Q Nano made by Sine Effects I believe?
Being able to EQ feedback and utilize it to create pads is something I've wanted to do for a long time and felt like it fit perfectly in a project like this.
I guess I started to ramble, but my point was that I spent 24 hours live recording guitar feedback. Each feedback is 4/4 at 80bpm which let me experiment with double time melodies when I wanted too, and even tempo change from 4/4, to 2/2, and even to 3/4.
It's cool, I guess. How I end up abusing these projects to just demonstrate how wild composing music in a traditional yet modernized mindset can be. Is recording feedback and filtering it with analog synths composing? I think so. But I was more than glad to throw some cool stringed instruments into the mix! Especially since it meant I could finally just play some scales on my Samiko Mini, lol.
This is one of my favorite submissions I've listened to so far. I appreciate the work you did over a session to create some ambient pieces featuring different instruments and ideas while maintaining some connective tissue to form a whole. The overall mix sounds good on my end as well. Great stuff! :)
Submitted
the far reachesThank you!
I discussed it elsewhere, but I tried live mixing with this release which is why it has a bit more loop kinda melodies and as it goes on the melodies expand and become less repetitive, throughout the 13ish hours playing and live mixing I was lucky enough to get to a really fantastic balance in the mix, and from there it was only another 6ish hours of actually sitting down and mixing out everything else.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.