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199X OST - LOST CITY THEME's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall Uniqueness/Creativity | #14 | 3.785 | 3.889 |
| Execution | #28 | 3.515 | 3.611 |
| Composing Quality | #36 | 3.353 | 3.444 |
| Listenability | #37 | 3.407 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #55 | 3.127 | 3.213 |
| Correlation to Theme | #62 | 2.217 | 2.278 |
| Sense of Atmosphere | #62 | 2.487 | 2.556 |
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/shorts/UxxeKX1v2Uo?feature=share
Description
So, I forgot to make the track ambient. Sometimes that happens in life, you forget to make something ambient. I'm going to submit it for fun anyway. When I saw the theme, I thought about it and came up with a setting for a fictional game called 199X. In this world Y2K wasn't just an urban legend and led to failure of technnology and complete societal breakdown. Factions of power sprang up and fought and killed each other for decades until the population in control aged. After a certain point nobody cared or thought much about the old reasons for conflict and power structure because everyone is more or less equal on a playing field of mostly primitive technology. It's an analog only world once again. Since the world went into a little dark age before the year 2000, music and art are heavily influenced by the trends of the 1990s.
Don't think about it too hard, it's a fictional video game after all. Anyway, the "Lost City" theme is played during a level or sequence that takes place in a formerly bustling metropolis. People are fewer in number and are surviving in tandem with nature, which gives the urban atmosphere more of a bazaar or open market feel. I used a 90's hip-hop boombap style drum loop and a Yamaha DX7 Arturia synth plugin to get that Sega Genesis vibe. I used Nomad Factory 80's Spaces for some lead synth reverb and the Evantide Crystals plugin for some psychedelic reverb and delay on a lead synth for a different section. Some of the synth plugins used were the Tal J8, Arturia Analog Lab, Cherry Audio Rhodes Chroma, and others probably. I ran the mix through TR5 Black 76 for a light compression and then mastered with Ozone.
Although I don't know if I did well with the challenge, I'm glad that I made the track. Thanks for hosting the jam.
Screenshot of DAW
see "Capture" in downloads
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Comments
I definitely want the timing to be a lot tighter on this. I really like the composition. I think this track would benefit from compression to take some those funkier sounds and soften them up without removing their presence.
It's a really fun story you came up with, and I really love the vibe!
Great work!
:)
I feel that, the timing is def supposed to be swung and drunken boom bap hip hop style, so it’s an intentional stylistic choice a-La J Dilla etc. I understand if that’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s a thing with 90s hiphop and lofi. Thanks for the critique though.
Do you have some examples of the style? I'd like to hear so I can make sure I'm being fair in my assessment.
Sure I can provide some examples, but I think your assessment is fair regardless of wether I’m following a valid style or not. Some people just prefer tighter rhythms and some also like very loose stuff. Thats the nature of a contest and that’s ok.
This YouTube short kind of sums up the idea and methods of sloppy hiphop
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/YoLs9rc8AMk
Here’s a playlist of J Dilla beat “batches” that you can sift through if you want to hear different applications of the aesthetic that is sometimes called RnB Push-Pull or Hiphop shuffle. Drums and bass seem to be most rooted in this idea when applied, but it can definitely be applied to Melodie’s and chordal parts.
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-3TTtJryfWnIOq_LcDNppsB7MJ9ks0sO
Anyway, I hope you can at least get to hear some new and interesting sounds from those examples^^. I’m 100 percent positive that I don’t use these techniques as well as the masters do, but I am glad to be able to explain a bit about the ideas I’ve used. Again, I appreciate your critique and thanks for hosting the jam!
Show post...
I like apples and bananas
what about oranges though
Show post...
yeah they're good too
I’m gonna go with strawberries but they’re all good
Analyzing some of those, I think I can hear more of what is going on. I also really am enjoying that style, listening to it.
They are doing little pauses and polyrhythms in an otherwise actually very well-timed beat. The contrast between the beat and the violation of the beat is what gives it its flavor. There's a consistency to the pauses since things are looped in that style. It's like the beat version of microtonal music (heh, now I need to make some off-beat, microtonal music). A lot of the variations are also very subtle.
Listening to your track again, I think the part that wasn't quite capturing it was the synth, where it sounds a bit more random than loose, like it's not actually tied to anything, not returning to a sense of time like the referenced tracks you mentioned do.
You did a good job of creating an interesting track for sure though.
Thank you for linking that stuff! :)
for sure, and I do appreciate the feedback. Thanks again.
To me, the theme music sounds a bit weighty at the beginning, but you have built a clear and distinct structure, in my opinion the track sounds good.
I saw your lost city as a city that is lost to the world, but where robotic life is boiling. It's very cool!
Thank you, it was a pleasure to spend time with your music!
I think you’re right about the weighty entrance! It was definitely a point that I could have done better on, but it was one of those situations where nothing I did seemed to improve it. Ultimately I gave up and accepted defeat on that one. I very much appreciate your feedback and thank you for listening though!
Funky beat!
Glad you liked the funk! Thanks for listening
Those lead synth lines were so crispy! The song reminds me of some of the funk tracks from Maplestory.
thanks! I had fun making those synth lines and combining various patches via midi to make more complex lead sounds. I appreciate you listening!
This sounds dope!!! I think you captured the post-apocalyptic urban bazaar vibe you were going for :)
thank you! I am glad you enjoyed, and thanks for listening!
Groovy and upbeat, like a lively bazaar—it’d be such a blast to live there!
thanks, I appreciate you listening!
I'm glad you forgot to make this thing ambient because it's awesome. I had a blast listening to it. I have to try forgetting to make stuff ambient more often if this is the result. It is extremely evocative of a post-apocalyptic but upbeat bazaar, you nailed it. Fantastic!!
thanks! I’m glad I forgot to make it ambient too, it was just too much fun to make this track.
That's a lively bazaar ambient! Not quite something lost but who cares, your track is cool and funky :D
It was a pleasure to listen and I think it totally belongs to game soundtracks genre. It would be cool to listen to it during the first location visit (or maybe as a general location theme). Too bad that players will listen only to half a minute rushing from on entrance to another as we all do in open market locations if not buying anything.
While I was writing I realized that the closest soundtrack to this I remember would be old mmorg Ragnarok. Especially the second island that is more of a steampunk than fantasy.
I think you did tremendous job here!
thanks, I had to go back and check out the music from Ragnarok. Interesting stuff for sure