Impressions Composing Jam: 

OST Jam #1

Intro

Welcome to the first Impressions Original Soundtrack Jam! This is the premiere jam of the series, focused on creating a soundtrack to an imaginary game. The Impressions jam series is a series of jams where a work of art from history is used to complement the theme.

This jam will run from  Friday, October 11,  6 PM Central, to Sunday, Oct 27, 8 pm Central. Voting Will end on November 2, 2024 at 8 pm  Central. See above for the times in your local time zone.

Details

Compose in any genre you'd like.

The voting period will be one week, unless more time is needed for unforeseen circumstances. There will be no extension on the time you have to compose the music.

Submit a minimum of 3 minutes of music. This is a longer requirement than the last time. 

Don't use music from jams that ended before this jam begins. You may use music that you compose for jams that run concurrently with and/or end before this jam.

Submit one or more tracks.

Attach a screenshot of your DAW.

Submit only original content.

***Do not use AI to produce any part your submission.***

Theme: The Death Knight

Art: Gustave Doré, Death on the Pale Horse, 1865

Theme: The Death Knight

Since it is October, I've chosen a spooky theme! Warriors representing death are a common theme myth and religion. "Death Knights" appear in many fantasy franchises as well,  such as Elden Ring, Dungeons & Dragons, and Warcraft. The theme has its roots in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. To represent this theme, I've chosen Gustave Dore's representation of the fourth horseman of the apocalypse - Death on the Pale Horse.

Write as if you're composing the soundtrack to a video game that follows this theme, at least loosely.  Write as much of the soundtrack to this imaginary game as you feel comfortable. This could be a boss fight (probably easier to follow for this particular theme), a menu screen, ambience, etc. Write in a way that most inspires you, and be creative with your imaginary game, take some liberties.

Completeness of the soundtrack to all the parts of the game is not necessary. Compose to the text theme, picture theme, or both.

It is your job to flesh out more details about the various themes and parts of the game that match the theme, since this is a soundtrack jam.

Rating Categories

Composing Quality - Is it well composed, despite perhaps being mixed in a mediocre way? Please keep in mind that complexity does not innately make a composition better, and sometimes makes compositions too busy.

Listenability - This is the "sanity check" of music. Music can be intriguing, unique, or interesting, but you just don't want that sound in your ears anymore for some reason you can't quite place, and you know it isn't just that the genre is outside of your taste.

Execution - Is it well mixed? Does everything sound well balanced? How is the stereo imaging, reverb, etc? How well is the music articulated? Are there good dynamics, good balance of rhythm, rubato, crescendo, etc.?

Correlation to Theme - How well does the composer use musical language to create an atmosphere that speaks to the theme?  Was the track actually appropriate for ambience and atmosphere?

Overall Uniqueness - did you feel like what you heard was fairly unlike other things you've heard before?

Submission Checklist

• 3 minutes of music from a chosen project, uploaded to your project page, uploaded as an MP3, WAV, or similar. Submit as many tracks as you'd like.
• Screenshot of DAW.
• Link to a streaming service.

If you are submitting close to the deadline, just worry about uploading your music to the project page. You can add in the streaming service later.

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