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OST Composing Jam #4

Hosted by Lone Rabbit · #OSTCompJam
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A jam submission

The Ballad of the Cyber KidView project page

Submitted by molgenzo — 6 hours, 27 minutes before the deadline
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The Ballad of the Cyber Kid's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#843.6993.813
Correlation to theme#1033.5173.625
Overall#1523.2143.313
Quality#1553.0923.188
Composition#1652.8502.938
Impression#1682.9103.000

Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
The soundtrack is written for an exploration/puzzle game similar to Limbo or Inside. Each track represents either an area in the game or an important of the journey of the titular character. I primarily work in Ableton, supplemented by Max for Live. My work process involves midi synths, resampling, and general digital signal manipulation.

Message from the artist:
"The Ballad of the Cyber Kid" is a exploration/puzzle game soundtrack about running away from who you are. When creating the soundtrack, I wanted to combine music with sound design to give more character and dynamic quality to an unspeaking protagonist. I primarily work within a harsh and chaotic sound environment, so I understand if some tracks come across as harsh, but I wanted the piece to be a journey up a mountain of discovery. I hope you enjoy!

Theme:

Runaway

How does it fit the theme?
The soundtrack is a story of running away from your truest self and then later discovering who you actually are through hardship, strife, and perseverance.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/user-180022144/sets/the-ballad-of-the-cyber-kid

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Comments

StaccatosaurusSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Easy to get lost in this soundscape, it is so immersive! A little melody here and there would have been nice to spice things up a bit. Very calming feel though. I could totally see this for the right kind of game. Thanks for sharing!

Submitted
Covering Ground
Reply
Peter WojtekSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Late rating I know, but as a long time fan of Sakamoto's most experimental works (ie. the album he did with Alva Noto, you should defo check them out) this was a wild ride. I can see you had quite some fun with Ableton's operator, your work almost sounds like it was made with modular synths. I'm something of synth nerd myself. So go you.

Submitted
Runaway
Reply
FoxHyodeSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Interesting take, everything is pretty unique, i can feel the "cyber" vibe and imagine something like a puzzle game as its pretty mysterious in general with some original ideas. The mix though, you gotta cut some mid-high frequency, sometimes there is so much its almost peaking and creating some distortion its not super pleasant for long term listening. The confrontation of time and space is my favourite except for what I said about the mix. Good job though.

Submitted
Graveen
Reply
bduboseSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

I loved all the sounds you used! The atmosphere you created with each of these tracks was wonderful! 

Submitted
Just a Dream - OST JAM #4: Runaway
Reply
IllestPreachaSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Really since the theme and cohesiveness between the tracks on the OST

Submitted
SendOff -Illestpreacha
Reply
drive, elizabethSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

You have effectively used the music to create an atmosphere which helps me imagine the type of puzzle game this might belong to. It's slow moving (which would be preferable in a puzzle game) rather than hectic or taking attention away for the would-be-player. I most enjoyed 'The Hidden Door' - now I need to know what is behind it!!    

Submitted
Futuristic Runaway
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molgenzoDeveloper2 years ago(+1)

Thank you so much, and that is a very nice choice for a favorite tune! The Hidden Door itself is a rather weird track. It started initially with the opening drum pulse and a fair bit of eq manipulation. By changing the frequency domain makeup of the sound during each hit, it sounds as if the drum sound is being struck from different areas on the drum like a percussionist might hit a tom-tom in different places around the rim to activate different timbres. The other important composite sound at the beginning which eventually overwhelms the rest of the track is itself rather simple. That sound began initially as a sample from a bit of sound design I did for a different project. I shaped that sound a bit, attached an arpeggiator to the midi device and then experimented around with manipulating the arpeggiators makeup with one hand while playing the synth with the other. After that, I gated different sends behind certain frequency ranges and what you heard on the track emerged from that! As the piece developed from there, most of the composition turned into freezing midi to audio, and then manipulating it as needed without losing the core sound. 

Hope that helps explain the track, and I'm really glad you enjoyed the atmospheres within the score!

Reply
drive, elizabethSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

That makes me like the track even more! Thanks for the background explanation.

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David CaldarellaSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

And, the ending really tied everything together by bringing back the same instrument from the start ;) loved it

Submitted
Forester
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David CaldarellaSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

I don't often listen to atmospheric music, and I really enjoyed this massive soundtrack! You have a looooooot of music here, and it was fun to think about how each track might correlate to the game. I would have loved even more explanation from you about each track, just to hear about your process and how they all tie in to the narrative. Incredible job though, super high-quality new music here!

Submitted
Forester
Reply
molgenzoDeveloper2 years ago

I intentionally wanted to keep tracks relatively abstract, but most of the names correlate to either a specific place/level or a part of the story. The order of the tracks themselves is the order that the player will encounter them within the world, with that said I imagine each actual track of the score would manifest as a grouping of small musical events that would be triggered in the game. In particular, I am a huge fan of the sound design in Inside, so I wanted the ambient score to feel like a collection of ambient events that might occur on trigger with player actions much like in that game. With regards to composition, I work primarily within Ableton Live supplemented by Max for Live for more exact digital signal manipulation. While each track is different, most tracks start from a place of organized improvisation.  I typically started with the track, figured out the sound world, made up some material then analyzed it, and let the form shape around that. I'm really glad you enjoyed the score, especially considering the genre of ambience/noise isn't your forte. Two of my primary inspirations in this realm are Oval's album Symstemisch, and Amon Tobin's album Fear in a Handful of Dust, if you enjoyed the score here, I'd greatly recommend them; thank you so much for your response!

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ALPAGAMESSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

I... I dont really know what to say, your tracks are so atmospheric, they put me in such vibe that I kinda lost the ability to think. It's incredible, congratulation !! You really nailed it !

Submitted
Testaria : The green child
Reply
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