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Into My Depths's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #114 | 3.897 | 3.897 |
| Creativity | #324 | 3.448 | 3.448 |
| Impression | #351 | 3.276 | 3.276 |
| Overall | #362 | 3.317 | 3.317 |
| Composition | #458 | 3.103 | 3.103 |
| Quality | #548 | 2.862 | 2.862 |
Ranked from 29 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
An atmospheric soundtrack for a story-driven exploration game. Each track follows the main character's journey. Composed in FLStudio and powered by Sytrus FM Synth.
Message from the artist
This is my first Jam ever - I hope everyone enjoys my music and finds it interesting or powerful.
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
I set out to create a soundtrack that was like descending into the ocean of one's mind - depths with exotic, strange, and wonderful things - along with one's own darkness.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/user-299616995/sets/into-my-depths
Number of tracks5
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
For game jams only
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Comments
Love the dissonances and strange chords! I'm all about that. Tracks 2 and 3 in particular, those are some very eerie unsettling places you're going to there. There's a really nice analog, faintly 80s thing going on in your music as well which I really like. Loved it, nice work!
Really nice ambient tracks. my favorite was my inner beauty, but I also really liked the bass line for deep memories.
Nice atmospheric soundtrack! Go Into The Sea is especially beautiful. Great job!
Super vibey and atmospheric work, I think you entirely nailed that aspect of this!! I love ambient music so I think anyone who takes a stab at it is doing something right in my books.
I like the compositions but I feel like the instrumentation is too light and sparce, there could be room for more lush sounds and instruments that could improve the feel of the tracks and also help with the ambient. But even so the tracks were very pleasant to listen to and blends really well with your setting. Well done, and congrats on your first jam!
I love the eerie tone! The synth pads do a really good job at making everything sound weird and dreamlike, it really sounds like your diving into someones mind in this OST! Awesome work!
Go Into The Sea: That classic Sytrus dream bell! Nice pads.
Deep Memories: I like the bassline! I like the eerie pads.
Sadness: I love the i-vi chord movement here which is uncommon but a great way to set an unsettling mood.
Light From The Surface: The pads here remind me of Majora's Mask. More dream bell goodness.
My Inner Beauty: Pretty positive ending to contrast the darker tracks from before. Nice conclusion!
Some slight clipping issues in this OST but another comment explained a good way to fix it. Great work and hope to see you next jam!
The pads and lead tones in these are ethereal, and contrasting them with some of the darker ambiences and drones was genius. You've struck the balance you described in your write up really well - depths with exotic, strange, and wonderful things - along with one's own darkness.
Well produced throughout, though some of the bell-like tones do peak a little too hard at points as Ordos mentioned. Not a major issue in the grand scheme of things, especially not for a jam entry, but something to be conscious of for further work. These were a delight to listen to and get lost in - they evoke feelings of floating but still having some substance and gravity. At times they gave me nostalgia for the late 16-bit era and early 32-bit era of gaming. Could see them being utilized in a game in and around the mid-to-late 90s.
Totally achieved that ocean of mind feeling on this.
Some great sound design, especially on the pads, but I do think you could maybe have gone a bit further with some more complex modulation to create some more interesting and shimmering sounds, especially as a lot of the arrangements were very sparse. But they were still good enough to hold my interest even when very minimal.
I think the very plain bass works really well for the style of soundtrack you've gone for but in the early tracks I think the sort of high-mid range bell sounds you feature quite heavily could have used a bit more added texture to them, they do work and fit in nicely but at times they were a little overly plain. There were a couple times also where they were poking through a bit too loudly that made things feel a bit unbalanced.
The sort of mid range guitar-esque arpeggio you have in My Inner Beauty sounds fantastic and I would have loved to hear more sounds like that.
There are some other great moments too like the very emotional middle section of sadness with that melody part that sounds half-way between a string and a flute. That entire track is another one I really liked tbh.
The times where you bring in the wave sounds on 1&4 work really nicely too.
Overall though I do rate this one pretty highly and really enjoyed it!
Very good job. That pad in the second track is so good
Me listening to this breathtaking soundtrack:
I'll break it down track by track here:
"Go Into the Sea" sets the stage well - the delay/echo effects were interesting and creating some interesting textures.
"Deep Memories" brings back the same motif, with some interesting tension added in. The bell synth that comes in around 0:48 feels a little jarringly loud imo, though perhaps that was your intention with the overall anxious sort of sound.
"Sadness" has a good melancholy sound to it, slightly reminiscent to me of Final Fantasy 7. The bass is a bit too loud and pops a bit around 0:53 and 1:17 specifically. The background synth that rises and falls in volume feels very similar to an ocean's waves to me, the reverb and timing on it is perfect to that effect. The ocean sounds from "Go Into the Sea" are designed in a very similar way - you did a nice job of calling back to that. Great job there.
The reverb and echoes are laid on really thick for the bell synth in "Light From The Surface" and in most other use cases I would have said it was too much, but it does fit the context that you have created pretty well. There's some more clipping here; I would pile on with what some others have said and utilize soft clipping and limiting to reduce this in the future.
The last track, "My Inner Beauty" is a nice departure from the sound and tone of the previous tracks. The chord progression and instrument choices are both lovely.
A lot of this album blends together - and I would say that is both a good bad and a bad thing in a couple of ways. It certainly feels like a cohesive album when looked at as a whole, and the recurring motif established in the first theme is utilized well throughout the soundtrack. "Light from the Suface" does a great job of calling back to the anxiety established in "Deep Memories" and then proceeds back into the theme and ocean sounds from "Go Into the Sea". Excellent work there! However, a little more variety as a whole would have done well to break things up to prevent the sound from becoming monotonous; my ears had definitely moved on by the time I got to "My Inner Beauty."
Conclusion:
Nice work overall, I think you did a great job of sticking with the theme and keeping things short, sweet and to the point. The album was enjoyable for the most part, my biggest complaints just being that things were feeling a little stale towards the end (tbh I totally missed the connection you made in track 4 to the rest of the album on my first listen, just because my ears had sort of zoned out at that point,) and you could use some work on your overall mixing to prevent clipping and make your instruments play a little more nicely together. If you would like some pointers in that area in the future, feel free to reach out. :)
Thanks for the timestamps - I'd have spent a while looking for what everyone was saying. I'm surprised the bass did it - my attention was reducing volume or velocity on the pads. I can understand if the bells do it. I might clean up the OST after this is over and repost.
I like the many different emotions the tracks invoke. The tracks glue well together and fit well thematically. I have little criticisms aside from what others have already said. The melodies are nice and I like the slow tempos of the tracks!
Interesting tracks! I like the bass on Deep Memories but I do feel like it could use some work on mixing/adsr, it sounds too stiff compared to the other instruments. In general all the tracks correlate great to the idea you chose, and I gotta say the last track My Inner Beauty is probably my favorite, I love the chord progression and instruments you used, and the more defined melody really catches my attention. (specially the bass, which sounds way better in this one!)
Great choice of synths and instruments! Clipping was an issue at certain points but I liked the idea of this soundtrack!
Also, putting a stock soft clipper on the master at its default settings is a quick way to eliminate excessive clipping in FL Studio (though I'd still recommend learning how to use a limiter in the long run)
As others said- the clipping was pretty bad at times- but I had the same exact issue when I was starting to make music with FL. Even now I'm not great at managing my levels and mixing and all that. The music gave a very relaxing ocean adventure vibe that you definitely sold well! Great job. From now on, focus on the bar that tells you how loud that is, and never let it hit the ceiling!! You did awesome!
There was a lot of clipping in the songs for me and they all felt a tad samey. I liked my inner beauty best because it was more unique than the other tracks.
Interesting chord progressions!
This soundtrack has a weird, off-kilter vibe that I very much vibe with. It's strange and uncomfortable in the best way.
The instrumentation is somewhere between Minecraft and Ecco The Dolphin, which I like quite a bit.
There were a few moments where I noticed some clipping, which isn't great, but it isn't super frequent. I'd recommend throwing a limiter like LoudMax on your master to prevent it.
Overall great vibe, love it.
Thanks - I did have a bit of trouble with the levels in some places and felt I had smoothed it over, but maybe not for some listeners. My own listen today with friends was in a car, so sadly I am more upset the lows didn't come through.
Sytrus is a FM Synth plugin that I think delivers a sound very close to the 16-bit era, so it seems I was on the mark.
Even though I find the sound design and production value overall leaving much room for improvement, I have enjoyed listening to this submission. I especially liked the last song, My Inner Beauty. It is interesting with the instrument combinations.
Also, everything being done with one synth is really cool. Sytrus rocks!
Well, that stings, but it's fair.
I don't know how to operate or tweak a FM synth matrix, but Sytrus was the one with the presets I liked most for this, so I admit some sounds might have benefited from more tweaking. I also may have missed some of the instances where levels went too high. I did smooth several of them down via lowering velocity.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, though!