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A jam submission

Somnia OSTView project page

An OST for a game that doesn't exist!
Submitted by Indie Odyssey Games — 12 hours, 34 minutes before the deadline
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Somnia OST's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Correlation to theme#3923.2863.286
Quality#4603.0953.095
Overall#5033.0383.038
Impression#5142.9052.905
Creativity#5173.0483.048
Composition#5352.8572.857

Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
I tried a mix of genres, but it's mostly acoustic. All made with Reaper

Message from the artist
Hope you like it!

Theme

Inside my world

How does it fit the theme?
The narrative of the "game" surrounds dreams, which are inside your own personal world. Characters that would be added were heavily inspired by the picture (I.e Nozomi is the silhouette)

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGk0EeLEj_VDnX5de5eiu1b9cLdVRauor&si=h-oOL0txa33-Q_1d

Number of tracks
6

Genre

Rock/Metal
Folk/Acoustic

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY)

Any project

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Comments

Submitted

Gryah! It was magical and exciting!

I especially liked it... I don't even know how to describe this feeling... I felt like I was listening to something airy and alive (I don't even know why, huh)

I liked it! Thanks)

Submitted

Cool soundtrack!! 

I like that you had a different approach to each track in terms of style but maintaining certain elements to make it cohesive (eg keep some of the instruments). I really enjoyed listening to your music, it certainly feels like a nice trip.

GREAT JOB!!!

Submitted

Really interesting take on the subject, experimenting with different genres while maintaining the storyline/"concept"/vibe of the game is a tricky thing to do, and I think you've done it well.
It's diverse, creative, and shows a wide array of genres you are comfortable building from/with.

The composition is simple yet efficient, thanks to a tasteful arrangement and choice of instrument, which is perfect (in my humble opinion) for the realm of video game music.

Mixing wise, I feel like playing around with your stereo space, eq-ing certain things here and there to avoid frequencies taking over one another - overall more work on the mixing aspect of things - could have gone a long way and made this project a top tier in this jam. All of this is very subjective though, and I had a blast listening to the whole thing (Strange Vision is just so tasteful, simple, catchy, and well done!!).

Too many words just to say, congratulations, you've done an awesome job, and I'm excited what you come up with in the future :-)

Submitted(+1)

Interesting take on this, mixing folk and electronic with some metal is quite different and pretty unique. I think most of your tracks especially So Do Nightmares need some readjusting in the mix, your main lead guitar tracks is far too gone and your rythm guitar track takes all the place and super centered you should probably make the guitar rythm wider and main guitar riffs center for more presence in the song. Unironically I think your best track(s) is Nozomi,s Theme pat 1 and 2) the quality is great it simple and a great change of pace. Good job !

Developer

Good note on the mixing- knew someone would bring it up eventually


I could tell it was a bit rough, but wasn't sure why, so really appreciate the specifics

Submitted(+1)

First off, "Dreams Come True..." has a very soft, curious or adventurous sort of sound to it. It's pretty and has a nice melody, but I personally feel like it could have had a little bit more impact by lowering some of the sounds an octave or something else to give the instruments a bit more separation. They feel a little crowded.

"Lucidity" has a strong opening organ-esque wall of sound and develops nicely. The breakdown at 1:00 is well done and keeps things moving in a good way. The rhythm synth and the lead feel like they are fighting for space a bit towards the end, perhaps some panning or pinpointed EQing could help here. Composition wise, this was an interesting track that never got stale, and I like how you kept coming back to the same chords you used in the beginning, with that little bit of reverb/ambience at the end even feeling a bit reminiscent to the intro as well. 

"...So Do Nightmares" starts out with a some pretty strings before jumping into a cool little guitar riff. The strings have a really slow attack, so you can only really hear them on the longer notes. You could fix this by starting the string notes well-before the rest of your notes, or use an instrument with a shorter attack on the faster notes. Overall a cool composition and a lot of interesting stuff going on here. Your guitar sounds pretty good for being a MIDI instrument, and the choir gives some nice thickness where the song needs it. My biggest issue once all the instruments pick up is I kind of feel like I'm drowning in reverb. I'd recommend experimenting with high pass filters on your reverb, especially on the low end (try a high pass cutting off at around 200hz and go from there) to clear up some of that mud, especially on the left/right sides.

"The Gift" has a really nice lead bell part, love the little flourishes at 0:15 and 0:26. The rhythm bells raise the volume quite a bit at the end - if you were trying to do a build-up for dramatic effect, I don't think it comes across quite as intended; it just feels too loud there to me.

It was after this track that I realized that you had made a video that explained your soundtrack, and I feel you really did your soundtrack a disservice by not leaving an audio transcription of it and calling out this video in your project page. At 8 minutes, it's not something that a lot of folks doing song ratings are going to want to commit their time to, and leaving the audio written out in the description ensures they will see the thoughts and method you had around your creative process. Watching this gave me a much better gauge as to your skill level and experience making music, which helps me to judge how best I can give you feedback. (It was a great video, btw)

Getting back to the music, "Strange Visions" has a nice bit of tension around 0:30, I would have loved to see this developed a bit more in a longer version of the song. The melody for the lead here is solid. 

"The Window In My Mind" has a good pickup around the middle, and the acoustic guitar compliments the bell sounds you've been using up to this point nicely. The guitar parts especially sound a bit stiff in this one with the exception of the faster rhythm that starts around 0:52; try drawing your notes off grid or using some humanization filters on the MIDI to break things up a bit and make it feel a bit more natural. (In Reaper, you can highlight your MIDI notes and press h. Be VERY gentle with the timing, 3 to 5% is a good starting point and you can adjust individual notes from there if something sounds off when you play it back.)

For having never completed a whole song before this challenge, this was a very solid attempt. Your songs sounded cohesive from track to track; you did a good job of making each one feel like a piece of a larger album. Composition wise; you had some interesting ideas and good foundations here and I see a lot of potential to build on! "Lucidity" and "...So Do Nightmares" stood out the most to me and had the most interesting progressions. My biggest issues were from a music production standpoint, here's some quick points that could help you in the future. 

* EQ your instruments so that they all have their own individual space; cut out areas that aren't needed such as using a low pass filter at 600hz to remove the high end from a bass instrument. This will give other instruments playing above 600hz more room to "breathe" without affecting the tone of the bass in any meaningful way. Play around with ReaEQ's defaults! This can definitely help with some of those wonky Kontakt instruments like Ethereal Earth that can make cool sounds but also have the potential to clog up your mix very easily.

*Reverb - you used some pretty huge reverb effects, and while they can sound really cool in the moment, but listen specifically to how long your notes trail. Long reverb trails can create unintended dissonance or by causing notes to overlap in the background of your mix; especially when you have instruments that already have a long sustain. Using a high pass filter to cut off some low end of your reverb is a good idea in most cases, especially when you are laying it on thick.

*Automation (raising or lowering specific parameters such as volume, pan, how much of an EQ is applied, etc) throughout your tracks can go a long way to making certain sections pop. Sounds like you definitely experimented with volume automation in a few areas, so good effort there. In addition to straight volume, there are several circumstantial ways you can make your lead sections pop where they need to by EQing down other instruments in important spots, panning them to somewhere where nothing else is playing, panning everything else away from the middle, applying heavy delays, reverbs, distortions, chorus, etc. A lot of your breakdowns and build-ups throughout the album, but especially in "Lucidity" were structured correctly and your intention came across clearly; using these kinds of tools can help deliver them with bigger impact.

* Compression: Play around with ReaComp on each individual instrument in your mix, then listen to how everything sounds when you play it back. Compression is a difficult topic to learn for many and isn't really worth the effort if you aren't going to spend a lot of time doing music production; but just playing around with some presets can give your mix a lot more clarity and higher quality sound (try the Driving Bass preset on ReaComp on something that you want to be punchy)


tl;dr: Solid effort, your musical intentions came across nicely for the most part. I think you have some great potential if you want to pursue doing more music composition in the future. For having never finished a single song, you made seven of them into a whole album (in just a week, too)! Be proud of yourself, it's a very cool achievement and I'd love to hear how you've progressed next year if you choose to participate again. :)

Developer(+1)

Holy shit, dude, this comment is pure gold!

Clearly thoughtful and spent some time on this; very specific with what needed fixing and at a level that I can grasp. 

Considering you watched the video (and listened to the OST itself lol), you probably inferred that I didn't bother much with mixing or EQ (it was scary and I was in crunch mode) but this comment was REALLY insightful, and I think it's a good starting point to continue to learn from.

Thanks a million, and I look forward to jam #8!

Submitted(+1)

The whole OST is beautiful and very relaxing to listen to :3 I especially enjoyed Strange Visions.

This is the sort of sound I’m hoping to achieve in one of my long-term game projects at some point, so I have a lot to learn from your OST :D

Developer(+1)

"A lot to learn" is absolutely flattering. 

This being, and I say this in the humblest way possible, my first OST, I don't really know what I did right or wrong, but I do know that I would emulate other songs that had the sound I was looking for, then modify them. For example, on Strange Visions I just took The White Lady from Hollow Knight and moved some notes around, added some, removed some, until I was happy with it and it sounded unique enough that it wasn't a copy

So I guess my advice is listen to a lot of similar music? I hope that was at least somewhat useful

Submitted

That’s a really cool way of achieving the sort of sound you’re trying to attain :3 I could certainly give it a go! I don’t know if I would be very successful because I have no technical knowledge >.< I can’t even read music, haha. Everything I do is just by ear, but I can’t name notes, so I’d be sat there basically just trying to match the sounds x3

It’s still great advice though :3 Even though the types of soundtracks I’ve made for my projects in the past aren’t exactly what I’d usually listen to, they’re definitely still somewhat influenced by the things I do listen to in that they have a darker sort of feel to them.

For the project where I want to try and make an OST with a similar sound to your one here, I guess I should try to find more music like it to get inspiration from :3 Making darker tracks comes naturally to me because they mimic my emotions, but I struggle with lighter, happier tracks immensely, haha. I should listen to tracks with a more relaxed and brighter atmosphere rather than always fuelling my dark side, haha.

I would never have known in a million years that this was your first OST btw! My first one is kind of awful, haha. There are a few tracks in it that I can say I’m mostly content with, but the majority I would completely remake because they’re just bad >.<

Submitted(+1)

The Window In My Mind: The guitar has a really nice sound to it. Definitely love when you hit the chord toward the end of the first phrase. I like the introspective nature of this piece.

Strange Visions: I like the delayed bells to represent Nozomi. The bell clicks feel almost like a ticking clock as if insinuating that there is a time limit for this part of the game.

The Gift: The addition of the blue notes gives this a more confident flare compared to part 1 of Nozomi’s theme. The faster tempo also seems to be moving the story forward as well.

Dreams Come True…: I like the percussive guitar hits that work to keep a steady pace in this track. The high piano melody is nice especially with the rhythmic guitar supporting it.

Lucidity: This track has a different sound to it. You took influence from a very different genre which tells me that there is a shift in the story. I imagine that in this track, the bubble veil of light happiness pops or is somehow removed and we are left to find out what the world is actually like.

…So Do Nightmares: Nice intense track. The minor key with the epic percussion and the electric guitar certainly drive this track forward and give the sense that it is a significant battle.

Overall: Great job capturing different sounds for your songs and using them to help tell your story. My personal favorite was Dreams Come True… because the guitar, piano, and flute all came together here and I like your acoustic style. Nice job and thank you for sharing!

Developer

Thanks for the detailed write-up!

Submitted

I liked the quiet bells they were nice.

Developer

Thanks

Submitted

An interesting mix of instruments. I didn't expect an electric guitar in the final track, but it kinda works. Great job!

Developer

Yeah I was going for that kinda unexpected shock of the song suddenly going from orchestral to rock, I'm just glad other people liked it as much as I did

Submitted

The gift sounds so good I love the melody! Great work!

Developer

Those words are a gift, haha

glad you liked it

Submitted

Love the melodies in the tracks!  Simple instrument selection, but I think it works well with your concept.  Lucidity was definitely my favorite track, would've been awesome if one the tracks had all of the influences involved, such as the strings, guitar, synths/ambience, piano, and the guitar of course.

Nice job!

Submitted

Lucidity immediately reminded me of My Neighbor Totoro's soundtrack, though it did diverge once more instruments came it, but it's a neat vibe! You did a great job!

Submitted

Really imaginative concept! I love the first 4 tracks, which I can clearly picture alongside a charming indie game. The last two tracks are well written too - I just wish there was more cohesion with what came before. Sticking to the orchestral stuff at the start of So Do Nightmares would have been perfect. Lastly, be careful with using too much reverb in the last two tracks, especially for low frequencies. Overall, your writing and how you develop your ideas is good - well done!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! As I'm sure you noticed, first 4 tracks were heavily inspired by Stardew, after that, I kinda just wanted to experiment with different stuff.


Really appreciate the note about reverb- mixing and mastering are new to me

Submitted

Hello Indie Odyssey, solid tracks! My fav was probably Lucidity but the others were still pretty on par with each other. Nice job!