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A jam submission

a winter's sheepView project page

Submitted by grapefluid — 7 hours, 32 minutes before the deadline
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a winter's sheep's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Composition#1673.7423.742
Overall#1773.6713.671
Impression#1953.5813.581
Creativity#1973.6773.677
Quality#1983.6773.677
Correlation to theme#2033.6773.677

Ranked from 31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
Both soundtracks fall under the ambient and electronic genres. The game I envisioned for these soundtracks is set within the chaotic dream of a deep sleeper experiencing the harsh cold of winter. The sleeper becomes trapped in their mind due to a coma and must navigate and survive the horrors within their mind palace. The track "one friendly intruder" is supposed to represent a boss encounter with a familiar real life figure and its twisted intentions. The other track "mist and nails and" I imaged would play after the intro sequence where the player is thrown into the first area of the game.
Both tracks were first notated through Musescore and then I exported the midi into Ableton.

Message from the artist
my hands are cold :>

Theme

Inside my world

How does it fit the theme?
The soundtracks surround the idea of a dream, a world of the dreamer.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/grapefluid/sets/a-winters-sheep-ost?si=aa8585e69e4d4ad7b26397070e57e3bd&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Number of tracks
2

Genre

Electronic
Ambient
Experimental
Folk/Acoustic

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY-NC)

Any non-commercial project

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Comments

Viewing comments 26 to 7 of 26 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

Mist and Nails and has some really gorgeous textures and touches throughout. The subtle reversal of the piano chords toward the end of their tail is really nice, and the almost sitar-sounding lead is great. The background SFX growing in volume as the track progresses is clever; adds a nice texture bed beneath the arrangement itself.

One Friendly Intruder opts for more standard approach to arranging - I love the use of arpeggios in the beginning. Feels like there's so much happening; different melody lines weaving in and out and around one another, but the mix isn't crowded by it. The bell-like chord tones do a great job of emphasizing the rhythm in an otherwise percussion-less track. Once again the background ambience starts to bubble up as the track progresses, accompanied by some gorgeous sounding deep drones and pads.

This was fun to listen to - very unique style. I'd love to hear more truth be told - feels like these were very thoughtfully arranged and tap into a kind of sound that is pretty rare. Great work! :)

Submitted(+1)

Very BAsED, this was very well structured!

BUMPUS 🌵🌲

Submitted(+1)

Ambient? Underwater? cool!

You've got an interesting magical sound, albeit a small but beautiful soundtrack. I liked it! Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

Fantastic job!

One friendly intruder was phenomenal  ^_^

Submitted(+1)

Love this. Really reminds me of Gris, especially with the reversed sounds. 

Developer

Thanks for listening! I do love the Gris soundtrack, but interestingly enough I didn't really think about it when composing (or it wasn't an apparent influence)! (❁´◡`❁)

Submitted(+1)

ooo the cascading piano in one friendly intruder is so pretty!!! perfectly captures the sense of falling snow in a winterscape. really gorgeous piano work

Submitted(+1)

Hi grapefluid!

Beautiful cover art ♥ Perfect for your music.

Lovely soundtrack! I liked the contrast between the two as well as the diverse textures that you were able to combine in a very carefully manner.

AMAZING WORK!!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for listening! I'm glad you enjoyed! (o゜▽゜)o☆

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful... The first track is so magical, it gives me some Pokemon Mystery Dungeon vibes maybe. I'd say as a gripe that maybe something with the faster piano parts didn't 100% hit it for me. Maybe I'd like a small bit more sustain at parts?  But this is hair splitting, trying to be critical - this soundtrack flows nicely and can be heard on repeat. Excellent work.

Developer

Thank you for listening! I have considered more sustain but I was worried that it would create muddy sounds since there already is a space filling sound present. Will play around tho! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Submitted(+1)

Cool combination of sounds and textures- Vocals, pianos, reverse pianos, ambience, (harpsichord or some sort of bell like synth?), enveloped by a lush reverb.

One thing I noticed about your mix was most of the audio was that the main elements in occupying the high end was the harpsichord and ambient noises, which gave the made the track a bit unnaturally dark (as in not much high frequencies) for sections where they were not present. If that's what you were going for, then leave it as it is, but if not  using an EQ high shelf to boost your high end frequencies by at around 4.5k Hz region would make the track sound more natural.

Composition wise the soundtrack was well written. Mist and Nails had a good patient, mysterious tension to it. One Friendly Intruder was awesomefor a boss fight, the quicker tempo and cascading piano notes made it feel like a escalating conflict. Well done on creating an engaging soundtrack.

Submitted(+2)

Honestly, I like that darker sound, puts it on the realm of ambient music, very soft for the ears. Still very cool of you giving concrete production advice, for anyone reading. 


I'll add that, if you want to sort the high end, you can also go the substractive route and carefully cut high end from most/all instruments rather than boosting some - if you are trying to achieve a soft soothing sound like in ambient music, or if you want very subtle activity in the highs with hi hats and stuff. In that type of mix you might want to use peak/bell EQ for any highs boosting rather than shelves.

Of course, if you cut highs everywhere, you have to be very careful about low-cutting and mid-range EQ, otherwise you can get some serious mud and the whole thing can blow up speakers. Also be careful to not cut too much - you can play with filter slopes to let out the tiniest bit of high end to preserve some presence.

My 5 cents on mixing highs. Please feel free to OWN me in a reply if anything I said is not good, or to complement with more info. I want to improve as producer.

Submitted(+2)
I'll add that, if you want to sort the high end, you can also go the substractive route and carefully cut high end from most/all instruments rather than boosting some - if you are trying to achieve a soft soothing sound like in ambient music, or if you want very subtle activity in the highs with hi hats and stuff. In that type of mix you might want to use peak/bell EQ for any highs boosting rather than shelves.

Yes this would also work. grapdefluid, if you follow this quoted approach, then your whole track will sound more consistently dark, and the mix will be a lot more cohesive.

Of course, if you cut highs everywhere, you have to be very careful about low-cutting and mid-range EQ, otherwise you can get some serious mud and the whole thing can blow up speakers. Also be careful to not cut too much - you can play with filter slopes to let out the tiniest bit of high end to preserve some presence.

I'm not too sure about the blowing up of speakers so I won't speak on that. As for midrange mud, yes you have to be a careful about this, sometimes people put too many musical notes and sounds in the bass and midrange when making already dark tracks.

Good advice ~ jon patch ~!


Developer(+1)

Thank you both so much for the crits! Honestly, cutting frequencies is probably something I do the least when mixing simply because it doesn't cross my mind, so it's great to hear these suggestions from you guys. (o゜▽゜)o☆

Submitted(+1)

I really liked the quiet intensity of the second track!

Submitted(+1)

I love it, the first song sounds kinda like Dungeon Synth if it were a bit more Hifi, and the second really have a Final Fantasy vibe to it but I can't describe why. The ensemble sounds very ethereal, good job!

Developer

Love FF games tho I didn't have that in mind when composing, so quite interesting to hear! Thanks for listening! ♪(^∇^*)

Submitted(+1)

A very apeasing first track and a dynamic second one, the perfect match for contrast! Good submission! I liked your harmonic approach with arpeggios!

Developer

Appreciate you for listening! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Submitted(+1)

Some very cool and interesting ryhthmic elements in One Friendly Intruder, really nice! 

Developer

thank you thank you ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧

Submitted(+1)

What a great submission. The second track is definitely my favorite. The piano was so well played and it continued to shock me as you kept finding ways to take the melodies to new heights. Very well done!

Developer

Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for listening!

Submitted(+1)

That synth in One Friendly Intruder was so cool! This OST overall was really great! 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for listening my guy! ϵ( ‘Θ’ )϶

Submitted(+1)

Hi! The first track really set an ambience, but as other comments say the second track is really great ! I really liked the way you composed it totally fits a boss theme! Thank you for this submission!!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for listening! I'm glad to hear that the second track is well received ~~~///(^v^)\\\~~~

Submitted(+1)

The first track was nicely atmospheric but the second track is what drew me in. The soft but fast nature of a lot of the voices lent to it a somber conflict like you seemed to be going for. Awesome stuff.

Developer

Yessirr! Thank you so much for listening! (@^0^)

Submitted(+1)

Wow! Love the soundscape you've created through the use of organic textures, reverse pianos, and otherwordly vocals!  Your sound selection works really really well.  Your piano arrangement is also amazing in the 2nd track, love the runs you do, really nice expressions!  It feels nicely tailored to the atmospheric, etheral, and worldly tone.  I also noticed how seamlessly these tracks interact with eachother, seems like they could intertwine forever.  Awesome mix, fits beautifully as is.  Nice stuff!

Developer

Thank you so much for listening!! ლ(╹◡╹ლ) Your praise is much appreciated!

Submitted(+1)

So atmospheric and beautiful, I loved both tracks! 'One Friendly Intruder' is so nice, I listened to it like 5 times. Great work!

Developer

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!! It means a ton knowing you've relistened!! ☆*: .。. o(≧▽≦)o .。.:*☆

Submitted(+1)

Both tracks are beautiful! One Friendly Intruder, in particular, gives me wonderfully nostalgic Deemo vibes, which I adore x3 I can't help but imagine how a beatmap might look for it! But aside from my brain getting sidetracked by rhythm game thoughts, the OST fits the story you described really well :3 The dreamlike tenderness is soothing & the winter/cold aspect comes through like a charm!

Developer

I loved Deemo! My childhood mobile game, was never good at it so I can't imagine a beatmap for it would land me any accuracy ╰(*°▽°*)╯ Thank you so much for listening!

Viewing comments 26 to 7 of 26 · Next page · Last page