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Discovery - Synlyfe's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #55 | 3.998 | 3.998 |
| Composition | #57 | 4.062 | 4.062 |
| Impression | #60 | 3.991 | 3.991 |
| Correlation to theme | #69 | 4.018 | 4.018 |
| Creativity | #85 | 3.929 | 3.929 |
| Quality | #96 | 3.991 | 3.991 |
Ranked from 113 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- I'm sorry to hear about your ear injury! Here's hoping that you're recovering well and are going to keep making music. This submission has a lot of promise and some quite interesting textural blending that I think is very effective. The use of sharkuhachi flute I think works in its brief appearance, adding a new, breathy layer to the soundscape that fills it out. In that moment, I really found that everything you had been building to kind of snapped together, which was lovely to hear. I'm sure due to the nature of your shortened preparation time, the track as a whole feels a bit disconnected from itself in that it doesn't seem to quite build toward a target, even as the textures that I do hear are very nicely put together. Structurally I think it just needs more of a sense of direction, where the listener can know that they are being taken on a journey-- told a story-- that's clear and concise. Even though in games we know our music is going to get sliced up and recombined in implementation, having a clear journey from the get go makes a huge difference. Given that you had such a short time to prepare I think the result here is admirable!
Description
Genre: Ambient, electronic.
Purpose: Theme; could function as a title, credits or a lore-driven level theme.
More info available below in "How does it fit the theme"
DAW: FL Studio 21 + Native Instruments, Heavyocity, Serum and stock plugins.
I wanted the track to be driven primarily by piano and strings and then use woodwinds and synths to buff out the composition. Composed in a minor key, but not inherently spending too much time on the defining minor notes - tried to strike a balance between sombre tones and a subtle but progressive hope.
Link to DAW overview on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyBn1Zm4Nik
Can be streamed via Audiomack, link below.
Message from the artist
Was super pumped to join this jam but unfortunately sustained an ear injury the night before it kicked off. After a couple of much needed quiet days, I finally got a chance to start on my submission approximately a day before the jam was ending.
There's very little post-work done, and there are a couple of instances of clipping that I missed upon exporting. All in all I'm decently happy with the composition but I would have liked to have taken it much further and developed the concepts within a lot more. I feel as though the chord progressions in particular are lacking, as is a general sense of substance.
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
I wanted to focus more on the spirit the child is speaking to and what it represents, so I opted for a minor key and left some of the child-like visuals, emotion and expression to the instrumentation.
I used short, delay and reverb soaked synths in Massive to represent the bubbles and wrote primarily for piano, strings and woodwind to set the tone; slightly sombre but with hope on the horizon. Marred happiness and fond memories are two keywords I kept in mind while scoring.
Ultimately the child is speaking to a spirit of a (presumed) loved one, manifesting amidst the bubbles and chalk drawings of fish. I let some reverb tails ring out a little longer and soak the ambience to really sell the water and sea creature vibe as best I could. Playful synths to represent bubbles and the occasional use of a shakuhachi flute to pay due respect to the culture.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://audiomack.com/synlyfe/song/discovery
Number of tracks1
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
Any non-commercial project
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Comments
Great job! all of the tracks sounded cohesive and well structured. Thank you for sharing this!
Synths and orchestral combination done so well. Wasn't expecting the LoFi drum tracks but I adored it. So chill, banger submission!!!!
great track man, feels amazing, the melody, the mix, so good man, good job x3
This is fantastic!
I Was totally able to fully immerse myself in the track and can imagine walking around in a game and exploring the areas this could play in.
This is extremely beautiful, everything blends together impressively well, it is so captivating and Oh so lovely to listen to. I love how sweet and elegant the strings ring throughout however melancholic and sombre they sound, not to mention my favourite part where the kick drum and shakuhachi flute drops in in unison made me feel hope and drive in some manner.
This is truly wonderful, I would love to see what you are able to cook up with free time!
Thank you very much for the glowing comment! Really appreciate the insight and commendation. Plenty of time to practice ahead of the next jam and hopefully come up with a little more to submit in the future!
This my friend is an achievement. Because of the limited time you had, and because the result is a really shooting ambiant track I can 100% see in a JRPG ! Well done !
You're very kind, thank you! Appreciate you checking it out. Happy to have had something to submit in the end!
Really nice sounds, very well done for getting it done in a day, very sad to hear you didn't get a catch to work more on this or on more tracks due to being injured.
Nice combination of synths and drums with the more orchestral sounds. Really fits the theme nicely too.
I would say maybe the kick drum is a little loud but understandable it's not a perfect balance due to your lack of time.
Appreciate the kind words and considerations. There's always next time! Gives me some time to hone and learn from some of the many wonderful entries others have submitted.
I would agree - in general I think the levelling is kind of all over the place (lol), something I should've caught before exporting but I was in a rush and wanted to be sure I had everything ready to submit with some time to spare. Oh well!
One day for this result? Crazy it's really good and enjoyed it very much. Hope you're doing better with your ear, can't wait to see what you can cook with more time!
Thank you very much for the encouragement! I would have loved to have more time but there's always the next jam! Ear is doing better, thankfully. Happy that I managed to avoid permanent damage as that was a scare I'm sure none of us here want!
Gosh yeah that would have been bad for sure, happy to hear it’s gonna get better, can’t wait to hear more from you!
Very well done, mixed is great, I really like this because that is something I would probably do. I was never bored all the emotions was extremely well paced. The only thing I don,t like is literally the kick drum choice but its personal. Great job !
Thank you, appreciate you giving it a listen and leaving a comment. That's a very fair critique and in truth there is a fair amount of things I think I would change with this if I had a little more time, and I think I would have liked to have worked on that section a little more.
I love this song's instrumentation, it's very well mixed and paced, with each instrument coming in right when it needs to. The tremolo strings especially stick out to me, really beautiful sounds. I'm sorry about your injury, I would have loved to hear what you'd made if you had more time. I'm hoping you'll participate again in next year's jam!
Thank you for checking it out and leaving a comment! There's always next year's jam for sure. Appreciate the kind words about the piece and the injury - thankfully I managed to avoid permanent damage so I'll take it! Thank you again, and best of luck!
A fellow day-before-the-jam-ends composer!
This is absolutely incredible. I could listen to it pretty much endlessly. The mesh of the dripping wet synth with the piano, the strings and shakuhachi, the beat coming in and dropping out. This is top tier music creation.
Can't beat composing without a time limit breathing down your neck! Appreciate you checking it out. I'd love to have had a little more time to really develop this, but there's always next time. Thank you for the kind words. :)
Beautiful vibe all around. I can totally see this being a score to a JRPG for example where you transfer to the past and relieve past memories or something. Love the piano work especially. Well done, and you had a handicap to boot!
Appreciate you checking it out and leaving a comment! Unfortunately the case with the lack of time, but happy to at least have something to submit in the finish. There's always the next jam! :)
Great composition work on this and it fits the picture theme perfectly. Great quality . Great job on this especially with limited time!
Appreciate it! The lack of time was a real bummer but I was happy just to have something to submit, you know? Thank you for checking it out, and best of luck!
This is a nice ambiant track, it really made me comfortable and let go.
The kind of ambiance where you get lost in dicovering an area of the game :)
Good job !
Appreciate you taking the time to check it out! Best of luck. :)
wow!!!! i love the mix between orchestral and electronics, it fits so well!!! great work!
It's beautiful.. and so much going on ! Fantastic work!
Thank you, appreciate the kind words!
This is absolutely fantastic, definitely sounds like an area theme to some kind of platformer. It's the kind of song where I could get lost in it for hours while playing a game and never get bored of it. Fantastic work, great instrumentation and composition all around.
You're too kind, thank you for checking it out and commenting. As usual, there's about a hundred things I'd change but there's always the next jam!
Very chill. The use of a wide variety of different instruments and sounds that change over the duration keeps everything interesting and engaging. The chord progression is simple, but it serves as a great foundation for everything else and helps provide a very relaxing atmosphere.
Appreciate you checking it out! I would've loved to maybe change keys and embellish on the progression a little, but unfortunately ran out of time. Happy to hear that it works well!
Beautiful orchestration. Mixed with various electronic sounds, there’s so much texture and depth to this track. My only critique is that it might be clipping in some areas, but that’s just super easy mastering stuff. The composition is great!
Thank you for checking it out, appreciate it! Yeah I realised after submitting that I accidentally reset a couple of faders. Oops! Oh well. I wish I had more time to vet this and do some actual post-production but it is what it is!
Only a few seconds in and I was caught in your piece. Beautiful harmony, beautiful melodies, beautiful everything. You really managed to bring me inside your world. I wish english was my first language to express all I want to say! That's a clear All 5 Stars to me and I want to see you in the finals.
You're too kind, thank you for checking it out and leaving a comment. J'apprécie les paroles aimables, mon ami. Bonne chance!
Dang. this so good!
I love all the elements you've managed to fit in to this track. It's a journey.
The shakuhachi flute parts are delightful and I smiled when the drums kicked in too.
Nice work.
Appreciate the kind words, glad you liked it!