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Visual Snow's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #7 | 4.194 | 4.194 |
| Quality | #7 | 4.472 | 4.472 |
| Correlation to theme | #8 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Impression | #10 | 4.139 | 4.139 |
| Composition | #15 | 3.944 | 3.944 |
| Creativity | #30 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
Ranked from 36 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Electronic. First three tracks are mostly ambient. Last track is a pretty hard hitting breakbeat tune. :)
P.S. You can find the DSP effects that I used here: https://github.com/JoepVanlier/JSFX (free). Yutani is my bread and butter synth, other than that I made ample use of LavaVerb.
If you're a REAPER user, the tracker I used for the last track can be found here: https://github.com/JoepVanlier/Hackey-Trackey (also free).
On the last track, drums were first sequenced using Drummica (also free, but not sure if still available), then I crushed/resampled them and loaded them in the tracker to bash them around some more like a crazy person.
Message from the artist:
Hi.
How does it fit the theme?
Tried to come up with a cyberpunkey story in my mind and just wrote a few tunes to it. Imagined something more on the grittier dystopian side of things (deus ex / cbp2077 / bladerunner).
Opening theme: Learning the truth
You always thought the visual noise you experience was normal.
Street ambience:
These streets can not be trusted. Especially at night. You know you're not supposed to be out here. Not alone. Not without explicit permission.
Hacking theme:
Time to find out what is going on and the only way you are going to find out is by jacking in. Going beyond where you are supposed to and finding that which has been locked away from you. Midway through the track you break the last of the locks and really see for the first time. Broken free, you now see what must be done... but ...
Dodging bullets:
Someone did detect your presence. Unfortunately, that means you must be terminated and it doesn't matter if it takes the whole building with it. This theme was written with a building collapsing around you in mind.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NEz3p7l6Wg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=163otCY9wGo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFZeM2shLvQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0CkuuPv7Rk
Playlist for convenience here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NEz3p7l6Wg&list=PLeGUX1BqFELfNoHqubgdZbxM_sOStIDox
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Comments
Really love the minimalist approach, not just with the instrumentation but the subtle variations in your lead lines and background tracks.
The atmosphere you've managed to create is absolutely stunning. The composition is excellent and filled with small details that completely immerse you in the story you're telling. Stellar work, looking forward to hearing more from you!
Woow very nice tracks with high level of composition :0 !! I especially like Dodging bullets which has a lot of energy ! thanks for your sharing :)!
Thank you :D
Glad you enjoyed 'em!
AHH, I love this! I'm a sucker for ambient stuff, and I always wanted to learn how to do it myself, but it's just so difficult for me. You nailed it really really hard, the atmosphere is supreme (I especially loved the hacking theme)
And then after all the ambient stuff you're telling me you also made a breakcore banger that just makes my head explode and everything in my room fly out of the window. ABSOLUTELY INSANE
Loving this to bits, amazing job!
Thank you. Haha, glad you enjoyed them :)
I think you sell yourself short. You made some cool tracks.
Over the last few years, I've written quite a few tools for making ambient that I use a lot. You can find 'em here: https://github.com/JoepVanlier/JSFX . They're all free, so can give 'em a shot if you have a few hours to spare.
The ones I'd recommend for ambient are Swellotron, Reflectosaurus (1, 2), LavaVerb, Yutani and Amaranth (in that order probably). Especially Swellotron and Reflectosaurus can be good at creating source material that you can slice from to build soundscapes. The first takes two inputs and blends them together in a reverby way, while the second is basically a souped up delay plugin that allows you to link delays to delays and add effects to each delay node. They were originally written for REAPER, but there's a plugin called YSFX that allows loading them in any DAW.
Excellent work here. Opening theme: great mix of pads, growling bass, and horns to set the mood. Great choices. The horn synth especially adds a lot throughout the album.
Street Ambience: exemplary integration of ambient noise. Again I'm loving the horn.
Hacking Theme: really strong start and I'm pumped and ready for some satisfying build up. Bass has so much energy. The ending takes me by surprise but is also a little disappointing because it felt like there was a lot of good buildup that fizzled out.
Dodging bullets: here's the sound i expected based on your previous work! Great beat. Some good surprises here too that keep me guessing. Felt like it could be punchier at times though.
Overall this was one of my favorite entries for the great blends of sounds, the variety, and evocative moods. Great job. Impressive work.
Thank you so much! :)
Glad you enjoyed it.
I should really take some time and do a final version of the Hacking one I think (after the compo is over). I really ran out of time and I think I left some potential on the table there. :)
Dodging bullet is indeed a bit of a sausage mix-wise. Unfortunately, given the haphazard way in which I set up the project, I'm not sure whether there is much I can still do about it. I had a blast making it, but my ears were kind of shot from working on so many tunes in a row by that time. I often make the mistake of mixing too loud so I get pretty bad ear fatigue.
Thank you for the detailed comments. Much appreciated! :)
Great job, this fits the theme perfectly! This is the first entry with ambiance tracks that I've seen this jam and I have to say I like it a lot! My favourite track of yours is probably "learning the truth", it just feels super immersive and gave me goosebumps when I waslistening to it for the first time :)
Awesome! Thank you. I'm glad you found some enjoyment in it! :)
I do enjoy doing ambient for a bit of mood building. I think there are a few other entries that included some ambient tracks as well. :)
Fantastic atmosphere! Felt really immersed in your world with the first 3 tracks and the last one really topped it all off. The beat was really awesome and that bass synth sounds super heavy and powerful! Awesome work!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. :)
The dark, synthy groove is the kind of thing I associate with cyberpunk, I'd say you nailed the theme!
:D
Ambience paints a really gloomy picture, perfect for the theme. Excellent use of sound effects, too. This really adds to the atmosphere. Very well finished tracks all of them. Dodging bullets was my favorite, like waking up from bad sleep in a worse way. Nice work!
Haha. :D
Yeah, you're supposed to find out all their secrets right before that one hits. The scene I was picturing is you finding out what was really going on (the quiet part in Hacking) and then as you realize you're being tracked, you take the helmet off and the first bullets already start raining through the windows. Had a lot of fun working on those.
Nicee, dodging the bullets is my favorite, adrenaline rush to dodge em lead!
Thank you! :)
Nice, some ambience! <3 There's a good counterpoint between the ambient tracks and the last track, makes it stand out even more and it incresases the sense of urgency. This works very well as a soundtrack and fits the theme. I also like the story that you came up with :) I can totally picture the scenes in my head. Very solid entry!
Thank you so much. And yeah, that was indeed the hope (that it would boost the last track a bit). Wanted to do a bit of a calmth before the storm thing with the hacking theme dying down to calmth again before the last one hits.
I absolutely loved all 4 of your tracks! I feel like you absolutely nailed the theme for this jam, and your sound composition and quality was great as well. Well done!
Thank you. Glad you liked 'em :)
Mythic ambience of "learning the truth" flows into lowkey ambience of "street ambience", going up into more powerful "hacking theme" and finally burst with "dodging bullets"... all tracks are nice, but together they make really good soundtrack.
Thanks so much! I had a ton of fun joining the compo. It's amazing how much of a push a time limit gives in productivity.
Wow, instant gossebumps on the first track. Outstanding sounddesign, flawless mixing and I really got sucked in by the atmosphere. Also love the breakbeat track, very suitable for an action scene.
Thank you. Glad you liked them. :)
Love this ambient take on cyberpunk in these tracks. Great quality and sound choice, you built a pretty immersive atmosphere. Only nitpick I have is that the hacking track gets slightly repetitive, but in a game that wouldn't be an issue! And then that breakbeat goes HARD. I honestly think the compression works here (especially for a breakbeat track), at the cost of some dynamics it makes it hit that much harder!
Thank you for your kind words. I totally agree on the hacking thing. I may revisit it in the future and do a final cut of that one. It really needs either some variety on the bass or some additional distractions to keep you more interested. I was really struggling with time. It took me far longer than I expected to synth all the patches and make them sound the way I thought they should. I even ended up editing one of the synths on the fly xD.
These are some serious gourmet hits! Great ambient tracks, banger action track. Awesome stuff
Thank you, thank you! :)
Great ambient with LFO’d synths, real Vangelis vibes in this soundtrack! Love this kinda stuff!
The sub bass is really ominous in the Street Ambience When martial hour hits, you better be at home!
Really catchy bass riff in the hacking theme supported by the little leads, this is straight up my favorite track musically. The rythmicality of the track would really support a gameplay section where you race against time to unlock some valuable data. And then the “release” at 1:46” which sounds hopeful, but apprehensive.
The chaos of breakcore really fits the idea of making it out in a collapsing building!
A lot of thought has been put into this and it’s really audible. The mix is stellar! Also, it’s quite a lot of music in such a short time! :D
Thank you! The idea with that release around 1:46 in the hacking theme was that you'd basically be through all the barriers. In the end, I wish I had a little more time to add a bit more variety to the first section, but time pressure is at least partially what the whole crunch time thing is about, right? :D
Had a ton of fun working on all of these. I don't think I've ever been this productive in roughly 24 hours (I missed the first day).
Damn, even more Impressive that you had very limited time. I, for myself, started in time, and I don’t think I’ ve ever crunched like this with music, so I can’t imagine starting late :D
The ambient music was well made, but I really enjoyed the tonal shift between the first 3 tracks and the last one. The heavy synth bass and breakcore-style drums just go unreasonably hard. I could totally imagine this OST being the soundtrack to a triple-A title.
Thanks! :D
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was on the fence whether to go that route or not, but now I'm glad I did! :D
Great atmosphere and textures, I can really feel the dark haunting distopic vibes. I think start adding more intensity to the tracks progessively is a great idea, and it really sells the ilusion of a story that is happening while you are listening. Really gives coherence to the whole soundtrack and makes it more than just scattered tracks. Great job with that!
Thank you. Initially, I was thinking to go more the bladerunner route, but then I felt like anything cyberpunk should have a loud ending somehow. Like going off a rollercoaster, but instead of stopping at the station, it just runs out of track :D
I love the ambiance and the setting that portrays when you listen to the first three. Second one especially reminds me of Stray, like a futuristic city street but you can feel something more is going on. The third one got a bit repetitive at times but still got the right feeling across. I absolutely adore the drums in the last song, such a cool sound.
Thank you. I think I burned most of the time on track 3 and 4. I'm really glad you ended up liking 4. I wasn't sure whether people were going to be into it at all. The drum programming on it took a while. :D