Play Musical Masterpiece
What Remains (OST)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Impression | #196 | 2.259 | 2.333 |
| Quality | #196 | 2.195 | 2.267 |
| Composition | #197 | 2.259 | 2.333 |
| Creativity | #197 | 2.388 | 2.467 |
| Overall | #197 | 2.275 | 2.350 |
Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Difficulty
B (Hard)
Make a piece that has the same musical notes both forwards and backwards but doesn’t have to be an identical recording.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/slim-reaper-900010371/sets/what-remains?si=94436f1a5b124fb1b2edd1a1f8bb2c69&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Number of tracks3
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Comments
I feel comfortable with this atmosphere
The village rises- Feels like a sweet and quaint village. I think the instrumentation choices here are excellent
What remains - The tone of the trumpet is bright sounding, I am unsure if you meant to go with that tonally but the song feels victorious/persistent.
In the ashes-This track is my favorite of the 3, feels ominous with the low horn and constant thuds from the drums, and the droning sound in the bass region filling the empty spaces.
Do you use any EQ by any chance? Someone mentioned that changing the instrumentation could be helpful, but you may not always need to do that or sometimes there is limitations, and I think that is where EQ shines in being able to change the tone of the instruments, but I also noticed the trumpet sounded much darker in the 3rd track compared to the 2nd unless if it was a different trumpet/brass?
I hope it is not too discouraging with the feedback you are getting too btw, I enjoyed this piece all throughout the way and I hope you plan on doing more jams in the future too!
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The naming convention of this is a bit weird. "What Remains" and "Prince of Pain" seemingly working as interchanging titles made me question if I was on the right soundcloud page for a few seconds.
The big huge brass sting at the end of the first track is quite frankly an odd choice when the rest of the track is so calm and peaceful.
The persucssion work is the nicest thing about this, everything else seems like it could have used a bit more attention.
Otherwise, really cool submission.
I enjoyed the Village Rises, and In the Ashes is my favorite. The low drone with a solid drum beat is always good. That being said, if I could offer some feedback, I think you should consider simplifying your songs. Your instrumentation needs work and, respectfully it feels like you forced the use of them more than needed. For larger orchestrated pieces, you need to know how to use the instruments, for instance, a horn player and brass players generally can't make a chord, they can do single notes. Focus on rhythm and structure first. When you have a melody or chord structure, make sure everything else works around them. It's a good idea to know what an instrument is capable of before using it. Just like sketching or writing, you want to get a good structure down before you add anything extra.
Another thing that is worth looking into is the Circle of Fifths. It's a great tool for writing music.
In summary: don't over-complicate things. Make it simple, and easy to understand, and build from a basic sketch.
I hope I did not offend in any way, I liked what I heard and saw and it immediately reminded me of when I first started writing music. Even during this event I still tried to overdo it. With many things as with this a little goes a long way.
Happy composing.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this advice for me! You are completely right in saying I should take into account the instruments when implementing them because I was just switching around which instrument did what without putting in thought on how the instruments are supposed to be used, I’ll definitely try to think more about that on my future projects! Ill also be checking out the circle of fifths thing, I took absolutely no offense to anything you said I joined this game jam with the hopes of getting better at music for the games I make so getting such constructive criticism is exactly what I wanted. Once again I truly appreciate you taking the time for this well thought out comment, thank you!!!!
Im not sure what software you are using but check out Spitfire Labs, there are some amazing free sounds of full orchestras and individual instruments which could really give these tracks a lift up in feel! I use it religeously for all my video game needs. Arturia Analog keys as well has some great bass sounds
I use GarageBand with just all the basic instruments and stuff so I appreciate any software recommendations, I’ll definitely check out Spitfire Labs and Arturia Analog keys! Thank you!
Logic is 100% worth investment if you decide to make the leap! I started out on garage band for years and upgrading to logic was the best thing I ever did
I think my favorite part was the percussion. Particularly in Crushed under foot with the rolling timpani.
I think the songs as a whole could use a little more work however. Some of the instruments used such as the trumpet have a very fake feeling and it sticks out compared to the more realistic drums.
I think changing the instrumentation could help these tracks a lot.
thank you so much! I’m not used to making music so I really appreciate your advice and will try and implement it in my next musical project!
file type does not work unless you add .wav. you might want to fix that.